Probably the most important post in recent years

Hello everyone,

Some of you already know what will be the topic of that post but stay around, I have MUCH more to say than just the Pixiv problem.

Considering it's very easy for people writing too much like me to get scattered around such a problem, I'll try to organize my post in categories to make things clearer (and also force me to focus on one element at a time.

1) The FANBOX problem

The first bits of information arrived on Tuesday and they were confirmed yesterday: Fanbox is now listing a group of fetishes as unacceptable on the platform and, like Patreon did back then, they'll prevent the posting of those contents. Normally, as long as you have a Pixiv account, you got the mail, it's so big that it was sent even if all of your mail settings were on OFF.

As you can expect, I'm particularly aimed considering the content of my games. It's 2017's Patreon's shitstorm all over again. Starting December 15, they'll make any post they deem problematic private and if people keep posting stuff they shouldn't, they'll end up deleting the account (at least they're not downright cancelling creators like Patreon does.) So I'm taking mesures. BUT. And that's a HUGE BUT(T).

2) Things are more complicated

Here's the thing. When Patreon announced their thing, we knew they'd do it. They're an american company so 1) they comply to any Twitter moron and 2) they love appearing as puritans while being one of the country with the biggest porn income in the world. Add to that the fact that the threat was coming from higher (MasterCard/Visa and Paypal), there was NO WAY they wouldn't comply. Patreon is composed of pussies that are actually real assholes and don't give a single fuck about creativity, only the money it can generates.

But here, we're not in the USA. We're in Japan. And things are not the same AT ALL.

First of all, about the content. On Patreon I was part of a VERY small minority, doing what I do. But here? There's easily 50% of Japanese content creator that create stuff that fall under the banhammer. And unlike Patreon which have non-SFW content to rely on, let's be honest, 95% of Fanbox creators are +18 creators. So I don't stick out like a sore thumb anymore, but I'm barely a drop of water in the ocean. If Fanbox REALLY apply their new rules, more than half of Fanbox accounts will be closed.

Because, second reason. As I said, we're in Japan. Japanese people don't care about what you think. Unlike many westerners who dropped their pants to let Patreon fuck them, turning their games/art into "family-friendly" (incest-free) content to be able to stay on the platform, Japanese artists will be "You don't want my stuff? Sure I'll go somewhere else." Because unlike in the west where Patreon is the leader and the only viable alternative is SubscribeStar, in Japan, crowdfunding sites are more or less equal in terms of visibility/popularity. Fanbox isn't much bigger than Fantia, Enty or Ci-En. So it's really not a problem to artists. They'll just move and continue their stuff.

The fact all of this is happening in Japan leads to a third point: Japan's tendency to have a big laxity between written rules and how they're applied. In some case, infringing a rule is a direct sentence and you're fucked cause you don't mess with the law in Japan. But when it comes to internet ToS? It's a bit different. There are MANY things that are written as forbidden in Pixiv and Fanbox ToS but are still posted nonetheless. As long as they're not downright infringement (real life photos), it's okay. So this case could be one of those case of "we make a lot of noise to show we're making things stricter to reassure the fucking Americans (can't help but imagine Pixiv head staff thinking that way, sorry :x) but we won't do much after that." So this is a possibility to take into account. And this possibility is an introduction to my third point

3) The what-ifs?

The message was posted two days ago and I've already heard quite a different possible reasons to this mess. The only problem with those interpretations is that we won't know if they're true or not. If any of those is true, though, it'll mean I won't have to fear for my account. Here's what I've been told.

Someone reported on Discord that the reason they did this was because some people were starting to post real life pictures and that the bans are only concerning people posting those. I highly doubt that for a single reason: I've seen people (both Japanese and westerners), posting real photos on Pixiv for years. They just use an ugly photoshop filter to make it look like a drawing from afar but if you click at the thumbnail, it's obvious it's a real photo. Those people are posting VERY regularly and have done so for years. So why something would happen only now?

The second explanation I've been given is MUCH more interesting and credible in terms of timing. It was reported by my colorist, kai, that I thank. Those of you who browse Pixiv regularly probably saw the HUGE surge of AI generated drawing these last months (the kind of thing that makes me want to shoot in the head when some westerners create 50 AI-generated pics and make 50 FUCKING POSTS instead of grouping them all into a single one (do I look like I hate them? Cause I do :x)). It was so quick and so out-of-hand that Pixiv implemented an option to hide AI generated work in the users setting (they've never been SO quick to add a feature) and also added in their guideline the obligation to add as a tag if the illustration was AI generated.

