Important Update & Reward Adjustments
Hey friends! Sam here with an important update on how things are going with us at Cheekynauts Entertainment and some upcoming changes to our reward offerings.
Last year by around this time we had made significant progress and completed our Patron-exclusive demos for Santria and Moonshell Island, and we'd hoped to keep up the momentum and have polished public demos by now. Unfortunately, between starting this business, maintaining Patreon, and numerous obligations/circumstances in business and our personal lives, we've fallen quite short of our goals. On top of all that, the expenses are much higher for us now that we're incorporated, and we're barely breaking even over the course of a year financially.
Of course, we are still making important progress on our games when we can, and your support is still funding amazing things like the Moonshell Island soundtrack by Anna Eichenauer and allowing us to keep Cheekynauts climate positive, and for that we are very grateful! But since we aren't delivering as well as we'd like when it comes to game development progress, which is what I believe you're here to support, I think it would be a disservice to all of us if we don't revisit our strategy until we strike a balance.
So here's the plan for how we're going to turn this acornship around:
Reward Adjustments for $5 USD+ Patrons
We know our top-tier patrons love receiving our postcards and pins and we love sending them, but these are our most time-consuming and expensive rewards. In effort to keep offering these rewards at all, we're going to try reducing their frequency by half.
As always, we try to replace any rewards we take away with something new, so we're going to be adding a Loyalty Pin for all patrons who have pledged for 1 year or more at the $5 USD+ level.
Here's a peek at the design for our Stellar Friend Award loyalty pin!
Above: Stellar Friend Award pin for all 1-year $5 USD+ patrons
We've also ordered our next reward pin for $10+ USD patrons, Santria Squirrel!
Above: Santria Squirrel reward pin for $10 USD+ patrons
Once these pins arrive in late November or early December, our reward offerings will reflect the following adjustments:
$5 USD Patrons
On your 1st month and then every 6 months, receive a Cheeky Postcard with a personal message (shipping info required for this perk)
After 1 year of pledging at this level, receive the Stellar Friend Award pin with a personal message (shipping info required for this perk)
$10 USD Patrons
In addition to the postcards and 1-year Stellar Friend Award pin from the $5 USD+ tier, receive the Cheeky Pin of the Year and a personal message on your 2nd month, then every 12 months of pledging at this level(shipping info required for this perk)
$20 USD Patrons
In addition to the postcards and 1-year Stellar Friend Award pin from the $5 USD+ tier, receive bonus goodies* with your Cheeky Pin of the Year and a personal message on your 2nd month, then every 12 months of pledging at this level(shipping info required for this perk)
*bonus goodies can include: previously offered pins, postcard packs, Daily Achievement Log notepad, stickers, as available
While these changes won't solve all our problems, they should allow us to devote more of our time and funds to developing the games you all are so generously supporting. We hope this will result in more frequent progress updates in the future.
Thank you so much for understanding as we navigate these stormy seas. We couldn't ask for better shipmates to have along for the ride!
Your friend,
Sam