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6AM Fires and how I learned to use the search bar.
🕑 Added 2021-05-08 14:10:43 +0000 UTCYou may have noticed something a little funny about the title of this game (or maybe you haven't and I'm just drawing attention to something you had no idea about). While working diligently on creating the demo for this game, I unfortunately never took the time to search if any one else had the name College Daze for their own lewd game.
So you can imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning at 6 AM to see that not only was the name taken already, but people were calling me out on it en masse. Needless to say I freaked the fuck out.
Of course I didn't know there was another game out there with the same name. No I wasn't trying to capitalize on the similarity. No I didn't want to mislead fans of the previous game into thinking this was a reboot, or affiliated in anyway. I was not trying to clickbait, wasn't trying to swindle.
So after reading through a good handful of comments questioning my game title, my motives and my integrity, I ran into my bedroom and woke up my sleeping husband. I paced in my bedroom while I rambled name alternatives to him. (God bless his soul for having to wake up to me and my neurotic tizzy). I finally settled on College Craze, and dashed back to my computer, and actually used the search bar this time to make sure the name was not taken already. (Although who knows at this point, there may be another College Craze out there that I am unaware of).
So then came the fun part: Scrubbing the internet clean of the week-long one-woman marketing campaign I'd worked so hard on. All the banners, the websites, the SEO, the comments the signatures on forums, everything had to go. Gone was College Daze, only to make room for the hopefully not too different, but different enough College Craze.
Not only did all the marketing material have to be changed, no. I had to change the game itself. I had to redesign splash screens, logos and 3 lines of code, re-build for Mac and PC and upload to 8 different websites before 9AM.
And so I did.
I made it just in time for launch on itch.io and my own website. Phew.
But if this morning taught me anything, it was to be ready to pivot at a moments notice. I've never developed a game before, let alone had people holding me accountable for something I've created in such a public way. I'm so glad this was brought to my attention, and I am so thankful I was able to pull that switch-a-roo as fast as I did.
Thank you for being on this crazy journey with me, and let's hope I dont have any more 6AM fires to put out in this games future.
Much love,
PrettyInk.
