I'm Dario, the programmer behind Specter and one half of our little two man team. I live in Germany, the other half, Blair, lives in the US. We are working on Specter on and off since December 2012. It started out as a one day game jam game. Now, half a year later, we don't really get how it blew up to something that we have spent countless hours of our spare time on and is apparently something people...
- take seriously
- want to play
- think of as pretty cool
By now I know quite a few members of the local game dev community. Most of them are indies or hobbyists like myself and even though I know that they are all really nice people I was reluctant to show them Specter. After all it was just that little thing I was working on after school.
I always found it hard to show a game at the regular meetups. They are usually in a bar, with a lot of noise, not an ideal situation to explain the thoughts behind game design decisions and gather meaningfulfeedback. More often than not it ends in people saying "that looks really nice" and walking away after maybe three minutes of playing.
Last Wednesday I went to an event called Talk & Play. It solves exactly the problem I had. Everyone brings a project and you get your own desk space to show it off. People are interested and give constructive feedback.
I was blown away by the response I got. Yes, I had shown the game to a few close friends and I had gotten mostly positive responses, but getting told that the game is fun, by complete strangers, was on a completely different level.
After I got home I started up Skype and asked Blair if he was ok with publishing the Facebook page I had made a few month ago. He says sure, I make a quick screenshot and put together a logo and hit the button. Two hours later we are on a call with a publisher, asking us if we want to work full time on Specter...
I know it's not yet saturday, but here is a screenshot of Specter, the game I'm working on! #screenshotsaturday pic.twitter.com/BE6U4TAe8o
— Dario Seyb (@bonus2113) June 28, 2013
Since then we had a great week. The screenshot I posted with the #screenshotsaturday tag got featured on Screenshot Scrutiny by Indie Statik, it's in the top ten at the Image of the Day showdown on gamedev.net and I got more messages on Twitter than in the last year combined.
Also, someone wants to make a Youtube video about Specter!
I guess the point of this post is: If you're making a game and you've got something to show, tell people! The positive reactions you will get will make your day and boost your motivation extremely.
