First things firstAmadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz is part of the WINGS Women's Day Sale on Steam! I'm really thankful to be included alongside this banger lineup of games. Definitely go over to the sale page and check out discounts for released games and upcoming demos. I'll give a special shout-out to So, This Vampire Walks Into A Bar (my table neighbors from MAGWest). As for this month's development progress:

• New job and schedule is working, lots of dedicated Amadeus development time
• Met goal of 3 new scenes built out and playable early in the month
• Spent the remainder of the month on detail work and revisions/bug fixes
• "Build 3 more scenes a month" monthly benchmark feels reasonable and the full game should be built within a few more months

The watchtower scene from the original demo is now completely rewritten and rebuilt. I can't wait for others to be able to play it, and everything that comes after.
Thank you for your continued interest and support. A longer version of this update can be read on itch.io here. Stay up-to-date: linktr.ee/amadeusgame

[ 2025-02-28 19:37:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Last month was really good for development despite the fact that I lost a week being sick with COVID. I made good progress towards full game completion, now that I'm satisfied with the mechanics in the demo. I feel strongly oriented in the right direction.

Major accomplishments:

• Built the next 2 point-and-click scenes
• Discovered & fixed a bunch of bugs (edge cases not present in the demo)
• New job with a good schedule to support work on Amadeus
• Perhaps most importantly: started reworking how I manage this project.

Bottom line is I've figured out how to set goals for myself in a way that motivates me without getting in my own way. I am focusing proportionately more of my time directly on development, and not on micromanaging the project. This priority shift let me finish completely building two new scenes in a month where I lost over a week due to illness! I'm aiming to build three more in February, and I'll let you know where we are at in next month's update. In this same vein, please expect fewer miscellaneous social media updates for the next few months. I'm going to focus my time and energy on development rather than marketing until the game is nearly complete. (These monthly updates will continue, though. They keep me accountable and motivated; I enjoy looking back on what I've done each month.) I will also still post bonus announcements for anything important that comes up. Anything I want to make sure people know about will be clearly communicated, and you can find all of the important links at linktr.ee/amadeusgame! This little update is just to reassure you that silence, for the foreseeable future, is a good thing. It means I am actively focusing on development. Thank you for your continued trust and interest. Finishing this game is incredibly important to me. I will see it through. For those interested, a much longer version of this update can be read on itch.io. If you don't wish to read the long version, the most important thing mentioned in it is that the Amadeus Tumblr blog now has a dedicated fanart page.

[ 2025-02-02 02:45:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

This is a brief update on the Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz release timeline, and an overview on development progress made this year. If you're interested in more details, a much longer version of this update can be read on itch.io.

On Episode 1's Timeline

After launching the updated, feature-complete demo last month, I confirmed that by the end of 2024 I would have an updated timeline for the game's release. This is especially important given how many times the launch date has been pushed back this year. I now understand why that happened and will avoid it occurring again.

• Episode 1's timeline was repeatedly pushed back because I realized making the game good mattered more to me than meeting an arbitrary deadline. I misjudged how much more I wanted to add to the game once I relaxed the deadline.
• MAGWest forced me to finish a feature-complete demo. The foundation for the game is now complete.
• The full episode will release in 2025.
• A date will not be announced until the game is nearly finished and the release is 100% certain.

Looking Back at 2024

A list of milestones between the original February demo release and the recent feature-complete update.

• February 2024 - Original Demo Release
• March 2024 - 100 Wishlists on Steam
• April 2024 - Wrote a Mystery Game
• June 2024 - Steam Next Fest & Major Narrative Benchmark (finished full episode script first draft)
• July 2024 - Major Mechanics Benchmark (implemented most must-have mechanics)
• August 2024 - Finished MAGWest Build
• September 2024 - Tabled at MAGWest
• November 2024 - Feature-Complete Demo Release

Thank you for your interest in this game. It is in really good shape, and I'm confident the delays will have been worth it. For more resources: linktr.ee/amadeusgame

[ 2025-01-01 02:43:06 CET ] [ Original post ]

The updated demo for Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz is now live. You can install and play it right now on Windows, MacOS, or Linux! This demo includes nearly every feature intended for the final episode release, such as:

