Anyone that pledge at least 20€ will always get access to the most recent updates (and other patreon changes)

Hi everyone,

Today I want to announce a few planned changes to the way “Nothing is Forever” will be distributed/funded. These changes aim to increase fairness to patrons, and game exposure.

1. Anyone that has pledged a total amount of 20€ (or the equivalent of tier 4 in your local currency) will get access to the most recent update whether they remain a patron or not.

I think anyone that supported the game to that extent deserves to get permanent access to it. Game development takes time, but a patron might not want to (or be able to) support that development through entirety of it. That amount of support will, at some point, increase to values that are not reasonable to pay for any game and it’s only fair that that patron calls it a day. However, after all that support, it’s not okay that the said patron lose access to the game.

2. Current patrons will still get early access to the newer updates

This is to reward those that stick around. Also, anyone that is not currently a patron, will also miss on patron exclusive posts and polls. The release calendar will look like this:

• Day 0 – release for patrons tier 2 and higher
• 2 weeks later – tier 1 patrons and anyone that has pledged at least 20€ but it’s not a patron anymore

The simpler/faster way I found to implement this was by private message on patreon. This site allows creators to easily rank patrons by total amount pledged, select those above a certain threshold (like, in this case 20€) and message them all. The message will include the links for the newest update.

3. Older updates will only be available for free when the new one releases (this is just a test to see if it helps increase game exposure)

This changes is just to increase game exposure on itch.

As you can see, once chapter 2 of “Nothing is Forever” was made free, there was a huge decrease in daily views. Having 1-2k new players per day finding the game helps a lot.

However, I’m really not sure why that sudden decrease in exposure happened. Maybe itch algorithm stops promoting as hard free games? Maybe that boost in views is just due to sells and once the sells stop it will go down anyway whether it’s free or not? Maybe the views were already going down anyway because everyone that wanted to play it already had?

I’d like to test that during chapter 3 update and see if this change helps or not. If it doesn’t I’ll revert back to make every update free 1 month after release.

4. Name on credits for anyone pledging a total amount of 20€

I also had a “strange” situation that involved a patron pledging on tier 4 – that gives them the right to have their name on the credits screen – but immediately lowering their pledge. This caused 2 problems: the first is to decide if they should get their name on the credits or not. What about anyone that has paid the same amount, but has never been a tier 4 supporter for a day? The second problem is how to keep track of all this.

The simplest way I figured to help with this sort of thing was to create 2 credit sections for patrons:

• The first one will only include only tier 4 patrons at the time of the release of the newest update.
• The second one will include everyone that has pledged a total amount of 20€ or more, regardless if they aren't on tier 4 or aren't even a patron anymore. As explained above, anyone with their name here will also keep having access to the newest updates even if they stop being a patron.

This is mostly to make things easy for me to track who needs to be on the credits screen. It also rewards more people with that small token, which I like, without taking away a more visible spot to current tier 4 patrons, which I also like.

5. Due to piracy these changes are mostly symbolic

I understand that, due to piracy, these changes are mostly symbolic. Anyone that doesn’t want to pledge will get their hands on the game anyway. And all of you that remain patrons every month, don’t do it just to get access to the newest update of the game. So, practically speaking, this doesn’t change that much for you or me.

But it’s still a little different that a customer gets what they rightfully deserve via an official channel, rather than via a piracy website. Because of that, I think these small changes are still important and meaningful.

If you have any question, comment, suggestion, counterpoint, please let me know. I am open to discuss this if anyone strongly objects any of the changes announced here.

These changes will take effect later this month when chapter 3 is released.

Cheers!