splendidostrich
patreon
$20 reward update
🕑 Added 2016-01-30 01:40:16 +0000 UTCHello everyone!
As you know, the Event Lottery reward was discontinued. The last draw was at the start of this month, so I need to either add a new $20 reward by February or remove that level completely.
As an aside, I also still don't have any good ideas for super-high level rewards. On Kickstarter and Offbeatr especially it's not uncommon for a handful of super-rich backers to make up a significant percentage of a project's funding.
If you have an idea that you think would make sense for a $100+ tier for extraordinarily wealthy backers then do let me know. I have thought about adding an ultra-high tier reward involving adding custom content, but I rejected the idea because there'd be a risk of development getting taken over by super-backers' suggestions while progress on $10 voted content stalled.
Back to the $20 level, there have been some interesting suggestions for alternative rewards:
Madison suggested giving $20 backers an extra vote. I like the idea, but it doesn't seem 'special' enough as a replacement for the event lottery. Also, I think I'd want to give some efficiency benefit to higher-tier backers rather than just having double the pledge give double votes.
So, rather than 2 votes at $20, what do people think about an additional reward level at $25 which gives 3 votes?
Neokenka suggested adding special npcs based on Patreon suggestions that might get a small amount of custom content. I feel that this is a bit too specific, but it gave me an idea for a vaguer and more wide-reaching reward:
Inner Circle Patron:
For each version, I'll start a thread on Patreon restricted to backers at this level with information about upcoming changes that won't be posted elsewhere until they're actually released.
This will also be used for informal discussion about details that are too small or too specific to go through the lengthy mass-voting process with voter-patrons.
Of course I'll be keeping the final say, but I often find myself focusing on one area or another of a scene simply on a whim and there's a lot of scope for feedback on smaller decisions where I'd get swamped if I tried to open up discussion to a large group. This would let the inner-circle steer development on a smaller and more detailed scale than the broad and sweeping decisions that get made in the big patron votes.
This might include things like which unusual paths through an event get more attention, the personalities and traits of new special npcs and what sort of more specific trait/personality combinations get special attention when I'm writing dialogue or other situations where it isn't possible to have a line for every combination.
This post will also be a place for the inner circle to post ideas about small changes that can go into a release in addition to its main content. While I do quite often add such suggestions from various other places, the inner circle thread will get special focus and small additions that meet the approval of the group and fit with my vision for the game will be very likely to get added.
Samll changes would have to be ones that could be added quickly without disrupting planned development, so it wouldn't include substantial changes to game mechanics, new scenes or new traits that would need handling throughout the code, but it might include:
- New clothing items that work with the existing outfit & undressing systems. These would need to be added to an existing outfit type, but could include more 'specialist' clothing than currently appears in the game.
- Adding a cameo npc inspired by you or your OC that could appear in the main game with a small amount of custom text in their dialogue or description: basically what Neokenka suggested.
- A dialogue line or short alternative-text for an existing action based on a particular situation, such as a specific combination of traits that you like to take on your PC.
I'd only be adding a few such suggestions per release. The main focus is going to be the core changes, and I don't want to get overwhelmed with little additions and leave it lacking, nor do I want to have too big a patreon backlog to be able to implement small ideas I like that are posted on other sites or by lower-tier patrons.
Still, if people show restraint in posting requests then I think that can work fine with the current number of $20 backers.
What does everyone think of this? If you approve then I might put them in on a trial basis over the next week and see how things proceed from there.
Comments
Splendid Ostrich
The reason I've considered super-expensive support levels is from looking at kickstarter style upfront funding campaigns. One that really struck my eye was GBDNATE. It raised 27,610 CAD on Indiegogo from 696 backers, but 5 of those backers were at a $2500 level and another 3 supported at an $800 level. $14900 from the top 8 backers and $12710 from the next 688. I sometimes wonder if there are a similar handful of Newlife patrons who, if the right reward was available, would happily support at such astronomical levels. Of course, so far I'm yet to come up with a suitably-impressive reward that wouldn't affect development. As you say, increasing manpower might be the only realistic option for that. That's a pretty big step though, and I doubt I'll even get around to looking at it soon. Marie: I've made a note to look into Images. It isn't something that would really make sense as a reward, but now that the options file is there it might be possible to take a path to an Image file there and display it on the character screen somewhere.
Marie
I agree with cubano and Mugunghwa. A $100 tier doesn't sound stable, and creating a special clique where progress reports are shared only between them seems detrimental to the project. I'd just focus on the two tiers you have. I don't have a lot of suggestions. Seems things are kinda limited at the moment. My only suggestion would be adding on to tier one. From your last blog post, it sounds like you don't want to make too many UI changes or mechanical changes, but instead of hiring an artist like some want, maybe implement something that will let people upload a little picture that can be seen when looking at your character details? It would be optional and no huge pictures, but it'd be a nice little touch that adds to the incentive.
R
If Newlife is already in fulltime development, and if all the hours available is required to develop the game at a pace that will allow you to release once a month or more, there's very little that can be done in terms of substantial rewards for higher tier patrons that won't cause substantial delays in development through either implementation and maintenance. The way I see it, there's two solutions: Increase manpower, or incentivise more people to become $5 or $10 patrons instead. Put everything into those two tiers, and if time frees up, make the voting on a list of events available to $10 patrons, which will help convert many of the $5 to $10 patrons for that month. While $100 patrons might sound appealing, it's neither a safe nor reliable source of income. Don't put all your eggs in one basket, so to say.
cubano
I'm in agreement. I've always wished that more progress reports would show up between releases on the public devblog, which doesn't happen most of the time. Putting discussion behind the patreon wall, especially at the highest level reward, is going in the opposite direction.
Primer
Most seems reasonable, although one bit strikes me as an issue: Providing limited access to some of the information of what's upcoming might not be good for your patrons, or your project. People are always making the decision to support you, and if they wish to continue to do so. Having less information with which to make that decision seems only likely to dissuade them.
