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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.

Comments

  • I'm trying to using Patreon. So far, it hasn't worked but it can't hurt to leave it there and hope some people stumble on it while browsing. I do keep it updated to make sure that it does appear when browsing; if you don't post regularly, Patreon promotes it less and less. If you're active, you're more likely to get patrons.

    My Patreon

    I'd be eternally grateful if you would share my page; I'll do the same for you if you make one.
  • edited January 2017
    You might consider game-hosting sites like itch.io as an alternative source of income. You can post games for free (or for very cheap) but allow the option for people to make larger donations if they're feeling generous.

    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.
  • edited January 2017
    @litrouke I just did so. I also added a reward; a perfume/cologne made by me to the customer's specifications. Thank you for the suggestion!
  • edited January 2017
    The only people I've personally seen living off a twine game have been making very adult ones. But even for those guys, I'd recommend keeping your day job.
  • DairynGM wrote: »
    The only people I've personally seen living off a twine game have been making very adult ones. But even for those guys, I'd recommend keeping your day job.

    http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheRuleOfFirstAdopters
  • Well of course. Your first instinct with a calculator is to turn it upside down and type 58008.
  • That said, I'm starting to think about Twine-ing my own salacious stories. Maybe I'll even call it that.
  • edited February 2017
    @storymasterq Can say from experience that it's pretty fun! Especially if you add in a little bit of dating sim feel to it -- ie, readers can make the right/wrong choices and please/displease their partner. I usually had a redemption path just in case they were really poor at decision-making
  • It's all fun until your soul dies a little when you can't tell anyone about your day job.
  • There's always someone with an even more interesting career than yours...

    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.
  • DairynGM wrote: »
    It's all fun until your soul dies a little when you can't tell anyone about your day job.

    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!
  • I didn't expect to receive this many comments, it's refreshing. Sorry for not keeping up with it, I've been busy with my studies.

    @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?
  • @AbramFrost I have had no activity on my Patreon since I've started it. I will definitely give you advice on the technical details of setting it up (I'll even do it for you, if you wish) but it is very hard to get it "out there". I shared it on FB and a couple of my friends shared it but it never got up off the ground. It might be good if someone started a thread where people post their Patreon accounts and everyone publicizes everyone else's accounts.
  • @Amolith @AbramFrost I wouldn't suggest a Patreon until you already have a fanbase. Otherwise, it looks a little sad when you have no donators; people are more prone to giving if they 1) already know who you are and 2) see other people giving. But that's just my advice!
  • I'm also attempting to use Patreon. The few patrons I've got so far are all friends and family, but I'm hoping I'll be able to get more interest once I've released and publicised my first game.

    https://www.patreon.com/johnayliff
  • I set up a patreon account for multiple purposes; I'm hoping to put my latest Twine project up there eventually.
    https://www.patreon.com/mcdemarco
  • litrouke wrote: »
    @Amolith @AbramFrost I wouldn't suggest a Patreon until you already have a fanbase. Otherwise, it looks a little sad when you have no donators; people are more prone to giving if they 1) already know who you are and 2) see other people giving. But that's just my advice!

    Then how does one build a fanbase for their Twiner projects?
  • edited April 2017
    I don't know about anyone else, but my current plan is once I'm done converting this big honking 400k RPG script into twine, to add a 'Donate' button into the game's left menu and link that to a Patreon account.

    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.
  • @DairynGM I guess I'm just afraid nobody will like my stories on itch.io, because I don't have any sound, or images that go with my story, and it looks like all the other interactive fiction games have sound and picture.
  • edited April 2017
    @AbramFrost - All my favorite games have neither of those. Don't get me wrong, it's good if you can pull it off, but if you can't it comes off as immersion breaking.

    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.
  • @DairynGM Thanks for the words of encouragement Gary. I've been having trouble with the word limits, and hazy submission guidelines of one of the publishers paying for interactive fiction.

    If they don't like my story, perhaps I'll just upload it to itch and see what happens.
  • DairynGM wrote: »
    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.

    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 =)
  • Contrary to what some people think, there are a fair number of ways to monetize Twine projects without a patron model (not that I dislike the patron model, but that it isn't very good for large projects that take a lot of time, rather than a continuous stream of monthly/regular work)

    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.
  • edited April 2017
    I havent fully looked at this yet but I was rather hoping to use a cordova wrapper (intelXDK or Phone Gap) and wrap it up as a mobile app and apply a select amount of adverts maybe at the beginning and end allowing you to monetize it. Though I dont think you will become a millionaire from it, a little income might be nice.
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