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So, I got a glimpse at the backend of the Patreon Campaign for this month. The way Patreon is set up you can see the pledge totals for the next three creations you put up at any one time – if you want to see further ahead you need to download your current patron lists as a CSV file and do the math yourself.
March Creations
But the good news – here is what the first three March posts look like:
Normally this would mean the first two maps of the month are going up using a free commercial-use license. But for the first few months that we are over the $300 line, I’m going to be “rolling over” any total over the $300 mark to the next map to try to get as many over the mark as possible. Please note that this is a temporary thing – I’m doing this to reward myself and everyone else for the recent huge push that has brought the campaign to where it is now.
Rolling the $38.75 and the $1.24 from the first two maps to the third brings it to $308.22 and rolling that $8.22 to the next map will definitely not bring it over the $300 mark, so we’ll have 3 commercial maps this month.
How is this going to work?
Right now I’m going with an informal license that lets anyone use, reuse, remix and/or modify the maps that are being published under the commercial license on a royalty-free basis as long as they include attribution (“Cartography by Dyson Logos” or “Maps by Dyson Logos”).
For those that want/need a Creative Commons license, it would look something like this:
Cartography by Dyson Logos is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Again, this shouldn’t need repeating, but this will only apply to those maps released under this commercial license – and those maps will be clearly indicated. I will add a new page to the blog soon that will compile the commercially-licensed maps as we progress down this brave new road!
The Backstage Pass
For a few months now I’ve let the Backstage Pass slip for patrons at the $1 level or higher. That ends tomorrow when I’ll be posting a seven-map backstage pass for all the patient patrons at the appropriate levels.
Dyson's Dodecahedron 
Vat is this “backstage” pass you speak of?
The backstage pass lets you see the setlist before the show begins. Roughly once a month I post up the maps that will be coming during the month for backstage pass holders. It’s just the maps, not necessarily what order they will be released in and without the text that goes with them.
I don’t understand the purpose. Or maybe I just don’t understand Patreon. I thought it was something that one agreed to and then it recurred monthly. It now appears to be something you manage, turning on and off.
The issue was that I fell behind on drawing maps. Everyone still got the maps as they came out, but one of the things I do is whenever I get ahead on my mapping I post them in a batch to the blog (so the first 7 maps of March are already posted, for instance) but schedule them to show up on Tuesdays and Fridays only.
The Backstage Pass level of Patrons get access to these maps when I do a batch post as soon as the batch goes up. But only on months when I do get ahead enough to post them up in advance like this month.
Thanks…I was just looking at the Patreon details and saw what you are talking about.
Sweet. I need a dungeon cross-section and a dungeon level example for my Treasure Hunters game.
Been following your blog and work for a month or two and loving it–currently considering what’s a reasonable Patreon level to check out as a way to support it going forward.
I’m just trying to wrap my head around exactly what content is, ah, pledge-able, if that makes sense. Per-map totally makes sense from a creator’s perspective, but from the other side it also makes sense to figure that out from a per-month perspective. I assume this is basically every complete map posted to the blog? Going by the Patreon updates, for February, that’s 7 MegaDelve maps + the Temple of Greed for a total of 8 maps.
Is that a correct understanding then, that a Patreon supporter would have pledged towards 8 maps in February?
I’m also not sure how folks are approaching things, if each post has anticipated variable levels of funding. Do people tend to de-support and re-support based on specific maps that are upcoming?
Finally, assuming I’ve understood correctly the first question, I’m curious how having some sections of the MegaDelve published as commercial licenses and some not will effect your future publication of the collected dungeon.
Yikes, that’s a lot of questions. Love the work and hope to stick around. Thanks again.
Doing more reading and I see the main reason for map-to-map drop off appears to be people that are pledging a relatively high amount per map, but with a relatively low monthly cap. Like say: $3 a map, but a monthly cap of $6, meaning those dollars get fully allocated to the first three maps, assuming you post at least that many.
The “reward structure” incentives this type of arrangement as well, I suppose, rather than a flatter pledge structure of say, $1 a map for a monthly cap of $6, which in February would have put the same amount of cash in your pocket.
Yep, that’s why I say that I don’t reward based on your pledge unless your monthly cap is set at 5x or more of your per-unit pledge. That’s also why I’m doing the $300 goal on a per-map basis and am posting the actual amount for each map.
That’s also why this text is on the patreon page:
1- You make sure you can afford to be a patron and want to be a patron – don’t do this if it is coming out of essential income – this is for your most disposable of incomes exclusively.
2- You figure out how much you can afford to give per month and still conform with number 1 above.
3-You set that (or any number below that) as your Monthly Maximum Pledge.
4- You then set your actual pledge as something between 1/10 and 1/5 of the max monthly pledge. I release 8-10 maps per month, so if you want to support all the releases in a month, set at 1/10 the max pledge.
5- If I release maps in a month, you will be billed at the end of the month for the total of your pledge for that month. So if I release only 4 maps one month, you will be billed 4x your per-unit pledge. If I fail to release maps, you will not be billed. If your monthly pledge ends up under $1, it will not be billed and will instead be rolled over into the next month.
“Yep, that’s why I say that I don’t reward based on your pledge unless your monthly cap is set at 5x or more of your per-unit pledge.”
That’s the vital piece I missed grokking. I’d read that text but the key of 1/10 – 1/5 whizzed past I suppose. Thanks for explaining, I haven’t used Patreon before but I like the way you’re using it–far better than the Kickstarter culture that too often treats content-producers as just another store.