30 Days Later

The inside of my eyeballs

OK. Well, it’s been a heck of a month for everyone everywhere, I won’t recap it. We’re all hunkered down and feeling fine, hope y’all are too.

I thought that I would do it all; Lead Designer, Sr Dev, Producer, Project Manager, CEO, Marketing, &c. I learned enough at TSG to know to leave legal and financial to the professionals. I may wrench my own pipes but I won’t remove my own appendix. But I had a nagging, yearning love to see this product get made, get distributed, get played, exist. That love blinded me to the reality that me doing something was great and perfect but me doing everything was terrible and morose.

And so:

Lead Designer: Yes, I will still do this. I am open and hungry for assistance and collaboration but I can’t/don’t have to relinquish the visionary role.

Senior Dev: Ugh. I would love this; imagine how much I would learn! A year, two, three years grinding on this project, all of the triumphs and failures, I would emerge bristling and dripping with so much minute, transitory, practical knowledge which is my favorite kind. But me in this role is the difference between the project succeeding in a fortuitous timeframe and the project never, ever completing. Sigh; no can do.

Producer: Sure, I’ll take this. It seems logical that the Lead Designer and Producer are one guy with two hats. I will be that fellow.

Project Manager: Wait, this is the same thing as “producer,” no? Nah man. The producer role is more of a “product manager” here, shepherding this concept into the marketplace and beyond, The project manager is responsible for only a certain segment of that entire lifespan, the true “birth” of the game qua game. As a once-certified PMI knucklehead from back in the day I am eager and qualified to do this BUT I must recognize that my time is too constrain ed. This is an interface-every-day-with-the-teams position, and those teams may be in any time zones. It’s too much for me to do right.

CEO: Ok, sure. I am interested in setting the tone for our culture and making difficult big-boy decisions (cutting/killing features, letting people go, &c.). I am not best-suited for this but I can’t imagine how to hire it out. Another growth experience for me.

Marketing: Man, Rothenburg’s Where The Suckers Moon (I recommend this book) has ruined me for marketing. And yet marketing must take place; the hole in the Earth exists and we must throw money into it and pretend like it will come back somehow. Despite my sour mouth, I’ll be in charge of this; it integrates so deeply with release cycles and sales slumps and feature requests, &c. This also umbrellas the crowdfunding campaign, natch

So, I’ll be CEO, Producer, Lead Designer and Marketing manager. OK! Many thanks to RC for the received wisdom behind these decisions.

So what is this visual garbage at the top of the page? That is what I am seeing these days. The goal is to get a intricately detailed spec for an alpha/crowd-funding version. A vertical slice of gameplay that is fun and rewarding and enticing and looks lush and deep and real. Rather than do it in-house (*sniff* goodbye Sr Dev hat…) I need to hunt up a studio that can collate and organize all the work with me as mother hen clucking and brooding over daily deliverables.

I already want to finish getting started!