Stretch goals & the future of MA (ks related) (Patreon)

No to scare anyone by the title, but this is more related to our ks campaign. Just in case I might've missed mentioning it, our ks funding ending on Nov 4th. We reached 171% and after ks fees, it'll give us a little around $6300 to work with purely towards cg art funding.

With that said, there were some stretch goals we didn't manage to hit and that's the main purpose of this post. We'll be addressing the stretch goals we did hit right below this, then move onto the ones we didn't hit and what to expect.

[Warning: It goes without saying thing stuff mentioned below isn't cut from the base game planned. This is all purely additional stuff that would've came afterwards, once the base game is completed by sometime early 2022. :P ]

~$4000-6500~ (Reached)

We ended up at 171% and by the time ks takes their cut we'll be around $6300 just about left with, of course some of that will help cover physical rewards once we get to that point in getting everything shipped out.

The main thing we're able to do with what amount we did reach, is that we'll have enough funds for the cg art in the base game. (around 40-50 scenes) Then we should have a little extra to cover additional scenes, which will cover moments in the game that didn't receive art. These moments could be fan favorites, so once the time comes for those. We'll do some polls to see what moments from the game seem worthy of  having it play out as a cg scene.

~$8000~ [More art & stories dlc added]

The art is something where of course it won't be possible most likely, depending on when the time comes for this. But the main girl dlc stories will most likely be added to the game still, but on the minor downside. They might not really offer cg art, if they do, it'll be a scene for each one.

Said dlc stories for the main girls would be covered as a episode added to the game on the title screen. Each one covers a mix of one of the main girl's past, some events that led them into the academy and a  peak into their events after the academy base game story.

~$10,000~ [Story dlc for Zoey, Bridget & Allie]

The main goal with this would've been to expand further on their general routes in the game, so that they're more in line with the main girl's in length. Being able to cover a bit more information. Along with trying to squeeze in the same thing like the above with their past, some events that led them to the academy and what not.

This could still be possible, but it'd be handled like the above and there is some factors that'll play into if we tackle this or not. One thing will be checking if there's enough demand from fans, as we do enjoy working on MA, but even after the base game is complete. We'd like to be a bit realistic with knowing when it's time to move onto our future project in full. The conclusion: I'd feel awful not covering these girls, so at some point in the far future I'm sure we'll see something for them. It just might be a bit more delayed than the main girl's dlc.

~$12,000~ [Routes for Charlotte, Rosa & Allie]

Starting to fall into the tough choices area... >.< I honestly enjoy all the characters, as I personally write for the game. I think  personal routes for them would be really neat to see, but I can't fully promise this happening.

It's possible between popular demand from fans and some sort of future funding towards their own routes would allow for us to tackle this.

~$14,000~ [Partial voice over]

Sadly voice over can become quite costly as most voice actors will charge a flat rate per amount of spoken words/lines. Of course even partial voice over for very important moments would be pretty pricey and one idea we came up with to possibly still tackle this in a different  way, is that we can instead of put focus on voicing for important moments. (which might be distracting when nothing is heard for hours in the game until later)

Our thought is that depending on how future funds we receive is handled, we can have voice over work done so that each character has a set amount of basic things voiced. One example of this would be when  Miki says or goes "Wah?!" or when Heather goes "Hmf!" little stuff like that could still be on the table for thought.

~$16,000~ [Routes expanded further]

I think sadly this would be a bit too much for us to take on, much like the dlc stuff mentioned earlier. For one, cg art would become an issue for this easily. So we'd most likely not see extra cg art if we did expand routes and said expanding would've been a mix of diving into more time learning or covering more detail about each girl, while offering more adult content too.

~$18,000~ [Beach & Vacation dlc]

These could still show up, but it'd be at the end of our list for  stuff to do with MA. Cg art would be something that we're uncertain about for these, which I think goes without saying, many would want some cg art for these.

We won't 100% confirm these yet, it'll be something far off in the future from now to look back at and possibly offer.

~$25,000~ [Full voice over]

I think it's safe to assume this was a very far stretch to reach, but keeping in mind the costs of everything and how many words are expected for the game. This would've been easily a tight budget to attempt  getting the game fully voiced, as we're easily expecting 300,000-400,000 word count for the base game alone between all the routes added in.

So sadly, this is one that won't be possible and I'm sure there isn't  a massive demand for full voice over to be seen in MA from the looks of it? We could possibly do a far, far off in the future attempt at seeing if there's demand to cover funding for voice over work. But, I have a feeling it'd be a bit too much to try tackling in funding.

~End~

That covers the stretch goals and plans for them moving forward regardless of our funding received. We of course still bring in monthly funding from patreon support, but much of that covers basic costs to  keep our team working together. I, myself am the lead creator of MA and part of that is managing the team/social posts, while writing for the game.

So I try not to touch any funding as this is more of a passion  project for me personally. That isn't to say I don't want to earn some pocket money myself, but I do work a full time job outside of the  project. I'd like to think one day I could make a okay living from doing this, but I am also perfectly fine with simply doing these projects as passion projects.

That brings me back to the team funding, where anything I didn't list is covered by our awesome team members and their skills. So that's where most of our monthly funding from patreon goes into to ensure we can do the basics each month from some sprite related work, editing needs, engine work and music needs. Sometimes we're able to squeeze in  some one time commission work from outside help, an example of this is for our recent splash art episode screens that pop up in episode 1 &  2.

That covers everything for now. ^^

From all of us at Messy Studios,
We hope you're doing well and staying safe!