Hiatus: Checking In

Hey everyone!

It’s been a while since you’ve heard from us. Sorry about that. Truth be told, I’d hoped a check in like this wouldn’t be necessary and that development would have resumed by now. To recap, our hiatus was to combat burnout, and to ensure I had a dependable source of income regardless of what is happening with Sileo. We also aimed to distance ourselves from Patreon as their policies relating to NSFW material was an ongoing source of concern. Several times this year I tried to restart development, only for real-life work disruptions like accidents and sudden resignations to derail those plans. This role was only ever intended to be a part-time thing. Safe to say, it definitely isn’t part-time anymore!

With that being said, I’m hopeful that an opportunity to pick things back up with Sileo will present itself sooner or later… though there’s still the elephant in the room we need to address.

Things are… challenging for NSFW creators right now. With the uncertainty posed by Patreon’s policies, a significant reason we fully removed our Patreon page back when this hiatus began, things were already far from ideal. Back then, I’d expected that we’d engage with platforms like Steam and Itch.io on our return… of course, things are different now, and neither of those platforms are really an option. I’d love to have the optimism to think that things will get better, but considering how just… everything has been these past few years, I suspect they’ll sooner get worse than get better.

Sileo was never a project done for profit. Honestly, the idea that it could have ever made the kind of money it did during our peak would have seemed absurd and borderline impossible to us when we started out. We were just two guys with a love for furry VNs and a strong desire to make our own. But the fact that Sileo did earn a not half bad amount of money allowed us to invest money back into the development process. We’re talking things like replacing simple freeware tools with more capable paid ones to expedite and streamline development, purchasing hardware and paying fees such a Mac and an Apple Developer Subscription which allowed us to publish builds for iOS/iPadOS, paying for our web domain as well as web and email hosting which allowed both Sileo to be found and for us to be contacted more easily, and so on, so on. This is all to say that development incurs costs, and the ongoing campaign to prevent NSFW creators from monetizing perfectly legal creations evokes uncertainty.  

Make no mistake though: we want Sileo to return, and we’ve got a lot of really exciting plans for when it does. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel now for the chaos in my work life, and it won’t be long before I should be able to reduce my work hours should the time be right for Sileo’s return. I’m also pleased to report that the burnout I was experiencing that kicked off this whole hiatus is well and truly gone, and I’m genuinely excited for a lot of what we have in store for you guys! Hopefully, Sileo will be able to find a home without censorship and with certainty and security for our future. Those things we used to take for granted, eh?

Thanks for reading. I hope you’re all doing well, and I sincerely hope that sometime soon Sileo will be able to make its return! Until then, stay safe!