Patron Pledge Rewards Idea

[Domiek]

Hello, I don't want to look like I'm shamelessly promoting my game here (although it doesn't hurt I guess). I've been thinking a lot about Patreon rewards for those who pledge and how to make them meaningful. I posted about this months ago when I first started creating my game, now after a few months of development I think I'm starting to better understand what I can offer.

Please let me know your thoughts. I'm trying to get as much feedback as I can before making these changes. You can read the full post on my

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I know a lot of developers use the early-access model when it comes to pledges. I understand where they're coming from, especially since many rely on funding to support themselves and their family. However I just can't get over the thought that early-access is actually nothing more than a intentionally delayed release. Ok, so that reward option is out the window for me.

I've seen developers offer walk-through's as a reward. This isn't a bad idea. However I've been designing an in-game hint and schedule tracker system for my game, so there goes that option.

I've also seen some developers offer high paying tiers the choice of creating custom scenes. I don't like this for two reasons.

1. This takes time away from the development of the actual game. Doesn't feel fair to divert development for the few high paying patrons while the bulk of your pledging base has to now see releases with less content than they would normally get.

or

2. Even if the special custom scenes are made available for everyone, it's still time taken away from the core development of the game for a special scene that has nothing to do with the actual game other than using the game's characters.

So here's what I propose for my game. There is a 24 hour in-game clock, several in-game locations (with more planned further along development). I'm 5 updates in and noticed something terrible, I've created this world but it feels empty. Only the main characters ever visit these places so the rest of the time it's just an empty venue. I've started rendering random interactive scenes to fill this void with unimportant nameless characters. That's when I recognized an opportunity to get the community involved, improve my game, and make pledge rewards have more impact.

So this is what I propose.


$1 Tier:

• Access to Patron only posts and NSFW previews

$5 Tier:

• Access to Patron only posts and previews
• Vote on proposed content variations (such as character appearances)
• Dedicated Discord channel to engage in direct feedback and suggestions with the dev.

$10 Tier (10 max):

• Previous Rewards
• Small Easter Egg in the game reflecting on your username or interests, displaying your username when found and highlighted with the cursor.
• (Example: A poster in the coffee shop, a skateboard at the store, etc)

$15 Tier (10 max):

• Previous Rewards (Excluding the small Easter Egg)
• I will work with you to make a small repeatable scene of your choice for a current in-game location with nameless characters.
• (3 characters max)
• (No depiction of underage characters)
• (No depiction of rape/murder)
• (Please contact me before pledging to confirm that I can fulfill your vision)

$20 Tier (3 max):

• Previous Rewards (Excluding the small Easter Egg and custom scene)
• I will work with you to make a small repeatable animated scene of your choice for a current in-game location with nameless characters.
• (2 characters max)
• (1 animation, 2 viewing angles max)
• (No depiction of underage characters)
• (No depiction of rape/murder)
• (Please contact me before pledging to confirm that I can fulfill your vision)

Do you guys like this idea? Does it seem too ambitious? Are there any glaring issues that I've somehow not noticed? If you were a paying Patron, would this interest you and make you feel good about what you're donating to? How does the pledge amount feel for what is being offered? Am I just a dumbass who doesn't know what he's talking about?

I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this, thanks so much!

 

[Nottravis]

Seems pretty sensible to me asking here rather than being shameless

Also totally with you over the early access thing. It's always seemed a bit meh, as someone who has supported several games on and off, and put me in the odd position of donating via Patreon - and then downloading the game from here anyway as opposed to waiting five, ten days etc....

However, on the tiers you suggest, I think the first three stack up pretty well. The last two I'm less sure about though for two reasons.

Firstly, although it would help populate your world I'm not sure whether supporters would be that interested in random scenes with nameless characters. If they're supporting it's more likely that it's because they're invested in the world and characters you have as opposed to just some random lewds? (unless I'm missing the point in which case my apologies)

Secondly, is it worth the additional effort from a time vs money perspective from your point? I don't know how long either four or five would take you to make of course (your mileage can vary depending on what rig you have , how big you plan to make the scene etc) but it might be worth your while working out how long each one would take (if you haven't already) and seeing if it is cost effective.

