Daily Report - 25/11/2023 (Patreon)

Making that bread, Patreon playtest

Sponsorships

I figured I would take this moment to reflect and update everyone a bit on how we’re working towards more of our financial stability. Over the past 4 weeks, I’ve reached out to about 20 different companies with products related to game development for sponsorship. Out of those, 2 have signed with us so far for sponsored content, 1 has sent a review product and we’re in optimistic talks with a 4th one.

The ones we’ve got so far are Flexispot, which has sent a €800 standing desk for Thomas, who is a happy boy now. There is no further monetary gain. The requirement here is a 60-second spot where we showcase the desk and its features. We are planning on doing a desk tour video/talking about our workspaces video to incorporate that one.

Next up we signed with Fiverr yesterday, netting us $450 in Fiverr credits, and another $600 upon delivery of the video. We’re going to be making a full video there where we talk about our previous experiences with Fiverr, and use the $450 to spend on various Fiverr activities related to gamedev. The core things we’ll be getting with that budget are art (a whole bunch of sprites), music (2x 60s loops), PR (Steam page overhaul), and localization in 2 German and Portuguese. We’ve also got some previous experience with Fiverr, so it was a natural fit. We are also part of their affiliate program now, with a $50 CPA (paid per new Fiverr user).

ReMarkeable has sent me a ReMarkeable 2, no requirements in terms of a dedicated video, or even a reference, but I like the product so far.

And lastly, we are currently in talks with Jetbrains to do one or more videos talking about their solutions. The first one would be TeamCity and how we are using it. We’ve sent in our final proposal, and have the ambitious goal of €1000 for a video where we talk about the importance of CI/CD, and how we’ve been using TeamCity for both Forge Industry and Songs of Everjade.

Sending out sponsorships can be frustrating due to the low response rates, but if you do get one, it does feel oh-so rewarding and can be a massive confidence boost/validation that we’re doing something well as a studio, even when our views are in a bit of a slump like now.

First Patreon Playtest

As one of the perks of our Patreon, we offer an extra round of playtesting for our Patreons. This first playtest weekend will start in a few hours, so expect another post on this Patreon soontm.
We will be using itch.io for hosting this first playtest weekend as Steam didn’t get around to approving our Steam Playtest on time.

The game is very much still in a rough state right now and will primarily serve as a pulse check to try pacing, movement, and the rooms concept. We will then be taking in the critical issues and main feedback points of this playtest with us for the public playtest next week.

We didn’t end up reaching the quality and polish I was hoping for, but I think we still ended up with a decent result, and I think we can still be proud as a studio for the fact that we did achieve more than most of the other Belgian studios do in 4x as much time, with much more funding as well.

What’s next
I assume some key issues will come up with the playtest, and we will address these over the weekend. We will also continue working on balance, and we’ve sent out the next large order of custom art that we are waiting to implement as it gets done.

"The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It's a shortcut to mediocrity. Challenge yourself with ambitious game projects."

Marnix Wyns

Producer & Creative Director @ BiteMe Games