I find it quite funny when I see people say "Kane is selling spinoffs instead of finishing Evergreen because he only cares about the money". I see this mindset, or very similar, at least once a week.

Let me make this extremely clear: The path I have taken for POPGOES is nowhere NEAR the most profitable. What WOULD have been profitable, and this was obvious from the beginning, is getting Evergreen made and sold ASAP. Rushing the team, never creating the Falses, cutting the post-game content and the collectibles, spending half as much time on environments, etc. Just making it a super simple reskin of POPGOES from 2016 (which is what many people still believe Evergreen is, which frustrates the hell out of me).

Evergreen being smaller, worse, but released FAST, and FIRST, would have made me so much more money, it's not even funny. Could sell it at... $30? With pre-orders. DLC. An equally crunched sequel released just a year later. Ignore graphic issues with mobile ports, just release them. If I did this, my reputation would be (even) worse, BUT why would I care - I'd be sitting on a huge pile of cash. Oh, and merch would sell way better after this, AND if I still wanted to make Arcade and myPOPGOES, they'd have like 5x the playerbase. Amazing.

Believe it or not, spending years of my time on side stories, and then selling them for 5 dollars, instead of just magically releasing the bigger, better, horror game that I know everyone wants, is in fact NOT influenced by money. It's influenced by boredom. I get bored of Evergreen, I come up with new ideas, I like experimenting with other styles, with new people, gimmicky gameplay and creative limitations. And it doesn't always hit, and it doesn't always appeal to my audience (which can hurt, and I do wish it did), but it's not made exclusively FOR the audience. It's made for me, to have some shit to do with my time. When I'm waiting for models and textures and music to be made for Evergreen, I'm not just gonna sit and wait and do fuck all. I'm gonna come up with something new. To give POPGOES fans something fun and interesting (hopefully), to give the Fanverse another title in its lineup, and to give my friends some jobs. That's pretty much it.

I know a lot of people will think this is stupid, and if I acknowledge that Evergreen being released first would be beneficial, I should just do it. Firstly, I can't. My team members are not slaves. Stuff gets done when it gets done. Sorry. Best I can do is fill the gaps with side content. Secondly, I don't want to. I am thankful that Evergreen is where it is, and that we've taken our time. If the game came out in 2020 or 2021, it wouldn't be nearly as scary, cool, interesting or detailed as it is right now. Knowing me I would have wanted to reboot the thing AGAIN in 2024 lol.

I get most of my income from completely optional side stuff, separate from game releases. Game Jolt stickers, my BMC Discord server, merch drops, and even YouTube ad revenue. Putting time and effort and money into one prequel game every two years is not some epic infinite money life hack. There is literally 1 person playing myPOPGOES right now lmao. I make these games FOR FUN! I'm not a millionaire - I'm 27 in three days and I am living WITH MY PARENTS!

Rant over (until the next one, in maybe a week, max)