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Patreon, and others ways of making money using Twine?
I was wondering if any Twine users have Patreon as a source of income, or how many Twine users use Twine to create something that brings them any form of income. So far the only venue I've found that accepts IF made using twine is Sub-Q magazine. I've paid for premium membership there, but it seems like their forums for premium membership are dead. I can't find any forum on their site that isn't over a year old.
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My Patreon
I'd be eternally grateful if you would share my page; I'll do the same for you if you make one.
And of course, you could then link from that site to your Patreon. Let us know how it goes!
@Amolith I would also advise making your bio section on Patreon more visually attractive -- space out the paragraphs, maybe with some section headers or images to up the aesthetic~ appeal.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheRuleOfFirstAdopters
But to be back on topic: I thought the Lifeline mobile app was developed with... Twine? Or something like Twine? But I might be misremembering. There have been many threads here about converting a Twine game into a mobile app, which I imagine would be easier to sell/market/micro-paymentize than an in-browser game, so you might look into that.
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/roll-safe
Can't tell anyone about your day job if you don't have a day job. Work at night!
@Amolith I've never set up a Patreon account, but I do have a Twitter account. I'll share it on Twitter, and maybe you can tell me how I go about making a Patreon account catering to Interactive Fiction made with Twiner?
https://www.patreon.com/johnayliff
https://www.patreon.com/mcdemarco
Then how does one build a fanbase for their Twiner projects?
Typically, I'd agree that you'd want to build up a fanbase before asking for money (at least effectively), but if I release a game with that much work out of nowhere for free, I'm happy to leave my hat on the table for anyone who wants to throw in loose change. I imagine Eric Barone, who made Stardew Valley, probably felt the same way.
But as I said before, I don't think money is a good primary motivator for making a text-based indie game. There's a lot of better ways to earn cash.
I do agree that hype generates hype, and success begets success. I believe as a general rule that's why authors make more based on the number of books they've released, not purely by the quality of each book.
That said, it really depends also on if you're giving the audience something they want more of and would fund to see that happen.
All of this is my opinion, of course. Other readers and authors probably have entirely different takes.
Sometimes simplicity in design is a strength, which is what quite a few digital marketers are falling back on these days.
Seedship is an example of a small but really awesome game with none of that stuff. Or, well, I didn't turn my sound on, but I assume there was no sound.
If they don't like my story, perhaps I'll just upload it to itch and see what happens.
that's absolutely great advice as well! i should have moderated my statement by saying that it depends entirely on what sort of games you make. i suppose in my mind i was picturing the usual one-sitting twine game, for which it makes sense to release a couple for free to generate the hype you mentioned.
but yes, for longer works, that's a great technique!
in terms of art/music -- i personally find music in twines a bit jarring (because i have my own music playing), but many do enjoy it. i think a strong aesthetic/layout is more important than the presence of images or music per se; however, they can obviously both contribute to a strong aesthetic.
imo, i would add that collaborating with others (artists or musicians) is another happy way to increase hype for all parties involved
Personally, the one with the most potential (IMO) is a shareware model, releasing the first edition/episode/aspect of a work, and then selling your subsequent versions in a html wrapper of some kind to control distribution - Google Play and other platforms are great for this.
Alternatively, if you're producing a novel-length project with many tendrils which you regularly update, you could offer a "delayed subscription" model, where the latest version is published first to subscribers, and then to others in some 90-day esque delay or similar waiting period.
TBH the challenge is really on giving a premium experience to those who pay - ensuring save files don't get lost / can be easily used between devices (phone, tablet, PC) by plugging Twine into some system that can handle this. I'd love to start a bounty if any of the major format developers expresses interest in doing this to help make distribution easier for creators.