Announcing Tiny Furry In A Huge World Plus (Patreon)

Hello everyone! 

Sorry it's been a bit quiet over the past few days. After the last game release I took an extended break (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) in order to recharge the ol' batteries. It worked out great! I feel refreshed.

I am back at work today however! And I have an announcement for everyone. I was going to keep this as a surprise and just drop it in the middle of the month but in the interest of transparency I'd like to explain to everyone at the beginning of the month rather than attempting to surprise. Anyway...

what this

It's going to be a paid for version of Tiny Furry In A Huge World that's going to have bonus content and special features. 

It's going to be available on itch.io. Over the past few days - resting, thinking, planning - I've been carefully considering this, and I think it could end up being a good move. As an independent artist/writer/thing I need to open up more revenue streams so that I can keep myself afloat without flogging myself to death and, well, this is one of them.

It's a little nerve wracking to do and there's all the possibility that it won't work out in the way that I envision. But that's okay. I am prepared for all possibilities. Or at least, I think I am.

I have prepared a Q&A that will hopefully answer all the questions.

Q&A

Q: How much will it cost?

$5 USD. To convert to other currencies - at the current conversion rate, at least - this'll work out at about 5€ or £4. To be completely transparent, after itch.io takes their cut and considering taxes and stuff, I'll make roughly two dollars and change per sale.

Q: Why five bucks?

Because I think it's a good and fair amount. In the grand scheme of things - especially in terms of games - five bucks isn't a lot of money. In the US, at least, you can't get a couple of candy bars for that amount of money, so, a whole 400,000 word text adventure with a bunch of bonus features and graphical improvements isn't beyond the pale for that amount, I think.

It'll also be a decent investment because when you buy it you'll have access to all future updates of the game for free, forever, and there'll probably be a few of those. This doesn't extend to work in progress updates, though - more on this later.

Q: When will it be released?

This month. I'm aiming to get it finished and released in the next two weeks or so. It'll probably be the big game drop for this month since the next Tiny Furry Quest update might take more than a month to cook up.

Q: Why itch.io?

itch.io worked out to be an excellent platform for Macroville. I haven't talked about it's release there much but it got tons of positive attention and I've been considering putting Tiny Furry In A Huge World up there for a while. It's a neat platform and I'd like to use it more so there you go.

Q: What will the exclusive content/bonus features be?

I'm probably forgetting stuff here, but, the main stuff is:

- The Big Rachel Content
- 2 Bonus Endings (Claire and a character that will be polled this month very shortly) with many more to come
- In-Game Map/Full In-Game Guide
- Skip To Whatever Ending You Want
- Jump To Whatever Area You Want
- Completely Reworked Stomach/Interior Rooms (all timers removed, easier to navigate)
- Backgrounds for (most) areas
- All Encounters Polished (awkward lines rewrote, typos removed, colored text given to all dialogue)
- UI Improvements All Round (hard to explain but it'll just look/feel better)

Over time it will be given more exclusive content. It'll probably see a significant update a couple of times a year that adds new endings/probably a new character and area/etc.

As a Patron you've probably already seen a lot of this stuff in the latest preview build! Don't worry, though. You haven't seen everything yet. I'll be adding some more content to the big Rachel stuff as well as cleaning like... every ending in the game up a little. This is going to be a very satisfying update and hopefully a worthy investment.  

Q: Will Patreons get it for free?

Yes, absolutely, one hundred percent. Or, to be more accurate, those in the $10 tier will. Getting game updates is part of that tier and will remain part of that tier forever. If you're subbed to that tier this month (or a higher tier) then you will get Tiny Furry In A Huge World Plus as part of your pledge.

As an extra special bonus for this month only, I will send everyone who is subbed to that particular tier (or above) a game code/download key/whatever that will give you free access to the game and any updates it receives on itch.io forever.

It will also be uploaded here so you can just yoink it from Patreon if you want. Basically, yes, it's a $10 pledge bonus.

Q: Will early game updates/in progress stuff be released on itch.io?

