The Noclip Report / July 2019 (Patreon)

Welcome to the NoClip Report our new monthly breakdown of everything that we did last month and what to expect as a patron and fan next month. We'll post these on the first Monday of each month. Let's get into it!

First, a Letter from Danny;

Hey folks in case you missed the update last week, later today I fly to Copenhagen to film our doc on Hitman and IO Interactive. It's a project I'm really exciting about and I'll be updating you on it as the week continues. 

It was also an exciting and busy month in June. Not only did we welcome community member and video producer Frank Howley to the team, but we filmed at E3 for the very first time, announced a doc two years in the making, started streaming and released the third episode of our series on Hades.

What you're beginning to see is the results of months of planning. I've been working with friends around the industry, Patreon and YouTube in planning the next stage of Noclip. What that looks like to me is the same game industry docs you know and love, alongside better community outreach and communication about what we're working on and when to expect it.

Our patronage is healthy, but it's also plateaued. This month saw us gain many new patrons, and lose a few of our community members. Once the dust settled we were left with a net loss of 43 Patrons and -$236 over the previous month.

So we've lost almost all the growth we got during our last funding drive in October.  That's not necessarily a problem, we are well funded for what we do right now. But with a 20-30% rise in patronage would allow me to really supercharge the work we do. What does this mean? Well, more contract hours for our team to help me edit and produce docs. So, more docs, more streams, more podcasts.

The first part of this is fostering a more active community. Last month we began to build a more exciting discord server. We also re-branded my old Twitch account to Noclip and started our weekly livestream (Wednesday @ 2PM EDT) by announcing the Hitman doc. The next stages of this are making the podcast weekly, this monthly post, increased social media communication and more creative collaborations. With massive help and insight from Frank we are trickling these projects one by one.

Another side of this is the dreaded dollar amount on the homepage. After a lot of research I've seen significant evidence that this is a genuine barrier to growth for Patreons of our size. I love our transparency and it means a lot to me, but after 2.5 years of having all of our stuff public I'm willing to give the alternative a try. This is all just a heads up to say I'm considering removing the dollar amount next month to see if it has any affect. In any case I'm going to continue to post our net patron/dollar gains or losses in this mostly report like I did above. 

We're not just removing barriers to growth, but adding exciting new reasons to be part of our community. This month we'll also have news on our next funding drive, new tiers, and more general plans to let people know what we're doing, build a more consistent pipeline of work and communication to build this big, beautiful thing into something even more magical.

In any case the work continues to reap interesting videos! Below is a breakdown of all the public and patron-only videos we made along with some highlights from social media, from our own community and a look ahead to what you can expect in July. 

Remember, if you're a patron, you made these happen. So pat yourself on the back!

Noclip June Highlights

• Published Doc: How Supergiant Games Create Music & Art - Developing Hell #03
• Filmed our Documentary E3 2019 (out soon)
• Hired Frank Howley as Community Manager
• Announced Hitman Documentary! (watch here on the archive)
• Launched NoClip's weekly live show on our new Twitch Channel
• Added Bonjoro! support so new patrons get personalized welcome videos.
• Revamped Discord & social media channels. Make sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Reddit & Facebook for updates on what we're doing.

Patron-Exclusive Videos

• 06.22 Patreon Show June 2019 [$5+ Tier Exclusive]
• 06.13 E3 VLOG #04: Danny vs. The Fortnite Booth [$5+ Tier]
• 06.11 E3 VLOG #03: Live from Danny’s Sickbed [$5+ Tier]
• 06.09 E3 VLOG #02: Waypoint’s Favorite Microsoft Briefing Games [$5+ Tier]
• 06.08 E3 VLOG #01: Welcome to NoClip HQ [$5+ Tier]
• 06.06 VLOG: Details on E3 Doc & Community Ideas! [$5+ Tier]

 Social Media / Promo Highlights

• GiantBomb: Nite Three at E3 2019: Mary Kish, Nina Freeman and Danny O’Dwyer!
• Patrick Klepek reacts to Blair Witch announcement
• Instagram Recap: First Day of Filming E3
• Sneak Peaks of E3 Interview Guests; Marcin Iwiński, Tim Schafer, Rich Gallup, Rebb Forb, Ben Pack, Merry Kish, Skill Up, Jason Schreier

Work made by our Community: 

Our community is full of talented people and with the help of our "Share Your Work" discord channel we've collated a bunch of the highlights to share with you all. Make sure to check these out and support friends of Noclip and your fellow community members.

• First Five: How Supergiant Created a Decade of Excellent Games
• toco toco - Keiichi Okabe, Composer 
• Hold Back to Block: Art and Samurai - A Chat with Nobuyuki Kuroki (Samurai Shodown) 
• Project Borealis (Half-Life Episode 3 fan game)
• Waking Oni’s 100 Demons

What's coming in July?

• E3 Documentary - Early July [early access soon]
• Hitman Documentary plans - Late July
• Denmark meetup - Tuesday, July 2nd [location tbd]
• Weekly Stream call-in from Copenhagen - Wednesday @ 2PM Eastern

How to Support us this month...

• Consider becoming a Patron (and thank you to those of who are)
• Follow / Sub on Twitch: twitch.tv/noclip 
• Join our DISCORD
• Share the E3 & Hitman Docs
• Follow on Twitter, Instagram, Reddit & Facebook 

That's our report for this month. If you have any questions about the above or anything else please stick them in the comments below.

Alright, I gotta check out these danishes. 

Talk soon,

Danny