Quick little update, thoughts appreciated (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Wanted to pop in and pick y'all's brains for a moment. This past month has been a pretty rough month for in an otherwise really rough year. I'll spare you most of the details, but the tipping point for me this month was finding out my therapist is potentially very ill. She'd had to cancel this month's sessions, which I've been attending weekly since January, and we don't have an ETA for when we'll return. Not only has she been my doctor for years, but she's been a good friend to me outside of the office, and that's all coming on top of an already very hard year. It's kind of making me realize I've been pushing these updates out against all odds this year, and I'm admittedly a little more than worn out at the moment. Numerous friends had already been telling me that trying to get whole days done on a route per month was insane, and I'm finally starting to think, like, "huh, they might be right. This is hard."

So, before I make any decisions, I wanted to reach out and get feedback from y'all. David's route is abouuut...50% done? Normally I'm almost finished at this point. I don't really want to cram and put together a lackluster, hurried story just to push it out the door on August 1, though. No matter what, I want the story to be quality and the project to feel finished, so I was tossing around a few ideas, and wanted your thoughts.1. Pausing the billing cycle for August 1. Y'all would not be charged August 1, and I'll take the rest of July and August to finish David's route, releasing it September 1. Moving forward, I would stick with that model of charging every other month and delivering a route day every other month. This would, obviously, hurt me financially as I'm only working, like, 10hrs a week at the moment, but it's a thought.2. Keeping the billing cycle charging monthly, but posting route updates every other month, with the lull month having WIPs on the update. You, the patron, continue to pay the same but get the route updates every other month instead. You would, at the very least, get exclusive updates to show the route's being worked on! Aeria and I also decided that a fun idea for this one would be you getting several exclusive Lavender County related artwork just for the patrons for the in-between months. This would be art of the characters/side characters that would be from him and probably me as well that only you'd get. So, being billed monthly, you get a route one month, art the next, alternating.

This is hard for me, because I do definitely need to slow it down a bit or the routes (and my mental health) are going to suffer, but I also dread posting this and essentially saying "please continue to support me financially monthly for a game you're only getting every other month", even though like...I guess that's how some other FVN makers do it. IDK. Trying to figure out the balance between caring for myself/my art and doing what's right for the supporters has been hard for me, but since this is like a symbiotic relationship I want to offer MY thoughts and then hear YOURS as well. Would you be alright being charged monthly if I promise WIPs and probably exclusive art? Would that feel like you're being scammed?? IDK. Be honest with me! I'm just trying to figure all this out.

FWIW, the game's already all planned out. I don't see myself burning out on it or anything. I'm having a great time working on it, it's just been hard navigating like...idk honestly how shit this year has been mixed with having to do "real work" and also get out of the house. Everyone keeps telling me to slow down the updates, even some of my FVN friends, so I figured I'd like...idk toss that out to y'all before making any decisions. PLEASE let me know your thoughts! Love y'all.