No, only stuff that's completed. In progress stuff will remain exclusive to Patreon. This means that the fae dragon stuff isn't going to be in Tiny Furry Plus on release, for example. 

I'm doing this for two reasons - one, I don't want to compromise the benefits of the $10 tier - and, two, I want the 'retail' version to feel feature complete without any half-finished loose ends.

Q: Why are you doing this?

The simple answer is because I want to open up another revenue stream for myself.

The long answer is thus. Because of the amount of work that I'm doing on my games right now, I'd like to take less commissions overall so that I'm building up less of a backlog and, y'know, people who buy commissions from me can get them quicker. Not counting the vignette tier (which isn't a problem) I'm taking two or three commissions a month but finding that I only really have the time to complete one due to the fact that I'm putting so much time into my games right now. This means that my backlog is getting larger and larger every month and it's becoming clearer and clearer that piling commissions on myself isn't sustainable in the long term.

My hope is that by doing this I'll be able to sell a couple of dozen copies of it a month for the rest of the year. This'll make me about a hundred bucks a month which means I won't need to take an extra commission which means that I can knuckle down on game development without creating an enormous backlog for myself in the process.

If it doesn't work out that way then that's okay. I'm not going to be financially destitute or anything so don't worry about my bottom line or anything. This is an experiment. If it doesn't work out then I'll figure out something else.

Q: What will happen to the free version?

It will continue to exist on textadventures.co.uk. It's going to receive one more significant update (adding the bonus endings but not the Rachel content and patching out a bunch of bugs that ended up in 1.2) and then after that it will no longer have new content added. If there are bugs they will be fixed but beyond that support for that version will be dropped.

The reason for this is twofold. The first factor is that textadventures.co.uk only allows uploads that are eight megabytes large, and... the game is larger than that now. This is the main reason why I can't add the Rachel content to the online player and thus it will be exclusive to plus. I considered adding a compromised version but not only would that take a lot of time it'd be a compromised version and given the amount of effort that was put into it I'd rather people experience it as it was meant to be experienced. The second factor, and really the most significant one, is that maintaining two versions of the game would be a large timesink - especially when I have to keep the megabyte restriction in mind.

Q: What if you sell a million copies and-

That won't happen.

Q: Okay, but let's say you sell a ton of copies and make a ton of money. What then?

I probably won't, but, if I do, it'll be reinvested back into the games. I've considered this. I have a few projects in mind (and a few ongoing projects) that could do with extra funding. You don't need to worry about me blowing it on gambling or something - it'll go into me making better games and better work overall. Supposing that I do make a ton of money, I'll be transparent about it, and I'll let everyone know where/what it's being invested into.

Truthfully I'm hopefully that this will enable me to put food in my mouth and keep a roof over my head without having to resort on building up a big backlog. That's as far as my expectations go and I'm prepared for this to not meet those, so, I've prepared for it. If my expectations are blown out of the water then I've considered that too. Basically, we'll see how things go. 

In short, I'll let everyone know how much it's selling and what it's being invested into - I owe everyone that after how much you've invested into me.

Q: What about Tiny Furry On A Huge Quest?

It'll be free. There are multiple reasons for this - but the most important one is that I've already said publicly that it will be available for free and I'm not going back on my word. It'll have to be uploaded on itch.io because of the aforementioned megabyte restriction but the price will be free. As for whether I'll do a plus version of it like this, well, that's really up in the air. It might happen, it might not. I'd like to get the game finished before I even consider it.

Q: I have a question that isn't covered here.

Drop it in the comments and I'll answer it as best I can!

I hope that explains everything! In short, paid version of Tiny Furry. It'll cost five dollars. Lots of bonus features and game improvements! It's coming in about two weeks or so. Please look forward to it.

This weekish I will have a big commission for everyone. I might have a vignette too! There will also definitely be some polls. Also, those bonus endings I promised I would be catching up on!

Whoops! I forgot to end the post properly. Happy reading! Happy existing!