VN Game Den has shutdown

June 2020 - March 2023

Thank you all for reading and supporting our site over the past few years.

FAQ

Q: Why is VNGD shutting down?
A: We are shutting because we were unable to consistently raise enough funding to cover the costs of paying our staff. Please note, even though our funding goals were often not met we still made sure all of our staff were paid for all of their work.

Q: Will you reconsider/do a final fundraising push?
A: No, we already did an exhaustive push for funding in September. While we appreciate all of the support we received it took a lot of time, energy, and money to get there and unfortunately a significant portion of our supporters had to reduce/cancel their pledges by January.

Q: Why did your patrons reduce/cancel their pledges?
A: The vast majority of the people who cancelled that completed our exit survey indicated that they did so due to financial reasons. The second most common reason was that they only wanted to support us with a specific amount. Those that reduced the pledges did so for the same reasons. We greatly appreciate all of the support that our patrons offered while they could.

Q: What about the pledges that were already collected?
A: The vast majority of the money collected via Patreon & Ko-Fi has always gone towards paying our writers, editor, and marketing person for their work. When those costs were covered, the remaining amount went towards paying for the website itself. The costs of paying our staff have consistently been higher than the amount raised via crowdfunding. We used all of the funds that were collected earlier this month to make sure our team had sufficient notice before the shutdown. We informed all of our patrons about the impending shutdown earlier this week and as of this announcement, we have shutdown our Patreon and Ko-Fi accounts.

Q: Wasn't Tiny Bytes supposed to make VNGD financially sustainable?
A: Yes. Moving to the Tiny Bytes format did significantly reduce the costs of running VNGD, however when we created our plan for Tiny Bytes we had not anticipated the substantial decrease in pledges that happened over December, January, and February.

Q: Why don't you just use volunteers?
A: We firmly believe that the writers, editor, and marketing/operations person responsible for producing VN Game Den should be paid. By paying our team members, all of which are VN Developers themselves, we have also been able to indirectly put more money into an industry we're passionate about. We have never felt comfortable asking anyone to volunteer to write articles for our site and won't be doing so now.

Q: Can I buy VNGD from you/can I takeover the site?
A: We've received several offers to buy the VNGD brand. Thank you for the offers, however we feel that it would be too risky to sell VNGD to another individual/company as they may take the brand in a direction that we wouldn't support. VNGD has always been about creating a place that lifts up promising indie devs - we'd never want to see that tarnished. We do, however, highly encourage people with similar missions to start their own sites!

Q: What will happen to the old VNGD content?
A: For now, both the original VNGD content and Tiny Bytes content are available via archived versions. The original site's content is also available via Archive.org.

Q: Where should I go for more content like VNGD?
A: We have a few recommendations! All of these sites are independent publications run by great people who would really benefit from your support.

  • ChoiceBeat - The Visual Novel and Interactive Fiction Zine is all about text-heavy, choice-heavy games from around the world. See reviews, interviews, and articles that cover new and retro visual novels, interactive fiction, and narrative games in all their various forms.

  • Sweet & Spicy Reviews - At Sweet & Spicy Reviews, you'll find a team of visual novel fans with a special interest in reviewing romances, particularly otome games.

  • Press SPACE to Jump - A worker-led website that puts on guides, reviews, opinion pieces and more! VN Game Den writer Kristi is the site's Editorial Lead so you can expect more coverage of visual novels from her there.

  • Yatta-Tachi - A ragtag group of folks who have been creating resources, guides, & reviews for Anime, Manga, & Otome/VN games since 2015!

Q: I have a question that wasn't covered here - how can I ask?
A: You can email John.

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