(Future Fragments) Important Change to the $15 Tier (Patreon)

So we've actually been mulling over this change for quite a while, since around the start of the Electric Demo, but we didn't want to enact this change until we were on the cusp of releasing the public Electric Demo, for one of the reasons you'll find out in a minute.

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In short though, this is the last month to get a $15 pledge in for the "get your character in the databanks and possibly cutscenes" reward.

After this month, the current $15 tier will be "delisted" and while people who are pledging to it can continue pledging to it, no new pledges will be accepted to it.

(remember, once you've pledged to a tier once, you get that reward forever, so you don't have to stay on the $15 tier to get the $15 reward.)

When the $15 tier is delisted, a new, $30 tier will replace it with the same reward.

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Why are we making this change?

First off, it's not a money grab; there are actually not a lot of pledges at the $15 level right now, and each month, we currently don't get more than 4 or 5 new pledges. We're also doing really great financially, so we're not hurting for money by any means thanks to all of your support, which we really appreciate.

The biggest reason we're doing this change is simply because, while we don't want to remove the "get your character in the databanks/cutscenes" reward opportunity for future backers, there's currently over 100 people who have already had their character submitted to our database which we pull from for databanks, and with roughly 150 databanks in the full game, and another year of development to go, you can see where a problem MIGHT arise here.

However, at the current rate of new $15 backers, we'd likely be fine, right?

Enter the Electric Public Demo.

When that demo drops, it's inevitable that we're going to get a surge in new backers, given that we'll be posting it to over 10 different sites, and it's there that the problem arises in full.

If this new surge backs the $15 level en masse, we're going to have a real problem where a lot of people just simply won't be able to get their reward fulfilled, which is going to lead to a lot of disappointed people and a lot of explaining/confusion which is going to eat a lot of time out of the game; it would be a PR disaster.

So by raising the reward to $30, this means that new backers who go for it would only do so if they REALLY wanted it, and it would likely dissuade the majority of people from backing it, allowing us to safely get everyone in who had not only pledged in the past, but the few new backers who would pledge at that level.

There's also a few other reasons for it, too, which stack up to make this even more of an issue/a reason why we need to up the amount;

• As of the current demo, we've got and will continue to get voice acting for all databanks, which, at a minimum, usually costs $10-20 just to voice a single databank.
• Some backers to this tier end up as cutscenes too, which ends up as much more voice acting, of course.
• Finally, we also have wanted to have some way to show our appreciation to those who've been here before this demo drops, so giving you the reward at a lower amount/eating the voice acting cost is sort of a "early pledger" benefit.
• As usual, you'll still get the game at launch, too.

Since we have the instant charge system, you can jump to $15 right now if you want, and if you're at a lower pledge, you'll only be charged the difference (going from $10 to $15 would cost $5, for instance).

As with all the reward tiers, any tier's (TIER REWARD) reward is for the lifetime of the project, meaning if you pledge just once at the $15 level, you are guaranteed to get your character in the databanks (and possibly cutscenes), with full voice acting for the character or characters talking about them, even if you never pledge at that level again.

We hope you understand this change and why it's for the better for the project and for backers both; here's a quick summary again of things.

SUMMARY:

• $15 tier will be made "unpledgeable" to new pledgers on March 1st
• Any current backers at that level are free to stay there, but don't need to if they want their character in the databanks
• A new $30 tier will be made with the same (TIER REWARD), getting your character in the databanks, that same day
• This is to prevent us from getting overburdened with a mass amount of backers wanting their character in the databanks once the public demo drops, as well as to counteract the cost of voice acting and to show thanks to those of you who were here before the public Electric Demo

As always, please feel free to give us any feedback, ask any questions, and so on regarding this change or the demo.

If you'd like to join us on Discord to discuss things as well or just to socialize with fellow backers, come visit https://discord.gg/eADgu38 !