Nokoromi
February 18, 2010
Well, pleasant dreamers, I come bearing tidings of the most exceedingly bogus variety: my submission for the Gamma IV competition was turned down. I can’t really hide my disappointment over this turn, as I’d labored long and hard to fit my conversational gameplay mechanics into Kokoromi’s one-button constraint. All in all I’m happy I participated, as I genuinely feel that pushing my QAYN design into one button makes it work much better, but still…
At least this means I can release my game a little earlier than I’d hoped. And considering that there were a whopping 154 submissions this year, there’s at least the consolation that the competition was fierce. Probably more quality games were rejected this year than were even submitted to all the Gammas combined. I’d hope that all of those games will eventually be played, recognized and maybe even supported by fans online, but that might seem just a little self serving.
If anybody wants to play my game, you can open it in a BROWSER or download it in a ZIP. It’s called “Convey, Or: The Countdown”, and maybe I’ll write about it a little more in the future, once I get over this tragedy.
Until next time, pleasant dreamers, if some charming little talking cricket tries telling you that with nothing more than a wish upon a star that dreams really do come true, make sure that you listen to him and keep hope for the future alive. Then squash him.
The Designer's Dilemma 
I just saw this post on PTT.
“Yet was kinda stricken with a several month-long depression-related case of designer’s block, which I’m still technically in the midst of, but slowly breaking out of. I actually made something for it last year, though submitted it wrong, so too bad.”
Hey Bob, I haven’t apologized yet for not responding to your emails on Convey. It didn’t have anything to do with the quality of your games, as you know I’ve been a fan for over a year. I’ve been struggling with a bout of depression myself since about February, around the time my input for Play This Thing stopped. I’ve tried off and on to write material for the site but haven’t been able to shake off my writer’s block. There are a handful of other developers I’ve let down and I’ll apologize to them in time, but I can empathize with what you’re going through so you’re the first on my list.
I’ve tried making music and I made a shitty game for Klik of the Month a while back and they’ve both been cathartic to a degree. I still don’t have any idea on how to fully cope with my depression, but hopefully you can overcome your own. If you’re having designer’s-block maybe you could try a different model of game design?
Best regards,
Dustin