Czepeku Pricing Questionnaire
Added 2024-10-23 08:47:46 +0000 UTCHey everyone!
In 2025 you'll be able to sign up to projects directly on czepeku.com. Our Patreon isn't going away, but the website will have a lot of benefits for how we can present and release our content, it'll make search and downloads a lot more convenient, including allowing you to hand select variations you want to download, only downloading gridded or gridless, as well as easier access to animated maps, and VTT modules.
Right now everything is built around Patreon's arcane file storing systems and presented in a continual feed, which isn't very conducive to presenting the library of work we have. There's a lot planned!
One of the biggest benefits we have when starting this new subscription is the ability to re-examine our pricing structure. We're not sure if we want to stick with the per creation model or a monthly subscription, but we want your feedback to help us decide!
Having control of subscriptions will also allow us to offer yearly discounts, lifetime rewards, and other benefits. The most exciting one is discounted bundle pricing. As we now have multiple fantasy projects: Maps, Scenes and Tokens, and we know that a lot of people are signed up to all three. We'd like to reward those subscribers by having a bundle discount. As well as giving rewards to people who have subscribed to us over long periods.
All of that preamble leads us to ask you to please answer this questionnaire!
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This is a good time as well to show off some sneak peaks of our upcoming projects: Czepeku Guildhall Creator and Hexmaps. There'll also be Megadungeons and Cities coming in the near future. We think with these we'll have completed our suite of map scales, from battlemaps, dungeons, cities all the way up into campaign worlds. This will allow you to plug everything in your world together easily and prepare you for any player shenanigans! :)
Thank you everyone for all of your support. It always means a lot to us. Please fill in the questionnaire and give us your feedback!
Comments
Hi Kimberly. Interesting we're going back to this weeks later even though my "aggressive" critique has seemingly been part of a general commentary along similar lines from multiple patrons. If we need more nuance here, I posted my initial response after reading only question 1 of the survey. I was simply stating that the context of the question was meaningless without details on what we would be paying for with said "amount we felt comfortable paying." It's as much trying to help the team here realize they will not get accurate data with that kind of question as letting them know that I wanted to complete the survey, but could not offer any amount more meaningful without more information about what i'd be paying for. If a critique with ideas about how to improve the survey is not just aggressive, but "very aggessive" then it tells me this company, (which BTW has assets approaching £1 million currently, and has nearly doubled their asset growth in each of the past three years) is less concerned with finding out what patrons want or need than how much they are willing to pay. Whatever the goal, it seems to be working for them. ;)
Erik Niemi
2024-11-07 08:42:46 +0000 UTCNo, Erik. The way you offered said critique is aggressive and instead of leaving it at that, you make demands and state that you will purposely fill in the questionnaire in a way that does not contribute whatsoever. Hope that clarifies it.
Kimberley
2024-11-06 13:33:44 +0000 UTCHi Dyanosis, this isn't how 'Per Creation' works. You're only ever charged for actual releases so you would never get double charged. It's actually the monthly ones that would double charge at month end. If you sign up to a Monthly Patreon on the last day of a month, you'll be charged again on the first. That wouldn't be the case with 'Per Creation' since you're only ever charged when a release is actually made.
Ryan Haden
2024-11-06 00:19:25 +0000 UTCQuestions like "How much would you be comfortable paying for X" is kind of hard to answer because that amount largely depends on how many of the services I need for the tables I'm running. Sometimes I have Sci-Fi games, sometimes we're playing a combat-lite system where scenes shine. If all I need is the fantasy maps, then I'm comfortable paying much more than other times because in practical application I am budgeting assets/maps as a lump category which is hard to evaluate without considering the rest.
MuneRoons
2024-11-02 12:57:35 +0000 UTCI believe that favoring people who subscribe month by month is more optimal than selling individual maps. I gain things I won’t use but I keep supporting Cze and Peku which is 100% justified. Though if there’s 10 map I need and I buy them individually, I might end up buying less because they’ll be more expensive than a monthly subscription. Just a 2 cents where if you bundle subscription (monthly based) like scenes and or even better give customers the package they want. Let’s say I want Maps + scenes. I can make my own package and make a bargain on subscribing on both at the same time.
Guillaume Adam
2024-10-29 16:58:30 +0000 UTCThat's very interesting to hear. The amount charged by our Patreon should have remained constant each month for the past 2 years as we've released 5 maps per month every month since then. Never more or less.
