Not good at having an online presence

     As usual, here is another late overdue blog update. The last few posts I made have been art and game design/development related which is really the whole point of this blog I guess. I mean that's why I started this whole thing to begin with. To talk about game design and share my works of "art". This post is kind of different though. I've been doing this indie game developer thing for a while now. Years actually. And I don't know what it is, but I feel like I haven't been doing it right. The main thing especially is communicating. Sure, I have this blog that I post updates on every once in a while to share what i'm working on, or talk about video game design or just have some kind of presence online. But, it just doesn't seem to be really doing it. After releasing "Potato Thriller" (which was my first commercial game) I felt like I had to really go back and pursue this indie developer journey more seriously. Learn more, improve myself, build up my skills to produce better quality and more polished games and so on. And I have been doing that. It feels like I have been working on improving my game developing skills forever now.

     I haven't released anything at all since Potato Thriller as of this post because I have been spending so much time reinventing my skill set. But it isn't enough. Going back to the communication thing, I feel like I have been terrible at communicating. I have a YouTube channel, but I barely ever use it and when I do, I just post some random shitty weird animation I pieced together. 90% of the content on my YouTube channel makes absolutely no sense at all. I have two twitter accounts, my main one which I occasionally use and my "productions" account which I made to exclusively just self promote my work, my games, art and brand or whatever. You know, like those company/studio accounts that the big boys have to self promote their brand. I thought, "i'm a game developer, I make stuff, I should make an account to promote my own brand!" - I barely ever even look at that account.

     I don't know. I'm just not good at having an online presence. Not good at doing PR stuff or whatever. You know what I mean. And I see so many other people who are just so naturally good at having an online presence. It's like woah! These people are so much cooler than me. I don't know how people do it but, it's impressive for sure. I applaud those who can pull it off. It's hard to have an online presence and communicate with people. Like, it takes some real talent and skill to manage. Social media is hard! I'm not an old man or anything. Age 25 as of this post. But I am just so naturally bad at social media. But then again, maybe that's because I spend all of my time dedicated to working on my game projects. But sometimes it just makes you so out of touch man! Game developing. It's a lonely and cold thing.

      I'm not really sure where i'm going with this blog post. It's kind of all over the place. Just a rant about myself. But I do want to reinvent myself. Or at least try to be better at the whole online presence thing. I really need to reinvent how I communicate, use twitter, YouTube this blog. YouTube especially, that's a big one. It definitely is the best and most efficient way to share, get info out and communicate with your audience. I mean, I don't even have a freaking comments section on my blog. I get daily page views and visits but I don't know what people are saying. I can't interact with anyone on here. I mean I can. I can just add comments, but it's just different from a comments section on YouTube. So I really want to get into YouTube and start using that as my main platform of communicating, sharing updates and rants and whatever. And I know, I think I have said "I want to get into YouTube" like a hundred times on this blog throughout the years and never really follow through. I guess blogging is just easier and quicker than filming a video, editing and uploading. But I want to do it! I might go back and clean up my current YouTube channel or just start a new one entirely to have a fresh start. I would still post updates here on the blog as well of course.

     Anyway, sorry for the lengthy post that kept jumping around. Kind of confusing rant I suppose. It's different from what I normally talk about here on the blog. I'm not sure if this was even really worth posting. But I already typed it, so why not.

     As for new projects, as mentioned many times already in previous posts, I am working on multiple new game projects and I still believe that 2018 is going to be a great year. I have so much new content I want to get out there and my new games are a major step up from anything else I have ever developed. I'm excited to continue creating games and sharing them. My next game will probably be announced and have an official Steam store game page within the coming weeks. I'll definitely keep you guys posted!

"Snowconesolid Productions"

Snowconesolid Productions logo

     Let's talk about "Business". This is a term that I personally cannot stand for many reasons but mostly because I am just bad at it. However, if you are serious about something or want to pursue your dream beyond it just being a hobby then you will probably be faced with this term numerous times. More specifically, lets focus on one of the most important parts of your business and that is "Branding". Whether you are a new YouTuber or Twitch streamer trying to make it big or a small indie solo game developer such as myself, the branding means everything. I think that building up your own brand is very important because it creates an identifiable image or name for your company, for your product and most importantly, for yourself.

Snowconesolid Mascot thing...

     As you can see by my own logo and mascot, obviously i'm not an expert on branding. But having or building your own brand is cool because it allows you to have this alternate name or alternate persona that is associated with your work. I started learning how to create games back in late 2010 and ever since then I have always identified myself as "Snowconesolid". This is the name I decided to go with as a developer. I know it is a very strange name, and I have talked about this before on the blog - it is really just a silly name that has no meaning. It was something I came up with years ago and then just started using it as your typical "online screen name" or online persona. The purple-cat mascot thing (above) also has no real meaning. It was just something that started as a terrible random drawing I did on paper years ago that continued to evolve. For some reason I decided to make this my logo and something that would identify my work. I started placing the words "Snowconesolid Productions" in all my games as if I was an actual game studio and ever since this has just been something I continued to roll with.

     Anyway, as I continue to hit big milestones in my journey in game development the more serious I am starting to become as a indie game developer. I know I don't make the greatest games but I am constantly working hard and doing my best to keep improving. I have been doing this for years now, but the more I do it, that need to continue creating just keeps getting bigger. I am normally the type of person who tries something and then eventually gets bored and moves onto something else. But with game development that is not the case. I am very passionate and love creating games so much. I am starting to realize more and more that this is something I want to continue doing. So I will continue to make more games and expand my brand as much as I can. 

     I recently created a new separate twitter account: @SnowconesolidPR

This account will be the account for "Snowconesolid Productions". I'll be honest though, I will probably only use this account to spam "promote" my new stuff  such as new games, Steam greenlight campaigns, etc. Hopefully I won't come across as too spammy promoty (that's not a word) with this account.

     Anyway, my main account is still: @snowconesolid
This is my original account. It will still be the account that I will use more and be more active on and get to actually just be myself on. So if you are interested check those out. (Or don't. Totally not trying to advertise my twitters right now...)

     Anyway, to end things off I just want to quickly take the time to say thank you to all of you out there for constantly giving me the motivation to continue doing what I enjoy doing. This blog has been up for years now. It was dead when I first started, but as I continue to post and look at the stats for it, i'm seeing that it is starting to get daily visitors and the numbers are growing. More traffic is coming in. More people are starting to reach out to me on twitter and take the time to say "hi", or "your game is cool". And more people are checking out my games and letting me know what they thought of them. And that is just so cool to see. Seeing people take the time to play something I created or take an interest in my work makes me genuinely happy. It keeps me motivated. So thanks everyone. You are all awesome and I am so grateful for all of you. I look forward to sharing the journey ahead!