June 2016 - DLC Update

Pride Month

Hi everyone. It is LGBT pride month. With recent events happening both at home and abroad, it is more important than ever for the LGBT community to maintain its visibility and have its voices heard in everyday discussions and conversations. While it is understandably not safe in various parts of the world to even identify as LGBT, we must continue to do what we can for our communities in whatever capacity possible. We need to be there for one another, be less judgmental and more understanding towards each other; for when the world turns us away, we only have ourselves to rely on for love and support. Don't hate out of fear. Love yourself first and foremost, and extend that love to others - even to those that may seem not to deserve it.

This month, I've had the opportunity again to participate as my fursona at Pink Dot 2016 in Hong Lim Park, Singapore, for a third year's appearance with the support and company of dear, treasured friends who've become extended family. There has been a growing sentiment within our own community that the event has devolved into nothing more than a "feel good" party, spurring little to no change in terms of the nation's laws and policies. However, every time that notion of apathy surfaces, the community is given a brusque reality check to remind us why we must continue to be vigilant and vocal. Shortly after Pink Dot, various entities, circumstances and individuals have served as stark reminders that the LGBT community cannot afford to conflate silence for security, and that there are still many sources of discrimination and hatred that exist out there (whether we care to acknowledge them or not). Social & human rights movements like Pink Dot need to exist and continue its visibility and dialogue in society. I hope that in light of all the recent events, particularly during this month of Pride, you too would find the courage and unity to support your own communities.

Housekeeping

Starting today, in an effort to streamline housekeeping work and deterring "tourists" from freely accessing Patreon content (without actually paying and messing up stats), I'm rolling out Patreon's newly introduced "Charge Upfront" feature. This roll-out will only affect new patrons supporting this project. No action is required for existing patrons with processed accounts.

Final Installment of Meatier Showers 6

You should all have received a downloadable content link in your message inbox. This URL grants you access for patrons of all tiers to the final episodic release of Meatier Showers 6: Bulge Indulge. Normally the middle of the month DLC Update consists of developers notes and high resolution, behind-the-scenes files.

Supersize Your Meal For Just $3

This month, I've revised the BACKSTAGE ACCESS tier to include access to my Google Drive. For the end of this month alone, a pledge of $3 lets you download a special 26-page e-book, "Director's Cut" version of Meatier Showers 6's original "SIDE B" - rejected pages from a kaiju / macro story arc edited for length. (Please kindly consider upgrading to $3 as I'll be placing more unreleased content in the Google Drive each month. I'm pushing for this in part due to the fact that I'm now hiring additional help, on top of which I'm taking up driving lessons and applying for my license which is already setting me back a fair deal...)

 The key difference with the higher tier rewards is that those are primarily for securing digital copies of the finished products. $10 (till project completion) gets you the main e-book (when it's finished) and $25 gets you both the main e-book and bonus comic. Essentially speaking, the higher tiers don't get patrons MORE content per month, it promises them that upon project completion, they will receive the digital copies of the products. It also means that patrons who can't afford to pay more, don't necessarily get left out on the main content development.

The underlying principle behind all this is simple: as much as I would like to be able to make a substantial living out of all this, adding absurd layers of superficial rewards to justify more value (which I've tried before), serve only to become additional obstacles to jump over that distract me from ever completing the main product itself! What I truly hope is for people to support me because they BELIEVE in the characters, the project and what they all stand for.

Snares

June 2016