Patreon's Response - Game Over (for now) (Patreon)
Content
Their reply was a bit confusing and touched on a few points, but this is the key part:
“We do understand that a curse might exist as part of the narrative of the game, but this type of content won't be allowed as per our current guidelines.“
So continuing work on Coill City with that sentence hanging over our heads seems like a terrible idea... so regrettably, I will have to stop working on Coill City.
This is a disappointing and frustrating situation, considering the tons of effort and patron support put into it, but it's better than having it killed in the future after even more has been invested into it.
What now?
It's unfeasible to rework the story without the curse, so the best option is to reinvent the characters into a new world and story, that is well and clearly within Patreon's guidelines. I already have a few ideas of what the story would be about, the setting (fantasy) and in which roles some characters would come back.
But starting over requires a ton of upfront effort and time, that I just can't take on while I also work on my art patreon full time, which I need to keep going to actually pay the bills...
Juggling Coill City and my art patreon already regularly put my monthly work time at around 300 hr. Pushing it any further would be way too much, and eventually take a serious toll on my health.
The only reasonable option is to make a much, MUCH simpler game in a more efficient art style so that I can work on at a much calmer pace, but that would mean less regular builds and NSFW content, which sounds like the kind of thing patrons wouldn't be willing to support...
I believe that if I'm going to start over I'll need to put some serious amount of time into it to make it a success, which is not possible now, so for now I'll put this Patreon into indefinite hiatus (no charges during that time) until conditions are such that I can dedicate time to game making again.
In the meantime I'll try to develop my new VN idea in my free time while I continue aiming to improve my art skills. Hopefully one day I'll be able to take on a visual novel project again (probably something much smaller than Coill City to begin with). If I do, I’ll start posting here again to whoever among you decide to stick around (again, no charges until then).
For now, my main output of content will be my NSFW art Patreon.
Lastly, thank you all for supporting my work on Coill City for all this time and I hope you will continue to enjoy my future works, whatever they end up being.