Artbook Vol. 12 will be the Final Volume This Year, Patreon monthly billing cycle will be paused for 2 months, On why will be the patreon paused, Plans + Preparation + Schedule for Next Year, Draknier Story Development Issues & Resolution, Commission, and The Future of My Patreon

Hallooooo everyone~!
There's a lot for me to talk about, so I'll break them down into small segments.

Artbook Vol. 12 Will Be The Final Artbook for 2020
Volume 12 which will cover the october 1st charge which will be the final artbook for this year.

Patreon Monthly Billing Cycle will be Paused for 2 Months
For November & December, there will be no jrpg artbook & jrpg emoji released, but it doesn't mean I'll stop working on the artbooks. In fact, I'll still be working both on November & December so that I can prepare for January & succeeding months.

Why I'm pausing the patreon for 2 months is because of the following:

1)Taking what I've learned with my patreon during this 1 year of doing artbook & revising plans for the schedule of the content
During this almost 1 year of making the artbook monthly series alongside the other content, I've experienced & learned many things so I would like to use this 2 months when I paused the billing cycle to plan and prepare when I resume making content on January.

Working hard isn't just enough anymore, I have to properly plan a schedule, so I can continue to be healthy and be able to continue working & deliver the content.

I've given a lot of thought when it comes to schedule, although nothing is finalized yet, for
next year, I'm still considering if I'll go with:

a) 1 month of paused  billing cycle (break) for every 3 months of content delivery (9 months of content)

b)  2 months (break) for every 4 months of content delivery (8 months of content)

I might also consider other options that I may come up with while I prepare during this coming Nov. & Dec.

During the break, I'm not really using it to rest for the whole time, but use most of that time to prepare content for the coming months, this is so I can hopefully avoid too much crunch and deliver content on time.

For when I resume next year, I was originally considering 3 updates per month,

1st week - FREE or Artbook ContentDelivery

2nd week - FREE or Artbook Content Delivery

3rd week -  JRPG emojis

4th week - Draknier Story Update

However, I felt that might felt spammy to the supporters with email notification so I'm
considering if I should combine it with artbook update or just do a stealth update & also announce it in discord.

1st week - FREE or Artbook ContentDelivery

2nd week - FREE or Artbook Content Delivery

3rd week -  FREE

4th week - Draknier Story Update

And yes, I'm planning to go back with monthly update with Draknier Story if everything goes well! More details below.

In short, I'm pausing the patreon monthly charge so I can work in advance.

I'm also planning to make a personal schedule for next year, that for every day in a week, there is a certain task. For example, on Wednesday, I dedicate it to making an artwork, and on other certain day/time, I do studies, game dev, recreation, and so on.

It'll probably be a challenge to adapt especially early on, but I'll give my best until I get used to it.

2) My Physical & Mental Health
When it comes to physical health, while I love doing the content, it's really taken a toll on me for doing this 1 year straight. I've been going with a  much more unhealthy lifestyle as I've pretty much crunched most of the during this this year.

When it comes to mental  health, it's more of a burnout thing. While I can logically try my best to remain optimistic, my brain at times just doesn't go the same way which leads to losing focus & getting slow with productivity, leading to possible delays, and these delays cause a lot of stress & anxiety as I worry for my supporters waiting longer. 

Short rest/breaks do me no good as there is the feeling of a ticking time bomb behind my head which gets louder when I try to take breaks or do recreational activity. In most cases, I actually end up crunching more later on. Also the feeling that I wasted time doing those that I could use to work on the content, which makes me feel tense most of the time.

At this pace, It'll only get ore difficult & I'd rather not get sick especially during this hard times due to the ongoing pandemic, and to further cause problems & worries to my family supporters, & everyone else.

3) I Need a Little Bit of 'Real' Rest
Although I did say I'm planning to continue work on Nov. and Dec. for next year's preparation, I also really want to take some real break to rest and relax. Probably around a week or less after I finish Vol. 12, hopefully by the end of October.


The Current Trouble of Working on the Artbook & Draknier Story (Game Dev Project) this past year and how to tackle it going forward
When it comes to my game dev project, to be honest, it's been hard to allocate time for it. If I were to ratio the artbook and gamedev project, i'd estimate it's probably about 95: 5 out of 100 hours , with 95% time spent on artbook and 5%(or might be even less) for gamedev.

Originally, my plan for my artbook before I started with Volume 1 was something more of a sketchbook with a few simple colored artwork & mostly filled with sketch, although as what we can see, the artbook pretty much evolve into something much much more.

With each volume I release, I aim to improve the content so I can give back more, however, at the same time, I get more supporters and this sets an expectation for me as a creator & the supporters, a cycle that is growing, something akin to a balloon. And with that cycle, the more time is taken from the game dev and put into the artbook instead. I pretty much went full throttle when doing the artbook and if there are extra time remaining, I've thought of working on the game dev, which is actually pretty much non-existent.

When it comes to making artwork, I usually approach it with "put more hours to make it better" rather than "rushing", however as I mentioned before, It's getting harder in my situation especially in long term. So I've been looking into things on how to improve the situation,and I pretty much came up with "do more study, learn & grow whenever possible" as It's the best option I could think off without putting the other content at risk of being remove or altered not for the better. So I've been trying to study & learn more while drawing artworks such as improving the foundation, experimenting different techniques & methods for every chance that I get.