 

[Domiek]

Firstly, although it would help populate your world I'm not sure whether supporters would be that interested in random scenes with nameless characters. If they're supporting it's more likely that it's because they're invested in the world and characters you have as opposed to just some random lewds? (unless I'm missing the point in which case my apologies)

I'm not planning on it being just lewds (although I suspect that will be the #1 request), it can be anything. I'm creating random scenes that are also funny (I hope) or at least entertaining. It would also allow the introduction of fetishes that I normally would not include for the main characters because it wont fit their character. Overall I thought it would be a nice way to provide some community involvement that everyone can enjoy while also improving the "flavor" of the game world. Maybe I'm wrong and people won't care for this at all. Most importantly, this reward tier isn't supposed to be just an incentive to pledge. It's a reward for those who want to be very generous with their support and have something to show for it which isn't just a username on a list of 300 names.

Secondly, is it worth the additional effort from a time vs money perspective from your point? I don't know how long either four or five would take you to make of course (your mileage can vary depending on what rig you have , how big you plan to make the scene etc) but it might be worth your while working out how long each one would take (if you haven't already) and seeing if it is cost effective.

This is the big question. Normally I'd say no, it's not worth it. I don't want pledges taking my development time away from the core game. However I've already decided to render these small interactions because my game world is empty. I've already rendered half a dozen scenes. I don't want the coffee shop, gym, etc to be empty 21 hours out of the day. At the same time, I don't want to create additional characters with shallow backstories who's only purpose is to serve one location. The main characters the player interacts with all have (or will have) interesting and engaging stories. This is why random nameless "npcs" will take place in creating life for the game. So since I will be doing these renders regardless if it's for a pledge or not, I thought it'd be a great opportunity to involve my Patreons in the game.

Btw, I know communication through text format is sometimes open to interpretation. I just want you to know that I appreciate that you left feedback and I'm just further explaining myself in case I didn't do it well the first time around. I don't want to give the impression of being defensive here and welcome you or anyone else to tear apart my thought process. I want to make sure that my Patrons get meaningful rewards so if this ends up not being as great an idea as I originally thought, I want to be the first to know!

 

[Nottravis]

No problem at all - and no offence taken!

On the time that it could take, that makes a bit more sense to me now in that if you were going to populate anyway and this is to allow Patreons some engagement - then why not. Certainly it is better than just getting access x days earlier!

I suppose my only follow up point is that given the requests will be, I suspect, lewds lewds and more lewds ( I could be wrong of course) just a note of caution over is that what you want your additional scenes to mainly be?

 

[Domiek]

Yeah that's definitely going to be the toughest part. Will need a big disclaimer asking to be contacted first before someone pledging that tier. I imagine people will understand that a 3-way at the coffeeshop makes no sense and that the scenes are limited within the scope of their setting. At least i hope it's a realistic expectation lol

 

[W22N]

I definitely agree with most of what you wrote, I however see some problems with some of the reward ideas (probably because I didn't understand correcctly).

Giving rewards to players in-game sounds good as long as it doesn't take time away from your original idea development, but since you're doing that to fill voids it sounds okay, the problem I see is how you could end up overworked for little rewards. Ideally, someone would be a 20$ patron in order to support you for a while with the added bonus of rewards.

Now, to be fair with everyone getting those rewards you'd have to either do a scene for each patron on each update (or however you're doing it) or charge a higher one time fee, or you might end up with someone supporting you for 12+ months with $20 getting the same reward as someone who came in, dropped $20 and stopped supporting.
A great twist for this is icstor's rewards where they make monthly renders to their biggest patrons and put them in the game as extra images that don't affect the game and someone who supports 12 months gets to decide 12 renders while someone who splashes the cash 1 month only gets to decide for one. Not that it's viable for everyone, but as far as being fair on extra content for support that's one of the better ways I've seen

 

[Domiek]

I definitely agree with most of what you wrote, I however see some problems with some of the reward ideas (probably because I didn't understand correcctly).

Giving rewards to players in-game sounds good as long as it doesn't take time away from your original idea development, but since you're doing that to fill voids it sounds okay, the problem I see is how you could end up overworked for little rewards. Ideally, someone would be a 20$ patron in order to support you for a while with the added bonus of rewards.

