Golly... It's been 2 months since my last post! That sucks!
It kinda makes sense when I think about how busy I've been in that time. To start with, One Night Stand got nominated for Excellence in Narrative at IGF 2017! I couldn't believe it! I thought maybe I'd get an honourable mention for art or nuovo, but narrative? And an actual nomination?! Well, when I thought about it some more, I supposed it does sum up the whole package of One Night Stand better, but yeah, it came as a shock to say the least!
I then I spent the next few weeks prepping for GDC... Mainly coming up with cool concepts for freebies and designing them. I was well prepared, but German post messed up my delivery which meant Awesome Merchandise had to reprint and rush the order out again, which they did a superb job of doing (so please use these guys if you need a variety of merchandise in future)! I also got some stickers printed out and put them on blank condoms, and funnily enough, these were the cheapest (and most effective) freebies on the booth!
Understandably though, some people didn't want to take the condoms. Sex is quite a delicate topic for some, and game developers/ artists should remain sensitive to that. This is something I've learnt more and more about over the last few months since One Night Stand's release, and something I didn't really consider whilst making the game... Anyway, I still have a bunch of stickers, badges and condoms left, so if you'd really, really like some, let me know!
The first two days at GDC were spent, mainly feeling jet-lagged, going from session to session. I like to learn, but on the whole, I felt like a lot of the content repeated itself one way or another, and I didn't feel as though I took away as much as I did two years ago. To be fair, I missed a lot of talks I really wanted to go to on Wednesday and Thursday (since I was on the booth) and no doubt there would be some great take aways from that. Oh well, I'll catch up on them on the Vault!
My favourite session was probably "The Aesthetics of Cute" by Jenny Jiao Hsia. It was beautifully presented and full of inspiration. I certainly want to make a cute game in the future as there is so much power and engagement with cuteness! It also makes me feel really happy playing such games, but I know I naturally tend to gravitate towards creating more serious and realistic tones, with the odd bit of humour here and there. One day, I'll make a cute game though, I promise!
I went to a WebGL talk and was wowed by the potential of 3D games in web browsers. There was also a "Radio Play" story design talk, and both of these really inspired me, making me want to get back straight back into development! I also met a few people I'd love to game jam with, so hopefully, I'll have made a couple of experimental game jams before the year is out. I say this, but I'm always short on time haha!
It kinda makes sense when I think about how busy I've been in that time. To start with, One Night Stand got nominated for Excellence in Narrative at IGF 2017! I couldn't believe it! I thought maybe I'd get an honourable mention for art or nuovo, but narrative? And an actual nomination?! Well, when I thought about it some more, I supposed it does sum up the whole package of One Night Stand better, but yeah, it came as a shock to say the least!
I then I spent the next few weeks prepping for GDC... Mainly coming up with cool concepts for freebies and designing them. I was well prepared, but German post messed up my delivery which meant Awesome Merchandise had to reprint and rush the order out again, which they did a superb job of doing (so please use these guys if you need a variety of merchandise in future)! I also got some stickers printed out and put them on blank condoms, and funnily enough, these were the cheapest (and most effective) freebies on the booth!
Understandably though, some people didn't want to take the condoms. Sex is quite a delicate topic for some, and game developers/ artists should remain sensitive to that. This is something I've learnt more and more about over the last few months since One Night Stand's release, and something I didn't really consider whilst making the game... Anyway, I still have a bunch of stickers, badges and condoms left, so if you'd really, really like some, let me know!
The first two days at GDC were spent, mainly feeling jet-lagged, going from session to session. I like to learn, but on the whole, I felt like a lot of the content repeated itself one way or another, and I didn't feel as though I took away as much as I did two years ago. To be fair, I missed a lot of talks I really wanted to go to on Wednesday and Thursday (since I was on the booth) and no doubt there would be some great take aways from that. Oh well, I'll catch up on them on the Vault!
