Week 14 - Live streams, 100k & Sweden (Patreon)

So last week I released Platformer Part 16 for $5 supporters and also did an hour and a half live stream on YouTube where I did a bit of Q&A and a touch of work on PokeyPoke.

I think I want to do more live streams via YouTube rather than twitch given that's where my biggest audience really lives and it's much easier to reach more of them. The automatic permanent archiving to YouTube is a definite plus and would be great for things like Ludum Dare, although I've yet to see how it deals with super long streams like for 48 hour jams.

This week I'm going to be tackling the Wall Jump issue as decided by you guys in a recent poll. There may also be some livestreams on release day. I used to stream on Mondays but I think streaming after a video release is a good idea. Gives something to the people who aren't getting early access and makes sure the streaming doesn't get in the way of making the darn videos.

The Long Patreon Climb

Last month we went up in Patrons but down in total earnings (+13 and -$59 to be exact) which to be fair I'm happy with. I'm massively indebted to my biggest supporters on here for sure, but more people who can happily pledge smaller amounts regularly is very good for keeping things stable. A few tend to drop off at the start of the month too, which has happened here as well. People realize they can't afford it or they weren't getting what they expected, so on and so forth. Never any hard feelings. Never feel obligated to be here. Support only because you want to, because you enjoy the work I do, and because you can do so comfortably. After such huge recent gains I'd expected some losses. For now I'm still earning enough to keep the machine going and that's what matters.

100,000

 I recently reached over 100k subscribers on YouTube! I'd been sitting in the 90k region for what felt like a very long time but I don't think that feeling acknowledges just how many people, ten thousand people is. It's mad to think that even today my audience there continues to grow.  

Stugan!

I applied to something called Stugan. Stugan is a non-profit accelerator program for game devs hosted in sweden. They take teams with game ideas they want to see happen and host them in a cabin in the woods of Sweden for two months with visits from industry mentors.

I applied with PokeyPoke! Anyone's guess as to if I'll be accepted, but if I am it would mean some important things for you all that I want to get ahead of and talk about up front. If accepted, then around August time this year I would be disappearing for two months to go and develop PokeyPoke full time, drawing from the experience of other developers also there to make games and industry experts. This would be an opportunity of a lifetime I absolutely could not turn down to grow massively as a developer. For those months you'd be getting development vlogs and updates from me rather than the regular content, but I'd also make sure we had some tutorials ready to roll out over those months so things weren't totally out of the ordinary for everyone who wasn't interested. It goes without saying that if I were accepted to this and you didn't want to pay for me to be developing games in sweden, (My food + travel would be covered by Stugan) I would absolutely understand if you wanted to put your support on pause for those two months.

This is all theoretical. I might not be accepted. I just want to be as transparent as I can as early as I can.

I was considering the option of just disabling my patreon for those two months if it happened, but I still want to be able to deliver some updates on the game etc that I know some of you would be interested in, rather than just completely lock down the whole thing for two months. So I would leave the decision in your hands. There'd obviously be plenty more notifications and updates in the run up so you didn't forget.

I think that's everything. Look forward to another tutorial video later this week!

-S