Hi all! Well, I've been strongly considering what to do about Patreon, and I have some ideas.
Overwhored's development isn't going to last too much longer. You have two chapters remaining. However, I have planned subsequent games.
The question is whether I can work on this stuff quickly or slowly. Finishing the Bilbao section takes top priority and won't take too long to finish. Barring significant difficulties with the army battle scene you'll get to see that then.
The Patreon campaign is doing significantly well. It's already over $100, and that's no mean feat! I'm extremely grateful to all of you for pushing it up that far even before I had any rewards set up.
So what I'm going to do now is lay out what will happen.
$400: I can afford to drop one of my two part time jobs and work on this more. Mindwipe has promised to do two pictures a month, so I could push out about a release every-other month like this.
$600: Sleepymaid has promised to do about four pictures a month. Normally the price is double the normal picture costs and this would be $800, but since there's already $50 reserved toward every picture I'd only need this for Overwhored. Right now I'm paying out-of-pocket from "my" share of the extra donations to fund it. It would still be every other month but you'd get a lot more pics.
$800: At this rate I could drop both part time jobs and work on the game instead (though I'd still have my full time job). You could get monthly releases at this pace.
$1000: In the unlikely event I get this much I'll be putting money towards future games. I have two sequels planned; Overwhored: Fall from Heaven (an expansion) and Overwhored II.
More than $1000: I'll consider this tier if we even come close to getting there.
$1: Access to betas and a name in the credits.
At $5 or above, I can link people to a gallery of all artwork completed for the game including stuff that was not included but finished and concept sketches.
I've also spoken with Sleepymaid and Mindwipe. I can offer access to a gallery of bonus sketches done just for donators at $10 or above. They aren't made yet, mind, but I'll see about getting one up before the end of the month.
I'm considering higher tier rewards at this time. Cameos are one option, though they'd be subject to my approval. Feel free to suggest some.
Paypal donations will, from now on, be judged on a monthly basis similar to the Patreon campaign. Not everyone loves the Paypal option, not everyone loves the Patreon option. This will give both types an option to donate.
Thank you all so much for the support I've gotten so far! It's really quite wonderful!
I'm glad you're keeping Paypal. Another game dev that I know is going the Patreon rout and dropping Paypal. Having more options is always better for the reasons you stated and more.
ReplyDeleteI figured I'd wait for him to reveal his diabolical plot before criticizing.
But I think it's still a mistake to just drop a perfectly good way for some that prefer, or only be able to use, as a method to support the artiest they like.
They sound good :D Hope you reach the girls Cypress.
ReplyDeleteI meant "goals" not "girls" lol
DeleteI wouldn't be surprised if this game gets close to (if not more than) $1k per month on Patreon considering how popular this game seems to be. Some of the creators I'm following on there are getting waaay more than that (ex. Akubar is getting almost $9k per month, and The Breeding Season Team is getting a whopping $25.5k per month).
ReplyDeleteI still can't fathom how the Breeding Season team is getting what they are. I get that there are always going to be delays, but at $25k/month it would certainly behoove them to hire a project manager to keep all the disparate parts working towards the goals. It seems like they just added more programmers and artists, and ran into the problem of being slowed down by having too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. I've already dropped my Patreon down to the minimum there, until I see they've gotten their act together.
DeleteI also wouldn't be surprised if Overwhored pulls in at least the $800 necessary for the monthly releases. The $1k honestly wouldn't surprise me either.
It seems like my favorite creators are finally (FINALLY) putting up Patreons. NoMosh over at BadKittyGames is finally setting one up too. All I can say is...it's about friggin time he and Cypress got around to it :p
~Morningfrost
I certainly don't expect to make Breeding Season level money but I *am* making preparations in the highly unlikely event that I do. Project management is perhaps my strong suit, and I've done plenty of management level jobs in my life. You can say I have a lot of artists on the project but not that I've ever dropped the ball with donator money to them.
DeleteThat said I don't blame them for being disorganized. I don't think they ever had a reason to suspect THEY would be as successful as they were, as quickly as they were. Considering they were the first to reach such a level it stands to reason they wouldn't know to prepare for it.
If I have a strong suit it's just that I have their example to show me what is possible. I have already spoken with a lawyer about what sort of things I'll need to sort out and I know my art team and what they can do. If I get too much money to spend I'll simply save it and then spend it later when things are not so rich or put it towards a bigger project.Another possibility is constructing a parallel project development team (that I'm still managing, mind) to run another project.
Everything at that level of money will be drawn up with labor contracts and I'll have a lawyer and an accountant go over everything with a fine-toothed comb.
I'm a major tightwad. Not great in a lot of aspects of life, but good for a boss.
My problem isn't so much that they weren't prepared for the amount of money that was thrown at them. There was absolutely no reason for them to anticipate that kind of success. My problem is that several months ago, when they were already over the $20k mark, they spoke in the blog about making a project manager their top priority because they weren't experienced at things like that. Okay, sounds like a plan. Admit your inexperience, implement a solution. No problem there.
DeleteThe problem is that several months down the road they still haven't hired a project manager to keep things on task, and instead threw money at additional 'grunt labor', so to speak, by hiring additional programmers and artists.
Generally, if you have a problem at the top of the food chain, and you KNOW that's where your problem is...the solution shouldn't involve throwing extra resources at the lowest part of the pyramid.
~Morningfrost
Breeding Season is the prime-example of "how-not-to-do-it". I think it's fairly easy to see why disgruntled patrons accuse the lead programmer of just grabbing the money and only doing the absolute minimum of work. It's a lack of transparency that is inherent to how Patreon works and i'm afraid that things like Breeding Season throw a bad light on it.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't uncommon in business. When companies experience a great deal of success in a short period of time quite a few collapse in on themselves. Kickstarter and Patreon just sort of make that process more visible to the world.
DeleteThe simple fact of the matter is that success like that is so unlikely that only a few professionals with the "golden touch" can force it to happen. Almost anyone that has it happen has no idea what to do when it does.
I certainly don't know that I'd be perfect if I experienced the same success, but if I do it'll be because I know it's possible and have made some plans for it.
Also, just want to let everyone know that Cypress updated the Patreon support tiers at some point. So if you donated day one when only the $1 tier was available, don't forget to go and update your patronage. With 48 patrons currently donating around $175, I doubt there are only 3 of us contributing $5 or more.
ReplyDeleteOnly reason I thought about it was because I went to check the totals to see how they were coming along, and found it curious that there was only 1 $5 patron and 1 $10 patron. Went to check my own patronage to see if I'd misremembered what I put in, but I just got in before the other tiers were set up.
If you put up the money, might as well get in the right tier, right?
~Morningfrost