Taking a... "New Start" 8D

Hello everyone!

I hope you're ready for some reading cause this post is meant to explain everything that happened these last days and what those events are leading to.

1) Patreon's suspension

Some of you are probably unaware of it, but my account on Patreon got suspended on Wednesday 27th January. I let you guess why. I've always known it would happen one day so I wasn't surprised. I'm just terribly disappointed by the timing. It killed the possible effervescence of SoV3's release in the womb (for information SoV3's first version was released a couple of days before the suspension.)

2) Consequences on Fanbox/SubscribeStar

Considering Patreon's attitude to make sure I wouldn't get funds for February (got vague answers only until today) I've decided to change my headquarters to SS and Fanbox. It's pretty clear that getting my games funded back there is now impossible. I'm on their radar and they scout EVERYTHING I do.

Which means that the whole separation I made at some point between Fanbox and Patreon for The Hunter 2 doesn't hold anymore since there's no more Patreon. So The Hunter 2 and Slice of Venture 3 will both be accessible on Fanbox and SubscribeStar like The Hunter and SoV2 were available in Patreon during the good old days.

3) Consequences on the projects

Let start with the short answers: It doesn’t change anything for The Hunter 2 and SoVO. Right now, I've finished SoV3's first version so I'm supposed to go back to working on The Hunter 2 (as you can guess the whole Patreon thing is taking a bit of time but overall, the next update I'll release will be a TH2 one.)

However, for SoV3, things are a bit trickier. I explained things in detail in the Picarto stream of this Saturday (you can check the replay on PeakJump's channel: https://picarto.tv/PeakJump ) I'll try to sum things as shortly as I can. SoV3's development is on hold due to lack of funding.

In November 2019, I had made a projection of needing a monthly amount of $2,500 per month to fund SoV3 properly (as I was "hiring" PeakJump and not just paying him based on commissions). We managed to reach that goal only for a brief period (3 months), but then it steadily dropped throughout 2020 ending up around $2,100 in December.

Considering I hired a more expensive team member (the new background designer is 3 to 4 times more expensive than the previous one) because they're much more skilled, and an extra member (the battle pixel designer) the budget is getting too big compared to the monthly income.

As such, Slice of Venture 3's development is on hold until I manage to get back to those $2,500 per month. Since things are spread between Fanbox and SubscribeStar it's a bit hard to see whether or not the amount is reached but $2,500 is roughly 260 000 Yens. So if I get 130 000 Yens on Fanbox and $1,250 on SS, then it's good.

If by the moment I finish SoVO the amount is still under the necessary amount, I'll keep working on TH2 until I can properly fund SoV3.

In case some of you are wondering how or why SoV3 reaches such amounts, I'll be giving you some numbers so you can have a clearer view. Keep in mind that is this a rough estimate (prices change from a month to another depending on what's been done.)

- Main artist (PeakJump). As mentionned before he's hired at a fix rate. He's paid $600 per month.

- Colorist. Prices depend on time spent (so it's heavily influenced by variations and coloring complexity.) In SoV3 the coloring is more complex than SoV2 but less than NP. The price range of a singe base image (so variations included) can go from $60 (very rare) to more than $300. Let's take the lower middle ground and take $140. That's for a single pic. But the colorist usually manages to do at least three pics per month (that's again an average). So that's a total of $420.

- For the background it's simple. SoV2 prices ranged from $25 to $50. Here we're between $75 to $180 (per background.) Once again, let's say 3 backgrounds needed for the month with an average price of $125 per background. That's a total of $475.

So just with those 3 artists we reach an average of $1,495 per month. Let's round it up to $1,500.

I pay myself with what's left (so for a $2,100 monthly income it means $600. Knowing that I pay 25% of taxes. I earn $450 per month.)

But it's not the end of it. They're not working every month so it's a bit harder to calculate but there are also the pixel designer (nito) and the newly welcomed battle pixel designer.

Nito's batches are usually costing around $200 for a game update (the cost of all new pixel elements added.)

And the new battle pixel designer takes $1,000 per character (to cover all their animations). Paid in two amounts of $500 through two months.

So technically there's an extra $700 that is currently in the balance for SoV3. Of course, if during a month, I get more money than what I pay people, I always keep a part in case stuff like today would happen. That's why I managed to cover the extras as I was hoping the release of SoV3 would make the income rise again. But with the February month cancelled, it's definitely not possible at all.

4) Consequences on tiers

As you probably saw, the whole thing had some consequences with the tiering. All in all I keep the majority of elements. The big difference being that there's an extra custom Discord rank linked to every tiers.

For the $5/600Yen tier it's not a release behind but a temporary hold. You'll get the game 2 weeks after the official release (this is mainly due to the fact that releases aren't meant to be monthly anymore.)

There are also 2 new tiers. The $20/2200 Yens tier will give pledgers the game one week before the official release and the $25/2700 Yens tier will get a CG (meaning a full set of a single base image) as soon as it's ready rather than having to wait for the current version's release.

The $30/3200 Yens tier grants the possibility to see your name in a special element in SoV3 where all +$30/3200 Yens pledgers will be shown. I found that idea better than the classic "credit name" which would mean you wouldn't see your name until the game's finished :x

I also created bigger pledges with no rewards for people wanting to pledge more (some people requested it) as Fanbox and SubscribeStar don't allow for custom pledges.

For people on SubscribeStar: if your Discord account is linked to SS, you'll get your role automatically. For Fanbox people you'll have to send me your Discord name through PM so I can manually give you the role.

5) The case of Ko-fi

I'm taking that chance to mention that some months ago, I opened a ko-fi as people were asking me a way to make one-time donations. Considering it's also possible to make recurring donations (monthly ones) if people aren't afraid of dealing with two sites rather than a single one, they can use ko-fi if they want to make extra donations (monthly or not.) Here's the link: https://ko-fi.com/K3K72OM8M

6) Opening a Baraag account

In the middle of all that, and during the last stream we had, I realized that it might be a good idea to open a Baraag account. If you don't know what it is, it's basically like Twitter except 2D and 3D +18 pics are allowed. There aren't many people on Baraag so I don't go there to get exposure. Don't know how or how often I'll use it but since some people thought it was a good idea to open one, I'm doing it :p. So feel free to follow me @Ark_Thompson@baraag.net

That should be all for now. Slice of Venture 3's first version is now accessible again right here if you haven't tested it yet: https://blueaxolotl.com/play

And if you want to access the Discord you can click here: https://discord.gg/u6XMvNW

Sorry for the long post but I needed to keep you informed about all those changes.

Thanks to all those who supported me, who are supporting me and who'll support me in the future.

This is not the end; it's a new beginning and you can be sure I'll take that chance to provide the great games SoV3 and TH2 are meant to be!

Ark