STOIC'S PROFILE

author=Racheal
Don't know if you discovered it yourself or not, but congrats on the article about this game on Jayisgames.

Thanks. It was awesome to be recognized on one of the bigger indie sites.

LD has also been included in the free indie bundle: http://www.thefreebundle.com/

Thanks a lot Ness! I've had that no. 1 problem before in the past. Great to know there is a workaround.

Thanks for all the great comments so far. I'm glad people are adding to the discussion.

@Seeric Your comment about the importance of the game title is amazing. Since it is usually the first thing people will see - especially if it is a reviewer browsing emails and just reading the subject line - you do want to make sure it draws people in. You have some great examples of how to use alliteration and assonance properly. Setting up expectations with keywords is important to, but remember that sometimes that can work against you. With one of our more recent titles, X-Noir, we set up expectations for people that are fans of classic film noirs even though our game is more of a neo-noir. There were a lot of people telling us how our game didn't meet their expectations for a noir which became frustrating.

author=Hasvers
could you (ArtBane) tell us more about your expercience with contacting indie sites and promoting your games there (and more generally outside of the RM world) ?

Sure I can go into that a little more. I've been contacting indie sites off of a big list I found on that link in my post. Every time I contact an indie site I keep track of their press info (email, name, twitter, etc.) so I remember who I contacted already and to also have them on record if I want to contact them again in the future.

So far I haven't had too much success. Of the 30 sites I've emailed I'd say about 3 got back to me and 2 did articles on the game. Based off my analytics, I haven't gotten much traffic from those sites either. But it's definitely worth the time. Once you get your game featured on a big site like Kotaku or RPS then usually other sites will pick it up too and your traffic will explode. So far I've had more luck with smaller blogs that are usually run by 1 or a few people.

@Xanedis Those things you mentioned are definitely important - especially for getting your game noticed on RMN. With the article I kind of assumed you already had a good looking game and wanted to focus more on general marketing outside of just this community.

Once again thanks for the awesome comments guys/gals!

Thanks a lot for the playthrough CC. As a designer it was a lot of fun to watch you figure out each puzzle. I almost wish you didn't cut out some of the parts where you were having difficulty with the puzzles, although I can understand why most viewers wouldn't want to see that.

Thanks for the feedback CC. I'm looking forward to seeing your playthrough footage.

author=Clareain_Christopher
I suggest always having more than one correct way to solve a puzzle. I said this in my playthrough, but the last maze involved my character repeating the same rather slow method over and over again; tweaking only the last several moves - knowing that was the only way to victory.

I think this really depends on the puzzle. If you look at most published puzzles like Sudoku for example there is usually only solution unless otherwise stated. I think with some types of puzzles it's more satisfying to find that one solution that the designer intended.

The puzzles in LD typically have an optimal path although there can be multiple ways to reach it. If the sky maze though had multiple solutions then it would change the entire meaning of that puzzle. For some of the puzzles it was intentional there was only one correct path from a design and storytelling perspective.

I could see how repeating the same pattern over and over though can get frustrating. Although it also can be satisfying once you figure out that last part and triumph over the beast!

Anyway glad you enjoyed it!