So how did the public build release go? (Patreon)

The public build release is out of the way!

This post is going to be a bit long and we’re being pretty open about things and our financial situation. We’re not here to beg today but rather shed light on what’s behind the curtain.

Feedback and Reviews

Verbal feedback was overall positive, however, review score on Newgrounds was mediocre at best. That’s not to say that early Project Cappuccino builds were raving with positive reviews, but it is a bit disheartening. Mediocre reviews ultimately means fewer eyes on the game and a bleaker outlook.

The strange thing is that there was really nothing negative said about the game, which we’re going to take as a good thing. Usually with these kinds of releases we get a barrage of “this is broken…” or “can you add a minotaur?”

A big part of it is probably that the game isn’t complete and players tend to score low because of that, but we don’t really have a choice but to show off the game. (More on that below.)

Chasing Funding

Developing games that are primarily funded through Patreon tends to conflict directly with the nature of making games. It’s impossible to retain patrons forever without constant content and there’s a natural churn of supporters over time. In order to retain funding, we have to constantly post and release content. On that same note, there's the issue of deciding what to show only to patrons and what to reveal publicly.

During Cappuccino’s development, this was done through things like art packages and frequent public builds, which we feel ended up doing more harm than good in the long run. (Doku’s hand was permanently injured from drawing profusely and we may have released too many public builds.)

In a way, we feel that the Patreon platform generally favors artwork or open ended games with endless development/expansions. The harsh reality of it is that the vast majority of people tend to not care about the inner workings of a game and you’re usually selling the idea of one. Even completed games tend to be bought in order to be played “later”, only to sit in someone’s library eternally.

The Double Edged Sword of Cappuccino

Having a completed game means that a lot of potential supporters will opt to just pick up a copy of the existing game. Usually on Steam, where they eat a lot of the income.

Project Cappuccino was a success in a way, because it helped us offset the massive post launch dip in pledges and remain stable for a good while. We consider ourselves fortunate to have been able to launch a game that made more than $0. Though it still did under-perform compared to similar games out there.

Steam Numbers

It's probably not widely known but you can estimate how many sales a game has had on Steam by taking their review count and multiplying it by 100. Net income is then calculated by multiplying the sales by the price of the game and subtracting 40% from the total. These estimations assume self publishing because having a publisher will also affect the numbers.

To date, Project Cappuccino has sold about 6000 copies, which is about $42,000 net on Steam. (After Steam’s 30% cut and before our taxes. Regional country prices affect this too.)

42,000 / about 2 years since it’s release = 21,000 per year / 2 people = 10,500 a year per person.

With Patreon and other store fronts, Doku and I are making a little over the US minimum wage. Yeah. We’ve doubted our career choice several times but we don’t plan on giving up. There’s still a few things up our sleeve that would potentially keep us going, should sales of Project Cappuccino dwindle to a dangerous level.

Team up with a large publisher and gain funding or boosted sales through them.

Use Kickstarter to attempt to fully fund the games from the start.

Have Doku launch a personal Patreon with fan art, lewd art and what not and use that to continue funding our projects.

Launch on Early Access (Requires a lot more content before we’re ready for this.)

Get second jobs with other developers. (Trying to avoid this one where possible since it severely eats into development time.)

Hope that Project Cappuccino 2 makes a splash.

At the end of the day, we really have no one to blame but ourselves. Shit’s hard. There’s a learning curve to everything revolving this industry and it’s both a mix of luck and skill. And we can’t rely on luck.

The short of this announcement is that development will continue on both titles, though we will likely be hopping over to Project Cappuccino 2 as the primary project for a little while in order to stay sane and avoid burnout.To those that continue to stick around and support us, we really can’t thank you enough!

-Vanis & Doku