And by "Valued Customer" I mean "See You Next Tuesday"... (Patreon)

I've had a lot of shit over the last 6 years in the journey developing Shards of Eradine, but I thought by this point we might be past the point of accusing me personally of The S Word. I know people are screaming "dont feed the troll" but this "review" of Taps on the Google Play store struck a nerve, one worthy of a personal response that might put the horrible ordeal to bed once and for all and with its timing being so damn ironic, I can’t help myself!

To you, it doesn’t matter that the overall budget for both games is running currently 10 times the original amount I raised for it (yes, TEN...), and that I've personally spent more on new artwork in the last 12 months than the entire Offbeatr raise

To you, it doesn’t matter that each and every girl now has some h-content in the game, and the games look as good as they do now with all their hand painted glory, full chibi animation frames and nearly 120 map locations throughout the world.

To you, it doesn’t matter that we’ve now got hundreds of plush toys sat staring at us in the office, every one of them looking at me in despair and longing for a new home to honor my original backers even after all this time. Boxes of pin badges, post cards, hoodies and t shirts litter our office, that again will honor pledges having decided to resurrect it the ashes, continue to finance in hope that people still think it's as good as I do.

To you, it doesn’t matter that I nearly killed myself earlier this year by pushing my body to the point of destruction with a serious lung infection that mimicked a heart attack and scared the fuck out of me, and my entire family.

To you, it doesn’t matter that I gave up a huge software contract in March so I can now work on these games 7 days a week, 14 hours a day and haven't taken any money out of my own company in nearly two years just to make sure that everyone else gets paid each and every month until we launch something.

To you, it doesn’t matter that my relationship with my family is stretched thinner than a Japanese schoolgirls panties over the face of a fat otaku, and that a 3 day city getaway was my "fun and relaxing times" promised to my son during his summer holidays as I continued to work night after night across both games.

So no. I wont "stfu" about what the time and costs of this game are. Given our beginnings and earlier failing, I want people to know exactly how hard the entire team is working on these games so they get a sense of what it takes to achieve what we do. I want people to understand that unlike some other people on Patreon, there is a huge deficit between our operation costs and the amount that we receive monthly in very kind support and anyone thinking I'm "milking the fans" by not releasing either game early is on thorazine and/or delusional. No-one wants these games finished more than me. No-one.

Every time a “valued customer” like you uses the S word in association with our work, you cast a shadow of doubt in a potential supporters mind about whether or not they should fund our games, buy one of our products or use an in-app purchase. You taint the hard work of our artists, animators, writers, testers, QAs, product developers, my lead dev and myself, and at this point, the month of the launch of both of our games, I won't stand for it. You should feel bad that you continue to perpetuate this idea that I am somehow greedy and have scammed people and stop spreading malicious untruths. 

Oh, and one last thing. Don't pluralise the voices in your head. You are one voice and speak only for yourself. You’re the first in at least the last couple of years to make that remark directly at us and in that time I've had countless kind words, each and every one of them made my day and makes this all worthwhile. Wipe the Cheetos dust from your neck, have a shower and shave, perhaps move out of your parents basement and most importantly, try achieve something for yourself rather than projecting your own negativity on the hard work of others. 

You can then perhaps find out first hand just how difficult it is to achieve anything other than an ever expanding waistline and carpal tunnel syndrome.

On that note, pre-registration is now open for Taps of Eradine at Nutaku.net and Shards of Eradine Version 1 should be shipping next week! ;)

https://www.nutaku.net/games/taps-of-eradine/ 

*mic drop*