Hi Reader,

Welcome! Please, come in. On the table, I have a bowl of kiwis—the indie game designer of fruits. They're hard to peel, but I swear it’s worth it. (If you’re into OSR, just beast it and bite right through the fuzzy skin.)

I know this talented up-and-coming game designer named Faye Weaver. Faye is a Horizons Fellow this year, like I was last year. And she’s been getting frustrated about, well, the crickets. I think everyone who puts a game out there feels this way sometimes, so I asked Faye if I could share our exchange. She said:

I replied:

Yessss! The crickets!

The crickets are your friend. They are there to challenge you.

There are tens of thousands of other indie games out there. The public is vast, indifferent, and teeming with other designers.

This is where marketing comes in, and you can totally do it without being slimy. You have something valuable that people would want to know about—that some of them are already looking for and need your help to find. But—

Ballyhooing your game only works if you respect the public. Your potential customers have nearly infinite choices in how they spend their money. Let this insignificance humble you (especially as you win wider recognition), so that instead of what it means to you, you can focus on what the game offers them. Tune into what they need, as indie RPG players, and cultivate empathy for their desires.

Publishing is a constant act of service. Over time, your game-design ideas will emerge in less of a vacuum, tuned from the start for the kinds of things your public wants to play. Utterly sincerely, your games will start to find more of an audience.

This is your chance to show you’re focused on the players—however niche they might be. Find the people who need your game, tell them about it, and respect that they won’t be most people.

You’ll distinguish yourself not by being special—because you’re not, I'm not—but with the hard work of serving your customers.

Professionalism consists of knowing how much your customers matter. They’re the ones who make you a professional, one precious, totally elective purchase at a time. Thank them and look for new ways to help them.

And there are so many ways to help them! People need dreams. They—we—need help visualizing our dreams. It's why artwork in a game is so important. And games are important, and more empathetic than any other art form, because they give people a way to dream together and tell their own stories. People's stories need to be heard.

Thanks for listening! (I said to Faye, I say to you.) I hope it’s helpful. Go forth with empathy and humility.

xoxoxo
Chrys

P.S. Faye made a remarkable horror game called Before the Worms. She's currently working on a game called Motley that I can't wait for you to play.

P.P.S. First week in March, Faye and I will both be at GAMA Expo! Faye's at Booth 627 and I'm in Paizo's armpit, at Booth 673. If you're in the business, I hope you'll drop by!

P.P.P.S. Games update: Defy the Gods is still on track! I got the advance copies yesterday, and they look amazing. And I scored some great illustrators for Raccoon Sky Pirates: Total Chaos Edition! I'll tell you more later. Ciao.