More news for December - tier changes and sprite auction (Patreon)

Hi folks!

I have a bit more news , this time not related to development - not directly, at least.

Firstly, I have news regarding our Patreon. Over the past few years, the USD to EUR exchange rate has plummeted, and with it - the project's income. Despite growing number of patrons, financially we're still in the same spot as in mid-2023. Most, but not all our artists, operate with USD, but their prices have gone up for the most part, as as our own cost of living did. Meanwhile, I've already been commissioning artwork for key important scenes in Day 5 for a while now, with a few ready - I'm holding on to some of those not to spoil the special moments. In November, as an experiment, I hired a professional editor to help with Rune's update, and the feedback was extremely valuable - but not free. I'd love to continue collaborating with him and get editorial help with other routes too, if the budget will allow it. Looking at the costs and the current situation, I decided it's time to reprice our tiers and make them more attractive.

I'll start by saying that this repricing will only affect new patrons or those changing their tiers - I don't want to suddenly change the price for patrons who joined agreeing to pay a specific price. I also want Dawn Chorus to remain accessible, so we're keeping the two lowest tiers at the same price. Access to regular Partreon builds remains at $5 - aiming at about the same as a price of a solo burger at a fast food joint. I can't set prices per country, unfortunately, otherwise I'd love to adjust for purchasing power.

Just the three upper tiers will be repriced, but along with that, we're introducing new benefits for them. Each tier obviously also includes all the benefits from the tiers below it! After repricing, the tiers will be as follows:

Classy Canid ($2)
- Discord server and Patreon chats access

Bodacious Bat ($5)
- access to Patreon updates

Lively Lion ($10)
- artwork sneak peeks
- access to full size artwork (still to be uploaded at the moment!)
- access to side projects (only Broken Harbours for now) on release

Self-confident Stag ($15)
- preview updates (more frequent than regular ones)
- access to polls (we're bringing those back!)
- soundtrack dowload code

Formidable Feline ($25)
- your name in credits (in About forever, and in special thanks at the end of each update for active patrons)
- weekly development updates & insider info

I've been a bit secretive about the development process, but I plan to share more details about it in the special weekly development updates. The looser structure of Day 5 also allows for more polls about its content - so polls are coming back. The preview release of the reworked Broken Harbours that we plan to release this month will be limited to Self-confident Stag and Formidable Feline tiers before we release a final, more polished visually build later.

Tier price change will happen the next Monday. Before that, you can still become claim a tier at a lower price - forever!

And secondly, we're preparing to hold our second sprite auction, this time for the luthier you meet on Rune's route. Me and Haku are in talks about the details, we want to write more detailed terms and conditions this time, but you can expect the auction to appear sometime later this month.

That's all for now! Thank you,
- Keo