Important update. TL;DR at the bottom.
Added 2019-07-13 11:40:40 +0000 UTCI was speaking to a friend last night, and we were discussing burn-out and trading tips on how to avoid it. During this, I brought up my re-mastering of old flashes and he told me something that really opened my eyes.
I'm making 3 flashes a month, taking on all these monthly requests, and now I'm piling on a project, commissions, and also remastering old flashes. And promising them all in a month. In his own words: "You've got a sinking business model, and you're setting yourself up for failure."
And, honestly, it's true. With 3 animations a month, I'm making on average 36 animations a year, 40+ if you take into account other animations I make as a commission or if I feel in the mood.
I'm saturating the market, and I'm not doing anything new in them. They are, essentially, re-skins each and every time. Stock anime girl in stock location with stock big belly and stock breast bouncing. Now if you guys are okay with that then so am I, I've got no problems making these. They're a lot of fun, and I do try to add new mechanics and try new things.
For example, the Zelda animation earlier this month was the first animation I've made where you get a completely nude experience, which was completely going out of what I knew. And, the month before, I worked on some programming to make the Rosalina expansion a more personal experience with the name input mechanic, which I'm going to use in other projects.
So while I am saturating the market, I think that I'm including enough of of a change to make each of them unique.
However, let's discuss monthly requests.
I had to cancel the $1 requests because I got faaaar more patrons than I expected, and I couldn't keep up with all the requests. During this time, I also lowered $5 requests to a doodle rather than a full-drawn image because of time and stress constraints.
I'm still going to draw your requests! Just please make sure that if you're a $5 patron you message me your request, because otherwise I won't see it. Sending me a message on Patreon or on Discord (either work) helps keep me up to date with your request. I might not get it done in a timely manner but I'll do it without fail.
I will also stop telling you guys that the requests are open. Assume, from here on out, requests will be open from the 3rd of the month until the end of the month.
Okay, last thing...
The remasters.
I'm not dropping out of it, but I am instead treating it as a back-burner project. So, instead of releasing them out at a set time, it'll be done when it's done.
That does mean that I now have a slot open to make an animation, so here's the deal:
I'll be taking one of the requests made on the last post and making the one I like the idea of the most into an interactive. I'd put it to a vote, but if the animation is set to be out in 5 days I don't really have time to wait a day for the poll to choose conclude.
So that's the update. Instead of stressing myself out adding project after project, I'm going to separate my workload:
- Three monthly animations (Main priority)
- Patreon requests (Main priority)
- Current animation commission (Main & Side priority)
- Remastering old animations (Side priority)
- Secret project (Side priority)
TL;DR:
I'm slowly burning myself out by overworking myself. To combat this, I'm putting all unnecessary projects to the back-burner.
I'll stop telling you guys that the requests are open. Assume, from here on out, requests will be open from the 3rd of the month until the end of the month.
I'll be taking one of the requests made on the last post and making the one I like the idea of the most into an interactive. I'd put it to a vote, but if the animation is set to be out in 5 days I don't really have time to wait a day for the poll to choose conclude.