Bing Bang Boom! Y’all take 28 minutes out of your day and listen to this fire Michael Gustin and I just dropped. I’m so excited for what we’ve got planned at Reality Hacker Studios. When you’re setting out to pursue a dream, the majority of the battle is won in the mind. You have to believe now only that it’s possible, but that YOU’RE the person for the job. Overcoming that limiting self belief is the number one hurdle that opens up a world of possibilities. Helping Indie Devs overcome that hurdle is our mission, and I’m super proud of the first entry into sharing that message on our podcast. https://open.spotify.com/episode/3Q6jFf8eQkIat3JiA1UA2N?si=MuuoD2f7T1mGG6UO3jgumQ

What are y’all working on??? Starting a new weekly roundtable today to share what you’ve got cooking. Whether it’s a work in progress, new release, stick figure drawing on a napkin, let’s chat about what kind of progress we’re making and help each other get where we wanna go! Here’s one of the first visuals of the combat phase coming in the mega update for our game Codebreaker Crush. Been in a wild journey turning this little Candycrush Clone prefab into something we’re really excited to share.

Do you have a "guilty pleasure" game mechanic? Something that we constantly see people hate on or we see massive negative sentiment towards, but you secretly love games that do it? Personally, I freaking love a live service game. Maybe it's the decade of Destiny that has just conditioned me to be okay with a constantly changing game, but I always have interest in a subscription game that has constant evolution. Sure sometimes the devs go in a direction that I don't like, but they can also go in a direction that I would have never predicted that's freaking awesome. What about y'all?

When’s the last time, if ever, you brainstormed who your ideal player is? Not sure what I mean? In the marketing world, there’s a concept known as the “Ideal Customer Avatar.” Essentially, think of it as the most in-depth character creation screen you’ve ever seen, where you piece together the perfect person that would benefit from your product. We’ve gone through this exercise with countless business owners, and of course, have done this for ourselves many times. What makes it such a powerful exercise is that you’re left with a compass of everything your product needs to be, and how to present it so that it provides maximum value to your perfect customer. (We’ll get into how to do this in a second.) I haven’t quite seen anyone discuss this all that much in the game dev space, and it seems like a no-brainer of an exercise. Imagine being able to think, “Would my ideal player like this new mechanic?” or “Would my ideal player respond to this ad?” every time you were making a big decision. Beats the heck out of shooting in the dark and hoping for the best. So, if you’re tired of feeling lost as to what decisions need to be made for your game, let’s talk about your ideal player. 🎮BUILDING OUT THE IDEAL PLAYER🎮 Think of all the characteristics that make up someone who would be a perfect match for your game: - What kind of games do they like? - What’s their personality like? - How old are they? - What social media platforms do they hang out on? - What clichés in the industry tick them off? - What motivates them when they play games? This description will change and adapt over time. Start out with literally a fantasy version of the ideal person. Chances are, there’s a large group of people that fit that description. Write all of these notes down somewhere and keep them easily accessible so you can refresh yourself on your ideal player when you need guidance. Finally, and this one is going to sound weird, name them. Achievement Hunter Harry or something catchy and descriptive. This makes them real in your mind.

We just added a free resource in the classroom tab! It's a cheat sheet on how to prompt ChatGPT for more efficient use and better results. There's a short article in there sharing our thoughts on AI. What are your thoughts?