Re: Akabur Games
You guys ever get curious you can always do what I do an donate a dollar just to see the activity feed and pull it before the month is up.
That feels a bit unethical. Though you might argue that it is also unethical to cash in a big paycheck from supporters who trust you to do a good job, and then not doing that job.
On the other hand, it looks like most of Akabur's supporters revere him even if he is spending his time on trying to write code (which he clearly is VERY inept at and which takes him an inordinate amount of time), writing big plans in notebooks (which he is not implementing for the most part), occasionally doodling a bit, taking art lessons, and ogling that Canadian art school.
I was one of his early supporters, but when I saw that the $100 I gave him in total, as part of his paycheck of on average $5000 per month in 2014, led to the half-assed result that is Witch Trainer, I decided to drop out. My conclusion was that the guy has talent in drawing and writing humorous scenes, but neither has the work ethic nor the programming and designing skills to pull off good products consistently. I am not paying him for existing, I am paying him to bring his art to higher levels. Witch Trainer only shows a downwards slope from Magic Shop and Princess Trainer. Evidently, Magic Shop and Princess Trainer were happy accidents. I have enough experience with life and people to realize that handing money to Akabur is NOT going to have the effect of improving his output.
Akabur now has plenty of income to bring a good programmer on board, and even to bring on board a good designer who can set up a game that is actually fun to play. But he flat-out refuses to do so, seemingly believing that he can do those jobs himself. The sad truth is that he probably does not want to spend some of his income on other people, even if it would improve his products enormously (seeing how much Dahr brought to Princess Trainer and then knowing that as payback, Akabur suggested that his supporters also send money to Dahr -- he should have brought the guy on board full time, splitting the income).
Anyway, people can spend their income in whichever way they like, and if they want to give money to Akabur for being alive, that is their prerogative. Or maybe some people actually think that Witch Trainer is a great game. In that case, good for them, because they will probably see more half-finished products with excruciatingly boring gameplay and very few drawings coming from Akabur's hands after long waiting times.
Maybe I am wrong. But seriously, how long should it take someone to create a "gold" version of a game that is already mostly finished, when he can spend all his time on it, without needing to worry about where his next meal is coming from? One month? Two months? I can tell you that I have experience with Ren'Py, with drawing, and with designing and coding games, and I daresay that two months should be plenty. But I bet you that we won't see the gold version of Princess Trainer for many months to come, and that when it arrives, it is still an unfinished product.
Hopefully I am sorely mistaken. If that is the case, I might start supporting Akabur again. But for now, I am not burning my money on something that I expect will be a disappointment.