Now, to be fair with everyone getting those rewards you'd have to either do a scene for each patron on each update (or however you're doing it) or charge a higher one time fee, or you might end up with someone supporting you for 12+ months with $20 getting the same reward as someone who came in, dropped $20 and stopped supporting.
A great twist for this is icstor's rewards where they make monthly renders to their biggest patrons and put them in the game as extra images that don't affect the game and someone who supports 12 months gets to decide 12 renders while someone who splashes the cash 1 month only gets to decide for one. Not that it's viable for everyone, but as far as being fair on extra content for support that's one of the better ways I've seen

That's actually the one point im not sure how to handle, as you mention. Does someone pledging $20 get a scene every month or a one time thing? Doesn't seem fair to be a one time thing, but seeing as I have to put a limit on how many of these a month i can do, it could be possible that the same 10 people (or whatever number) get to pick scenes for a long time.

 

[polywog]

Capitalism started a long time ago, as a way for people to get a fair exchange for their work. One person in the village had land to raise animals, another had good land to grow vegetables. Each needed what the other had. Vegetables need fertilizer from the animals, and animals need vegetables in their diet. So the animal dude, and the farmer traded goods with one another, and it worked out nicely. Both needed water, animals and vegetables. Anyone from the village could go and fetch water, take it to the farmer and trade for vegetables to eat, or trade for leather and wool to make clothing, or meat to eat, and milk to drink. Life was good, and part of that good life was entertainment. Everyone in the village liked to play games after a good days work. Game developers, still needed to fetch water so they could eat. Then one day the people in the village said we want you game developers to make more games, because we like them, so we will fetch water for you, so you can spend more time working on your games. Everyone had work to do, everyone ate, and drank, and played games, and was happy.

Then came the evil socialists from another village far away, armed with knives and sticks. They didn't believe in fetching water, they just wanted everything for free, they stole and killed animals, they destroyed crops and took what they wanted until there was nothing left. The socialists moved on to destroy other villages.

It took time but the peaceful capitalist village recovered. Most of the capitalist were cool, and happy to share their extra stuff with people in the village who couldn't work, but there was fear that the socialists would one day return to the village, so the capitalist built walls, and bridges, and weapons to defend the village. The socialists did return, but this time the capitalists were ready for them. They raised the drawbridge, and stopped the socialists from entering the village. But it was not enough. More and more socialists surrounded the village, and poisoned the water, killing all the animals, crops, and everyone in the village. The socialists said "if we can't have it, then you can't have it either" and they moved on to destroy other villages. When there was nothing left to steal, the socialists died.

From the ashes arose a new capitalist village, more productive than mankind had ever known, there was more than enough food and drink for everyone, even the people who could not work, did not go hungry. Farmers farmed, water bearers bared, game developers developed... but once again evil socialism reared it's ugly head enslaving mankind in it's social tier system.
Fascist socialist game developers offering tier rewards of full games and bonuses only to the rich elite. They deserve nothing.
Good capitalist game developers make their game available to everyone, as equals, and the working class support them in return. Most people are good capitalists, we work for what we have, we don't want our stuff stolen, we know the value of our work, and we appreciate the value of other people's work... that's what trade is all about, giving and getting something equal in return. Evil socialists don't care about trade, they just want what you have. Rich socialists even steal from the poor.

It's better to have thousands of $1-2 patrons, than a handful of fascist patrons.

In-game rewards is a good idea. When a player completes the game, they get a code. They go to your website, and enter the code to see if they won a prize. This increases the visits to your site, bringing you higher revenue from advertising, etc.
No limit to how many times they can play your game, again and again to get new codes to try. The code is generated by choices the player makes during gameplay, so they are providing feedback at the same time, so you know how players are playing your game.

 

[freedom.call]

Yeah, I can't top that.

 

[Xenoga'me]

This idea seems good, It depends on your feedbacks, How they are?

 

[The M.O.]

This is very interesting. When you get into a game especially, a little reach out to the artist is a nice reward. And you should get a reward for a larger amount.

 

[Domiek]

This idea seems good, It depends on your feedbacks, How they are?

This is very interesting. When you get into a game especially, a little reach out to the artist is a nice reward. And you should get a reward for a larger amount.

I removed the custom higher tiers about a year ago. Despite having written criteria and specific limitations for what these small custom scenes entail, a lot of people got a little too excited and carried away with their requests on top of some other potential issues others foresaw in this thread.

I'd spend maybe 15-20 mins on these random scenes when planning them myself and 2-3 hours per Patreon when it came to custom requests. Ended up being a huge distraction that took a lot of time away from the core game and not sustainable when scaled up, especially for only $15/20.