Just a heads up, if you purchase on itch.io rather than Steam, the devs receive a larger share of the revenue. (Though obviously it's not integrated into Steam, if you prefer that.)
Considering I've given them a few bucks a month for a decade and a bit now which doesn't even come close to the value I've gotten that is a great idea.
A hospital/illness scare made them realize they have nothing setup for illness/insurance and need a more secure source of income.
It's probably true that if word got out that Tarn or Zack needed medical care, the donations would flow like water, but it's understandable wanting to prepare.
As I recall he had some medical issues to pay for. The other brother didnt have insurance nor a regular income... just his split of the DF donation money.
It bring up a lot of criticism of healthcare in the US which I don't quite understand. Yes, healthcare is expensive in the US, especially without insurance. It has been for a while, so dont be surprised when not having a regular income nor insurance puts you in a bad spot. It was poor planning as much as it is expensive healthcare.
It basically amounts to one day realizing "oh shit, $35,000/year and no health insurance isn't enough money. This is the fault of the United States."
Even if it is bad planning, it's still a good illustration of why it's a bad system. If I step in a pothole because I was looking at my phone, it's true that I should have been looking where I was going, but the city should also fill the pothole.
Tbh in saner countries with public healthcare, even if you do something utterly stupid & injure yourself you will still receive medical care. The point of the system is that everyone can do stupid things or injure themselves another way & we never know when that's gonna happen.
It goes along with the whole "civilisation started when one human helped bind and heal the broken femur of another human", a quote which may or may not be able to be attributed to Margaret Mead.
The only thing that's usually considered otherwise is long-term stupid decisions such as smoking, etc.
Very briefly as a counter example - these folks made a thing that thousands maybe tens of thousands of people treasure. They've worked on it as a passion project and when ill luck befell them they had to scramble to secure funds. Yes, we live in a capitalist system but supporting neat art like this and exploratory projects is a societal investment that the US has stiffly refused to make. The more we provide social safety nets the more folks will be free to do experimental and artistic work and give us gems like dwarf fortress.
This isn't the fault of the United States - the US has made a choice in how the game works and they weren't playing by the rules laid out for them to follow. The expected course was for them to work in some job that robs them of their free time to produce a work of this caliber and if they had done so they'd be just fine... and we wouldn't have dwarf fortress.
This is the business model that they have chosen. Then they found it to was untenable so they chose a different business model. As part of that, they are addressing some of the largest weaknesses in the game. The game is not getting worse, it's getting better.
Beyond that, the United States doesn't owe people who make art in exchange for donations anything extra. We can argue about the merits of different healthcare systems but the point remains that they realized their plan was poor so they changed course - the United States inflicted no damage on them.
> Beyond that, the United States doesn't owe people who make art in exchange for donations anything extra.
Providing correct healthcare to all definitely is a duty of any modern rich country. If Cuba can manage it so should the US. You are trying to hide how poor your healthcare system is under a thin political veneer.
They used to personally make a crayon drawing for each person who donated. They stopped in 2020, but I made sure to get one of the final ones before then: http://www.bay12games.com/support.html
My $10 was a small price to pay for all the hours of fun I got. (I'll surely buy the Steam version too though.)
