Thoughts after July (Patreon)

Hey everyone,

I think it's a good idea to touch base once in awhile and give thoughts on what I'm thinking about things.  So in no particular order:

I'm going to be on vacation starting tomorrow.  So I will be be responsive to any comunication for a week.  I've really slowed down marketing on things over the last few weeks as we had that disastrous outtage.  I wanted to make sure things are stable before letting people know I exist again :)  So far it seems things are pretty stable.  You're able to see videos, and I've squashed some outlying bugs where users couldn't see the content.  So hopefully things remain quiet this coming week.

The Cyriaan Chronciles #10, the game I've been working on for seven months, will go into beta testing on August 8th.  I am pretty excited to get feedback and reports from players who enter that phase.  The distribution of the game has been limited, so it will be cool to thoughts from you before it launches sometime later this year.

I am excited to fire up the tickling comic factory again.  Recruiting back in May was exhausting.  I personally went through roughly 100 portfolios, hundreds of back and forth messages/emails, lots of testing, rework, etc. and had to fire someone already.  But to a large extent, these are expected headwinds, and we've signed contracts with artists for Yelena, The Agencies, The Ruthless, and The Cyriaan Chronicles.  The Agencies and Yelena are in genuine production, the Ruthless and The Cyriaan Chronicles have not started in earnest yet.  I don't know what I'm doing with those books vis a vis this Patreon, but we'll figure it out in time.  I want to find that balance between making sure we have funding for future books that covers the costs of production, while continuing to give customers the best value I can.

I'm still pondering what to do with tickling videos.  I'm in my 40s now, with a family, and feel I'm too old to be galavating around the country working with scantily clad 20 somethings on tickling videos.  But I am interested in producing new and fun material for the Patreon, so I may need to think outside the box on this one.  I love sharing the love of tickling with others, and love bringing customers the girl next door that we've always prided ourselves in.  Now how I can do that remotely will be a definite challenge.

The four day outtage on the Patreon site was humbling.  I really do appreciate your patience with us.  It really woke me up that I need a more long-term solution to streaming.  While the current solution works, we will be building something behind the scenes to help prevent that from happening again.  But on the flip side, it did introduce a talented web developer into my professional network, and that's always a good thing to have on a roster.  We will likely be building out a web presence in addition to the file maintenance.

It's August already and that is scary.  I hope everyone is staying cool out there, if you're in the northern hemisphere.  Take care, and shine on!