hey everyone! i've actually been working quite a bit over the past year or so on another update for this, which will be released as soon as it's ready and not a moment sooner. I wanted to write a bit about "the problem with free software". I love free stuff as much as the next person, I think free stuff is super great. The problem is if you give away your hard work totally for free, you don't have any chance of funding further development even if the project is very successful! That can be a real problem. There's also the issue of perception...I think there is something psychologically true to the fact that paying for something makes it feel more valuable. There's always a risk when giving something away for free that you make it seem like you don't believe in the project or that there is something "wrong" with it. It can also signal a lack of self esteem, which I know was true for me back at the beginning of this project.

To be honest, I can say now, years later, that this app is one of the best things I've ever made. I really do believe that, and that's why I'm still tinkering with it, I think there's a lot of interesting directions I can take the development of this project in the future! Even so, when I'm not charging for it I find it hard to make myself work on it. I need to give myself a monetary incentive to actually improve the application and create new features, and charging for it, a chance of actually getting paid for my work, is a good way of doing that

What I hope adding a price to this project indicates is not that I'm "getting greedy" or something but actually that I am so confident in this project that I'm willing to ask a price for builds. I've actually been losing money on this project the whole time because I thought I cared about it more than I cared about myself, but I also used to have a problem where I didn't think I was worth it. I didn't used to believe I deserved to get paid for my work, but now I know I do. Now I see my worth and the worth of this project and I know there's nothing wrong with charging a reasonable price for it, and I would hope anybody out there who makes something they're proud of will feel comfortable charging for it!

I have like millions of really exciting project ideas and if I were to find a way to make money on them someday, maybe I could eventually dedicate more of my life to doing what I love, which is creating weird experimental projects, games, apps, music, fiction, art, etc

I love making art, I consider everything I do to be some kind of art project and I just have so much passion for making stuff! And as long as we live in an economy which requires us to pay the bills, I think it's okay for me to try to fund my work. It's exciting!

I feel most of all like this is me declaring my confidence in my work and in myself. Anyways, I just wanted to thank everyone who has ever downloaded this app or supported it, and I hope as my confidence and skills grow I can branch out into some new areas like maybe making some programming tutorials, making some games, and of course I'm sure I'll continue my writing, research, and music.

Thank you! I hope you will look forward to future developments  💛