Chapter 4 release, a post mortem.

Well, chapter 4 is done and out...

...and it was an interesting release to say the least. 

Right off the bat, I'd completely misjudged the interest there would be for people to wait for the moment of release to pledge, or pledge up. I thought I'd be able to handle a few requests manually, but DMs were coming in so fast that I couldn't keep up, and had no choice but to automate the process. 

So, pay up front is now active, and although I don't like it for plenty of reasons (not all of them rational), it seems it's the way to go and at any rate, there's no turning it off anymore.

But on the up side, pledges kept coming in and I think up till that point it was the most successful release of a Light of my Life update to date, financially. 

But then...

It started to dry out right about the time it was leaked on SVS Comics, one of those scummy sites that tries to milk visitors for faster download speeds. I never paid much mind to those sites. More eyes on the game can only be good, right? 

But apparently, they've started to actively pledge to creators with early access, so they can leak on day one, which I assume is quite a lucrative proposition for them: riding the early access buzz to divert funding away from the developer actually making the games and into their own pockets. 

Pretty soon after, F95Zone put up the leaked PC version too, which is just how these things work. In a way it's a relief, because every download at F95Zone is money SVS isn't getting their lazy, dirty hands on. 

But that was not the end of it. Before too long, someone had put up an Android build with their own Patreon links attached. Someone else was asking support for a crashing, jury rigged Mac version that was cobbled together with bits of the PC version. And God knows what they did to the PC version anyways; I know I wasn't about to give it a spin. 

And that's when I decided to just go public here and on F95Zone, and make sure that if a version was out there, at least it was a proper version: tested, working and without any malicious additions.

Does that mean early access is dead? 

Maybe? At least like this, I think. I'm not fully decided yet what I'm going to do for the next chapter.

DRM then? Nah. Apart from the fact I'm not a fan (GOG > Steam IMHO), I'm not at all interested in investing the time in implementing it and supporting the inevitable issues that will surely follow. 

Macy and Denise have something more to say about it. See the post with the release for version 0.5.2, in which you can find their message right after the end of chapter 4.

In conclusion...

For all the new patrons, welcome and thank you for your support. Sorry I made a bit of a mess of it.

For all the existing and returning patrons, thank you for sticking with me all this time and continuing to support the creation of this game. I am both proud of and humbled by your confidence in me and I'll continue to do my best to be worthy of it.