Well the same problem with the difference between 40$, 20$ and 5$ was raised also on discord so I will just say the same thing I said there.
First of all, everybody supports me as much as they can. I'm sure that some people would support me a lot more if they could, but that's just not possible, so it's not their fault they cannot afford a higher tier. As you can see there isn't much difference between 5$, 20$, 40$ tiers. Okay the 40$ patrons get the game 5 days early and the 20$ get an improved version of the game, but basically nobody gets a different game after all, because I don't want anybody to feel less, just because they can't afford it. Yeah, maybe 5 days between 20$ and 5$ would work, but 10 days between first release and last release would create more problems:
- the game will eventually get leaked and I don't want my patrons to be forced to get the game from some shady websites or whatever since they are patrons
- The more people play the game, the faster I learn about some unexpected bugs and usually 10 days after the release I'm already working on a new episode, so now to fix bugs that were found, then remove the new content so I can build the new version and so on, it can be annoying.
I'm aware that the 20$ might not be best pledge, since it doesn't give you too much, you could basically get almost the same thing with the 5$, especially now that most paths are already set and the choices are fewer and fewer, but like I said many times before, I'm not selling the game on patreon, but I'm accepting support in the game development. The fact that I try to make a small difference between pledges, is just a way to say thank you in multiple ways, but after all every pledge is there to help me make a better game, no matter how big/small it is. That's why I'm thankful to all.
The money that I earn from patreon are great, but I don't need them to pay my rent or my expenses, at least not yet. Most of them are going back in the development, so that's why I'm not trying to make people pledge more than they can afford. If you want and can afford 40$ or more, I appreciate you for that, but at the same time I appreciate also the guy who earns 500$ a month and pledges 5$. I try to be fair to all, but more than that I try to be respectful to all.