four🍰

Hello everyone! I hope that you’re having a lovely day, afternoon or evening wherever you are— or that it gets a little better if it’s not lovely right now; you’re doing your best and I’m proud of you!

While some have been expecting this announcement, as I’ve mentioned it on my tumblr blog, but I will be live streaming a full playthrough/read-along of The Freak Circus on my twitch channel to celebrate hitting 15k subscribers on Youtube!

(I’ve actually just hit 20k recently and am still incredibly surprised and appreciative— I never thought I’d reach anywhere near that many!)

For those of you interested in joining in on the shenanigans, the livestream will take place on Sunday, March 1st at approximately 6:30pm Central Standard Time. I expect it to last approximately 4 hours, and I plan to play through the entirety of the game at least once and try to explore all of the different options and routes currently available in the game!

Here is the link for anyone who would like to set up a reminder and see when that will be in your local time!

For those who are unable to catch the stream, fear not! I will be uploading an edited version of the stream afterwards on my YouTube channel, so you’ll still be able to catch the various shenanigans!

I do plan on streaming more often if this one goes well— I’ve streamed in the past and have had a lot of fun with it, and I’d love to see what you guys think! There are a lot of other games I’d love to play and share with everyone, including things like Cult of the Lamb, Homicipher and even Minecraft with the ongoing TFC build project I have!

The game, my content and the stream are meant to be for an adult, 18+ audience. Neko and I do not approve of or feel comfortable with minors interacting with the game— I do my best to tag posts and communicate this, but there is a fine line on the internet right now when it comes to privacy and marking content as explicit or NSFW, especially when so many places are demanding ID or other forms of identification to ‘prove’ you’re an adult when that information is so readily and easily misused by companies and governments.

I’m looking at you, discord. And also the general state of the US right now, but that’s another story entirely.

The stream will be marked as mature and the rules and etiquette requirements will be upheld by the moderators I have for that stream who are all very close friends of mine, but I wanted to make sure and emphasize this point very clearly (and I will repeat this at the beginning of the stream).

I cannot personally vet and look at every single account that looks at my stuff (I’ve seen people attempt and get stressed to the point of paranoia), but I can communicate and emphasize the boundaries Neko and I have, among all of my close friends and adult creators who are also in this fandom:

I will be posting a video and clips afterwards on my youtube channel, so if you're not able to join there will still be a way to see it!

Commissions that are considered unique or one-of-a-kind are allowed for sale. Such items include:

Handmade plushies, pins and charms

Physical art prints

YCH (Your Character Here)

Visual and written commissions

Commercial items, such as mass-produced figures, plushies and similar items are NOT allowed nor authorized at this time. No company is currently authorized to sell any products relating to The Freak Circus or its characters.

Exceptions can be made for small local events, such as conventions or expositions. Artists are allowed to sell The Freak Circus products as long as they consist of your own artwork. These items cannot be sold at a commercial or at a large scale whether they are handmade or not, non-handmade items cannot be sold online, and must include credits to Nekoboydreams or Neko Bueno.

Simply put, this means that fans are allowed to create handmade items and sell those handmade goods on their own shops or through printing services at a small scale. Fans are not allowed to make commercial deals or sell mass-produced products.

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Above is copied direct from our FAQ

We know everyone wants a tangible thing to hold of the media they love and enjoy.

Please wait for Neko to finish getting his own merch and shop made to support him and the creation of TFC before purchasing from unauthorized sellers making mass produced products.

The game is free to download and play. That direct support to Neko through his Patreon and his merch, when available, will be one of the biggest ways to ensure that support goes to him and the continued creation of TFC.

Until recently (as in the posting of the FAQ) Neko had not been approached or asked by anyone for permission to sell commercial or mass-produced fan merchandise. In his community, it is commonplace that he would have been approached first and given the chance to respond, especially because he is the sole developer and owner of an indie (individual) project and is not part of a team or publishing/game development company.

Because of this, Neko was unaware of products being sold for his game and characters until long after the fact, and was very overwhelmed and uncertain how to begin approaching these instances by himself, especially in languages and cultures he is not familiar with when he didn’t and does not want to cause conflict or anger towards anyone.

We apologize that this has not been put into a written policy until recently, but it can be extremely difficult to handle these sorts of things alone. We are very grateful and appreciative of the fans who understand the nuance and complexity of these policies, and a majority of people who have been selling products for ‘The Freak Circus’ were not doing so maliciously or with ill intent.

These are often passionate fans who want physical items of the characters they adore, and when Neko has opens his online merchandise shop and properly consulted with professional legal aid so he isn’t wading through international sales law by himself, then the policy may change! He would like the time to get himself set up so that he can continue to develop The Freak Circus, as otherwise much of his income is from his Patreon and the future sales from his official merchandise, especially as he would like these products to be as widely available as possible!

If there are any ongoing pre-order merchandise situations, those are allowed and authorized to continue until they are finished, as we do not want anyone to break agreements they may have already made to any printing or production companies. But if you are offering unauthorized types of commercial or mass-produced merchandise that are not under a pre-order purchasing situation and are otherwise available for purchase at any time, we are asking that sales cease by the end of this month (March).