Patreon changes! (Patreon)

Hey kiddos,

Here's that big update I've been promising, and it's a bit of a long read, so get a big to buckle you in! I'll try to keep it concise.

It's not a revelation that updates around here have been sparse the last few months, and I want to talk to you about why that is and what I'm doing to fix it. I know that changes can be annoying (and embarrassing), and I want to do right by you guys first and foremost. It's my hope that you'll see where I'm coming from and work with me to get things back on track in a way that works for everyone.

When I started the Patreon, I was mostly focused on animation and I knew how much furries liked getting art of their characters, so I figured people would only be interested in my work if I was offering art of your OC's. I'd done some normal commissions in the past and had mixed results, so I went with a YCH model that allowed me more freedom and cut down on the wait time involved in messaging back and forth to work out all the details. That worked great for awhile, but over the months I noticed a few drawbacks, all of which had the same result: the harder I worked on a piece, the worse the outcome.

Let me explain what I mean. My real-life work schedule alternates between busy stretches and light stretches. Some months, I have a bunch of time to work on fun art, other months it can be hard to find the time to catch my breath. When I do have the free time, I want to push myself to grow as an artist and make the very best stuff I can for you guys!

Under my current tier system, Daddy-tier patrons can pick any of the YCH animations, and it's only reasonable that people would want the best one. But unfortunately that means that patrons are going to request an animation I did during a light month, even on months where I'm swamped with work. That's a big part of why I've fallen behind here.

Another consequence of that is that unless I keep coming up with a new YCH animation that's better and better each month (which is unrealistic due to my work schedule), people are going to keep requesting the same animation, month after month. That means that for all of my patrons minus one, when I DO finally get around to posting an update here, it's...that thing they already saw, except with a different character in it. That's got to be disappointing.

I'm incredibly grateful to all my patrons, and especially to people backing me at the Daddy tier. But at the end of the day, I don't think it's healthy for the Patreon to base the content around one Daddy a month, when it means that everybody else is paying the tab. And that issue is only going to get worse as it (hopefully) continues to grow and more people join us here.

So I think the fairest and most sustainable thing to do is to discontinue the YCH system. I'd like to focus on making original content for you guys, with a focus on comics and narrative art. On months when I'm crunched for work, I can post sketches and one-off illustrations. On months when I've got more time, I can do full comic pages. I'd like to finish the Lions comic, and I have a couple of other comic series started as well.

The thing that I've been struggling with is what to offer as a Daddy-tier reward that's fair for people, and I'd like to start streaming once a month (or more frequently on light work months) and offer access to that stream as a reward for Daddies. It may take me awhile to work out figure out a setup and schedule that works for that, but that's something to work out with you guys as we go.

If any of you have any questions or concerns, please send me a message and let's talk it over! I know some of you are going to feel disappointed with this change, but hopefully the majority of you will be excited about the new content to come. And a big thanks to everyone who read this far, and for all your support. It means the world!

Sincerely, --PP ??