Update on my mods going forward and how I'm doing patreon

What am I doing?

I've been staring at a blank page trying to think how to write this post. I went back to modding for this game about 9 months ago and for about 6 months of that I've been doing the weekly progress updates on patreon, and for some of that time trying to do other perks as well. In that time, I released the Thinking Skill, updated/expanded on the Sorcerer mod multiple times including the Specializations update that added loads of new spells, created and released the Love and Hate mod, and other little mods or updates relating to existing mods. It's been a fascinating, rewarding, and sometimes exhausting experience that I couldn't have done without your support, both as a community with your interest in what I do and as financial supporters on patreon.

There have been a number of times in my life that I've just put things aside, for better or worse, and I did that for a time with this game, though I came back later after a break. But I don't see myself ever doing a clean break from this game and my modding for it while it's still being developed for. Patches happen, things break, and I don't want to have content that I put months of my life into - that you put your money and time into supporting - to become unusable. But I also can't currently sustain the pace that I was doing things at for the past 9 months, so I've been looking at how I can hang onto modding as a whole while giving myself some space.

With that in mind, I decided to discontinue the weekly progress updates and rewrite some things in my patreon, so that it's more of a, "I mod sometimes, support it if you want or if you don't wish to, that's ok too." I came up with the weekly progress updates originally as a way to give people insight into what I was working on, since updates were sporadic, but it has since morphed in my head, into more of an obligation to have something meaningful to share every week. And if I am modding sporadically (not just updating sporadically) there may be whole weeks where there isn't much to say at all. 

The last weekly progress update is planned to be on June 26. I wanted to get through this month before ending the weekly updates to ensure I was giving you your money's worth if you donated specifically for those updates, and also get this post out soon enough that if you did donate for that reason, you have time to reconsider if you wish before the charge goes through at the beginning of July. 

What does this mean for my mods going forward?

Primarily, it will likely result in less frequent updates. It is likely that for a time, I will pull back some, and my modding may become more sporadic overall as I focus on other obligations in my life. I still intend to do what I can to keep my mods updated and I still intend to add things to them as time and interest allows (including working on a couple of particular requests I've talked about trying to fulfill in the weekly updates). But I have to change the environment I'm doing it in to better facilitate my ability to maintain it in the long-term. 

Due to the move in this direction, I'm thinking about having a paypal link in addition to patreon, for those who want to donate occasionally based on what I put out, rather than donating on a monthly basis for updates that may be sporadic. I've not decided yet on that, but we'll see.

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for supporting me in this over these months. I attempted to do something I've never done before and it didn't go exactly as I planned in every way, but that's how life goes. And how life also goes is I couldn't have done it without other people. People like you. It's something I'm very grateful to have had the chance to do and I'm not sure what exactly happens next, but I know that I get to carry this with me and that's a gift you helped give.

It's a big world out there and I know my modding for The Sims 4 is just a tiny corner of it within a tiny corner. But that tiny corner - this community - has been a beautiful little corner to be a part of. This isn't goodbye, but I want you to know I appreciate what it has been. And I want you to know that you can make a difference in the world; that communities are built on the actions of many people working together. I'm just a tiny part of this huge community and you helped me build things I won't forget.