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Missed Opportunities, Life Issues, & Adrift

I was told there was a board game convention coming soon. I could play test my game there after signing up. Bad news is at the time I was told this, the deadline for submission had already ended. Blech.

I now sent an inquiry for running a play-test event at WONDERCON. I hope something becomes of that. I just need a bit of play-testing on what the "majority" prefers so I can FINALLY kickstart the damn thing.

I need work. I'm only working 13 hours a week now so I have a lot of free time which I'm not using to work on my games or find new work. I'm being told I need to find a new place so I need to make S*** happen. I did my taxes and all the money is going to people whom have lent me money up until now. I don't know why I feel that this kickstarter is going to "change everything". If you don't accomplish anything substantial by 35, you won't ever accomplish anything. Time is running out.

I'm working on Project Nero now since I'm just in the final play-testing phase of Tile Pile. Like always, I found great fun in creating the mechanics for it, but now I have to create all the scenarios for the event cards and I'm dragging my feet. I wish I had the money to just hire someone for something like that. I'm creatively tapped out and finding any excuse not to work on it. I've even bought all of the components for the game. Double Blah.

Comments

I'm turning 39 in 20 minutes,

I'm turning 39 in 20 minutes, you just ruined everything for me!

Congratulations!And, I'm

Congratulations!

And, I'm sorry.... I'm so, so sorry.....

lol

Missed Opportunitities, Life Issues and Adrift

On the bright side, you stumbled across a kickass name for a game. If I saw "Missed Opportunitities, Life Issues and Adrift" on the shelf, I'd have to pick it up and see what its all about.
I hope you feel better now that you have got all that off your chest. 35 is such an ambiguous deadline. I suppose it only has merit for those who give up on their dreams before then. There is still a ton of time left in your life. Rodney Dangerfield, Colonel Sanders, Leonard Cohen, Clint Eastwood, and a lot of writers / politicians weren't successful until later in life. Vincent Van Gogh, Henry Darger weren't even successful until after death!
And you may not have a great view of what accomplished means. Everyone has their own definition, and it doesn't always include fame and fortune. If you are looking for those things from a board game, you will be disappointed. If you like board games and enjoy making them, be happy when people want to play them. The game industry is difficult to get into and so don't take it personally.

Tap into something new...

From what I see, designers are a particular group of people. I have been promoting my team/cooperative/joint-venture and been getting rude responses from *some* people.

But I would say, try to find a team to work with. On your design, theirs or a new one. Team work is a great way to accomplish something together...

I just wanted to suggest something different... A positive outlook to be investigated that might help get the creative juices flowing and bring you to new wonders...

It works for me... even with all the rude responses!

Thanks for the responses. 35

Thanks for the responses.

35 is human half life; Mid-life. Average age of a human is 70. My friend told me, which I believe is a quote (but I don't remember from where) that: "If you don't accomplish something significant by 35, you never will." The reason is by 35 you should already have a family / other responsibilities / financially burdened which make accomplishing your long term goals improbable.

I have friends with whom I brainstorm on a weekly basis. We each have games we are working on and throw ideas and get suggestions and opinions from one another. I can't ask them to help in the construction of a prototype for free. And even if they did, I can't get mad at them if a week goes by and they haven't worked on a single card. That's being a bad friend. I would like to pay them for it but I certainly don't have the funds to do that. Gotta have money to make money I suppose. Either that, or get off my ass and make it happen. I guess I'm just not hungry enough.

Lol, I hate conventional

Lol, I hate conventional wisdom. Time is money they say. Well being unemployed means I am rich with time too :) so I'm like you trying to figure out how to make time into money. I have always wanted to be my own boss, now is the perfect opportunity to make that a reality. I don't know if designing games will help me realize that goal, but wouldn't that be cooler than working for the man? I think there is a way to do it, but may require some unconventional thinking to realize it.

Read an article the other day

Read an article the other day about scientific studies into the "Average age of accomplishment in creative fields". The average is 38.

While the average ages are lower in other fields, apparently creative people hit their peak later on. They had a list of suspected reasons... but honestly... they had no idea why but didn't want to admit it.

- - -

As someone whose had some successes with making games my only advice is to keep at it.

Many of the successful "Indy Video Game Developers" put out HUNDREDS of failed games before they have their "Overnight Success". The media doesn't report the struggles, sleepless nights, constant doubt and depression.
It's part of why I started my youtube channel about making games. I want people to know what it's really like... good times and bad. None of that manipulated media crap.

Realistically, those of us that makes games do it because it's who we are. If we expected to be successful or appreciated, we'd had left a long time ago. I can't stop... so I keep making games and I will continue to do so.

If you're having trouble working... take a few days off. Schedule a day to return... and then relax and PLAY SOME GAMES. Clear your head and return to the job at your best.

Plenty people will BS about hard work and passion. But avoiding burn out is far more important in this field.

Software Solution

Look I often read in the paper about Internet Start-ups with some 19 year old who has coded something so cool it merits newspaper attention. It seems like REALITY ... ALMOST.

I spent two (2) years developing a very specialized Software Solution, I call it the Integration Scoreboard. Once the software was developed I had to find someone who would have contact with potential clients/customers.

Well can you believe it, I hit up like a dozen consulting companies that put people on projects in the same field. They charge upwards of $50/hr for the resources... I sent them a brochure that explains the software and spoke to various people along the food chain.

Out of a dozen only ONE firm responded. And after reviewing the software, they said the vendor recommended that they use Cognos Report Server to mine the data from a database. Now I KNOW that that Report Server costs a sh!t load of money to deploy (licenses + support), my solution is one piece of software that is specialized by using a meta-data database. Not only would it be cheaper for customers, the consulting firm could make MORE money by selling the solution...

Well it turned out because they had a "work-around" (Cognos) they were also uninterested in the solution...

So those articles about 19 year olds hitting fame by coding some software or starting up some start-up is NOT the REALITY behind software. My solution is worthless because I cannot approach potential clients directly (Fortune 1000 or 500). I need a firm that has relations with them to up-sell software along side of their consulting services.

Bottom line: my software is sitting on a shelf, getting old and pointless because no one appears to be interested selling software!!!

Don't believe the HYPE about software... People code things and they never get used... And they never get any money for any of their efforts!

Note: Oh yeah I forgot to mention how this translates to "making it before 35...!" Well the software is completed and could be sold for about $10,000 annual corporate licensing. A firm could up-sell the license for $25,000 for five (5) years. Hit about 100 companies that need this and you end up with $2.5 Million dollars worth of software.

Can you believe I own $2.5 Million dollars worth of software because nobody wants to sell it?! Talk about NOT being able to accomplish something!

Note 2: I had thought about hiring a saleperson on commission but the problem is that clients are scattered around the US and Canada. It's not like the software can sell unless you have somebody who is consulting on-site who can *recommend* the solution to a particular customer. So partering with a consulting firm is the best idea... It's not like someone can cold-call clients and then try to sell the solution. You need an expert in the field to say this is a "good" solution to use.

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