NokiMo
YandereDev
YandereDev

patreon


2016 Transparency, and polls/questions for Patrons

In July of 2016, I wrote a blog post called "Transparency" to elaborate on how the Patreon money is spent, and account for the money raised / used so far: https://www.patreon.com/posts/transparency-6085972

Now that a new year has begun, I'd like to write a new blog post to summarize how money was spent during the remainer of 2016, after that blog post was made

In December 2015, I stated that my personal monthly salary would be capped at $3,500, and that any surplus would go towards the game's budget. Here is how much money was raised beginning at that point in time:

December  $4,312.10
January   $5,439.96
February  $5,534.33
March     $5,817.06
April     $5,413.76
May       $5,090.49
June      $5,035.36
July      $5,737.45
August    $5,539.79
September $5,560.70
October   $5,809.45
November  $5,617.05
December  $5,317.80

Every month, $3,500 of that money went to me, leaving us with a "surplus" of $24,725.30.

Over the course of the year, the surplus money was used to compensate seven volunteers who contributed to the game in noteworthy ways. Aliases will be used instead of real names, unless the volunteer in question has publicly attached their real name to the game.

Ani - $100 for animation assistance
Druelbozo - $12,000 for creating numerous 3D models
Momoki - $750 for providing the voice of Midori, Kokona, Saki, and Oka.
Yosua - $250 for providing numerous animations
Sheltor - $500 for creating numerous motion-captured animations
Brittany Lauda - $800 for providing the voice of Osana Najimi
Only Wednesday Music - $3,100 for composing numerous background tracks

A total of $17,500 was used to compensate volunteers who contributed to the game in remarkable ways. As a result, the "surplus" of  $24,725.30  has become $7,225.30.

There are three ways that the remaining $7,225.30 could be spent:

1. Immediately repay all other volunteers who have contributed to the game in extraordinary ways, and have yet not been compensated for their help.

2. Use the money in bits and pieces over the next year to pay remarkable volunteers who would have to stop contributing to the game if they weren't receiving compensation.

3. Put the money towards the Kickstarter. In other words, if the Kickstarter goal was $100,000, it can now be $92,774.70, instead.

There is also a fourth option that is somewhat difficult to suggest, because I worry about how it will be interpreted. The fourth option would be "YandereDev gets to keep that money, and use his judgement to determine how and when it should be put towards the game's development." In other words, "I don't care, just let YandereDev decide."

Since the money came from you - the patrons - I'd like you to give me your opinion on the subject. Please vote on the following poll and let me know how you feel:

http://poal.me/hu1qhs

Occasionally, I encounter people who are not aware that I have "capped" my salary at $3,500. Sometimes, these people express shock when I tell them that I'm giving up about $1,500 every month. Some people have told me that they believe this isn't fair, and that I should be keeping every single cent that I make from Patreon.

We've been using the "Salary is capped at 3.5k, surplus goes to volunteers" strategy for the past 13 months. Is it time to remove the cap?

http://poal.me/d3e7qh

There is one other thing to mention. Unfortunately, almost every word in this blog post from July of 2015 is still completely true:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/questions-for-2929915

I work 12 hours a day, I work on weekends, and I don't take the day off on holidays. In 2015, I turned down my friends every time they invited me to parties / weddings, so that I wouldn't fall behind on my Yandere Simulator progress, and now I never hear from my old friends anymore. I never leave my house unless it's 100% necessary. I used to exercise daily, but I haven't done that in over 2 years, and I've gained about 50 pounds since I started working on the game. I took a single 2-week vacation last year, but I spent a significant amount of time working on Yandere Simulator even while I was on vacation, because I couldn't bring myself to break my 400-day streak of working on the game nonstop.

I'd really like to stop working 12 hours a day, and work 8 hours a day, instead. I'd really like to stop working 7 days a week, and start working 5 days a week, instead. However, if I did this, the speed of the game's development would slow down considerably. There are already many people who feel that the game's development is moving too slowly, even though I make every possible sacrifice in order to spend as much of my time developing the game as humanly possible. I worry that if I work any less, or go any slower, all of my fans will presume that I have become lazy, and will stop supporting the development of the game.

