Update Schedule and Patreon's Role in the New Game

I said back in my February update that I would be working on a schedule on how I want to upload the game and how patreon should fit into all of this.

My plan is to release a couple of builds of the game as public demos and then release individual "chapters" as patreon exclusive until the game is complete. Afterwards, I will sell to the game to the public ($10-$15 probably depending on the final budget) with the patreon supporters getting a free copy of the final game.

The strategy is an obvious one as it will be used to help pay for the art in the game.  As stated before, the game is much larger so careful planning and pacing is important. The first update of this game will have 12 backgrounds and 12 characters. The second will add another 8 backgrounds and 8 characters. And there will still be more after that.

In comparison: My Catgirl Maid had 22 backgrounds and 4 characters throughout the entire game.

Update 1 will focus on the story intro and a couple of other smaller chapters to test out the "gameplay" for this VN of moving between cities and getting to choose what chapter you want to read next. 

This will serve as a test to see how the system works and if we need to make an changes to the format for general user-friendly purposes or just to make it feel more polished.

Update 2 will be the basis for the Official Demo. It'll be missing a few features (like music) but will have enough content to it to see how it will branch into different subplots and introduce all the main cast. 

As further polish (gui, music, etc) get done, the update will be updated until it fully achieves "Official Demo" status but will serve as the final public release until completion.

After this, I will be hosting polls for patreons with a list of potential chapters and then patreons can vote on the next chapter.

With the first two public release, I should have the majority of the art together and be able to put out stuff faster.

With any luck, we can go through the process of Vote->Write->Release all within a month or less.

Voting will be open to each tier and the releases of the chapters will follow the system from My Catgirl Maid. $10 tier first, $5 tier second and $1 last.

Art will be similar with the $5 and $10 tiers getting concept art for characters and backgrounds and the $1 and $5 tiers getting the teaser screenshots as they wait for their release.

To make the patreon chapter releasing and polls fair, I will be switching patreon to charge upfront to prevent people signing up and dropping out in the same day to get the privileges.

I hope all this makes sense. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.