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Topic: An Open Letter To Terra Snover  (Read 48582 times)

Lemon

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover
ForTheLove revived the Kickstarter episode in the comments, which led me into look at Terra Snover again, because I frequently make bad decisions on what to do with my free time.

Anyway, it might interest you to know that Terra hasn't given up on Kickstarter. After Princess: Escape From Kingdom Kalamity failed to find funding, the organization dissolved and Overzealous Studios rose from its ashes. They have a game (idea) called Wisp, which is some kind of indie game bullshit where you're a dot and there's colors.

Anyway, they made a new Kickstarter. We need $2,000 to make Wisp a reality! That didn't get funded. But the good thing is they had a back-up plan. Start a new Kickstarter! Now we need $4,000 to make the same game that we were going to make for $2,000 a couple months ago. The fun part is that they raised more than $2,000 in their second attempt and the project still failed.

Now they've wised up and removed the middleman entirely. You can now preorder a copy of Wisp, which of course has no release schedule, timeline, or any real assurance that this game will ever exist at all. The game has had a playable demo (it seems to have been scrubbed), so by all means everybody should send them $15 for a beta key. Or hell, $100 to design your own level! The result is the same regardless.

...

Okay, I know I've been harder on Terra Snover than a lot of other F+ subjects, but I think this panel from one of her Kickstarter pitches should put the whole thing into perspective.


Fuck. You.

You're a 25 year old art school graduate with absolutely 0 track record in producing anything, other than poorly considered websites promoting products which do not exist. You wanna make your own game? Fine. Clearly you've met some people who realized that Torque 2D is pretty damn easy to work with, sit in front of the computers you already own and make a game during any hour when you're not working at Doc Hoopers.

You think this game will be something people will really love? I don't, but shit I played Typing of the Dead this morning, what do I know? I certainly can't judge you by the demo, which is fine because I get the feeling I'd have to install the Torque SDK to play it anyway. The point is you've had two years now to crank out a game and figure out the distribution later, but instead you keep coming back to the idea that other people need to hand you money so you can realize your dream and they do not.

And even if they did, what good is that $4k gonna do for you anyway? From your own pitch comic, you need the money for
  • A copy of Photoshop
  • Quitting your job
  • An Alienware computer
  • An Xbox 360
  • Ghirardelli chocolates? I'm not sure what that other shit is on that table.
  • Also pie, but I suspect that's a joke
And there's somewhere between 3 and 7 of you on this team. Are you all quitting your jobs? Do all of you need your own new Alienware computer? Would you settle for Godiva chocolates, or does it have to be Ghirardelli? Honestly, how long do you think this $4,000 will last between you all and your laundry list of shit you need that's preventing you from releasing the World's Best Video Game? It's nonsense. If you got funded, you'd fight over what they money should go to and then six months later you've got another Kickstarter going to get you over "the next game hump".

Stop using other people to help you make excuses. Everybody I know that produces innovative and terrific creative work does so in addition to working at a real job, which might be intellectually fulfilling but probably not. If you truly love the work, you'll find the time to make it and you'll find the way to ship it. If you need $4,000 to get motivated to do something that you profess to love, then you need to stop lying to yourself.



Also, stop drawing Calvin & Hobbes.
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« Last Edit: February 05, 2014, 05:28:03 pm by Lemon »

Isfahan

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #1
man look at the way she draws hands

it's a bump on the end of an arm with three lines

Runic

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #2
Damn it Lemon, that woman needs your money. How else is she going to pay for the surgery to correct the tragic birth defect that caused her to be born with flesh-forks instead of hands? If the picture is anything to go by, at least.

nigeline

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #3
If she thinks $4000 will pay for "not having a job" in addition to her laundry list of toys, she's even stupider than I thought.

cyclopeantrash

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #4
I have just one other tiny tiny nipick for Terra.



Dammit Terra. Just. Dammit.

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #5
man look at the way she draws hands

it's a bump on the end of an arm with three lines
Isfahan, February 05, 2014, 05:29:45 pm
Something is seriously wrong with that arm. The longer I look at it, the more the perspective confuses me.

With regards to Terra Snover, I am sick and tired of this "I'm so smart and unique and creative, I shouldn't have to work a menial job like normal people!" mindset that so many internet young people seem to have (which I realize is awfully rich coming from an unemployed 19-year-old). Someone needs to sit these kids down an explain to them that literally everyone feels that way, and they are going to have to suck it up and get a damn job anyway, because that is how the world functions. If everyone just decided to quit their jobs and flitter away to pursue their passions, nothing would ever get done. No one would be making your coffee at Starbucks. No one would be helping you at the bank. You're not actually entitled to anything by virtue of your existing, no matter how special you think you are, or how much you believe working is beneath you.