Anyway, that's the first part. Apparently, some people are using the AI possibilities for malevolent intentions. They create TONS of picture (like several thousands) that they zip in a pack they propose on Fanbox or Booth. And in the middle of those countless images, they slip real life images of minors. Considering how AI generated pics can be dull as fuck and that no one would bother browsing thousands of those, it sounds like a credible explanation to me to transfer such content without being worried. Except that it was apparently found out and this whole mess is Pixiv's answer to it.

If any of those two theories is correct, then I have nothing to worry about. It's REALLY aiming at real life content, which I don't do, so everything's fine. But as I said earlier, I can't know until the first days of application of the new rules.

4) What about me?

Now comes the question about my own page and content. I'd like to mention one thing that maybe many of you forgot: Patreon's shitstorm happened in October 2017. I was banned on January 2021. And I HIGHLY suspect the fact that the demo of SoV3 was free was what sold me. Otherwise I might have stayed there longer. So between the moment my content was problematic and my actual cancellation, three years passed. That's a lot. I'm lucky enough to be at a level of income which is among the lowest for people able to live from their content, but high enough to actually live from it. So I often fly under the radar x) Maybe the same thing will happen here. Of course that's all conjecture and I can't predict the future. But as much as there's a possibility things become problematic starting December 15, there's alsot the possibility that nothing changes for me for a long time. Keep that in mind, and don't fall into despair (yet) 8D

Now, the possibility of being actually kicked from Fanbox being a thing, I've created an account on Fantia (well my account there is like 2 or 3 years old, but I never opened it.) Before jumping there I'd like to mention something VERY IMPORTANT:

I know that fanbox is okay with uncensored content as long as it's not posted directly. But I have NO IDEA if fantia is as lenient. There's a possibility (which % is completely unknown to me) that I get kicked from Fantia right away. So keep that in mind too ^^' If that were to happen, Subscribestar would become the only remaining place I could use for now.

Anyway, here's the link for people wanting to switch: https://fantia.jp/fanclubs/7130

If you prefer switching to SubscribeStar, it's also a possibility: https://subscribestar.adult/ark-thompson

And due to how Fantia works I HAVE to make a 5th part about it because there are a lot of differences with Fanbox.

5) Fanbox/Fantia comparison

The first thing to know about Fantia is that it's much more Japanese-oriented. The english version is machine translated, some buttons are still in Japanese, it's not western-friendly (it's actually the Patreon site of the library company Tora-no-Ana for those who don't know).

One of the big different between Fanbox and Fantia is that Fantia doesn't accept Paypal as a mean of payment. It's only credit cards :/

Now Fantia has features that even Patreon doesn't have. The first of those being that there can be several rewards of different tiers in a single post (basically I can put the CGs and the games in a single post and have the parts with the links unlocked depending on people's tier.)

Another thing that is a good thing for creators (less for you :p) is the concept of "time-limited" posts. Basically, when you pledge it's only for the current month. If you want to access a specific month content from the past, you need to pay the tier amount to unlock that month. The system is meant to make things fair between regular supporters and those using those sites as marketplaces. It's better for artists than game creators though. On my side, you'll only have to pay the release month. So it doesn't change much things. I'm not implementing the system for the current release but I will for future releases (it's no surprise, you know I've always searched to make things as fair as possible between patrons.)

Fantia also allows tipping unlike most other sites. So you can always use that feature if you want :D

I can apparently sell games there too. I'll probably put the DLsite version of SoV2 and Naomi's Past since they have censored versions ready.

The last thing they propose is the whole system of "tickets". I can basically provide people tickets to either access specific posts/tiers for free for a certain amount of time. I guess that could be an interesting way to create prize during streaming and stuff. But that's quite secondary.

The rest is pretty much the same, you pledge, you get access to the content. Every month pledged is definitely unlocked from your account. There might be a time-limit though. If you completely unpledge, maybe those posts get locked again after a certain amount of time without pledging (like 6 months or 1 year). But take that with a grain of salt, I'm not sure (I've only ever supported only one artist on Fantia, but due to some of those I support moving to Fantia too, I'll learn the site with you :p)

Phew, that was some good amount of text, right?

Wait, I've actually only talked about half of what I wanted to say :x Because good things always come in pair, there's another important topic I need to talk about. I wanted to mention it a bit later this month, but I guess now's the best moment to do so due to all the uncertainties around Fanbox.

6) About Slice of School

Things are going to be different for Slice of School updates. I'm aware that this is project that most of you are the most interested in. But here's the thing: I decided to end my monthly collaboration with PeakJump. By that I mean that I won't be paying him a monthly salary like I used to.

Some of you who were there when I announced that we would keep working together at the end of 2019 (date where we were supposed to stop doing so) know that this was possible with conditions. One of them being that I don't commission him anymore but I pay him on a monthly basis. We started on January 2020 and the original plan was that the release of SoV3 would rise my income at a good enough level so that I could "hire him totally" (understand "give him a proper salary" --> The minimal wage income in Austria). But the whole Patreon thing happened and instead of rising, my income sunk and we were never able to get close to that.

