Let's Talk Patreon - The Toronto Game Database And More

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Hey everyone! Once a month, I do a post about what Patreon's got the previous month. If I can toot my own horn, the rewards are pretty sweet. For instance in November, Patreon's who gave $5 dollars a month got three games. I like to joke on the podcast I'm the PlayStation Plus of Toronto games.

What is Patreon? It's a service, similar to Kickstarter, that let's people get funded by their fans to create the projects they love. Unlike Kickstarter it's a monthly subscription, so you pay for the content in a month, and stop when you've had your fill. Payments are taken at the start of the month.

On the weekend, I spent a decent amount of money to TorontoGameDevs.com. This was (mostly) funded by Patreon's.  And while I wanted to keep the big news a secret for an official launch (which there will be) - I wanted to share with you what this money has gone towards. I bought:

  • Business cards - it's become perfectly clear I need cards when I network. I met Victor Lucas at the Canadian Video Game Awards, and had nothing to give him. I used moo.com and currently waiting for them. The process was pretty easy though, and that previous link is for 10% off.
  • I upgraded the SquareSpace package. I went from the $8 dollar a month personal plan, to the $18 dollar a month business plan. That's $18 dollars USD.
Thanks Trudeau....

Thanks Trudeau....

My Patreon's feel the pain as well, since it is also USD, but why did I upgrade? The biggest selling feature of the Business plan is having unlimited pages (only 20 with the Personal plan). The reason I want unlimited pages is the Toronto Game Database (that would be the announcement, woot!).

The idea is simple, a database of all the games ever created in Toronto (and surrounding areas). Why? Well there are a couple of reasons:

  • For starters, when I write about games in articles, I can say "13AM Games, the makers of Runbow, have ...." and link to Runbow in the game database. This sort of stuff helps with SEO, and keeping people on the site longer, google ads, all that good stuff.
  • It gives resources to people who want to find all the studios, and their games, in one nice place. I add links to their Steam/iOS/Android/PSN/etc pages so you can buy them as well.
  • Eventually the page will link to past stories I've written about them. You see, what happens is I'll write about a game, and then with the speed of the internet it disappears from most people's feed.  Any way I can link past stories to readers, the more eyes games like Planet of the Eyes has on it (see what I did there?).

The project is still early, it's going to take a while, and expect a full launch in the new year. But it's going to slowly grow over time, and if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear them. I also want to give a shout out to the customer support at SquareSpace, who have been awesome. So make sure to keep an eye on the Toronto Game Database.

So, this is where Patreon money is going, or rather, where it has gone to. Working on TorontoGameDevs.com is a dream come true for me, and it has grown beyond what I even imagined when I discussed the idea on the subway with my friend Chris. Fun Fact: The first tweet was just over a year ago.

I can't thank my Patreon's enough. And I ask of any of you, that if you think you can contribute to the growth of the site, it is much appreciated. You can do so at this link, and like I mentioned, the rewards are pretty sweet, and they'll keep coming. If you can't, I ask that you share it with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, etc. It means the world to me.

Take care,

Steve Crane

TorontoGameDevs.com