With all of that information in mind, I'm curious to know how you'd feel if I did lower the number of hours that I spend working on the game.

http://poal.me/6su3dw

Last, I'd like to once again pose the same questions that I posed in July of 2015:

1. Whenever progress on the game is delayed, do you feel like your money is going to waste?

2. When you pledge to my Patreon, what do you want in return? For me to work harder and faster? Or something else?

3. My worst fear is for people to feel that the money they are pledging to me has been "squandered" or "wasted". What would make you feel this way?

Phew! It's been a long post, but I think I've finally covered every subject that I meant to cover.

Thank you very much for supporting the development of Yandere Simulator!

Comments

Already more clear than Star Citizen lol

<a href="https://www.patreon.com/smail">https://www.patreon.com/smail</a>

1. YandereDev, on a personal level, I understand the struggle of delayed development. I work for a company that produces and maintains 4 websites and a mobile app. We have a development team of 10 people and we still have our moments of delays up to months. However, we have a separate team to market and sell the product we create. We do not need to worry about dependencies of volunteers, gaining and maintaining publicity, or having the entirety of our product rested in our hands even though we have a lot at stake should we "mess up". You're taking a HUGE pay cut to work more hours than the average person would in a company development. Additionally, you are working the entirety of this completely solo (excluding the volunteers that are providing you the assets), which this monuments project is so ambitious it would probably take an entire game development company many years to also create. I do not feel that a single cent of my donation is wasted toward your dream of creating this game. What WOULD make me upset about delays if you did not maintain transparency with your time and efforts with the money we give you. Just as you have for many years, you are continuously telling us what you do with your time and money without fail. This alone is enough to make me feel every cent is well spent. 2. I want you to continue making progress on the game. Keep us updated with the developments and be open and honest about any delays. More importantly, I want you to take care of yourself, this patreon has become your entire livelihood which is extremely concerning. Please remember that you are a human too and need to live life. 3. See my previous two responses. P.S. I'm really saddened by the results of your polling regarding your salary. If you're only keeping 3.500 a month from your Patreon then you get an approximate annual salary of $42,000. This is your pay to deal with food, bills, health, and everything else that makes you ALIVE. I'm going to take a guess and say you live in California, because Anime Expo was not too taxing of a vacation and your timezone is PST. Living in California is EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE unless you live with roommates/family, which I'm not aware if you are or not. Making approximately 42,000 a year is scary for your welfare... The average national salary of a game developer is ~$82,000 a year. You're basically making LESS than what a person would be making working for a company. To see so many results of people saying to "keep your current salary and continue creating the surplus" was surprising to say the least. I FULLY SUPPORT keeping a surplus to pay all the talented volunteers that are helping you but I worry about your livelihood to say the least. Stay strong YandereDev, keeping working hard (but remember about yourself too), and continue the development of yourself and Yandere Simulator.

Justice Jansen

The fact that you're so open and eager to create a dialogue is enough for me to spend 20$ a month to see this game come to fruition. Its interesting for me to see the process that you're going through as a student of game design. I really think that you should continue creating the game at your own pace. I for one and I believe many people think that you are inherently a good person with good intentions and you have our trust. Keep up the great work!

Jack Hendy

1. Nah, I just want assurance that you're giving the game the care and attention that it deserves. The LAST thing I want is for you to sacrifice quality to meet these made-up deadlines that you've given yourself. 2. The assurance that no shortcuts are being taken. The update videos are nice. Those are worth the money themselves. 3. I guess if the game ended up pulling a "No Man's Sky" where things that were promised weren't in the final game. Alternatively, if you pulled a "Silent Hills" and the entire project got scrapped out of nowhere.

PTha

PTha

Jack will

YandereDev

Admiral Cheesecake

Hello213

EroBot-san

Oh, one more comment about your salary cap. I am not familiar with the costs of living in the area where you reside, so I cannot judge properly if 3.5 k$ is a low or high salary. In your poll I voted for keeping the cap at 3.5, because raising the cap to 5 k$ just because that is the average monthly pledge this year I think would be inappropriate. I would not mind adjusting the cap to 4 or 4.5 k$ though. In my opinion the cap makes sense for you to have some cash to spend for volunteers and other expenses.

Raymond Fürst

(Forgot how to shift+enter, grr) 2. I want a continuing development, but not at the cost of your health. As long as I see progress and your volunteers getting some contribution as well I am happy with it. 3. If you broke down and the project with it. So please, keep yourself healthy and the project up and running.

Raymond Fürst

1. No. Delays have a reason and so far you explained all of them to my full statisfaction.

Raymond Fürst

Dude seriously, watch your health! It is too valuable and should not be a cost to development.