• Rich text that supports dramatic pauses as the text scrolls (+ "instant text" speed option)
• Finalized narrative that accurately introduces the full 5-episode story
• Save-and-Load with 3 save slots
• Seamless audio looping for certain tracks
• 2 BGM tracks with dynamic layers that respond to gameplay (+ 8 more tracks for 10 total)
• New cinematic opening cutscene
• More art, music, and a new secret mechanic
• Completely revamped UI design
• Keyboard control support in menus
• "Cycle through interactibles" mechanic
• Linux cursor disappearance issue fixed

The only features not yet included are a "quit game" hotkey in the menu and some window options - everything else is implemented. If you've been following this game since the original demo released in February, thank you so much for your continued interest and support. (If you've been following this game from MAGWest, this demo is very similar to the demo from that convention, but it has a whole extra scene at the end and a few additional feature requests implemented.) From now on, development will focus exclusively on the remaining content beyond the scenes included in this demo (save for bug fixes). The full episode is coming soon - regular devlogs will continue to keep you updated in the interim, to give an idea of how soon. This demo will likely be released as a standalone store page that can be reviewed in the coming weeks; if that happens, and you are so inclined, please leave a review. But most importantly: please enjoy the new demo. I hope it builds anticipation for the full release, which is much closer than it's ever been after reaching this major milestone. Note: the old demo is still available to play, although it is now completely obsolete and no longer accurate to the complete intended narrative. You can access it by opting into the "olddemo" beta build, which will unlock a special launch option for it. There's no reason to play this version unless you are curious about just how many new features have been added in the new build by comparison.

[ 2024-11-28 08:47:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

I'll keep this short: last month, life stuff happened, and I did not finish the overhauled demo build. It is almost ready, and it will be very worth the wait. I also wish to announce that I've addressed the bug that causes the cursor to disappear on Linux. The fix will be included in the new demo. I now have a proper Linux test machine, so no future builds should have such egregious platform-specific issues. Not going to waste more time on words when it's better spent on development - just know the new demo build is coming very soon! Look forward to it.

[ 2024-11-06 02:30:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a week since Amadeus was featured at the Indie Games Expo at MAGWest, and this is intended as an update both for people who attended and found this game at the event, and people who have been following this game and are awaiting updates. For those from MAGWest: the version of the game presented at the booth isn't publicly available yet, but will be this month. The currently live demo is from February and does not include most new mechanics featured at MAGWest. More details follow. A longer version of this log can be read on itch.io here.

MAGWest Recap

The MAGWest demo build with all new mechanics was received very well. The reception at the event from people who played was overwhelmingly positive, with high praise for its music, art, sound, narrative, and atmosphere. Thank you so much for the support. Based on feedback, the following are the most highly-requested items to be addressed in the upcoming new public demo:

• It's unclear that after exhausting all 3 options, selecting one again will progress the story.
• Collision on a particular interactible needs to be adjusted.
• Instead of reducing opacity on the non-active speaker in dialogue scenes, it would be less visually confusing to add a grey overlay.
• Keyboard controls for scrolling backlog tome need to be adjusted to account for length of backlog text.
• Will add an option for an "instant" text appearance speed.

New Public Demo

This will be the build showcased in-person at MAGWest but with a few more scenes so it roughly covers the content from the existing demo. It will be released later this month, and will likely have its own store page so it can be reviewed by those who give it a play. That said, the full game is set to release not too long after the demo update, so whether you feel it's a must-play or not is entirely up to you. Its most important role is to accurately represent what the full episode will be like for people considering purchasing the game. Brief overview of everything new coming in the updated demo:

• Rich text & more fonts
• Witch redesign
• UI indicates what you are interacting with before you click
• Background is highlighted along with cursor change when hovering over interactibles
• Speaker name is no longer part of the spoken text itself and is displayed in its own box above
• Text appearance can pause mid-scroll for pacing/dramatic effect
• Menus and settings now navigable with keyboard controls. Also fixed an issue where some text scroll settings weren't working properly across scenes
• Backlog redesign
• "Cycle through all interactibles" mechanic
• Glossary mechanic (to encourage big brain theorizing)
• Save + load from 3 save slots
• Opening cinematic
• Narrative adjustments to reflect more thorough planning
• Secret new mechanic :)

