deathblight
patreon
An important matter
🕑 Added 2017-05-04 20:15:17 +0000 UTC Hello everyone!Today I wanted to adress something which has been brought to our attention by someone who reported this to me:
Apparently a person here on Patreon spread the newest version of Deathblight RPG (the Patreon version) to the public.
I'm obviously not going to provide any links, but let's just say it has already been uploaded to a few piracy websites out there.
We're obviously not happy about this, but there's not much we can do about it.
It's not fair towards us as creators, as well as everyone who supports us on Patreon.
While the game is intended to be available for free for everyone sooner or later, this does take away the "incentive" to support us, as well as the reward for our Patrons.
You see, if people spread the Patreon version around, most likely we will get less support, because they can just download it elsewhere. This in turn means that it's actually going to hurt progress on the game, and thus everyone, in the long run (since we can't increase content production on it with such little support, we're already slow as it is right now).
And worst of all, some of these people didn't even credit or link to us as the creators. That's low.
I'm writing this because I politely want to ask for everyone to not share the Patreon version of Deathblight RPG with the public.
And before some accuse us of this:
No, we're not greedy or anything, but game development is expensive and we're a team consisting of 3-4 people, so naturally, the less money we have at our disposal, the less work we are able to get done.
I'll just take this opportunity to address something I have seen thrown at us lately:
complaints about slow progress and little content.
(not here on patreon, but on some websites around the internet.)
The thing just is, that we're still not able to work full time on the game.
I (Cres) still need to do a lot of hired work and commissions to make ends meet and pay the bills.
In fact, I'm currently involved in another hentai game developer's project as a hired artist, alongside working on Deathblight RPG (while the other members on the team can't work on Deathblight RPG full-time either).
Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to share any details on said project at this point in time, since the other dev asked me to keep it under wraps for now (basically, I'm under NDA), but that just comes with doing hired commercial work on other people's projects, obviously.
I've been frequently hired for commercial projects in the past.
Though I'm not allowed to talk about most of them.
But to name one example that I'm allowed to talk about:
I worked for a browsergame named Tora no Tsubasa (one of the few I'm allowed to mention) for about 2 years, creating graphics in a different art style from my usual style, so most likely you won't recognize that I've worked on it.
Here's some proof of one of the (countless) artworks I've been working on for TnT (Tora no Tsubasa).
[click me! Or download the attachment]
If our Patreon grows more in size, we will be able to sink a lot more time into game development, meaning more and faster progress on Deathblight RPG.
I'll need to do less hired work, so instead of working on graphics for the games of other people, I can invest more time into Deathblight related stuff.
(same goes for the other members of our team, who can then bring more of their attention to DB RPG as well)
But naturally this is not going to work with the current level of funding. We can only work full time and speed things up, if we have enough money to support the living expenses of at least 3 people.
I hope you understand.
Don't worry, though. No matter what happens, we will invest as much of our time as possible into working on Deathblight RPG.
We will certainly not give up on this project and see this through to the end.
(And since this is something I have seen people accuse us of as well, just another quick addition: We do NOT just stop working on projects because we got bored and said "fuck this", every project we ever canceled was because they either
a) didnt' find enough support and traction among our fans, or
b) we ran out of money and didn't believe in the success of the project anymore. This was before Patreon came into existence, when Wolf invested his own money in game development back in the days.
Also, let's face it, we never wasted anyones money except our own on those canceled projects. But since we started using Patreon, this has changed, obviously. Now there is other peoples money in it, YOUR money, so we obviously won't abandon a project, unless you, the patrons, decide we should stop and develop something else via feedback or a voting or something.)
Anyway, that's about all I wanted to say on this topic. We are very grateful for all of our fans and patrons. You are the ones that make it possible for us to do what we love in the first place.
Thank you very much for all your support!
It really means the world to us.
P.S:
Since some people might not be aware of this:
There are some sites out there, supposedly giving out hentai games for free, though you might need a premium account for certain file-sharing services.
If you buy a premium account via their ref-link, they'll get a share of the revenue.
(which means, they get money for stealing and redistributing games)
Obviously none of the money goes to the developers behind these games.
So the pirates get money for basically doing nothing.
Giving out games as pirate "for free" is one thing.
But pirating games in order to profit from it themselves is a whole different story.
(instead of supporting the pirates with money, people should support the developers behind the games instead, since this will ensure that more games are being made in the future)
Comments
Crescentia
that might be an idea too, thank you^^
DM_5
There is one more thing you could do to help protect your game without spending a huge amount of time: send an email to the website(s) that have torrents asking them to take the torrents down. It won't stop people from staling your work, but many sites will restrict that material and possibly ban people for uploading restricted material.
Crescentia
wow, thank you all very much for your kind comments and suggestions^^ we are very happy to have such awesome supporters as you are! regarding the suggestion of implementing code that can help us track down the leaker: well, the idea itself might not be bad, but implementing such a thing isn't an easy task, and sure is time consuming as heck. Time that would be better used in actuall game development, so we have more progress. and assuming we would do something like this and I can find the leaker and block him, that person could just make a new account or send in a friend to continue the leaks. So investing so much time into protecting the releases doesn't make much sense in the long run. Programming something to find out who leaked it would eat up several hours while creating a new account after geting banned just takes a few minutes. So while it's a nice idea in theory, it wouldn't quite work out in the end. Still thanks for suggesting it anyways! In conclusion we think it's more wise to create more content instead of wasting time dealing with a person leaking stuff which we can't prevent anyways. Politely asking everyone for not sharing the new version is the only thing we can do. Though we think we will include game links in upcomming versions, so even if a new version get's leaked once again, we at least get credit for the game.
