Fundbetter Qs: 9 and 10

My computer ate my last attempt at this post. So. I’m bitter. OH WELL. Life, like video games, is iterative.

Today I’m going to tackle two more questions from the Failbetter games Fundbetter project! Ready? Let’s go!

9. What is your greatest fear about the project?

Gee. How about ‘how do you think you’ll die?’ (pneumonia) or ‘what will you do if you outlive your children?’ (aaahhhhhh!) But really, after you get past the initial shock, and take a deep breath, this is a good question to take seriously. You will have a very different answer than be, but I feel like if you can face this honestly you’re better off then if you stick you head in the sand and pretend you got nothing but rainbows heading your way.

As for me, failure is something I’m comfortable with. I know it’s a part of the creative process and something to be learned from not feared. (If you’re thinking ‘lucky you’ don’t. That opinion is hard earned with a lot of really tragic failures in my life. So.) If the game doesn’t sell, or turns out crap, or whatever, I can live with that because I know I can learn from it.

What honestly scare me? The culture I’m releasing the game into. I’ve experienced my share of harassment and abuse in the TTRPG community, and I know it can be much more brutal and organized in vidja games. I know Steam, where I hope to distribute if that works out, can be pretty scary. It’s nearly enough to make me want to drop the project.

But.

I can’t not create because sad boy might be mean. I can’t be censored a silenced before I’ve even spoken. This is not a particularly progressive or envelop pushing project. I don’t think. And the chances that it actually gets that kind of attention is pretty low. So. With that and mind, I face my fear, name it, and then prepare for it while robbing it of some of it’s power. Can you do the same? I sure as hell hope so.

And so, on to the next question!

10. How are you going to promote the game? We may be able to help with this, but you must show us you have thought more about this than ‘I have a Twitter feed’.

Well. Uh. I do have a twitter feed. *Shifty eyes.*

Okay. For me, I guess I’m going to reach out friends first. I know some published people, some people with podcasts, offer them copies of the game to review. I think I’d consider doing something like hosting ‘fan fiction’ for the setting or the characters in a kind of blog carnival thingie. I want to make a game trailer, some that’s easy to facebook, tweet, whatever. I already have this blog with development and advice. If there’s a little money around to do it, I’d like to do a side story or prelude or something as a short short short web comic. Just a few things to build out the universe and make it a bigger place. I think I’ll also probably release the novel as a straight fiction. I’m not sure on that last part just yet. Accessibility to me is a big, important thing. And ways to make the whole thing more accessible to me is just as important if not more important than vague ideas of seo and marketing and all that. If I have it done at the right time, I’ll send it in to Indiecade and any other awards I can try and apply for as well. (Also, translations/localization is a thing I’m interested in, Fungus has a lot of tools for that, but that’s a down the line thing for the project.)

And you? How will you do it? How can you bring your material to others? I with I had better advice here. I can say ‘reach out to friends’ ‘hire artists’ and ‘share something other people can learn from.’ But most of all ‘make it something other people can access.’ Reaching out to a wider group of people, exclude the fewest people reasonable to the project’s scope. And consider alternate media. Have a landing page. Have a developer blog. Look at how fiction writers do it. I hope you can draw some ideas for your own project from here.

Yay! So that’s the last of what I consider the really tricky question. Next time? Some fun stuff! Woo!

#fear #gamemaking #iterative