September 2016 Newsletter (Patreon)

After a month of frantically running around, I've finally settled down at my new studio location. It's been nearly a week since I've began my residence here, and have been relatively busy playing catching with everything that was supposed to be cleared the previous month, from outstanding commissions to managing my Patreon project and other things. I'll share more about my personal adventures in a journal post on my FurAffinity page eventually, but for now, let's talk about updates!

Recent Poll Results

In an ongoing effort to provide for better rewards, we conducted 2 quick surveys over the first week of September to gain some better understanding. As of this writing, here are the figures:

What rewards would you find attractive on the Meatier Showers Patreon?

(67 Responses)

43% - Art Tutorial

25% - Art Raffles

32% - Art Requests  

Following up on the popularity of art tutorials, we went further to ask for specifics:What sort of art tutorials would you like to see from (Meatier Showers Patreon) if you could choose?(93 Responses)

67% - How to Draw Muscles

9% - How to Draw Dongs

18% - (How to Draw) My Furry Characters

6% - (How to Draw) Famous Furry Characters

It's apparent that there's a demand for anatomy guides, and I would assume given the context of Meatier Showers, how to pull off believable hyper buff dudes. I think that art tutorials are a viable, new offering for my project supporters, and I believe these walkthroughs will help make for a more meaning experience overall.

Implementation

Due to the nature of art tutorials, some planning and preparation is required, and I cannot roll these rewards as of yet (especially since I'm currently backlogged with furry commissions). Towards the end of the year, we'll start seeing some changes around the place and see how that serves the community at large.

Rewards Not Punishment

 As you know, over the course of this year with the commencement of the new Meatier Showers production cycle, I've been revising my rewards system to better cater to my supporters. This is admittedly be a challenging balance between financial sustainability (for myself, as a creator), and customer satisfaction (for my supporters). For the most part, the current highest tier ($25 per month) has been putting a real strain on my supporters, and over the course of the past several months, we've seen supporters dropping out one after another due to the pressures. While the short term benefits mean that I have been able to pay off for my move, furniture, rent and bills, the long term effects presented are detrimental at best. Ultimately, my goal is to maintain a supportive community and not maintain a "reward" system that is punishing.

Revised Tiers

At the risk of inconveniencing my supporters once more, I would like to ask for your patience and understanding in the above matter. My current proposal for a streamlined reward system is as follows:

$1 - Basic Access (no changes)

• Monthly comic pages
• Monthly newsletter
• Name Credits 

$5 - Backstage Access (bumped from $3 tier - now with e-book reward)

• Monthly comic pages
• Monthly newsletter
• Development Talk & Notes
• Digital copy of "Buff Patrol" (by Snares & Donryu)
• Name Credits

$15 - Celebrity Access (combined between $10 and $25 tiers)

• Monthly comic pages
• Monthly newsletter
• Development Talk & Notes
• Access to high resolution files 
• Digital copy of "Buff Patrol" (by Snares & Donryu)
  
• Digital copy of "Mass Masseur" (by Modem & Graveyard Greg)
• Name Credits

In addition to the individual support tiers, we hope to implement milestone rewards, something that we've overlooked for a long period of time:

New Milestone Rewards:

• $600 pledged unlocks Muscle Tutorial (Arms)
• $700 pledged unlocks Muscle Tutorial (Legs)
• $800 pledged greenlights Groover Muscle Growth Comic
• $900 pledged unlocks Muscle Tutorial (Chest)
• $1000 pledged unlocks Muscle Tutorial (Back)
• $1200 pledged greenlights Snares Weight Gain Comic

New System Roll-Out

In order to allow patrons to respond to the above proposed rewards system, these changes will only be rolled out in the month of October. This is a good opportunity for those pledging $3 per month, who wanted the e-books but found the original $10 tier unfeasible, to now switch to a more affordable $5 tier (with e-book.) The two highest tiers have been combined to form the new $15 tier, an in-between of the two. Future Google Drive access to high resolution content will be limited to this new tier, and includes the bonus story by Modem and Graveyard Greg.

I know all this is confusing, and if you have any inquires, please feel free to leave them here in this thread. Otherwise, we'll have new inked preview pages from Modem coming in 15 Sept, and more comic pages with dialogue on 30 Sep.

SnaresSep 2016