August Status

Hi there.

Just a “quick” status report.

I have been working on Natalie’s spy content as well as some other Agency paths and I am having a lot of fun. I am gradually banging the new content into shape. I am hopeful I will be able to finish up this section along with several of the other scenes in development I have mentioned over the past couple months.

Evan and Drew have accumulated a lot of votes so I am trying to direct a decent amount of time to them this month.

I flipped a coin and got tails (Drew) so I started the game at the very start and went down Drew’s route. I was surprised that there were still several big, ugly walls of text, so I fixed and edited a lot of it.

I have touched up a fair bit of content plus added some new media.I have also filled in several dead paths / decisions to bypass certain scenes and to allow passage down Drew’s route in a non/less sexual manner… I am going to change it so that both romance with Drew as well as a non sexual path that allows you to get to some of the other branch points will be possible. I get the impression a lot of readers were missing some of the content (spy, Bloom, Peeshi, etc) in this area because they got turned off by some of the intro content. It makes sense to have these decisions be optional. A reader shouldn’t miss out on sexy spy shenanigans just because they are disgusted by the idea of drinking milk off the floor or because they don’t find Drew attractive. 

Page growth has been fairly slow lately but that is probably because I haven’t really advertised since May and the last release was a bit slow. Once I have a new update out I will start a fresh advertising blitz. I don’t like promoting unless the readers get something (I would never advertise a patron only release). I feel most comfortable when I can release a free update and then have a patreon release already finished in order to keep selling and driving traffic.

One unusual thing I noticed the past 3 months is that I am losing 3-5 patrons a month due to what I presume is Patreon account deletions. In an era of low growth this is especially concerning. I don’t mind at all if people edit their pledges - that’s your right and your money - but it is very odd that some long standing patrons would pledge, pay, and then delete their entire account and all traces before early access even comes out. Then it keeps happening. I went a year without it ever happening now it is about once a week people get deleted and it appears to happen at the same exact time, ie by an algo and not by the actual account owners. I want patrons to control their pledges, not Patreon. I am getting a weird vibe again reminiscent of the Patreon controversy 6 months ago. Previously if someone de-pledged they would still exist on the site, now an increasing amount are getting memory holed. I could see purging inactive accounts but the examples I have are all long term supporters in good standing with multiple pledges and no comments so it seems more than a bit odd. It is unlikely all these people deleted their own accounts. None of them broke any of Patreon’s rules that I could see either. If you have been affected by some of this weirdness or are missing your early access, please send me an email at fictionbytango@gmail.com. Alternatively, I do have an alt funding page here: https://subscribestar.adult/tango if anything should ever happen (or if you prefer).

The next update might become a “hummingbird” update. I am pretty tempted to just flit around for a week and then cram in a bunch of the random additions I have been building up. I am also working on a new ending suggested by a patron, so that should be interesting. The next release should be more timely than the previous one.

As always, thanks for contributing to Transfigure and Tango Fiction!