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Friday, November 27, 2015

Should I Make a Patreon?


     Looking at Ambient Prologue's Patreon and Path of Light's Greenlight got me thinking about setting up a tip jar for people to help me along too. Patreon allows people who are really excited and supportive to donate money to creators they like. This could make saving for things like an LLC certification much easier for me.

     There's also alternatives like IndieGoGo, GoFundMe, and the current Paypal donation button sitting atop the right side of my website. With Patreon there's a looming obligation to keep paying while with other services it feels like just a one time thing.

     If I go through with it, my tip jar push will go up the same day Pre-alpha V3 of Battle Gem Ponies does. Read on to see current thoughts and perk ideas for all this.

(This topic comes from a thread I started on Monday.)

     As Yotes Games I make commercial games, free game jam experiments, and game development blog posts giving insight to the game-making process. I think that qualifies for content creation. This feels like a more natural alternative to doing things like Kickstarters for crowdfunding an indie game company itself. I don't really need a kickstarter to make a game happen since I have my parents covering things like rent and tuition. I am on my own for business expenses though, and that's all I've been buying for three years now. Multiple Macbooks, a drawing tablet, a computer monitor, trademarks, licenses, BronyCon travel, and Unity Assets all add up. It'd be nice to have that magically lifted off my shoulders even a little.

     All funds can go toward the endless gamedev expenses I'll be covering as an indie. It'd help a ton to have support like that between projects. I already feel great about a mysterious donor named Craig who donates $10 to my PayPal every month, and if there are more folks like that willing to help me, I don't see why I shouldn't let them know it's okay and reward them in some small way for it.

Here's what I'm thinking so far:

"PATREON: Yotes Games is Making Game Dev Goodness"

*Perks go by current project.
*One-time payments qualify.
$1 - Thanks in Game Credits
$5 - Weekly DevLog Shout Out, Free Steam Key (Or any platform without key limits)
$10 - Alpha Tester Access, Bi-Annual Patreon Game Jam Poll Access
$20 - Monthly 2 Hour Dev Livestream
$50 - OC Cameo in Current Project (Sneak your character into an upcoming game.)

*Money goes to...
Unity Assets, Dev Plugins
Convention Travel
Professional Contracting
Legal Costs
Other Business Expenses

     Do you think this is a good idea? Donating $1 to keep an indie dev going, along with paying $5 again when the finished product comes out? I don't want to come off as greedy, and the last thing I'd do with the money is spend it on food, games, figurines, and whatever else since I believe rewards like that are only earned once the actual game is out. I'd like to keep Patreon and game sales as separate income streams. One for business and one for living.

I'm currently thinking plugging my donation button every month is the best option.

Let me know what you think of me being on Patreon/Kickstarter/Paypal Donate in the comments. Especially if you'd be willing to give me a dollar yourself (even just once).

2 comments:

  1. As someone who just recently started accepting PayPal donations and considered doing a patreon I say stick with PayPal at least with what I see most patreons do is lock content away behind the patreon paywall (know you'd never do something like that) but personally I say stick with PayPal

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    Replies
    1. After a week of thought, PayPal really is the best way for me. Carries a better spirit of Goodwill.

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