On Supporting Artists
Sunday, May 31st, 2026
Recently, via itch.io, I released a 1.0 version of my Blades in the Dark hack for the Dark Sun setting, called Blades Under Tyr.
Despite interest and positive feedback, in terms of economic compensation, the return has been less than I’d hoped for something I put more than 4 years into. The game has been downloaded somewhat over 200 times right now, but has brought in only $23 in donations, most of that from a single heroic downloader. This comes out to around 10-cents per download. This is hardly a rousing financial success — significantly less than rousing.
I’m going to use this to jump on my soapbox for a moment and explain this is why indie creators burn out.
I have 30 years of frustration with how people talk about artists and creators, and how I’ve observed those same people actually treat artists and creators. The disparity is wild.