blueaxolotl
fanbox
Some bad news to kill the mood
🕑 Added 2024-03-16 09:55:49 +0000 UTCHello everyone,
In case some of you didn't know about it, I've been making games since 2013. When I released the first SoV in August 2015, it was a great time to be an H game creator. Anyone wanting to work on adult content could simply have a Patreon account and have people fund their games (or whatever).
2017 was the beginning of the end, though. The first Patreon shitstorm that kicked out some of the most important adult creators arrived and since then, it has ALWAYS been a hide-and-seek game where losing can impact your life.
As you know I managed to stay under the radar for 3 years until January 2021 and the release of the first version of SoV3 that got me banned from Patreon. Since then, I've never been really at peace. Ci-en, Fantia, Enty... No Japanese site would allow me to work on uncensored content, and on the western side, all alternatives to Patreon were forbidding adult content (and if they didn't, they would do it soon enough.) Some of you might remember of that platform called "Kimochi" that was meant for creators to sell their H games on their own against a fee for each purchase. When it was bought by Nutaku a couple of years later I ALSO got banned from there. Today, Fanbox and SubscribeStar are literally my only source of income. At least when it comes to crowdfunding.
Since 2019, I've been using Gumroad as a way to sell my content as well. Their policy on adult content was a bit blurry but since you need to have your content checked by real people, the fact I was allowed to sell SoV2 back then was proof they were okay with my content. When I created Blue Axolotl Editions, it was the perfect place to sell my doujins and even if I haven't earned a single euro from BAE yet (I send you back to the post from a couple of months ago where I explain that after calculation, I'm at -1000 Euros in terms of revenus from the BAE adventure) I was really happy to be able to propose to the people interested something that regular editors would look down upon.
But yesterday, everything collapsed and now Gumroad simply forbids the selling of adult content. Thankfully, they're generous enough to tell us they're doing it under Paypal and Stripe pressure (so Visa & Mastercards) the ones already at the origin of basically EVERYTHING to kill creators like me. The consequences are pretty dramatic for me.
1) The most obvious one is that as of today, I have literally no place to sell the doujins I'm selling anymore. That puts all further release from BAE to a stop. I don't know how the Japanese artist I'm working with is going to react to the news, but that's quite terrible.
2) The other problem is that Gumroad was also the only place where I could sell my games uncensored. So right now, I won't even be able to sell them uncensored somewhere on the internet.
You have to understand that Gumroad was really perfect for me. They take a much lesser fee than DLsite (I remind you that DLsite takes 60% of the total price. If you've ever wondered why my games were so high-priced there, now you know it.) Thanks to that, I was able to sell my games for a reasonable price (it's not comparable anymore because of the yen crash but back in the days, the prices on Gumroad were lower than on DLsite.)
I've already browsed sites like Gumroad in the past (there's a shittons of them). They ALL forbid adult content to be sold. The witch hunt will never end...
So let's recap. As of today, Blue Axolotl Editions can't sell anything anymore, can't release anymore, I don't even know if we'll be able to keep working with Chiba Tetsutarou. Blue Axolotl can only sell their games on Japanese sites (so censored) with a fee that makes Google Play or AppStore look like paradises.
I've always wondered why some creators never totally finished their games... In 2016 they were frauds alright. But now, in 2024? What's the point of finishing a game if you're going to earn almost nothing from it (provided you manage to sell it somewhere.) I'm starting to understand the logic... After all, if tomorrow Summertime Saga was "finished" and sold, considering the amount of people who played the whole game already or got it on Patreon, I'm not even sure the global amount of sale would reach what they earn in a single month...
Don't worry, I'm not saying that I'll intentionally lenghten development time for the sake of raking money up. But I can understand some people doing it because of the current context. You have to realize that I have so few places to go that if tomorrow SubscribeStar or Fanbox disappear I won't even have the funds to keep on working on ANY 2D project and I'll be bound to work on TH2 only whether you or me like it or not.
If you want a good example of the situation I'm in, there are currently two people among those I'm working with that I've asked for a payment delay because I can't pay them all in one go. It's the first time since 2015 that it's happening to me. And that is considering the fact that I'm not paying myself at all for this month. So yes, circumstances are bit particular (for example, I need to pay a HUGE amount of money for the pixel artist because I needed everything in one go and probably won't pay much for these for the rest of the year). But still. Even exceptionally huge invoices, I had no problem paying them in the past.
I'm torn between lots of emotions right now. Jadedness, sadness, anger, fear... I hate the fact that people like us (adult content creators) are the victims of a witch hunt decided by some mofos because it fits their political diary. But I hate even more the bitterness I feel knowing that things will only get worse as the time goes by and at some point either I will become to sick of it and quit everything or just will be forced to quit because there's simply no ways to get my projects funded anymore.
If any of you know of a possible alternative, feel free to tell me (please, don't propose me sites without reading their ToS, and keep in mind I've checked the most famous ones (roughly 15)). Also, please don't tell me to set up my own online shop as well. I'm a game creator first. Even in the chance I COULD set it up, it would take a lot of time and effort, time I wouldn't spend working on my games. And for now, I'd rather work on my games (while I still can.)
