Today, I’d like to dive into a topic that we game developers often debate in our private discussions, though it might not be something players are fully aware of.

Up until around 2016 (if memory serves), I was creating games without relying on crowdfunding. Then that year, I launched a Patreon, which provided support for my projects through 2020. That year was a turning point for me, not just because of everything else going on, but because I released what remains my most ambitious game to date: Planet Stronghold 2 (though Thieves of Dingirra is about to “dethrone” it!).

After the success of my 2018 RPG Cursed Lands, which left me feeling optimistic, I had high expectations for Planet Stronghold 2. I’m the kind of person who always braces for the worst-case scenario. For this game, I set my baseline at a very modest sales figure—less than a third of what Cursed Lands earned in its launch week. (Of course, long-term sales are harder to predict, so I was mainly focused on that first week and month.)

Little did I know that back in October 2018, Valve decided to roll out an “algorithm update” that effectively tanked visibility for anything that wasn’t a AAA title or an indie darling. Over the next three to four years, I watched about a third of the developers I knew either quit the industry or turn to publisher funding, sacrificing what I’d call their “true indie” spirit.

So when Planet Stronghold 2 launched, it was an absolute trainwreck. Even now, five years on, its sales don’t come close to touching Cursed Lands. The thing is, I eventually realized it wasn’t about the game’s quality—it was all down to Steam’s new rules.

This shift didn’t just change completely my business, it hit nearly every indie dev I knew. The only ones who dodged the fallout were those with an established fanbase or enough money to fund massive ad campaigns.

Here comes the money

Later in 2020, I decided to try crowdfunding for my first game in the Tales From The Under-Realm series, and it went really well. I might’ve mentioned this before, but I like to figure out my “virtual salary” by dividing the money a game makes by the months it took me to create it.

Well, Hazel’s virtual salary was about four or five times higher than Planet Stronghold 2’s! Mainly thanks to the fact that Kickstarter’s commission is only 10% vs 35% of Steam (they say 30% but with various fee and refunds it’s closer to 35%). Of course, it doesn’t always work out that way. Some projects, like House of Chavez, barely broke even, mostly because I wanted to make the game better and ended up spending extra cash from my own pocket.

That’s when it hit me: crowdfunding isn’t just nice to have; it’s a must to keep going. It doesn’t mean you’ll automatically succeed, but it helps you avoid losing money and lets you plan better.

Here’s why: if I know I’ve got a set budget for a game, I can figure out all the costs ahead of time. Then I can decide what’s really important to spend on and what I can skip if it’s not essential to the game.

Pre-production phase and conclusion

Unlike many indie developers, I don’t hold off on starting a game until all the funding is secured. Waiting for full funding can cause serious setbacks (think of all those Kickstarted games delayed by years!) and it’s tough to convince people to back you without something tangible to show. You can’t just pitch “I’m building a town sim with RPG combat and blah blah blah” without at least a working prototype or screenshots/gameplay videos to back it up.

That’s why I made sure Thieves of Dingirra had its core gameplay nailed down before launching its Kickstarter. It’s also why, even for a basic visual novel crowdfunding campaign, I aim to have a full plot outline, the main cast’s character art and a few CGs ready beforehand.

But then comes the tricky part: once the funding’s in, do I call it done, or do I spend an extra month or two—and more cash—adding new features or content? It’s a tough call, and honestly, there’s no universal answer. With House of Chavez, I went all in, pouring way more money into it than I raised because I wanted it to be the best it could be. Looking back, it wasn’t a smart financial move, but sometimes pride in your work outweighs the bottom line.

Conclusions

There’s a huge difference between blindly sinking a year (or more!) and a ton of money into a project like Planet Stronghold 2 with no guarantee of breaking even, and investing a couple extra months and a few grand to polish something you’ve already fully funded and you do it only because you want to make it the best possible. That’s the line I try to walk.

By the way, even if Thieves of Dingirra’s Kickstarter has ended, it’s still possible to do late pledges to add more one-night stand scenes to the Traveler’s Delight! Check it out.