!Zyypho State of Affairs August 2023! (Patreon)

Hey everyone~! I hope you're doing well. I've been in a good way myself, lately.

I'm going to do a small update on personal things, then move into current projects, and finally I'll discuss some changes in my business model. We will also discuss the recent issue with Patreon.

First off, I'd like to make a statement about my health.
I'm doing a lot better! I had some chronic pain in some very sensitive areas. I had to go through several scans and ultrasounds to find the cause of the pain. I'm luckily doing much better and I'm on a very slight medication to help with fatigue and mood! Last month, I was just in constant pain and unable to sleep so I'm hoping to make up for that by being extra productive this month and as Summer comes to a conclusion.

Current Project Updates

Rapturous: Pit Raiders is coming along well. Most of the work so far has been planning and engine tweaks, there's still a lot more to go but I'm starting to carve a game out of the raw ideas and code. I'm really happy with the basic look and what I've achieved. You've all been so immensely patient and I'm really thankful. I've commissioned some folks to do music for me, I've finalized a lot of the art style and gameplay loop as well. It'll be a bit before I'll have more to show but I hope the wait will be worth it. You'd be surprised how one simple thing can end up taking all day as you write a novel way to calculate an angle or perform an animation.

In order to keep me true and keep you all in the loop, I am going to do a Weekly Raiders Update. I won't give away everything I work on or too many assets (I don't want to spoil much or overpromise) but things that get finalized and the state of some areas I'd like to start sharing! I'm going to try to do one every Sunday.

Business Model Stuff

I'm not going to belabor the point, but I'd like to discuss the recent Patreon payment hiccup. I operate on very small margins, doing only enough commissions to feed myself, pay rent, and save a bit for a rainy day. Patreon recently dropped 30% of my support and it's been very hard. I'm now below where I was when I transitioned to fulltime art and that is demotivating to say the least. In retaliation I'm starting up a Subscribestar, which will offer everything available on Patreon for the same rates. It's still under review but I'm hoping it'll help spread some risk.

I've also decided to raise my commission prices again, I'll be posting all my art publicly every other day instead of daily, and I'm going to keep practice sketchwork exclusive to patreon/subscribestar for at least 2 months as a reward. Since practice sketches are only done out of the grace of my supporting audience, that seems fair to me.

I want to leave off by saying that I can only do this job because of you folks. Getting throttled this month reminded me how amazing it is how many folks support me, and it's immensely valuable in my life to have that comfort. Thank you all, dearly!