June Plans - Finances, Early-Access, and Two New Shorts (Patreon)

So the reason I'm making this post Patrons-only is because it's talking finances, which is a bit of a touchy subject in public - but I figure, since you're all contributing to my finances as it is, you wouldn't mind to hear it.

Part 1: Financial situation

In fact, I suspect that many of you would actually like to hear about my finances, seeing as you are contributing to them!

So, to keep things short, I made just shy of $1000 less this past month (May into June), than I had the previous 3 months. This might come as a surprise to some of you, because my patronage has been pretty stable (and I think the public-facing number, which is currently just over $3000, has been steadily going up).

All of which is to say that it is not you guys, my stable Patrons whom I love so dearly, who are the problem. So don't start panicking that you guys are letting me down or anything, because it isn't you.

Instead, it's the HARs, the Hit-And-Runners. As I'm sure most of you know, my Patreon is set up to charge-up-front, meaning as soon as someone pledges to get rewards, I am guaranteed to get their money. This is to offset a plague of people pledging at the beginning of the month, grabbing all of the rewards, and then unpledging right before it's time to collect money - effectively they just freeload. Or, as I prefer, they hit-and-run.

My Patreon is designed with HARs in mind, and is why my rewards are designed the way they are. The biggest reward that gets HAR'd is the 1080p videos, followed by the unwatermarked loops, and then lastly the WIPs (nothing else really gets hit-and-run).

Which is, consequently, why they are priced at $15, $7, and $5.

It's a bit of a cynical attitude, I will admit, but that is the sort of attitude a capitalist society requires artists to take if they want to survive. [INSERT ANTI-CAPITALIST PRO-COMMUNIST RANT HERE].

And so, with that in mind, there is some come clarity in where the $1000 deficient is coming from, when my stable patronage has been consistent or increasing: I haven't been producing anything worth HAR'ing lately.

And so my plans for June are to change that.

Part 2: Early-Access / 1080p Policy Change

I have two shorts planned for June: A Witcher short, and a Marie Rose short.

Both of these shorts will be released with the 1080p reward, and they will receive simultaneous Patreon and Tumblr releases, which is to say there will not be any early-access exclusivity.

I am doing that for two reasons: Firstly, because I'd feel about about not releasing anything in literal months and then suddenly paywalling it; and secondly, because after these two shorts are released, I am changing my early-access policy.

Historically, my early-access policy was I set a public release date, and if the video is finished before that release date, then it stays exclusive to Patreon until that public release date.

However, I think you all know I am fucking terrible when it comes to hitting those release dates, and so this system doesn't really work, for anyone. It fails me, because I don't get that rush of impatient HARs who can't wait a few days to see the video, and it hurts my long-standing, stable Patrons, because they don't get the early access to the videos that I feel they deserve for their support.

After these two shorts are released, all 1080p projects will get a 5-day early access, unconditionally. Rather than the public release determining the Patreon release, the Patreon release will determine the public release: once it's posted to Patreon, then the public release day is 5 days after.

This gives my Patrons ample time to take advantage of their perks of supporting me, getting nearly a week's private screening of the videos, and it helps me build up excess capital behind your amazing stable patronage, which will in turn hopefully allow me to afford hiring more animators.

Because, to be totally honest, I badly need someone to help me. Blue Star Episode 3 is making me painfully aware of that. But I want to be able to pay fairly, ideally $2000/mo for a full-stack animator. And I just can't afford that with my current Patronage, with 35% of my income being locked away to taxes.

Part 3: Shorts Synopses

So classically, this would be a $2 reward, but I decided I might as well include it here, since I already have the picture linked.

Witcher short: Triss is feeling especially frisky, and has elected to give Geralt a sexy surprise. When Triss reveals the surprise is her wearing Ciri's clothes, for some borderline-incest (borderline because while Geralt is Ciri's father figure, they're not actually related) fantasy play, Geralt isn't amused at first. But between Triss's full butt literally popping the seams of Ciri's pants, and Triss whispering sweet nothings of her fantasies of and escapades with Ciri (including claiming to have taken the young woman's virginity, with squealing vigor) Geralt submits to Triss' seduction and fucks her - in the same room Ciri is sleeping!

Marie short:  In a utopian future where society embraces sexuality, popular video-sharing sites like YouTube and Pornhub have merged together, and popular streaming sites like Twitch have come to not only allow, but encourage, a sexual edge to their streamers' content. Little Marie is just such a streamer, balancing a trifecta of playing games, playing with herself, and playing with lots of fat, juicy cocks - and the entire time, on camera, streaming live.

I am going to be working on the Witcher short as a side-project, with pretty much all of my side-project time going into it. I want to get it done as quickly as possible.

The Marie short, Divider and I are going to work on together, in the wake of us postponing the Rebecca / Sherry project indefinitely. I am also hoping to get it done this month, but that's a lot more variable, because it's partially out of my hands.

And, rest assured, the entire time I will still be working on Blue Star. I hope to have a new WIP of it out soon - I'm in the process of lip-syncing and animating the post-sex and after-credits scenes, of which I am going to lift an excerpt.