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Webcomic paused - emergency game project launched
🕑 Added 2021-08-22 20:22:21 +0000 UTCHello everyone!
We have an important information and announcement post to make today.
This one is going to be quite lengthy as we want you all to understand "why" we make this decision and why there is no way around.
The good news is that everything is under control and the only "bad thing" is that the start of the next webcomic is being delayed for a bit and Deathblight webcomic is paused for 2 months.
In exchange you all get a finished game project to make up for it.
But I'm getting ahead of myself here.
Let's talk about the situation one step at a time.
For those who participated in the discussion over at Discord:
Yes, this is a summary and general information post about what we talked about over on Discord yesterday.
Today's post is about Cres and my "private life" and how that translates to our business decisions in regards to our company "Projekt Wolfenstahl".
What I'm about to talk about has to do with what happened in 2020, which then led to me making the decisions I did, which then ended up with me being in the situation I am now.
Again, no worries, it's all under control, but I'm basically "on a time limit" so to speak, and the consequences of me failing that time limit is... dire.
Plus side is I know exactly what I have to do to avoid any bad consequences, and I know that I can do it in time if I act immediately.
(long story short: I'd lose even more money than "just" 50 000 USD like I did in 2020 with the loss of DB Guilty Raid, and I really don't like the sound of that)
Where it began in 2020:
Those of you who are with us for a while know that 2020 was a pretty bad year in general.
It started with BladeFire's betrayal which ended up costing me 50 000 USD and resulting in the death of "Deathblight Guilty Raid", my self funded game project at the time.
(as I paid Blade for the programming, but never received what I paid for, the money is gone, the project is unfinished, and I had no way to finish it)
We also got kicked out of our appartment by our landlord, for "destroying" the second toilet which we (evidently) never used, which is precisely why we failed to discover the "leak" immediately.
(The toilet had a slow dripping leak due to it's 30+ year old age and he accused us of that and kicked us out, is the short version)
Searching for a new appartment took us months (covid didn't make that easier...) and ever since we are afraid of getting kicked out of this appartment for whatever reasons, should our current landlord decide to do so...
Other bad events was Patreon asking us to drop Deathblight RPG (Patreon funded at the time) as they made us aware that it wasn't in line with Patreon's guidelines, and of course we complied.
But this caused us to lose roughly 30% of our supporters, which is perfectly understandable, as we did not offer game development anymore at the time.
(most of our supporters migrated over to Subscribestar, but we still lost a bunch)
This was also tied to me having burnout after getting "slapped" by 2020 and not being able to programme anymore because of this.
I also had to mass lay off staff as well, and I've only been working on webcomics ever since.
(at least "officially", more on what I did in my free time later)
Now, why I bring up all of this will make sense in a few minutes.
I believe giving the "full picture" is necessary to understand why I made my decisions.
The lessons learned from 2020:
Getting kicked out of our appartment heavily disrupted our workflow, on top of all the other things that happened.
Because of this we actually asked our family for a huge chunk of money to buy a house, so no one can kick us out of that as long as we pay the bills, which of course we do.
My father then convinced me to build a new house and take up a bank loan.
I spent a lot of my free time since 2020 to talk to construction companies, banks, you name it.
Bottom line, we ended up buying a property with the money we received from our family, and only then would companies talk about "cost estimations" with us, as well as the banks talking about a loan with us.
It was a move we had to make.
I've been in talks with banks at least 8 months now, and of course I provided them with the requested papers as fast as I could (almost instantly in most cases).
And last wednesday (three/four days ago) we finally had a personal meeting with one of the bank staff, they talked with us for 2 hours and "all was good", until at the end they said that one tiny detail was "bad" and they can't give us a loan because of that.
The only "issue" they had was with my income and expenses from 2018.
The year I hired Blade and a couple other people.
And the problem there is that I had vast expenses, as I used my own savings and inherited money from our family to hire staff...
As we talked above, Blade's betrayal ended up costing me 50 000 USD.
I literally have a "crater" of an impact hole in my company papers, and to the banks it looks like I burned a shitload of money with no return... and they are not wrong...
Had it not been for Blade's betrayal, had I finished and placed DB Guilty Raid on stores for sale...
I would have made money, not only got a return on my expenses, but also would not have such a devasting "hole" in my finances which bites me in the back right now.
In other words... Blade's betrayal keeps on fucking me in the ass for the... third time I think?
(oh yeah I think this shit is probably going to have lasting consequences far beyond what I had imagined...)
How to fix this:
Luckily, as I said in the beginning, I know how to "fix" this.
The bank I talked with clearly communicated that if I hit a certain threshold of income in 2021, they can give me a loan January 2022.
To give you some numbers, I need to make 15 000 to 18 000 USD "on top of what I currently have".
It is impossible to achieve that number with the upcoming webcomic, as it was never intended to make tons of money quickly.
I need to make that amount of money in 2021, and if I fail to do that I won't get a loan at all.
Which means I can't build the house, which then leads to me having spent a ton of money (to buy the property for... 120 000+ USD... for example) "for nothing".
Surely I can get a partial refund on things, but bottom line I would accomplish nothing but burning even more money for... nothing.
I really need to make this work, if I fail to make roughly 18 000 USD this year "on top", I am basically really really fucked.
Everything I did since 2020 (the disaster year) would be kinda "undone" and I would be losing even more money which needless to say is... really bad...
But don't worry, I have a plan.
The solution, what I MUST do:
(there is no other realistic option)
In order to avoid the worst, there is literally only one single thing I can do.
I have to make a hentai game project (RPG Maker MV) within 2-3 months, which is perfectly possible for me.
