Now that I look at the tier descriptions with fresh eyes, I'd differentiate the credited names and characters so that August Luminaries and SoS would be in the credits list whilst SoS would have a chanse for a character naming. What with games having a fewer characters and a lot of credited people just like movies do.
Viewing post in Post 0.1 update, and thanks comments
Good call! I was thinking it might be best to split those two myself. Appreciate it, and let me know if you've got any other ideas for the Patreon. It's probably pretty obvious, but I'm super new to the platform. (This goes for everyone, if you've got good ideas I'd love to hear them.)
Current Patreon todo list:
1. Flesh out the tiers with more benefits (probably keeping it relatively simple for now, since making the game is already taxing enough as a new dev lol)
2. Add discord integration. Been dragging my feet on making a discord since there isn't a whole lot of content atm, which I would imagine translates into not a whole lot of discussion to be had (maybe I'm wrong about this?)
3. Potentially adding some custom art stuff for the tiers
1a. Hey, always remember: don't stress over how you differentiate the tiers from each other, as the dev process goes along you find both new and improved ways of doing that organically.
1b. As a somewhat of a person with some knowledge on the dev side of things (Unity and UE in my past before 2020 shenanigans) two tips that make You stand out as a dev: If feasible, give the customers the ability to name their saves to at least 15, preferably to 24 character places In aDdItIoN to the timestamps given by any program You use and if You or anybody else thinks something should be a toggleable thing in preferences, if You find it is easy, or even mediocre to do on Your skill set, (please) make it be an item in the preferences, or at least make a feasibility study on the integration.
2. Discord integration can be tricky especially if one doesn't set clean boundaries on what is permissible so that they don't get shut down because of one jerk, but, a big BUT(T), Discord can help facilitate translation to other languages that one doesn't even think of being a possibility (and refining the different language scripts (I personally take credit on making such a change happen in Lust Academy 2, as MC had a problem differentiating between a binary question and a question of scale and now there is none)) and in obvious-to-user-not-obvious-to-dev bug crunching. If You don't find the chirpy Discord fairy in You, I'd advise part-time hiring or some such arrangement for a publicist for all Your communication needs in not so distant future so that They can generate (and to an extent moderate) content for all to see (There's a Patreon goal to set after Your own basic needs are met via the self-same target system).
3. Custom art is fine as long as it doesn't detract from the process of making the game. In my personal opinnion there is nothing worse than a dev milking any platform for money whilst making close to nothing to finish the original product (there is a reason why I follow You on Patreon, but haven't crossed the line to actually giving any money (some Ren'Py devs can be scummy as *insert cultural place/form for those not deemed worthy people to go after death* itself)).
P.S. You could add to every tier above the lowest a line: Includes and/or improves the benefits of the previous tier.
P.P.S. Always, always, always, always try to be the one who creates their own Discord server and then relegates monitoring it to somebody else before somebody hijacks it for nefarious purposes. I just created and nuked Discord server named August Esoterica in my native language, the next, or at this point the previous person may not be as sympathetic to the idea of deleting or giving over their channel if money is not exchanged. I noticed someone already had that server name taken in English so I hope it was You.
Hey, this is good stuff and you've given me quite a bit to think about. Thank you. I definitely lean closer to "not wanting to deal with social media stuff, just let me make the game lol" on the spectrum, but I recognize it's a necessary evil these days if I want to get some kind of return for the effort that goes into making a project like this.
I agree about not throwing money at someone who's yet to prove themselves as a dev, which is why I'm primarily focused on the game rather than the other stuff. I figure if someone wants to support me, it's going to be because the product doesn't suck rather than some fancy ad campaign or how often I post stuff on social media, but I'll admit I'm a novice in this arena, so what do I know.
You know a lot more than You think, we all have untapped knowledge within ourselves.
I leaned that way too, still do to an extent, without the dev'ing and programming stuff as more pressing personal matters have taken their place, maybe some day again.
Shame that Patreon is phasing out their goal feature because that would have been a good gauge on when to hire additional peole to speed up the processes.