Full Game

The full game is coming very soon. A November release now feels overly optimistic, but by the end of 2024 seems possible. A realistic timeline will be confirmed after the demo update is published. In lieu of a release date, here is a status update on the game's development:

• Music - all tracks are written but a few need more TLC/development.
• Sound - release-ready, but more sound design assets may be added as time allows.
• Art - still need to draw a few more backgrounds and portraits.
• Narrative - fully written, but most scenes post-demo need revision.
• Mechanics - nearly release-ready. The small number of tweaks listed from the MAGWest build need to be implemented, but otherwise it is feeling great.
• Build - this is what is going to take the most time, and is why a release estimate can't be given until the new demo is public.

Thanks to MAGWest for being an important goalpost and momentum boost on the way to a full game release for Episode 1. Look forward to a big update to the public demo this month, and Episode 1 will come shortly after. Happy werewolf season!

[ 2024-10-06 04:00:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

The most important announcement I'd like to make is that Amadeus now has an opening cinematic that will play after the prologue. Final version may be tweaked, but please enjoy the current version: [previewyoutube=ZzhVnQY1-J4;full][/previewyoutube] This opening will be implemented in the new demo build. Want to know when you'll be able to play it? Here is the timeline:

MAGWest, September 27-29 ~ New Gameplay Demo

What: short, new gameplay demo Where: MAGWest in-person only... or ask me nicely for a link (Discord server, Tumblr blog) When: September 27-29

October ~ Full New Demo

What: new public demo of the full game's complete vision Where: itch & Steam When: October, date TBA

November ~ Episode One Release (tentative)

What: Episode One ~ Waltz Where: itch & Steam When: November (tentative), date TBA For a longer version of this post, or other resources on the game, check the linktree. Thank you for your sustained interest in this game! We are in the home stretch!

[ 2024-09-04 01:56:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

Amadeus will be tabling at MAGWest's Indie Games Expo. This means the following:

• If you will be attending, please stop by! I'm planning to bring some Exclusive(TM) goodies to hand out, likely in the form of burned soundtrack CDs.
• I'll be debuting a new build of the Amadeus demo at this event. Once it's finished, it will also go live on itch and Steam, meaning everyone will get to enjoy it. This will be your chance to finally experience all of the updates I've discussed in monthly devlogs before the full game releases.
• I've redesigned the main visual for Amadeus to better reflect its art direction and themes now that the full story is taking shape. I needed to make this as a tabling asset for MAGWest, but I'll be rolling it out in other places too over time. Enjoy!

MAGWest takes place September 27-29, so this is happening in just a little over a month. And finally, unrelated announcement, but we have reached over 300 wishlists on Steam, and I just want to shout that out because it's a really exciting number. Thank you to everyone who has supported this project and shown interest; this game means a lot to me and it feels good to know that other people are excited about it too.

[ 2024-08-15 18:59:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Changes, updates, and progress from this month:

• MUSIC: wrote almost all remaining music for Episode 1, and recorded some live parts for certain tracks
• MYSTERY: created a glossary menu in the backlog notebook for reference (including things like the terms of the Witchs deal, etc)
• SAVE/LOAD: system can now handle loading from multiple progression points within each scene
• AUDIO IMPLEMENTATION: code for seamless audio looping (with reverb tail) exists now and works
• TEXT SYSTEM: scrolling text can now support rich text codes, including font style changes mid-text
• POINT-AND-CLICK SYSTEM: there is now a visual change to the background image when hovering over an interactible object
• UI DESIGN: started reformatting main menu - still in progress

The longer-version of this development log can be read on itch.io here - it is a lot more personal than usual, and is quite long. It has some teaser photos of the new mechanics though! Overall, health issues prevented me from getting as much done as I hoped to this month, but I'm still quite excited about what I did accomplish. More importantly, I'm motivated about working on the rest. A brief aside - you have likely heard the news that Steam now allows Demos to be published as separate game pages from their full games, that can be reviewed! I have currently not enabled Amadeus for this functionality because the current demo no longer reflects the state of the game as it will be on release, since I've changed and added so much. I'm considering it for when I release an updated demo around release time. If and when that happens, you'll be the first to know! That about wraps it up for this month. Because of aforementioned health issues, there is a chance the tentative release month of October is now an overly optimistic estimate. I'll confirm/deny when I'm certain; for now, the goal is to keep focusing on development. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for next month's updates!