Raymond Fürst

I almost decided not to write this comment because I was too intimidated by some of the other longer posts, and how much thought I assumed had probably gone into writing them, but I think this is important so I'm going to just write it down and submit quickly. $3500 a month looks like less than $10 an hour for every month excepting February if we're looking at 12 hour days, 7 days a week. I'm not sure there is any job I love enough that I would agree to work under those conditions. However, perhaps if I had a job and was already working under those conditions, I might be too scared of losing my job to change my quality of life. I am not sure whether I am satisfied or not with the pacing of the development process, but I have not voiced my opinion or offered any advice in that arena, so I feel no need to complain. The process has been transparent and has given me every opportunity to voice my opinion about what direction the development should take. What I am sure of is the feeling that I got when I was denied a vacation / time-off request to do something special and make memories with friends &amp; family. Gained ~50 lbs? Maybe I am funding the completion of this game, but at what other cost? No longer. 40 hour weeks. Agreed upon vacation allotment, whatever. Something. If you are reading this, you can scroll up and change your vote on any of the things you selected before. Do it if you're thinking about it, or if you feel bad, even a little bit.

Personally, I support this game because I am enjoying the progress videos and understanding your thoughts as you make choices and so on. If and when the game comes out? Awesome... in the meantime I get more than my money's worth every month as it is.

Samurai Ken

The only time something bothered me about this project is when it got time wasted making a side project like mission mode. I'd like to know YandereDev is working less hours to look after his own health but side projects like that are what seem like a waste of time to me. I pledge the minimum amount so there's no way I'd feel it's getting wasted.

Zastinx

I think we mostly agree on that simple fact. We enjoy your content, we know you work hard and we woudn't give you money if we didn't love the content or how you operate the devside of thing. I was a QA tester so I know how it is. Keep up the good work, but take time for yourself too dude...Go see some friend, exercise and don't forget...we love you aniki! ANIKI!

Christopher Divry

1. I don't every really feel that way If a game that I am supporting is for some reason delayed I don't suddenly throw a pit of rage because I know that "Hey they suddenly hit a wall or are recuperating form being burned out" 2. I'm quite stingy when it comes to money due to the fact that growing up we never really had much and at times we still don't When I decided to Pledge to you it wasn't because I thought that this 1 dollar would suddenly make you ship out updates quicker, not at all. When I pledge to someone it's like I'm saying "Hey, I know this ain't much but this is my way of saying thanks for showing me a good game with a great concept and this donation ( and hopefully future ones ) is proof of my support and wish for you to continue making your game great at your own pace. I'm just going to sit in the side lines cheering you on and picking you back up when you fall". 3. At no way at all do I feel that the money that has been gifted to you by me and by other patreons has been "wasted" or "squandered" for I have supported both good devs and bad. It's honestly hard for me to describe what would make me feel like this but honestly it would come down to how No Man's Sky came out. A great Idea for a game with amazing features promised, but when it came to reveal the finished project it was a empty game with little to none of the promised features. In a sense if you were to release a update or the final project in which the Alpha's or Beta's were superior in terms of content and playability, then and only then will I feel cheated and robbed. However, you have yet to have done this, every update actually Feels like a update with newer content or a more smoother experience, so this is why I don't feel that any money is wasted on you nor the project Yandere Simulator. Now I do kinda want to add in my 2 cents by adding in I feel that Yes at the cost of the development speed you should lessen your work load and be allowed to take breaks and even shave off those 50 pounds you put on ( not sure if you care though ) as what's the point of worrying about reducing the development speed if you just suddenly keel over or something? There is a difference between dedication, and not caring about yourself It's kinda how I feel about some youtubers such as Markiplier. He works through rain and Hail trying to get us the best videos even when he gets sick but to the point where a simple code or sore throat ends up being a serious issue as he constantly tries to force himself past the limit which usually has left him going to the hospital way to frequently for a healthy young adult his age. The next topic is that of the Surplus money, which in a short summary I just want that money to be given to those that have actually contributed a good deal and that continue to do so but may not have the ability to do so due to the lack of funds. Those that go beyond the call of duty Deserve that medal or pat on the back, everyone else yes they did contribute but it is called volunteer work for a reason... Lastly I think that you do deserve a little bump in your wage as I'm not really going to make a estimate or anything on how your daily life goes and your expenses that you got. However, even if 3500 leaves you with a little extra on the side I do feel that you should do that extra bump to 5000. Why you may ask well to me I think It would be a smart decision more so for the Future once Yandere Simulator is done. I'm not sure once this happens if you decided to hang up the Dev and continue with life or continue with the Dev life and make a new game or something. But during that transition your basically going to be jobless and I want you to have a account ready to help you through that transition as with 3500 your only going to have some much leftover and if you have been saving that and say if this game is finished by 2019 or 2020. That amount of whatever it is you saved up may be a good amount, but it really won't enough to help you stay afloat thanks to the world's economy constantly rising and dropping I just think that with 5000 you could save a greater amount and just have a more secure future once Yandere is done and you are going through that transition in life. And that is about it I think. I tried to keep it as short as I could with as little random ramblings as possible.

