Early Supporters and Release Schedule

Patreon has just told me that the first billing cycle will occur on April 1st. Shortly after that, I plan to have the 0.5.0 release out this weekend. Which means that those of you reading this message, no matter your contribution, have decided to help support the game before the actual delivery of your perks. For this, as an extra benefit I'll be putting a special section in the credits for early supporters.   

Again, thank you.

For everyone else that will read this after the fact, here are my plans for a release schedule. To this point, I have been able to successfully release something every weekend. If there were any new bugs that were created by the new content, it has been easy to setup a couple patches over the next few days. That has also meant that players are downloading multiple times with no guarantee that their save would be preserved.

It is safe to say that there can easily be a release every two weeks. Starting with April 1st being the 0.5.0 release, the middle of the month will be a guaranteed bug patch version for Esteemed Patrons and higher, and then a full minor release for all supporters. This will be the minimum expectation. If illustrations really start pouring in, or I really get into the groove, then this conservative schedule gives me the freedom to release more. Meanwhile, it also gives the clear expectation that non-supporters will get updates to the beta version about a month behind. Also understanding that if I get to overdeliver, then those features go to supporters.

Eventually, maintaining two different versions will only slow down development. I do have long term plans to release the delayed version to steam, with a price point maybe in the ballpark of $5 to $10. If I do this, Esteemed Patrons will automatically receive a key to the game, and I have seen special codes that can be used to unlock the full version there as well. Active Patrons for more than two months will also receive these keys. I'll keep you updated when this plan gains any traction.