Values & Principles

It might seem an odd thing to add a declaration like this here, but these are some of the principles that guide my thinking and how I work. It’s only fair you know what they are so you can ensure they line up with your values as well before reaching out to work with me.

A row of wine barrels stored in a cellar, with a curved ceiling and dim lighting.

  • All too often these days, I look on LinkedIn and I see people treating the making and marketing of games like it is an equation to be solved, and I get why.

    In a space of mounting uncertainty and financial peril, numbers can be comforting. The seductive idea that if you just make a game in the current trending genre, with a name formatted in a specific way, and the exact right sort of screenshots and keywords on your Steam page, that it’ll then force the algorithm into paying out and you’ll find consistent success is compelling… but it also strips the joy and purpose out of what we do in my opinion.

    While yes, games are a business, and of course I’m not blind to the value of data and refining processes through it, too often it takes precedence over what truly sells games in my opinion: Narrative. And by that I don’t just mean the narrative of the game itself, but also the anecdotes it can create through its gameplay or the fantasy it fulfills through its design; a game that can tell a story will grab people regardless, as long as it’s properly brought to their attention.

    My focus is on helping developers figure out what that story is for their game, what tale will hook people in to have a look and the best way to get it to that audience, rather than attempting to min-max the algorithm in exchange for their game’s soul.

  • AI is an extremely touchy subject in the games industry. Everyone has a strong opinion on it, with some convinced it is a digital diabolos reaping through people’s livelihoods with nothing of value being left in its wake and others espousing it as the greatest development in history that will revolutionize and democratize game development and all other forms of creation. I personally fall somewhere in the middle and ultimately feel mostly ambivalent towards it.

    The value of what AI can offer, especially to smaller teams is clearly evident, and the edge it can provide and the gaps it can fill are invaluable. But that said, in all my experience with AI, it’s never truly managed to impress me with what it can produce. That’s because AI at its core is designed to say what we want to hear and it responds accordingly, and as such it lacks the soul and spark of messy honest human engagement and effort.

    If you want to use AI in your work, that’s fine by me, I have no qualms with the technology and it can be an amazing stop-gap solution. But I personally don’t use it, because I’ve just not seen it produce work that I’m truly happy with, as no amount of prompting can mimic the inner turmoil and divine imperfection that comes with human consideration and creation.

  • I firmly believe that honesty is the best approach in all situations; that no matter how much the truth might hurt things in the moment, it is always the right way to go in the long term. And I take that approach towards internal situations as much as I advise my clients follow it for external ones.

    That means that with any client I work with I make sure to set expectations and provide honest feedback every step of way. If I think your plans aren’t going to work out as you’re hoping, that your game as designed is only going to appeal to a very limited audience, or that you’re already doing something that’s mucking up your production, I’m going to let you know and you might not like hearing it.

    But of course that lens is applied to my own efforts as well. If I don’t feel like I can properly achieve something you’re asking for or that the results of those efforts wouldn’t be worth what it would cost you for me to do them, I’ll say as much and help find an alternate solution that works best for you.

  • I am publicly a quiet person and work best in the background, for better and for worse. That’s why there’s no blog on here for ‘thought leadership’ and it’s why I don’t really use social media at all. I prefer to stand back and let my clients and their projects shine, with my own work speaking for itself within that larger picture.

    That does mean I’m not out there on socials being a force multiplier for your promotional efforts, amplifying your message through my own brand, but it also means I’m never going to loudly put my foot in my mouth and make you question hiring me.

    But that being said, even being quiet and in the background, I still believe it’s extremely important that my efforts are recognized officially. That’s why with every project I work on here at Barrel Band Games, I insist on being added to the credits in some fashion, something that is all too often overlooked for external partners like myself.