My favourite session was probably "The Aesthetics of Cute" by Jenny Jiao Hsia. It was beautifully presented and full of inspiration. I certainly want to make a cute game in the future as there is so much power and engagement with cuteness! It also makes me feel really happy playing such games, but I know I naturally tend to gravitate towards creating more serious and realistic tones, with the odd bit of humour here and there. One day, I'll make a cute game though, I promise!
I went to a WebGL talk and was wowed by the potential of 3D games in web browsers. There was also a "Radio Play" story design talk, and both of these really inspired me, making me want to get back straight back into development! I also met a few people I'd love to game jam with, so hopefully, I'll have made a couple of experimental game jams before the year is out. I say this, but I'm always short on time haha!
Now, the booth itself was something I was pretty worried about; I'd never shown my game in person like that, so I didn't know how I'd fare up. Turns out, quite well! I guess when it's your own product, and you know it inside-out, it's really easy to answer questions. Perhaps not for three days straight, however! My voice box nearly croaked, and my throat's recovering even now! My mind also started drawing blanks at the end of day three, and I got pretty ill, but otherwise it was a great success!
When industry professionals asked me to pitch the concept to them, that was pretty difficult too, but I got through it okay. Even though I was thrown in at the deep end demoing for the first time at GDC, I felt at ease since One Night Stand's already out and selling well. I suppose the worst questions I received were "Are you a student?" and "How are you going to make money with this?" The assumption that you don't know what you're doing because you're a solo (female?) indie developer is pretty high, sadly. (Less of this, please)
Anyway, negatives out of the way, the booth was great, though I really needed a queue or something as I had to keep turning people away. "Please come back in 10 minutes", "Try again tomorrow" etc. and I felt really guilty but there wasn't much I could do! A few times, there would be a large audience gathering around just watching someone else play. It was nice to see not only the player being entertained, but a whole group of people. The range of emotions people expressed too was incredible... Some people felt really down because they "took the photo" and got kicked out, where as others would feel warmed or laugh out loud at silly moments in the dialogue. Everyone who played told me just how much they enjoyed it, and wanted to tell others about it. I got wished the best of luck for the awards show, which, sadly, I didn't win, but just being nominated, being part of the IGF pavilion and going to GDC for free was more than I could wish for. It was a truly rewarding experience.
Watching the IGF and GDC awards in person, in the VIP section, was pretty damn awesome though! Nina Freeman did a fantastic job hosting and winner's speeches were truly heartfelt. I was pretty star-struck seeing so many famous developers there too. Yeah, it was a fun night. You can recap on Twitch and see One Night Stand on the big screen, followed by its appearance in a Hey Ash sketch!
When industry professionals asked me to pitch the concept to them, that was pretty difficult too, but I got through it okay. Even though I was thrown in at the deep end demoing for the first time at GDC, I felt at ease since One Night Stand's already out and selling well. I suppose the worst questions I received were "Are you a student?" and "How are you going to make money with this?" The assumption that you don't know what you're doing because you're a solo (female?) indie developer is pretty high, sadly. (Less of this, please)
Anyway, negatives out of the way, the booth was great, though I really needed a queue or something as I had to keep turning people away. "Please come back in 10 minutes", "Try again tomorrow" etc. and I felt really guilty but there wasn't much I could do! A few times, there would be a large audience gathering around just watching someone else play. It was nice to see not only the player being entertained, but a whole group of people. The range of emotions people expressed too was incredible... Some people felt really down because they "took the photo" and got kicked out, where as others would feel warmed or laugh out loud at silly moments in the dialogue. Everyone who played told me just how much they enjoyed it, and wanted to tell others about it. I got wished the best of luck for the awards show, which, sadly, I didn't win, but just being nominated, being part of the IGF pavilion and going to GDC for free was more than I could wish for. It was a truly rewarding experience.
Watching the IGF and GDC awards in person, in the VIP section, was pretty damn awesome though! Nina Freeman did a fantastic job hosting and winner's speeches were truly heartfelt. I was pretty star-struck seeing so many famous developers there too. Yeah, it was a fun night. You can recap on Twitch and see One Night Stand on the big screen, followed by its appearance in a Hey Ash sketch!
