TWAB: August on the Horizon

I feel like these previews could probably still be smaller... They make the post so much longer than it needs to be.

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I'm feeling tired, so I should consider taking it easy. I ended up producing more sketches than initially planned this month. The NSFW creative community is also going through a rough time, as payment processors just recently pressured itch.io to de-index / remove many games & art from NSFW creators. This action was spurred by a company called Collective Shout, an anti-porn group under the guise of an activist organization. So, y'know... Difficult time!

Unfortunately, I've been using itch as my primary platform to host and sell comics & games. If I can't use itch, then I don't have any other accessible storefronts to host art of that nature.

My kitchen ceiling has been leaking for over a month again too. Annoying.

Female Link Friday

Last week's Female Link included additional variants, but yielded fewer patron conversions. I suspect that's because the image was less appealing due to the wider shoulders. I'll probably try that again next month.

That said, I don't always want Female Link Friday to be sexy pinups. I do want to draw more authentic illustrations that don't HAVE to be sexy, but I suspect these artworks would be less valuable to consumers. So I may need to think of a solution to that problem in the future.

Weekly Beaumont Idea Cont.

So, I've been giving more thought to the next potential "weekly event" (previously considered to be Beaumont-related). I've struggled to find a consistent plan, and have a lot of different types of feelings concerning the matter.

First, I'm worried. I don't want to risk "crashing" due to an obsessive desire for success - and I fear that mindlessly introducing new content to maximize productivity runs the risk of failure. I do need to perform better, but it might be smarter to keep things slow & steady.

If the new event is a weekly web comic, then I fear this may also compromise its quality. That would require I think of unique, interesting ideas every single week - and then execute those ideas in a visually satisfying manner. But I don't know if that's something I could do... It might also get in the way of Female Link Friday -- which I feel is only consistent because the stakes and scope of each weekly piece is much smaller and requires less energy.

Although I did consider: telling a linear story over time, one page a week, unconcerned about the social media numbers, and then just assembling a finished comic at the end... It still has the problem of unreliable quality -- and the distribution logistics aren't very good. If I were to do this, might it not be better to set it as a monthly event rather than a weekly one; closer to a monthly manga rather than a weekly web comic? However, without access to itch.io, I might not have a solid, accessible web hosting solution to publish chapters anymore.

A monthly event could also be an alternative to the "Sexy Fan Art Saturday" idea too, taking up less of my daily bandwidth and allowing better planning.

Anyway, those are just some of my recent thoughts concerning new "event-based" content.

Game Dev

I'm tired of the fact that my current Beaumont game is still unfinished. I am losing motivation as the scope grows more complicated as a first-time developer. I've also wanted to work on new game ideas, but don't want to embark on a new project with this game incomplete, so it is holding me back from improving my skills further on new ideas.

Perhaps I should drop the scope of this project and rush to the finish line. I really do not want to create an imperfect game, but I also don't want to be stuck in development hell. The whole point of a "first game" is that it's supposed to be quick and simple, and while creating an NES-style game follows that logic, it still feels more complex than most amateur devs' first game...

In the future, I should consider developing game projects that are smaller - or projects that are able to be updated with new playable content over time. I think that would be much more exciting for you - being able to play without waiting an entire year every time; like an RPG that adds a new chapter every few months or something along those lines...

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Don't forget to eat & sleep.