After launching VITRIOL to the applause of a couple of people we know and love, including you, we were surprised to learn that some of our friends do not know our motivation to make a small little personal game together.
We think there is more than one valid reason to make a game – or any other creative project. There are precisely 23:
Autotelic fun of creation: You want to feel like a little god creating something out of nothing. You want to fiat lux and then just keep making things up for a week – Ludum Dare or Genesis, who cares. At some point your creation will get a life of their own, leave the walled garden of paradise and get criticised in social networks.
Anti-capitalism: You create cultural products because otherwise the Disneys and the Marvels strengthen their already frightening dominance over what comprises culture.
Art for arts sake: Basically you could have picked any other medium of expression but somehow the tools are so good in games and the skill ceiling is so low that you figured it’s easier than piano. Since you have no commercial ambitions you demand games to be art, ignoring most of art’s commercial history.
Food on the table: A job is a job and you might as well have fun while you’re at it. So you turned your hobby into your profession. Much easier if you conform to the rest of the stereotypes about game development too.
Turns out you’re good at it: You dabbled in a lot of things and somehow ended up with making games because for some reason you are good at it. Good for you.
Turns out you suck at it: You enjoy learning though.
It’s an addiction: You can not feel complete unless you tell people what rules to follow (in an entertaining way).
It’s the prevailing medium of our times: The problem is that there are so many media that are prevailing that it’s really hard to tell which one to pick. Music is huge. More books are written than ever before. Streaming revolutionised the moving image. And why be a small fish in a big pond anyway and not a big fish in a small one? In any case you want to prevail.
Pushing the envelope: Others see a deluge of games rolling over the portals of the entertainment world but all you see are voids of experience that beg to be filled with content.
Childhood trauma: You already made games as a kid and somehow never stopped.
Capitalism: You figure, of all the ways to get rich quick it sounds the most entertaining.
Distraction: While others think you are building a game, your NFT-powered in-game items that come in loot boxes are just an elegant little Ponzi scheme.
Show it to the world: Spite is your main driver and no one will be able to stop you.
Spiritual awakening: You see the people around you. They are spiritually asleep. Only an interactive medium that holistically addresses mind and soul can open their third eye.
Anti-colonialism: You want to challenge the systems of oppression by making anti-propaganda, offering new perspectives and reflections on issues that are important to you and a lot of people out there.
Gesamthandwerk: “Making a game combines everything that’s hard about building a bridge with everything that’s hard about composing an opera – Games are basically operas made out of bridges.” ~ Frank Lantz
It became a habit: You found yourself in the games industry and never looked outside. You have not thought about why you are there in a long while. You are a tiny bit afraid of trying something else.
Revenge: When you were in school, a teacher told you that you will never become a game developer. You haven’t seen them in 27 years, don’t even know if they are still alive, but you still feel wronged.
Colonialism: Everyone should be able to experience your culture. You bring the values of your home country to the world.
You just want to make people feel: If there is anything you are aiming for it is to play with the feelings of people. So you make experiences that play those feelings like a church organ.
Getting a message across: You have something to say and for one reason or another games are the medium you deem the best to express that. Or it’s the only medium you personally feel like speaking in. In any case it’s not about the game it’s about what the game says.
Allure of technology: You are an artistic engineer, an expressive alchemist, a poetic scientist. You find joy and aesthetics in code, numbers, systems, logic, and controlled randomisation. You find beauty in the dynamics unfolded by the wingstrokes of the chaos butterfly of your imagination.
Mind control: Games are a way for you to tap into the global subconscious and twist the minds of humankind.
We are clear cases of a number of the above reasons but did not fall victim to item 11. Here are our sales number for VITRIOL after one week on the App Store. We sold 174 copies in the following territories:
We see VITRIOL as a success. Which number of the above do you think applies to our motivation? Which numbers are you?