For my time here on moddb it would seem that one thing is vitally important. And this
feature applies to almost any productive / creative member of this community,
be it a development group leader, a texture mapper, an environment moddeler, a concept
artist or soundtrack musician. If you wish your mod to succeed or your work to be seen and appreciated you must reward those who show any vested interest in what you are creating.
With the advent of high-speed broadband for all and a myriad of varying communication
methods, our fickle society has had its attention span effectively shelved.
Information flows thick and fast, news of a recent earthquake in Los Angeles reached citizens outside the epicenter before the quake itself via twitter feeds last year.
The market leaders of consumable media (music, literature, games) have long been in the know
regarding their fans necessity for the feed of information and have thusly
catered their marketing to a whole new level focussed drip feeding.
The question for big bands, games developers and publishing houses now is what to
reveal and when, giving the consumer just enough to keep them hooked but not
too much that it saturates the necessity for the full release.
This new regime of slow-and-often information publication is not something that should
be thought of as unique to the large industry model simply because of the
numbers drawn in by major releases, drip feed information and tangible connection
to dedicated fans can mean life or death to the smallest of grassroots creative
outputs. No matter what your production flavour it is imperative to keep any point of attention
locked down with an almost constant stream of useful and insightful
information.
With all the capabilities of communication at ones fingertips it is in the creators best
interests to keep a strong link with those who have and will provide future
support for a project, simply put if you give people nothing they have no
reason to stay interested in what you are hoping to pass into the digital work
upon completion. It takes almost no time to render off a quick image of your WIP environment or to post a quick 140 character update on twitter.
No matter how inane your ambling on the subject of your current creative process, the
minimum knowledge that said project is still in the working can calm the water
of what may seem to be very persistent and need bunch of followers.
These people, no matter how insistent on constant publication, are the people who
decide if your creative thrives or dies. Without people at the receiving end
waiting expectantly for what you have to show for your time and effort, you are
essentially letting your voice fall on deaf ears.
Community and connection are the life blood to the survival and propagation of your
product and name, be sure to take the time to appease the community during the
process. Allow them insight and understanding, sneak peaks and grand reveals.
Take some time once a week to give them the knowledge that the idea they like so much –
your idea – is alive and kicking and you will find they will snap up the fruits
of your labour on release day and be aching to know what’s next.
