Patreon May 2021 Roadmap

Happy May Day! Hope everyone is staying healthy and safe coming into this month.

I'll be integrating the Roundup and Roadmap feature into one post this month (and most likely for upcoming months as well) because there's usually a fair bit of overlap between contents, and also because I don't want to spam your inboxes! Before I get to the meat of this content, though, there's something I'd like to discuss:

PREFACE. Patreon Billing.

After comparing my page to other Patreon pages, it has become apparent to me that Patreon might not do the best of jobs in communicating its billing system to patrons, including that billing happens at the first of every month. I have edited my page's description to include this important warning, so that incoming patrons are able to adjust their calculus accordingly.

For existing patrons, meanwhile, I am offering a no-questions-asked refund policy for late-month patrons. If it is the case that you pledged late in the month of March / April without knowing that you'd be charged again the following month & you wish to have your pledge refunded, please contact me using Patreon's chat feature. It should be the case that Patreon can facilitate the refund procedure within 3 months of the transaction!

And with that out of the way, here's what I have in the works for May:

ONE. Demo Update.

We've been able to stick to the monthly release schedule and meet our update goals for the most part, most recently with the Demo 3.0 Update, which you can find here if you missed it! I'm optimistic that this trend will continue with Demo 4.0, which should come to patrons near the end of May.

The update will see the story's continuation, while also filling in (hopefully all of) the blanks that exist in the current build. To recap, these are: the thaum/spiritism path of the church break-in scene, a day-off / exploration episode when you first wake up in Arcadia, the spirit gate path in the Reglaire arc, and some of the smaller combat choice paths towards the end of the current build. I'm projecting a 25k-30k wordcount update when all is said and done - it's a loaded plate, but now that the block is a thing of the past I'm excited to get back to work!

TWO. Side Story.

The side story for April (now delayed for May) has not yet entered production, because I haven't received any requests yet through the Arcanist request form. :'D I'll give it a couple more days, after which I'll embark with my own ideas--I have a couple of these, but they're quite esoteric and removed from the game's central cast, so I'd rather wait to hear what people would like to see instead!

As for the May side story, I'm unfortunately unsure if it's something I'll be able to pursue this month. Between the bigger update planned for the main game and the semester finals I have near the middle of the month, it unfortunately doesn't look too likely. If I have to rescind this feature, I will instead increase the amount of art offerings--things I can fortunately delegate--to make up for it. Apologies for the inconvenience!

THREE. Devlogs & Sneak Peeks.

These will be suspended for today because there's not much progress I can share with you yet, what with the demo being uploaded just yesterday! They will resume next week, so please be on the lookout for that. :D

FOUR. Art Features.

• The snapchat stories and patron tweet feature should proceed as normal in May. Arcanists - feel free to submit your tweets / requests through the form!
• Khutilust had to take a bit of a break with the cast artwork, but hopefully we'll be able to continue with the Yusuha and Yurui portraits during the first half of May. After Yusuha is done I'll be posting one last Portrait Poll, to determine the order of the next three to be commissioned.
• I've also begun commissioning the game's cover art! The artist started working on it late last month, and it should be completed either this month or the next. As with all art previews, it will be available for viewing by patrons at the Arcanist tier or above.
• Lastly, I've also commissioned Angie (the artist who worked on our codex headers) to draw icons for each individual spell! She is currently working on the seven thaum spells currently coded into the game; because they won't make it to the demo until close to the release date, I'll be showing them off as art previews for Arcanists and above.

FIVE. Miscellany.

• I'll be updating the Arcanist-tier game guide sometime within the next couple of days, to include the combat checks for the Reglaire arc.
• I'll also use this month to begin cracking away at the personal short stories requested by raffle winners. :D

That's the end of this update! If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to comment and/or message me. As ever, thank you for supporting the development of A Mage Reborn!