Awooo! Hey there wolfpack,
The past few days have been pretty wild, Moontouched has been getting such a warm reception. I'm humbled by the amount of support that has been gained here on Patreon, welcome to all the new folks! Now that the demo is out in the wild I want to take this opportunity to check in with everyone here and be as transparent as I can about the state of Moontouched and what will be in store for it as a project in development.
Funding for the project
Over the past eight months or so I’ve been working full time on the project. It’s been a bit of a gamble, but so far the support here has kept the project (and myself) afloat, and for that I’m so grateful! I’ve been earning roughly 1k USD here on Patreon a month and that is just enough to cover my rent and the things I need to buy. Truthfully I could (in theory) make it work to continue like this if need be, however, I wouldn’t be able to push Moontouched as far as I want it to go. Nor would I be able to be earning (and setting aside) much for my life and health situation.
Working on this demo has been a great experience for coming to understand the vast amount of work that goes into a project like this. I’ve also quickly learned that I suck at music and that coding unique features in Renpy REALLY pisses me off haha. Since the release of the public build, my earnings have increased to almost 1.3k per month (if that figure holds). This extra bit of padding is a huge boon for these challenges. With this extra bit of income, I plan on seeking out and hiring a musician or two to work with, a coder that can help me with some of the more ambitious features of the game, and a co-writer and editor to help streamline the actual writing of the novel. Now, it’s no surprise that an extra 300$ a month won’t cover all of that, but it’s a start and it helps tremendously.
I’ve taken some time to really think about how to best fundraise for this project and I’ve landed on two options.
1.) The funding takes place here on Patreon. There are many many examples of Visual Novels getting the support they need through this platform and it’s proven to be a great way to incentivize support through early access builds and sneak peaks. If this were the case, I would rework the Patreon tiers to offer access to the builds at a lower price point and reserve special privileges to the Pack Leaders such as private art streams as I work on the CGs or early access sprite reveals and such.
The benefit of this approach would be that it’s a much more intimate way of working on a project like this, patrons could help choose which character’s day to develop first and maybe even have some patron wolves/humans make guest appearances in the story itself. I would also be uploading the story in chunks when each chapter is completed.
My concern with this approach is that, naturally, the income stream swells and shrinks as the months go on. That is totally understandable and to be expected. These projects take a long time to develop and I would never ask for uninterrupted support, life happens and things change. So if we do end up going this route, please feel free to come and go as you’re able. My health situation is volatile and there are periods of time where I have to rest and recover. Any periodic chapter releases wouldn’t be on a set schedule for this reason. I want to make these builds the best they can be, which could mean extended support may be needed.
2.) Crowd funding through Kickstarter or some other platform. I’ve seen a good number of successful Visual Novels and games meet their goals and get their projects fully funded through platforms like these.
The benefit of this approach would be that I would do some calculations after finding my team and settle on the final figure that would account for the total development of the entire project and set the goal for that. Should that goal be met, the project could enter into development in earnest without needing to adapt to a fluctuating income stream. This would also be the cheaper of the two options for individuals I feel. A one time investment to the project that would grant you access to the game.
The cons of this approach would be that it naturally runs the risk of not meeting its goal. Crowd funding through these platforms can be a huge time sink and I’m fully aware that smutty, gay, werewolf romance novels target a very niche audience. Secondly, I don’t know if releasing the game in segments would be something I would be able to do with this kind of structure. While that’s not a terrible thing per say, it would mean that I would have to put my head down and take a few years to fully complete the project before releasing it. That would make me a little sad, I’ve LOVED hearing people’s theories and engagement with the demo so far, so not having that between builds feels like a huge loss. It is possible that episodic releases are something I could figure out through Kickstarter, I just haven’t found examples of it yet.
In conclusion:
I don’t want to make this decision alone. So many of you have been supporting myself and the project for MONTHS now. You’re responsible for making this project happen and as such your opinion on the future trajectory is just as valuable as mine. If you have the time, I would be very grateful to hear your thoughts on what feels good to you as someone who is investing in this endeavor. I want to make sure it feels fair to all of us.
Thank you all for the support you’ve given and for the overwhelmingly positive reception you’ve given Moontouched. It’s so inspiring to me to see people excited about the project and the characters. I have so much in store that I’m eager to share with you. While it’s a loose goal, I aim to have Chapter One out in its entirety before the year ends. The picture of a late fall/ early winter night reading Moontouched makes me really happy so that’s the mark!