Hi folks, first of all congrats on such a welcoming site, it truly is hard to find these days.
I have a question that requires a bit of transparency and introduction. A friend and I are veteran game developers (games we worked on/with include Prison Architect, Spacechem, Europa Universalis IV, Victoria 3, and Stellaris) and are releasing a roguelite typing game, which I won’t share here for the sake of not wanting this to be seen as a promotional post.
As the words typing game may have clued you in, a lot of the folks who like our typing game are mech keyboard enthusiasts. My friend who is the main developer is an enthusiast, while I dipped my toes in by buying a Logitech POP (shame on me, I know). I don’t want to go too far in mostly because I am recently out of work and fear a new hobby that will swallow me whole. Anyway, where was I.
Right, so our game is really popular amongst mech keyboard fans and so we wanted to lean into this by partnering with a keyboard manufacturer to make a custom keyboard for us. The idea is we would exchange influence and visibility. We would trade space on our startup screen and in our game trailer, amongst other things, in exchange for access to the keyboard manufacturer’s network of influencers who might, say, use our game in WPM tests. Alongside this could be a custom keyboard for the game that the manufacturer would sell and distribute on their own, and keep the profits. The hope is that it would be a virtuous circle where the game sells better because of the additional visibility which then boosts visibility of the manufacturer, who is then incentivized to share the game with more influencers etc.
We’ve already reached out to a couple of manufacturers, but while there has been some interest, I think the idea is so unorthodox to them that they just don’t know how to respond, or we’re just too small for them to give a damn (a likelier story).
tl:dr if you work for a keyboard manufacturer on the product partnership side OR are a custom keyboard maker who sees the cross promo potential of working with indie gamedevelopers, please PM me your details!
The game is called Glyphica : Typing Survival and can be found on the Steam website. It has a demo available for anyone who wants to try it out.
We essentially want to exchange screen real estate on our game for exposure through a mech keyboard company’s partner influencers. One angle would be for the manufacturer to create a limited edition keyboard that they could then distribute on their network and keep the profits.
As I dug a little deeper into the culture I have a better understanding of how suppliers, designers, and sellers work, and so one other way we could do this is to work with a custom keyboard builder who has a sizeable audience, wherein they make a keyboard themed after the game. Any leads on either of these would be genuinely apppreciated!
I’m curious if y’all plan on supporting things like in-game Dvorak or Colemak support; As in people can keep their OS-typing format the same, but within game can learn Dvorak/Colemak. This is probably a bit out there for production goals considering a Q3 release feels like it’s right around the corner hehe.
From what I’ve seen on the steam store page; (link for the curious), things look pretty fun! I’ll definitely be trying out the demo myself sometime next week
From what it sounds like, this might be a challenge as small scale productions typically aren’t by OEMs favored due to their potentially high costs for a small run of volume. I definitely don’t want to sound like a debbie-downer, but even for most smaller suppliers, this would be a challenge for an unknown IP.
I noticed there are some unique and fun looking icons used for the augmentations from the video on the steam store page and maybe on a smaller scale, a collection of novelty keys could/would be fun to produce as opposed to an entire keyboard project. This could be combined by working with a keyboard influencer in the community to maybe do a sponsored build where you and they can come together to work on a build that can reflect aspects of the game (eg a keyboard aimed for comfort, or ergonomics) while also featuring those novelty keycaps to add the visual flair to put it together. Just a thought
Great suggestions! I understand its a bit of a tough sell, but we definitely feel like we’ve struck a nerve with this game and want a partner who recognizes the potential and wants to get in “on the ground floor”, so to speak.
A partnership where we make a custom keyboard and raffle it off as a marketing beat is also a possibility. One of the issues we’re running into with the game is that it can get very tiring and painfult o play for long sessions, so something ergonomics focused would be cool.
as for dvorak/colemak support, I think that may be possible, will get back to you on that!
re: Dvorak/Colemak, our lead dev says that while the game will follow whatever your OS typing format is, switching to a different format in the game only would take more time and effort that we could better spend on gameplay and mechanics.
