If you want to make games for a living, I've got a book for you
DARQ - The Tower · published
Hi everybody!
While "The Crypt" DLC is still in development, I've got something important to announce. In the time of lockdown, I've been working on one special book. I felt it was important to do something that could potentially help some people. The book might not be useful to most, but those of you who happen to discover a passion for game development, as I did a few years ago, might find it very helpful. The book is for those who know nothing about making games and want to try to do it for a living. After all, that's how DARQ was made - I started without knowing anything about game development and made it mostly solo (well, 95% of the game).
My First Game Became #42 Most Shared PC Game of 2019 (Metacritic). I spent $0 on Marketing.
EDIT: The book (paperback & ebook) is now out!.
Please note: my book is not a “get-rich-quick” scheme. What you see above is the result of 3.5 years of hard work. Most of the game was done by myself. Although your game could be made a lot faster, achieving success in any industry requires time, hard work, and dedication.
As a first-time developer with no prior experience in coding, modeling, texturing, animation, game design, etc., I managed to launch DARQ to both commercial success and critical acclaim. With zero dollars spent on marketing, it was featured in major media outlets, such as IGN, Kotaku, PC Gamer, GameSpot, Forbes, and hundreds of others. Ultimately, DARQ became #42 Most Shared PC Video Game of 2019, according to Metacritic, with the average user rating of 9 out of 10. In my book, I share with you exactly how I did it. The book guides you through a step-by-step process of making a game: from downloading a game engine to releasing your first commercial title.
DARQ had over 70,000 wishlists before its release, which made it one of the top 50 most wishlisted games on Steam. It resulted in a strong launch. DARQ got listed on the “Best Selling” and “New and Trending” tabs on Steam. A day later, it landed in the “Featured and Recommended” — the largest spot on the Steam front page (the holy grail of exposure; shoutout to the almighty Steam algorithms!).
In this book, I’ve made every effort to share with you all my strategies that resulted in DARQ’s success. I also write about things that went wrong, so you can learn from my mistakes.
It's coming in July
The book will be released in July (paperback, ebook, and audiobook). It's 260 pages long (or about 6 hours of audio narration). I hope it brings a lot of value to some of you.
The audiobook is narrated by YongYea, a famous YouTube personality, and a talented voice actor.
My dear friend and mentor, John Corigliano, wrote the foreword to the book. I'll end this announcement with a little excerpt:
Stay tuned for "The Crypt" DLC - it's coming soon, too!