EDIT: Thanks for all the kind words below, folks. I see this posts section as a way of speaking directly to the core audience of the channel without doing a video about it, and I really appreciate your support!
----
Re-posting here from the comments, as every week there's someone who wants to have a little dig about a channel being Patreon funded and/or the Discord not being open access.
Every time someone complains that I haven't made myself the unpaid mod of a massive ungated Discord server, I immediately know I've dodged a bullet by excluding them from that space. Total lack of understanding of the economics of content creation, despite happily consuming stuff which IGC's existing backers have paid to support the making of.
There's a reason why so much other game-dev content tends to be sensationalist and selling a money-making dream rather than being about craft. If you want to make even a basic living on YT simply through ad revenue you have to capture a lot of eyeballs.
Without fan-funding, the only thing it makes sense to do is target the broadest audience possible (beginners) or to have a channel which exists solely to advertise paywalled courses. I don't begrudge other creators for doing this stuff, but it's not what I want to do - and I don't think it's what most of you want me to do either!
The channel makes <£400 pcm through AdSense, and the Patreon makes around £2000. After tax, this is a little less than I earnt in my first year as a more junior university lecturer back in 2018, and less than half of what I earnt in my last full-time role as a senior designer.
I love the fan-funding model. I contribute to several Patreons, and have done for years. I'm also very glad that the 350-ish people who currently financially back the channel are allowing me to create university level design education for 20k-50k monthly viewers.
What I really dislike is when people effectively insult those backers by implying that they shouldn't get some type of reward for keeping this channel going (which is what the Discord community exists to provide).
Thanks to everyone who's been supporting the channel in whatever way you can. It's still small enough that I can read every comment, and I appreciate your replies and responses. But please don't insult the folks who make the channel possible, or imply they've been duped in some way, or that they don't deserve their own community.
Indie Game Clinic
EDIT: Thanks for all the kind words below, folks. I see this posts section as a way of speaking directly to the core audience of the channel without doing a video about it, and I really appreciate your support!
----
Re-posting here from the comments, as every week there's someone who wants to have a little dig about a channel being Patreon funded and/or the Discord not being open access.
Every time someone complains that I haven't made myself the unpaid mod of a massive ungated Discord server, I immediately know I've dodged a bullet by excluding them from that space. Total lack of understanding of the economics of content creation, despite happily consuming stuff which IGC's existing backers have paid to support the making of.
There's a reason why so much other game-dev content tends to be sensationalist and selling a money-making dream rather than being about craft. If you want to make even a basic living on YT simply through ad revenue you have to capture a lot of eyeballs.
Without fan-funding, the only thing it makes sense to do is target the broadest audience possible (beginners) or to have a channel which exists solely to advertise paywalled courses. I don't begrudge other creators for doing this stuff, but it's not what I want to do - and I don't think it's what most of you want me to do either!
The channel makes <£400 pcm through AdSense, and the Patreon makes around £2000. After tax, this is a little less than I earnt in my first year as a more junior university lecturer back in 2018, and less than half of what I earnt in my last full-time role as a senior designer.
I love the fan-funding model. I contribute to several Patreons, and have done for years. I'm also very glad that the 350-ish people who currently financially back the channel are allowing me to create university level design education for 20k-50k monthly viewers.
What I really dislike is when people effectively insult those backers by implying that they shouldn't get some type of reward for keeping this channel going (which is what the Discord community exists to provide).
Thanks to everyone who's been supporting the channel in whatever way you can. It's still small enough that I can read every comment, and I appreciate your replies and responses. But please don't insult the folks who make the channel possible, or imply they've been duped in some way, or that they don't deserve their own community.
Hope you all have a great week. 👋🏻
2 weeks ago (edited) | [YT] | 392