Novus
patreon
The Future of Eros Academy
🕑 Added 2017-07-03 02:54:22 +0000 UTCOkay, so if you were expecting the next thing up to be the content polls, sorry! Those will start either tomorrow or on the fourth. Normally, I try to get them in as early as possible. However, this month there is a more important issues to knock off first. Namely, what I'm going to do with the game/patreon going forward. Now, before anything else, two important things to emphasize.
Development on this game will contiune regardless of changes to the update/development cycle.
and
Changes, whatever they might be, will NOT begin until after the NEXT update. This month, we are still on the old set up, meaning that the current system/cycle will be in place for the next (v1.7) update.
Having gotten those out of the way, I'm going to be brutally honest here. As things stand, development of Eros Academy has become a chore I have to fight against procrastinating, rather than something I enjoy making. Were I doing this as a full-time occupation, that would be fine. Also, it wouldn't be a problem if I was, since the whole reason it has become that way is that it is sucking up all the freetime I have while working a regular day job. To give you an idea of how MUCH time...I generally spend something like 80 hours on the smallest updates and upwards of 120 on a couple of the larger updates. That, by the way, isn't counting working with Jaylee on the short stories, creating the Mixed Media Shorts, or posting here.
This is not acceptable. That's effectively a 20-25 hour a week part-time job that I'm doing IN ADDITION to working a regular day job. I've made a some changes over the last few months in an attempt to improve things. Either to decrease my own workload by fiddling with how much content I put in and how I make some of the content or by increasing patronage so that I can cut down on regular work hours a bit. Needless to say, neither of these worked.
Long story short, after the next update I will be radically changing the way the game development and the patreon page work. The model I am currently using is a common patreon model used for adult games, but it isn't the only one. The problem is, that I have no idea which of the other three options would work best. I also do not wish to alienate my current awesome Patrons (You guys) by changing over to a system they don't like.
As such, and in an attempt to involve people/get feedback, I'm going to outline the three possible ways forward for the game. I'm intending to do this both in this post and in a public post, however, the public post will not have an attached poll. To be perfectly blunt, I care a LOT less about what the general public want than I do the current patrons. I will open up a post for comments and arguments by them, but the vast majority of the weight for what I do will come from this post. As such, in addition to the poll voting, I ask that you put a comment on the post if you feel strongly about one of the options. Now, enough of that horrible long tirade. The models for development going forward are as such:
Model 1 - Per Creation Patreon:
In this model I would be changing my patreon page over to a per-creation charge. Effectively all reward tiers would remain as-is, but updates would come less frequently and patrons would be charged only when there was an update. Which would probably happen only once every 3 months or so. They might be a bit larger and more polished but not a lot. Short Stories and Mixed Media Shorts would come only when there is an update.
Model 2 - The Tip Jar
Some creators have a lot more luck with this method then they do with rigid tier setups. In this method I would leave the project at a per month charge but strip down most of the extra stuff I'm making for the higher tiers. The game would release straight-to-public every update, with patrons mostly just being kind souls who want to help me out or thank me for the game. Patrons WOULD continue to get a few extras. If I do it this way, I'll throw up a random 'extra' every month out of a grab bag of options. Mixed Media Shorts, Short Stories by Jaylee or myself, or whatever other random tidbits I can come up with. Patrons would also get semi-frequent sneak-peaks into development. In example, when I make a new character or room for an update, I might pop up a single render of it along with a bit of a description of what it will be used for.
Note that, in this model, releases would likely be farther apart but considerably larger. I personally am leaning a little toward this method as it would take the stress off while allowing me to take on the bigger parts of the game that are supposed to be there but current aren't on account of how I've been doing updates. For example, each update would likely have a date with one of the major characters, as well as possibly some system improvements like an actual time and money system. Currently, those are not practical to work into my development cycle. With this more relaxed model, I could do them as I wouldn't be worried about getting out enough content quickly enough to feel like it is worth it for my patrons.
Model 3 - Longer Update Cycle
This model basically just alters the update cycle to three months, with short stories and MMS still coming monthly, but actual game updates only coming out four times a year. I'd likely make the updates a bit bigger, but not massively so. A full date plus a few extra scenes. That sort of thing. I'd also likely alter the reward tiers to cost a bit less each. Likely $3 per month for getting the game early + the short story and $5 for those that also want the Mixed Media shorts. Or something like that.
Charges would remain monthly.
Comments
Novus
Thanks for the comment, Hnnah! I admit I'm personally leaning a bit toward the tip jar method, but it's also the biggest change for current Patrons, which gives me a little bit of pause. I have, in fact, considered making a less ambitious game and pausing Eros for awhile. I'm reluctant to do so, however, with so little of the central content in Eros actually present. It's something that has added to the frustration, that by allowing content to be decided by polls I've often been left tacking on a bunch of non-critical extras rather than adding core gameplay. Of course, at this point the fact that I've done that actually makes it harder to add said core gameplay. I'd like, at least, to get the main datable characters to have a couple of dates and some more dialogue before I shelved the project for any length of time, though. That way it would feel a bit more like a full core-game :-). On another note. Renpy is actually a lot simpler for me, personally, than RPG maker is. I actually have a degree in software design, which is why the coding aspect of the game generally takes only a couple of days. The coding side is never hard, just mildly time consuming. It actually takes much longer to write the dialogue than it does the code segments themselves. RPG maker on the other hand, at least the last time I used it, tended to be massively more involved when it came to creating each step. Each map, each animation set, etc. If I do stop and make another, less massive, game I'd probably stick with Renpy but take a cue from Vren's "Lab Rats" game(<a href="https://www.patreon.com/vrengames).">https://www.patreon.com/vrengames).</a> I didn't play the game until some time after I started Eros Academy, but it has a really nice balance to it. Using a combination of still graphics and minimal 3D assets, most of which I actually recognize, to produce scenes that evoke just as much intensity (or more) than my own much more time-intensive scenes.
Hnnah
Honestly, if the game's taking so much of your time and you don't feel like you're getting enough of a return, it's perfectly understandable that you wouldn't want to go on at this pace. $37 a month definitely isn't worth the headaches of trying to work a tight schedule and hitting deadlines. I'd recommend the tip jar method and just working at your own leisure. If you're feeling burned out, you might even consider putting this project on hold and working on another game for a bit? You could even use a simpler engine that requires less custom art like rpg maker or something along those lines.
