But the most recent blogpost by it's developer, Amethyst (NiranV Dean), suggests it's days might be numbered. After talking about the more recent updates, he got to the bad news ...
A while ago i was contacted by a long time patreon patron who was unhappy with the lack of communication (assuming they meant the Viewer not getting updates nor messages on Discord) who ultimately ended his patronage after 4 years.
Let me say that i feel you.
I'm sorry for the lack of updates and communication. Life has been steadily getting harder and you aren't the only one who dropped out of Patreon. Over time the amount of people subscribed to Patreon has steadily declined to the point i could no longer keep up with the increasing demands of my dirty capitalist country so for several months now i've been falling short on cash, at first i was able to churn through with some saved up money but it never recovered and i was eventually forced to make a decision, either end it here or find another way.
I was determined to make it work somehow... it's only a couple eurons missing right? So i started taking comissions after several people requested them, told me i should do comissions because they are eager to pay for my work. So aside from working on the Viewer and my other million projects as well as juggling real life and friends, i'm now also juggling comissions to earn that little bit of missing cash.
This took away time from the Viewer obviously, which resulted in the development getting slower and slower and more and more comissions had to be taken to make up for the steadily increasing lack of patreon funds. This created a death spiral, more comissions, less development, less patrons, less money, more comissions and so on...
I didn't say anything because i didn't want to worry anyone nor do i want to beg for money, after all if people don't want to support me anymore then that's their choice and a completely legit reason. No one is forcing anyone to support me but as much as i don't want to say it, the Viewer does depend on me and i depend on this money... and with the grips tightening to the point that i feel like i can no longer offset the missing funds and with that one message giving me a big wake up call, i think it might finally time to say it: I do not think i can make this work much longer, the next month might already not work out anymore. So unless this somehow stabilizes again we will soon have to switch from very little communication to no communication... as in shutting the light off.
I hate saying this but: the Viewer is dying.
Patreon is what kept the Viewer alive. Everyone who financially supported me kept this Viewer alive several many more years than anticipated. Thank you everyone for that.
Let me say that i feel you.
I'm sorry for the lack of updates and communication. Life has been steadily getting harder and you aren't the only one who dropped out of Patreon. Over time the amount of people subscribed to Patreon has steadily declined to the point i could no longer keep up with the increasing demands of my dirty capitalist country so for several months now i've been falling short on cash, at first i was able to churn through with some saved up money but it never recovered and i was eventually forced to make a decision, either end it here or find another way.
I was determined to make it work somehow... it's only a couple eurons missing right? So i started taking comissions after several people requested them, told me i should do comissions because they are eager to pay for my work. So aside from working on the Viewer and my other million projects as well as juggling real life and friends, i'm now also juggling comissions to earn that little bit of missing cash.
This took away time from the Viewer obviously, which resulted in the development getting slower and slower and more and more comissions had to be taken to make up for the steadily increasing lack of patreon funds. This created a death spiral, more comissions, less development, less patrons, less money, more comissions and so on...
I didn't say anything because i didn't want to worry anyone nor do i want to beg for money, after all if people don't want to support me anymore then that's their choice and a completely legit reason. No one is forcing anyone to support me but as much as i don't want to say it, the Viewer does depend on me and i depend on this money... and with the grips tightening to the point that i feel like i can no longer offset the missing funds and with that one message giving me a big wake up call, i think it might finally time to say it: I do not think i can make this work much longer, the next month might already not work out anymore. So unless this somehow stabilizes again we will soon have to switch from very little communication to no communication... as in shutting the light off.
I hate saying this but: the Viewer is dying.
Patreon is what kept the Viewer alive. Everyone who financially supported me kept this Viewer alive several many more years than anticipated. Thank you everyone for that.
I didn't see a link to Patreon, though there was "For anyone interested in the exact numbers, 400 was chosen as the Patreon "goal" because it covers the mandatory health insurance (265€ / ~310$) and internet provider cost (55€ / ~65$). That is with conversion from $ to € that was enough."
If Black Dragon does stop updating, it will remain functional for a while. But after some years grid updates will eventually make it buggy and less practical to use, and eventually unusable. Thus us sad as NiranV's efforts created a viewer that stood out with it's own qualities.
To read the blog post in full, click here.
Bixyl Shuftan
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