dev diary: survey pre-results, and other plans! (Patreon)

first: it’s been a hot minute since i gave any gamedev updates, so i wanted to mention my goal for this month is to finish a work-in-progress build for syrup 2!

i made a lot of progress the last time i worked on the game, so now i’m basically just finishing up any rough assets, and putting in new songs. there’s been A TON OF CONTENT added since the demo, and i can’t wait to see people’s reactions to the story developments <3 SOON ENOUGH U GUYS WILL KNOW…… omg.

another gamedev note: in january i’ll be returning to working on lonely wolf treat in FULL SWING!!!!! i want to finish part 8 during 2023, and there’s a lot of extra stuff i want to add on top of just the new chapter, so i expect it to be a long one. i promise not to get too distracted by other projects, because i really want to wrap up the series and give everyone their happy endings :)

now onto today’s main topic!

survey stuff!!

at the time of writing this, the survey that i posted a little over a week ago has gotten over 500 responses! um… I DIDN’T EXPECT SO MANY….. THANK YOU…………!!!!

i’ve been tracking the results as they evolve, and there have been a lot of interesting things to note! here are some of the statistics so far:

• the age groups are fairly equal (excluding the extreme ends--no elders, as expected lol). the #1 answer is 18-22, with 30+ being less common.
• about 70% of respondents consider themselves lgbtq+, and he/him is the most commonly used pronoun. she/her is close behind, followed even more closely by they/them.
• nearly half said they’re definitely not asexual, with 35% somewhere on the spectrum. the rest were unsure/questioning, and 1% hadn’t heard of it. (honestly that’s a lot of aces for a group that the general public thinks doesn’t exist!)
• lonely wolf treat is both the first game of mine people have played, and their favorite. the second favorite option is “how can i choose?!” (hehe, thank you)
• 45% found my games through itch.io, 15% from youtube, and 13% on google play. this one had a write-in option, so i have to go through all the responses to categorize more of them--but less than 2% of respondents answered twitter. i will definitely be talking about this more in my full analysis!

i’m leaving the survey open until 12/23, so the percentages will probably shift a little. but i don’t plan to post the link anywhere else, so i shouldn’t get another large influx of responses… (i don’t think i could handle if it reached 1000. that’s a lot to go through…!)

i read over all the feedback from the end of the survey, and decided on a couple things. one was that i should do another survey at some point (and ask different questions) because omg this has been really fun. but more importantly… everyone’s kind words have inspired me, and given me courage. which is where my other plans come in!

the other plans!!!!!

i'm going to be starting a monthly newsletter, which i'm announcing once the survey ends.

a lot of people expressed wanting more places to get updates outside of patreon, since patreon isn't accessible to everyone (whether that be for financial reasons, or because it's literally banned in their country). i'll be using it to announce new releases, maybe sales, and share small gamedev progress updates. i want them to be short and cute! just a fun little thing to pop in your inbox from time to time. more details to come when i announce it for real :)

the other thing is… i've been quietly lurking on cohost since last month, and i'm completely in love with it.

the culture there is wonderful--there are a lot of other game developers, artists, and people doing cool things with css in their posts. there are no metrics either! no public follower lists, no way to stalk someone's likes, no algorithms. just posting. it's been like a little haven for me… a social space for me to exist online, free of anxiety. 

someone left a response to the survey, something like "i hope to see your art somewhere it's welcomed" …when i read that, i realized cohost feels like exactly that place.

so i set up a page! thank you to that person, for giving me the little push i needed. the account is still private, but feel free to drop a follow request--i'm just posting from my backlog of art for now. i will be switching it to public in january when i'm ready! there's still time to change my mind, but i'm pretty confident this will be a positive thing. crossing my fingers this won't cause any drama ;_;

WHEW that was a lot of updates

i always have more to say than i thought once i start writing these... haha, just another reason i need a public blog again :)

thanks for reading! <3