Polytechnicast - Understanding An Artist and Indie Game Developer's Business

Jerzy and I return to a shared podcast event, first one in quite some time with more to come. It's a thoughtful and playful chat about what got us to this point of collaborating on the Doctor Baer video game. We share the official name and the Steam page where you can wishlist it today.

Have you been curious about making your own video game or perhaps already jumped in? This episode of the Polytechnicast I'm joined by Josh Anthony, indie game developer who created Dice Gun Commando and Dice Tower. In our conversation we get to explore how Josh started making games, what it was like starting from being a creative first and later growing into being an engineer. We talk about picking up skills to make games, learning from failure as data, finding what good-enough means and what that unlocks for learning systemically from what you're making and sharing with your community.

Gettiing back to you from behind the microphone, I had a list of five things and manage to cover three. First is the massive game development focus that's truly been gong on longer but the last couple months hitting some big adventures. That covers telling the story of moving from Godot 3 to 4 with my core game tech and porting Lexilotl fully to Godot 4. After all that: The challenge I had getting Steam Input working on Lexilotl, probably much of that having to do with my learning style. The Doctor Baer Video Game To Be Named (which might have an official name announcement soon). The whole AI topic where I run through my 5 or 6 "gotchas" that with those in mind it really stuns me to see such wide adoption and push for it at least in this current form. A topic potpurri, grab bag, buffet, three for one deal. Two topics didn't make it this time but they are coming: partnering vs dominance and getting unstuck creatively. Also I mention that I'll be doing an interview soon with the game creator of the indie games Dice Tower and Dice Gun Commando: Josh Anthony. Related Links and Resources Lexilotl: Crossword Puzzle Run on Steam Lexilotl - Apps on Google Play ‎Lexilotl - Crossword Puzzle Run - Apple App Store Guitar Fretter on Steam Rob Stenzinger on TikTok Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Apple's App Store Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app Polytechnicast - Three Topics - Game Dev - Doctor Baer - and Problems With AI Rob Stenzinger

Album art for episode featuring a sketch of a conversion funnel for selling indie games Making Lexilotl, my latest game which is a crossword puzzle run where you get a clue and three tries to solve a puzzle and can keep going until your tries run out. I had planned on making ad supported right away but ran into a roadblock and went a different way. Here's the story of that and some of my other explorations in making money by making games. Also, a negative comment on one of the Lexilotl announcement videos gave the the idea to explore this topic. Related Links and Resources ‎Lexilotl - Crossword Puzzle Run - Apple App Store Guitar Fretter on Steam Rob Stenzinger on TikTok Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Apple's App Store Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app Polytechnicast - Understanding An Artist and Indie Game Developer's Business Rob Stenzinger

It's been a busy few months and I'm glad to be back and share some updates, fun projects, and encouragement here on the Polytechnicast. Word Turtle Island is out in the world now 4 months along and I started making my next game already. It's a word puzzle crossword style game called Lexilotl. Related Links and Resources Rob Stenzinger on TikTok Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Apple's App Store Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app Polytechnicast - Lexilotl is My New Game In Progress - Also Voiceover Rob Stenzinger

Word Turtle Island is now 1.0. Four years in the making and here it is. Officially released on Apple's App Store, Steam, Google Play, and Itch! I share what it's like now with it officially the full version, things I would and wouldn't recommend doing again looking back at the development path of WTI, and a bit about the game I'm prototyping next. Also: WTI won an award for art direction! Related Links and Resources 2D Con Indie Island Rob Stenzinger on TikTok Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Apple's App Store Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app Polytechnicast - Word Turtle Island 1.0 and Winning an Award at 2D Con Rob Stenzinger

An intertwined creative challenge: make a more ambitious game than I've made before, make it work as a business, and succeed in marketing it well. In this Polytechnicast I focus on the marketing part of that challenge and what I've learned these past few months publishing a video every single day. Especially the adapting from being stressed about aspects of it to finding framings and habits to make it sustainable, meaningful, and still figuring out the effective part. Related Links and Resources Rob Stenzinger on TikTok Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app Polytechnicast - Showing Up to Practice Rob Stenzinger

Not sure when exactly the marketing push should have started with Word Turtle Island but I do see it needs to be happening now. In this epsisode of the Polytechnicast I'm exploring the creative challenge I started to do daily video posts, while also doing more marketing, while also getting Word Turtle Island ready for it's next updates in June and hopefully 1.0 in July. Remember that time I thought it'd be ready soon a couple years ago? This estimate is more credible but also please be kind considering the source is an optimistic busy artist. Related Links and Resources Rob Stenzinger (@robstenzinger) on TikTok Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app Polytechnicast - Daily Short Video Creative Challenge Plus Word Turtle Island Progress Rob Stenzinger

Two main topics this episode. First it's what I've been learning so far with making small videos while exploring topics like teaching interactive design, show and tell about Word Turtle Island, and even video blogging inspired by the old Art Soundoff creative challenge. Second it's about reaching a point of saturation in learning by researching with people playing my game. The bulk of this I recorded into my watch while running errands so the audio isn't great, but I've reviewed and edited and gotta say there's a lot of good ideas, examples, and encouragement here well worth your background co-working audio time. Related Links and Resources Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app Polytechnicast - Researching Your Game Enough to Learn Enough Rob Stenzinger

Last episode of the Polytechnicast I shared some projects I'd begun and was about do dive into. These are the spinning plates driving this episode. Did any fall? Are there more plates spinning? Related Links and Resources Fourthwall - Rob Stenzinger's Workshops + Creative Designs + Merch Store Word Turtle Island - The Arcade Machine - Photos From Woodworking to Electronics to Finished Cabinet at Midwest Gaming Classic Previous episode: Polytechnicast - Teaching Interactive Design and Word Turtle Island Arcade Machine Teaching Interactive Design on TikTok Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app Polytechnicast - Experiments Progress aka Metaphorical Plate Spinning Rob Stenzinger