kaynimatic Dev
Eh I'll just make a whole ass post about this, since it's important for a lot of people.
I understand with the release of Idol Showdown, people have been asking about this more, and let me address it once again. But first, let me talk about my thought process about my mentality of putting the game on itch vs Steam.
Itch is designed to be an indie space, and that's where you expect to find indie games and other projects. Steam is a MUCH larger platform, where the AAA corporate companies live and sell their games. This is a big difference. As HoloCure is a passion project, itch definitely fits better. Being a fan game I wanted to be able to set the proper level of expectations for it, whereas it being a Steam game comes with a lot more responsibilities, and I didn't want that. Or more accurately, I couldn't
afford that. This is on top of the legal concerns of putting a fan game onto Steam, where there's more scrutiny with legal rights and all that. I see itch as more of an indie hosting platform, where Steam is a storefront where most commercial games are. If HoloCure is on Steam, it is possible that people (not just the Hololive community) will see it as more of a commercial product, even if free, rather than a hobby fan project. That's both a personal issue to me, and a legal concern.
HOWEVER, and this is a BIG however, several things have happened since my initial decision to keep it off Steam. Several major unexpected things happened since then that is making me have to reconsider.
- Our HoloCure launcher was forced to be taken down. Again I won't really go into details why this happened, but our hand was forced, and I didn't see this coming at all. And I don't think anyone would have seen this coming. But without a way to auto update for players, it is a pretty large setback to how easily our players can play the game the way it's meant to. Too many players playing outdated builds is a big problem we can't ignore.
- Another thing I didn't see coming, is that I was... "invited", to talk to "some people"... about "some stuff" in person, while I was in Japan back in February. For now I won't say anything more than that.
Due to these 2 unexpected events, I've reconsidered my stance on HoloCure on Steam. But please note that all I'm saying here is I've
reconsidered. Nothing more than that at this time.
Despite all this, let me say that HoloCure is STILL a hobby project, and will still be a free game no matter what happens in the future. It's just a hobby project that I need to make sure
follows all guidelines and doesn't even remotely risk any rights concerns with Cover. And this
process of making sure that HoloCure follows guidelines and isn't risking any legal rights concerns with Cover is
taking some time. And this is taking time because the decision to be put on Steam is not solely on just me or the team. Feel free to interpret that how you like. This is as much as I can say for now. I'm not confirming anything, I'm only talking about what has happened lately and what's currently happen, and I can't confirm what will happen in the future, as I don't even know.
Thanks for your patience and understanding guys.
PS: This post is just meant to be here for the subreddit, can I ask y'all to keep this on the down low for now pls (especially point 2 above. Legit don't even know if I am allowed to mention that...)
(^:
PPS: Also no, my stance about donations still has not changed, I don't want y'alls money.