A Gaze into the Future - IV (Patreon)

Whoops! I'm late for July's Gaze. I'm so very sorry! It has been a hectic month, and I completely forgot about it ^^ I also talked about doing a weekly report in the "Mini report" but turns out I forgot I need to write the Gaze, so this is a combination of both. The idea I have is to write a small weekly report on fridays (great start!) and the bigger report each month (I managed 3 on time, and fourth is just a little bit late). Here we go!

Welcome to the (A) Gaze into the Future - IV!

A recap for those who haven't read the Mini report; 

- On friday 21st, my computer broke and wouldn't start up again. Turns out the motherboard just gave up, and it took me a week to get a new motherboard (thanks for to the Finnish post office) as nobody in this town sold AM3+ motherboards. 

- On 23rd, Ferred decided to move along to their own project. I am not shocked, because I knew about it earlier already and it's not a disaster for the project either because I am a programmer as well, and I made the first versions solo... Just means I have to do more programming than I had to for the past few months ^^

Now my computer is up and running again, but I have also bought a brand spanking new PC, in addition to my old computer of course. I will slowly transition things over to the new PC and keep the old PC as an emergency machine just in case something like this happens again ^^ We lost large parts of the week (in time) as I didn't have a proper access to a computer and the next build is going to be a bit later on schedule, but nothing too major. I promise!

We're planning on the new release for mid next week. Of course we'll try to get it out earlier, but I don't want to promise anything that might not be doable ^^

Of course I didn't waste all of the "non-computerized" -week by just fiddling fingers. Using these mysterious devices called as pens and... maybe even papers, I've made notes and planned things regarding the Patreon website and rewards. Hareress drew us some stickers (which I'm still in progress of inking and coloring up) to spice up the reward icons and page content ^^ 

Also, I'm thinking of splitting releases into two to be able to advertise a little bit more and generate little more interest in pledging and also to give smaller, easier, tier to participate in development without fully commiting. Basically there will be an "Iron Cohort" tier (2 usd) that will get public build at the same time as the Bronze Cohort (and higher) will, while others will need to wait for a week. Iron Cohort will also get access to developer posts and general polls as Bronze Cohort does. Iron Cohort doesn't get access to the Patreon build tho, so basically nothing changes there.

Bronze Cohort literally stays the same.

Silver Cohort will be reduced from 15 usd to 10 usd and they get access to design polls. However, I'm not yet sure how often design polls will be ran, but I want the amount reduced so that it is a bit more appealing. Of course Silver Cohort will also, eventually, get access to special customization options ^^

Golden Cohort, similarly to Silver Cohort, gets access to design polls and will have it's price reduced from 50 usd to 25 usd, and they will get additional customization options, but those will come somewhere further along the line. I don't want to rush content nor to gate core content just to get higher tier Patrons, feels morally wrong ^^'

And we want to introduce "one-shot" long term supporter tiers. There were some good ideas already on the survey, but of course more are welcome! ^^ The four ideas that were either suggested in survey or I just thought would fit, are: 

1) a name in credits, but instead of just being a list, the player ship's hull would have names carved in it, along the planks of the hull. I think it would look really cool, like the wood is tattooed with names :3
2) Your OC in game as Huntable Prey
3) Your OC in game as a Meetable Character
4) Design an Accessory (e.g. piercing, jewel, collar, whatever fits and is doable at that time) which would have designer's name listed in the object (e.g. A bronze bell collar with sapphire insets, designed by Lizzie110 (If you're actually real and follow me, sorry!))

I haven't thought about the actual total support amount yet, but I think name in credits would be something along the lines of what the game would cost if it was for sale in a store. The OC tiers of course would be a lot higher while Design an Accessory probably somewhere between the OC tiers ^^

Also, I want to update the Patreon page text, to be a bit more compact and less technical feeling and instead make it a lot more approachable and welcoming (which is also why the stickers ^^). If you want to read through the current draft, here's a link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z3vJv5F6BDKtk2l2SZZ4HBHxvb-TGjoym0UzaCdzqhg/edit?usp=sharing 

I've left commenting rights on, so if you have any suggestions etc or just want to discuss some bit innit, feel free to do so! :3

Also we're still looking for more replays to our freeword survey on improvements and things you'd like to see changed/added to make things more appealing! Survey here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/13180790

Now back on the topic of next month (this month!); Our goal is to introduce Conversation system, furry heads (for Faelain, first of the races, but other races will come a lot faster once everything is in place), and full animations. I did actually, already, grab another programmer but they're still doing little experimentation and testing before going full on with work. If all turns out fine, the conversation system is pretty much golden. That will be the main feature, and assuming the furry heads are good to go (later this month), I want to bring more customization options too (more body morphs, facial morphs, breast shapes, penis shapes, etc!)

Overall I don't think we hit our goals very well last month, but the poll we had about what people desire the most, kinda made me want to rethink our development plan and focus, and while we didn't exactly nail the initial goals, I think there was some nice features in the builds none the less, but I'm pretty hopeful for this month and I can't wait to showcase the heads and the process we're using to make them ^^

If you have any questions, suggestions, feedback, etc, let to flow! I'm always open for ideas and thoughts ^^

Thank you for reading thi-.. last month's little Gaze!

Best regards,
Ruffleneck

p.s. I need to make some nice image for the Gazes so I don't have to use the ugly text format posts x)