Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

March 19 Update (Patreon)

Published:
2017-03-19 18:35:49
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hey, everybody! This update is going to be a miniature state of the union. Uh, state of the Patreon. In brief, though, I will likely take a bit of extra time on the upcoming release.

In the last half of 2016, my creativity went in every direction due to personal issues. To keep myself productive, I started a bunch of side projects. Too many side projects. I hope not to waste the work I did on those, but many had to be shelved for the near future. More on these later.

For 2017, I wanted to focus on getting out multiple TLS releases in good time. I feel I succeeded, but it has run me a little ragged. To be clear, this pace of releases isn't unreasonable, the difficulty was trying to finish them in combination with other stuff.

For example, over the past few weeks I've been apartment hunting and moving. I am pleased to say that my new apartment is extremely quiet. ^-^ This isn't going to revolutionize game development or anything, but it IS a slightly better environment for working and it will be good for me in general. So that happened, and it sucked up a bunch of time.

Another release ended up crunched because of time I spent on a different project. It's an oldschool RPG, I hope to make a preview of it at some point. From a creative perspective I'm glad I spent more time on it (doing the majority of the writing at once instead of breaking it up into little pieces), but it messed up my dev cycle.

Now, you guys are always very supportive, so I could probably have just asked for extra time to move or worked on what's more productive on the long run. But I also know other people are more skeptical about Patreon creators, and I think it's a completely justifiable concern to worry about creators spreading themselves thin over too many projects. Hence my desire to not let up on the TLS updates.

For 0.26.0, though, I'd like to take a bit of extra time. I won't be taking a break from development, I just want some time to do some fun stuff. For example, maybe I'll finally post a preview of that other RPG I've mentioned. I've done a lot of work on it, and there's even some fancy art for everyone to see.

Another thing I've been putting off: I'd like to do an anonymous survey to determine patron demographics. I don't know if that sounds fun to anyone else, but I like that kind of thing. =P I'll post more about that later, perhaps next week.

Anyway, that's the state of things. 2017 should be filled with a lot of interesting stuff from me, both more TLS and some of this side work finally coming to fruition. Thanks to all of you for supporting me! ^-^

Comments

EG Douglas

Glad to. Your writing and work is worth supporting.

Dreikaiserbund

Thank you for the update! In my (admittedly limited) experience, one can forgive a lot in exchange for good communication. So! Thank you.

Dorago

Personaly, it don't bother me if you have to take some time for diffents things, I don't only support your work, but also you, because without you, I could not enjoy your work :)

Bladestorm

I truly enjoy your work and your creativity as an dev. It won't bother me if you take your time to work on projects and develop more fun things for TLS, and once again thank you for the update and I am glad to be able to support you.

Morningfrost

Not worried at all about a potential delay, Sierra. You've got a strong enough track record to easily absorb a few delays without any sort of negative hit. ~Morningfrost

Darthjake

I was gonna say something positive, but it was already said! Keep up the great work, and take the time you need.

Hakkira

As a new Patreon of this I would just like to say great work as the gameplay and choices are spot on :) Also I love Simon as the main character as he is experienced and calm as opposed to being a blind optimist :P I was just wondering whether or not you intend to have drawn ero scenes (like Roundscape) in the future once the full release is out? I am glad you currently do not have them as it would slow down the project greatly but nevertheless I would love to see them in the future :)

sierralee

Hello, glad to have you with us! I do want to add drawn scenes to the game, and ideally I'd like to start that long before the game is complete. The difficult part is finding an artist with an appropriate style who is willing to commit to a game this long.

Sower of Systems

This! At this point scene artwork, in my opinion, would be the biggest upgrade to the game - other than just more of the game. It really makes a difference when you can see the important scenes in high def, and I'm not just talking about the ero scenes (although those first ;D) but the most important story scenes too; like the summits. Having a fully illustrated view of all of the attendees at the table would really give the feeling that we know who we're talking to.

Sower of Systems

Also, I would absolutely pledge $50 a month to help pay for art! I love this game and, as I said above, I think art would be a massive bonus!

sierralee

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I'd also be happy to add art to the game, it's just difficult to find an artist who can tick all the boxes. I welcome suggestions, since given my current schedule I don't really have much time to investigate random artists.

Hakkira

Perhaps you can try what the guys at Roundscape did with having multiple artists contributing, though it does lack consistency. Otherwise sites like hentaifoundry and deviant art might be the place for you to take a look to find a style you believe fits. Those artists tend to do commision work but if you actually got someone who liked the game it would be a big bonus as they probaby wouldn't charge as much and be more commited to the project. Also ask your current Patreons for ideas on a main topic perhaps :)

sierralee

Using multiple artists would be fine in theory, but visual consistency is very important to me so they'd have to be able to keep their styles similar. The game so far might not be 100% consistent, but I've tried to stick close to a core aesthetic. But by far the biggest potential problem is artists flaking out - maintaining artists is a huge problem for devs. I'd want to choose someone who had a good track record of work. A fan who was an artist would be great, of course. ^-^ But truth be told, I haven't been approached by a single person. Artists tend to care about art, not writing, and so I guess TLS doesn't have much to attract them.

Secular Reason

Frankly you are one of only two total devs that I have seen keep pace on multiple games at once what with you having that second Patreon. I won't worry too much about side projects (you've had them for a while withlut degrading in quality) so long as you don't start more main projects at the same time you'll probably be fine. Healthy mix of drive and focus keeps things going well so far, and it seems like the side projects have allowed you to stretch those creative juices when you start getting bored, but you have the focus to return back to the main job until completion.