Tomoyuki Saito

1. Whenever progress on the game is delayed, do you feel like your money is going to waste? No, and that's actually not the point. No money is being wasted in the entire Yandere Simulator development process, as the game gets more and more structure and play ability as the time passes by. Whenever the progress feels like is slowing down, keep in mind that the final product will be indeed important, but the prototype is already doing great in the community, many players have enjoyed hours in the builds you have made thus far. 2. When you pledge to my Patreon, what do you want in return? For me to work harder and faster? Or something else? I want to see that things are working out. Whenever the credit card notification pops up, what I really think is: "Man, I really want to see the framework he is using in the project working out: it's pure innovation". It's not the final product itself that makes me pledge, but the way you get the work done. God, I might actually never play Yandere Simulator, I haven't even installed a build in my notebook, I don't even know if the game will run in my linux distro, but I know that it's the collective dream of many developers and players to see a game developer giving his ultra plus sweat and having great return of it sure satisfies me. Games for me can be pure art and entertaining, and most of the frameworks that are used in big Game Development Industry are actually killing many innovations that could pop out, just like a "Yandere Simulator", and the experience that envelops a game with a "homemade" feeling. 3. My worst fear is for people to feel that the money they are pledging to me has been "squandered" or "wasted". What would make you feel this way? I personally think that the only way to "waste" money is if by any means the project cease. There are smart and dumb ways to use resources, and it's really hard to find out a correct way. I would say you are doing great, don't over think things.

gabriel nascimento novaes

Sorry, I did post my reply to the wrong transparency post. I will delete that one and keep this. As I said: The best thing to do with the surplus is to make it raise with some financial investment. I'd suggest you to make some kind of investment that would allow the final surplus to be even greater than the one that would actually accumulate with the years of development, could be a investment that has a 7% gain by semester for example, or even a saving account with that whooping 1% gain. With this final surplus you can make compensate the volunteers and have money enough to pay other important things to the game, like publicity and the bug fix phase itself. I'm sure that nobody actually knows the best combination of options of these pools, as none of them are actually bad, but I'd suggest you to think about the definition of a job and a volunteer job. You are making progress as fast as a single guy developing could be, and 12 hours day is a insane daily routine, to the point of actually affect one's mental health. Then again, you should consider one more game designer, as there ARE tasks that don't involve programming itself, such as design a routine for every rival of the game.

gabriel nascimento novaes

I'm not a gamer myself so I'll probably never play the final game. I'll rather watch some let's plays. The reason I'm supporting the development is because I enjoy watching your video updates. I actually consider them more entertaining that most of the videos of other creators that I'm subscribed to, even though they are mostly professional YouTubers. Here are my answers: 1. Not at all, as long as you post video updates. Paradoxically, a slight delay may even present an interesting plot to the videos. On the other hand, I'm sure the enjoyment would suffer if other people who wait for the actual game would start to act grumpy about the delay. So I don't mind the delay, but I don't desire it. 2. Entertaining video updates. 3. I would never feel this way. I'm receiving the product continuously. If you stop posting videos, I'll stop paying after some time with no hard feelings.

