I do think that the long development cycle tends to put people off in the meantime while all the nuts and bolts are being hammered out. This might not be the case with playable demos where people leap onto freebies, but still more or less holds true in my mind. It's a time of instant gratification, and just to remind you how many random people commented "ooh I haven't heard anything from you in a long time/ bothered to check but I saw that MARDEK was re-released on Steam!" and stuff like that.
I think that it's inevitably that your interest wanes over time, you're a person who's excited by new ideas so working on one thing all the time isn't really ideal for that. I do understand the pressure of wanting to get something out, and hopefully you'll find your flow of concentration again, but taking breaks to work on other creative projects and improve your skills like before is a good idea too! A few more weeks or months doesn't really make a huge difference to us, though I know it does to you.
The waning numbers over time probably reflects the niche of Flash being diminished over time, and the fact that websites like this aren't that easy to randomly come across. I think the communities you maintained just before focusing on solely the blog also drew people here during that period of time. Psychology (and art) is also a more widespread interest than old Flash games as well, probably. There's a big move of gaming communities and information to centralized places like Discord and Steam, which I'm sure you know about, so gaming-specific activity is likely much higher there. It's worth branching out, but I can see it being overwhelming to try and work out if you feel like it's all new and strange and scary to you.
Can only repeat my well-wishes for you and your games, remember the 10000 hour rule and keep going :) You'll get there, even with skills like promotion!
3
Tobias 1104~4Y
I don't recall my old psychology posts (if they could even be called that; they were mostly insane personal rants rather than, say, 'wellness tips' or whatever) ever attracting new people. It always seemed that essentially the entirety of my audience was people who knew me from MARDEK or Fig Hunter. A lot of people stuck around for the duration of Sindrel Song's development, even though few bought it in the end, but then the views dropped noticeably soon after MARDEK's Steam release. So it seems like most people who ever checked this site were just curious to see if they could get some more MARDEK, and stopped checking once they got that.
It's a shame that the nostalgia is so specific to that one experience, though, and that a new game in a similar spirit doesn't seem enough like an extension of that to be worth sticking around for for a lot of people.
It's not so much that Discord is new and scary, it's more that once I set that up publically, I'll have to be always vigilant about what's going on with it. Waking up worrying about what new community drama I have to face today isn't something I miss at all from the Fig Hunter days (and it's left lingering scars).
I wish I had 10,000 hours to pour into mastering marketing! I'll try to do what I can, though. I certainly feel more knowledgeable and less naive now than I did when I released Sindrel Song, though it'll be interesting to see if the numbers reflect that in the end. I wouldn't be so worried if that hadn't been such a flop, and if everything I read and watched didn't suggest such flops are the norm.
2
mount201046~4Y
Well, you seem to have gotten comfortable with Twitter, despite that also having it's own risks (e.g. someone could scream at you "MARDEK 4 WHEN??")... I'm just saying it's not impossible for you to get used to new things.... though I do understand that you are uncomfortable *to start* with the Discord thing, and your fear of it might actually lead to your fears coming true instead of disproving them...
For what it's worth, as an Discord chat moderator, I've tried to help the developer whose chat I moderate avoid and prevent drama from occurring that might cause him to become distracted from his game development. I think any moderators that you appoint would want to do the same thing for you. Otherwise, it's a huge failure of the moderators.
And honestly, the fact that you have fewer viewers right now might help you with the Discord thing. That means that whomever views the post in which you announce your Discord server is likely to be actually interested in your work rather than a random passersby, and thus less likely to cause trouble.
3
Tobias 1104~4Y
Being on Twitter is like going and shouting out in a park where a bunch of other people are doing the same, while a Discord would be like inviting people to a party at my house, which I'd have had to organise. If I'm not in the mood, I can just not go to the park, but it feels harder to just take time off when it's something I have some degree of ownership over.
Most of my concerns about it come from running communities in the past though, which caused an enormous amount of stress. It's not something I'm eager to revive, though I know I'll have to. I'll just have to hope I can find some good moderators, but chances are I'll be worrying about what they might do as much as - or more than - what the members might do (would they shape the community according to what they want rather than what I'd want? Should what I want actually matter?).
I think that it's inevitably that your interest wanes over time, you're a person who's excited by new ideas so working on one thing all the time isn't really ideal for that. I do understand the pressure of wanting to get something out, and hopefully you'll find your flow of concentration again, but taking breaks to work on other creative projects and improve your skills like before is a good idea too! A few more weeks or months doesn't really make a huge difference to us, though I know it does to you.
The waning numbers over time probably reflects the niche of Flash being diminished over time, and the fact that websites like this aren't that easy to randomly come across. I think the communities you maintained just before focusing on solely the blog also drew people here during that period of time. Psychology (and art) is also a more widespread interest than old Flash games as well, probably. There's a big move of gaming communities and information to centralized places like Discord and Steam, which I'm sure you know about, so gaming-specific activity is likely much higher there. It's worth branching out, but I can see it being overwhelming to try and work out if you feel like it's all new and strange and scary to you.
Can only repeat my well-wishes for you and your games, remember the 10000 hour rule and keep going :) You'll get there, even with skills like promotion!
It's a shame that the nostalgia is so specific to that one experience, though, and that a new game in a similar spirit doesn't seem enough like an extension of that to be worth sticking around for for a lot of people.
It's not so much that Discord is new and scary, it's more that once I set that up publically, I'll have to be always vigilant about what's going on with it. Waking up worrying about what new community drama I have to face today isn't something I miss at all from the Fig Hunter days (and it's left lingering scars).
I wish I had 10,000 hours to pour into mastering marketing! I'll try to do what I can, though. I certainly feel more knowledgeable and less naive now than I did when I released Sindrel Song, though it'll be interesting to see if the numbers reflect that in the end. I wouldn't be so worried if that hadn't been such a flop, and if everything I read and watched didn't suggest such flops are the norm.
For what it's worth, as an Discord chat moderator, I've tried to help the developer whose chat I moderate avoid and prevent drama from occurring that might cause him to become distracted from his game development. I think any moderators that you appoint would want to do the same thing for you. Otherwise, it's a huge failure of the moderators.
And honestly, the fact that you have fewer viewers right now might help you with the Discord thing. That means that whomever views the post in which you announce your Discord server is likely to be actually interested in your work rather than a random passersby, and thus less likely to cause trouble.
Most of my concerns about it come from running communities in the past though, which caused an enormous amount of stress. It's not something I'm eager to revive, though I know I'll have to. I'll just have to hope I can find some good moderators, but chances are I'll be worrying about what they might do as much as - or more than - what the members might do (would they shape the community according to what they want rather than what I'd want? Should what I want actually matter?).