Grape possibly added in S.H.I.F.T and Patreon

[GreatDragon AD]

Heyo:

GDAD here. How's everyone? First of, I do apologize for the lack of updates on my blog and its because of various reasons.

1. Still trying to collect enough content from certain artists to make their posts

2. Waiting on some animation work done.

3. Too focused on commissioning human pony stuff then post them on my DA page.

4. Been very busy with work and helping my group Respec Gaming Studios on our game S.H.I.F.T

Even with the lack of blog updates, I do have some big announcements. You guys are aware that one of my OC's, Geil-Ling, will be a playable fighter in our game. Here's the reasons why she is in and not Grape.

1. Out of all of my OC's, Geil-Ling is more befitting to be in a fighting game thanks to Memopad's design work of her and the way I came up her backstory, fighting style, and special abilities.

2. My CEO just hates Grape overall.

However, he is starting to notice that Grape do have a big fanbase around the web. Heck, even our newest guy within our staff happens to be a big fan of Grape and my work. After some convincing, my CEO is willing to finally add Grape into the game.... but there's a catch. With reason #2 come to mind and our staff have been working on the game without any funds, he is asking from me to put down $1,000 but for a good cause in which the money will be used only for the game's progress whether its for production costs, paying our staff, or hire professionals who are asking for paid work. Its a hefty price but I want what you guys think of seeing Grape in a fighting game.

Then there's announcement #2, we might be seeing my new project finally in production. My good friend CE-RAP finally returned from a very long hiatus. He was one of my candidates for the original webcomic project. Also there's a reason why I haven't worked with him sooner because I was hesitant in using him whether if I can afford the comic pages or able to use his vision of my characters. Years have passed since then and things changed. I would be able to afford the pages at this time if its one page per week or per two weeks but my current scripts are outdated. Seeing that he came up some great designs for my characters, I decided to work on a new route for this webcomic project by coming up a new story that me and him will collaborate. And if all goes well, we might come up an amazing series that fans from various communities would enjoy.

Finally, there's announcement #3 and it involves the past two announcements. I'm considering in using Patreon. I noticed a lot of my favorites artists from DA and FA are using it so people can donate a monthly amount for all the work they have done to show their followers. Reason I might be using Patreon was originally to afford the comic pages for my webcomic in which they will be in full color. And if all goes well, we might be seeing more than one page per week. But now that I find out that Grape can be added in S.H.I.F.T if provide the $1K, it seems that I need to have my own Patreon more than ever. If Grape DO have a big fanbase, let's say at least 1,000 fans and if they can donate $1 within a month, then our dream of seeing Grape as fighting game character will become a reality. But I am not doing this right away. I would like to hear your thoughts regarding these announcements, especially if using Patreon is the right path for me. I feel uneasy relying other people on covering my project since I have been paying them all by myself this whole time. However, I'm not getting any younger and I need to consider my future because there might come a time where I have to stop getting works done for my characters or any fan art from my favorite series and characters. So yeah, you guys are welcome to share some feedback regarding this post. Anyway, thank you all for taking the time in hearing me out and if it all goes well then expect more stuff from me soon.

[Janus Steel]

Originally Posted by GreatDragon AD

Finally, there's announcement #3 and it involves the past two announcements. I'm considering in using Patreon. I noticed a lot of my favorites artists from DA and FA are using it so people can donate a monthly amount for all the work they have done to show their followers. Reason I might be using Patreon was originally to afford the comic pages for my webcomic in which they will be in full color. And if all goes well, we might be seeing more than one page per week. But now that I find out that Grape can be added in S.H.I.F.T if provide the $1K, it seems that I need to have my own Patreon more than ever. If Grape DO have a big fanbase, let's say at least 1,000 fans and if they can donate $1 within a month, then our dream of seeing Grape as fighting game character will become a reality. But I am not doing this right away. I would like to hear your thoughts regarding these announcements, especially if using Patreon is the right path for me. I feel uneasy relying other people on covering my project since I have been paying them all by myself this whole time. However, I'm not getting any younger and I need to consider my future because there might come a time where I have to stop getting works done for my characters or any fan art from my favorite series and characters. So yeah, you guys are welcome to share some feedback regarding this post. Anyway, thank you all for taking the time in hearing me out and if it all goes well then expect more stuff from me soon.

Speaking as someone who just jumped on the Patreon band wagon to make my webcomic a more viable economic option, it's still got it some announces.

You'll probably find it easier to get fans/payments than I did simply because the material that is out there of Grape. The more adult oriented works seem to get funded faster. My webcomic routinely sees 2000 unique hits. But I only have 28 people who are willing to donate through Patreon, even when the most expensive perk is 5 bucks.

There's two caveats of Patreon funding that doesn't get mentioned enough. First is that once an objective is hit, provided it's subscription, fans can change the total price of their donation. So if you hit your 1K mark early your fans can lower their payments down to the lowest tier and Patreon won't recognize that this has happened until next month.
The Second one is that a lot of people don't like to provide billing information online and prefer to do paypal or other one off's so they don't have to worry about continued payments.

All that said, you're also more likely to get fans who really care about the project to donate way more than you need. Just because you set the price at like 2 bucks doesn't mean someone can come along and drop 50 or 100.