1. Whenever progress on the game is delayed, do you feel like your money is going to waste? Not at all, as any reasonable person should now, all games experience delays. I mean, I'm still waiting on half-life 3 and that's been years with a team full of brilliant developers. Being a one person team, I’m surprised you're developing this quickly. Keep up the great work and as my situation improves, I’d love to become an even bigger donor. 2. When you pledge to my Patreon, what do you want in return? For me to work harder and faster? Or something else? I want a finished, well-polished game. I do not want anything else in return. I love Yandere Simulator and I feel a developer of such a great game should be compensated proportionately for their work. You should earn WAY more than just $3500 a month… but that’s just my opinion. I know people who earn more than that and do less. 3. My worst fear is for people to feel that the money they are pledging to me has been "squandered" or "wasted". What would make you feel this way? If there was no game. I would be devastated if you disappeared all of a sudden. Many great projects seem to disappear when their creators become bored with them and I hope you do not become bored with yours and you continue to be as passionate about the game as your many followers have become to be. Thank you for working so hard. You thank us for following the development of your game, but we really want to thank you for making it. It didn’t exist before you brought it to existence and for that you deserve a huge thanks from all of us.

RoukaVT

I am not a backer atm, but if you are interested, then here is my feedback. As for the very first question: where do you want to put those additional 7k? Its pointless to lower kickstarter goal, people will pledge what they want. So I think you should split it between yourself (some additional expenses?) and volunteers. Or maybe hire some new pernament staff member to lessen your workload? as for other questions: 1. Shit happens. People expect some delays. As long as it is not very often we are good ;) 2. Making game alone is very hard thing to do. Consider hiring more pernament staff to improve speed of development. If you manage to improve development speed I (and other people) would be willing to contribute more to fund your staff. 3. Its hard to pick out some bad signs to avoid. So I will simply tell you my imppresion of you: You dont feel like you are wasting money. You are quite straightforward about your campaign. GL in future

Derp

1. No. So far you always presented a perfectly reasonable explanation for each delay and I trust that you know what you're doing. 2. I want you to work at a pace that keeps you sane and healthy. No rush-job has ever worked out in the long run. 3. If you suddenly posted a picture of you with a sports car titled "Neener neener neener". Other than that I think your work so far speaks for itself, so no worries :-)

Neraced

If put aside the fact that I support you because I like what you are doing and considere our relations as only business where I am your sponsor and wait something in return, I'd say that I gain more proffit if you are healthy and well rested when you start to work. I don't need a tired and hating his job Yandere-dev. He will be useless to me if he will burn to ashes in the impossible chase of working as much as humanly possible. I'm not as good as you at organising and stuff, but please, hear my advice: "Work less! Your efficiency will rise and you will feel yourself better if you will work eight hours a day, five times a week. Just like the other people." As for your questions: 1. No, when you are making a game of your dream quality must prevail and so fans should wait as much as it needs to be done. Just like Tarn and Zach Adams that are making their game of the dream for over fifteen years now. 2. To reward you for your hard work. And I want you to be happy wih your game in the first place. And do you remember for whom you started developing it? 3. I'll feel sad if you will drop developing Yandere Simulator and run to the Mexico. p.s: English is my second language, so I hope that you could understand me. p.p.s: TL/DR: do as you see fit, but dont sacrifice yourself for the pleasure of bunch of morons that said to do so.

I have few suggestions about both salary cap and working hrs. 1. From my opinion, raise salary all of sudden from 3.5k to 5k is a little over, but consider u have been working 12 hrs * basically 365 in the past 2 years, I wouldn't complain about it all. But in this case, the surplus would drop to as we all can tell around 500 - 600$ every month, which means there will be less volunteers contribute to this game, and u said u really want to have a 8hrs *5 week schedule, so as I can imagined Yandere Sim is absolutely going to slows down a lot. My suggestion is that raise salary to 4.3 - 4.5k monthly, so there will be sufficient help, and when the game is published on Steam(As I reckon), raise up the price by 1 or 2$ to make up all the time and effort. 2. 8hrs * 5 is cool, working overtime is bad, enjoy life!

1. No. 2. To use this money as wisely as you can to fund Yandere Simulator's development. 3. If you stopped making the game, only then would I feel sad/angry. The money won't have been squandered, the experience of watching this game development was worth my money. Spending time on you? Do you. Work on the game when you can? Go ahead. Longer wait time? I'm patient.

Matthieu Loose

I'm really new as a patron but I've been, ashamedly, following the development for well over a year now. With my job I work similarly to you. At least 12 hours a day and I've lost friends to that commitment. One thing you can't sacrifice is your own well being. You'll probably find that if you work 40 hours per week in a healthy body and mental state your productivity will likely be similar to that of an unhealthy 60 hour week. Sacrifices must be made for the creation of something extraordinary but those sacrifices don't have to be your health and emotional well being. Go get your friends back! Also agree with pretty much every point Patrick made.

