The Face of Evil: Releasing My First Indie Game!

Put A Sock In It! was my first proper release, and it was quite a challenge managing the social media, promoting it, etc. I've really come to understand how that can be a full-time job all on its own, especially if you're not established in the industry and don't have a following yet. Of course, creating interesting games is probably the best way to establish yourself. One thing I learned with releasing Put A Sock In It! was that no one is going to go out of their way to spread the good word about your game. You could have created the greatest, most beautiful thing in the world, and it will still be your own little secret if you don't put in the work to reach out to indie game reviewers, YouTubers, fellow independent game developers. I tried a little bit of everything, sending things out to game sites, certain people on Twitter, Facebook. Just friendly messages not spam, because that's annoying for everyone. I have no idea how it can take so much of your time, but it can get pretty demanding. The process really sucked me in for a while there, I would be keeping track of things almost hourly the first week or so. Eventually, I had to leave well enough alone and move on. I'm not someone who can keep doing the same thing over and over. That's probably why there are so many 'marketing professionals' you can find all over the web. Creating, designing, developing and publishing your game is the hardest part, but once you're done with that you're still a long way from being finished. Next you have to sell your game, even if it's free like in my case, and what that really means is getting attention.

Eventually, I caught a break with a really positive review from Free Game Planet, which was immediately followed by this exceptionally wonderful surprise:

GloomGames, a popular YouTube let's play celebrity featured Put A Sock In It! in all its nonsensical glory in one of her videos, which at this moment has over 100, 000 views! Frankly, it was amazing just to see her get into the game and and have fun with playing out my writing. There were a few other similar videos that popped up as well. This really helped the game get some notice for a little while, but more importantly it was very encouraging for me. The satisfaction really comes from having someone enjoy something that I created.

YOU CAN GRAB PUT A SOCK IN IT! FREE HERE:

@LeonDaydreamer

The Socks Have Arrived!

      

DOWNLOAD AND PLAY HERE:

After months of sock puppet nonsense, in the literal sense, our game Put A Sock In It! is finally out. You can download it for free from the Itchio site via the link above. This is the first release from Far-off Daydream Games, and I am looking forward to hearing feedback and comments from connoisseurs of odd and eccentric indie games, and fans of the visual novel medium.

Put A Sock In It! is a humorous choose-your-own-adventure type game that sees a crafty young girl who is particularly good at distracting herself make the most of being locked out in a stairwell -- she begins playing out little skits with some sock puppets she's just made! To play the game, you will select a pair of sock puppets to go up against one another, for a total of four combinations: Princess x Wizard, Ghost x Stable Boy, Wizard x Ghost, and Stable Boy x Princess. Each pairing gives you control of the conversation and relationship from one of the characters' point of view. For example: in the Princess x Wizard pairing, the Wizard abducts her and you play as the Princess, guiding the story where you want it to go with her reactions -- do you hate him, or could this be love?

The storylines range from romantic melodrama between the innocent Princess and awkward Stable Boy to merciless quarrels between the evil Wizard and spooky Ghost. Altogether, there are about 90 Unique Endings, but that's not the icing on the cake. This is: there are 30 Lessons that Serena and her sock puppet friends will learn, and you have to help her learn them all in order to finish the game.

I dedicated this game to my father, Arkady Pilchin, who sadly passed away in early August. He was a wonderful person who did so much for me and meant so much to me. He always greatly encouraged me in all my interests, and I am glad that I was able to show this game to him before the end.

@LeonDaydreamer