Mittsies

The Road Ahead

Added 2017-09-24 03:50:10 +0000 UTC

Introduction

This is a fairly long post that talks about my financial situation, my recent inactivity, and what my plans are. I've been bad about staying in touch with my Patrons lately, so I want to really explain things in depth.

And for those of you who've stuck with me through this bout of inactivity, wow, you are awesome! You're the only reason I'm still doing animations today, so you have my undying gratitude and love. ( ´? ? ?` ) ?

I will also include a TL;DR summary at the bottom of this post, in case you don't wanna read all of this, but want to know the general idea.

Finances

My inactivity has lead to a dip in patron contributions, and while I love and appreciate every dollar I get, I do need to meet a certain monthly amount to keep my ship afloat. I've added a new goal recently of $1400 per month which will cover my basic costs. I'd like to talk about that number a little bit, so you know there's some thought behind it, and its not just an arbitrary dollar amount.

Talking about finances is a very private subject matter, so I won't go deep into specific details. Firstly there's taxes, fees, patreon's cut of the profits, credit card cancellations, and other business-related costs. In total, this will take somewhere between 25 and 35% of my total revenue by the end of the year. Then, each month I spend approximately $1000 for food, rent, internet, and utilities.

In addition to Patreon, I also make a little extra from commissions and music stuff. Normally this would allow me to build a small amount of savings, in case of an emergency like sudden medical bills. However since my patreon earnings have been low, I've actually been using some of my savings to pay the bills each month, which is not something I can do forever.

Inactivity

Some of you are probably thinking, "if you want more money, put out more content!" And you're absolutely right. But my inactivity is not due to being lazy or unmotivated, as I will explain below.

There are several projects that I am working on, or have invested a lot of time into, but are not yet ready for public view. I've briefly explained this before in a previous update. That's why there was such a large gap between my last flash (Hazelnut) and this new one (Reaper). Both Cloptopia and the Fillyfuck Fiesta update have had a huge amount of time poured into it.

I don't want to rush the projects, nor do I want to spoil the fun by showing previews; I'd rather wait until they're ready for release. However with that being said, it's been rather depressing to see my Patreon support dwindle because I haven't put out a project in awhile. I've considered showing weekly progress updates or something just to keep people's attention, but I think it's more exciting to see the complete package at the end.

Just know that I've been working hard behind the scenes to try and get these projects ready for release. Flash projects can take weeks, even months to complete, and good things are worth waiting for. However a big part of why my projects are taking especially long to finish is due to not being able to properly motivate my partners with payment.

Partners

As I've mentioned above, finances have been a bit tight. My plan was to get a surplus of savings so I can consistently hire people to help me on projects. I am certainly capable of working alone, but it's WAY faster to have a partner. Without excess money, I literally cannot hire help, and it creates complications. Some are willing to work for free, but they can only offer so much of their time.

Some of you might be thinking, "Why not just pick projects they enjoy doing so they don't need money to do them?" It depends. Some are busy with other projects, some don't want to do the type of content my fans really want. For instance Rock Candy is fun to work with, and I still help him with coding and music here and there, but he'd rather jump off a bridge than do ponies with me.

I've been doing commissions, auctions, or crowd-funded projects just to have a way to pay my partners. It's a nice workaround to paying people directly, but it interferes with my ability to deliver specific content that I know people want. I knew that the Reaper flash would be a tiny bit unpopular with my fans, but I mostly did it because there was much-needed money involved. Again, this goes back to square 1: if I had a good flow of cash from Patreon, I could focus on the content my Patrons want.

Plans for Change

Either way, I know I need to make some changes. More frequent updates. I need to talk about what I'm doing and what's upcoming. I need to focus on doing content my Patrons want. I need to consider making smaller projects in between the big ones, so there's not as much waiting time.

Feel free to talk to me directly, join my discord, send me an email, comment anywhere. I try to read everything my fans send me, so don't be shy. Your support is what keeps me going, so it's only fair I know what you want the most out of my work. I aim to please. If you have nothing to say and just wish to silently pray for my success, that's cool too!

Ultimately, I'll do my best to keep you informed of what's going on. I will try my best to update my Patron with some info at least once a month from now on just like the good ol' days, and hopefully more often than that.

In other news: since the Reaper flash is done, a fairly large update for Fillyfuck Fiesta is being worked on now, since I know that's one a lot of you are interested in.

TL;DR Summary

- Thanks for sticking with me! Your support is massively appreciated!

- I've been working on a lot of different projects, but none are quite ready

- Lack of funds interfering with my ability to deliver specific content

- Lack of funds makes it hard to motivate people to collaborate with me

- I'll try to keep patrons more regularly informed and updated from now on

- Major update for Fillyfuck Fiesta is under way