Cze and Peku
2024-10-27 22:10:53 +0000 UTCThis makes sense, and I agree 100%. Sadly, I'll have to unsubscribe this month (temporarily, hopefully) due to financial constraints. Given that the amount we get charged varies, I cannot budget as effectively. Still, I 100% will be back as soon as my financial situation improves, given that all the maps are worth it. Hopefully, they will transition to a subscription-based approach, which would be most helpful.
ALEX Z
2024-10-27 17:57:15 +0000 UTCI strongly believe that a monthly subscription works well as it allows us, the customers, who cherish your map to keep the amount spent regular and not pay non-stop for maps. By changing the structure, you'll lose monthly subscribers but instead gains sells per maps. I'd say about 10-15% of the map posted will be of actual uses for me personally. Yet, I think 100% of them are worth it and amazing. Thus, subscribing makes more sense and the amount spent per month remain stable, letting me remain subscribed.
Guillaume Adam
2024-10-26 20:55:07 +0000 UTCThanks for the reassurance and clarification. You hadn't in fact said your Patreon "will remain as it is," you'd said "Our Patreon is not going away." When the first question on the form asks "How much would you feel comfortable paying in USD per month for Czepeku Fantasy Maps content?," it's only fair to assume you're assesses pricing changes to your core product.
Erik Niemi
2024-10-24 13:58:33 +0000 UTCLike we mentioned in the post, this Patreon will remain as it is, there will be no price changes at all. This questionnaire is specifically for the new website subscription. If you're happy with the pricing as is, then nothing at all will change for you. :) The exploration of bundle pricing is to benefit those people who already subscribe to Scenes and Tokens so that we can reward them for their support. We specifically have each new project priced separately so that people who only want maps, or scenes, or tokens don't need to worry about paying for content they don't need.
Cze and Peku
2024-10-24 13:48:29 +0000 UTCYes we want to reward those who already have discounts.
Cze and Peku
2024-10-24 09:48:26 +0000 UTCFor those that signed up to Scenes before the cut off of the lifetime discount on membership fees would that carry over when considering the cost and structure of the bundles offered?
Jessica Mansell
2024-10-24 07:43:01 +0000 UTCMy worry here is that every time you add new streams, new product types that have their own pricing category, then the base price of the main stream (battlemaps) could increase. You imply we’d get savings through bundles, but what if we don’t want the rest? I already pay for some maps I’d never use and have done that for years because quality is good on the ones I will use. Your survey doesn’t offer context and it seems I’m not the only one worried that this is the first step in increasing the price for the core product stream.
Erik Niemi
2024-10-24 06:55:09 +0000 UTCSo any critique of your process is “very aggressive?” Not just aggressive I see. Interesting. So this tells me you’re not actually interested in feedback, just seeing how much you can adjust the price point of your products. I’m a tabletop player and nothing about your questions or new products addresses the additions to content I’ve queried for a while now, like printing marks or standard sizes or table sized maps that could be sectioned (let alone having interior scale match the exterior which you also brushed off as irrelevant).
Erik Niemi
2024-10-24 06:43:24 +0000 UTCTo follow up on that, from this post my understanding is there are 4 other fantasy related projects in the works, Czepeku Guildhall Creator, Hexmaps, Megadungeons and Cities. All of those sound interesting to me. What would each of those cost for Foundry integration, and as a bundle? I might have to shift around how much I can pay on Maps and Scenes, but even an estimate for them would be helpful. And then I could give more accurate answers for the survey. Loving everything you guys are putting out!
Michael Hughes
2024-10-24 00:18:41 +0000 UTCFor the new content, a lot of it has been inspired by requests from patrons. We've had many requests to create hex campaign maps and modular dungeons. A lot of people use that type of content in their games already but make it themselves or get it from other sources. So we'd expect a lot of people to have some context as to how much they'd need it and what kind of price they'd be looking to pay. As for the questions not being cohesive/useful, please keep in mind that we're artists and not professional statisticians/analysts. We just want an open discussion with our community so that we can make it work better for everyone. We've had around 700 replies and they've been very useful so far. As for nickel and diming, our library of maps grows each month but the price has remained consistent since we launched 5 years ago. The value compared to cost gets better literally every week and now we're suggesting a discounted bundle to make the value even better. I'm not sure why that would come across as nickel and diming. In terms of new products costing extra, it's because to make those projects we need to do more work and hire more team members and develop new tools on our website. We're not taking anything away from current projects, we're just giving more options for those that have requested them.
Cze and Peku
2024-10-24 00:02:22 +0000 UTCLove to hear it!
