The state of things.
Added 2019-04-09 22:06:49 +0000 UTCI've been thinking about this for a few weeks now and debating on if I should say something, or if I should just keep my mouth shut. Ultimately, I've decided to say something rather than keep it to myself because I feel it's important that my supporters know what to expect.
Last month, we took a pretty severe beating financially, we lost over 30 supporters and took a 17% hit to our financial support. This happened at a time when Paypal is raising their fees and there are rumors that Patreon is considering the same. Last month was like a gut punch, and right now this month is trending in the same direction.
I'm not sure what has caused the sudden change, and if I did, I'd do everything I can to fix it. (Seriously, if someone knows, PLEASE tell me.)
Because of this hit, I've started looking closely at the finances of the past few months. For nearly two years, we saw almost constant growth, for the six months or so that followed, things became mostly stagnant, seeing small raises or falls in our overall support, but nothing really significant. Then last month wiped out a massive chunk of the last year's growth.
There's a real possibility that this is just a fluke and that it will correct itself in the coming months, but I wanted to say something just in case the trend continues.
What's changing:
-I've reached out to our artists and told them about this. I still commissioned as much art as I have done so in recent months, but I told them that if I continue seeing a decline in pledges, it's going to start affecting how much I can invest into new art. As of right now, I plan to split the hit 50/50 with artists, so if we take a $50 hit, I'm going to cut back on art by $25. I figure that around the time the art fund reaches $100 is about the same time I can no longer pay my bills doing this.
-If last month becomes the new "Normal" then I have about 3 months before the budget becomes unsustainable. I have no intention of allowing this to affect the time I put into creating the best games I possibly can until I hit that wall. If I reach that point, then I will need to seek outside employment to make ends meet and hope to still do this as time permits.
-I have no intention of raising pledge levels for anything. I offer my projects as a price that I feel is fair and have no intention of changing that. Besides, I'd rather share my work with the largest audience possible rather than get rich off of it.
I'm the kind of person who likes to plan for the worst while hoping for the best, and since I count on the support of those who enjoy my projects to provide for my family, I felt that it was important to say something.
Here's hoping that this trend corrects itself soon so I can stop worrying and stay focused on doing the one job I've loved more than any other in my life.
And if anyone has any thoughts, comments, or insights, I'd love to hear them.
Anyway, enough of this talk, I'll likely post a progress report later today, and have a new art breakdown all set up that I just need to find the time to post! Lots of exciting things are coming!
Comments
I completely understand. I've lived with a tight budget before, so I know how it is. It always comes down to taking care of yourself and the people closest to you first. I wish you the absolute best, and I look forward to your eventual return.
Aftermath Team
2019-04-12 04:02:07 +0000 UTCI'll to be following your work and hopefully at one point money will be less tight and I will be more free to spend money on things I like.
KazzKazz
2019-04-12 03:57:04 +0000 UTCI've always felt it was important to make my work available to everyone who wants to play it, and I'm very hesitant to raise the pledge at all. You're not the first person to have mentioned I should raise the entry pledge level a little, but I'm not ready to do that yet. <3
Aftermath Team
2019-04-11 02:55:55 +0000 UTCWell I already felt guilty for only being $1/month (I mean, personally I'm not sure you should even HAVE that category, that's nothing) so I bumped up to $5, which is honestly where I should have started. Hopefully others will follow.
2019-04-11 02:47:30 +0000 UTCSorry to see you go.
Aftermath Team
2019-04-10 22:10:12 +0000 UTCThat's possible.
Aftermath Team
2019-04-10 22:06:15 +0000 UTCI know I am a little late to the game but from what I understand patreon, google and other search engines are modifying their code to exclude more adult content even when people are looking for it. Trying to make the internet a "safer place". so I think you might be seeing your current fanbase including myself running into their financial limits and not enough incoming people to compensate.
KazzKazz
2019-04-10 22:04:29 +0000 UTCThank you. I bookmarked them. I'll see about getting set up over there when I have some time.
Aftermath Team
2019-04-10 20:58:40 +0000 UTCNo E. I searched you on the site, I thought you were already there but no results. It is a website to play games embedded in your browser. You can upload it yourself or email an admin. The games get a lot of traffic especially the first week after upload. It is a general game site though. Transfigure got called both pro and anti feminist propaganda :P The view count is significant enough that it exceeded most of my reddit and other advertising by a fair margin. Even a small conversion rate on those numbers is significant. Good luck.
Tango
2019-04-10 20:55:56 +0000 UTCYeah, I check the exit surveys sometimes, and "My financial situation changed" and "I only intended to pledge for a limited time." are the norm, along with a few notes that read, "Will be back at some point in the future" or similar. In recent months, I've scaled the art budget to closer to 1/3, but yes it is still a substantial investment. Gamecore?
Aftermath Team
2019-04-10 20:34:56 +0000 UTCI am sure you read the exit surveys - this should be a good judge. If "My financial situation changed." and " I only intended to pledge for a limited time." are not the number one reasons given, you have a problem and can hopefully adjust. That said, since you update a lot I doubt "The creator wasn't engaging like I expected." etc comes up often. If you are indeed spending half of your budget on art, that doesn't sound that great finance wise. You aren't making 10 grand a month. My plan for art is to spend a growing % of the take above 1k a month, this way it never becomes unsustainable. The last thing I will mention is the last two months I got a hundreds of thousands of downloads and views and my growth levels haven't increased. So obviously it brought in people but less than expected, so growth up advertising and then growth down some mysterious force. Some months are just really slow. Like January after everyone looks at Christmas bills, it was a lean month.... There is no real cap to your patreon's growth it is all about audience and reach. If your games aren't on gamcore yet, it is worth at least 100,000 views. Take care.
Tango
2019-04-10 19:48:28 +0000 UTCUnderstand. Hopefully this is nothing more than an aboration.
Rycharde's Realm
2019-04-09 23:33:16 +0000 UTCIt is what it is. Life happens. I figure odds are better than not it will correct itself and be a non-issue, but at the same time I'd rather people know what's up than have it come as a surprise in a few months if we have a couple more months like we just experienced.
Aftermath Team
2019-04-09 22:48:30 +0000 UTC( p_q)
Rycharde's Realm
2019-04-09 22:46:06 +0000 UTC