[ 2024-08-01 06:12:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Before outlining the work I did this month, I want to share this write-up on participating in Steam Next Fest as a small developer with a small following. The event pretty much doubled outstanding wishlists for Amadeus - thank you all so much for the support. As for this month's updates: I spent the month of June inserting Sonic Adventure-flavored swag into my melancholy serious visual novel. This was a self-motivation tactic, but doing so has also resulted in an overall more compelling narrative. It's added an underlying layer of fun that the game was sorely lacking. The game is still serious, and it's still heartfelt; but there is now room in it for a little more insanity to dig into over the course of 5 episodes. It's got more life breathed into it. I've made a little more work for myself, but it's work I'm more excited about doing. I can't wait to share the new vision with you when it's ready. Other than that, I knocked out the bulk of this month's major tasks:

• Listed and sketched a concept for all remaining BGM for Episode 1
• Wrote first drafts for every scene in the game based on updated outline
• Wrote and started implementing revisions to demo scenes based on updated outline
• 90% of the way to building a Save/Load system that meets the game's needs
• Participated in Next Fest, baby!

I haven't quite got a new build in private playtesting, but if I stay on track, that should get done by the end of the week. Still aiming for a fall release, will keep you updated monthly here and in all the usual places. For those interested, a much longer version of this update that discusses what it means to "insert Sonic Adventure into Amadeus" can be read on itch.io. Remember: place all your bets on the one you think is right!

[ 2024-06-25 01:56:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz is participating in the June 2024 Steam Next Fest. Check out the livestream of the current demo; full episode launches in Fall 2024!

[ 2024-06-11 03:46:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz is participating in the June 2024 Steam Next Fest. Check out the livestream of the current demo; full episode launches in Fall 2024!

[ 2024-06-09 20:19:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

A longer version of this post with additional details and teasers can be read on itch.io.

New Announcements:

[olist]

Amadeus will be participating in Steam Next Fest. Streams on June 10 & June 15.

Amadeus now has a press kit. It has some interesting info on the history/making-of, in addition to the usual details. [/olist] Relevant links at linktr.ee/amadeusgame - Next Fest stream details will be added there soon.

100 Wishlists Celebration (recap):

As thanks for all of the support here and elsewhere, I made a custom webpage to host a multimedia version of the Amadeus demo soundtrack. I've also updated the BandCamp OST album to include the new demo tracks and new art. Check it out here. Headphones encouraged, but certainly not required.

Development Updates:

Focusing back on Amadeus after last month's Mystery Jam sidequest, I accomplished quite a lot this month.

• Art - 1 new point-and-click background + research/sketches for 3 more
• Build - 1 new scene built in Unity, also created a template so all future scenes can be built from it easily
• Mechanics - Implemented text pauses in all existing scenes, created hotkey to warp cursor to inspectable objects
• Music - 1 dynamic 3-layer track mastered, 1 track to be mixed this week, 1 track at sketch phase
• Marketing - made press kit and 100 wishlists celebration updates to OST album

(Speaking of the Mystery Game Jam - if you'd like to play a short but finished game that I wrote, you can check out my team's game: Robot Detective and the Case of the Automurderated Intern.) That's it as far as the big picture is concerned. Bookmark the linktree to stay up-to-date between devlogs! If you're interested in some more details and some previews/teasers on what's to come in the full game, I've included those in the full post on itch.io.

