My name is Gerald, and like you, I have been sucked into the alternate universe of designing games. It's really some kind of sick, twisted calling, isn't it? Like you, I spend countless hours in a devotion to something that any sane person would try to talk you out of doing, and rightly so. I've been at it for about 4 years now, and my sense of purpose and inspiration has somehow not diminished, despite the relatively modest appreciation any gamer has for game designers in general. The game I am almost finished with, at this point, is Card-Z, a zimulation for myself and others that want realism in their Z-pocalypse game. I am quite proud of it, actually, but the next hurdle awaits...marketing for a kickstarter. How to overcome the massive wall that is a prejudice that so many gamers have against a zombie survival game in a genre that is so thoroughly saturated? The journey never ends..
Hello world!
Is there massive prejudice? I mean, I agree that things are pretty well saturated, which is a tough hill to climb, but they're saturated because the genre is super-popular.
If this was a hard-core, realistic "My Little Pony" game, THEN you might have some prejudice against it :)
As for your kickstarter, start right this second with a facebook page or whatever else you are comfortable with in social media. You need as big a mailing list as possible before you start.
Hey... You've made some young 8 year old girl cry! Nothing wrong with luvin "My Little Pony"! Girls don't listen to the Bad Father!!! He should know, he's got girls of his own ... Who do/don't luv the Ponies?!
My Little Pony "Adventures" ... You should call it @Jason!
Bet you'd love to get a hold of that IP and make that your next "baby"...!
Cheers! LOL
Hey... You've made some young 8 year old girl cry! Nothing wrong with luvin "My Little Pony"! Girls don't listen to the Bad Father!!! He should know, he's got girls of his own ... Who do/don't luv the Ponies?!
My Little Pony "Adventures" ... You should call it @Jason!
Bet you'd love to get a hold of that IP and make that your next "baby"...!
Cheers! LOL
I'm trying to drive all those kids into fantasy RPGs.
Why only have one or the other??? Why not have both?? I see no harm in having "My Little Pony" Adventures and then play a Fantasy RPG later!? No?
It's funny ... because I was looking at a job opportunity as a "Game Designer" and it turns out it was for a Game Studio. In any case, they are STRONG on branding. They have licenses for all the popular kids brands like:
My Little Poney, Transformers, Care Bears, Barbie and a ton more.
So instead of "converting" ... they're creating "compatible" brand-related content! But mostly in the Video Game space (SmartPhones and Tablets).
I don't think it's an "alternate universe" but perhaps a more "creative universe" where you are more of a master than a corporate slave, I would say...!
I see nothing wrong with wanting to "design" products and grow "brands". It's what other people in countless other industries do and get paid to do. Unfortunately the down-side as designers is that we are undervalued and often underpaid. We make this industry go around and yet most of us hardly make any money when all is said and done. So it may be "twisted" a bit... TBH.
Just because we design doesn't make us less sane. On the contrary, I believe the urge to "create" drives us more as designers than our primary jobs do... 4 years on a design is not abnormal, my "TradeWorlds" has been in the pipe for about 5 years now too! So it just means you are taking your time to design a good game (hopefully).
Yes the Zombie genre is along side Fantasy Merchants and Pirate games. Each of those categories having too many offspring. But a good game ... is well a good game and worthy of playtime. I guess that is your challenge to make a good, and maybe GREAT, game!
Welcome to BGDF and I hope you find the answers to all your questions. At least in terms of "Game Design". Cheers!
From what I remember of "Zombie" threads in the fora ... are mostly about "Zombie AI": how to make Zombies react to the player's actions. I think there have been several threads about this subject.
Other than that, I don't think I've seen many OTHER "Zombie" threads TBH.
So whatever you bring as question/thoughts/ideas may be relatively NEW from the BGDF standpoint of view!
It all depends if you too are struggling with "Zombie AI" also!
