Blog - The Fans
Wednesday, February 24, 2010After the announcement of the game I'm working on, tonight I was greeted with something great: got passed a link with fans of the first game reacting to the news of the sequel coming out.
The kids are so excited. It's very inspiring. Perfect motivation for making it through the final grind of shipping a game!
Honestly, like most game developers, I make games because I love to make them and can't see myself doing anything else with my life. But having a big base of fans excited for the release of a title I'm working on is altogether new to me, and not something I had really given any thought to before. That's not entirely true, I suppose. I knew the IP was very popular, and that has been encouragement for me to push to make this game the best I can, yes. I knew this game would be highly anticipated by a lot of kids, some of whom are fanatically devoted to the world and characters. But at the same time, that same push was always more about the pride I always take in my work. I'm something of a perfectionist. Not to mention I'm still new to the industry and trying to build up my cred by doing great work on notable titles.
Meanwhile, comparatively, when you are a student pretty much nobody is that excited to see what you end up making. Your only fans are your friends, and even they aren't usually that excited by anything you're doing unless you end up making something really cool -- and then that's only after the fact.
Before that point? People may be interested to know what you're working on, but rarely is anyone what I could call "excited" by it unless you're doing something truly groundbreaking.
So reading all these comments from fans posting how excited they are to see what we've made -- well, I feel all warm and gooey inside now. A huge number of kids are waiting to see our game, and that feels wonderful.
Something to think about fondly as I go back to all the more frustrating parts of shipping a game... to see it through, and make it the best I can. For me AND for them. posted by Brian Shurtleff @ 9:46 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
