Maybe This Will Work?

I think I can get the funding to succeed somehow. Thinking about it, I'd never once posted a reel introducing how to use Patternflow or what its features are. Even just making and posting a basic introduction video got a pretty good response, and a few of them converted into purchases. Thanks to that, I've just barely crossed 50%. There's still over a month until the funding closes, and I have Instagram, so I think it'll get there.

That said, I don't want to succeed only just barely. I think I've written this before, but under 70 units is actually a loss. It amounts to paying money in order to sell a product. So I have to sell as many as possible, and for that I'm going to spend money on advertising. That's what the grant should go toward. For once I get to pay someone else to do work. I've already decided who to commission, pending a meeting with the funding body and their approval. I've had the meeting already, and it was my first business meeting. It was fun, in its way.

I added MIDI. I'd been sure OSC was enough, but people kept repeating the same thing, asking whether there's MIDI, whether it supports audio. So I added it, somewhat reluctantly. And what do you know, it's far easier to use than OSC. I suppose it's an industry standard for a reason; hooking up values was much simpler than with OSC. It's all built in, so you don't have to make a separate plugin or patch, which is convenient. I wonder if I did it too late for no reason. If I'd done it earlier, the misunderstanding that it doesn't support audio wouldn't have come up.

I also made a nicer version of the clock. Honestly I wasn't keen on it. Letting you put up a clock, weather, stock info and the like treats Patternflow as a kind of information interface. It felt like it damaged the artistic value, so I didn't want to do it. But the person handling the advertising said it's a feature that absolutely has to be there. Simone said something similar before. Whatever the artistic value, you have to show it's useful in daily life too. So I added it. Simply overlaying it looked terrible, so I tried a clipping approach and it turned out surprisingly good. Since the underlying pattern is good, I suppose a good result followed naturally. I'm fairly satisfied, though whether I'll raise it to a core Patternflow feature is uncertain.

I gave one of the spare units, left over from building a new Patternflow for the PETG test, to a community user. I gave it to Martin, who's cheered me on since the very early days and has been making patterns really consistently and posting them to the community, charging only shipping. Ah, but shipping came to 90,000 won. Why is international logistics this expensive… It's a development unit so it has some wear, but I hope that makes it more valuable rather than less. To make that true, I'd better raise Patternflow well.

Different topic, but I have a year left on my studio apartment lease and the landlord is asking me to move out for renovations. So I've been hunting hard for a place, but for some reason they say there are no rooms. It's added a bit of pressure to monetize Patternflow soon. I've taken the leave of absence, so at this point it isn't a simple project, it's survival. Right.

I've been filming reels that explain and demonstrate each part of how to use Patternflow and posting them to Instagram. Ah, this is something I should have continued from earlier, but my head isn't especially clear right now, so bear with me. I'm a bit foggy. I've felt generally tired lately. I tire out fast, and running has been unusually hard. I don't know why. Anyway, the Patternflow introduction series is up to three so far. General introduction, pattern features, MIDI features, three of them. I've been trying to speak in English myself, and it's very hard. Someone told me I sound too Korean.

Going forward I plan to introduce OSC (the extension), MQTT, the clock feature, and so on, step by step. There's no plan, really. If it feels like something I should do, I make something and film it and post it. The first video got good views, but the second and third were so dismal that it's a bit sad. What do I do to get more people to watch? Then again, is there much reason to watch, since it's a how-to… hm.