....so basically, what Lemon said.

KingKalamari

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #6
So focusing in on a very narrow detail here but she is aware that there are Photoshop alternatives that don't actually cost anything, right? Also this is the second time in two days I've seen someone trying to make money by being a DM (Thank you grognards.txt), I'm sorry people but it's not gonna happen!

nigeline

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #7
What I don't understand is how she doesn't still have a CS license from her art school!

cyclopeantrash

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #8
Also this is the second time in two days I've seen someone trying to make money by being a DM (Thank you grognards.txt), I'm sorry people but it's not gonna happen!
KingKalamari, February 05, 2014, 05:53:23 pm

My big issue is the choice of games she gives! All but one are just trite and terrible.

count_actuala

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #9
God damn it, it's easier than ever to get started making stuff with next to nothing. Download Unity, learn the engine, make a thing. You can use royalty free shit, just familiarize yourself with making and finishing shit. Get used to distributing stuff for nothing or damn near to it. Acquaint yourself with the phrase 'make it do or do without' because it's not without a good deal of luck and privilege that some random nerd finishing their first game starts out with a high end computer.

More constructively (and less angrily): Fall in love with the process, because that's what will sustain you. I create for a living, and sometimes sales are amazing and I have several commitments and they're all going swimmingly and I make bank at the end of the month, but many months I'm making rent and meager food money. If I want to move into a different apartment, I'll probably be taking up a second job for a few months. I can deal with these things because the process of creating makes me happy. When you stop viewing the process as a route to reward, it becomes easier to work and easier to accept the meager rewards for your hard work. You have to be okay with working hard for the sake of having worked hard and made something, super-duper gaming rig or not.
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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #10
People want to be able to work at something they're passionate about.  That's perfectly fine.  As someone working in a job I don't care about, I totally sympathize with wanting to make your passion your profession.

But you can't put 'I get paid for my passion' before 'I'm good at my passion'.  I've seen that all the time with interviews with people online.  "What's your advice for starting out?" is invariably "spend two or three or more years making things without expecting any return".  There's more than one reason for that, too--first, you have to become good at what you want to do.  No one's going to support someone who can't do something good yet.  Second, you have to want to do it for yourself.  If you don't really want to do it, if you don't really want to spend years at it before you get even slightly noticed, then you won't be able to stick with it.

You can't say, "I'll make my awesome game when I have all the free time in the world and I don't have to work."  If you're not willing to put in the effort in your free time when you're working, why do you think you'll suddenly have more willpower when you don't have to work?
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nigeline

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #11
But you can't put 'I get paid for my passion' before 'I'm good at my passion'.  I've seen that all the time with interviews with people online.  "What's your advice for starting out?" is invariably "spend two or three or more years making things without expecting any return".  There's more than one reason for that, too--first, you have to become good at what you want to do.  No one's going to support someone who can't do something good yet.  Second, you have to want to do it for yourself.  If you don't really want to do it, if you don't really want to spend years at it before you get even slightly noticed, then you won't be able to stick with it.
EYE OF ZA, February 05, 2014, 07:40:29 pm
This, this, a thousand times this. In most any field, whether you want to make money from your work or not, you're going to have to work for some length of time before coming in to any sort of recognition. No matter if it's two months, two years, or twenty years, it's going to seem even more awful than it is if you begin with the expectation of immediate success. Work is just that, work. That doesn't mean you can't try and get some support, monetary or otherwise, from people while you're struggling through the muck. Just don't expect things to fall into your lap!

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #12
I bet I got further in high school dicking around with my friends than she is right now, and I was using the worlds least stable pc.

Isfahan

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #13
MicroMissles, February 05, 2014, 05:45:59 pm

"A g-g-g-girl? GMing a t-t-t-tabletop game? That's totally worth over seven thousand dollars!" *inhaler sounds*

And here's Montrith, GMing a game for free like a sucker. Haha, Montrith, you sucker.

cyclopeantrash

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An Open Letter To Terra Snover #14
I doubt it's as insidious as capitalizing on the Girl GM aspect. But hey, grognards be grognards.

My big issue personally is her choice of games. Really? Two Joss Whedon tabletop adaptations and a steampunk anime game? Have some dignity!