February update - a new chapter (Patreon)

So I'm two weeks into my full-time career as a content creator.  Things haven't worked exactly as I had planned.  For example, I thought life would be relaxing and I'd have all of the time in the world.  But instead I've found myself working 10 hours a day.  However, much of that time has been dealing with my website, working out the kinks in the shopping cart system and shipping orders.  Initial demand for the soundtrack CD was really strong and I must have shipped out 100 in the first few days alone.  Demand has slowed and now I'm just shipping out 2 or 3 a day, which I what I originally suspected demand would be like.

I have several more ideas for neat merchandise to sell, which I won't be ready to reveal for a few months, unfortunately.  Anders Jensen (one of the musicians I rely on heavily) is getting a full album made of his music, and I will be the distributor for it in the USA, selling it on my website.  

So I've typically spent the first hour or two each morning shipping orders and answering emails and messages on facebook and youtube.  I feel it is important to respond to every message I receive, even if it is just a few sentences.  After all, I am "fan-funded" now.

Then I spend the rest of the day writing scripts, shooting video, editing video, etc.  I have 4 different projects going on right now in various stages of development.  I'm nearly done with the collaboritive effort between me and Ben Heck, which I hope to show you in a day or two.

One of the projects I've started is about old school BASIC.  This is a HUGE project.  It will probably be the longest I've ever made before (possibly 30 minutes?).  It will feature several guest stars, most of which you've seen before on my show, plus maybe a new face or two.  I was originally hoping to have Steve Wozniak, but he backed out, saying he didn't have enough time.

In the meantime, I'll also be showing off some more interesting computer peripherals from the 80s.  And I will be showing off the Fisher Price Pixelvision camera, which I'm excited about.  For those that don't know, it was a video camera from the 80s that recorded video to standard audio cassettes.

Another project I'm considering undertaking this year is the creation of a game on the Commodore 64. Sure, I've made several such games before.  But this one would be a commercial relase, sold on a cartridge.  This would basically be a greatly improved version of my Planet X1 game that I made for the VIC-20 a few years back. I would likely complete the game engine so I could do a few mock-ups showing how the game would play, which is probably 10% of the actual work of creating the game.  Then I would do a kickstarter to judge if there is enough interest to complete the game and get a run of cartridges made.   It's always been on my bucket list to author a real game on a physical cartridge that more than 10 people would actually end up playing.  :-)  I would probably be looking for a group of advisors and beta-testers for this project.  Also somebody good with pixel art to maybe help me draw better looking sprites, etc.  So anyone interested, let me know.  

I've been amazed at the generousity of my fans.  Patreon now accounts for about 30% of my income.  In fact, between adsense and Patreon I am now making slightly more than I made at my old job.  (although not as much as I made doing both together) I have also received numerous donations of vintage gear from all over the world, which will eventually make their way into my videos.  So I'm also grateful for that.  

I think that about wraps it up.  A big thanks to everyone!