Crowdfunding is something that most people are becoming familiar with now, but most people are familiar with it in the form of Kickstarter and Indigogo (which I’ve used.) These are designed to fund large projects, like the art show I got a lot of help with a few years ago. (Thanks again guys! That was awesome!) Patreon, however, is different. It is designed as a support system to enable artists of varying mediums to create on a regular basis. Their little video explains it pretty nice… plus, video!

It was created by Jack Conte and Sam Yam. Some of you may know Jack Conte as the awesome musician of such sick beats as GULF or his newest single PEDALS. He’s also one half of the group Pomplamoose.

Now that you’ve had an introduction to the Patreon program, here’s what I’m hoping to use it for.

I have a bit of a pitch laid out on my Patreon Campaign page. You can see that here.  But to give the barest bones explanation, I am going to just keep writing and working on my transmedia projects as I’ve been.  My hope is that people will find them interesting and worthwhile enough to offer support for them.  That will enable me to devote more time to them without as much worry about putting more time into “the muggle jobs” that pay the bills (as my friend Alyssa calls them. *wink*)  The more support I get, the more time I can devote and, when I get to doing things like the game and film development portions, it means more resources at my disposal to create that much better of a final product.  It means being able to pay someone with design experience to help with the game interface, or pay for better actors, crew, film equipment, and editor that can do special effects – all the things that can independently not necessarily bring down an entire project, but together can certainly significantly elevate it.  The more support I have, and the more time I can devote, means I can put more of me into these projects without divided attention.  So while they will be worked on whether I have a few patrons backing me up or not, that support will be the counterweight to a lot of factors like production time, and (hopefully not too heavily) quality.

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments.  I’ll clarify whatever I can.  Ask about the projects, about transmedia or how the Patreon process works.  Or just say, “hi!”  I like “hi’s.”