We’ve introduced some exciting new additions to our Patreon!
(1) Collector’s Postcards
I think one of the coolest things about doing the HG101 books is commissioning original artwork for the covers, which in many cases feature characters from games outside of the usual fan art circuit. Continuing on this line of thought, we’ve been commissioning even more original artwork for use on collector’s postcards. These are 4 x 6 inches in size, and include the illustration on the front and some data (including a small write-up and some screenshots) on the back. For the first batch we have three postcards: Alien Syndrome, by Rusty Shackles; Rocket Knight Adventures from Thor Thorvaldson; and Strider from Mike Morrocco.
Register a $16+ monthly pledge before the end of July, and you’ll receive the set of three in the mail the following month. We intend to have new ones created every 3-4 months or so, depending on their popularity. If the pledges increase enough, then we can commission more and send them out more frequently! (If you’re already on the $16 tier, you may need to add your mailing address to your account if you haven’t already.)
Please note that we will not be selling these separately online. The only way to obtain them is either by pledging to the Patreon or by purchasing them at our tables at any conventions we attend. These will be limited in quantity as well, depending on how many pledges we receive.
(2) Article Requests
Inspired by the Top 47,858 Games of All Time voting system, patrons at the $32+ level can request us to review a game of their choosing. Once a title is requested, they can request another after three months have passed. We’ll do our best to meet your request, though these are subject to our approval, and we do have a few solid ground rules.
-Since we’re primarily a retro focused site, we want to focus on retro games. For now, we’ll define this as only allowing games made more than 15 years ago (pre-2005), which means that most PS2 games would be OK, but any later generation is not. This also rules out recent developers trying to pay us to review their games.
-Please no games from large series. Generally we like to cover series together (or at least partition them into themes) so it feels weird to just have one standalone title – like, say, just reviewing Metal Gear Solid 3 when there’s a gigantic franchise around it. Some of these large series we do have plans to cover eventually.
-While we won’t rule out RPGs or other very large games, please understand that we may either reject them, or it may take a very long time to publish, depending on whether anyone on staff has experience with the game in question.
-We do have a large queue of articles that have not been posted yet, so if you request one of these, you can just pick another one. We’ll let you know.
-While we are open to covering adult games, we may be more likely to reject these depending on the content.
-We’ll try to meet your review request in a timely manner, though again, it depends on the title, as well as other articles we already have pre-planned for a given timeframe.
-Obviously if cannot meet your request, you can pick another title.
Any requests can be send to me at kurt@hardcoregaming101.net
(3) Discount Books
If you’re pledging at the $5 tier, you can purchase any of our backlog titles at a discount, which is (roughly) the printing cost + 25%. If you’re pledging at the $16 tier, you get even deeper discounts that puts them nearly at printing cost. You still need to pay shipping – if you’re in the US, this is usually $3.59 for the first title and an extra 60 cents per additional title. If you’re international, this is a little bit more, and there are some restrictions about where Amazon will ship (no Australia, unfortunately). There’s also tax too, which depends on your region. Here’s the breakdown of the base prices.
Book Title
Patreon Discount – $5 tier
Patreon Discount – $16 tier
We don’t currently have a system in place to process these, so for right now, just send me an email at kurt@hardcoregaming101.net about which titles you’re interested in, the quantity, and your address, and I’ll get back to you with a price quote. Make sure to include your Patreon username/email in your request. If it sounds good, then you can send me a Paypal payment and I’ll dropship you the titles from Amazon. They’re a little bit slower to process these orders than if you ordered directly through the website, but it’s a decent tradeoff for getting these at a discount.
(4) Autographed Books
At the $64 tier, you can request two books from our backlog (every three months) to be autographed and mailed to you. If you haven’t received one already, you’ll also get a collectible cassette tape featuring the 100th episode of the Top 47,858 Games of All Time podcast.
Right now, we still have a goal that if we reach $2,250, we’ll resurrect our regular columns for 500 Word Indies, Japanese Video Game Obscurities, and Your Weekly Kusoge. If we can raise enough, we’ll also add goals to commission and print more postcards, as well as other projects like posters! You can pledge at http://www.patreon.com/hg101!
As always, thank you so much for your support!