Castle Paradox

Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

What does the OHR community think about Patreon? Have any of you used it as either an artist or patron (or both)? I've just started looking into it and I love the general concept (regular pay for creative endeavors - if the artist continues to produce), but I'm not sure how game design fits in. As Patreon is notoriously hard to browse, I'm having trouble seeing how others do it. What I've found so far is either designers producing frequent tips/tutorial style e-books or cranking out tons of micro games, neither of which sound particularly appealing.

Anyway, I have a ton of questions but I'll save them for now to see if we can get a discussion going. In the meantime, can anyone point me to game design (video, tabletop, board, card, anything) themed Patreon pages, successful or not, that maybe do things a little differently?

TMC · Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 2:18 am Post subject:

Hey, wow, Nepenthe.

I guess I've heard of Patreon in passing, but had never investigated before. Pumping out small releases sounds bad, but if you're doing that why not collect monthly payments instead? Then you can just keep a game development blog, with frequent releases I would hope, and release whenever it's done. I see what you mean about tutorials, there's endless numbers of them!

I saw that Slashie is on Patron. He's one of the most well known roguelike devs: creator of DoomRL and many other games. Looks like he uses a monthly payment system, and posts new versions of his current game as 'creations'.

It was hard to find any other games though. I guess the idea is that you spread the link to your page yourself rather than expecting anyone to find it on the site.

Some interesting things on this site https://www.patreon.com/creation?hid=1319315

I see it's been over two years since you posted last. There's only about 5 people left who still frequent CP. If you actually want to start a discussion you should probably take it over to SlimeSalad.
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Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

Thanks for the reply, TMC!

Bob the Hamster · Posted: Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:33 am Post subject:

Hello!

I only recently heard of patreon. I am doing a tiny $1 per month support of https://www.patreon.com/ansimuz?u=495287 because I was so impressed by his recent game "ElliotQuest"

It seems like it can be pretty hard for people to convince others to support them. Even someone like Ansimuz, with a recently released high quality critically acclaimed game has only managed to find 5 supporters :(

Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

Thanks James!

TMC · Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2015 5:41 am Post subject:

I'm not trying to pressure people into moving to SS; I just feel obliged to mention it, but obviously you already knew, so that was silly.

I wasn't suggesting releasing dev diary entries as creations, but just as 'activity' (blog) entries. Marking dev entries as paid content and putting out a lot of them certainly wouldn't work, as it'd annoy anyone who doesn't want to give you lots of money. And I agree and it's a bad incentive. I meant the regularly (even daily) putting out entries proves that you're getting stuff done and excites fans. However using the 'activities' on Patreon as a daily blog seems incredibly unsuitable; any reasonable person would maintain a blog elsewhere. Which is really too bad.

In their FAQ Patreon do mention that you can create separate accounts for different types of output if needed.

Also, to me $1 per creation seems like a lot if it's something that the artist might put out several items of per month. It leaves me wondering "why don't I increase my monthly recurring donation to charities instead?" Also, in their FAQ they do say that if you put out something at a rate of several a month, you should probably use monthly donations instead.

I should try out ElliotQuest. I think I might join Patreon as a donor too.
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Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

TMC · Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2015 7:15 am Post subject:

I'd agree. But realistically, the most important thing is probably to already be familiar with the artist/game developer and his previous work (but having been 'sold' on impressive screenshots counts too). In other words, they'd have to be a fan. It's possible to make someone a fan with an impressive enough dev journal.
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BlastedEarth · Joined: 05 Oct 2009 Posts: 243

Hi, I haven't been active for a while but I've recently launched a Patreon... Our content is NSFW though and our model depends on monthly support... It's like we will continue making our stuff when there's funding as their donations would keep us from doing other jobs in case they reach a sufficient amount. And the milestones promises better things for us and for the work if it somehow reaches that eh...

Here's our Patreon if you want to see our stuff ^_^ Not much donors for now but I hope it takes off eh...

https://www.patreon.com/Hornblase?ty=h

I realize these posts are pretty hold, how is your patreon doing now? Maybe you can share some tips as well. Thanks.
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Arwym · Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 8:10 pm Post subject:

I have myself heard of Patreon. I currently support 2 creators there, and am also working on becoming one. I just need to make sure I can give something back regularly, commit to release dates.

I encourage people to use Patreon. It is a good platform.

I'll check everyone's Patreons out, by the way. Happy

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Ronin Catholic · Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:36 pm Post subject:

I don't support anyone through Patreon first because I am poor, and secondly because I have never used electronic payment methods for anything and can barely comprehend the concept.
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Nepenthe · Joined: 27 Sep 2004 Posts: 132

I ended up not making one. Or, at least, I never launched it. My original query was posed in anticipation of suddenly having a lot more free time and a lot less income. Thankfully, I was able to keep my day job, so it didn't come to that.

I still think Patreon is a good model and hope to revisit it at some point in the future. But for now, good luck to you all in your endeavors!