Nathaniel Kreiman
2024-10-24 00:02:17 +0000 UTCMoulinette will be available through the website, it's already available for Tokens. :)
Cze and Peku
2024-10-23 23:48:35 +0000 UTCWe have no plans to do that. Working with the Patreon API means constantly having to update based on their changes. We'd prefer to have the subscription on the website, so we can make the process as easy as possible for people to go from signing up to downloading content.
Cze and Peku
2024-10-23 23:47:52 +0000 UTCI feel like this is a very aggressive response Erik. You've been a subscriber for years so you're well aware of the content we create and the cadence we create it. This questionnaire is only going out to current patrons, so everyone answering it will have context already. A range of pricing options would be leading. Giving people the free choice to answer as they like shows that we're open to all answers.
Cze and Peku
2024-10-23 23:46:43 +0000 UTCWe can export a CSV file of all the current subscriber/patron details and apply a discount for those who were on the promo/early bird tiers. :)
Cze and Peku
2024-10-23 23:40:46 +0000 UTCYeah we can do that. For Tokens we give the option of a per release email or a weekly/monthly digest.
Cze and Peku
2024-10-23 23:39:31 +0000 UTCFor me the biggest thing is the Moulinette integration. I'm a pro-GM and the amount of time that program saves me is *staggering*
Nathaniel Kreiman
2024-10-23 21:51:08 +0000 UTCAlso your questions feel like they're not cohesive or useful for most of us trying to figure out a budget for gaming. "How much would you pay for x?" "Now for Y?" "Now for Z?" "What if those bundled?" "What about this new thing that's probably not related to those other things?" How are we supposed to answer those? Especially for the new content that we've never seen from you before (outside of the very simple examples you gave in this post). And are those in addition to what we're already comfortable paying for things like Fantasy maps? Or are those separate? So it'd be, say, $5 (Fantasy maps) + $2 (Modular Guildhall) + $3 (Modular Dungeon)? It's very confusing and seems like nickel and diming, even if it's unintentional.
Dyanosis
2024-10-23 21:37:53 +0000 UTCI'd try to be more specific when you're talking about money and minimum wages. Here in the US, we talk about minimum wage as in the minimum amount you get paid PER HOUR. You're talking about minimum wage as in the minimum you get paid PER MONTH. Big difference. If $10 was 5% of your hourly minimum wage, that'd be crazy.
Dyanosis
2024-10-23 21:31:19 +0000 UTCPatreon's current model (per creation/1st of every month) sucks for those of us wanting to join at the end of a month. We get to pay double for content we didn't even get to experience yet. Stupid model. Makes no sense. Glad they're changing it.
Dyanosis
2024-10-23 21:27:53 +0000 UTC$1 may seem meaningless when it's just one person, but when it's hundreds or thousands, it really adds up. It's like telling people of America that you're raising taxes by 1 penny. 1 penny isn't a lot, but it is when 150 million people have to pay it.
Dyanosis
2024-10-23 21:26:26 +0000 UTCWill there be a way to link patreon to your website to be able to download from there? I know that crosshead does that for his assets
Gryphon Skald
2024-10-23 21:18:33 +0000 UTCYeah, I'm Brazilian and sadly that's a lot in here, I also would love that
Gabriel Nóbrega
2024-10-23 20:05:10 +0000 UTC"How much to do you feel comfortable paying?" is a very poor leader here. Give a range, or conditions, or anything other than this. Make the first question not required or change it to something meaningful where you show what is being offered for that monetary amount. At the moment I'll just put $1 which will not help you at all and is just as meaningless as the context you've offered.
Erik Niemi
2024-10-23 19:42:20 +0000 UTCI haven’t filled out the survey just yet. I am currently subscribed to Fantasy Maps, Scenes, and Tokens. I’d definitely be interested in a bundle. I have a max monthly limit for budgetary reasons on Map and Scenes. I also subscribed to scenes before there was a price increase. I also signed up for tokens when they were at their lowest. In my situation, how would a bundle work? I’d want to make sure to still have my lower prices for Scenes and Tokens, or at least some sort of discount. So maybe a series of discounts depending on which you are already subscribed to, and at which tier? I’m quite curious how this will work. I’m at the Foundry Tier for both Maps and Scenes. The new tools look great, will they be a new project, or included in something preexisting?
Michael Hughes
2024-10-23 19:12:26 +0000 UTCAnd questionnaire answered! 🙂↕️ All your projects sound very amazing! Very curious about them!
Capell
2024-10-23 17:26:19 +0000 UTCDefinitely would prefer a flat rate subscription each month. Per creation is not the best method, in our opinion.
