THIS GAMEDEV CAN FIT SO MUCH BURN-OUT IN THEM

THIS GAMEDEV CAN FIT SO MUCH BURN-OUT IN THEM

Yep. I burnt the candle at both ends again and paid the price. I gotta rest from gamedev because I am experiencing worrying

physical symptoms

that I need to nurse for the foreseeable instead of doing work.

In the process of overworking myself, I failed to properly take care of my health; I'm currently still down ~100€ from what I need to pick up some urgent medication (I'm already on slight withdrawal).

Ko-fi

Buy Quinn K. a Coffee. ko-fi.com/quinnkdev

Become a supporter of Quinn K. today! ❤️ Ko-fi lets you support the creators you love with no fees on donations.

Any help you can spare would be immensely appreciated - thank you so much <3

A Letter from Julia Baritz

To the Pillowfort Community, 

Transparency from myself and my Staff is part of the foundation that makes Pillowfort so great. The news I am about to share is not easy. But it is important for you, our community, to know what is going on.

Pillowfort has always relied on the generosity of our users. We are proud to be user funded. Over the years we have been able to operate using the funds from our 2018 Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $60,000, in addition to ongoing payments and donations from you.  I am extremely grateful for the support we continue to receive. 

However, despite cost-cutting efforts, we have struggled to break even in revenue since 2021. The funds from the 2018 Kickstarter have been depleted to cover operating costs and to ensure our Staff receives the compensation they deserve.  I will never ask my Staff to work without being compensated.  

We are now at a point where Pillowfort is in danger of exhausting all current finances in the next six months if we continue the current funding/spending trajectory. This is not hyperbole. This is the unfortunate reality of what the platform is facing. If we do not change course now I will have to end contracts with our entire team soon and, eventually, Pillowfort would no longer be able to operate. 

For the past two years I have not compensated myself for my work on Pillowfort. My commitment to Pillowfort is not for personal gain. I was fortunate enough in my privilege to have adequate savings to cover my own personal expenses for a while. I sacrificed what would have been my own compensation in order to ensure my third-party contractors (Staff) could be paid. 

I take full responsibility for the current state of Pillowfort. It has been challenging being a first-time business owner in such turbulent times. Looking back now there are ways I would have managed things differently with the knowledge I have now.  If we can recover from this, I will continue applying what I have learned these last several years to make sure we do not reach this point again. 

I knew Pillowfort was going to be a difficult enterprise due to the very things that I believe make us great: we don’t have shareholders or venture-capital investments (which often leads to shifts away from a company’s primary mission as they are directed to achieve revenue and profit growth to benefit investors); we don’t compromise your privacy by selling user data to third parties; and we don’t host third-party ads that would disrupt your experience. We also pay much higher payment processing fees because we host adult content. Compared to other social media sites that have millions of dollars in corporate investments backing them, things are much harder for us. 

In spite of every hurdle we face,  I truly believe  Pillowfort deserves to exist. I believe in Pillowfort’s mission and I am determined for this platform to succeed. I am not going to abandon this platform until every possible option is exhausted. That is why I have decided it will be necessary to initiate another, more ambitious fundraiser. Our goal will be to raise $25,000 by December 31, 2023. 

This amount is based on the following: We are at risk of the IRS reclassifying Pillowfort as a hobby instead of a business because Pillowfort has not been profitable for several years. If we are reclassified as a hobby this would prohibit us from deducting expenses which will make our financial situation more dire.  The $25,000 amount will make up for our existing year-to-date losses as well as cover our projected expenses (Staff Compensation & Operating costs) for the remainder of the year. 

Raising this amount will also buy our staff the time needed to complete the following projects geared toward increased long-term revenue: 

Finish Progressive Web App development to allow Pillowfort to reach a much broader audience on mobile platforms.

Add the ability for users to pay to promote their posts.

Add the ability for users to gift Pillowfort Premium to other users. 

Once these features are in place, Pillowfort will be in a better position to bring in reliable revenue than we have been recently and will hopefully be on the road to continued self-sustainability.

If you appreciate that Pillowfort is beholden to its users instead of shareholders– if you believe in Pillowfort’s core principles of user privacy control and freedom of expression and creativity–  then I ask you to consider supporting this fundraising effort.

We will post more information soon regarding rewards for reaching our goal (yes, we will be offering a profile badge to donors, and more!), so stay tuned for details. This time around we are also planning to have rewards geared toward users who help spread the word about us too. We understand that not everyone can support us financially right now.

If you can’t donate to the fundraiser there are still many ways to help us. Here are some examples: 

Talk about us to your friends and family.

Write about or make a video about us. (Psst: Use #Pillowfort on other platforms like X, Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and Bluesky so we can find your posts!) 

Invite your friends, family, and colleagues to Pillowfort using your Invitation Keys to allow them to join immediately. 

I am forever grateful for your past and continued support. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this message. Let’s work together to make Pillowfort a robust site for years to come.

Best Wishes, 

Julia Baritz Founder & Lead Architect

So, guess who’s trying their hand at commissions again?! I would like extra money, so I figured I may as well try my skills!

Commissions are 15$ for 1, maybe add on an extra 5-15$ if they’re especially complex, IE super elaborate actions or multiple elaborate characters interacting.

I specialize in horror/fantasy, surreal landscapes, creatures, posters with weird slogans/text on them, fake movie posters, and various combinations of the above. But I can do a fair few other things, just try me!

Contact me by either messaging me here on Tumblr or emailing at tfjohnson20@gmail.com. If a few days goes by and I don’t see the latter, message me, cause it mighta got caught up in spam.

Payments should be sent to paypal.me/tjohnson616 and they are to be sent only after I complete your piece. I don’t wanna end up having to send back your cash after all!

Also, as a final note I will do NSFW content, but I will not do The Bad Shit, here defined as pedoshit, incest, zoophilia or sexual assault. Or dookie.

Otherwise go nuts, tho it may end up a bit jank, and I will probably have to only be able to show it on my Pillowfort because Female Presenting Nipples and all that.

:EDIT: An addendum wrt image synthesis/”AI art” with regards to my services:

Keep reading

Commissions are open!

I’m also still doing mspaint commissions!! Either a custom pride doodle or a mspaint comic based on a prompt!!

multi-national corps make big bucks selling merchandise with the orange&pink lesbian flag on it but the person who made it is currently HOMELESS.

emily gwen needs money. give them money. stop giving disney and faceless businesses who sell cheap, imported, low-quality crap produced with probably child or slave labour. give your money to emily gwen.