The more I improve, the better the artworks, and the faster I can make artworks.
Also to set a ceiling for the artbook content in which my experience of making artbook for almost a year will also be a good reference when I work on the plan this november & december.

Artbook occupied most of the allocated time for Draknier Story
The thing is, while I intend to make the artbook more of a recreational as I work on this game dev, it became the other way around. While I am happy with the works I've done, I am  not confident to show my progress to my supporters, particularly to my old/founding supporters, whom have supported & stayed with me since the beginning & help me reach this far as I've probably set the expectation too high when I mentioned about a bulk update. While I did consider making big changes to my patreon content, I had to abstain from it as the monthly artbook became more than something I expected and pretty much plays a big part in the community and something I truly love to do.

About Draknier Story (Game Dev Project)
No, I haven't give up on my project, I've been working on it for every little chance I can.

Draknier Story pretty much became a strength(source of inspiration), but also became a great weakness of mine. It pains when someone ask about draknier story, not because of them asking, but me, whom more than anyone, really want to work on it & to share more about it.

This is a personal project and the final result is just a means to the end. What I love about doing this project is this gives me an opportunity to study & learn.. I love to learn despite the challenges. I want to learn and improve with 3D and associated technicals with it, programming, music, and etc. And this is a medium I chose to tell my stories.
Learning 3D really also benefits my 2D skills and also the other way around.

At one point I did consider maybe making it as a novel, manga, or webtoon just so I can deliver it consistently to my supporter just like with the artbook, however I had to reconsider as that will defeat the purpose of my patreon & everything I've done so far.

I also did consider if maybe I should just remove the highlight of that I am working on a jrpg-inspired game dev project here in my patreon and work on it low key.

I have a strong obsession with my Draknier Story project, it's something I always think about when I sleep, I listen to music, bath, and play games on daily basis. I just want to put more time to work on it. Hence, is one of the big reason I'm doing this big update. It's also been a big source of motivation/inspiraton.

With the new schedule I'm planning, I'm also putting back the monthly update for my game dev project when I resume next year.

For Draknier Story's Upcoming Update
Somewhere in November or December, I'm thinking of posting the character design/3d sheet for the main casts (4). Some more details about the game, technical update on why the art direction is going this way and my learnings so far such as why I am using this method to create the 3d models, etc..

And also the plans for it.


Original artwork I've been doing in the artbook will most likely be taken over by Draknier Story Artwork
I sometimes do random original art in the artbooks, however, going forward, I want to include Draknier Story artworks instead. Hence the reason why I'm also planning to pose the character designs. If I'm making a fanart of my own game, I'm not sure what to call that.

I find this one of the best way to deliver and probably express or tell more about these Draknier Story characters while the game is still under development.

Will there be no activity in patreon for 2 months?
There will be activities as usual , I'll continue to post WIPs, post the Draknier Story update, and etc. I'll also continue to be around our discord and other social platform (twitter, etc.) like usual.

Commission (Personal Commission - Patreon Supporters Priority)
I'll also take this opportunity to open commission as I've already delayed it for far too long, I'll be prioritizing the patreon supporters who will commission me for personal artwork. For commercial, it may depend as I will ask for estimate deadlines before I approve the commission application.

Pausing patreon for 2 months means not earning anything for 2 months which is pretty much a huge blow for me as patreon has been the main source of my income & livelihood. Hence one of the reason commission will also be open to help recoup the missing income and fulfill the overdue commission opening, two birds with one stone.

I'll be making n new patreon post when I open the commission.

Better Equipment in the Future
My PC is also getting close to a decade old so I've been planning to save up to build new PC and that will also allow me to paint/draw artworks more smoothly since I experience  slowdown/lags/technical issues/crash in a number of cases and also couldn't use some tools (photoshop brush/smudge. etc at certain situation).  

Also for stream/video recording, there's really a slowdown/strong lag in most cases, especially when I draw in a big canvas (HD resolution of the artwork, about 4k).

It will also serve as failure-proof should my current PC fail and continue to make content.  

Why I can't enable Upfront Charge for new Patrons/Supporters
I can't enable this feature since it will complicate & make it much more difficult with the way I send the rewards especially with the new plan I'm planning to implement (A more early release, 1st or 2nd week instead of the final week/day of a month).

If patreon ever implement a feature where there is an option to have a single post with multiple level of access, that would change things and allow me to reconsider upfront charge so new patreons can get access immediately, however it is not practical to make multiple posts for each tier to give rewards as of this moment. 

Still, the thing is I won't be able to include the 'credit' reward after the artbook is already published so waiting until you get charged would be better if one wants to be in the credit reward.

Stream Before the Year Ends(?)
I keep failing trying to start a stream, but before the year ends, I'll try my best to find a chance as both Nov. & Dec. are the best opportunity I have.

The Future of My Patreon
It's all good! Going forward, I'll still continue to make an artbook  & other content every month starting next year.

Thank you for sparing some of your time despite this post being long. There were a lot of things I wanted to address.

And thank you for supporting and sticking with me this long. Even if you are no onger supporting me or haven't supported me, just being around is more than enough.

I'll continue to give my best and try harder to be more diligent!

Take care & I hope you have a great day!

p.s. I'm not going in hiatus, I'll be here to continue working & prepare ｡^‿^｡.