Like many of those in the games industry, I was laid off back in April of this year. Also like many in the industry, I've been searching both within and outside of games with nothing taking hold. I've even had a couple tabletop side gigs fall through thanks to things beyond my control. Today (Nov 14th) turned out to be the last day for my unemployment benefits to pay out, and only for one week at that.

To be above board, things are not at an emergency status (yet). But with all the changes to ACA (if it even exists beyond the end of 2025) and insurance costs doubling or tripling in some cases; added on to medications I'm now on totaling over $2K out of pocket sans insurance, it will be dire very, very quickly. 2025 has been a hellish year with the studio I worked at not just having our game canceled, but 30 years of gaming history tossed out with the closure of our studio (plus two more on the same day) ... plus continued health issues cropping up, it's just too expensive to exist for me currently without a job.

You might be thinking but you have a Patreon, and a monetized stream on Twitch! Surely it can't be that bad! Well, surprising no one the creator economy is tanking hard and fast as well. Combined, my twitch and patreon doesn't even cover my rent. That's before setting aside money to pay taxes, meds, food, utilities, etc. I recently did some above table math and numbers on what I'd need to pay all my bills just from Twitch streaming alone and that came out to needing about 2,000 consistent paid subscribers at the $6 Tier. And when you subtract all the things you need too live? It's scraping by.

So long story short, by setting up this GFM, I'm trying to avert disaster as I continue to job hunt. Which honestly is demoralizing, brutal and inhumane with either how quickly you are rejected to the point it doesn't seem like a human read your application packet; or it drags on forever and you still don't make the final cut. Before someone jumps up to say just do consulting again! Well that market is dead, folks have turned against inclusion, diversity or equity work. So all that consulting that actually kept me afloat 5-7 years ago? Gone up in smoke like a lot of the industry things that people used to care about.

So the TL;DR is I intend this to be a stop gap till I find a job again. Any job that can cover basic living expenses + meds. That's why the goal is $6K which is basically 2 months of expenses. Again for transparency, my rent is $1.975, so that's most of it gone right there. The rest is to cover basics, and hang on to should my rent go up super high (and if it does, that's gonna be a whole other capital T thing, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it).

Never an obligation to chip in, but if you got any spare coins, especially in this economy, I appreciate your support. If you want something (somewhat tangible) instead and can throw a couple bucks at a monthly patronage model, I've got a Patreon which is so old, it still has a $1 tier.