So yeah, I guess there's one positive element in all that swarm of shit: technically, it doesn't (shouldn't) impact the development of Slice of Venture Remake. As long as SubscribeStar and Fanbox are alive and accepting me, I can keep on.
I'll see you in a few days for the next SoVR post. Cause things need to move on.
See ya...
Comments
モツ煮饅頭
I am truly honored to hear that you know my game! I am sincerely sorry to hear about your predicament. As you know, pornographic content is mosaiced in Japan, and I had thought that other countries were more tolerant, but I had no idea that such a cruel situation existed. To be honest, my knowledge does not allow me to propose a plan to overcome such a situation. I think that very "radical" works, such as yours, are particularly vulnerable to attack. However, it is also true that your work has a great deal of unique and wonderful elements. It is a shame that there are people who attack your wonderful work and you, and that the platform sides with them. I am sure that there are those who cannot accept your work, but please remember that there are others like me who are more fascinated by the uniqueness of your work. I am truly sorry for my irresponsible words, but I wish you the best of luck in creating and selling your works. I support you wholeheartedly!
m3llo
It's amazing how far this witch-hunt has gone without much notice from the general public. You don't hear a peep about this elsewhere, despite constant talk about political censorship on social media. Wishing you good luck, and hopefully I can up my tier soon.
Ark_Thompson
これが Slice of Venture 3 で起こったことだ。史上初めて、誰でも利用できる公開デモを作ったんだ。その3日後にPatreonから追放された。明日私がSteamでゲームを売れば、FanboxやSubscribeStarから私を追放しようとする人たちがいる。だからSteamでは売れないんだ。 しかし、日本のクリエイターであれば、このようなことはまず起こらない。Steamにはそういう話題のゲームもあるし、何の問題もない。日本人が作っているからだ。欧米人は日本のクリエイターを放っておく。欧米のクリエイターをターゲットにしている。 だから日本のクリエイターと同じ選択肢を持っていない理由です。DLsiteでも欧米のクリエイターには使えない機能がたくさんある。私を助けようとしてくれたことに改めて感謝します。より理解しやすくなったなら幸いです。 最後にもう一つ問題があります。これらの解決策はすべてゲームに有効です。しかし、私が販売している同人については、もっと複雑な問題があります（同人誌用のパッチを作成することはできません）。
Ark_Thompson
機械翻訳だとしても、日本語で答えさせてください。 まず第一に、私のために時間を割いて要素を書いていただき、本当にありがとうございます。 私はあなたの前作を知っています（DLsiteのウィッシュリストです（笑））そして、私はそのような成功した人が私に話をすることを光栄に感じています。 ToSとは利用規約のことです。特定のサイトを利用する際に守らなければならないルールのすべてだ。そして今、欧米のサイトの99,9%はアダルトコンテンツを禁止している。 Hなコンテンツ用のパッチを作る可能性についてはその通りだ。Slice of Venture Remakeではそうするつもりだ。残念ながらSteamでは販売できないんだ。日本の皆さんはこの問題に直面していないので、理解しにくいことだと思いますが、その理由を説明するために訓練します。 基本的に西洋では今、ゲームに特定の話題が含まれていると、追い詰めて人生を破壊するのが趣味の人たちがいる。彼らにとってはとても簡単なことで、コンテンツをあらゆる場所に報告し、作品が違反であるかのように装って、削除されるようにするのです。だから、人々の目に触れれば触れるほど、そのような人に引っかかる可能性は高くなる。
モツ煮饅頭
This is a practice that some publishers do in reality, and also my work is sold that way. (There's a lot I don't know about because I leave it up to the publishers) It is probably the safest way to sell. Yes, there is more work to do, such as creating mods, removing scenes from the main story to zero, and making the game work without scenes, but it is still better than not being able to sell the game. (I apologize if anything I have said so far is included in the ToS. I'm not familiar with English-speaking cultures and didn't understand what the ToS meant.) Sorry if it is unnatural as it is a machine translation. I support your creative work! （2/2）
モツ煮饅頭
Nice to meet you. I am Japanese and I sell my works on DLsite and Steam. (Please don't speak too badly of DLsite. (Please don't speak too badly of DLsite, I think that site greatly reduces the hassle for creators to sell their works by advertising, discounts, etc.) If that's the case, I would recommend selling on Steam. Most of all, Steam does not have very low sales commissions either.... But at least you can sell your uncensored work for a reasonable price. You can probably sell the work as is, uncensored and with the sexual scenes, but if you are told that there is a problem, sell the full-length version with zero sexual scenes first, At the same time, you could publish a free mod on your personal website that contains only the sexual scenes. This way, they would not have to do the hard work of handling the money on their own site, and they would still be able to sell sexual games for a fee. （to be continued）（1/2）
Antielfi
Yeah, this is pretty shitty and I still don't understand on which moral high ground they pretend to stand when people use their service for breaking the law on way worst stuff... btw if you need toss a stone on Discord, paying peps for their work should always be done and that includes you my dude, dont forget it!
