Merchandise

Howdy Patrons,

On the team, we've been discussing ideas that would help to expand Sileo's reach and add value to our tiers here on Patreon. One such idea that we've been discussing is adding merchandise rewards to some of our tiers.

Patreon offers a merchandise service which allows us to add rewards like posters, clothing, mugs and stickers as rewards for remaining subscribed to a tier for a sufficient length of time. 

This is attractive to us as it's very much a hands-off service - we simply cover the cost of the merch in addition to a small increase in Patreon's cut of our income and work with them to design the merch that will be offered. From there, Patreon handles everything from creating the merch to distributing the merch, even handling post-sale support. It's strictly hands off for us and will not distract from the continued development of Sileo.

However we do have concerns about the costs involved with offering this service. The merch itself is not exactly cheap, and the cut Patreon requires on top is similarly rather sizable. So right now, we're not 100% sure what to do.

How Patreon Merch Works: We design the merch items and assign them to select tiers. Subscribers to those tiers who maintain that subscription for 3 months will be given a choice of which merch items they want, based on the tier they're subscribed to. Patreon will then ship this item to you free of charge anywhere in the world.

Our Tentative Plan: As mentioned before, the merch doesn't come cheap! As such, we're tentatively planning to offer merch starting with the $15 tier which will offer mini prints and stickers. A $30 tier will be created offering posters, t-shirts, mugs and neck-gaiters. Finally, a $50 tier will be created offering long-sleeved shirts and hoodies. Sadly, anything less  would simply be cost prohibitive with how much Patreon asks for these items.

What Designs We'll Offer: Largely, whatever you guys would like to see, so long as it's possible and meets Patreon's content guides. In general the most notable guideline to keep in mind is that we cannot produce merch containing R18 material. This means we can't produce stickers of Diego's dong that you can stick on random public amenities. We're sorry... 

If we go ahead with merchandise, we'll likely give you guys the opportunity to submit your ideas and let us know what you'd like to see. We'd then base our offerings on those suggestions. However for the things we've already got in mind, read on.

For posters and prints, we'll begin by offering a series of illustrations from the game. We're thinking prints of certain sequences (IE: Diego's Intro, Diego's Ending, that one CG on Day 7 of Tai's route where Tai starts taking off his clothes... if Patreon will allow it!). We might also produce some posters of backgrounds and promotional materials too. 

Neck-Gaiters is something we're not yet sure on. We'll likely offer a series of backgrounds and select illustrations on these, but of course if we go ahead with merch, you'll all have the opportunity to make suggestions!

For everything else, we're thinking of primarily launching with a series of custom designs such as chibi versions of our characters as well as other things such as our logos and select other artwork. There'll be some more subtle options for those who prefer not to advertise their furry-ness to the world, and some more overt options for those who don't really give a shit!

So! That brings us to the question of this poll! Please read the above and choose the most appropriate option below! Your feedback is important and this will help us to determine our next move!