[ 2024-05-29 01:56:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

A while ago, I announced that Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz had reached 100 wishlists, which for me is a milestone worth celebrating. That number has since grown into over 120! To celebrate, I've completely revamped the soundtrack album, including the 3 new tracks from the demo that weren't in the original prototype, as well as unique track art for every track and a new album cover. I also created a (mobile friendly) page on my website where they're all embedded along with little narrative snippets cataloguing the journey of the demo. Check it out here - enjoy!
Thank you so much for the support. Stay tuned for more development updates at the end of the month - exciting things are in the works. Stay up-to-date: linktr.ee/amadeusgame

[ 2024-05-18 01:34:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Back in February, I planned out my next several months to help stay on track for Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz to release this Fall. I had a good chunk of work planned for April:

• Mechanics - prototype + implement all "Must-Have" new mechanics for the full game
• Background Art - finish 1-2 new backgrounds
• Sprite Art - finish 1-2 new sprites
• Music - fully flesh out a placeholder track for 1-2 BGM pieces
• Narrative - write first draft of all scenes through a certain point in the game
• Marketing - prepare + announce 100 Wishlists celebration; make + publish press kit

However...... something came up. Something called the Mystery Game Jam. Suffice it to say that I did not accomplish all of the above, but I DID write an entire mystery game this month. What I actually accomplished from my April to-do list for Amadeus is closer to:

• Prototyped "save/load" mechanic
• Implemented mechanic that can create pauses mid-text-appearance for dramatic effect
• Researched and sketched 1 new point-and-click background
• Have sketches for 2 BGM pieces
• Outlined draft of narrative for 1 new scene in the intro
• Planned 100 Wishlists celebration
• Made draft + format of press kit

If you'd like to read a longer version of this post that covers the process of writing the Mystery Jam game at length, it's available on itch.io here and currently linked at the top of The Amadeus Linktree. There are 2 announcements coming next month - stay tuned for those! In the meantime, if you're interested in a silly Ace Attorney knockoff made in a month featuring a robot detective, it will be posted before the end of the Mystery Jam [ends May 5, 2024 at 10PM Pacific]. It will briefly be featured on the Linktree as a bonus, so keep an eye out! Working title: Robot Detective and the Case of the Automurderated Intern.

[ 2024-04-30 03:11:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a month since the demo release, and Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz has just reached 100 wishlists on Steam. I'm incredibly grateful for the support and interest. Because this has been the month following a major release, most of my efforts have been focused on communications as opposed to development. I still want to discuss these efforts, both as a retrospective for my own reference, and in case anyone else finds it enlightening. This was meant to be a short and to-the-point marketing discussion, but it accidentally... and inevitably... transformed into something incredibly long and sentimental. The long and short of it is that I've had an overwhelmingly successful month by my standards. Discussing marketing means I have been analyzing why that is. In doing so, I slowly became aware of just how much of my entire life has been building up to this. I originally planned to mention other things in this update... discuss the recent demo livestream, announce an upcoming "100 wishlists" celebration... but those no longer really suit the tone of this update. I will post about them another time. I wasn't prepared to celebrate 100 wishlists this quickly, anyway! I had no idea I would get that much in the first month! I'm not ready to make that announcement! I would like to do something appropriate for this milestone, so please give me some more time to put proper thought into it. You can reference here for the livestream video and other resources: https://linktr.ee/amadeusgame I don't expect very many people to read the rest of this. But I am writing it anyway because it's important for me to express. And if you got anything out of the Amadeus demo, you probably got the fact that I am a bit of a long-winded and sentimental person. Bearing that in mind...

On Marketing Amadeus

Overall, I tried a lot of different thingsmany of which floppedbased on the question "what kind of communications would I like to see, as an audience?" Some combination of all of these somehow worked. I don't think it is particularly useful to try and pinpoint what specific individual things made Number Go Up the most, because the real takeaway was that I put enough messages out in enough places that over 100 real actual human beings came across them and were interested in what I am making. That number is probably tiny to people trying to earn a living in games, but as someone just hoping to get my art out there... the number 100 is significant and motivating. I am happy to share the things that I've tried, and my impressions of how well they worked for my situation and purposes. Before that, though, I must stress that having assets to share in these communications in the first place was an invaluable step, especially since visuals and aesthetics are a very core part of my game.

