Don’t know how to start this post, but going to give it a shot anyway…

So, its a long time since my last post here. I have been up to a lot over the past 2 years. Im planning to share a few of these updates over the coming weeks/months. Writing on my blog is something I liked doing, and still like to do, its just the matter of ‘getting it going again and see where it brings me this time’.

So thats why I started writing these past sentences, just to get it going.

Men, I just talked nothing in these past sentences, didn’t I? Its so bad, even chat gpt wouldn’t write it like that lolz! Well, I read that ‘human created content’ is now getting more and more problematic to find for LLM’s to train on, because so much people just dont do stuff themselves anymore but let a system write it for them…

Anyhow, lets get on with it.

Find the Gnome

Lets start with ‘what happened on Find the Gnome’. Specifically FtG2.

I used the past 6 to 9 months to sell the game. I reworked the website, made sure its content favored the ‘gamer’ perspective a bit more, added focus to services I provide on this website.

The whole idea behind this is that ‘marketing sells games’. So before I wanted to change something about my game, make it better, or do anything on it, I should first make sure that I actually have people buying and playing the game so that I have better feedback on what works and what doesn’t.

To that end, I needed to gather a lot more information on who buys my game and who plays my game. That is why I streamlined the website a bit more, added a webshop for ‘direct support’ of the game, and added integration for Google Ads.

I then did a couple of data-driven marketing campaigns. I formulated an assumption, set a budget, and then judged the results. I have done probably 3 or 4 of them right now. And I have a lot more data on the demographics now that play my game… but it hasn’t lead to me understanding the needs of my demographic better and/or the direction I could take my game and/or focus on certain updates with it.

So thats where FtG2 is currently at.

Business perspective

There is so much more to say about FtG2 and its marketing that I did and the things I learned from that, but thats for another time. Lets get into the ‘where is Erik at currently with GameFeelings and/or his other business adventures’.

Well, you probably guessed it by now: I am not working on game dev fulltime.

I am however working as a freelancer in business software development. Specifically at .Net applications that work with model based software. Currently that is for TransportPlan.nl and Thinkwise.

This idea of model based software is striking something deep within me. The model has a level of abstraction that justifies good software (tooling) to work with it, and its my job to make that tooling and make the most of the possibilities that model driven software can provide the consultants that build the actual application with it. And, at the same time, make sure the end-user has the best experience possible, by making sure that the consultant that did model for that end-user had all the tools he needed to make the best experience for that end-user. Of course, making sure the software also performs flawlessly when used by the end-user each time, is also very rewarding to work on, because each piece of software is deeply integrated and (re)used all over the place.

To bring it back to game dev: its something I have become aware off while working together with my son on a few projects together with him over the past years. I just love to make tools for him, I find that way more fun than putting all the parts together to for the actual game itself.

There is something in me that really loves that supportive element, that abstraction, to ‘think about the things they are going to make with it’ and thus making tools for them ‘so that they make it happen in a timely and consistent manner’.

Lets conclude this post and wrap things up. So I am still very much alive, and working on a lot of creative stuff. Especially in the ‘I help others do cool stuff’ department. Its not all game related though, and I spend the majority of time on non-game related subjects. But for this blog and website, I think I still have a lot to share on here. I could start with sharing some projects of my son here that we worked on in the past year… yeah, thats something I definitely should spend a post on in the future.

Well, see you next time! Thanks for reading!