Gaxx Worx
2024-10-23 16:38:32 +0000 UTCThe hex maps are very cool, as are the guildhalls
Hannah Hance
2024-10-23 16:29:49 +0000 UTCI would prefer to pay for a package subscription rather than individual maps I think. Would we get emails when a new map is dropped like we do here?
Keychi
2024-10-23 15:51:30 +0000 UTCOkay, pretty hyped about the hex stuff! Will answer the form now!
Adrian-Paul Carrières
2024-10-23 13:33:37 +0000 UTCJust for the sake of the argument, 10 USD is the equivalent of almost 5% the minimun wage in Brazil...
Mateus Henriques Buffone
2024-10-23 13:07:16 +0000 UTCWe have actually started looking at location based pricing so that our community members in Brazil and other global south countries can have a discount. We will endevour to do our best!
Cze and Peku
2024-10-23 12:56:50 +0000 UTCAhhh I'm so excited about this!! I would gladly pay a little more, but do have to keep in mind my budget. The dungeon builder looks super cool though, I hope it's easier to use than all the other ones I've messed with
Sasha Wren
2024-10-23 12:09:12 +0000 UTCIn my end, the only problem with paying more is that the currency in my country is way weaker than the USD, so the prices go up really fast.
Mateus Henriques Buffone
2024-10-23 11:37:57 +0000 UTCIt's definitely a possibility! The reason we didn't include it here is because we're currently considering creating Sci-Fi Scenes and Sci-Fi Tokens and modular spaceships. And if we do that then we'd probably have a Fantasy bundle and a Sci-Fi bundle as the default options.
Cze and Peku
2024-10-23 10:39:04 +0000 UTCMoulinette does that well. We tried a single module for all the maps and from reports, Foundry wasn't able to handle it. There are thousands of files now.
Cze and Peku
2024-10-23 10:37:05 +0000 UTCThose sneak peeks look awesome!
Fable (not the game)
2024-10-23 10:16:04 +0000 UTCI would pay a lot for a simple system that let me connect a Cze Peku account to Foundry for easy importing of all VTT content. The current system where each individual map is a single module is unsustainable and probably takes a lot of overhead on your end as well.
Orphansmith
2024-10-23 10:04:23 +0000 UTCIs there not a consideration to include CzePeku Scifi here too? I'm subscribed to Fantasy & Scifi because my campaign sometimes takes wild left turns into space, but the regular fantasy maps are what I use more frequently. I doubt I'm the only one who'd appreciate a bundle option including both genres!
Heather
2024-10-23 10:01:09 +0000 UTCthen my bias will for sure be for Per Creation. It does make bundle discounts more difficult though, so I could see that being an obstacle but the versatility is a huge plus to me. I'm also a little uncertain how bundle discounts would match up with stuff like the early subscription discount for Tokens for example.
Marceline
2024-10-23 09:57:51 +0000 UTCIt is intentional and definitely one of the better features of per creation. With $1, 5 and 10 tiers, it allows people to subscribe for $1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50 per month based on a mix of tier price and limiting the amount of creations. There's a lot of flexibility that caters to a broad swathe of supporters.
Cze and Peku
2024-10-23 09:48:09 +0000 UTCCan you be anyhow more cool?
Colormixy
2024-10-23 09:36:35 +0000 UTC❤️🖤🤍
Jamonster66
2024-10-23 09:36:01 +0000 UTCOne feature I'm personally partial to with Patreon is limiting the amount of creations I pay for per month but still getting the same benefits like Moulinette importing. I don't know if that is fully intentional along the lines of being able to pay for 1 creation a month for 10 bucks but still get full access or not like that, but that's about what I can squeeze in on the reg.
Marceline
2024-10-23 09:28:19 +0000 UTCWe want to take a moment to say explicitly: We only expect people to pay what they're happy paying. :) We're asking this question because we want everyone to benefit. Reading the responses already we see some guilt that people wish they could spend more but can't afford it. We totally understand that! You should all prioritise your families, food and rent before gaming. We appreciate your support whether it's $1 per month or $50. Thank you all so much. :)
Cze and Peku
2024-10-23 09:20:09 +0000 UTCIt will be! We have Moulinette integration working already for Czepeku Tokens on the website. Our hope is to have integrations for Moulinette/Foundry, Owlbear Rodeo and Alchemy. :)
Cze and Peku
2024-10-23 09:17:15 +0000 UTCIf i will choose a subscription on the site rather than patreon, that means moulinette cloud integration won't be working, right?
Colormixy
2024-10-23 09:08:01 +0000 UTC
