Hey there everyone, long time, no see...um...I mean hear...um...read?
I wanted to write this blog a month or two ago, but I needed more to write about, which you will find out about below, and then I thought since all of the State of the Game blogs were in order with the month, I thought, why not just continue from the number and month, so here it is, State of the Game #8, in August, but in 2022 instead!
Well anyway, let’s get on with this, I have a lot to cover, sort of…
THE RIGHT PATH
The last most of you heard was that the game, The Right Path was basically dead in the water. Basically it still is, but that doesn't mean I haven’t been working on the script (which I’ll just call it a “story” for now).
I wasn’t able to find anyone to proofread the story (and get it back to me). So I went ahead and proofread it myself, which was both good and bad. Good, for it’s basically done, but bad, because I keep adding more to the story; I fleshed out a few characters to have more of their stories in the game; that added about three more 5,000 word chapters...so obviously making the story of The Right Path even longer than what it was before!
FYI: A lot of people really have no idea what a 5,000 word chapter would look like; this blog post is over 1,570 words, so hopefully now you have somewhat of a perspective of what 5,000 words looks like. BTW: the story of The Right Path, is about 200,000 words!
Now I have the problem of actually having somebody read it so they can let me know whether the story is any good or not! To me the story is great, to my wife, it’s great as well; she actually loved it! With nobody I know having the time to read it, I guess I will have to have an outside source read it, which I would need to do sooner or later anyway, I need somebody that isn’t connected to me and would give more of what I would need to add/take away to make the story better, The real downside to that is trusting that somebody will not “steal” the story; change names and places and then call it their own. So I would love to have somebody that I do know and trust that would read and know the story and would be able to give me an honest opinion about the story based on the content and not based on them knowing me and not wanting to hurt my feelings by telling me that the story sucks!
I also have another problem with the story. Because I have written it as if I WOULD be making the game myself (which right now I don’t see that happening, but with God, ALL things are possible)! I have the problem that I didn’t add very many descriptions to the story, IE, like if, Helkena (the hero of the story) is in a warehouse, all I put in, “Helkena is in a warehouse”, nothing more, like any type of description as to what that warehouse may look like. Like I kinda mentioned above, I see the warehouse, but if I have a team that is going to work on the game, they have no idea what I want that warehouse to look like!
What I really need to do is rewrite the story with more descriptions in it! But first, I REALLY need to find somebody to read it! Don’t want to do a rewrite if I REALLY have to do the BIG rewrite (like start over!) and the biggest thing, if the story is lame!
MY HEALTH
As for where I am at with the “game”(I’m….not!) As many of you know I became very ill last summer, I mean very, VERY ill! (and NO it wasn’t COVID related in any way, shape or form!). I just get overheated very, very easy… :(
There were some other things that contributed to my illness last summer but I really don’t want to bore you with all of that, but suffice to say I found out later from talking with a couple of doctors about what happened, they said it sounded like I had at least two heatstrokes. Which those left me with some memory loss. With that happening, I was unable at all to move forward with making the game The Right Path. I did find outside help to make the game, but that was going to cost a minimum of $100,000! Yes I know….OUCH!
So with the memory loss I have from the heatstrokes, I will have to basically learn the software program (Unreal Engine 5 / UE5) from scratch, yes a very time consuming process that will be; and that along with a rewrite!
FYI: I have been learning UE5, I was able to make a fun little zombie game a month ago, nothing to brag about, but it’s a start!
With that being said, my health is so much better this summer than last summer. I still overheat really, really easily, but I just have to stay inside as much as possible where it’s nice and cool!
CROWDFUNDING
I had mentioned to some of you that I was thinking about doing a crowdfunding (Kickstarter, GoFundMe or whatever [in our case, it would be GiveSendGo; a Christian crowdfunding site]). I also mentioned that I wanted to do some advertising on my preferred social media platform, GAB (1) ; GAB (2) to have more of an impact with that crowdfunding!
BUT...(I know, here we go again with the...but!)
I was going through the company finances at the beginning of the year and the payouts to keep the business (FAITH BASED GAME) up and running was going to be about $5,000 this year! It’s normally not that much, but I had forgotten that the two websites I have for the game (FAITH BASED GAME and The Right Path) are due this year which is about $2,000, I had paid for 3 years of service for each; yes I know I should have staggered them so I wouldn’t have to pay so much...but oh well I didn’t, so here it is both due; but trust me I’ll stagger them this time. I had to also cancel some yearly software programs that I loved to use; that is I USED to use, I don’t now because I had to cancel them because the business just doesn’t have enough income coming in to pay for everything; it also doesn’t help that the USA economy is in the toilet as well!
So the crowdfunding is on hold, at least for now.
DONATIONS
HA, this is like a P.S. way before the P.S.! This will also change the word count; which I will have to go back above to change that number too...does that make sense? I hope not! LOL!!
I wanted to let all of you know, just in case somebody wanted to donate a large amount that would go toward hiring a team to make the game, with the entity that we use for the donations (Classy), that while they provide everything I would need to have for a GREAT donation page, the payment processor that I would have to use, charge for their services, which seems fair enough, but the one that I need to use charges 10% that gets taken out after your donation I.E. a donation of $100, they will take out $10 for their fee. So imagine if someone wanted to make a large donation, say $1,000, FAITH BASED GAMES would only receive $900, imagine if someone won the lottery and wanted to donate $100,000, what would FAITH BASED GAMES receive? Yep you get the picture!
So if you want to donate a large amount you can send a check made out to FAITH BASED GAMES (the address will be on the CONTACT page), that way we can have the full amount to go towards the making of The Right Path. But either way, through Classy or to FAITH BASED GAMES you would still get the tax deductible donation in the full amount! Unless of course you feel led to pay the processing fee, you can do that as well, then we would still get the full amount.
SO THE BOTTOM LINE
Hopefully find someone that would be willing to read the story (yes even an outside source), as it is right now without the rewrite, why add more descriptions in the story if the story sucks!
IF the story is good, then I can rewrite with more descriptions written in and more story. (I have been writing more story content for Helkena’s adventures!)
“Send” the rewrite in for another “proofreading” and polish.
For me to try to relearn Unreal Engine 5….AND/OR
Do a crowdfunding sometime; to be able to….
If need be, hire a team to make the game
With all of that being said, if you’re a Christian please, please, please pray for my health to get better and for whatever God’s will is for the game, The Right Path! For those that aren’t a Christian (or even if you are) ANY idea’s that would help with the list above would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!
Anyway, that’s all for now!
BE BLESSED!
Sam
🙂
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