Tiny Furry 2 Year Anniversary (Patreon)

Hi everyone!

I don't really have anything prepared for this (though I do have an ending to upload after this post) but it's been two years since I officially released A Tiny Furry In A Huge World. Which means that it's been two years since I started creating content on the internet. Which means, roughly, that this Patreon has been in place for about the same amount of time minus a month or two.

Regardless, that's quite a lot of anniversaries. I feel like I should have a big speech prepped or something but I really don't, so I'm just going to ramble and hope it turns out alright.

I think the first and most important thing is to really just say thank you to everyone who has supported me over the years. Some people have joined Patreon this week. Some people have been here for the entire two year span. Some people have been here for a few months, dropped, come back again, and ... well, you know, I'm just talking about how a Patreon works at this point.

Outside of Patreon, some people have commissioned a story from me, some people have commissioned multiple, and everyone has been patient with me when it comes to my pace on completed commissions not being the fastest in the world. I think (or hope) that everyone understands that any delay isn't due to laziness on my part but more a commitment to quality. Good work takes time and the pieces I get commissioned to do often aren't very shortly.

Some people have just dropped me a tip on Ko-Fi, or thrown me shinies on FA, or otherwise done things that I would never expect anybody to really do for me for the sake of continuing my creative craft.

Where am I going with this? I guess, like I said, thank you. Whether you've been on Patreon for two years or a day or you've bought one story or you've thrown me a couple of bucks or you've just been a friend and listened to me, then, thank you. I didn't expect any of this when I uploaded A Tiny Furry. I just wanted to make something that a few people might enjoy, or, selfishly, maybe even something that I would enjoy.

I really can't say it enough. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Every day I feel like I don't deserve the support that I get but I don't let this get me down. Instead, I use it to empower me to move on and write and work hard and struggle for something that I actually care about, which is this community that has grown around me. I might not be the most vocal person at times, I might not talk a lot in Discord, and I am generally just quite shy (unless you let me get going like I am now) but I really do care about each and every one of you more than I could ever really explain. Without you, I wouldn't be able to do anything that I do.

I might've said this before - but in many ways, A Tiny Furry was a project created because I was kind of frustrated with the quality of the average text adventure made in Quest. Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of great stuff, but it's like finding diamonds in the rough.

While I didn't think I could make the most feature rich thing in the world, I did think that I could at least make something that was convenient for the player and that had a clear theme - which is, of course, macro/micro. So many text adventures made in that engine seem to be designed to waste your time in one way or another, whether that be literal game overs or esoteric puzzles or missing endings right where you don't want there to be missing endings. I wanted A Tiny Furry to be extremely accessible - for there to be no game overs, for there to be no esoteric puzzles, for every ending to be complete - because I thought that would be something that would be fun to make in a weekend or two and that people might like it.

Anyway, that first update - Ms. Matthews - came from a place of frustration. Very soon though the whole thing became a labor of love. People liked my game. People weren't sending me nasty messages or calling me a weirdo or saying I was a freak or that my writing was heinous or anything. So how could it be about frustration anymore? The whole thing was about community. People vote in polls here in order to dictate upcoming content for the game(s). Practically every character is an addition chosen by you guys and I genuinely think that's incredible, and it's something that I want to keep going into the foreseeable future - perhaps, forever, even. It's fitting, because you all give me purpose.

And I mean that. I struggle a lot to write, to create, and particularly to display it publicly. I spend a lot of hours grinding and crunching and many more hours being anxious about whatever I've uploaded and it does take a toll on, at the very least, my mental state (and to a lesser extent my wrists). But the struggle is worth it. It means something to me. Before this i was struggling in a dead end job that didn't really mean anything to anyone and said struggle only brought me misery. Now I'm creating content that I love for a community that I love even more ... and the struggle brings me so much joy. I feel myself becoming a better person because of it - the person that I genuinely want to be. One day I won't struggle as much with the struggles I contest with on a day by day basis, and I know this, and I know that it's because of what I do here.

So, again, thank you. Everything you see here - everything I ever upload - it comes from a place of passion and of true joy. Every day I get more and more confident with what I'm doing. It is a slow process but I think it reflects in my work. A Tinier Furry is a much more confident project in every sense of the word than A Tiny Furry was and every project going forward is only going to be more and more confident.

And what said projects will be, as always, will be up to you. Who knows what lays in wait after A Tinier Furry? A sequel? A new game? A return to Tiny Furry? Again, whatever it is, it will be polled in the coming months. And it will be my greatest joy to see what you all want me to do, regardless of what it is.

That was a pretty long speech to say that I had nothing planned. I hoped that at least some of it made sense ... it was a bit of a stream of thought ramble. I think the core message is thank you - to literally everyone who has so much as read one of my stories - for giving me something that is worth struggling for.

In celebration of the two year anniversary I am going to bump the Patreon annual discount up from the usual 10% to 16%. Personally I wanted to do something like 25% or maybe even a little more but the people at Patreon will only let  me do 16% because, I dunno, maybe they don't want me to go insane or something. I'm a writer, not a mathematician, so I'm not sure what the savings are on this, but there are, indeed, probably SAVINGS and all that. I'll close this off at the end of the year if I remember to. Or maybe it'll be permanent? Who knows? 

SO YEAH WOO ANNUAL SAVINGS

I will be here for another year at the very least, and I will be putting out content just as regularly if not moreso. Patreon has had great growth this year and I am fairly confident that will continue to be the trend - especially with Tinier Furry releasing in the next few months. I've always said that the more money that comes in here is the more time that I can spend per month on the game rather than commissions. Ideally I'd like to work on the game full times and nyx commissions all together - or at least regular commissions - but it might be a bit before I am at the point where I can do that. Maybe this year, though? Who knows! 

Regardless, I am healthy, fit, and capable and all of that jazz, so if you're confident in another year of Kyobi then feel free to check that out. If not, then, I love you anyway!

On the upcoming - I will have that kobold story up either Monday or Tuesday (it's going to be a chunker at 20,000 words or so) more endings this week (one upcoming right after this post, actually) and the actual game update on December 31st which will have all of the endings that I'll be publishing up to that point plus more.

See you in like, two minutes.