Hey there, Oxdarock here!
Whew! It took three months, but the last page of the Squish Drive “Walk of Change” is finally done! While the initial reception was good, the lack of donations afterwards made me a bit nervous. Fortunately, one particular philanthropic supporter went on to once again support the rest of the project. It both gladdens and scares me that one person would go out of my way to support my idea instead of getting a commission, especially one that didn’t have a fixed outcome.
With that said, now that the goal has officially been reached, I have the green light to start up the next project! Unlike the last one, this one will have a much clearer goal in mind, and also be one that more people vibe with, with the only uncertainty being their interest in the characters involved (then again, that’s always going to be a thing with these, so…).
However! While I’m working on the intro for the next Squish Drive, the current one hasn’t ended just yet! For one, I eventually plan to make a “Thank You” picture for those who supported the project to its official goal. That said, there’s still the bonus rounds to do! Assuming people want to see more of Raiden Mei and Ei and/or want the chance for their names to take up more surface area of the “Thank You” picture, this will be the chance to do so! I just need to do a bit of fine tuning and I’ll announce the bonus rounds, so stay tuned!
Next up is a reflection of how this Squish Drive went, so if you’re not interest in that, feel free to skip!
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Finally, we have my reflections of this Squish Drive. Starting with the pros, it was just as fun as I thought it would be. Being someone who loves a variety of growth and transformation fetishes and desires to draw their favorite characters being affected by each at least once, I love when what I draw is decided randomly. Sometimes it’s amusing and other times it’s hilariously vindictive, like how Raiden Mei ended up with belly growth twice in a row. Still, I think I did a really good job with each new round of transformations. Time-wise, I went a little bit over what I wanted, but still managed to even things out compared to what I would charge for commissions. That’s both good and bad as it means I barely broke even, though I’m unsure if that’s a matter of my dedication to quality or if I’m simply a slow as my namesake.
Now for the cons. The biggest mistake I made was the breakpoint for boosting certain sub-TF (breast growth, multi-head, etc). Setting it to $60 essentially meant anything less was pointless and the boost was so low that “losing” was a very real possibility. In fact, that’s exactly how I felt when Raiden Mei ended up with Belly Growth twice. I’m fine with it, but I’m very aware of how uninterested/put off a large portion of my audience is by it. It would be one thing if it happened to win when with very low odds, but the way I started things, the chance of “losing” was too huge.
Another downside was the way I handled animal and monstergirl TFs. I think it might’ve been a bit too confusing and restrictive, something I plan to change going forward. And lastly, the progress bar. Maybe I’m thinking too much into it, but even though the latter half were for bonus stages, seeing that huge bar is a bit discouraging, I’d imagine. So yeah, lot of downsides, but they’re important for when I come back to these types of Squish Drives in the future.
Anyway, once again, big thanks to everyone who participated!
