In my last post I alluded a bit to the idea of using my reincarnation time travel campaign idea, combined with the improved version of RTC I've been batting around in my head, as a publication that might finally earn some notice. What do I mean by notice?I don't imagine that anything I ever write could ever make a big splash on the world or get much recognition. I don't even mean that I won't ever be the next Gary Gygax, or Steve Jackson, or even the next Steffan O'Sullivan. Nothing I produce aspires to that kind of success even remotely. The only reason I'm even considering that I might someday sell something I wrote is that, paradoxically, things that people sell tend to get a wider audience than things that are given away free.
What I really want is for something I produce to get a little bit of response from the world. I don't expect a lot. It would be nice if someone in the indie game scene had heard of one of my games, and maybe even said something nice about it. It would be nice if I could run a game at a convention and have people show up. It would be nice if, when I posted questions or ideas about my games, or offered my own thoughts on other people's games, I wasn't pretty much always ignored. I'd like to be a part of the indie game circle. It would be even nicer if there was something positive in some of it, too.
I suppose in the end all of that is silly. The "market", even for indie games, is very small and still oversaturated. I could be spending a lot more time on this than I do, if I really wanted it to succeed (that's a chicken-and-egg problem though). And I generally won't bend as far as I should to making things that other people will like instead of just what I'd like. So it's almost entirely my own fault that everything I throw out into the world falls there in total silence.
Still it makes me feel like, this might be my chance to break into the field, the one time I have an idea that's unusual enough, original enough, and yet still something that might get noticed. I guess that's why it pains me that I don't think I can actually make it happen.
RealTime and RTC
Prism
Uncreated
Bloodweavers
Foulspawner's Legacy
Lusternia
3 comments:
What would you need to spend the time doing to make it more noticed?
Ummm... being an active participant in the indie game scene (in the form of various Internet communities); learning and playing more indie games; spending a lot more time on game development; doing more playtests; getting an artist to help make my stuff more visually appealing, maybe.
I wonder if game forums ever organize informal playtest trades--"I'll play your game if you play mine" kind of stuff. It occurs to me that such an exchange might be a way to generate more activity among independent game designers in general.
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