Post by DaedalusMachina in 30 Days Wild Fundraising Again (wallpaper + more as thanks :3) comments

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Melanie, if I may call you that, feel free to always enjoy and appreciate the ones who throw you some kindness. You deserve it with all the fantastic talent you possess, especially in the creation of wonderful music and visual novels :)

The webdev work is a gift, it has been already covered so 'but thou must' and no excuses! :)
I wish I was as popular as you are getting as many messages and having trouble keeping up. I run a Discord server but it isn't exactly poppin off as often as I'd like even after 5+ years of being online.

I suppose my only advice I can offer is to let people know that you cannot keep up with every message or respond to every person. Perhaps you could do a 'Q&A' response post for those who support you via itch.io donations or ko-fi or otherwise. One of the things about being a celebrity (even on the internet) is that you do what you can within a reasonable timeframe. Burnout can happen and often has happened to content creators on YT and other parts of the net.

I remember back when JaidenAnimations (yes, the real one) on YT was just starting out and barely getting 5k views on a video (closer to 500) and I'm like 'this girl is GOOD and she's gonna be amazing I hope someday' and not only was I right but she's getting 20+ million views a video plus several million subs plus merchandise plus events plus all the other stuff. She connected with other creators (per my suggestion so long ago that 'networking is important') and from there she really took off doing collabs and other bits (again, stuff I suggested as part of networking with others). She used to be super duper shy but I'm really happy for her. Many celebrities end up becoming hostile/arrogant or think they are better than others but Jaiden is one of the few I can point to and go 'yeah she's legit' and be happy for her success. I sadly don't have the emails we used to exchange that long ago; wish I'd kept them but I ditched an old gmail account because reasons. Use other email that's far more secure :)

What I do personally is keep several emails. I have my Google email only for Google Play stuff on my phone and nothing else. I have two Protonmail accounts, one for strictly IRL and one for strictly online-only accounts that don't have any of my payment or other IRL info. I use virtual credit cards linked to my bank account with most online storefronts to maintain both some level of privacy and a bit of pseudo-anonymity. The email service 'Tutanoga' is also a great alternative, but I like Protonmail since they also do ProtonVPN and ProtonDrive and other stuff all in the same account, effectively an open-source secure alternative to the Google ecosystem.

So uh TLDR I suppose: read as many messages as you can, respond to those who financially support you and your work (within reason, maybe limit to first 100 people by date/time when message is sent), maybe ask Spaghetti to set up a contact form on your upcoming website so you can receive emails easier. I know you aren't much of a fan of Discord and instant-messaging, but doing a once-monthly Q&A live voice thing with special Discord roles on your server with your supporters would be a nice gesture. Let them ask you questions and you answer to the best of your ability, etc.

So it is up to you but I feel you already far exceed me in both talent and capability. If there's anything else you may need, please don't hesitate to poke me. I am not always 'online' on Discord because reasons, so just leave me a message as if you were writing an email :)

Melancholy Marionette334 days ago(+1)

More than happy with Melanie cos it's a million times nicer than my real name, haha. But man, I still really wanna shake my head in denial at all the kind things you've said because I still haven't learned how to fully disable my compliment deflector x3 I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I just can't comprehend that I could possibly be worthy of such praise and kindness >.< but I'm trying to get better at accepting it at least, and no matter how much the evil part of my brain wants to deny it, I always appreciate kind words and sweet gestures. It means the world to me that you or anyone else would even consider supporting me ^-^

And thank you so much again for such a generous gift :3 Not gonna lie, I almost cried when Spaghetti explained that it was a gift and everything was covered cos my brain just went into complete shock xD Even if excuses aren't allowed, I still have to thank both of you somehow!!

I don't know if you could really count me as particularly popular though because the biggest part of the problem with me keeping on top of messages and such is my own inability to condense what I type xD + the fact that my everyday responsibilities have increased, so I have less time each day to spend at my PC in general.

It's not so much that I'm completely buried by a vast number of messages as that I've ended up with quite a few contacts who have become friends over time, whether that be through working with them on projects or people who have gotten in touch just to say a few words about a project.

You know what I'm like with my rambling x3 So trying to make sure I don't lose contact with anyone that I'm exchanging essays with at the same time as attempting not to neglect new messages has become difficult. I recently read something that said you should be careful to ensure that responding to messages doesn't interrupt or reduce your workflow >.< and it's gotten to the point where my workflow has completely stopped, haha. So when I can't even keep up with messages despite stopping working on stuff, I end up feeling like I'm kinda failing at everything.

I know it's my own fault for ultimately wanting to be friends with everyone while not having the social battery or time to handle it >.<

I mean, I don't have that many followers by typical social media standards. And I will never understand how I have as many as I do, but I really appreciate every single one :3 When I was making my first game, I just kinda figured maybe like 10 people would play it or something, if anyone at all xD

Anyways, the Q&A thing is a really good idea! I'll have to try and sort something like that out. I suppose I should probably stop and drop you a message on Discord cos I wanna respond to the rest of what you've said here :3 + I believe I still owe you a reply there anyway! With any luck, me posting this segment here will reduce the amount of spam I end up sending you on Discord, haha. I always feel so bad that my rambles wind up as like 10+ Discord dms because I feel like it must be quite irritating for people >.<

Thank you again for everything <3

PS. There is no way on earth that I exceed you x3 To me, you are someone I aspire to be like who seems like they really have their shit together, unlike me kinda just stumbling all over the place banging my limbs on everything and wondering where I'm gonna end up xD You've got so much knowledge and the generosity to share it :3 You are like a super guru and just all-around amazing!!

DaedalusMachina333 days ago(+1)

I read your 'essay' here and on Discord; you're amazing with how much you can type out in such a short time. Please be sure to make time for yourself to avoid the burnout ;)
Please don't ever feel the need to immediately respond to myself or anyone else. Priority should be IRL over everything else and focus on family first. After that, anything else can come as it does. I've sent you some additional info via Discord and I feel I'll just join your email mailing list (so to speak) with email contact from now on since you said that's easier for ya. Whatever works :)
I hope the website stuff works out well for you once it is finished. Spaghetti will help ya with any feedback/concerns as you like so feel free to poke em with updates :)
As for making games, do what you can in the time you have, leave the rest for another time. Focus on yourself first because I feel I can safely say neither anyone here nor any of your fans on Discord/elsewhere want to see you burned out because you're working too hard and balancing IRL. Please please feel free to take care of yourself. Healthy body leads to a healthy mind and being more productive overall :)
You've done many amazing games so people can enjoy them (and replay them) while we eagerly await the next release. There aren't that many demanding standards for non-paid and freeware games in general, so take your time.