Polytechnicast

Album art for episode featuring a sketch of a conversion funnel for selling indie games Making Lexilotl, my latest game which is a crossword puzzle run where you get a clue and three tries to solve a puzzle and can keep going until your tries run out. I had planned on making ad supported right away but ran into a roadblock and went a different way. Here's the story of that and some of my other explorations in making money by making games. Also, a negative comment on one of the Lexilotl announcement videos gave the the idea to explore this topic. Related Links and Resources ‎Lexilotl - Crossword Puzzle Run - Apple App Store Guitar Fretter on Steam Rob Stenzinger on TikTok Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Apple's App Store Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

It's been a busy few months and I'm glad to be back and share some updates, fun projects, and encouragement here on the Polytechnicast. Word Turtle Island is out in the world now 4 months along and I started making my next game already. It's a word puzzle crossword style game called Lexilotl. Related Links and Resources Rob Stenzinger on TikTok Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Apple's App Store Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Word Turtle Island is now 1.0. Four years in the making and here it is. Officially released on Apple's App Store, Steam, Google Play, and Itch! I share what it's like now with it officially the full version, things I would and wouldn't recommend doing again looking back at the development path of WTI, and a bit about the game I'm prototyping next. Also: WTI won an award for art direction! Related Links and Resources 2D Con Indie Island Rob Stenzinger on TikTok Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Apple's App Store Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

An intertwined creative challenge: make a more ambitious game than I've made before, make it work as a business, and succeed in marketing it well. In this Polytechnicast I focus on the marketing part of that challenge and what I've learned these past few months publishing a video every single day. Especially the adapting from being stressed about aspects of it to finding framings and habits to make it sustainable, meaningful, and still figuring out the effective part. Related Links and Resources Rob Stenzinger on TikTok Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Not sure when exactly the marketing push should have started with Word Turtle Island but I do see it needs to be happening now. In this epsisode of the Polytechnicast I'm exploring the creative challenge I started to do daily video posts, while also doing more marketing, while also getting Word Turtle Island ready for it's next updates in June and hopefully 1.0 in July. Remember that time I thought it'd be ready soon a couple years ago? This estimate is more credible but also please be kind considering the source is an optimistic busy artist. Related Links and Resources Rob Stenzinger (@robstenzinger) on TikTok Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Two main topics this episode. First it's what I've been learning so far with making small videos while exploring topics like teaching interactive design, show and tell about Word Turtle Island, and even video blogging inspired by the old Art Soundoff creative challenge. Second it's about reaching a point of saturation in learning by researching with people playing my game. The bulk of this I recorded into my watch while running errands so the audio isn't great, but I've reviewed and edited and gotta say there's a lot of good ideas, examples, and encouragement here well worth your background co-working audio time. Related Links and Resources Get exclusive merch and private journal posts via my paywall art blog and merch store at Fourthwall Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Last episode of the Polytechnicast I shared some projects I'd begun and was about do dive into. These are the spinning plates driving this episode. Did any fall? Are there more plates spinning? Related Links and Resources Fourthwall - Rob Stenzinger's Workshops + Creative Designs + Merch Store Word Turtle Island - The Arcade Machine - Photos From Woodworking to Electronics to Finished Cabinet at Midwest Gaming Classic Previous episode: Polytechnicast - Teaching Interactive Design and Word Turtle Island Arcade Machine Teaching Interactive Design on TikTok Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Sharing some work in progress and what led me to this point - getting back into teaching interactive design and how I've begun making a physical arcade machine for my game Word Turtle Island. In a nutshell I have a few months of ambitious work and this is my planning and thinking about it all. Outline: Starts with how I focused on making WTI for 2.5 years, summary of why and how that came about. Learning from 6 months of further iteration, marketing, and being published as an early access game. Big take away is: thankful for the time to learn enough to make enough to discover the strong version of WTI, wishing that space for other folks and projects. Current situation: improving the instant visual/story/promise of WTI via feeling the urge to teach again feeling my overall social connections are too small of a bubble both online and in person inspired by projects like Springboard for the Arts' Rural Urban Solidarity Then the ambitious plan: a combination of projects to grow my online and in person connections, teach interactive design with an advocacy focus, and increase sales of my games and teaching. In short: make games and teach interactive design. More specific: WTI Arcade Machine + Regional touring show/tell this game and teaching indie game creating Build WTI to full 1.0 Teach interactive design for free on TikTok and soon also YouTube Publish new paid classes, starting with Paper Prototyping for Interactive Design Know of any places and people to connect with who'd like a visit from me on my Word Turtle Island Indie Game Dev Tour? Send me a message! Related Links and Resources Jerzy's free workshops mentioned as inspiration but are currently happening - act fast since they're being offerred now until all sessions are taken Teaching Interactive Design on TikTok Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

A question from someone who knows someone who met me at 2D Con. Every person's path is their own but it's also fun to learn how olther folks got to where they are. Related Links and Resources Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. NOW ON STEAM Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Earlier this summer I visited Columbus Ohio to visit my friends Anne and Jerzy Drozd. Part of the plan for our visit was to make some creative experiments together, one of them is this very recording with Jerzy. For the first time I can think of both he and I are launching products at the same time. Both projects took years of development. Both we made solo. His project is the book The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue and mine is the action + cozy game Word Turtle Island. In this episode, a special crossover of Thunder Punch Daily + Polytechnicast, Jerzy and I navigate stories of why we made these projects and how we're facing the significant task of marketing to reach the people we know will enjoy what we made. It's a lot like an episode of the Lean Into Art cast which was special to revisit for me, hope it will be for you too. Related Links and Resources The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue - pre-order Jerzy's new book about a bear who catalogs and keeps safe powerful magic items, one day a wizard steals the most powerful artifact, now this academic homebody has to embark on a dangerous adventure and team up with allies to set things right Jerzy Drozd - Teaching Artist and Cartoonist Word Turtle Island - Details Plus Official Trailer - action + cozy game where you both battle with words as weapons and recover after by tending bookshelves. Word Turtle Island - Press Kit Word Turtle Island - Google Play Word Turtle Island - Steam Word Turtle Island - Itch.io Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

