amaty
patreon
Future of A Mirror's Curse (A Very Important Poll)
🕑 Added 2025-10-15 20:37:42 +0000 UTCHello, Meerkats!
Some big things are happening, and I want to be transparent with you, the fans.
So, I'll be moving to a new country in a month. There really isn't much time, and this happened very suddenly because of some personal life circumstances. It's exciting (not to mention slightly terrifying), but it's also a big financial change for me. Between the move, higher living costs, and how the art budget for this game has grown over time, I'm going to have to re-evaluate how I'm spending and earning to keep the project sustainable.
When the game first started, I poured basically every dollar I made into it. I thought of it as an investment, and that the game would grow faster if there were nice visuals accompanying it. I'd like to say it worked out, as the game grew tremendously in its first few months. The revenue growing by 2000 USD a month was common, which let me reinvest even more into art.
But that isn't the case anymore. It seems I've already picked up most of the audience who's looking for trans content. The game's growth has slowed considerably. And yes, some of you might see the membership (which I keep public for transparency's sake) and wonder what I'm worrying about. 9000 USD a month? That is a LOT of money, and I'm very aware of that. However, art is also very expensive. The game's main selling point is its high degree of customization, but that requires a lot of assets. Between the game's modular CGs, a ton of clothing options, nearly 100 achievement icons, and the upcoming backpack project, there really isn't much left. I'm not taking home 9k a month, trust me.
So since I'm moving and my expenses will be doubling (at the minimum), I'm going to have to find a way to monetize this game a bit more. I've been trying to keep it as light as possible, as I appreciate all the support. The fact that this many people have believed in this project enough to spend their money on it is amazing, and I truly appreciate it. But this Patreon's only "real" perk is the early access, which is... a month or two ahead. I did this to be as fair as I could to the public players, but I'm going to have to figure something out.
One thing I've decided to do is to weigh polls. Subscribers' votes will be weighed more depending on their tier. So Bronze Tier (5 USD) will have their votes weighed 5 times more. Silver Tier, 10. Gold Tier, 15. So on and so forth. There will also be polls on the Patreon more often, as they've usually been held on the Discord server.
Now, the rest are things I'm considering and I wanted to hear your thoughts. There will be a poll below where you can vote. Please select all the methods you're okay with.
Cutting Back on Costs: This is a simple solution, but still quite effective. Basically, there'd be less art for the game. Yeah, there's not much to elaborate on here.
No Adult Content: Yeah, this is seriously under consideration. The truth is, I could advertise in more spaces if this game were safe for all ages.
More Adult Content: Okay, you might be confused. But if I added more adult content, it would bring in more of the crowd that play this game for reasons other than fluffy gender euphoria. Do consider the last update with an adult scene was eight months ago.
Cosmetic DLCs: This would be packs priced at 3-5 USD that would add more accessories. Basically, more clothes, more pins, etc. I was thinking of the Gender Euphoria Pack, which would include a lot of trans icons. Maybe a blahaj keychain!
Story DLCs: These would be DLCs that have side stories or extra content. Some will be canon, but not essential to the main game's story. (Maybe a Madame Serena Origins pack or an Aurora's Past pack) There might also be short scenarios that aren't canon. (Maid Café scenario, Fantasy Scenario, Jessica's Secret Sleepover scenario)
Extra Early Access Builds for Diamond Tier: Diamond Tier would get access to the most recent build every two weeks, no matter what my progress is.
Hair DLCs: More hairstyles and hair colors!
Those are basically my ideas. I'm really not trying to nickel and dime my fans, who are already donating to the game, but I am going to have to do something about this game's finances. I hope this is transparent and helps you all understand the future of this game.
Much Love,
Amaty
Comments
Ferdi van Os
People had a choice after the first week of how much adult content they wanted. Making more adult content can just be put behind the 'moderate' amount and the people that want less adult content can just select the 'lower' or 'no' adult content.
Audrey Evans
i think the biggest helpful step would be less art. you've got a lot of the base images already, i don't think you need to go as far out of your way to keep adding art. i think the optional NSFW stuff is a good idea like others said, so you could advertise it both ways, and i wouldn't mind paying like at least $5ish if you make the adult version full game a paid one (normally i try to find free games, but the quality of this is for sure worth paying for!!) side DLCs are also a good idea but maybe shelve that for later on since it could take away from main story resources even if it does generate extra money (unless you purely do no art for that, which could negate the issue of spending a lot to make it). if you were to do stuff like the shopping trip again in the future (maybe the cheer girls take you to the mall to get makeup or something) you could have some options be stuff you have to buy. the extra early access stuff isn't a bad idea either
Drago Lie
The NSFW content is pretty thin! I'd suggest that if the artists are too expensive, you look for unsightly ones that charge less, for example, on https://www.pixiv.net/. There are many that are in Asia. Just ask around there. Due to the exchange rate difference, Western money is very high there. Housing costs are also quite low there compared to the West. Some would probably get more for their money than here in the West.
Eos
Pretty straightforward at least in terms of nsfw and sfw, create two separate and make the erotica optional (its pretty much describing between the lines of what could be hinted if people want), avoid do other DLCs until the game is finished it will definitely push people away or that could also be patreon locked until its completion and realistically give yourself longer to design everything (say three months allowing you to ensure a good lifestyle for yourself and have the money to focus on the games quality if you so wish) and reuse what you can to cut back costs.
RainyRobin
Maybe you can stage out the art assets differently? The big ones, like the CGs that appear in the course of the story are great. But personally I don't really pay much attention to achievements. They do add something to the game of course, having them there is a net positive but could they be safely pushed back until later in development or something? Maybe breaking the art assets into phases (if you haven't already done so) will help stagger the costs so you are only paying for paper doll assets, then CG assets, then UI and not all three at once or something. Definitely agree with your commitment to avoiding AI assets, it's a poor way to thank the artists you are currently working with. I'm torn on the DLCs. It always feels a bit bad buying DLC for an already unfinished game. But if they aren't story content, just fun extras that don't leave you feeling like you got less than the intended experience without them I can see the value. That's also assuming you actually recover additional cost of making them. I hope you are able to sort something out that works for you.
UserEl
Well, regardless of personal opinion on it, ai generation is still very divisive overall, including it could end up costing more patrons than it'd save in art costs
UserEl
Tbh the adult content is the stuff I'm generally looking forward to the least, and I'm worried trying to add more than you planned might lead to forcing more of it in where it doesn't fit, and generally would change the 'vibe' of the game quite a bit. You also risk shifting genre to 'transformation porn game' which is a very different vibe to what (in my opinion) the game has now I think cutting costs or doing side content such as dlc or even like, side short stories as tier rewards would fit better, along with just slowing down development overall if need be Edit: just wanted to clarify, its your game, not mine, I'm just voicing my 2 cents on it, but I'm not 'expecting' anything one way or the other, I realized I may've come off judgy or self important originally
monozukishi
Wouldn't the most effective way to reduce costs be to stop or reduce outsourcing illustrations and instead leverage image-generating AI? There's a wealth of information available on AI prompt techniques. If you have a graphics card with sufficient VRAM capacity, you can run image-generating AI locally on your own computer for free, incurring only electricity costs for maintenance. (That's how I handle it in my small-scale development project.) Even if you purchase a graphics card as an initial investment, you'll still come out ahead. By adopting an AI model that resembles your current art style, you could potentially generate images in-house without drastically changing your style.
