Magc8Ball wrote:Dear Dakka:

I would like to ask for the input of the community, and Dakka's one of those central places with a good cross-section (and is also a place that I've posted at on-and-off for a long time). I've been thinking about restarting the design process for the miniatures game I published some years back, but I'm not sure that it would be particularly well-received at this point.

The reason that I'm sort of curious about its reception is that I have started and stopped a number of times over the last few years, and I don't know if that has eroded any chances of getting the community involvement that I'm hoping for with the development. A lot of "life" things have gone on, and I have not done the best job at gracefully balancing those with my creative pursuits. I really do regret having simply disappeared a few times, and after doing so I'm wondering if people are still willing to give it a go to help with the project.

What I suppose I am asking isn't necessarily specific to me, but a more general question. If a writer has, in the past, been somewhat problematic about staying with a project, would you still be willing to give them support if it seems like their circumstances are better? How much is too much?

I'm asking because I'm in a pretty good place as far as free time and finances go, and I've been getting the design bug again. I've been doing some more brainstorming work on Aetherverse, working on ways to make the 2nd edition an effective upgrade and to make it a more workable system. However, I'll absolutely need the help of other people for playtesting and such, and if my vanishing in the past will prevent me from getting that help I'd like to know it going in to it.

Thanks for your time, everyone.

-Jason

Note: this discussion shouldn't cover the game itself or whether it's even needed anymore. I'll be doing research to find the best place for the game to fit in since there are so many other games out there compared to when I first published it.

Magc8Ball wrote:Thanks for the honest feedback, everyone. That's exactly what I was hoping for when posting here. Dakka's still the best.

Part of the reason that I'm concerned is that while wargaming is sort of full of people that are negative for the sake of being negative, it is also a community that is very much driven by word-of-mouth and reputation. So while I would do well to tune out people that just complain, I do very much want to keep in mind what people might be saying behind the scenes or on websites that I don't visit because that's how word (positive or negative) spreads.

What I think I'm going to do is to take the advice given while keeping in mind the warnings. I'm going to restart my work on the game, and I'm going to keep at it even if there isn't anyone else paying attention to it. People might scoff at it and ignore it because of past failures... and this time I'm going to force myself to keep going instead of getting discouraged and quitting, because it's my own bloody fault that those failures exist.

Hopefully, at some point I'll be able to prove that I'm in it to stay this time, and the support will come back to the point it was when the first edition was released so many years ago.

Thanks, everyone.
-Jason