Hello World

I remember that phrase being the point of an entire fortnight's worth of BASIC programming class, lo these many years ago. The student programmer, working on the Apple IIe (!), and viewing the results on the bright green monochrome of the gigantic 40 lb 13" diagonal monitor , would tease several lines of code into producing the desired outcome: "Hello World", glowing green for all the World to see and regard. Then we did some naughty ones, it was Eighth Grade, after all, and you then learn the secondary lesson of GIGO. The medium will only spit out what you input.

The Medium is just that, a middleman, a broker, and should be as unobtrusive as possible as it delivers the intent of the creator of the message to their audience. After all, the message is only as good as its creator can make it. As far as an art form goes, making a game is not the intimate, insightful window into the soul that, say, a novel, or a painting might be. It's not meant to be a personal thing anyhow, a game is usually meant as something to be enjoyed together. So, when I started researching the 'hows and whys' of a successful Kickstarter campaign, and found out that so much of it was building community, seeking feedback, messaging, posting, replying, and all of this intensely NOT personal or introspective stuff, it feels correct and right.

Don't get me wrong, there was a little, just a little hesitancy there: you don't work on something for the better part of 4 years in concept or creation, and not be a little clingy. But after the initial, "no its My baby" I have settled into "It must be everyone's baby, or there will be no baby at all" mentality. I have had so many positive suggestions, reinforcements, questions followed by re-examination and revision, from just a few close confidants, that the prospect of opening that process up to literally millions of potential like-minded folks... well, it is a very exciting prospect, indeed. I want the people who would be enjoying my little game in on the ground floor, so to speak. Everyone who takes the time to look will, I hope, see that sensibility in everything I do with DisCards leading up to Kickstarter start date, through the campaign, and in the eventual aftermath. You, the DisCards backers, are who matters in the final analysis, and I hope you will become as excited about the game as I am. If so, we will have plenty to talk about! Thanks for reading, if you have gotten this far, I am truly grateful; its definitely more literary attention than I deserve.