Future Changes for 2020

formational post for 2020 and the rest of the year.

I’m changing and adding a few things. You don’t need to read the rest of this post unless you’re interested in knowing what to expect. You also don’t need to understand it all.  

I will add a few more tiers to Patreon. All the tiers already in existence will not change in price or content. The tiers I add will be for additional votes used for polling. For example: an “X 2” tier would mean our vote is doubled for the poll results of the month; “X-3” would have your vote tripled for the poll results of the month. In addition to the vote doubled/tripled/etc., those tiers will have their frequency increased to update posts access. For example: a “Fresh X-2” tier would receive biweekly update across as opposed to monthly update access that is available to the Fresh X tier. These vote double tiers would only be $1 extra added to the current X tier. I’ll add these tiers in December, thus the first vote they can affect is the December poll results. Additionally, I will allow people with tiers that have commission passages to trade their commission passage and in exchange will receive two more votes for the poll results, all the person has to do is either post a comment in the new game/update poll with “boost” and it will be done. For example, an “in-training” tier has one vote and one commission passage per month. If the in-training uses their boost, then that person will have their vote count as 3 instead of 1 for the poll results of that month and in exchange won’t receive a commission passage. 

I realized that I can get everything I plan to do in a month completed by the end of each month as long as no unexpected life events get in the way. However, I’ve had an unexpected event this month, a few unexpected events last month, and there seems to be a pattern, so I feel like I should have enough time in my schedule to expect the unexpected. Trying to get every game update and new game completed in a month has lead to small updates and new games with less content than I desire. I’ve come to the conclusion that I should have a month in which I focus mostly on creating a new game and a month in which I mostly concentrate on providing updates to games. 

Starting in 2020:

Odd-numbered months will be dedicated to a new larger game voted by Patrons. I will additionally create small updates to games not based on polls.

Even-numbered months will be dedicated to new updates to games voted by Patrons. I will additionally work on creating a new small game either not based on polls or adding content to already WIP/development hell games that aren’t yet completed.

Thus:

New game based on polls: January; March; May; July; September; November.

New updates to games based on polls: February; April; June; August; October; December.

I already have a poll up for the January game, so there will be no new game polls until February. However, I will still make new updates to game polls in November (which will be made later tonight) and December. In December, I will work on updating all games that receive a vote in the poll I make in November. In January, in order to make this a smooth transition, I will only work on updating the game that receives the most votes on the December poll. In future months after January, I will add updates to the three games that receive the most votes. If there is a tie for third place, then those tied films will all receive a small update in either that month or the month after depending on time constraints. Any film that receives a vote but does not make the top three will then have their vote total be added to the next future poll. For example, if a film only receives one vote and is not in the top three, then that one vote will be transferred and added to the next poll.

Also, starting in January, I will have whatever new game/update poll of the month be posted on the third of the month and I will post the results on the third-last day of the month. For example: in January, the poll for the next game update will be posted on January 3 and the poll will close on January 29. This will simply make the timing of when to expect a new poll being posted on Patreon more predictable and to allow people time to change their tiers if they decide they want a vote double for one month but then don’t want it for another month.

Furthermore, for all the future new update for games polls, I will have all already-made games included even if the game was chosen in the previous month. I’m still working on updating three games (Kobold County Bar; Minotaur Maze Madness; A Pet Project For Science) so I will create new polls for those games but those polls won’t affect the content I’m currently putting into those games (it could affect what content I put into the game in December, January, February, April, etc., but it just won’t affect the update you will receive this month because the content you receive this month is based on previous polls).

tl;dr version:

New tiers in December. Those tiers can have their vote be counted as 2, 3, etc. instead of just 1 in the poll results.

All games will be up for the next two update polls. Any game that receives a vote this month will receive an update in December. In December, only the game that receives the most votes will automatically receive an update in January. Starting in 2020, there will be either a new game of the month poll or a new game update of the month poll depending on whether the month is odd or even-numbered.