gamedev stuff on $15 tier! (+thoughts) (Patreon)

So for the last couple months, I've been spending a lot of free time working on a 2d sidescroller, picking back up on where i left off after completing Shaun Spalding's platformer tutorial - one day i took a look at it on a whim, and got hit with a ton of inspiration to start tinkering with it againit into a complete game. Pulling elements from some other game design docs I've written up over the years and been working on it pretty consistently for a couple months now, it's been developing in some interesting ways, and I can't stand to keep it to myself anymore, so I'm gonna start sharing gamedev updates on the $15 tier! 

For those curious, I've tentatively calling it "Jimbo's Adventure", my fursona gets trapped in a dead mall with some weird interdimensional goings-on. It's currently a Wario Land-style platformer that'll work in expansion / transformations to get through levels and complete some collectathon quests along the way that play into those themes. I'm using my fursona Jimbo as the player character as of now, though I'm also using some of the supporting character concepts I'd previously developed for an RPG that was quickly getting to be too large of a scale for me as a novice, so you may see a few familiar faces if you followed me here a few years ago. More details and lots of concept art to share soon!

TL;DR - I'm gonna switch the focus of the $15 tier to gamedev stuff and/or personal project updates. 

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I've written my thoughts on this like 5 times over the last couple weeks, so sorry if this is rambly and sappy but I wanted to let people who've supported me for a while know where I'm at, and don't want to worry anybody about if I've forgotten about past commitments.

So going forward, I'm gonna make the top tier focus of my patreon into sharing updates on whatever I'm working on as my passion project, at whatever pace I can naturally make time for them, rather than promising monthly stickers or pinups. I don't want to rule out ever doing mail rewards if I do manage to make new stuff, but it's been such a nonstop struggle with my mental health to get over the hump to even find inspiration for new sticker or pinup designs, so I definitely can't do them monthly, and I've been hung up on it for ages since I wasn't sure what to offer in their place. I'm going to say I may *sporadically* do mail rewards for anybody who provides a domestic US shipping address, since the majority of the sticker designs I do get inspired to do have been memey stuff with my fursona that I can see myself using as promotional merch in the future, and I was wrestling with whether or not that would be of any interest to my patrons. Lot of wrestling with confidence in my "brand" and constantly second-guessing what my supporters want to see from me, basically, and trying to chase down a way to make it all work together to be less stressful for me.

I'd say I've been extremely industrious in the art department lately, clearing out tons of old commissions from my 2020-2022 burnout pile, and since I've raised my prices on new commissions I've been in a wayyyy stabler place financially, so I've been making a point of offering to either complete more old things, convert them into new commission prompts (like patreon sketch credits), or offer refunds. I'm not sure if I should change up the fanart poll stuff yet or not - it's been more difficult than i expected to find inspiration for them, and my goal lately has been to streamline my patreon offerings to match up with what I comes naturally to me. So still working on the fanart stuff. But I'd like to think that a major part of my ease of working through my commission queue lately has been the mental health benefits of pursuing a personal project in my free time, so I'm making a point of working that into my patreon structure now so I at least have a continuous stream of interesting things to show my supporters besides just sharing the commissions I was working on anyway.

Basically I'm gonna turn the $15 tier into a "see what I'm up to in my free time" innermost circle kind of thing, just sharing what my current passion project is that I'm not quite feeling bold enough to share with the general public. Eventually I may share more stuff with patrons on any tier, but for now, I'm gonna make it a higher tier thing in the hopes of making it up to people who've pledged that high for a while.

That said, I do feel pretty burdened about failing to follow through on the promise of monthly merch to date. If anybody with a $15+ pledge is dissatisfied with this change, please let me know and I'll take a look at how long you've been on that tier and see what i can do to make it right. I very, very deeply appreciate the support I've been given over the years, it's gotten me through some really dark times and into much better places lately. And I don't want to keep feeling too paralyzed by guilt to follow my gut on trying new things that may work better, but I don't want anybody to feel slighted if they've pledged a lot over the years expecting things I've failed to materialize (like mailed stickers & miniprints), so I wanna take advantage of having such a good wind in my sails lately to compensate people if they're not feeling the new directions I'm trying to take

My continuing goal is to find a balance between creating things that people who enjoy my work want to see from me, and my own personal artistic fulfillment. I'm feeling a lot closer to that balance lately as I work on a narrative project again, and I hope I can impress the people who've supported me thus far with some completed projects under my belt in the near future! I can very safely say that personal projects like this game I've been working on are the most direct result of the support I receive from patrons, directly giving me more free time to pursue stuff for my own enjoyment, and I'm confident enough in it now to share it with my supporters.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and my deepest thanks for the support you've given me, whatever tier. I wanna do right by everybody and show off some cool stuff.