[Danse Macabre] Ronnies feedback
Ron Edwards:
Hi William,
I think the most successful publishing is embedded within designing, just as the most successful designing is embedded in play.
It is very reasonable to want one's publishing efforts to be satisfying and practical (for oneself, I mean), and there are a lot of questions and answers to help nail down how you might want to do it. But here, I want to reinforce Bret's point that it's not like selling just another soda brand, in which the physical design, distribution plan, production budget, and marketing scheme can all be figured out absolutely independently of whether the stuff is any good.*
Therefore the main advice I have is, "play the game, enjoy the game, adjust the game" with the primary point being to make something you think works in the way you enjoy it working. Then everything else I'm about to say in this post should be considered from within that process.
First, writing it isn't the same as designing it, nor the same as publishing it. Writing it is an entirely different task, with many pitfalls. The main ones are (i) seeking to placate or draw another audience beyond those who (like you) simply enjoy this kind of thing, or might if they knew about it, (ii) failing to explain how to do stuff that you personally do quite easily and intuitively, and (iii) getting too involved with on-line design discussions and identity politics.
Regarding the publishing itself, there are dozens of primary decisions. What is it, physically, as a product? What sales venue seems to be the best, especially relative to what sort of promotion you can genuinely provide? What sort of budget is available, designed as the amount that you could afford to lose entirely? But I think the most important one is, what does "success" mean to you for the project? That really helps nail down the answers to all the others, and other things like what scale of commerce you're operating in.
The good news is that there's no rush, and there's also a logical sequence to these decisions which means you don't have to write up a 10,000 word mission statement and detailed plan all the way to the end, at least not at the start. There are also tons of people who've done it and have lots of good advice on any given point.
I hope that helps or at least makes sense. Let me know.
Best, Ron
* As an aside: fuck you to all those B-schools out there. Just, fuck you.
whduryea:
Thanks Ron. Sorry it took me so long to reply to these suggestions. I've been digesting them.
From what you and Bret have said, it seems clear that my next step should be to find people interested in playtesting the game and get their feedback. I'll start a playtesting thread in Game Development and see if I can cultivate some interest.
Thanks.
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