atari2600land's Blog

If you are having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

 

 

I guess a better way to phrase it is I wish I didn't have to live any more. I have no way to physically commit suicide.

I've followed your blog for a while and I always find your commentary and thoughts interesting and a good read. I also like your game ideas especially the ones like Uncle Hairy's Nosehair, that are quirky and original.

 

If you have completed games, there is nothing stopping you from releasing them yourself. I don't know much about releasing games on platforms other than the 2600 and 7800 so I can't offer much advice there, but on those Atari platforms, if you want to talk about releasing your games, shoot me a PM and I'll try to help. 

 

 

 

Hey Chris.  I can see how your situation can make you frustrated and depressed.  But consider changing your perspective.  Atari era homebrew gaming is a small niche.  There  aren't a lot of people paying attention to any homebrews.   So any exposure your games get, be thankful for it and enjoy reading or rewatching that content.   Sure there are more and more 2600 and 7800 games that are sold in the AA store. But think about it, but who knows how many copies are being purchased and actually played.   And how many are being bought by the same 20 to 50 people who always buy a new homebrew.  My point being, I would not assume your games are always ignored while every one else's games are super popular within the community.  It wasn't long ago that a ZPH episode featured Uncle Harry's Nosehair, which was hilarious and a hit! And they tried out your older game Jack and the Beanstalk too.   Come on, seeing your game being played live on Twitch and forever kept on YT should give you tremendous satisfaction!

 

I know you've made a ton of little homebrew games on various retro systems.  I don't even know what they are , and not just yours, I can't keep track of all the various projects out there. Is there a list of your games somewhere?  If not, why not create a blog entry with that list, pointing to other blogs one for each game?  You could even bundle the roms and call it The [your name] Collection.  It might be more visible to have that content be it's own thread in the Homebrew forum,  because based on views, I think many AA users never check out the blogs. 

 

Concerning the quality of your games, I'd say if you are happy with it, it should be good enough, as long as it isn't glitchy and is fair and playable.  Look at popular franchises like Madden and Halo, there are many gamers who have never enjoyed those games and refuse to play them. The same will happen with homebrew games, some will dig them and some will think they are crappy. We homebrew enthusiasts just gotta live with that.  But remember that nice graphics and sounds very much attract attention, more than gameplay, at least at first.  The other thing that attracts attention is when the homebrewers make a port of a beloved existing game.  They have a built in audience.  When you make a unique, new original game idea, probably only the hard core gamers with lots of free time are going to notice it, unless it has great fresh graphics to catch their eye. And making great graphics on 2600 is pretty tough. 

 

Hope your mood brightens soon.

Along the lines of what Cafeman said, I think it also helps to have a good summary up-front along with some screenshots.  That way people can judge if the game suits their tastes or not right off the bat.

 

Often times I think the reason people may not react to something is because they just don't wanna take the time to find out if it's something they're interested in, because if it isn't, then that would be wasted time for them.  And people have short attentions spans after all, especially on the Internet.

6 hours ago, Cafeman said:

 

I know you've made a ton of little homebrew games on various retro systems.  I don't even know what they are , and not just yours, I can't keep track of all the various projects out there. Is there a list of your games somewhere?  If not, why not create a blog entry with that list, pointing to other blogs one for each game?

This would be really helpful to guide people to your content, especially as you are active on multiple platforms.