DDC (droqen design consultancy)

[droqen]

[ A. i'm interested in therapy and art therapy, but i am a game designer and not a trained or certified psychotherapist; i've got some strong opinions about conversations about game design, and i think people enjoy having these conversations with me, in some part related to this interest of mine.

  B. perhaps i can offer good conversations about game design that are aligned with my therapy-inspired values, and informed by the good practices of therapists as i have seen them; if i discover these conversations are valued enough, then i can make a little business of it. ]

*also, i had a conversation with my therapist today that allowed me to perceive this role not as having the responsibility of finishing or helping to finish things -- which i find frustrating when the control is not in my hands -- but instead as a perpetual sounding board, someone there to assist in another person's ongoing process of being creative, and alive.

[droqen]

- discussing goals; being asked to explicitly clarify your goals
- "what's happened since last time we spoke? (reminder of last time)"
- taking good notes, connecting thoughts across time, creating a continuity of intention -- if motivations change, why?
- observations about things i notice which the designer may not have noticed; nothing special, it's just hard to perceive yourself sometimes
- tips for solving problems (especially 2D games, platformers, systems, these things with which i have experience)

[droqen]

- art?
i can't help with business stuff, with success, etc. i don't propose that is what i do or am capable of. main focus is your own creative success at achieving self-determined goals. sometimes these do involve business/success, but all i can do is help you achieve your own internal goals. if you want to make a game that hits a million downloads, how are you going to do that? what is the method you'll choose to employ? i'll talk with you about your employment of your method, as well as afterwards, your judgement of your own success and how you're responding to that.

[droqen]

i've been making games for a hella long time. therapists i know charge $165 CAD.
offer a sliding scale! and experiment first with free "clients" (friends, peers) who i can trust to give me good (meta-)feedback on what i'm offering.
business goal ofc is to accumulate non-free clients, will see how that goes, set up boundaries to conserve my energy

i am not a therapist, and the rate cannot necessarily be compared, but this is something that does take a lot of experience and effort to do well. i'm expending effort creating a safe, comfortable space for others to share their ideas and problems, and offering a kind of understanding that might be hard to come upon.

is a $165/hr rate realistic? maybe not for the vast majority of indies? not sure tho. there are lots of people out there with
something like full-time funding, and it might be very achievable for those devs and dev teams.

[droqen]

offer a quick 15 minute initial engagement (what are you looking for, here's what i offer, look for people who have ongoing projects that i can consult on longer-term!), this is not a design consultation but an expectation-setting meeting, if either of us isn't a fit for the other i can recommend them elsewhere (if i even have any connections)

my default for now will be 1 one-hour session / 2 weeks, see if that changes during the experimental period