What happened now, and what happens next

Wow.

I mean... wow.

So I've been meaning to write this for about a week now, but finding the words has been difficult, so I'll just bite the bullet and write whatever comes to mind as it comes. In short, I'm... kind of flabbergasted right now, and in this context, that's a very good thing.

While I did expect the AoL3 pack to do pretty well, what I did not expect was for it to have the best opening week in all the time I've been doing this, with its first week outselling the Hyrule Warriors pack's first year. Not only that, but apparently a whole bunch of you just kinda popped in out of nowhere and now this page has skyrocketed too... I don't really know how to react to this, success is kind of foreign to me. But, regardless of how sudden it all was, it's long overdue that I take a minute to get real here.

Thank you all, for taking the time to support my work. Your willingness to do so makes all the headaches, hand cramps and 2am bedtimes worthwhile. I know that might sound a bit passive aggressive or something, but I really mean it. Thank you.

But now, for the main topic at hand. As I mentioned recently, I'm working on ways to make this whole Patreon process easier to manage with more direct and simple communication, and that is primarily through Discord. With that in mind, I want to take a minute to go over everything that these changes mean, organized by tier and how they're affected by this shift. If you don't use Discord, don't worry because I'll cover that afterward. Sit tight, and let's get started:

-The Discord Initiative-

In short, everything that goes on here will also get posted in my Discord server. It has been set up with several channels dedicated to each tier, with users having access to each one at their rank and below. Here is the invite link: https://discord.gg/sfbvtE6

-How does this affect you?

Having all this stuff available in Discord gives instant access in-app to everything I make for Patreon as soon as it's finished. An added benefit is that you can easily access it from your phone, as well as communicate with me and others whenever you want. You also have access to all channels below your tier as well.

-Instance Tier

Instance has access to patreon-general and stream-results, both of which get updated immediately. General will include minor updates as well as the monthly sketch, while stream results will feature whatever I draw during Patreon streams.

-Guild Tier

Guild has access to three channels; first, patreon-streams will include the link to watch streams. Second and third, and the most significant change among all this, are patreon-hangout-chat and patreon-hangout-voice. While seemingly redundant at first, these two channels are for something new that I hinted at before regarding Patreon streams. I briefly mentioned that the number of streams per month has been dropped to two, but that's not entirely true. There will be two drawing streams, but I took some inspiration from my FFXIV guild and have decided to make one of the streams something a bit more social, laid back and fun.

Essentially, it will be a game stream where we can all play some games together and just have a good time. Fortunately, it's possible for everyone to play as well since I happen to have one of the Jackbox party packs, which is a game that anyone can play as long as they have an internet connection, which I assume you do if you're reading this, and I can say from experience that it is a buttload of fun. And, depending on the situation, we can probably play some other stuff too. Maybe a little Smash Ultimate tournament when it comes out? Who knows?

-Dungeon Tier

Dungeon has access to pack-previews, which works exactly as it does here. While I usually only post one preview per pack, sometimes I'll toss another one in as well. It's also worth noting that I pretty regularly discuss the creation and ideas of current packs, which allows viewers to suggest things and sometimes influence the direction the pack goes. Just last night, due to participation from Discord users, we've decided to include Isabelle in the Smash pack. This stuff isn't part of the dungeon tier specifically, but it seemed appropriate to mention here.

-Boss Tier

Folks on this tier already know this but for the sake of transparency, here it is. Boss gets access to request-discussion, which is a place to do exactly that. It can also be used as a place to dump ideas for the request, as well as be the first place I'll post it. Alternatively, you can DM me the info.

-What if I don't have or use Discord?

Then I have good news; everything will still be posted here. Silver will be handling most of that, so if you can't or just don't want to do the Discord thing, then we got you covered and you won't miss any images. I do want to say though, even if you don't want to talk, you're under no obligation to directly participate in the conversation there. It's all optional, and you can simply enjoy the drawings if you want. Just make sure that, if you join, you let me know you're a patron. Otherwise, you won't have access to any of the channels.

Well, I think that covers it for today. I'll be adding this information to the main page soon so it doesn't get lost, and hopefully all of this stuff makes things easier on all of us. If you managed to get through all that text, thanks for reading and for sticking around.