Important: Survey with rewards. (Free Patrons)
We haven’t done one of these in a while, and it’s so easy to lose focus on what is really important to our patrons, hence this post. We want to create character assets you can use that are relevant to your needs.
Financially, the assets haven’t been super profitable, with profitability being a tertiary goal after our primary ones of 1) Making it easier for creatives to get started in making Visual Novels and other creative works, and 2) Giving artists from third world countries like South-Africa (where the team is based) an opportunity to draw and develop their passion without having to stress about how they are going to afford food and other neccesities. (Seriously, if profitability were the goal, we wouldn’t have started the assets Patreon. There are many easier ways to make money, and the opportunity cost alone is a big barrier to entry for any self-respecting business person.)
The income from Infinite Stars subsidises the shortfall on the character assets, which is a bit silly to mention, since each time we reach breakeven, we hire an additional artist or guest artists! I’m not sure we will ever be profitable, but again, profitability isn’t the primary goal. I would, however, love to reach a point of self-sufficiency for an indefinite period of time.
We also used some of our existing assets in a short game for the sealed with a kiss jam, Unclaimed.
Our supporters have been increasing steadily over the past three-ish years, with very little churn, which is great. We still get the odd patron who joins for a month and then leaves, with 80% wanting only that month’s assets, and the other 20% upset they didn’t get access to the whole catalogue of characters for 1 month’s pledge. Still, we appreciate every pledge, as it helps us fund the planning and commissioning of more characters.
Which leads me smoothly into the survey section of this message.
We want to make sure that we are still on track. Right now, you receive a bunch of characters each month, with a bunch of expressions, a bunch of outfits, etc. We’d like to know what we can do to convince you to become a paying patron. Should we be creating more characters? More expressions? More outfits? Obviously, each one of these has to come at the expense of something else. Please complete the survey, so we know where to focus.
Remember, you can also let us know if you want us to create any specific assets, and we'll eventually fulfil most of these requests.
Thanks for your time and support! <3