Patron benefits overhaul - August 2022

Hello everyone!

After doing some research and discussing the topic with other devs and patrons, I've decided to overhaul to this Patreon.

The main goal of the overhaul is to replace one of the old benefit with new ones that are more exciting for everyone, myself included. Another issue I need to consider is my plan to release CoMS to storefronts in the future. It wouldn't be fair to those that would buy the game, only to find that it is free officially elsewhere.

Here are the changes.

Green Tier -> Commander
+Monthly Polls for Bonus Renders
+Bonus Renders

Purple Tier -> Count
+Access to Chapter 2 and beyond
-Behind-the-scenes content
~Sneak-Peeks will remain as a bonus benefit
+Monthly Wallpaper moved a tier lower

Blue Tier -> High Lord
+Access to latest update 2 weeks in advance
+In-game credits

Gold Tier -> Empress
+Beta access to latest update
+Custom Render

Polls and Bonus Render?
Each month I'll be posting a poll for you guys to vote on the topic of the Bonus Render. The Bonus Render is different from the Wallpaper in that it won't be strictly 4K and in 16:9. This allows me to be more creative with what I could produce, ie. Character portraits, wallpaper for phones, posters, banners, etc.

Why put Chapter 2 and beyond behind a paywall?
This is the decision that took me a long time to make up my mind. The simplest reason is that I just cannot reconcile selling CoMS in stores while giving the game away for free. It doesn't seem right. I know some developers do this and people are somehow fine with it. And so this is something in particular I need some feedback on. For now, the entire Chapter 1, including the upcoming update to it will be free. Maybe after Chapter 2 is completed, I'll add the complete chapter to the free version.

No more Behind-the-scenes?
I'm finally removing this benefit because honestly it is very difficult to come up with a topic and present it in an interesting format. All the BTS posts are just wall of text with some images. I'm just not very good at writing articles like that and I think many people aren't all that interested in them either. If you are interested in my development process, I stream semi-regularly on Discord discussing just that. Come check it out!

What happened to Sneak-Peeks?
The Sneak-Peeks I think are a pretty cool way to tease what's coming with the next update. However, when restricted to a monthly schedule, sometimes I just don't have anything I could show due to major spoilers, or because this month I could just be working on scenes that don't lend well to short snippets. Which is exactly what happened the last 3 months. So, I'm just calling it a bonus benefit because I already failed to deliver on it, and I don't see how I could solve its inherent problems. If I have something, I'll be sure to put something together for you guys. 

Why move Wallpaper a tier lower?
The 4K wallpapers I do actually takes up a lot of time. From posing to render to editing, each wallpaper on average takes 14 hours to make. I try to make each one special and I also use this opportunity to develop my own image editing skills. And so this is more for my own interest. These wallpapers are generally my best work and I would love to let more people see them.

Two weeks early access?
This is mainly done for streamlining purposes. Based on my experience from releasing the last update, having three staggering release window actually makes maintaining versions and patches a bit difficult and needlessly time consuming. With Empress getting Beta access instead, this release schedule should make a lot more sense from a development perspective.

In-game credits?
Pretty self-explanatory I think. As part of the upcoming update, I've been working on adding new features to the game. A nice end-of-update screen is one of it. There's quite a few people who have contributed greatly in helping me improve CoMS over the months. I wanted a page to credit all those people, and that of course include my patrons. But, just in case the list ever gets too large, I'm limiting it to higher tiers. I hope you'll understand. If you don't want your name in the credits for whatever reason, please let me know!

What is Beta access?
I consider Beta as story content complete but not all thoroughly play-tested for bugs and typos. Meaning with Beta Access, you'll be able to play the game with all the new scenes implemented before everyone else. Other none story features like the Codex would be updated during the Beta period. Based on feedback and my own experience playing, I might add/fix renders during the beta, and so there's no fixed schedule on how long beta could last for. I expect at least a week so we all have enough to time to find every little bug and typo.

What is Custom Render?
When you pledge for the Empress Tier, I want to do something for you personally - a render based on your request. Because this could get really time consuming, for now I can only promise one render per person. But this is something I enjoy and if there's ever time, I'll do more for your continual support. Unless specifically requested, I would like to share these renders on Discord.

I hope you all will like these changes. As always, I'm very open to feedback and communication. Please feel free to message me here or on Discord with any questions and concerns! These changes will be effect starting in August 2022.