Keeping Things Going

Not the type of message I like to send, but c'est la vie.

I've ended up losing a pretty critical monthly retainer. This was the cash that I used to fund everything for dG, whether that was travel/web hosting (both the main site + $60/mo for deskGen.net)/getting money to NavSys for CyberCrisis/whatever assorted thing we had going on at the moment.

Things aren't dire at this very second. If I've done my math properly we've got ~roughly~ two months before I start to worry. I'm going to be taking some moves over the next few weeks to be sure that we don't have to worry.

Some of these will be what we typically do, I've got another Bennettpack volume in the pipeline that we'll put up on Itch. Our VJ loop pack is 99.9% done. There are a lot of things in the works for our fifth anniversary, like a Cyberworks DX collection in hardback. The problem being that none of these things have ever made a lot of money in the first place. For a similar chicken and the egg problem, our Patreon never really took off and we didn't put a lot back into it.

I don't like to make dG especially commercial and I'd like to keep it that way, but sometimes you have to give a little to get a little. If I could do that in a way that makes everyone happy, that would be awesome.

So that's where you come in.

If you have a way that dG could make a little cash that you would be interested in, please let us know. Whether that's a post in the feedback forum, reaching out to me directly, emailing us (contact@desktopGeneration.com!), my ears are open. I think we're going to have to get unconventional to make things work, whether that's sponsorships/memberships/just making the products people actually want at a price point they can actually afford... it's worth a shot to keep the lights on.

A second part of this, since I don't want to scare anyone too much:
What's in: reworking the Patreon (and promoting the Patreon), more paid products (and promoting those paid products), a supporter tier for deskGen.net (likely in the Patreon?), soliciting advice from the people that love us on the ways they'd feel OK giving us cash, going back to doing more contract work as dG itself.

What's not in: locking existing content/features/art behind a paywall, selling out to crypto/AI, letting my ethics slip.

It's gonna be a lot of work, but at this point in my life (almost) anything is worth it to keep things a-runnin'. desktopGeneration is the greatest thing I've ever been involved in and I cannot begin to imagine life without any part of it. Sincerely: please, please, please reach out and let *me* know what *you* want.

Love y'all.

Our storefront: https://desktopgeneration.itch.io/
Our (soon to be reworked) Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/desktopgeneration

Thanks again,
-AB

 

[kevin supermarket]

DESKGEN NEVER DIE

 

[Andrew]

What we’ve gotten today has this place funded for another month, so you can move the counter back. :~)

 

[tubeuler]

If you have a way that dG could make a little cash that you would be interested in, please let us know.

dG has a look, but does it make a sound?

maybe a dG-vibed community music / sound design collaboration pack thing would be something people would dig/buy?

if people in the forums or otherwise want to contribute to a community collection of aural atrocities, they can have their work added to the collection/album/thing to be sold on itch. then proceeds can go to fund more dG stuff and dividends could be paid out w gold or special stuff on the forums.

anyways i am new to this whole dG thing and i dont know if this is already a thing or how it all operates or whatever but it sounded like a cool thing.

i was recently making some ringtones/notification sounds for my phone to match some of these aesthetics i use on my devices- but i did not make them expressly for this idea, or even to post anywhere, ever- so bearing that in mind:




but i just imagined a sound pack of dG ringtones or notification tones after dl the dG mobile stuff.