I have made a momentous decision…. I am going to try and turn RTSL into a job.
Patreon is a website service that allows artists and creators to receive regular donations from supporters.
In the past, I never believed it was possible to make a living from my site and I’ll be honest and say I don’t think full time is possible. Not because of the site itself but because of its incredibly niche content. However, I may be able to make running the site a part-time option and that is my realistic objective, with full-time as the ultimate dream.
I will continue to have donation drives, like the one for The Hammer Cup 2016 prizes etc because ALL of that money is used for buying prizes.
By spending more time on the site, I would be able to update the older mods more quickly, spend time creating new content, like Minute Mod videos for each and every mod, more video reviews and special videos like a round up of each category in the RTSL Awards. Not to mention more podcasts with in-development modders.
I have been inspired by Alex from LambdaGeneration who has some great ideas for running his site and reaching his objectives.
If this doesn’t work out, well at least I tried and I may also explore other gaming-related opportunities.
Who doesn’t want to turn their hobby and the thing they love doing into a full-time occupation?
So, please visit my Patreon page and if you decide to support me, thank you.
As always if you have any comments suggestions or feedback, just post a comment.
Here is the introduction video…
Good idea, but I don’t like your ‘early access to mods’ reward on $25.
Mainly just to the concept making RTSL less competitive in comparison to places like modDB and gamebanana. And also I could argue that there may be conflicts with you and some people releasing maps and mods here, finding out that their work is locked away for a period of time to those who did not provide the top tiered patreon donation, or even not realising that was the case due to a lack of information.
If you do decide to keep it, then post a notice about it on the submit a map or mod page, so people are informed of this before they go ahead and release.
Thank you for your support.
Allow me to be a little clearer on the early access. What happens is that I get a file and turn it into a RTSL file, but double checking the contents and adding a legal notice of where the file has been downloaded from. Then I install it on my system via Gauge and play the release. Sometimes it is a few days from creating the file to actually releasing it fully published on the site. What I will do is as soon as I create the file, I will upload it to my server and let those patreons who have reached the correct figure know it is available. It’s not really delaying the publishing of the mod, but cutting out the processing time for those people.
Shared over Facebook. I don’t really have the money to do more than the occasional paypal donation, but I will always plug the site for you.
I pledged $4 a month- I wish I could give more, but I’m a student these days so money is a bit scarce >_< Hopefully I can provide more in the future. The upgrades to the site sound awesome, and you definitely deserve to be paid for your already-incredible work. Good luck Phillip, your site is great and sounds like it'll become even better!
Unfortunate that Half-Life modding is so niche these days, I really hope you can start having this site as your full time job, I can’t give anything as I’m an student with no job currently and my money isn’t worth much when converting to dollars.
Phillip, I really hope this works out for you! I tried this (back in the day 80’s) with custom car building, and after I retired (in 2000) with computer repair (I.C.S. Inc.) but it got to expensive!!! BTW, I checked out the “Patreon” site and watched your vid, but do they support “PayPal”?? I didn’t see a reference.
nice video phillip … i will donate when i can afford to .. good luck mate and hope 2016 is good to you !
Would throw a lot of dosh at you if I could. But what can 15 year old do. Not much.
what about sponsored livestreams ( i mean long ones like 5hrs ) .. you could get sponsors from family and freinds and this could generate revenue … i mean we all like gaming and this way it helps phillip and RTSL !