Then different things happened and we're reaching today. And things are becoming too slow. I won't go into details. I just estimated that the content produced wasn't on par with the monthly amount I paid him. So I had two choices: Either press him like crazy at the end of development (like it happens too much cause ends of devs = crunch, that's mandatory even on my side) and create a sour mood where neither of us is happy of the situation, or stop the situation itself (paying less wasn't a real idea: it wouldn't ditch the speed element out.) I decided to stop things. I asked him if he was okay to actually advance what was originally out plan in June 2023.

Cause yeah, in June 2023 we were supposed to stop working this way, and work back with commissions. But it would come with one downside: my games wouldn't be priorities anymore so I'd get content at a slower pace. But considering SoS was supposed to be "finished" for June 2023, having extra content was okay if it was a slower pace since it's just extra content.

So what I've asked is that we're going back to commissioning starting this month. I won't lie, this decision only has a good side for me. For Peak, he doesn't have his monthly regular income, and you guys will get slower SoS updates. But at some point, decisions have to be made. I know some of you will be disappointed to hear that, but I prefer a slower development with a healthier setting.

I already know some people are going to unpledge from that decision, and I'm fine with it. If I'm kicked out from Fanbox, I WILL lose patrons anyway because some people won't go to SS or Fantia, so I'm prepared to face it.

That being said, it doesn't mean I'm cutting edges on Slice of School. It's actually quite the opposite. The development schedule have always made me ditch scenes in every updates to speed things up. If time is less of a problem now, I'll just wait until everything's ready for an update. If takes longer than before then it's perfect for my transition on point 7.

7) The Hunter 2

As you can expect, if things change for Slice of School, things change for The Hunter 2. I'd like to take this occasion to mention something VERY IMPORTANT that I've realized only recently (and it's terrible to be so dumb to realize it only so recently when it's been a problem for me for so long.)

You see, back when TH2 was supposed to be a dual project with Slice of Venture 3, I ditched the monthly updates because I wanted to make sure I could implement everything I had planned rather than delaying everything for the sake of monthly updates. But there's one thing I was adamant about: the alternation of titles (one update of one game THEN one update of the other etc...)

That was working well with Slice of Venture 2 and The Hunter, because the games weren't that big. But The Hunter 2 is nowhere close to either in terms of size. It's bound to be huge. And that comes with a major downside: coming back to the project needs a certain amount of days of adaptations to get your marks back. And that's often pure time lost. I'm not even mentioning that the fact I'm getting older makes this even worse as I can easily forget stuff from one day to another -_- It also happens with Slice of School. Despite the game being smaller, things are so different from The Hunter 2 that I have to take some time to get everything back in my head.

And that leads to the second problem: I've been in cases where, when releasing an update of a game, I actually wanted to keep working on THAT game rather than switch. Everything's fresh in my memory, I'm motivated as fuck and I want to work on things right away. But no, I have to switch project. And it's NOT a good way to work (at least, not a productive way.)

So let's say that what's happening with Slice of School is the best timing ever to implement what I want to do now: release updates of the game I want when I want and not force myself to alternate. I strongly believe this will shorten the time between two releases when those are from the same game.

As such I can already announce it: after the huge next update of TH2, the next one will ALSO be of TH2 (albeit a smaller one) with extra content and a continuation of polishing elements to keep improving the fundations of the game. And if I end up working so much on TH2 that I end up with enough content to make two SoS updates, then I'll make two in a row if I want to keep working on it. That's how I'll work from now on. I hope you'll bear with me :x

8) The Future

I'd like to take the chance of that post to mention my own future. You've been very receptive to my Thank You post and I'm glad to have such comprehensive and supportive patrons. So I just want you to be aware that what I'm going to say has nothing to do with some depressed state of mind or whatever. I'm still very happy to be able to do what I do.

YET, the whole pixiv/fanbox problem addition to the previous ones is starting to tire us out. PeakJump and I are both starting to get tired of having to run away constantly without being able to work in peace to propose our content to people interested by them. We're not stupid. We see how things are evolving in the world. They're not evolving the right way at all (and it's not just about +18 content, but that's another story :x). We're basically moving from one site to another until one day will come where it'll be impossible to sell content with certain fetishes, even if it's only 2D.

In addition to that, and that's something more for me, but I'm starting to get tired of people. Mind that I'm not talking about the people that work/ed with me properly. I'm more talking all the things you haven't witnessed (though you did witness the sudden departure of the colorist before Carlis (forgot her name) that disappeared without a single word.) People never answering you, people always saying "yes, yes I'll do it" and never doing it, people saying "I'll do it, but you pay half of the price first" and then they fuck you after they got the money (I still plan to expose that guy in a post, btw), people saying "Sure when I'll be back to business I'll work with you" and then when they're back to business they're like "lol who the fuck are you?", people leaving the project without saying a word, people being the laziest fucks ever, taking several months to color a single pic because all their family members died in a row during that precise timing...