A new ask me anything form. Some example topics to ask me about like why I made a game for 2.5 years without publishing a whole lot about it publicly. And most important - it's official that Word Turtle Island is going to be available publicly as an early access game on Steam and Google Play June 21, 2024! Related Links and Resources Word Turtle Island - Details Plus Official Trailer Word Turtle Island - Press Kit Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Wort and Portia from Word Turtle Island About 2.5 years. That's how long I've been working on Word Turtle Island to get it ready to publish as an early access game. It's about the right time to be getting the word out and to get myself into practice with showing up social. Practicing being more present even if it's chaotic and inconsistent. Such as this 20 some minute audio podcast. Hi. Related Links and Resources Tell The Damn Story, 305: How To Dive into Game Writing, And Make Words A Positive Weapon - YouTube Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam. Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

This is Spell, the magical cat who hosts a save place to practice spelling words. In the middle of working on my next big game Word Turtle Island, where you use words as weapons to battle creatures taking away the books of power, the idea for Spell's Spelling came to me. In this episode of the Polytechnicast I reflect on how this came about and how sometimes a project that takes time away from another project can be worthwhile. Related Links and Resources Spell's Spelling Practice Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

In the overlapping circles of feasible, viable, desirable, what is the emphasis and culture practiced? I received a question via my Mastodon account about minimum lovable product vs minimum viable product. @Nycteris@mastodon.art: "So @robstenzinger I was just reading about “minimum Lovable product” vs “minimum Viable product” because you want to have enough features to maximize love of a core group of users - do you think this is a real strategy?" Related Links and Resources Audiences and Principles to Help Create Meaningful Products Instead of Bolt-On-UX — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller More posts and extras like coaching sessions at my Buy Me a Coffee page (coaching sessions are all sold out again, stay tuned) Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

W-O-R-D up. Reflecting on game development and how it feels affirming in a way that other video game projects meet delays. I thought I'd have Word Turtle Island ready for first or even early access by now yet I also feel good about how it's coming along. Related Links and Resources Why are so many video games delayed and cancelled? - Verdict Why Video Games Are Delayed So Often More posts and extras like coaching sessions at my Buy Me a Coffee page (coaching sessions are all sold out again, stay tuned) Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Prototype cards for my creative warm up cards game Doodle Creatures Have Needs. An update about Word Turtle Island and a few other projects I tried to finish this month. Related Links and Resources More posts and extras like coaching sessions at my Buy Me a Coffee page (coaching sessions are all sold out at the moment) Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

In this episode I ask why I've posted so few things in 2022. It's a bit about what I'm currently working on and it's also something I've been trying to figure out for years. Related Links and Resources More posts and extras like coaching sessions at my Buy Me a Coffee page Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. [Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app](

Whether the work that you take on is building on skillful work in the past or not, things got to the way they are for some reason. Now you're here. In this journal I share reasons to find others past work as useful research and signals to help instead of joining a narrative that it has little to no value. Even if that past work wasn't well done, it holds clues and questions to dig into. Related Links and Resources Day One - a journal app Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Listening Like a Coach (Video Workshop and PDF Materials), add to your leadership and collaboration skills. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare Drawing User Journey Maps, make meaningful products with visual collaboration and narrative that combines many perspectives. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge, find your fun and useful approach to your own creative challenge or a public one, whether you draw, code, write, create a recipe that works for you. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. [Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app](

Have you been part of an organization that seems to repeat projects that don't learn much from one another? It's a thing I've wondered: why do companies forget? This episode of the Polytechnicast I journal about group memory and wonder if it would be helpful to remember what different teams have tried and learned in the past. Is it because we resist repeating other peoples stories? Related Links and Resources Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge, join the class at Skillshare or download your own copy at my workshop store. Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter, be in the know of what I'm making and learning about. Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, design: Listening Like a Coach (Video Workshop and PDF Materials), add to your leadership and collaboration skills. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare Drawing User Journey Maps, make meaningful products with visual collaboration and narrative that combines many perspectives. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge, find your fun and useful approach to your own creative challenge or a public one, whether you draw, code, write, create a recipe that works for you. Get it on Gumroad or Skillshare Get the game Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Now with Lefty Flip in the full version and a free demo version with 9 levels. Join Skillshare via my referral link which gets you 1 month of Skillshare Premium for free. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app

Any path that brings you to journaling about your art, here I share some context around planning what you'd want to get out of your journaling plus choosing and creating prompts that are a good fit for what you want. Related Links and Resources Art Soundoff Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge, join the class at Skillshare or download your own copy at my workshop store. Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter, be in the know of what I'm making and learning about. Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar. Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacOS! Features 4 or 5 string bass, 6 or 7 string guitar, multiple play modes, difficulty levels, and more. You can buy me a coffee with an option to send a note along. Subscribe to the Polytechnicast RSS feed in your podcast app