Yesterday’s blog post received a much higher number of comments than the average blog post. Several people voiced some concerns, and I’d like to address them.
“YandereDev literally just threatened to publicly humiliate and slander any volunteer who asks for compensation!”
I re-read the relevant paragraph in yesterday’s blog post, and I think I can understand how someone would interpret it that way. Allow me to clarify.
Since the exact moment I accepted help from the very first volunteer, I acknowledged that every volunteer owns every asset they create, and that any volunteer, at any point in time, can say “You no longer have permission to use my work in your game.” Unless we’ve both signed a copyright transfer agreement or a contract that gives me the legal right to use their work in a commercial product, any volunteer can say “Remove my work from Yandere Simulator immediately” and I’d be obligated to obey them.
Because of this situation, it would be extremely easy for an unscrupulous volunteer to try and take advantage of me by saying, “Pay me $1000 right now, or else you must remove all of my assets from your game” one hour before I plan to post a new build of the game. I’d face the choice of making a “delay apology” video, removing their assets from the game, and scrambling to replace those assets…or just paying them $1,000.
In this situation, of course, I would not give in to their ransom demands. I would delete their assets, post a “Delay Apology” video, and explain that the new build is delayed because of someone’s greed. If a volunteer holds the game hostage, they are not just screwing me over, they are also delaying the game for the literally hundreds of thousands of people who play this game. If someone screws over the entire Yandere Simulator fanbase, I’m going to let you know that they did it.
All volunteers have the right to tell me I can’t use their work anymore. All volunteers have the right to charge money for their work. If a volunteer says “Hey YandereDev, I’ve been doing a lot of work for you, can we discuss compensation?” I’d happily discuss it with them.
If a volunteer asks for an absurd amount of money at an inconvenient time because they are attempting to extort money out of me, they won’t be able to do so without 300,000 people hearing about it.
Greed can make people do horrible things. If I don’t publicly state that I’m not going to let people push me around, then people are definitely going to try to push me around. Volunteers shouldn’t be scared to discuss money with me, but anyone who tries to double-cross me or extort me should not believe they can do so without consequences.
If you’re curious, every volunteer who I’ve spoken to since I wrote yesterday’s blog post has reacted positively to the news. Nobody has told me that they find it to be unfair.
“It’s rude to post someone’s artwork as an example of bad artwork!”
I understand why you would feel that way. Instead of linking to someone’s artwork and using it as an example of artwork that doesn’t meet my standards, I probably should have personally drawn an illustration to demonstrate what bad artwork looks like, since my own artwork looks even worse than the example I posted yesterday. Nobody appreciates their work being held up as an example of “bad” work.
This should go without saying, but I’ll say it just in case it’s not apparent: I really appreciate the fact that people generously offer to help me develop Yandere Simulator. I’m very grateful for that. I’m super thankful for that. The entire project relies on that.
However, far too much of my time is wasted reading e-mails from amateur artists who want to volunteer for the game despite the fact that their artwork is obviously not high-quality enough to appear in a commercial product. It really needs to stop. If your artwork is at this level of quality, please do not volunteer for the game; you’re wasting my time, and your time, as well.
If you feel sad that your artwork is considered “low-quality”, don’t get bitter; get better. Turn that sadness into a burning passion for self-improvement that drives you to grow as an artist and become the type of person who can eventually contribute meaningfully to a video game.
“YandereDev is rude to fans of the game.”
I can promise to make you a video game. I can’t promise to have an infinite amount of patience and friendliness at all times. Being a fan of Yandere Simulator does not give you a free pass to waste my time. Being a fan of Yandere Simulator does not mean that you are entitled to special treatment. If you send me a stupid question, a stupid suggestion, or waste my time, I will strongly discourage you from ever doing it again. I am YandereDev, not SoftFluffyGentleDev. I’m here to make a video game, not to handle every person who speaks to me with kid gloves.
With that said, 99% of the interactions that I have with fans over e-mail and Twitter are actually very pleasant and fun. 1% of the time, I do have to tell someone that they are being obnoxious and tell them to stop bothering me, but it’s honestly not a frequent occurrence.
If you really think I’m rude, you should research other indie game developers and find out what a rude developer REALLY sounds like.
“The game has been in development for 2 years, and it’s still so far from completion!”
I’m not Bethesda. I’m not CD Projekt Red. I’m not From Software. I’m not Kojima Productions. I’m not Nintendo. I’m one programmer with the support of some volunteers. I’m programming one feature at a time. If you want to see a game come out faster, I recommend following a game that is being developed by a company, instead.
“This game uses store-bought assets!”
I believe that the number of original assets far outnumbers the number of store-bought assets. Hopefully, the final game will contain 100% original assets.
“Yandere Simulator is just a bunch of code making some assets dance around, it’s not a real game.”
Correct. That’s what a game is like before it’s finished. If you want a finished game, please check back in the future.
“It’s foolish to not hire a secretary!”
No, it’s really not. It’s honestly a bad idea to hire a secretary. I’ve covered this topic before. It’s frustrating to see this subject get brought up so frequently. Anyone who suggests this is not thinking it through.
In Closing
If I started making defensive blog posts every day, this blog would quickly become a very lame place. I won’t make posts like this very often, but I feel like I had to speak up after reading the comments on yesterday’s blog post.
If someone has a problem with me, I really wish that I could have a dialogue with them and assuage their concerns. They might learn that they have misunderstood me or have misjudged me. However, I simply don’t have enough spare time to have a conversation with every single person who has formed a negative opinion of me. As a result, the comment section of every blog post might be absolutely full of misunderstandings and misinterpretations that lead to arguments and insults. This is extremely unfortunate.
All I can ask is that, before you write a giant scathing post about how I’m literally worse than Hitler and Satan combined, just consider the possibility that a couple of brief statements from me would actually clear everything up.