The Future! (Patreon)

Hello everyone! I'd like to have an important, long overdue chat! About the content I make and what I'd like to do in the future.

Since Gamescom I've been working a lot on PokeyPoke. I've released a new build of the upcoming (new) Steam demo to a private discord of playtesters who have been breaking the build apart with great efficiency. And it's going well! I've got a fancy pause menu I'd love to talk about in upcoming devlogs, and perhaps turn into a template/resource for other people's games:

This has ofcourse, continued to mean a bit less Video Content from me and specifically Tutorial Content. The truth is I've been struggling with making tutorials - specifically - for a while, and I've already been unconsciously making a change in the types of stuff I make. 

I've been making GameMaker tutorials for more than ten years at this point, and it has always been my priority and what I generally advertised my Patreon as a means to support.

But I have spent a very long time teaching others how to make games, and it has been hard to carve out the time to well, actually make games myself. I think my own personal growth as a developer has been stunted in favour of growing as a teacher and content creator. I've watched my peers shipping better and better games around me while the craft I honed was how to better make YouTube videos, and how to teach others through them.

I don't regret this! I think I have done a lot of great work, and so many people at Gamescom just recently approached me to tell me how much my work has helped them and what it meant to them. I am extremely proud of the work I've done to date.

But I have been trying to make PokeyPoke for more than four years now. At heart I want to make games. That's what lead to me learning GameMaker in the first place, and why I enjoyed making guides for others to help them find joy in the same way. My love of making games.

It's also true that tutorials just don't do that well on YouTube anymore. YouTube relies so much on grabbing and keeping people's attention at an ever growing pace and scale that in-depth tutorials on niche subjects are becoming harder and harder to use as the backbone content for a channel. Thankfully using Patreon helps me fund good videos that maybe aren't big attention grabbers, but my Patreon only grows as much as my Channel does, for the most part. Devlogs and more general game development content however, does very well and is also just the kind of content I would prefer to make more of.

Tutorial videos also can't be updated. And GameMaker is changing all the time. Big chunks of my ARPG series became out of date before the series was finished! But as a YouTuber I always have to be making "more videos" and I can't experiment as easily with things like written tutorials, or simply making code resources (like the Turn Based Battle System!) that can be updated and provide a lot of value.

I'm not "quitting" making video tutorials, and especially not quitting making community resources, videos, livestreams etc. I still enjoy doing all of what I do. But I do want to commit to a change my focus and I want to know if you are prepared to come with me on that particular journey.

What this means is that I want to:

• Finish my commercial game: PokeyPoke
• Create video devlogs about PokeyPoke, and stream development regularly.
• Share behind the scenes updates and test builds with my Patrons. I'd like to invite $5+ folks to the tester's discord so you can try out builds of the game as it progresses.
• Continue to create and share high quality GameMaker & Game development resources, tutorials, and guides. Especially keeping important beginner content up to date. But at a reduced pace, with a focus on broad value and longevity. 

In that order of priority.  So my weekly routine would probably look like:

• Monday-Wednesday: PokeyPoke Development
• Thursday: Tutorial/guides/resources/content development
• Friday: Livestream day - Either PokeyPoke, Feedback Friday or other stuff!

Which means instead of pressuring myself to come up with a whole new tutorial video or useful GameMaker thing every week (a target I've never really managed to keep up with anyway, good educational content takes time!) I can work on it when I am inspired to do so, which is when that content ends up at its best. It also means that by working on my game I actually... continue to learn and get better at game development. I already get a lot of my tutorial ideas from things I worked out when making PokeyPoke!

I also would like to experiment with creating other types of tutorials, videos, content and resources. Making the Turn Based Battle System was extremely fun while I was coding it, and making that downloadable resource honestly feels more useful to the community than the video tutorials! It has been hard to get the video series done as I just don't have the same enthusiasm for making that kind of content. Knowing that the videos will go out of date, knowing that I'm not learning while I'm making the videos, knowing that the videos will not even be popular, knowing that this is what I've done for years and years, it's all a drain on my willpower. Not to mention it just takes forever. So I want to be able to spend my time trying other stuff. Written tutorials especially!

I think I can still run my YouTube channel, and in fact run it more effectively if "step by step video tutorials" are not my main focus. The problem is, I don't know if that's what you're here for, or if that's what you are willing to support.

I imagine for a lot of you, you're just here because I make tutorials and you want to see more of those exist. That will certainly continue to happen through your support here, but not at a typical, weekly, "YouTuber" pace. You would instead be supporting me holistically as a game developer and content creator. A creator of games, resources, videos, and tutorials of all kinds.  PokeyPoke is a personal project that I do not expect you all to care about. But I genuinely believe that being a developer first again will make me a stronger teacher second.

This is as difficult to write as it has been to process. Your support here on Patreon literally keeps a roof over my head, feeds me and my cat and pays my bills. I have felt a lot of pressure to just continuously create The One Thing that got me to this place. But I have to accept I can't do *just that* anymore but I also can't do everything at once as I have been trying to do. So I am choosing to focus on where my enthusiasm lies, where I always create my best work. I am choosing to be a developer again, rather than just a teacher. I hope in the long term this will make me an even better teacher!

I hope you can all understand where I'm coming from and why I feel the need to make this change, and I hope you choose to continue to support my work!

But if not, I understand! And I want to thank you so much for everything you have empowered me to do over the years. A lot of people my work has helped would not have been helped without your support of my videos. So whatever you want to do, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thanks for reading this giant wall of text. More videos and stuff coming soon. It's all just taking a while! =)

-S