"Hey Pudding Earl, where's that next update?" I hear you all probably asking. WELL.
I'm still working on it slowly but surely. Haven't been particularly motivated, so it's dragging, but it'll get done when it's done. The motivation comes in stops and starts and right now it's a stop but I know myself well enough to know the moment I try and look at doing something else there'll be a big surge of motivation to write some more.
But that's not the news. No, the news is I've decided to delete the Patreon. I'll leave it up for like...a week? Probably? Just so people can read this update and not be confused when it vanishes, but after that...poof, gone.
That doesn't mean I'm abandoning Shield High again, I do like it, and I do want to finish it one day. But Patreon doesn't actually help with that. If anything, it makes it harder. When I started the Patreon it was because I was under the impression that perhaps having some financial incentive to update would make me want to work harder. It uh...it did the opposite of that. It turned what should be a project of passion that sometimes results in a paypal donation into a flailing business venture led by someone who has no idea what he's doing. While an update before Patreon would be rewarded with a download count and some comments, a nice, feel good moment, now it was met with money. A...very small amount of money. An amount of money that wasn't worth the time spent on it.
Which isn't to say I don't appreciate the support! Chatting with folks on the discord is great, it gets me excited to work on things again, and the comments left asking questions or pointing out how I messed up horribly are lovely too. Those things are priceless. And Patreon, in some ways, puts a price on them. And that's not healthy for me, for my passion, or for my dealings with you.
The second side of things is it puts a sense of urgency on work that doesn't help either. I feel like every day spent without finishing some part of the game is a day that I've failed. And that stress makes the next day a bit harder to drag myself into working, and so the problem just compounds on itself and...I don't need that in my life.
So, what does Patreon being deleted mean for you, my dear fans?
Well uh...I'll post updates on the blog instead I guess? I'll have to remove the Patron rooms on Discord too. Other than that, not a lot. I'm pushing Shield High back down to being a hobby project instead of my main project, but since it was being put off in favor of hobby projects anyway some days, that doesn't mean anything. All that changes is I'll have a new main project to be working on.
See you all back on the blog!
Pudding Earl.
P.S. To everyone who pledged to get early access to something then deleted their pledge in less than a month. I saw every single one of you. And I remember. But I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.