Creating Marketing Assets

I drew a poster design for Amadeus as a weird form of procrastination back in October (I'd been binge watching werewolf movies and wanted to draw something inspired by them). When I drew it, I didn't think any farther ahead than "maybe I'll print it and put it up somewhere..." but I liked it so much that it not only directly changed the art direction for the game, but it has also served as a basis for all of my branding assets, including the logo and header images on itch and Steam:

(When uploading a game to Steam, there are approximately 8 million different aspect ratios and dimensions you need to create branding assets for, so I chopped that source poster up into different pieces and spent about a week just making different combinations of them to suit various needs.) Again: I was not thinking ahead to the Steam page when I drew this in October, not really. I was just drawing something that I wanted to draw, inspired by art that inspired me. If I hadn't indulged that desire and "procrastinated" a bit, I wouldn't have the assets to advertise the game when it came time for launch! This is something that I've experienced again and again throughout the process of development: making things for fun, doing things on impulse, taking breaks and indulging whims... many of these activities somehow end up being essential for the game. If I had refused that self-indulgence to focus on Important Development Stuff, I wouldn't have the cool piece of art I needed to successfully advertise the finished game on launch. Moreover, the final art in the game would not be as good, because I wouldn't have gotten ideas about art direction from making this poster. (Also... I wouldn't have had as much fun making the game. Since this game's budget is $0 and all of my free time, it REALLY matters that I am having fun while making it.) Even more important than these visual assets, though, was the trailer. How many games have I checked out just based on the trailer? I recently purchased Raging Loop on Steam, a game I have been considering for months, because I finally watched the trailer and realized "okay, this game is me-core." The trailer is so important. It's not about how pretty the trailer is; it's about whether the trailer shows me a game that I, in particular, want to play. I don't know who my audience is, but considering my goals and inspirations, I think it is something along the lines of "hipsters who love some combination of Umineko, werewolves, and unique aesthetics." So I needed a trailer that would connect with those people. A trailer that, if I watched it, would make me realize hey, this game is me-core. Making a trailer is its own skillset, though! Completely separate from game development. Communicating something in video form is different than communicating it in another medium. Fortunately... I have actually done a lot of just-for-fun video editing projects very recently! I edited together a "trilogy" out of roadtrip camcorder footage I took, and also put together the video for an audio-visual collab album. I already have tools and a workflow that I like to use. I am developing a game, but it has helped me so much to have experience making a stupid trilogy of camcorder footage roadtrip videos. I worked on those video editing projects because they were fun. I had absolutely no ulterior motive. In doing so, I still gained an important skill that transferred directly to marketing Amadeus. As someone who has always struggled to focus on just One Thing, it's incredibly affirming to realize that having done a lot of random stuff is actually really helping me as a solo game developer. I feel like I've finally found an art form where this is an important skill, and not a hindrance or distraction. So... well, I suppose this means that I have no useful advice for other developers. I want to be honest about my experiences, and my experiences are that I only was able to prepare good marketing assets for Amadeus because I did a lot of for-fun art projects outside of game development. From my perspective, this is amazing news: it tells me that allowing myself space to be an artist and a person outside of this project has actually helped make the project itself better. It tells me that there are no downsides to being experimental and giving time to other projects too. But to anyone reading this hoping for some advice on putting together marketing assets, I'm sure it's the least helpful or relatable thing in the world. I'm sorry about that.

Getting the Word Out

Once the demo released, it became a matter of presenting the materials I had in the right ways, and in the right places. This is what I have been spending most of my waking hours doing this month. A non-exhaustive list of everything I've tried:

• E-mailed all of my professors from grad school whose courses influenced my compositions for the game in some way. (This wasn't so much about the numbers, it was just motivating to get nice comments back. :D)
• Joined a few Discord servers for communities dedicated to indie game developent; tried to engage in meaningful conversations there and check out other games while also sharing my own work. (I'm asking others for a favor, to take a look at my work, so I try to check out theirs too in return.)
• Posted the trailer on the Visual Novels subreddit. (This flopped.)
• Posted weekly* on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and a few other places. (This has been the bulk of my ongoing communications; see below!)
• Posted on a forum I joined last year to discuss music composition.
• Found and followed a lot of other indie game devs making things that interested or excited me.
• Shared it in a Discord server I moderate** as a "creative mod." (I host monthly art-focused events, curate spaces for sharing art, etc.; see below.)
• Shared it with basically all of my friends! Especially friends who are also artists and creators!

