Alora Fane

I'll very likely be self-publishing Sindrel Song on Steam soon, so now I need to figure out how best to do that.

I contacted a publisher, Armor Games, about the game a while ago. They played through it and - after a while - got back to me with their response. A group of people played it and discussed it, and they said a few things:

It's very niche-y. I think we all knew this.

They feel my personal story about how the game came to be is valuable and important; I agree. I feel that knowing that it was made by a solo developer struggling with brain cancer and mental illness is a big part of appreciating the experience.

Quote: "Once in-play we feel its very personal, emotional and engaging all at once, be mindful how it markets. A major strength of this title is its ability to be engaging on many levels, and I would make sure in your marketing you show that it's not reading just as a rhythm game with notes to hit. Rhythm games can attract a specific kind of audience looking for high skill ceiling and competitive score-chasing, and I think this game is the opposite of that."

And "Multiple people on our team recognized your work and the importance it has played in the Flash games scene and beyond."

Ultimately they said that they don't feel they'd be the best fit as a publisher. It seems like I should be disappointed about being 'rejected', but honestly it's a huge relief; I don't feel bad at all, more like a weight has been lifted, if anything. I felt that self-publishing might be the best way to go anyway, but I thought I should at least try to find a publisher otherwise I'd regret it. This gives me confirmation that my initial gut feeling was probably right though, which is good to know, and gives me confidence to go in that direction without worrying I'm making a stupid wrong decision.

Also, the email didn't come across as "it's bad, but we're politely turning you down" in tone; it seemed like they saw value in it, just that marketing it would be tricky because it's so... well, what it is. They said "we're hopeful and are supportive of the title", and wished me luck.

Realistically, I can't imagine this game making much of an impact if I do self-publish. But my hope is that if I make several games all set in this shared Alora Fane world, they'll build up a small but devoted fanbase who'll investigate previous games in the world, like Sindrel Song. So I'll be playing the long game, building Alora Fane, rather than it being an explosion of popularity and hype that'll quickly fizzle out. Or at least that's the hope. It's worth noting that the first couple of MARDEK games weren't anything special reception-wise, but the third was because many people had discovered the first two in the years it took to make it.

I've accepted at this point that it won't make meaningful money, but it was made with a purpose, to spare my own memory from deterioration following major brain surgery and irradiation, and since my memory does seem to be intact, maybe it was successful in that regard. I also feel I learned a lot during development, both in terms of technical development in Unity, and about my own inner demons while writing a story around such things.

Self-publishing means I have full creative control, and it means that I can release things as soon as they're ready. I'd have released Sindrel Song on Steam - and maybe even other platforms - months ago if I were going down this path. I don't like the months-long publisher-finding process, and not having to bother with that is a big part of the relief.

I'll need to think about it a bit, and should at least do some research, before uploading it to Steam and pressing the trigger, but I think this is likely to be the path forward now, and probably for future games too. I'll keep you informed about what's going on with it as things develop!

Something I feel I'll need to convey is that it's not a rhythm game, exactly. It's a shame that any game that revolves around music is automatically interpreted to be a 'rhythm game', since most are, despite the fact that music is such a big part of the human experience, and rhythm is just a part of it. Sindrel Song is a novel take on different aspects of what constitutes music, but I understand how - and why - people mentally classify things, and have talked about that in this blog before.

Trying to convince people to give something a go despite it being different to what they're used to is going to be the main challenge, I think.

Oh, and the previous post - about new community features for the site - is less than 24 hours old as I'm posting this, so that's worth looking at if you haven't already seen it.

EDIT: I'm looking into how to publish on Steam now, and it seems there's a 30-day approval period? So I won't actually be able to release for a while. I'll upload it there today and get the ball rolling, at least.

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