v.09 and Beyond (Important Announcement) (Patreon)

This is a somewhat lengthy post (do I honestly ever have succinct ones?) but I wanted to brief everyone on the future of the next update and beyond. For those of you who don't want to read a ton, just scroll down to the summary section. For those of you who want details, keep reading...

So I will avoid spoilers in this post because the free version of v.08 has not been released to the public yet. For those of you who have already played it, I humbly ask that you avoid spoilers in your comments here out of respect for those who haven't played yet. 

V.09

So, I'll cut right to the chase. I may take this next month off in terms of the typical update schedule. Here's why:

So when I began the game, like most ideas, I prepared an outline...honestly, it's more like a flowchart that showed the progression of the story. This provided me a large overhead idea of the direction moving forward. However, it didn't have a lot of the intimate details that really make these characters. Honestly, they wrote themselves through the past 8 updates. While, I have some seeds and twists planned in the story, other smaller details have begun to emerge that have taken on a life of their own. I'm ok with this and I honestly enjoyed this part of the story. However, the current outline I have now is out-of-date moving forward. There are a significant amount of plots and ideas that have emerged that I really want to move forward carefully on. To do this right, I need time to plan this and update my outline.

Now updating an outline doesn't sound like a major project but I would also like to go back through and read my own game from the beginning--something I haven't done for a long time. I don't like plot holes. To mitigate this, I need to go back through and comb my own shit--ensuring that all holes are intentional and/or potentially correct any errors. This also allows for me to identify unresolved areas and really weave them into the story like they should be. Given that my work/school/internship schedule is pretty hectic, I anticipate that a more detailed outline will help me focus and be more productive in the coming months when I do have a chance to work on things. Without it, things may be forgotten. What I don't want is to have to go back and rewrite shit because I forgot a small detail. Especially if those details are supposed to be less obvious clues about the story progression.

Thus, my main focus over the next month is going to be more of a behind-the-scenes update than the typical writing and CG part. If this project goes smooth and I have ample time to collect my thoughts, writing for the next update would then begin as normal.

The Patreon Site

This is something that I thought long and hard about and, in the spirit of transparency, I want to share my decision and the logic behind it. 

While some creators go on a "hiatus," and discontinue the charging on the site, this does not feel like a hiatus. To develop something like this--particularly as a hobby-- I must do several behind-the-scenes things like writing outlines or researching coding, etc. For those of you who pay, you saw much of this prior to v.08 as I struggled to decide on how I actually wanted to develop the poker scene--at one point actually writing a post on how stupid I was for the broad scope of my initial idea. 

In short, I have two choices: 1) I shut the Patreon off and go on hiatus completely. If I shut it off, I'm probably going to take a break since I've been writing on this and doing school and full-time work for 6 months with few breaks. Or 2) I keep the Patreon turned on and use my guilt as a motivator to keep working. My biggest problem here is feeling guilty for the site charging people even if they don't get a product update for that month. However, this appears to be fairly common for other creators but not something I take lightly. I guess I can always reference my original Overview description of the game that states that not every month will have an update--however, that feels lame. So far, I've gotten something out each month and that really is my goal. However, I plan to weave more complicated things into the story and that takes more planning.

My decision, right now, is to leave the Patreon site turned on. To me, the thought of people continuing to subscribe will weigh heavily on me and will continue to motivate me to work on the game. I plan to play through my game again from the beginning, fixing any bugs or spelling issues as I go. This also lets me spot plot holes and tighten up my writing. Since I'm still technically working on the game, it seems fair to leave the Patreon running. However, if this shit gets out of control, I will let you know and cut off the charges. I'm not going to just leave the site running forever and milking people like a few of the popular artists do. That's bullshit and it's not ok!  If it ever got to that point, I would notify the community of this and probably encourage you to still follow the site until I got caught up. If you got pissed and bailed, I would fear you would never get what you already paid for and that's not ok either. As always, I plan to actively continue to post on the site here and will probably use the lens feature to snap a few pics of me actively doing shit. Despite this being a hobby, the invested community and your support is something that I take very seriously on the project and I don't plan to compromise that.

However, with everything I have going on, I need to slow down a bit; catch my breath; and get an updated outline together to make writing in the future go smoother. This should benefit the game as a whole and hopefully improve the quality of what you have already played.

Summary

Over the next month or so, I'm going to primarily focus on going back through the game myself and doing bug searching and rereading. I'll use that information to update my obsolete game outline before moving forward for the next update. Reason I'm doing it now is that this is a good place to slow down a bit without destroying you guys with cliffhangers. I'll post to keep people informed of the progress and the Patreon will stay active. I anticipate no new content this month but may release an update if there's any major corrections to the current build. Once the outline is complete, I'll start the writing on v.09. I anticipate this will quicken my writing a bit in the future and should help with accuracy in the storyline. If the outline construction goes quickly, it may not effect the next update too much but honestly, I do want some time to prep moving forward so we'll see.

If you have comments, questions, or concerns, let me know. I try to keep an open door policy on all of this stuff. For those of you who stay on board through the behind-the-scenes, you have my gratitude. I thought it better to continue my transparency and let you know what my plan is so that you can modify pledges if you are so inclined. 

An additional note, Patreon bills for the month that just passed. Thus, I have waited to make this announcement in the month of May because May pledges would be taken out June 1. My intent was not to wait until the next billing cycle to sneak this in.

Hit me up if you got questions

-Aaryn-