When are you taking sponsorships?

[kaixoo12]

Hi @rodlie, i just wanted to say that whenever you take sponsorhips, you can count on me. I can't contribute a lot (student), but I can definitely do 10€/month. I could do more if necessary.

[rodlie]

Yeah... will probably need to figure out funding/sponsorship at some point, especally if we want quicker development/releases, as I mostly only have weekends free now, the only way for me to dedicated more time to Friction is to cut down on my job, that means a pay cut and must be compensated through other means.

1. Donations/subscription from users
   • Is usually the norm for open source projects, personally I'm not the biggest fan of subscriptions, I think most people have subscription fatigue at this point. But the option is there and requires minimal effort
2. Paywall binaries
   • Not the most common option for open source projects, but some projects does this and it seems to work.
3. Sponsorship from companies/orgs etc
   • Probably not realistic, most companies would rather just buy a license for an app than pay for development.

All of this comes with one issue, more work and taxes (taxes are very high where I live). Every transaction must be logged and I would need to calculate the taxes, store them (on a separate account) for future payment, and I would need to file "advanced" taxes etc. Not fun :)

I can't contribute a lot (student), but ...

Being a student is hard enough, keep your money ;)

[FunArtSam]

This is such an important question. I think a hybrid support model is best and very flexible.

Have you looked into ko-fi? A lot of digital artists are using it as a business platform. It seems to have very fair business practices.

Also, giving rewards to people donating money might be helpful. Offering digital content for an affordable cost and/or 'pay what you want' such as:

• Ebook Manual
• Example Scenes
• Character Rigs
• Character Creation Kit
• Background Creation Kit
• Templates

[FunArtSam]

'Sponsorship from companies/orgs etc' could be useful support. Some companies love to market/advertise themselves, with their logos on the recipient's website, by being sponsors of a software company.

Sponsors could be:

• Marketing Companies
• Animation Studios
• Game Companies/Studios
• Mozilla Foundation
• Software Freedom Conservancy
• Government Grants

[FunArtSam]

What do you mean by 'Paywall Binaries'? Would it be similar to Aesprite offering their software for an affordable cost or free, but you need to compile it?

[rodlie]

I will consider what to do after v1.0 release. I guess we will start with a basic "fund/support" button or something and see where that goes.

We will at some point need funding, else Friction will stay a spare time project (with limited development).

What do you mean by 'Paywall Binaries'? Would it be similar to Aesprite offering their software for an affordable cost or free, but you need to compile it?

Something like https://community.ardour.org/download might be an option.

[kaixoo12]

I made a doc explaining Friction's Object System some time ago. I thought it could be useful as documentation for beginners, if you would like to use it:
https://www.figma.com/design/s9YWnyj8CNh2IEstjJa3fZ/Friction2d-architecture-roadmap?t=skmej8PDuhTtqbOx-1