So I've been talking some time now about an upcoming project I'm looking to do, specifically the Trials in Tainted Space Bestiary. The goal of this project is to generate illustrations of each of the species found within the game, which later could be included in the game itself in a central database the PC would have within their ship's computer core. The Idea here is not only to lend a bit more of a visual feel to it than what Corruption of Champions had, but also to provide myself with a portfolio of these species so that I can be better prepared for taking on the game's character viewer itself in the near future!
There are a few unanswered questions though in regards to how to approach this project and what someone can look to get out of it, so I would like to turn to the community and to my watchers for their input on what they would like to see out of a project like this in order to make it the best it possibly can be. So here are a few things that need to be covered....

1) Originally I asked people if they wanted a representation of all the genders a given species had available to it and the result was a decided “Yes”. Now what this will mean in a game like this one, is that some species may have less than two genders and some may have more. I am assuming that in the long term scale of things, the average will typically come to two. If there is a species of naturally wild morphic bodies, there may have to be a compromise struck in only that a few examples are given on the illustrated end of things....especially if these creatures are more template than full creatures in their own right. But what I'd like to know here is whether or not people are only interested in a stripped down nude image for each, or if there is an interest in seeing the sort of wardrobe/armor/gear this species might typically wear.
2) A big question that should be addressed right away is the funding. The two main options appear to be Offbeatr or Patreon. Patreon has the benefit of providing the income at a steady pace over the course of time but the draw back of being new...at least in terms of me using it. This would allow people to pledge funding by the week for me to collect on and keep working through the week the way someone might any other given job. The other option is Offbeatr, which uses a more familiar crowd funding format in that things are pledged up front over a period of time and then the sum is collected in one lump chunk after Offbeatr takes a sizeable 20% or so. This has the advantage of giving me a large sum of money for adult stuff like getting married or maybe a down payment on a house of my own, but has the draw back of forcing me to charge a bit more in order to compensate for the percentage and still make that liveable wage viable. I'd love to hear thoughts on this from people who'd be looking to fund the project, and where they'd like to put their dollar. The project would be to service these interested parties afterall, and so they should have a say right?
3) Regardless of which payment option is chosen, benchmarks will have to be set and set numbers put down. Now offbeatr would require a lot of this stuff be decided up front and right away while patreon would allow a more dynamic shifting approach as the project progressed along.... but in the end the question remains: Which Species!? A lot of people are generating fantastic content for this game just as they did for Corruption of Champions and I don't want anyone to be left out in the cold on this... but I am only one person with my limitations. How do I decide which species get done? How should benchmarks effect this? Should someone get to make a sort of executive call if they've contributed a larger amount? Deciding which go in at which time is important and I'd like it to make sense, be fair, and above all service the people who not only are funding but the other people contributing to the project! Thoughts on this are a must.
4) As it stands now, the project is just illustrations. So many of the writer's are more skilled than I am with the written word, and so their content will be what is kept as the codex I'm sure. What I'm providing is the art. Which means that week after week people would be treated to new illustrations of each of the species when they are decided. However, I want to know if people would be interested in some of the information (all the info?) being included in an assembled format with the illustrations. Or perhaps even a digital book type thing at the end that combines the information given for the game with the illustrations I provide? Or maybe something that follows the lines of an artbook instead with a nicely formated book style, call outs, and bits of equipment added to the existing illustrations to flesh out each species in a comprehensive but visually focused way? I imagine this sort of thing would need to be a benchmark of sorts, as the compiling and additional material, if not already provided, would need to be generated on top of everything else after the fact.
However this goes down though, this will effectively be my job once it is underway. For the last month or so I have been getting up at the same time every day, getting on my computer, and banging out art for people on a piecemeal commission basis. It's been ok so far, but if a week is dry it adversely effects my home life in sometimes severe ways as shortages of money often do. I work for eight hours or so a day, sometimes more and seldom less. I often stream these things for people to interact with me as I work, sometimes on their stuff. I have the discipline, I have the drive, now I just need the work and the funding to make sure it is being put to good use. As soon as this project is under way, my full work days of nothing but art become focused on this and the Transruption project, the latter of which needs a good deal of work so that it can lend assistance to the TITS character viewer down the road.
What will this mean for commissions? It means the ones I have will be finished on my own time in the evenings, possibly during bonus streams or while I'm chilling out watching netflix. After the existing commissions are completed, future commissions will be taken on a case by case basis as the main projects work permits. If I was using the Offbeatr format this would mean likely less commissions, but if I was using a Patreon format it could mean folding some of that work in to a given weekly workload, depending on the kind of funding I'd be pulling in weekly. Obviously if everybody is throwing me a tone of money I'd like to justify that funding with more work provided.
So there it is, I want people's thoughts on all of this. I want suggestions, comments, ideas. Whatever you got, throw it my way in whatever means is best for you so that I can use it and get this project posted and underway as soon as possible.

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