Post by Judge Sam on Apr 27, 2009 10:32:38 GMT -5
So applications are winding down. And the game is soon to begin.
I don't know why I let this happen to myself every single time haha but until a few days ago I was a little disappointed and thinking the game might not begin. (Not that I was depressed about it not beginning, because that is always the built-in risk and Spies 6 has already "not begun" like 3 times now lol.) Just that the interest wasn't there to kick things off.
I guess that's kind of normal though considering how these games are made. Over two months I spent time casually brainstorming so many ideas, refining their execution, throwing out bad ones, developing unique content, fixing roles, choosing the best voting systems, whiddling those down to make them clear to understand without losing flexibility, making the board pretty (for like the last year the board was an off-whitish color which I liked and spent tons and tons and tons of time on but like the few days before the board opened I switched it to this spies 1 color cause my focus groups liked it better). So while all this is rewarding and parts of it are fun to do, you don't see any fruits of your labor.
So anyway my point is after two months of this on the first day the board is about to open you're all excited to get things started. Eager to unveil the beginning of the game and tiny bits of what you've worked on. It's also at this point that I've mentally committed myself to giving it my all - to put everything I have in it in the hopes it will succeed. Of course I could advertise the heck out of it and not get applications and it could fail but if I gave it my all that isn't my fault. And if I do get enough then I'm going to see it through to the very end, regardless of what happens or how I'm treated.
But then all that excitement and the opening day reveal and... turns out no one gives a shit lol. I think I got like 4 applications within the first 4 days and 2 of those were from people who erroneously applied months earlier under a mistaken impression that the board was open. That's normal I guess and I mean there are 100s of games out there that open up and I don't give a shit towards butttttttt.... haha. Still.
So then the worst part takes place, the dreaded advertising portion. It's just annoying to go to 15 mafia sites make a new account and one by one PM everyone whose name you can find on the board the advertisement. And it takes awhile! And I sort of don't like to bother people. And there's tons and tons of other parts to that too. And you do all that and still three days go by no applications in your inbox.
So for awhile I didn't know what was gonna happen, but then I got like 5 applications in one day!
So... I've finally accumulated what I believe to be a 'critical mass' of applications which bodes well for the game's beginning. I still think I should be able to get like 60+ applications for this considering I believe it is of relatively high quality and that I literally do everything possible (free) to advertise it all across the internet lol. But that is not the case, but still makes for an awesome game.
As you can imagine, during the previous 2 weeks where I did not know if the game was going to start, that is not as motivating to tie up loose ends and finish up areas of work on the game. So now I'm jumping into that and talking with applicants! Actually that is a part of the game I had forgotten - how much fun it is talking to totally new people. I had a blast talking to people yesterday. And I have tons and tons of new applications. Very excited!
I don't know why I let this happen to myself every single time haha but until a few days ago I was a little disappointed and thinking the game might not begin. (Not that I was depressed about it not beginning, because that is always the built-in risk and Spies 6 has already "not begun" like 3 times now lol.) Just that the interest wasn't there to kick things off.
I guess that's kind of normal though considering how these games are made. Over two months I spent time casually brainstorming so many ideas, refining their execution, throwing out bad ones, developing unique content, fixing roles, choosing the best voting systems, whiddling those down to make them clear to understand without losing flexibility, making the board pretty (for like the last year the board was an off-whitish color which I liked and spent tons and tons and tons of time on but like the few days before the board opened I switched it to this spies 1 color cause my focus groups liked it better). So while all this is rewarding and parts of it are fun to do, you don't see any fruits of your labor.
So anyway my point is after two months of this on the first day the board is about to open you're all excited to get things started. Eager to unveil the beginning of the game and tiny bits of what you've worked on. It's also at this point that I've mentally committed myself to giving it my all - to put everything I have in it in the hopes it will succeed. Of course I could advertise the heck out of it and not get applications and it could fail but if I gave it my all that isn't my fault. And if I do get enough then I'm going to see it through to the very end, regardless of what happens or how I'm treated.
But then all that excitement and the opening day reveal and... turns out no one gives a shit lol. I think I got like 4 applications within the first 4 days and 2 of those were from people who erroneously applied months earlier under a mistaken impression that the board was open. That's normal I guess and I mean there are 100s of games out there that open up and I don't give a shit towards butttttttt.... haha. Still.
So then the worst part takes place, the dreaded advertising portion. It's just annoying to go to 15 mafia sites make a new account and one by one PM everyone whose name you can find on the board the advertisement. And it takes awhile! And I sort of don't like to bother people. And there's tons and tons of other parts to that too. And you do all that and still three days go by no applications in your inbox.
So for awhile I didn't know what was gonna happen, but then I got like 5 applications in one day!
So... I've finally accumulated what I believe to be a 'critical mass' of applications which bodes well for the game's beginning. I still think I should be able to get like 60+ applications for this considering I believe it is of relatively high quality and that I literally do everything possible (free) to advertise it all across the internet lol. But that is not the case, but still makes for an awesome game.
As you can imagine, during the previous 2 weeks where I did not know if the game was going to start, that is not as motivating to tie up loose ends and finish up areas of work on the game. So now I'm jumping into that and talking with applicants! Actually that is a part of the game I had forgotten - how much fun it is talking to totally new people. I had a blast talking to people yesterday. And I have tons and tons of new applications.
Very excited!