Update to Rewards Tiers (Patreon)
Content
When we do these public releases, it's mostly to help sort out bugs, locate oversights, or get balance testing and suggestions for improvement. During these times, the versions provided will have debug menus implemented to help players test things out.
As the number of patrons goes up, we'll be doing fewer public bug-testing releases since the patrons always get access to the betas. We currently have 20 patrons, which is nice, but not enough for a bug-test. If we had 50+, we could do patron-only test builds.
So here's my current scheme:
During public bug tests, everyone will have access to debug mode. The debug menu lets the player warp to different areas, modify script flags at will, get free XP/cash, and the sort of things that testers are supposed to do.
During public releases of actually finished chapters, the game will still have the debug menu but it will require a cheat code to activate. Patrons will be provided the cheat code for each release, but the public will not (of course, they could just hack the executable).
I don't want to be the kind of person who locks an ostensibly free game behind a Patreon paywall. A game that nobody can play hardly constitutes a game, as far as I'm concerned.