Kara Valmeyjar
This is a travesty. As the old saying goes, it just takes one jerk to ruin everything. I hope that this doesn't too adversely affect your enthusiasm for the project. Please accept my sympathies and anticipation for your next update.
bigtotoro
I wouldn't necessarily vilify the "moochers". Myself, for example, now own consoles and play games on them that I wouldn't play if I didn't pirate/emulate their predecessors when I was younger. I feel fortunate that I currently have enough money to support a few creators (Cres's Patreon in particular is what made me create a Patreon account in the first place ^^). The moochers are not the problem. (This might actually lead to a bigger supporting audience in the long run). The problem here is someone deliberately deciding to ignore Cres and Wolf's wish to give a short-term benefit to their Patrons and a minor motivating factor to join in. A leaker releasing the Patreon demo screws with them, because releasing it officially first would have better impact (One might say that piracy sites can be good for discovery of new things. But official version can be uploaded to torrent sites as well once public, so this point is moot), so it steals their momentum. Also they can't release it publicly prematurely just this time, even if all Patrons agreed, since it sets a precedent, so all demos could as well be public from then on if somebody kept leaking them. That might not be bad in principle (I wouldn't mind it all versions being public right away, I'd support anyway), but it would require a change that should be up to Cres and Wolf in the first place and not some leaker. To sum up, mr./mr. leaker, we want more sexy wolf/catgirls, so please give more of a fuck about what you do and think about the consequences of your actions.
CopperNickel
Maybe if you provided a built in patreon link to your next update then it might provide as a sort of promotion even if your game is uploaded again. Even if they don't click on the link there will be a way for them to find you and maybe even support the game. I think for most of the patreon members don't care if the game gets leaked, we're supporting you for more than just the game.
Trolo
Yes, that's just low. I can only agree with bigtotoro that we can hope that people who try the pirate version will be motivated to support you there on Patreon. About the slow progress/ little content, I don't really see this as a problem. You guys always communicate well about your progress , estimated releases and your future projects. So, I will just keep my fingers crossed for you (and my pledge active :)
Hope Youguess62
Yes... ultimately it's a losing battle. For every Patreon supporter willing to invest in a game, there are a hundred moochers waiting to download it for free. On the other hand, there's still money coming in from us supporters, because most of us realize the old adage: "No Bucks, No Buck Rogers." Nature of the beast.
bigtotoro
I think too much time investment into piracy protection could be wasting time, if somebody really wants to, they will find a way to bypass the rules anyway. I think the best prevention in this case too is providing a better service than the pirates - game more easily accessible from the official source, in all versions (so you easily find which one is the current one with least bugs), frequent updates, community, the speedpaints and sketches, fun streams, maybe some polls - no matter if for fun or actually deciding things, etc...
Hope Youguess62
I thought about this predicament last night. You've done the simplest thing, which is to appeal to the better nature of your Patreon supporters. Beyond that, the only steps you could take would be (1) searching for the links as Yetila suggested (time-intensive and likely limited in success), (2) having the players register the game online, or (3) coding each copy so you can track the original distributor (and then banning them) as John Smith suggested (I am not a programmer and have no idea how this works). Either way, I enjoy your work and intend to keep supporting you. Maybe one of the Deathblight girls could get caught stealing at some point and get... "punished?" :3
Yetila
Absoluteky understandable why you'll be upset about this. If possible i'd suggest looking into what John Smith suggested, apart from that, there isn't all that much more that can be done unless you want to try searching for those links with the pirated software but then, that's another time investment.
Trigger
The sad unavoidable truth to a livelihood built on the internet unfortunately. Wish there was more you could do, but best of luck otherwise.
bigtotoro
Come on dudes, seriously? You should help promote Cres's Patreon instead, so new versions can come sooner! >:( For the sake of optimism, I'll at least hope it leads some people who try the not-yet-public pirated version to support, once they see how good it is (there being more content than in the public demo) . Patreon should be about wanting to support creators even if the content is public, but still, somebody setting out to disregard even very friendly and simple rules without any basic etiquette to the creators and also their fellow Patrons really sucks.
Chirutai
I wish there were better ways to deal with this than "Accept that it is gonna happen", but there is little one can do when people build their business over stealing other people's hard work and get away with it. :\ Perhaps what John Smith is mentioning could give you valuable insight as to who is the thief, though?
Azurezero
I've also seen my free public demo of damsel quest 3 appear on other sites without linking my patreon. it really takes a dump on my mood to see my hard work used like that... and its hard enough working on it already
John Smith
For malise and the machine I believe each copy is somehow coded to track anyone who gives away a copy. Is that possible for you to do?
Argenten
I am so sorry that happened to you and I do agree that is *very* low