To sum, I used every single available avenue to talk about it. But I really need to expand on the two points bolded and asterisked above. I have something additional to say about them, and I cannot overstate how much it matters. *Weekly Posts As indicated, ongoing weekly posts on various platforms are the meat of my marketing. I post regularly, but it's really important to me to not just post the same stuff all the time and annoy everybody. I try to highlight different aspects of the game each time, use different framing, and do a variety of weird and silly stuff. Some things perform unexpectedly well and others are complete flops. But I think it's been key to not be afraid of failure and just try things. That way it's still interesting to the people who already checked out the game, while hopefully reaching new eyes too! (Full disclosure, however: sometimes I will do something that has 0 chance of doing numbers, just because I think it would be a fun thing to post. Since I am completely self-motivating on this project, I have to do things that are self-indulgent, or I will burn out. So, hypothetically, I might be compelled to, say, post a photo taken on an Instax analog camera of the game hooked up to a CRT TV.)
(Step 1 of marketing is to have fun and be yourself?) BUT ALSO! AND THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THIS POST!! I only have any sort of audience on these platforms because of other, unrelated things I've been doing for years. I met a LOT of people on Twitter and Instagram through cosplay and Tales of Symphonia speedrunning, who stuck around somehow. I met some people on Tumblr from recent Ghost Trick ROMhacking, and others from Homestuck meetups in 2012. I met people on Discord from a forum about video games I joined in 2006. I was already connected with a lot of like-minded people to share my game with! I knowI KNOWthat this is something that is only easy to say in retrospect, but: doing stuff and meeting people over the course of a lifetime has added up. I hope that this will continue to be true, and maybe some people who find me through Amadeus will stick around for whatever comes after, once I've fully completed the 5-episode story I have to tell here. And I will see it through. So, please bear this in mind when reading about how I promote my self-indulgent game every week on Instagram. I did not attend Anime Expo 2015 in order to build an audience for the visual novel I would make 9 years later. I was just meeting and connecting with other cosplayers, because I thought I would still be doing cosplay indefinitely. But many of those connections have persisted over the years, and some of those people are interested in my game. None of this seemingly-unrelated life experience is wasted. In the words of one of my teachers from grad school, "it's an accumulated life." I have ended up somewhere unexpected, and I did not plan to end up here, but all of those past experiences were still a part of getting me to where I currently am. **Discord Server Mod I want to highlight this particular place where I've promoted my game, because it's important in a way that connects with basically all of my rambling above. I want to make it clear that absolutely everything that went well this past month started so much longer ago than that. In this point, I am not saying "step 1 of indie game promotion: simply have been a creative events moderator on a Discord server for years first!" as this is incredibly useless advice. Hear me out for a moment. About 2 years ago, there was no "creative events" moderator on this particular Discord server. It was mostly a space to talk about video games with friends. You could also post art there if you wanted, and you might have gleaned a react or two. Also about 2 years ago, I began to think very deeply about my relationship with art and the internet. When I was a tweenager, there was this video game foruma forum that migrated to the Discord server in question recentlywhere you could post your art (usually video game fanart, but could be anything), and the moderator would always engage with it and provide meaningful, thoughtful feedback. That space is one of the biggest reasons I drew so much when I was younger, and worked so hard trying to learn how to draw and shade and color better, because I wanted to have my efforts praised, and I knew they would be. 2 years ago, I desperately needed a space like that again. Lacking one, I decided to pick up the torch left behind by the moderator from my tweenage years, and become the person who would always, always provide thoughtful engaging feedback when people posted their work there. Literally some "be the change you want to see in the world" shit. I knew that someone else doing that for me fundamentally altered the course of my life, so I wanted to try and be that for others if possible. More selfishly, I hoped that this would also create the much-needed space for me to share my work and get feedback and responses, too. Now, about 2 years later, that channel is pretty active. People regularly share their creative works, and it is one of my favorite places to post my own stuff because people are really good about engaging with each other's stuff there. It's been one of the most important places for me to share progress on Amadeus, because that external motivation helps a lot. And once the demo came out, I have absolutely no doubt that this server was a significant proportion of the initial support and momentum it received on launch. I did not even have so much as a delusion of being a game developer when I made these changes in the Discord server. I was working in IT and considering applying to music school. I just wanted to build a community around art. So, why am I writing about my 2-year journey as a Discord mod in my development update about marketing? Hopefully it makes a bit more sense now. I'm really trying to emphasize that the marketing I did this past month didn't start last month. It started 2 years ago on this Discord server, it started in 2006 when I joined that video game forum. Really, my marketing efforts have gone as well as they have becausewhoops, I am tearing up writing thisI have made a lot of incredible connections in a lot of communities over the years, and now that I have something very important to me that I want to share, they have really helped support it. I've had some friends go so far above and beyond what I would ever ask them to do in sharing my game, and that kind of support just... I can't put a number on it; it's invaluable.

