Straight!? Blog Launched!!

Ok dammit,

So four score and a long-fucking-time ago, some of my early peers and feedback suggested that I advertise the game on Tumblr. While I already appreciate Tumblr, the idea of trying to manage a blog on there seemed like a lot more work. However, the more I thought about it, the real work would only be at the beginning: sorta setting it up and stuff. After that, it probably wouldn't be much different than anything else I was doing. 

I had also entertained the thought of having a fan actually run the blog but felt that it would still get high maintenance if people had questions that had to be relayed to me. 

So whateve's...

Recently, a friend that I was talking about the game with suggested Tumblr again... sooooo, I'm gonna give this a try. Basically, this is more of an advertising thing to get the game more well-known but I have some behind-the-scenes stuff planned, too. Recently, I've begun to make more money per update and it's getting closer to being able to afford a new rig--which would seriously improve how quickly I could generate new content. Long-term, I would like to do animations in the game but my entire room would catch fire if I did that with this old dusty-old-Lost in Space-lookin-motherfucker. This was a far-fetched dream before but it's getting closer so I figured what the hell.

For those of you that are concerned that I will go mad and begin to try and do too many things (game + selfies + blog, etc), I'm not planning on doing much with this blog other than initially starting it. I'll probably post a few screenshots and teasers on there that people can share and we'll see if it actually makes a difference or not. If it doesn't--well, I guess it can sit there with dust on it. If it becomes unmanageable, well, I'll look at other options--maybe kicking it back to fan-generated. This is entirely free, so it's not like I have to prioritize it like I do the game updates.

One strength I see to the blog (in addition to adding another advertising medium) is that of anonymity. Tumblr allows for anonymous "asks," allowing people to more anonymously provide me feedback about the game or ask questions that they may not wish to be associated with their Patreon account or user name. For example, some followers on Patreon have very public YouTube accounts and may be secretly following the game development. Should they choose to "like" something or post a comment, their name will be recorded for all users to see here. Hell, I'm anonymous so why can't you be?!!  To me, this justifies at least throwing the idea out there and seeing what happens. I would like to give the shy followers as much of a voice as the very active followers. Overall, this just seems like a potential option.

Features

The blog will probably have more behind-the-scenes stuff than the Patreon account because, on here, it would just generate too much annoying spam. On Tumblr, you can sift through stuff or completely ignore it. Basically, if you completely ignore the blog--you're not gonna miss anything. It's just something extra to increase feedback potential and communication between the players and me. Plus, stuff sometimes spreads like wildfire on Tumblr and I wouldn't mind the extra income because I can certainly see a place to use it in upgrading the game.

 To initially celebrate the Tumblr blog launch, I'm doing a one-time bonus for the blog that some of you won't care about because it's nothing big. Basically, I snapped a pic of my original story outline and shared some thoughts about it. It will show a basic flowchart (the original design) of the game design up to the poker sequence. Be warned: you're not missing much in not seeing this, lol. My outline was ridiculously simple but some of you that appreciate the process may be interested in seeing how far things have really come. For those of you that don't want to deal with the blog, don't worry--if you're really interested in seeing the outline, I'll post it here before long. Just wanted to throw a small incentive out that will better capture some of the stuff the blog will feature. 

Right now the blog is pretty small. It includes a couple pics and links to here plus a bio on Zack and Braden. Just simple beginning stuff. It may also have some of my ramblings or I may reblog stuff that I think is related or similar to the game tone.

Also, Tumblr has new privacy restrictions that are incredibly annoying. Because the game has adult content, I've flagged the blog for adult content so you'll have to login using your Tumblr account and make sure that your settings allow you to see dirty stuff :p  However, there's no smut on the Tumblr--yet.

So here's the link:

Note: The mobile version is very different from the desktop version. I'm partial to the desktop version cause I worked my ass off on that thing and I'm sorta happy with out it turned out :) 

https://str8vn.tumblr.com/ 

If you're interested, check it out, give a follow, and pass the word. If not, no offense taken :)

-Aaryn-