Budget Request (not asking for money)

Doug Dastardly

I usually do the lowest tier at the beginning to see how well the Dev produces, then I raise it as I see fit. Since I am disabled and on a limited income, that works best for me. The problem is, once I do raise my support, the Dev doesn't take that into consideration and I get put in some catagory that gets the full game a month after I raise my pledge. :(

ThaumX

I don't like having everything behind a paywall so to speak, since that really isn't what I'm trying to do. I plan to continue releasing free public versions, and I make sure all my posts are public. (or duplicate things like release notes for backer releases) I've also tried to make it as clear as possible what state the game is in, right from the main page, because I don't want people to feel tricked. Anyhow, it's time to get back to work! :)

ThaumX

Thanks a bunch for your support!

justin mitchell

absolutely! the level of of involvement that ThaumX puts into this creation makes it near impossible not to keep coming back everyday to see how things are going. shame on those vultures picking at free content. I wish i could pay a year in advance!

Vortex

I've been burned in a similar fashion. High hopes for this game though.

I personally only follow ThaumX and I am not saying he does this but I have seen other creators that put everything behind the pay wall with enough details to get you curious enough to pledge but then when you see what you payed for it turns out to not be worth it. I have been burned like this a couple of times.

TurkVanGogh Gamez

Bigger developers drop 2-4K$! It's a bad part of this thing, esp fraud

james steele

pay walls encourage this sort of activity, though it also encourages pledging in the first place. over time you will pick up more stable patrons that don't raise or lower their pledge much over time, and people have mentioned the pay up from feature which means those trying to navigate the paywalls will face a decision to pay to get through the pay wall or to miss out on content. overall it just takes patients and enough content under your belt to show people what you can expect for the final product.

Your game checks a ton of boxes for me. I will not be dropping for the foreseeable future. Keep up the good work!

nghtmr103

My suggestion is to apply for it as soon as possible, the choice to charge up front is a feature that has to be activated by patreon support after they approve your account for it. You can switch around payment styles at any time but you will likely have months of waiting to get approved for pay up front when you finally ask for it.

ThaumX

Thanks nghtmr103. My plan from the start has been to focus on making the game the best I can, and not on funding. I suppose I do get a little worried when it comes to promising other people work/money though. I'm not sure if I'll implement the pay up front setting, and definitely not until things are further along. If it's really a concern, I'll probably ask my patrons via a vote. :)

ThaumX

Thanks. I'm really excited and grateful for the funding support I've received so far. I'm not terribly concerned about the long run, but since I stopped doing freelance work I'm technically still "in the red". I'm not complaining, of course, and it's pretty much what I was expecting. It did kind-of leave me with the need to be more selective in offering commissions though. As for the speed of funding, I'm still a bit surprised and terribly excited. (Especially since pretty much any promotion I've done has been the result of patrons acting on their own.) I suppose having relevant experience and a pathological work ethic helps too, lol ^-^

Aftermath Team

Yeah, there's a bit of a learning curve with Patreon. The first few times I saw a dip in pledges at the end of the month, I almost panicked thinking I'd done something wrong. Eventually I figured out that its just a few people dodging payment at the first of the month. I agree with nghtmr103, once it lets you set things up for pay up front, you'll notice a big difference All of that said, the amount of money you are making already in such a short period of time is truly amazing. I suspect you'll do just fine in the long run.

nghtmr103

I have seen it a lot, the numbers go up and down especially for projects not authorized for pay up front yet. This is basically the "stay strong" period I have heard many times from creators. If you stick it out and get the pay up front policy many of these problems disappear but it is about showing patrons they can trust their money to you and then having the system in place to get the money. People tend to take advantage of loopholes and once that loophole closes you will see lots of income. For the time being keep being amazing and interactive as you are and you will end up being phenomenally funded. I wouldn't be surprised if one day (a long time down the line obviously) you got to an almost Fenoxo level of support.

ThaumX

You're right, I was guestimating about 8% drops, and another 2% for fraud/permanent decline, which seems to be pretty on the mark. I did end up being a little too pessimistic on the results though. I was thinking art-wise, I may have been able to offer a larger amount of monthly work, or higher rates, which possibly could have made a difference. I'm trying to be as fair and earnest as possible in paying artists, so I think that the quantity or amount/month requested may not have seemed worth the commitment to them, if that makes sense. It probably would be moot, except that I was trying to go a little in advance to get things started right away. That, and I really dislike making offers for commissions or long-term work that I'm not certain I can honor. I'll probably take your advice though, and hold off on some of the other things until I get a better handle on income vs expenses.

Aftermath Team

From personal experience (And I've discussed this subject with a number of other creators who have experienced the same), I consistently see about a 10% drop in pledges in the last 3-5 days of every month. Then it takes about a week to fully bounce back from that before starting to see growth again. One of the things I do since I've seen at least a little growth every month I've been on Patreon, is that I will use my previous month's earnings (Ignoring earnings from first time billing now that I have that set up) as a way of calculating costs. The little bit extra usually gets put aside along with the 20% I try to put into the bank each month to cover taxes at the end of the year.

Reaper

Ploxy is a good artist but I don't know if he would make art for a game?