Phew! I was not prepared to already be talking about stretch goals on the second day of the whole crowdfund! Let's go ahead and file that under "a good problem to have"!
Now that we've reached our funding goal, it's time to take a look at what else we can do!
Our stretch goals are here!
Here's our first two stretch goals! If we raise enough money over our initial goal, we'll be able to bring these ideas to life!
$47500 - Bonus Sticker and Pin
If we hit $47500, we'll be able to include some extra merchandise for our backers at no extra cost to you! This will include an extra sticker and a third enamel pin, both featuring Petal Crash 2's brand new character! Who is she, you might ask? Don't worry, we'll introduce her properly before long!
The extra sticker will be included with any physical merchandise purchase, while the extra enamel pin will be included with the Lilibri & Yosoti set, changing it from an enamel pin 2-pack into a 3-pack! I'll have a design ready for that pin soon, which I'll reveal when we introduce the new character - keep your eyes peeled!
$55000 - Libbie & Baz Return
Back when the first Petal Crash was crowdfunded, a lot of fans came together to bring two characters to the roster!
Libbie the Cyber-oryx is a character originally designed by Tyson Tan as a mascot for a suite of open-source office software. Now fully released into the public domain, she's free to do what she loves, working hard to help you at all kinds of tasks! Beloved by many, she was added to Petal Crash by the generous contributions of many fans in the GalaxyTrail Discord server!
The Baz is a familiar sight to indie game fans everywhere, having made appearances in games like Divekick, Shovel Knight, and countless more. Based on a rejected character design, he was imagined by the Super Best Friends Play crew as a perennial reject, never fitting in anywhere - and thanks to the Baz Everywhere System, he got a chance to not fit into Petal Crash too!
Because of their unique origins and status as community-owned characters of a sort, there's nothing stopping us from bringing them back in Petal Crash 2, other than the resources we'll need to get them implemented!
A Secret Third Goal
On top of these two goals, there's a third, extra goal between them! This one won't add anything to the game, but it'd still be worth a lot - at least to me!
When I was putting the crowdfund for Petal Crash 2 together, the initial goal was $50,000, not $40,000 - the budget included $10,000 for me, so I could spend the better part of a year focusing entirely on developing Petal Crash 2 instead of taking on extra work to pay my bills month to month.
I was very worried about whether we'd be able to reach the goal, and almost all of the rest of the budget was set aside for properly compensating everyone else involved in the project, so there wasn't really much I could do to reduce the goal except to take out my cut. I figured that it'd be better to balance other work with Petal Crash 2 than to get no Petal 2 at all!
Now that we've reached our goal so quickly, though, I'm more confident than ever that I'll get the chance to make Petal Crash 2 my sole focus for a good while. If we can get up to $50,000, the budget will be right back where it was, and I'll be able to rest easy knowing I won't have to scramble to support myself while making the new game!
I know I'm going to swiftly run out of ways to say this, but every contribution really means a lot. I'm incredibly proud to have made something that so many people are willing to support, and I'm immensely grateful to my collaborators and community for making it all possible.
