"Supporting Game Designers with Patreon" Topic

tl;dr Patreon lets you support a game designer or miniatures sculptor with a monthly stipend instead of putting up a lump sum for a project.

What's Patreon?
Patreon lets fans support their favorite creators by becoming patrons. Unlike other fundraising services, which raise money for a single big event, Patreon is for creators who create a stream of smaller works.

What are the benefits of Patreon for patrons?

• No big lump-sum payment up front.
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• The warm fuzzy feeling that accompanies believing in someone enough to become a patron.
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• Being part of a community with your favorite creators from across the web on activity feeds including photos, videos, comments, Christopher Walken impersonations, etc.
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• Timely updates from creators as they are creating the things you love. Get the goods first!
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• You can judge the ongoing quality of the work and decide how much support to provide.
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• Rewards from your favorite creators: This could be anything from new units for a game, pre-sell games or miniatures, downloads, personal gifts, hangouts, or anything else they can offer as a way to thank you for your patronage.
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What about creators? What benefits do they get?

• Recurring funding to work on what you love.
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• Interacting with your top fans on your activity feed where both patrons and creators can post photos, videos, comments, etc.
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• Giving back to your patrons with rewards.
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• Growing your patron base with social tools.
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• Exposing a community of supportive people who enjoy funding games.
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--Partially plagiarized from the Patreon web site: patreon.com/faq

I see that this differs from Indigogo and KickStarter in significant ways. Not saying better or worse, just different, and it isn't something I would be prone to focus on currently.

I do wonder if some current game/miniature designers that are already doing good jobs communicating with potential customers through blogs, forums, websites would see this as increasing or diluting their efforts/time creating products.

Interesting concept – patronage – but like patronage for the theater/the arts – one that has (for whatever reasons) has diminished over time.

Any comments from creator/producers/manufacturers about why they might or might not participate in this kind of activity?

MB--

I do wonder if some current game/miniature designers that are already doing good jobs communicating with potential customers through blogs, forums, websites would see this as increasing or diluting their efforts/time creating products.

Blogs, forums, and all of the other options are great ways to communicate. Patreon offers an easy way to give supporters "insider" information as an incentive to become a patro--Kickstarter does the same thing with backer-only upates.

Interesting concept – patronage – but like patronage for the theater/the arts – one that has (for whatever reasons) has diminished over time.

True. you can argue that patronage made sense for the composers themselves, for instance, when most music was privately performed. The patron got both the enjoyment of the composition and the prestige of being able to show it off to guests (is "show" the right word for something that you listen to?). Patronage declined for a lot of reasons, but with the rise of the recording industry it made no economic sense for the artists. There was far more money to be made by selling recordings to the masses. (Selling sheet music was actually a big business before that--it only made sense when there were a lot of pianos and a lot of young women who knew how to play them.)

Patreon changes the calculus in interesting ways: it can provide an advance for a composer, writer, or game designer to live on in the same way that publishers pay advances to writers. Dedicated fans get to see works in progress or get releases early (if that's what the creator wants to provide), and the creator can still go with mass publishing. This is similar one model that's been mooted for musicians in a post-music publisher world. ( link --No endorsement, only an example of the feelings of somebody who draws a web comic.)