Not Another Growth Hack Post

Relearning How to Be Online (Without Selling My Soul)

Hi, I'm David, and this is my place to talk about what I love most: making video games with my 13-year-old son, Luke. Last year, we released a roguelike called Brawlberry. Now, we’re working on an Irish-themed couch-coop 3D platformer called Druid’s Crown. This is where I share how it’s going and nerd out about all things games and game dev.

When I was younger, I spent a lot of time in online spaces. I had a Call of Duty clan back during United Offensive, played in countless MMO guilds, and by my late teens, I was deep into World of Warcraft, with late-night raids and a thriving online social life. I posted on Facebook (back when it was still cool), and I’d spend hours hanging out in voice chats.

I’m not exactly sure when I began to withdraw from that form of communication, but over time, I did.

I spent hours running around here chatting with friends

These days, I mostly play games with my brother, my dad, or my kids. That’s the extent of my online interaction. I never comment on videos, never reply to social media posts, and when I’m in those digital spaces, I stay silent, a lurker.

Part of this, I think, is just ageing. My responsibilities have grown, and even maintaining my few real-world friendships can feel like a burden. For the sake of my mental health, I stepped away from social media. It had shifted from a place of socialising to one of comparison and self-promotion, and I didn’t want any part of that.

Work and family now fill my life. And though I look back fondly on those long nights grinding through Karazhan, I can’t see myself reproducing that lifestyle. My priorities have shifted, and so has my relationship with the online world.

So it is a bit of a surprise to find myself dipping a toe back into the digital space again.

This shift is driven mostly by the need to market the work Luke and I are doing. Game development is not just about building something great, it is also about getting it in front of the people who would enjoy it. Luke made a solid push with a YouTube channel that attracted real interest in our past games. But the relentless grind of content creation wore him down, and now he only creates when he feels like it, not to feed that ever-hungry algorithm.

That left me to try something different. This Substack became my attempt, an excuse to practice writing, to journal, and to share thoughts about the intersection of game development and parenting. I’m not going to write a post about how to grow your Substack. The Notes tab is full of those. But it’s clear that networking and self-promotion are essential for growth. And so, I started poking my head back out of my analog bubble.

I looked for other game devs on Substack. It wasn’t easy. Substack isn’t the best platform for discovering niche communities. But once I found a few creators, things began to connect. I left comments, subscribed to other publications, and they subscribed back after checking out my posts. Slowly, views started to rise. Subscribers trickled in. And it felt good.

The seal was broken. Having something to share, like last week’s gameplay clip or this Substack archive, makes it easier to break the ice and start conversations in these spaces.

That unwritten rule I had, that I don’t participate, was suddenly no longer true. Now I’m active in two Irish game dev Discord servers. I post on Reddit and ended up connecting with an incredible uilleann piper to talk about the game’s soundtrack. I’m even trying to pitch a guest article to a bigger Substack writer. And today, I commented on a YouTube video.

So what changed?

When I was younger, I was looking for a social life and people like me. I was a weird, nerdy kid surrounded by people who didn’t get me. Today, I’m looking for game developers. No one in my real life fills that role, someone to bounce ideas off of, to collaborate with, to talk shop.

So I’ve fallen back into familiar patterns, but this time it feels healthier. I’m engaging with communities that share my interests and goals, not just looking for belonging. I already have a place where I belong, now it’s just fun to share it.

That’s it for this week, just something I’ve noticed.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get anything done on the game this week. Luke chipped away at a few things, but I’ve been playing Hades 2 in the evenings and juggling work, workouts, and baby time during the day.

Next week, progress will be made, and we are starting to think about the wrap-up for our game demo.

Thanks for reading.