Is it gauche to advertise one’s own Patreon on a website like this? If so, then I’m going to be incredibly gauche! After hemming and hawing about pushing the big red button for literally years, I finally pushed it today – and my Patreon is now live!
I haven’t been as active on this forum recently as I once was, and indeed it’s been a while since I’ve released any free text games at all. Eat Me, Toby’s Nose, and Midnight. Swordfight. are probably my most well-known parser games. The majority of my time nowadays is dedicated to commercial work, but I would like to release more free stuff again. My brain is brimming with ideas! In fact, I’ve been sitting on a big parser project for roughly two years, which is about 75% finished, but it’s tricky to divide my time between stuff that pays the bills and stuff that satisfies my own hobbyist itch. Hence: Patreon.
I’m not sure how many people around these parts might be interested in supporting me. Back around 2018-2019, I was encouraged by a few folks to launch a Patreon, but I never did it because I couldn’t think of anything to offer at the different tiers. I’m still uncertain about that! And times have changed. But now I’m taking a stab, precisely because times have changed and getting some extra support would provide much relief in this unstable world.
I’ve never had much presence on social media. I might have to change that, too, in the name of shameless self-promotion. For right now, though, I figure I’ll just drop a few announcements like this around the web. So if you’ve enjoyed any of my games and would like to throw a few bucks my way, I’d greatly appreciate it!
In the meantime, to prevent this thread from being a totally mercenary advertisement, I wouldn’t mind doing a little AMA if anyone has questions for me about, well, anything! Games I’ve written. Games I might write. I’ve been too disconnected from the IF community, and I’d like to become more involved again. I’ll probably try to post some IFComp reviews in the next few weeks, at the very least.
So… what are you planning to work on? And what kind of Patreon contributions do you need to make that happen? (Is there some kind of threshold of viability?)
Good to see you around! Ryan Veeder is on here a lot, and he has a patreon, too. He contributes interesting topics but I’d guess even without a ton of topics we’d just be glad to see regular updates outside the more detailed patreon stuff.
Well, I’d really like to finish this project that’s sitting at the 75% mark. It’s been sitting there for what feels like forever! That would be another limited parser game, roughly IFComp-entry in size, meaning 2-ish hours to play. It’s a kind of slapstick comedy-of-errors. No relation to anything I’ve written before.
There’s also a semi-sequel to Midnight. Swordfight. that’s been simmering in my brain for ages. I actually had a dream about it last night, which is what finally kicked me into gear to get this Patreon up and running! I’m tempted to prioritize this one even though it’s maybe… 2% written… just because the dream was so vivid, but it might be smarter to wrap up the bigger one that’s sitting at 75% instead. We’ll see.
In my pipiest pipe-dream world, it would be awesome to get a few hundred bucks out of Patreon each month, since that would cover some substantial bills and allow me to dedicate more time to “unprofitable” personal projects like IFComp-style games. But I really have no idea what’s reasonable to expect. Right now, the cost of living keeps going up, which makes it harder for me to justify spending time on non-client work. If I can relax a little, though, and know that my utilities and such are covered, then it would provide a significant amount of breathing room that I don’t currently have. But whether I make enough on Patreon to cover utilities or not, every dollar seriously helps. It can mean the difference, for me, between walking and taking the subway.
One way or another, I will write the two games I just mentioned (barring personal catastrophes, etc). The question is just: when? And after these two, I have a ton of others in various half-formed stages of development. A few years ago, I was in a position to produce lots of smaller experimental stuff, and I’d like to get back to doing that too.
This might even be a good question to ask people on Patreon! Like which projects would everyone prefer that I prioritize? Maybe a Midnight. Swordfight. sequel would be more appealing than the new thing I’m doing, or maybe the new thing is more appealing because it’s new. I still need to figure out how to “drive engagement” via Patreon and so forth and so on.
Good to see you too! Yeah, independent of the Patreon, I would like to get more in touch with the IF community again in general. It’s very inspiring to be plugged into the scene with so many other writers/designers, and these past few years have just been so busy that my attention has wandered away. Time to fix that!
Oh, this sounds great! I’ve seen a lot of people mention your games recently, so I’m sure a lot of people will be interested.
I’m glad you added a $1/month tier. I can’t afford much either (I’m in a roughly similar boat as you) but I can do $1, so I signed up for patreon and subscribed. Good luck!
I’ve done some dialogue for a few different games, but the stuff I’ve designed for Fallen London is probably my best writing from this past year. I’m especially pleased with “The Bloody Wallpaper,” which is an Exceptional Story they released over the summer. One of the best things I’ve ever written, in my own opinion!
Hi Chandler, overjoyed to chance across this topic title on the forum this evening. I always think about your games when I yearly recommend IFComp to acquaintances, but too rarely specify them. The limited parser stuff looms large in my mind, and it would be amazing to see more of it in your IFDB most-recents. This might be the slight push to finally get signed up for Patreon myself. Sorry to hear about the hobby-time-split blues, delighted by discussion of digital taxation which feels somehow apropos.
Thanks! Yeah, limited parser seems to be my thing, but I think Eat Me might’ve been the last game I did in that mode. Both of the two hypothetical games I’ve mentioned in this thread would be limited parser. Or will be. Or are, with that 75% game!