And when you have to search for someone to work with you have to deal with the fact that the person you'll hire might fit in any of those situation and might potentially fuck you at some point because you don't know them. If it's a composer, it's okay. If it's the main artist, it's MUCH more problematic. When you do vanilla games, there are tons of artists available so it's easier to find someone professional: just check their background. But for people like me? Hell, less than 1% of artists would agree to draw all my twisted thoughts. So it's a real bummer. I don't have the strength nor the will to find someone after PeakJump.

We've been working together for 7 years and a half now. He's not just a collaborator at this point. He IS Slice of Venture. And despite what I mentioned earlier forcing me to go back to a commissionning system with him, I feel like it would be very difficult to find someone as professional and friendly as him. Things being what they are, and considering that they're not evolving in the right way, I officially declare Slice of Venture 3 as cancelled. It's not put on hold anymore. It will never happen. The project is too big for my income and I refuse to bet such a potentially long project with a new team that I won't know and could easily leave me at any point without reasons. And I'm not even mentioning the fact that for artistic reasons, having another artist working on SoV3 than PeakJump (even if it was a very famous artist I love like Chiba Tetsutarou) would clearly rub me off.

As such, I have plans in my mind for the future and I'll share them with you. I have a list of things to do. Once I've done them all, I'll leave the world of adult game-making. Because it's bound to happen at some point, the current situation is making it happening a bit sooner, but it was going to happen anyway. Of course, that doesn't mean I'll disappear next year. But I find it much more honest to give you the plan rather than not saying anything and delaying TH2 or SoS forever to milk you out like some do :x

Here are the things I'm going to finish before retiring. Some of those things are complete new reveals, so if you had the strength to read everything, you'll be rewarded :p

- The Hunter 2. That's a given. You have no idea how many ideas I still have for the game. I'm making a transfer. Since I know SoV3 will never happen, The Hunter 2 will become my biggest game. And I'll do everything to make it awesome. Despite being the most advanced of the current projects, it's not impossible it ends up being the project I actually finishes in last ^^'

- Slice of School. SoS has always been thought as a "side-dish" but it's quite successful so I'm glad people like it so much. Since SoV3 will never happen and we're changing the way we're working on it with PeakJump, you can expect its development to last longer than just June 2023 too. I do have ideas for it too (more in terms of story-telling than gameplay, of course.), so I want to take that chance to create lots of naughty situations :)

- Slice of School Extra Lessons. SoSEL is particular. JFC is graciously making the drawings for free. As long as he'll be willing to provide them, I'll keep working on the game, of course :p

- Fubuki's Challenge. Yeah, you're not dreaming. Those who were already there a few years ago might remember that game I was making in cooperation with JFC. I haven't abandonned the idea at all. It's supposed to be a "short" VN revolving around Fubuki and JFC worked too much on it for me to ditch it. So it will happen. Trust me.

- Slice of Venture Remake. Yes. I refuse to leave the adult game making industry without having made a remake of Slice of Venture. When PeakJump will have finished Slice of School (or maybe during the development, why not?), he'll work on a remake of Slice of Venture. Unlike Slice of Venture Origins which is supposed to completely ditch Vitamin Plus, Slice of Venture Remake is meant to be "another" game. Of course, many things will be the same, but I want the original keep its own status. Back then, SkullTT worked a lot with me to be able to put that game out and I don't want her work to fall into oblivion. This remake is meant to act as a separate game (like you'd enjoy the GameCube version or Resident Evil but still would enjoy the original PSX release.)

- A last secret game. This one is something I wasn't supposed to mention at all. It's a VERY special case. I'm currently working on a game with someone. But for different reasons, I can only release the game once its finished. And it won't be available to patrons. The reason is simple: that game doesn't cost me money. So I'm only working on it during my free time. You won't heard about that project anymore before its ready. Just know that this game is also part of things I'll finish before retiring.

When you see that list, you can easily guess that I'll still be around for a bit of time :p But having a finished list is better for me. I can't fantasize anymore about possibilities and I should focus on what's doable.

I just hope that the future won't be so dire that it will prevent me from finishing some of those. That's all I ask.

I apologize for this post which is definitely the longest I've ever written (took me more than 3h to write all that) but it's necessary (or at least I think so?)

You know everything you need to know. You know where I'm going, you know how I'm feeling, you know whant I want to do and what I don't want to do. And of course you know that I ♥ you.

Get well everyone. I'll come back with some more TH2 content soon, don't worry :D

See ya o/