A thank you and some of our future plans...
I wanted to start by thanking all of our supporters on Patreon and Itchio. It's ironic: I started the asset division of IF THEN ELSE to make it possible for more creators to start creating, and at the same time, none of this would be possible without those same creators supporting us!
Financially, we're still not making a profit, but that's still OK for now. I started this to give back to the community. However, with a second child (holy snapsticks, kids are expensive!!) I do need to start thinking a bit harder about what we're doing here. We're not an 'evil' corporate company that can increase prices until we're out of the red. Instead, I want to see what we can do to increase the value we provide.
We had a poll a while back, asking you what you valued the most, and teased a potential reward for your participation.
We've had a few requests for backgrounds over the years, and I think it's time we start exploring the possibility. Franco has created a proof-of-concept background. The idea is that we'll do them in themes like we do the characters, and that each background will be somewhat customizable with different props etc. The layers are also done in such a manner that it should be easy for even a novice to change the colors of individual items. (The color and linework are on separate layers!)
If this is something enough people want, we'll start regularly creating more backgrounds like these for you to use.
Some examples from the proof of concept.
Additionally, Franco has also significantly upped the level of polish on the characters, and we're considering experimenting with different art styles to make the characters more useful to you. It'll take a while before the characters are released, since we work on a backlog of several months.
A teaser from the 'more polished' upcoming 'scifi soldiers' done by Franco.
If you love our assets and would like to help, promoting the assets is immensely valuable, especially on social media like Reddit etc. As a creator, you often hang out with other creators, and a common question is: where do I get art if I'm not an artist? That's the perfect time to plug IF THEN ELSE and link to our Patreon page. I believe our mission is worth doing, and you being a follower means you probably also believe in it. Our biggest challenge to being profitable is getting our assets in front of more people. <3
If you took the time to complete the poll mentioned earlier, you now have access to the bedroom background proof of concept. I'd love to know if this is something of value to you, what we can do to improve it, and how we can add more value to you, our followers, and supporters. (If you haven't done the poll yet, you can still do so, but it might take a while before you gain access to the background, as I don't check the polls every day.)
Once again, thank you to each one of you for making this possible!