So... Patreon.

I've been thinking about it a lot since people started suggesting it to me, and I think that now that it looks like I'm able to hit my goals for scheduling out new content for MVOL, it's time to take the next step. This month, probably later this week, I'm going to start up a monthly Patreon of my own so that folks can support My Very Own Lith by subscription and get cool rewards for doing it!

Now, the question is, how should I set this up? I've been considering that for a while, and I've been pretty nervous about it, but I've come up with some ideas. I still have no idea how to set the monetary amounts for the most part, but I thought that today I'd come to you all for feedback on what goals sound most compelling, and what rewards you'd be most interested in. Here's what I've got so far!

Milestones:

• Cut back hours at my day job
• New art with every update
• Hire on a specialized writer to help with expanding options, variety, and reflection of things like species, anatomy, and dominance to existing scenes
• Second tier rewards
• Further cut back day job hours
• Regular Livestreams?
• Two new pieces of art every update
• Switch from official update every three months to every two (meaning pushing for more content faster, and new art every month as well)
• Third tier rewards

I know people always want more content for the game faster, and many are impatient for things like more species options or the completion of the vagina-related content. I've been really focused on pushing the story forward since there's still so much to do, but if I could develop a strong rapport with a writer I pay to go through my old scenes thoroughly and add in things like new options for variable content and new variances to better reflect players' choices, then it could do a lot to reward the players and enable me to write without stressing out too much over the dozens of potential branches in a single sex scene. For more on this, read here: https://lithier.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/writing-lith/ about halfway down.

The Reward Tiers was an idea I had that I'm not too sure about. Some rewards would take a lot of extra work, and if only one or two supporters take it, or if I'm not getting much support in general, it wouldn't really be worth the time it takes me away from MVOL. So I was considering offering the option to start with a basic set of rewards, and then if I get a lot of support, I'd expand to offer higher tier rewards as well as add a little more value to some of my lower support slots. I'm not sure how much support people would actually be looking to give, so I'm spitballing a lot here.

I used to do Livestream now and then in the past, but it was rather stressful and not all that popular. I was considering offering it as something I'd start doing on the regular, partly as a way of forcing myself to write during those times with everyone watching, and I feel like maybe if it does get pushed into existence by a sufficient level of Patreon support, maybe more people would watch! But I'm still pretty worried that I'd end up running a Livestream and maybe two people would show up, but then I'd be stuck doing them over and over anyway because I promised.

Rewards:

(First Tier)

• $2: Cheat-enabled copy of the game (the standard donator reward, just given as a subscription, equivalent to roughly a $5 donation per version) 
• $10: Advance access to the official release (equivalent to the early access donators get to the next version when they donate $25 or more)
• See new art commissioned for the game early
• Lith's Diary? (an exclusive, monthly newsletter from Lith talking about silly stuff)
• Patreon-Exclusive Deluxe Version? (As a high-end reward, get a copy of the game that's higher resolution and with redone, prettier interface? "Shiny" version.)

Some Patreons offer silly little things as a sort of thank-you, and my first thought for that was to have something where Lith can just personally thank the higher-tier supporters. But that would get kind of repetitive, so I thought they might like having an exclusive little slice of Lith just being a silly cat as a regular thing in their inbox instead.

The other "silly thing" I thought of was to give you the equivalent of buying a hat in TF2: a vanity item. The "deluxe" version of MVOL might not be strictly better besides being higher resolution, but it would look nice, and it would be rare!

Rewards:

(Second Tier)

• Monthly Mini-Update (get an exclusive copy of the game with a sneak peek into the rough draft of whatever content I've created this month)
• Lith Stories (every month, I write a short, cute story exclusively for these supporters about Lith, whether from before the void, in the void, or after...?)
• Spoilers Answered (every month, send me a question, and no matter how spoilerific, I'll answer it honestly, and briefly, in private. Keep Lith's secrets!)
• Petre's Secret Stash (every month, get a newsletter from Petre with tips on how to find secret scenes or use the cheats to best effect)
• Name Game (get a custom-made version of the game just for you, in which Lith actually knows your name --you send me the name you want to go by-- and calls you by it in the game)

I get a lot of questions about the game, whether it's how to do something particular or whether I'll be including something in the future. I'm very tight-lipped about spoilers because I want to make sure everyone gets the maximum experience, but if it will entice people, I may be willing to quietly admit a few tantalizing secrets, and ask that those I tell keep it close to the chest... And Petre would be happy to give a few tips on things you might have missed or never heard of, though it may be hard to keep coming up with more of these forever, especially given my most enthusiastic players may already know most of them.

It's an intentional part of the design that your name isn't really spelled out anywhere, and obviously you don't get to enter your name normally, but I thought that if players really wanted, I could make an exception where, just for you, because you're such a generous supporter, Lith knows your name by heart.

Rewards:

(Third Tier)

•  Raffle: Ask Lith (Every month, one or a few people selected at random from this group can send Lith their refs, personal descriptions and so forth, and ask him one personal question. Like, say, "do you find me attractive?" or "how would you like to be my pet?" or "would you like to go on an adventure with me?" or just about anything you can think of, and Lith will answer!)
• Daily Sneak Peek (Whenever I write any new content at all for MVOL, I'll send it to these supporters in text files. They'll be the first to see what's new with Lith before me, myself.)

I was trying to think of ways to help people connect a little more individually with Lith. A close second to this was inviting the winner of the raffle to an exclusive chat session with Lith, though I'd be a little nervous about that getting overly creepy/stressful/out of control if a person wins and is rather uncouth about handling it. It might still be worth a shot, though, maybe if I just set a few ground rules ahead of time.

And it doesn't get any more supporter-oriented than going straight from my pen to your screen!


Alright! That's everything I've got so far. Which of these ideas sound really exciting to you? Which sound boring, or like they might be more work for me to do than they'd really be worth when I could be working on MVOL instead? A lot of Patreon pages don't actually have all that many rewards from what I've seen, so I have the feeling I need to trim this down by a TON xP But even so, if you have any ideas for other kinds of rewards or milestones you'd like to see, please let me know! I'd hate to let a good idea go unheard until after I've already got this all set up and people (hopefully) start signing up!

I'm pretty excited about this, and a little scared it'll all crash and burn! Share your thoughts, and maybe we can make this support system something awesome itself! :3