Asking for money to continue modding

So I know that from the wider internet most of the views on asking for money for a mod is disliked, that is not what I’m polling/asking for thoughts/opinions about.
Currently I’ve been modding Seal of Lutellaria as I had a vested interest in making the game how I wished to it to be (slightly harder) with me adding in ideas and a comment or two that I personally liked.
However recently this came a bit to ahead with my enthusiasm for modding as the only thing left to mod in that I feel I can do is something that enables anyone to change most settings if not all that I’ve changed over the entire course, themselves to their own desired value (resulting in custom difficulty) alongside an setting to make the game’s view better (also listed in change-log for people to recreate). However as there’s anyone can make or replicate the changes via getting the same free tool and following the change-logs it would be purely Quality of Life addition to the mod in my view. The workload/time requirement I’m estimating for such a change however is most likely at least the same I’ve put in thus far (roughly 30-45 hours) if not double, which on top of the fact it is an Quality of Life addition make me want to just not do and move on to other projects unless I get something out of doing the addition.
Finally with that background out of the way I wanted other’s thoughts on this as simply put I’m fine with doing the addition if I was to end up being paid for that specific extra work (Never more than 25% of what the Dev is asking on the DLsite page, for Lutellaria that’s roughly £1.51), not the work I’ve already done or had an personal interest/gain from doing.
So what is everyone’s thoughts on whether it’s appropriate for a modder, who initially created a mod as a personal passion project, to extend its development to include Quality of Life (QoL) additions/aspect for the wider community and request payment for these enhancements? (if not have simply a donation link or nothing at all)

Max 3 options, results shown after voting.
  • Pay £1-£5 for permanent access.
  • Same as above but £6-£10.
  • Charge 15p per hour of work done for each update/addition. (30 hours of work = £4.5)
  • Same as above but 5p-10p per hour. (30 hours of work = £1.5 or £3)
  • WTF just have a donation link, not everyone has money to throw around.
  • Just do whatever you want, just don’t ask for money full stop.
  • Isn’t there another option? (Discuss/suggest it below)
0 voters

I hope I haven’t offended polling/asking about this and if I have then I apologize in advance. Also for those maybe concerned, I’m not committing to anything nor thought through much the poll options except what might be reasonable.

3 Likes

since the two options are available you could have a donation link and also have permanent access. so for example. if you donate the same amount as for full access (1-5 bucks) you get access. then people can donate if they want and also get access if they want to pay the exact amount.

3 Likes

You mean in sort of the humble bundle kinda of way with the version without QoL additions and then locked behind an certain donation/payment amount £1-£5 is the version with QoL additions?

i guess idk, i just noticed that those two options are basically tied atm

Ah I see, yeah it does seem that there’s a visible split between if people think it’s okay to charge not for Quality of Life additions in a mod and not being okay.
I do hope they aren’t just saying that modding in general shouldn’t be charged for (which isn’t what I’m polling, since I see modding as a passion project so the developer is already gaining from making the mod) and are talking voting on the modder doing updates specifically for others while asking for money. (or as one of the options says, just to not do anything past their passion project point)

I wonder about all of this as if the quality of life stuff just saves time (in the game of what I said in my background would be roughly 5 mins) but doesn’t change at all how the mod works then what makes it kinda different to cosmetic skins, especially when the work of doing the quality of life is more than making the entire mod it self.

1 Like