I’ve seen that some HG authors post development updates on their WIPs privately on patreon. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that patreon is a huge support for the writers, but I feel that this kind of updates which just give information about the game development shouldn’t be private, as people like myself, who unfortunately can’t afford to patreon somebody or aren’t interested in the other content the author may post and just want to be occasionally updated on the game development, as they can’t stay updated on the news just loose the hype or interest in certain games as they know nothing about the development.
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You may be right, although personally, I haven’t seen anything like this. All the authors I follow have their own Tumblr blogs and they post updates there.
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I agree with @Cingulum_diaboli , I haven’t seen any writers updates only on patreon. At least they update it here or other social media like twitter, tumbler, etc. I can only guess that the update for patrons only, maybe for the alpha tester they offer.
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There’s plenty of authors that don’t restrict content (they’d be the minority), some of which have a lot of trouble getting support for their game development. Could always give them your support instead of people who have enough support to be able to run a patreon with most content off the forums.
Re patreon, that’s sometimes the extra amount some authors need to justify spending more time on the game so you’ll get it finished sooner. You’ll get it sooner or later, may just be a wait. It’s not against the rules to run closed WIP updates on sites like patreon and in the end if you pay to support someone, it’s not unfair for them to expect extras as a thank you for it.
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While ChoiceScript is publicly available, it is not public domain. Anything written in CS can’t ever be Patreon-exclusive as that infringes on CoG’s copyright, meaning that while an author can use alpha-previews as a Patreon reward, the content within alpha-previews must eventually make their way into the free public demo or a later (but still free) beta demo (by which I mean, authors can’t charge beta testers for the privilege).
That having been said, as someone who is also consistently strapped for cash, I understand the frustration you must feel, but be aware that (except for a small handful) no WIP authors are writing full time, they have other jobs and responsibilities that come before their game. Patreon can help ease some of the financial burden, provided that it’s successful, but in many cases this means using alpha-testing as an incentive, and I don’t think we should really begrude authors for using their writing skills to convince people to support their writing.
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I thought it was permissable for authors to run 100% closed betas as long as the final product was published through HG and not have to ever make the whole game available publically and for free? (There was something about this happening quite a while ago, I’ll have to see if I can remember the game involved.) I thought the main issue is you can’t gain money from use of CS by writing patreon exclusive content that will never be available via COG as that counts as earning income from a game without paying a licence to use the code.
Edit: I dug up the thread, and it looks like the final consensus was that a game’s beta cannot be cannot be completely locked behind a paywall. So while you can provide alpha content to your patron users as a perk, technically you need to have a whole game beta that non patreon users could apply to before it is published. Established authors do frequently choose to make it a closed beta and limit who/how many they choose to give access to though, so I wouldn’t rely on it as a way to get pre-access to a game. You’re right though, it sounds like you probably can’t provide beta testing as a perk only to your patreon users though, so yep.
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ChoiceScript is not open-sourced, even if the source code is available doesn’t make it open-source. In fact, ChoiceScript has a very strict license.
Compare that to Ink or Twine which are truly open-source.
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I agree, it probably comes under a restricted creative commons? You can create using the code as long as the content is provided for free, but if you want to make money out of it, you’ll need permission/licence to do so by the creators. I think everyone gets what Rose-court means though, just a definition difference.
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Yes, I believe it is (or at least it’s super common) and that’s what I intended to say but reading things over without a migraine, I definitely didn’t word that well, lol. I hope my rewording makes more sense?
Oh, I didn’t even know there was a distinction! I’ve edited my comment to be more accurate. Thank you for the heads up!
yee 
the lesson here is: don’t migraine and post, kids, that’s how misunderstandings happen, lol
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Nope, it is not. I thought so too, but It seems that’s not what CoG intended. Nothing on Patreon unless it is public within 2 weeks, and closed alpha testing doesn’t count as public. From what I gathered, it needs to be on the forum.
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The license can be found here.
Yes, this (what malinryden says above) is exactly what I remember reading on the forum or on some FAQ as well.
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It can be tricky even for people in the loop, so to speak.
Basically, if I post my novel or song or whatnot online, even though it’s publicly available, I still own the intelectual property (or copyright). No one can redistribute, copy, sell or modify them without my consent. Code is also intelectual property and works the same way.
That’s when License enters the stage. A license is basically me telling people explicitly what they can and cannot do with my code without having to consult me all the time. In order to be considered open-source, the license must allow me to copy, modify, redistribute and use.
Public Domain is the absolute lack of a copyright. It belongs to Humanity.
Roughly speaking…
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Even should such a thing be allowed, I can’t see how anyone could possibly benefit from it. Money wise, it might work to some extent. However, I can’t help but feel that you would subject yourself to an enormous trade-off. You might be able to make a little cash, but your writing may also suffer due to The fact that there are less eyes on your project. It’s probably for the best that things are the way they are.