In Conclusion

Go to conventions and meet cosplayers. Speedrun a 6-and-a-half-hour-long JRPG from 2003 on Twitch. Join a forum and when it migrates to Discord, organize art events and comment on other people's work. Draw self-indulgent stuff and make silly roadtrip videos scored with Logic Loops. Make 90% of a ROMhack of a Nintendo DS game. Get completely obsessed with other visual novels on itch.io and write essays in their comments. My name is Leo, and my marketing advice is You Only Live Once. I hope this helps. Have a wonderful evening and I look forward to presenting you with a more coherent update next month.

[ 2024-03-26 05:20:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Tomorrow, March 23, at 6pm Pacific I'm going to dust off my Twitch channel [strike]that I used to use to speedrun Tales of Symphonia[/strike] to stream the Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee demo. This will be an opportunity to:

• Show the demo, in full, to anyone who hasn't had the time or energy to play it themselves but wants to see what it's like
• Show the physical pencil and ink drawings that were scanned as assets for the game on camera, side-by-side with the game itself
• Talk a little about the game's code

If you're interested please stop by! It'll be linked in the linktree, but direct link is twitch.tv/arcanaxix See you there! If you miss it, I'll post the video on YouTube, and link that in the linktree as well.

[ 2024-03-22 21:23:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

The demo for Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz launched last Friday. Its first weekend saw 55 wishlists (22 installs) on Steam, and 2 donations* (18 downloads) on itch!! I really didn't dare to dream it would get such a positive receptionmy very stubborn approach to development has been "make the game for ME, stick to MY vision and MY priorities, be open about MY influences," so I was reaching a point where I somewhat doubted if the game would appeal to anyone else at all. I've never been more thrilled to be wrong. Some of my favorite things people have said about it:

• "I feel the influence of Umineko here." - I love this comment because while Umineko is the #1 no-questions-asked hugest direct influence in the narrative, I didn't think that would become obvious until Episode 3 or so. Silly me to not recognize that a game coded on a laptop with Beatrice hand-painted on it** would have the influence clear from the get-go.
• "music f***s deliciously"
• "I want to punt him [Amadeus] across the room (affectionate)" - me too, reader. Me too. (affectionate)

Every single expression of support has been incredibly motivating. I'll be spending the next month defining benchmarks & deadlines through the finish line of Episode 1's release this Fall, and while it's been important to me to make something I'm passionate enough about to completely self-motivate, the encouragement I've received from this new demo's release has given me a massive boost of extra momentum. I'm incredibly excited to get started on what's next. Communications will return to monthly progress devlogs on itch/Steam, and more frequent updates on Tumblr/Discord. Stay updated on your preferred platform: linktr.ee/amadeusgame If you'd like a sooner date than "this fall" for major news, there just might be something to look forward to in the summer. There's also an archive of devlogs on developing this demo in the linktree above if you'd like more to read. In the meantime, check out lots of other cool indie game projects and tell all of your friends about them! So long as you're following on itch or have the game wishlisted on Steam, you won't miss when Episode 1 of Amadeus officially launches. Thank you so much for playing. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *Note on donations: these will be automatically deducted from the price of the full game on itch when it releases for those who donated. There was one donation for the original prototype, however, that can't be automatically deducted by itch. To that donatorif you email me with a receipt showing that was you, I am more than happy to just give you a free download key when the game launches, considering you supported the project from so early on. **pic related:

[ 2024-02-27 00:53:51 CET ] [ Original post ]