ThunderOne
patreon
A new chapter
🕑 Added 2019-09-18 18:59:19 +0000 UTCHello everyone,
tl;dr: LoF is dead. But new porn rises from the ashes.
First of all, I would like to thank all of you for the awesome support you have given me and my project through these 2 years since I started. Unfortunately, I come with bad news today.
If you have been following the development up-close, hanging around on discord or read the last message I sent to all patrons, you probably already know that I've been facing some issues with copyright claims regarding Nintendo and Leaf on Fire. Because of that, it saddens me to say, but the development of the game is coming to an end. That's a final decision and there is nothing anyone can do at this point to change this. If that's all you care about then you probably don't need to continue reading. However, if you want to know the exact reasons I came to this decision and what are my plans moving forward, please keep going.
About the decision: as you probably know, since I got the first DMCA on Patreon, I decided to remove all the posts regarding LoF from Patreon and move the whole operation to Discord. I made pretty much everything I could to keep low key, including not having public releases anymore. I also got a lot of DMCAs on my Mega account and made a new one to avoid losing my main one. Then today I received another email (attached below). This time they didn't tell me to remove specific posts like last time but instead told me to remove everything related to Leaf on Fire, including links. The email also says that they can suspend my account if they are not sure of the extents of the infringement. The Patreon ToS also states that they can terminate accounts that are repeat infringers. They don't say how many times is considered too many but I have 2 strikes now (which is already "repeat" infringement, technically. I could also move to a new platform and keep going, but it would be just a matter of time before they take it down as well. Beyond that, Nintendo could also technically sue me if they wish to, especially if I don't comply with the takedown notice and keep developing the game. And I do love the game, but I'm not willing to go to court against Nintendo for it. Even though there is a lot of argument that can be made with Fair Use, Parody and all of that, my chances against a giant like that are very slim.
I know this seems like an abrupt decision but the truth is that I always knew that could happen and I thought multiple times what I would do if it came to that. Don't get me wrong, I know this sucks and a lot of you probably few betrayed that I didn't finish the game and whatnot. But trust me, this sucks a lot more for me than it does for you. For you, Leaf on Fire something like 30 min of adult entertainment per month, but for me, this is my livelihood. I work on this game for an average of 7 hours a day since I started working on this full time, I don't have any other source of income. This is all I have. And if everything goes to shit I can go back to working regular jobs as I did before, sure, but I think my skills for corruption, lust, and perversion would go to waste there, as that's what I do best. And that's not what I want either. Which brings me to the second important point of this: the future.
The plan is to move to a new game. As I said before on Discord, I have lots of ideas for games (because I'm pretty much just a pit of perversion) and I've been thinking about them for a while, but they are just concepts right now. I don't have anything developed on them... yet. I'll make a more detailed post about the idea I'm going with later, but I'll give you a quick pitch:
"The game will be set in a medieval fantasy world, with multiple humanoid races (elves, orcs, goblins, etc), and also monsters (demons, giants, undead, abominations, etc). The plot is about a simple person who stumbles upon powers they don't quite understand and wasn't supposed to. This will set them on an epic quest of discovery and struggle, caught between the goals and ambitions of not only powerful people but also otherworldly entities and deities. Of course, this whole quest will be filled with opportunities for relationships, love, or just casual wild sex."
I already have multiple intertwining overarching plots in my mind, multiple endings, and a lot of other ideas. The porn stuff will be just as crazy as it was with LoF. But as I said, I'll make a dedicated post to that. This post is more about the transition rather than the new thing.
So, in conclusion, I know a lot of people were pledging specifically for LoF and I apologize. If you don't want to be a patron anymore, feel free to cancel your pledge, especially if you just became a patron and got barely anything for it. I'm sure you'll find another nice game somewhere that fits your tastes so you can support someone else. Or maybe come back when I have something to show for the new game an maybe you like it, it's up to you. I'm sure the next few months will be a little rough for me and I'm expecting a deep decline in patrons, but I'm hoping at least some of you will take the compromise I had to this game as a sign that I'll do the same for this new one and stick around. And hopefully, the new game will be just as good as LoF, if not better, to bring new people in and we can rebuild the patronage a few months from now and go even further beyond, without having to worry about terrors of the ever-lurking copyright.
My sincere apologies and deepest gratitude.
Yours truly, now and ever,
Thunder One
