- Joined
- Jul 8, 2020
A two man development team with no games published or released (even small ones) is going to be a red flag for any publisher that isn't judging solely on their personal connection to the person.Take my opinion here with a grain of salt but you see a ton of people like ding dong trying to make it in games, albeit most arent nearly as skilled as he is. Opinionated (and dare I say bitter) people who don't play nice with others don't make it very far in game dev. Ding dong COULD get a publisher tomorrow whether it be via his connections or from some kinda deal but I guarantee you that it comes down to not wanting to be told what to do and not wanting to have to receive input on how to make the game.
Take this with an even BIGGER grain of salt and a "I Am Not A Therapist" but ding dong strikes me as a person with severe anxiety issues and poor coping mechanisms for them. He's from Chicago iirc so I doubt it's a cultural thing that's stopped him from getting professional help, it probably has more to do with the Dingus Duo lacking health insurance.
*Sticks six fingers up your nose slams you against the wall*
A person that uses their perfectionism to procrastinate and the person who uses their laziness to procrastinate lead to the same outcome at the end of the day. Publishers don't care for blown timelines or endless development delays, because who would?
There is no barrier to entry for publishing your games online. A portfolio of smaller scale (3-4 month full-time development time max) games completed and published gives you a lot more credibility than the giant epic game you're developing for years and years and never release.
Most importantly, completing and releasing smaller games helps you grow more than anything. Fuck however talented DingDong thinks he is, there is always something you need to learn and improve on. Scott Cawthorn developed and released tons of smaller lighthearted games singlehandedly, no publisher. And he got harsh criticism for them, but he channeled the negative into positive:
- When Chipper & Sons Lumber Co. came out, the people complained about the characters in it looking like scary animatronic dolls. This sent Scott into a deep depression. While initially discouraged, almost to the point of quitting game development entirely, he eventually decided to use the robotic character flaws to his advantage, sparking the development of Five Nights at Freddy's.
I guess what I'm saying is: a publisher doesn't want to be your personal paypig. If you truly feel there is no way in gods green earth you can shorten your development cycle, and it has to be this multi-year epic game development no matter what: you will have to make sacrifices. Cuphead was a case like this, and the two brothers remorgaged their house at one point to raise enough funds to finish the game.
What I'm saying to DingDong is either:
- take your fans money with gratitude to support what is essentially your passion project and stop whining
- stop trying to make perfect games and set reasonable completion deadlines to adhere to no matter what
- or get a day job and work on your passion in your free time like the vast majority of people in GameDev.