Time for a change

Hello friends,

I have hinted at it a few times: I've had a some issues with this Patreon page since the beginning. Although making changes have always been on the back of my mind, I never had the time nor the energy to come up with a satisfying solution. The end of the GGGB JDMOD in March freed my schedule and allowed me to reflect on the past and present situation.

Past

Since I created this page back in December of 2018, I've always add these two ideas, which often seem opposite :

• I wanted my work to stay public and available to everyone ;
• I wanted patrons to be rewarded.

It took some time to find the right balance between the two, to find the right tiers and rewards but, by the end of January 2019, the patron tiers were set to their current form:

• Supporters for the Present motivated me to keep updating the already existing mods & walkthrough. The corresponding reward is an Early Access to new updates.
• Supporters for the Future motivated me to improve the current JDMODs and start new projects. : The corresponding reward are extra votes when choosing the next JDMOD as well as an access to the first release of new JDMODS.

Back then, there wasn't a lot of content for rewards which is why Supporters for the Future also got a slightly better Early Access to two JDMODs (GGGB and TT).

Present

First, I need to talk about the a bad decision I've made and how it plagued almost an entire year.

The first new JDMOD I had planned was the one for High-Rise Climb. The game was voted for by the patrons so I pressure myself to deliver. After spending well over a hundred hours on the mod, a new version of the game was released and I realized how difficult and time-consuming it would be maintain and update.
I decided to put the project on hold. I was a hard decision but I've never considered it to be a bad one. The worst decision I'm talking was when I decide to mod the game without knowing anything about it, without having the slightest idea of how it would go or if it could even be done. 
It also happened at a wrong time in my life and it took me months to recover and start a new project.
What I've learned from this period are not only what's detrimental to my motivation but also what a game needs to be modded by me.

Now let's delve into the issues I've encountered over the past year and a half:

• Supporter for the Future rewards 

It takes me an awful amount of time and effort to release a new mod. I believe it's because of what I want to end result to be. I need to take things, such as how much I like a game, how much it needs a mod and how mod-friendly the game is, into account before starting a new project which means I can't release new mods as often as I initially thought I could. 

I'm not satisfied with the "1 month Initial release Early Access" reward. While I like that this reward is linked to the additional work it requires, one month feels way to long. I've given it a lot of thought and I couldn't come up with a duration I would find reasonable for everyone.

• Multiples posts

The 2 oldest JDMODs have different Early Access duration for Supporters for the Present and Supporters for the Future. Because of it, I've had to doublepost a lot. Setting it up a waste of time and energy and I want to get rid of it. This is why none of the newest content use different rewards for different tiers, except for the initial release.

• Processing fees

At the very beginning, I only thought of how accessible I wanted each Patron Tier to be and I didn't pay attention to how substantial the fees could be. Payment processing fees can reach up to 33% of a 1$ pledge. I don't like that you might think you're supporting someone when, in the end, you're giving a good deal of it to Paypal.

• Getting spoiled

It's the downside of trying to release updates as fast as possible: For months, I stopped playing the games. I didn't see the point of doing it since while modding and testing I had already seen the new content multiple times. In order to preserve my interest in the games, I've tried to play the content before working on the mod from time to time. I think it's been helpful.

Future

I'm currently working on a new project but, after that, I won't release new mods for a while. Mostly, I'm waiting to see how things pan out before starting a new project but, also, the current content and the different posts are in a dire need of updates, FAQs and stuff like that. 

I like the meaning behind the current names for the tiers and I'm considering keeping them as is but, for clarity, I will be using the pledge amount in the rest of the post.

Starting at the beginning of next month, the current tiers ($1 & $3) will be merged into a single $2 one. Doubleposting will no longer be needed and the initial release Early Access will be same for all supporters (and probably reduced to something like 2 weeks. Again one month being way to long to my taste).
I will add a $5 tier with no additional reward, at least not in terms of content. In my mind, the reward for each tier had to be worth it but it seems incompatible with the idea of everything being public in the end so I'm giving this a try. If you have ideas for rewards that could fit this tier you're more than welcome.

This was quite a long post, definitely not something I'm used to. Thank you for reading it.

Please post your comments, questions and suggestions below. I'm looking forward to reading your opinion.

Be safe and take care.