People of the DARQness,
TL;DR: This is NOT your typical "Hey, we won this award, bye!" post.
WHAT HAPPENED?
DARQ won a Webby Award (Audience Voice) in the Independent Creator category. I must say, it feels crazy to see DARQ featured alongside NASA, Star Wars, Trevor Noah, Stephen Colbert, Billie Eilish, etc. etc. I'm pinching myself.
Does it feel nice?
Yeah. My ego is happy I guess. I don't care that much about my ego though. Do you know what makes me so happy about this? It's the fact that I can't take any credit for this award. I owe it 100% to YOU, because it's YOU, the audience, voted for DARQ. It wouldn't have happened without you, and for that I will be forever grateful.
Why is it so meaningful? (it's not what you may think)
It's hard to explain how much this means to me. Perhaps you already know a bit about me if you read my book. I was born in Belarus, the last remaining dictatorship in Europe. My family fled Belarus when I was a child. As refugees, we came to Poland and within a number of years, went bankrupt. We had no money to afford heating and basic necessities. There were other problems that were making my life hopeless and unbearable (I won't go into much detail here). My mom abandoned me. A few years later, my dad passed. I came to the U.S. in 2007 with $300 of borrowed cash. I had no connections. I spoke zero English. I stuttered. Perhaps I'm oversharing, but I actually went through a period of real starvation and came very close to being homeless in New York. A lot of things happened since then and I owe so much to people who helped me along the way.
Coming from humble beginnings, it really feels overwhelming and humbling as hell to see how much support DARQ has received from this community. Making this game (+DLC's & console ports) took nearly 7 years of my life. I knew nothing about making games when I started and I took every risk in the world to make this game a reality. It was hard, ladies and gentlemen. Very, very hard. Seeing DARQ listed among all these big names is cool, but it doesn't mean much. Seeing that you care, however, means the world to me. It feels like we did this together. You had no reason to support me, yet you did. Again, after everything I've been through, I simply cannot take this for granted.
What will I do next?
In my last update I promised you that I'd find my way to show you my gratitude. I intend to keep my promise. I have something planned for you. A gift. I'm working on it right now, and I'll let you know what it is later this year. It will be free for all of you to enjoy and I hope you like it. That's the least I can do to show you that I really mean every word I say.
Apart from that, I'm also hard at work on the new game. I can't wait to announce it, I've been working on it for quite some time.
You all mean a lot to me. Thank you.