Big important changes to the comic!

Hi Everyone,

We've been collecting feedback from our readers on what they like and, on the opposite end, what they think could be improved. We received a great deal of responses that all mostly pointed to the same things - that the comic's release cadence was making interest drop, and I can certainly see this reflected in analytics data from Twitter.

Simply put, the speed at which we can put out this comic and maintain the same quality of illustration is not conducive to longer story arcs like the first one we're doing, and the second one that I had planned. Several people had mentioned that it seemed like the action had stalled in the past couple pages, where we see reactions to Toby's tough line of questioning in a magical realism response (or should I say lack of one) from Sebastien and Colson. Given the current pace of how we are releasing pages, those people are absolutely right. If the comic were released entirely at once, these comments would likely not be made, but they are completely valid (and wholly correct, in my opinion) given our release schedule.

SO! What does this mean for us moving forward? Well, first off, we will absolutely be finishing issue 1 as it was written. There are 13 total pages planned so we're basically halfway through it. Nutria was moving house this past couple of weeks, so as you can imagine, that caused a little bit of a delay, but he's getting settled in. However, after that, the format of the comic is going to change.

Instead of doing big, long issues, what we're going to switch to are 3-4 page mini-arcs. We'll still be able to tell an ongoing story with character development, but things will be much more tightly orchestrated, story-wise. This page length allows us to also put out a greater number of individual stories, and also devote more time to each of the characters, and there's several more to meet -

1. Jo, a saucy cockatoo

2. Bruno, a big, goofy burr

3. Emma, Sebastien's sister

4. Rose, Emma's daughter

Issue 2 was going to feature both Bruno and Emma, and there was just too much going on for both characters to be effectively introduced to the audience.

Now, what does this all mean for you lovely Patrons graciously supporting us? Well, a few things -

1. We will only offer two tiers above the $2 minimum (which is for support but no rewards). Both of these tiers' main benefit is early access to the comic, released page by page as we finish them. The public will not see mini-arcs/issues until they are completely finished, so that means about 1-1.5 months per release for them. We feel this makes the reward of early access much more poignant than it is currently, being only a week in advance.

2. WIPs will no longer be a Patreon reward; those will be released publicly to keep continued interest in the comic.

3. The mid tier price is going to drop to $4/month instead of $5/month. I think I want to include giving HD images to this tier as well, as I want Patreon subscribers in general to have the highest quality stuff we can put out there. Then again, I'd be interested to hear your guys' thoughts on if you feel that HD images are a valuable reward to you. For some of you, is that not a draw at all?

4. The top tier will still be $10/month, but is going to include more rewards that give you a more personalized involvement in Sweet Leaves. So far we want to include the following in that:

- Polls for "intermission pages" - these will be done between each mini-arc, and will feature the family and friends playing a game with Toby and/or Rose. We'll be giving you a few options to choose from, and we'll take suggestions on additions to that list as well! Intermission pages will be released upon completion both here and to the general public, but it will have been driven by you guys!

- The ability to ask characters questions about themselves - these will be a visual novel style format, with a bust of the character answering the question. This will be an opportunity for you to get to know the characters a little more personally.

I would welcome suggestions on additional rewards you might enjoy for both the mid and high tier; I certainly can't know what you guys might like in entirety, so please let me know in the comments if you wouldn't mind giving your feedback!

I still need to finalize tier changes and such - because you cannot change prices of tiers, only the rewards therein, I need to basically delete the middle tier and re-create a new one. You will still have access to the old one, so you won't be cut off, but it'll basically disappear from public view, and you'll have 30 days to change it to a different tier, at which point I think it does sort of cut you off after that.

I will try and complete the changes to Patreon on Sunday and then make a general announcement to the public about the changes.

I have discussed the changes with a number of people (including Nutria, of course), and we think this is the smartest path forward to ensuring the comic will be more successful, and hopefully pick up some more Patrons so we can keep it afloat as long as we can. Thank you so much for your support!

- Travis