Behind the scenes : My work week (Patreon)

Hi everyone, here is the second part of "Behind the scenes".I describe here my week as a mapmaker. You'll see what subjects I deal with and how I divide my time.

• A week of passion

I work between 5 and 6 days a week. And a day sometimes counts 10-12 hours of work. it may seem like a lot. And yes, it is sometimes hard!But obviously I am passionate about what I do, so it helps to keep this pace.

I also consider that I am still at the beginning of Lovemaps, that there are more things to do and processes to assimilate. Maybe in a few months or years, the work will be more fluid and the pace will calm down a bit.

• How I chose to divide my work weekMy Patreon maps > My communication > Official scenario maps > My group > Other projects

A/ My Patreon maps

These are maps that take me a lot of time to produce. Because, I have to think about the many variations and I put a lot of passion into them. I also want it to be pleasing, so I’m very careful!

Depending on the map, its size and complexity, it takes between 2 and 3 days. It's average. Exceptionally, it even happened to me to spend 5 days on a mapThis is what requires the most energy from me, so I do it at the beginning of the week.In the next "Behind the scenes", I'll come back in detail on the steps to create a map!

B/ Communication and management of Lovemaps

Communication includes a lot of things and it’s essential. Because even if you have the best product in the world, if you remain unknown you won’t sell it.

- Designing the packaging of each map- Design the explanations, the line up for the Patreon and for the store.- Design the different images for Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit... (knowing that none of them works like the other)- Find texts of literary works that illustrate the map.- Write the posts for the social networks.- Answering questions on Patreon and on the store, and there are many :D- Find new ways to communicate, new stores, new services, or new artists- Create ads to introduce Patreon, or to promote it.- To make Lovemaps’ graphic design evolve(...)

You have an idea of the amount of things to do.Obviously for all of the things mentioned, these are processes, and they need to be assimilated. The more regularly you do something, the less time it takes.And at the end, something that used to take 3 hours, now only takes 1 hour.But you have to take into account that when you reduce the global time of all these processes you tend to add new ones.Per week, it takes me about 2 days. I include a little bit of administration, but this last point is not so time consuming.I prefer to do the communication and management of Lovemaps at the end of the week.And for the Patreon week map (that you're all waiting for :D), I prepare some elements in advance, and the post is written on Friday morning.

C/ The official scenario maps

Just like I created the maps for the Masks of Nyarlathotep campaign, for The Haunting (The Corbitt house)... I spend the time I have left to design maps for official scenarios. They are sold on DriveThruRPG, and the publisher, gets royalties on this product.But it's fun to do, it's in high demand and it makes Lovemaps known.The maps are generally faster to make as well, because the locations are well described, and there is no or little variation.

For this :- Choice and reading of scenarios- Create the maps for the scenarios

Depending on the week 0 to 2 days of work. So depending on the size of the campaign, finishing a project can take several weeks or even months. When I map a scenario, I usually do it in the middle of the week, right after my Patreon map.

D/ My game group

I don’t forget my group with which I play.It allows me to test my own maps.

Depending on the week and the needs : 0 to 1 working day.Generally, I do this when I have some time left in the day or on the weekend.

E/ Other projects

For the moment, I have tried other things, had interesting requests.But too little time to concretely accomplish something.

• Special : Take time before the project

If one day you want to start an adventure like this one, on Patreon or other...Think about your project beforehand.

For example: I created my Patreon in June, but I took a month to think about all my processes:

- How I was going to create my Patreons maps, - what would be the concept, - what size of maps, - Create a stock of maps in advance,- Design a graphic charter, - Design a logotype,-(…)- Is it all coherent?

If you have a project with a well thought out and solid base, you will be able to move forward easily afterwards.If it is not the case you will have to do and undo, which takes much more time in the end.

----------------Now you know how a week of Lovemaps goes!We’ll talk more about The different steps to create a map in a future post.

Don’t hesitate to ask questions, I’ll be happy to answer them! :)