To answer you questions at the end: 1. No, I understand video game development is a long and tedious process at times and you are creating a game whose scale and scope has seemingly grown in size, so I understand any delays when it comes to the development. 2. My pledges are there to act as a vote of confidence towards what you are doing, heck when I see the games development progress it makes me want to pledge even MORE money to what you are doing. I often believed in the term of voting with your wallet for something, and that is what I am doing here. 3.The only way for me to feel like you are squandering or wasting my money towards you is if you were to suddenly go MIA and give no more updates for the project without a single word. Even if the game were to be canceled or development handed to someone else, I still wouldnt think of my investment as a waste as long as you did so with tact. Seriously man, I do appreciate all of this transparency you do. I am glad to have found this project and I am glad I was able to support it anyway that I can. I am looking forward to the kickstarter where I will gladly put up a nice sum of money, you have shown over the years as someone who deserves the support and continues to show development and progress since I found this game two years ago. Keep it up!

Patrick (Gammalad)

To answer the questions at the end: 1) No, development has delays. I am a developer myself and I know this happens and is expected. 2) For you to stay encouraged and complete the game, if working harder leads to burnout I do NOT want you to work harder. 3) To see no progress or feedback at all from you, but you are extremely good at that. I would say no updates and no blog posts/video updates for 4 months would make me start to wonder what you are doing.

I don't care if it takes years. Take the time to create something YOU can be proud of. (For reference, check out the Game of Thornes books. They've been in writting for more than ten years and they are absolutely amazing).

When progress is delayed, I know it's for a good reason, like in the befriend and betrayal update (which was amazing, by the way). I started to contribute to the gane because I believe in you and your ideas, not because I wanted to see results faster. I'd feel my money would be wasted if you stopped working completely or lowered the quality of your work, which might happen if you keep up this pace. Alex, you need to work better, not more. Taking time to rest and focus on your own life might be incredibly beneficial for your mind, and thus, the game's development. You might feel quicker, have better and clearer ideas, and lower the risk of spontaneously dying from overwork, like it happens often to japanese people. You're not a rival, Alex-senpai.

1. Whenever progress on the game is delayed, do you feel like your money is going to waste? No. 2. When you pledge to my Patreon, what do you want in return? For me to work harder and faster? Or something else? I want you (and the volunteers) to be paid for your work. That's it. 3. My worst fear is for people to feel that the money they are pledging to me has been "squandered" or "wasted". What would make you feel this way? If you stopped working for more than one month at a time/if you abandoned the project. A one-month vacation would be okay.

Silicia_Volt

Holy hell YanDev! Don't kill yourself over a game! Reconnect with friends, spend time with your family! I understand the fear, but don't let Yandere Simulator control your life.

Zeragamba

1. Whenever progress on the game is delayed, do you feel like your money is going to waste? No man! Making a game is hard work and I understand that. I wouldn't even mind pledging for a month of vacation. You need to care about yourself too! 2. When you pledge to my Patreon, what do you want in return? For me to work harder and faster? Or something else? For you to work on the game at your own discretion. I want you to have funds, so you can pay volunteers and yourself. I don't care if you work on it 80 hours a week or 40, as long as you are happy with your own pace. Burn out is a real thing, and you shouldn't suffer from it. 3. My worst fear is for people to feel that the money they are pledging to me has been "squandered" or "wasted". What would make you feel this way? No update in half a year maybe? As long as things are progressing, I really don't care how fast/slow they are progressing. As I said above, making a game is hard work, so encountering some pitfalls on the way that slow you down are perfectly normal. Taking a vacation to keep your sanity is also normal.

Blackjack

1. If the game gets delayed for whatever reason, it usually means something unexpected happened, and that is just a part of life. 2. I support the development of this game because of the incredible amount of effort being poured into it making it evolve into something completely inconceivable compared to the original idea. 3. The only reason at all I would feel any sort of loss from donating money would be that you completely abandoned the project, and for as long as you have been at it so far it does not seem that such a day will ever come.

geez! don't over do yourself! Don't sacrifice your health and friends over a game.

