HOUSEKEEPING'S PROFILE

Here's a couple of tips:

@pthariensflame:
Sweet! A Very Long Rope has a bit of a barrier to entry, but it's been spreading slowly thanks to word of mouth. I'll take any I can get!

@Mizushimi:
I don't have a Twitter; I do have a Facebook, but I want to keep it personal. I'm always happy to answer questions on here, though! You're probably at a solid 4/10 right now. Also...

Man, that question. Here's my best response:

The thing that I really liked about Breath of Fire 2 was how EERIE the game was. And, this reminds me: a few years ago, I saw some modder on a gamefaqs message board had retranslated the game from scratch. He said that the original translation was terrible--lots of wonky grammar issues, which is true. So, I played it; it's absolutely terrible. I don't know which translation is actually more "right," but if you want Katt to sound like a whiny teenage girl anime cliche, then look no further. It just makes me wonder how socially progressive that game really was. I did love the official translation, though. The whole game felt like walking through a nightmare.

Yeah, graphics are definitely further down the chain of things that people care about when they're playing your game. That said, graphics are the first thing that people see, so good, unique graphics will pull more players to your game. Graphics also are a heavy factor in developing a sense of immersion, and they can provide visual interest that keeps gamers engaged. Too, the right use of visuals can do a lot of storytelling for you and make scenes have more emotional weight. You should definitely work with what you've got and don't let your weak areas stop you, but the fact is that EVERYTHING that goes into a game is important. That's why you should be smart with how you handle your weak areas.

In The God of Crawling Eyes, for example, I can't draw for crap, so I decided to limit myself to black and white, as this meant I didn't have to worry about color or shading. Then I constructed a story around that: the protagonist is color blind, you're limited to his perception, and the entire game is about how you perceive the world around you. Too, when I think of horror movies, the first thing that comes to mind are old black and white horror films like Night of the Living Dead or even old Bela Lugosi stuff, and using black and white would convey that. So, I turned shitty graphics into something that was justifiable, and it allowed me to keep production quality high while minimizing my work load. All that's to say: be smart about how you target your weak areas and you can turn them into strengths.