Patron Feedback Results 2021 (Patreon)

Hey folks! As promised, I wanted to share with you all the results of this year's annual patron survey that we conducted earlier this month. As you can imagine your feedback is super valuable to me and each year now I've shaped the future trajectory of my content in direct response to it. For a tl;dr I've provided a bulleted list of the major updates or changes coming up for the immediate need-to-knows. Read on further beyond if you're interested in the data itself and a more detailed explanation of each bullet point. Thanks again!

THE MAJOR TALKING POINTS

• Will continue current trends in regards to increased map sizes, frequency of "lore-based" map releases, and a priority on virtual users (see data below)
• The backlog conversion of the library to Dungeondraft is still ongoing and when completed, will absolutely see backwards-facing improvements and the norm now moving forward will be for new asset packs to be released simultaneously with their Dungeondraft pack (or released shortly after)
• Setting an official minimum of 2 asset packs per month (sometimes more like this month!) This was kinda already the case, but making it official here.
• Top Asset Pack themes were: Academy, Ruins 2, Rivers 2, Cult, and a set of remastered Dungeon assets. Expect to see most if not all of these before the end of 2021. 
• In general the new Foundry integration launched this Summer is well received, but I am going to look into options to host the monthly pre-fab scenes myself so that Moulinette is a nice bonus system, not a requirement of access
• A surprising amount of users would like to see more WotC content, I will be making that more of a priority moving forward, but not dominantly so (Candlekeep content upcoming!)
• Of all collaborative content, adventure supplements are by far the most valued. This will continue to be the case as I prioritize it with our creator partners.
• The current means of sharing out mass downloading and access to the backlog kinda sucks (my words). Currently exploring means of being able to share large collections of map posts outside of patreon. 
• Will begin exploring options for creating organized databases for our growing library of adventures, top-down tokens, and individual assets 

THE DATA & THE DETAILS

Below I will share relevant data from each question and provide a little more context as to the major points listed above:

Do you typically play in-person or online?

As one might suspect, a lot of you play online (me too!). This is of course likely influenced by "current events", but will continue to play a role in my understanding as I prioritize features like supporting VTT platforms, making file sizes lighter through the VTT compression variants, etc.

Which overall genres of content are you interested in as a DM or player?

Unsurprisingly, "standard fantasy" as the fan favorite, as it should be! That said, horror and sci-fi didn't do too poorly, particularly when you take into account the data bias in that I make standard fantasy content and therefore attract patrons that want that. I find this encouraging if I were to take an experimental dip into the sci-fi realm sometime in the future (with some "artificer" variants included of course).

How valuable to you is the occasional "lore-based" map release like a town, city, or 3D building perspective?

Only about ~6% of users have no interest in "lore-based" maps whatsoever, with the vast majority of you getting at least some value out of them. This supports our current release structure of them which is to say, only release them a couple of times a year (and make sure they're helpful and/or inspiring when we do!)

Do you use our asset packs during or in preparation for your game sessions?

This is one of the few questions that surprised me--I knew the asset-using crowd was likely the majority, but 84% is significant. This is what pushed me to set a minimum of 2 asset packs per month now. While that was basically the trend for most of 2021, I want to make it official and push for more months where I can even get 3 out (like September!). That said, I really do like making the maps themselves too and can't see the assets overshadowing that.

When  using assets do you tend to prefer to build a map entirely from scratch  or instead populate an already half-built or unfurnished map?

As with the previous question, this one also surprised me! Would not have guessed so many of you were mixing + matching the maps with the assets. Over the last couple of months I've tried to make sure I include variants of maps that are either more sparse, unfurnished, or have very specific elements removed from them, but will absolutely be having this stat in my mind when designing maps moving forward. If anyone has any suggestions on how to continue to push the ability for a standalone map to be taken and modified by users beyond what I'm already doing please feel free to say so in the comments.

Are you a dungeondraft user?

So glad to see that so many of you have managed to migrate to Dungeondraft in the last few months in light of our conversion efforts. As I make note of in the bullets above, that process is hefty considering the size of the library, but it is 100% still ongoing. Similarly, my norm and expectation moving forward will be to have a DD-converted pack going out with each asset pack as they're released. That said, I'd love to hear what others are using for their mapmaking! Photoshop? GIMP? Something built-in to a VTT platform like Foundry or Roll20?

Do  you generally prefer packs with fewer, larger and more unique assets or packs with more, smaller, and generalized  assets?

Most seem to like the current diversity of asset pack types, I like them, and the contingent that prefer otherwise are relatively split on the direction I take. No current changes planned on this front.

Please select any asset pack themes that are of interest to you:

As stated above, top picks are the Academy, River 2, Ruins 2, Cult, and Dungeons. Expect to see those in the next couple of months! Likewise I got a lot of helpful suggestions on unexplored asset themes. I'll be taking my favorites from those comments and compiling them into a different poll on patreon sometime in the future. 

Where  would you rate your preference on the spectrum of smaller, totally  hand-painted maps to larger, asset-assisted maps?

This was a big one I was personally interested in as the scope of map content so far in 2021 has gradually shifted in the direction of larger scenes that combined hand drawn imagery with asset supplement. In general that seems to be a pretty supported trend, but I also have no plans (or desire!) to stop making hand drawn maps too.

How would you describe your reception of our new Foundry integration plan?

Of those of you playing online, clearly a lot of you are doing it on Foundry. I'd obviously love for that "red" response to be smaller, so if you have suggestions on other things we can be doing for Foundry I'd love to hear it in the comments! The main thing I've heard thus far is people not loving having to be subscribed to Moulinette to access the pre-fabricated scenes released each month, which I completely understand. I am looking into being able to host those simultaneously on my own elsewhere so that people that enjoy Moulinette can continue doing so while it need not be a requirement to access of the content.

How interested are you in content made specifically for WotC modules vs. homebrew and/or setting agnostic content?

This is another one of those numbers that surprised me! For whatever reason, did not think engagement in WotC content would be that high (though to be fair, 56% of you would rather not see it). This is what lead to my WotC adventure focus poll which in turn lead to our Candlekeep focus, which you can expect to see maps for in the coming months (though I'm going to continue pretending that the Arched Repository was totally planned in response).

How satisfied are you with the content overall?

Gonna end the data screencaps on a high note with the satisfaction rating. Pleased and proud to see that 96% of you all would say you're either very or somewhat satisfied with the content. Doesn't mean I don't still very much care about that other 4%, but an encouraging piece of data for me personally nonetheless!

OTHER NOTES

Just wanted to drop a note in here at the end since there wasn't a specific question on it in the survey, but know that I am working on alternative solutions to some of the other quality-of-life aspects of accessing/browsing the content through Patreon. Patreon as a platform does a lot of great things, but user-facing content organization and delivery is certainly not one of them. 

In short, this looks like me looking at 3rd parties for doing sharing of mass downloading of the backlog (including the entire history of the library of content for $3+ supporters outside of what Moulinette offers) as well as wanting to build searchable databases for things like our adventures, top-down tokens, and specific individual or groups of tokens beyond the boundaries of the pack themes themselves. We do have the Map Archive that we launched last December that works towards this goal, but it certainly doesn't cover everything that we'd like it to. 

However, please note that all of these things, while super valuable and necessary, are also on the same plate of "things to do" alongside dungeondraft conversion, monthly foundry prep, token packs,  5 monthly releases of maps + asset packs, and ongoing collaboration with other creators to bring you bonus content. NOT a complaint, just don't want anyone to feel like I'm not aware of this issue or ignoring it, just working on trying to carve out the time for it.

Thank you for reading!