(If I pause/postpone both webcomics)
I need to finish the game this year and place it on Steam and possible other platforms (though I think I will do "other platforms" at a later time).
Interestingly, it is "fine" if the game "flops" like my games usually do (since my marketing is shit), and I only make a few thousand sales.
Generall speaking, to give you some numbers:
My games usually sell around 2500 to 3000 units during the first month.
(this is not much btw, but it is all I need)
I would aim to get around 7 USD "per sale", after Steam subtracted it's fee etc.
This basically translates to:
2500 units sold x 7 USD = 17 500 USD total
Which is... all I need.
In summary, I would make a game in less than 3 months, aiming to do it in 2 months.
I need to make sure I finish it and sell it this year, otherwise it's all for nothing.
Even if the game "flops", with the usual sales numbers I make, that is all I need.
This in turn ensures that I get the "numbers" the bank requires me to have so my yearly report for 2021 is "solid" and they give me a loan in January 2022.
This in turn should solve "all my problems" long term.
Surely I got to pay off a loan then, but interestingly that loan is roughly as much as I am currently paying rent...
In other words, I just exchange my rent payments for paying off a loan (same monthly cost), except in 15-20 years I own a house of my own, and have considerably less expenses overall.
So that checks out.
In conclusion, what this means for all Patrons and Subscribestars:
The upcoming webcomic (Natasha) will be delayed until the game project is done.
(Prep work for the webcomic is almost done, I'd need about 3 or so more weeks to wrap it up, but this of course is on halt now)
One "long page" (equals 2 pages) per week eats up around 2 days of work time, which we currently can't afford.
I need to pour every workday I can get into making a game as soon as possible.
So I hope you understand.
In exchange you guys and girls will get:
- Weekly progress reports on the game project with art shown.
- The game project once it's done, which requires a Steam account. (you'll get a Steam key)
- Note that the game on Steam will be SFW as of current plans.
- I plan to try to publish the game via Kagura Games, which means there's a free NSFW patch available.
In the end, even if the Natasha webcomic (upcoming webcomic) is delayed, and the Deathblight webcomic is PAUSED for up to 2 months, you will still definitely get something out of this!
Our usual quality of course.
Also note that I overcame burnout in April 2021 and I actually worked on a prototype RPG Maker MV project during my free time whenever I could.
(mostly on weekends)
So I know for a fact that I can programme again and with the ability to focus on the game (paused webcomics) I definitely know I can pull this off in time.
And while that project was "small" it's too ambituous to be finished within 2-3 months.
(I estimate this one at 5-6 months)
So I can't exactly wrap that up during this time frame.
When I started it in April 2021 I wasn't pressured and I planned to take my time with it.
Had the banks told me "back then" what they require of me (yes I handed them ALL the papers and documents they wanted, they could have told me back then...) then I would have adjusted things accordingly.
My plan now is to make a game based on my current prototype, just a little smaller in scale (still a good amount of content!) so I can actually finish it within 2-3 months tops.
Projekt Wolfenstahl, which is currently just Cres and me (Wolfenstahl), will focus on finishing that game project in record time, you could say "we are officially back into game dev now".
And since it's just the two of us, and I know Cres is reliable and never failed a single deadline ever...
We WILL make it.
Not that we have any other choice...
We have to make it, and we will make it count.
The way things are now, once again, someone points a gun at my head.
And while I know that they didn't do that to me on purpose, I just wish I had known earlier.
I can still make this, but it's not going to be pretty.
And like, I'm basically sitting on a time bomb.
At any rate, I hope you all understand why I had to make this decision.
More information on the RPG Maker MV project the next couple days.
Yes it's a hentai game.
Yes it has the usual lewds you all love so much.
It's going to be distributed as SFW game on Steam with a free patch from Kagura Games (if I can publish via them <-- not decided on yet).
If you have questions, head over to Discord to ask me over there in the relevant channels!
(there's a special channel in the "supporter section" for this topic)
You can also write in the comments below, and I'll respond to that as soon as I can.
That being said, see you next time!
Wolfenstahl
Comments
Chirutai
The one I know about is this one: https://twitter.com/TinyHat_Studios
Crescentia
thanks!
Crescentia
Thank you very much for your kind words^^
Crescentia
Thank you very much for the encouragement and your support, it means a lot to us ^^ As for the publishing label: We mentioned the possibility to publish via Kagura Games in the post above, which is probably the publishing label you're refering to? (Note: At this point in time we don't have an agreement with them yet, but we plan to talk to them soon)
Crescentia
Thank you very much! Knowing that we have loyal long term fans like you is what makes us really happy and enables us to work on Deathblight with all we got. We love Deathblight and are happy to see that you love the content we create as well ^^
Chirutai
Damn, I have been following your work from a distance, and I had no idea that you were doing through all that. The betrayal really blows, I would have lost my mind... I wanna say that a few thousands sales per game sounds very impressive, like something you should be proud of. I am happy when the stuff I produce attracts interest from more than half a dozen peeps. :p I will definitely buy the game when it comes out. Have you considered working with a publishing label to help spreading your game? I know there exists at least one for adult games which has dealt in RPG Maker games before.
Kai Zoegret
I've been here since the days before Paperheads had a name to the game. I plan to still be here as long as you are both on the platform. Will still give you my support in w.e way I can. Can count on me to be one of the first to buy, w.e it is you guys end up making. Cres has been one of my favorite artists of all time, and I plan to do as I always have, support you guys in the little ways I can. By buying your games and staying subscribed.
EnterTheNameHere Bohemian
Good luck!
Ollie Chatwin
That’s shit to hear, but you should be mega proud to be able to still come out on top with your plans. Hope everything works out for you