Life-Saver

1. I felt worse when you apologized about the delays way back when than I did when you would make progress videos explaining why it's delayed. 2. I just want you to keep putting as much passion into the game as you have been. And I want a smile on your face with every bit of encouragement I send your way. ^_^ 3. You're a friend to me. I wouldn't be giving you the money if I thought it was wasteful. $10 a month seems reasonable.

Italian-Love-Cake

I kick a little money your way because you're doing something that seems fun and interesting, and because you dev blog has already brought me considerable entertainment. I've been worried about you for a while now, and believe me when I say that I would much rather see you take care of yourself than have you burn out or lose interest in the project. Time away from YandereSim isn't wasted - you're recharging your batteries so that you can come back to the project with more energy, better ideas, and just more enthusiasm for the project. For heaven's sake - take care of yourself! I don't want an awesome game at the expense of an awesome human being.

Writer Kitty

I give you "only" $5 a month now but I do so to support you and the project. Not to have a say how you do it or how much money you get to keep for yourself. You are the professional, not me. However, I would like to urge you to work less and take better care of yourself. It won't help anyone if you complete the game and then slash your wrists (and if you do that before you complete the game, I will find you in the afterlife and beat you up!).

I'll always vote for "Yandere Dev decides", this is your project, you work 4 hours more than a full time job on it. You more than deserve this money and you also need to feel that your supporters trust you. Have a great weekend!

Hermetic Kitten

I've never felt my money is going to waste, your constant updates and clear communication guarantee that. I pledged the money to support you and focus on this full time. I've never felt the money I pledged has been squandered. Unless you just left for several months with no communication, or started taking action on the game that I felt was significantly derailing the game from the path to completion. But none of this has come close to happening so far. Also, please Yandere Dev, work a 40 hour week, go exercise, reconnect with friends and have some time to yourself again. I feel like a very unfair employer.

Stelic22

When I pledged to support this project I had no illusion that this project would be done quickly. Great games take time, patience, sacrifice and dedication. However, as a developer myself, I must say I am in awe of you but I am also worried for you. I had no idea you were working this hard or neglecting yourself. If you continue down this path I worry that you will "burn out" and drop the game altogether. Building a game and seeing your vision come true should be hobby and something to look forward to, not something you have to sacrifice your life, friends and health for. I think I can speak for many of your supporters when I say we are happy to wait longer for progress if it means you are happy and healthy and I'm sure you and the game will be better for it. Continue the great work, just don't push yourself too hard, please. If there is anything I can help with don't hesitate to ask. :) Thank you, Yandere Dev. Take care of yourself.

Kristina Phoenix

If I support someone, it's because I love and believe in his project, the time the project take to be fnished dosen't matter for me, I prefere a healthy person that work slower but can go until the end of project, than someone that overwork and could not finish his project for health issue, health is an important gift in life.

Dorago

Dude do what you need to do. When the month ends that's your money now. Meaning it's up to you to do what you deem necessary for yourself and development. .3. Kisses for pretty man game maker

MyoTo

Oh my gosh I had no idea you were working so hard! Please take care of yourself!

Carly Dingman

I do not feel as if my money is going to waste when there are delays. You do an excellent job keeping us informed. I think you work hard, maybe a little too hard, and am more worried about you burning out than I am you getting lazy. What I want in return for my (albeit small, I'm poor!) patronage is this game. I don't care if it's in two years, three years, FIVE years-I just want it to be good. I want it to surpass all expectations. I don't want a game released by Christmas that makes folks say: "Oh, it had potential, but..." You are doing such a great job. I am excited for your current ideas, and the ideas you keep coming up with. MY worst fear is that your crazy workload and habits will burn you out before the game is complete. I am concerned about you Yandere dev, both for your own sake and my selfish desire to have Yandere Sim to play someday! Please, please take weekends off, and work shorter days. Nothing says you can't put in a few hours extra when it suits you. I don't think anyone is going to harp on you for wanting a normal life/work balance. Keep up your excellent communication-blog posts and videos-and I'll be a happy duck. Sorry for the novel, just concerned about you! Best wishes!

Licia

I never feel that my pledge is going to waste because I know what I'm supporting. You've made it clear multiple times. Pledging just means that I'm supporting what you're doing and I want you to keep doing it. I don't expect anything special except a note here and there so I know you didn't die at your desk or something. It's hard to feel like my pledge is going to waste when you update us with your progress constantly. If you stopped doing that I would just wonder what's up. I am pledging because I love following the development of Yandere Simulator.

Matt


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