Future of FeralIsland #3 - Tester System changes part 2 (Patreon)

This is a public post to be as transparent as possible.

Hello friends, :>

We had a very vivid and intense discussion about my last public post regarding potential changes I am planning to do on the current FeralIsland Tester System. Even though it was stated that those changes where not set in stone that post was seen as an indicator that i wanted to punish low tier supporters. This was clearly not the intention and actually the opposite of what i wanted to achieve .The cause of that was a misunderstanding and also miscommunication between me and the community and the moderation. I am sorry for that and I am making this second post to clear up any further misunderstanding.

But first lets name the problems and confusion in the latest post.

1.) The Updated Tester System is not a replacement of the current rewards.

Problem: Some people in the community thought that the new system is a replacement of the current patreon rewards.

This is not the case. The changes are only related to the way I want to handle future builds and quality assurance. All other patreon rewards stay the same!

2.) I want to give more benefits for 2$ supporters not less.
Problem: There are currently way more FERAL Testers(10$) then FERAL supporters (2$) which is a clear indicator that the FERAL supporter (2$) rewards are lacking a bit behind.

Solution: I wanted to change this by adding STABLE build releases to the current FERAL supporter (2$) reward tier. Because I would like to have an even or higher number of low tier supporters while sustaining the same amounts of high tier supporters. I would also not like to add new reward tiers to keep the current system as simple as possible. 

Part of the miscommunication was the removal of the developer sandboxes from those STABLE builds so they where seen as downgrades from the current public release. What they somewhat are. But there is a reason for that. The reality is, that I did not intended to add dev-sandboxes to the public release in the first place.

But there were a lot of recent additions to the nightly_builds so I decided spontaneously couple of days before the public release to let the sandboxes stay in that release. Those testing environments caused also some confusion because they where partial implemented and had broken features like non-working Oculus VR or graphical glitches for example. I also believe that in a well implemented and polished product there is no need for them in the first place. Especially since most of their features will be added to the core game anyways at a later point. However, I believe they should be something exclusively as a reward for supporters of that project to distinguish them clearly from the public version and to reward supporters.

3.) Stabilize income.

Problem: Having a free releases every three months and releasing game versions for free that are equivalent to the latest nightly_builds means that every three months there is no reason to support the game from a reward standpoint. This is something that I would like to avoid in the future, because I prefer a stable source of income.

As written above the latest public release was somewhat an exception which was the main reason why the latest public release was no STABLE release but actually a nightly_build.
 

4.) Monthly releases

Problem: Some users said that a free release or a STABLE build every 3 months is not frequent enough and that monthly releases would be preferred.

The reality is, that I would love to do monthly releases but this is something i can only do when working on this project full-time.  Sorry for that!

5.) Delay in public releases?

Some users also asked if the new system would delay public releases. 

The answer is no. There will still be a new public release every three month and there will be a stable release every three month. However the public releases would be some versions behind compared to the STABLE version and the nightly_builds.

6.) Comparison and research
I also researched other comparable projects. And I came to the conclusion that FeralIsland rewards are pretty fair considering the following things:

1.) The game will be free when released.

2.) There are free public releases.

3.) I am working alone.

4.) My current budget is <500$.

5.) There is/was a 2$ STABLE build reward planned every 3 months wit the new tester system.

Of the researched projects only one had monthly releases for 2$. But that project had a budget of 10k+. That project btw also had dev sandboxes exclusively for 10$ and not for 2$ supporters.

7.) Community poll

However I still can see that a STABLE release without the sandboxes can be seen as a downgrade compared to the latest public release with sandboxes. For that reason i would like to do multiple things to improve the planned system while also giving the community the option to vote for the new or the old system. 

1.) I would like to create a community poll later today. This poll will be for supporters only and it will have two options.

- Keep the old system but as it was intended. Which means this system will not have sandboxes in public releases. Also the public release will not be at the same version number as nightly_builds and couple of weeks behind. 

- Implement the new system. With all its implications and new (See 2.) ) additions.

2. ) If the new system is getting the most votes i would like to make 2$ rewards more attractive. The STABLE builds will include sandboxes. They are literally the same as nightly_builds but instead of being released frequently there will be one STABLE build every three months. There will be however no developer sandboxes in the free public releases. 

3. ) Unrelated how the results of the poll are, I would also like to overall increase the frequency in which I create supporter polls for the community. This includes polls for new animations, scenarios and maybe toys and features. I am planning to release the first scenario poll early next week.

This little graphics shows the old and the new system in comparison.

Overall, thank you very much for your opinion and your support! You guys are the most important part for this project. And In the end this project would not be possible without you. Also in the end this project is for you guys!

This is all for now. So stay tuned and let me know what you are thinking of it or feel free to ask me directly on discord. :>

Cheers

Ryan.