The Release Date Dilemma

Thanks! :)

I believe a previous comment suggested something similar. The answer is still the same: doing what you suggest would simply postpone the problem for those patrons until the following month.

Hopefully nobody will get straight up pissed off, but we'll see. Right now it looks like the support for a brief delay is overwhelming, so that's something.

I dunno. Those rewards are kind of meant to be exclusive to those tiers. Joining one of those tiers now gives access to not only this month's rewards, but every previous month as well. I would think that's more of an incentive, though it's never been my goal to push people towards the higher tiers.

i think people like me giving u the money every month, don`t worry about the one month delay. i support u cause i appreciate ur work and just want to honor the time u invest.

plus you could always send a download link to this months pledges via email correct?

Bob

No matter what you do here you will piss off a few people but you got to do what is right for the long term and your pledges have voted corrrectly for you ;) one bad month is worth it, to fix a larger issue down the line. Plus fixing this now removes stress from you and helps you focus on creating the game over being worried over payments.

Bob

This is really not something I wish to do, which is why you don't see it as an option in the poll. Look at the link you posted. 77% of creators use the monthly setup. I suspect the number is far higher for adult game creators. Additionally, since I do monthly releases, charging per creation would just make everything more confusing. I'm not making this campaign a per creation campaign.

Both are not mutually exclusive. You can still do the releases monthly. And IMO it looks way less scary than blindly paying money hoping for content (probably one of the reasons people stop pledging at the end of the month). How would it screw up the higher tiers? (Patreon documentation isn't clear but I would imagine that "freebies for a tier or higher" would be a pretty basic feature on a per creation model)

Theoretically, yes. However, very few adult game creators do this, so it risks standing out as alien or scary to newcomers, or even look like I'm trying to rip them off somehow. I don't think it's a good option for adult games as things currently stand. Additionally, sticking with monthly releases like I do right now forces me to keep a schedule and makes me focus. Charging per release would also screw up the higher tiers.

Thanks for the input. It's all very helpful. :)

It might be me, but I don't see any problem. I also don't see any reason to pay someone back. I don't think your curent patreons would mind to wait a few days. It happens quite often that an developper takes extra time for an update and sometimes even skips an update. although I appreciate that you care that much about us, some other developers should take that for an example. New patreons will get the game as it is. They already have a lot of fun in their first month , their position is nothing different as the other patreons.

James Do

I agree.

I'd rather avoid forcing my patrons to jump through hoops to avoid getting charged more than they intended. Not everyone is 100% informed of the intricacies of how Patreon works and how charges are made, so I'd rather be safe than sorry.

It honestly sounds like the second option is the far better option - yeah, it means patrons will wait a little longer for an update one time, but then it's all good after that. If you go with the first option, you're going to create extra work for yourself in terms of constantly refunding new patrons AS WELL AS possibly creating that bad first impression you mentioned.

Anonymous010

I, myself have come across this dilemma when wanting to support someone. Charge up front, release towards the end of the month. Waiting a few days until the month rolled over didn't kill me. Patience is a virtue I guess. Another possibility for the patron would be to pay when the release is up, then cancel when they get the release. You get the support and they get the release. If they like it, they can either rinse and repeat this process or continue to support you without cancelling after each update. That is my thoughts.

Greg

If thats the case, there are people who probably wouldn't even had noticed if you pushed the release out a couple of days. The majority of the votes indicate to move it ahead so I would just do it.

Brad

There won't be any months skipped. I see there's been a lot of confusion about this despite me trying my best to explain it in my post. All that would happen would be that one month's release is pushed back a few days at most, enough to push it into the next month. It would have little, if any, effect on the update's content.

Summer is a good time to skip a month as more people will be busy with outside activities. Personally I wouldn't mind especially if it means the next release has a greater amount of content.

Brad

Why, thank you! :)

Hence why you're a good (patreon runner?) :D Bad patreons just do whatever they want, no communication, even if it's the right call. But you take the time to inform us and let us in the decision making process not to mention reply back to us. It builds trust and why so many of us support you :D

Alexandar04

I personally agree with what you said. I just didn't feel right making a judgment call on this issue without involving the patrons in the process, hence this poll.

Speaking for myself as long as you're keeping me inform of what's going on I don't really mind and recommend doing what's best for you long term aka starting at the beginning of the month. One month hiccup and then we never have to worry about this problem again vs. constant returns which open the door for this issue to come back up. Besides you can always argue that we're getting more content since we're effectively giving you an extra week/two to work on the update.

Alexandar04