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I went to a couple of networking events during GDC as well, but these didn't go as well. Networking in a room or group full of people I don't know is the hardest thing for me. I did one event whilst my booth was on and thought "I'd be more productive back at my booth". The booth was where people were going who were interested in me/ my game, and at networking groups, most people didn't know who I was. More the reason to go, you'd think, but I'm a quiet introvert and just don't come across very well in those scenarios. Hey, parties may not be my jam, but having deep one-on-one conversations about One Night Stand, visual novels and other games, art or inspirations was fantastic, and I spoke to some tremendous people, including Carolyn Petit, Anita Sarkeesian, Luc Baghadoust, Matthew Lee, Thomas Reisenegger and Gary Burchell, to name a few, and trust me, it is a few as there were too many awesome folk to list!
This, coupled with the fact that I felt like I didn't learn as much from the sessions I went to as previously, made me think that unless I have a game to show, I'll probably give GDC a miss. I get way more from it when I can show my creations. Otherwise, I'm pretty awkward and get drained easily, plus, let's not forget just how expensive GDC has become. Instead of spending money at every upcoming event (including accommodation and travel of course) it's important to assess if it's really worthwhile, after all, it means time away from development too. That said, I do believe that constantly developing, not networking, playing other games or learning etc, isn't a good thing either, but game development does take a huge amount of time and serious dedication... I guess it's all about finding the correct balance.
I went to a couple of networking events during GDC as well, but these didn't go as well. Networking in a room or group full of people I don't know is the hardest thing for me. I did one event whilst my booth was on and thought "I'd be more productive back at my booth". The booth was where people were going who were interested in me/ my game, and at networking groups, most people didn't know who I was. More the reason to go, you'd think, but I'm a quiet introvert and just don't come across very well in those scenarios. Hey, parties may not be my jam, but having deep one-on-one conversations about One Night Stand, visual novels and other games, art or inspirations was fantastic, and I spoke to some tremendous people, including Carolyn Petit, Anita Sarkeesian, Luc Baghadoust, Matthew Lee, Thomas Reisenegger and Gary Burchell, to name a few, and trust me, it is a few as there were too many awesome folk to list!
This, coupled with the fact that I felt like I didn't learn as much from the sessions I went to as previously, made me think that unless I have a game to show, I'll probably give GDC a miss. I get way more from it when I can show my creations. Otherwise, I'm pretty awkward and get drained easily, plus, let's not forget just how expensive GDC has become. Instead of spending money at every upcoming event (including accommodation and travel of course) it's important to assess if it's really worthwhile, after all, it means time away from development too. That said, I do believe that constantly developing, not networking, playing other games or learning etc, isn't a good thing either, but game development does take a huge amount of time and serious dedication... I guess it's all about finding the correct balance.
Now that I'm home, it's back to development on my next project. Many people have been asking about LoveIRL and I promise that I haven't given up on it, but it is a huge project and I didn't really realise until a year into development just how much of a challenge it is on my own. I hope to get some funding and have a small team by the time I begin working on it again, but right now, I'm not ready for that. One Night Stand taught me that an idea needs to be much smaller and less ambitious when you're a solo developer, if you want to complete it sometime soon that is, so I decided to create something else until then... an idea which I've had since last Summer, and is very appropriate for me right now at this point in my life. Please keep following me on here, Twitter and Facebook to stay updated - I plan on announcing more information soon! Until then, here's a little sketch (left).
Anyway, I think that about wraps this blog post up. The next time you see me at GDC, I'll either be showing my next game or giving a talk. I enjoy teaching others and have a lot of ideas I'd love to share, but talking in front of a huge audience is a big fear of mine – one I hope to overcome in the coming years though, or make a game about!
Anyway, I think that about wraps this blog post up. The next time you see me at GDC, I'll either be showing my next game or giving a talk. I enjoy teaching others and have a lot of ideas I'd love to share, but talking in front of a huge audience is a big fear of mine – one I hope to overcome in the coming years though, or make a game about!