Do you want to make videogames with me?

I'm looking for a game designer to work with.

Are we interested in desigining the same kinds of videogames? I'm interested in storytelling through systems. I believe the best way to understand any system is to experience it firsthand and I want to focus on exposing the systems we interact with, often invisibly, on a daily basis. I'm not talking about making a game about the US legislative system or anything as dry as that. Making a game about much smaller systems can still tell us plenty of things about our own human experience with the behemoth-like systems we live under.

I'm talking about videogames that explore questions like: What's it like to be a feed cricket at a pet store? A chicken in a factory farm? A hungry mosquito at a campground?

All of these ideas include an agent and a system. What's it like to be a chicken? What about a chicken at the bottom of a system that profits off of you? Sure, chickens probably can't comprehend the system that traps them, but we can. Maybe as the player you'll choose to escape. Maybe you'll break open the barn and free all your chicken friends. Maybe you'll seek revenge...

In order to do any of this you have to first learn how the system works. When does the first shift start? How do the locks work? Am I even strong enough to hold a knife in my beak? On Tuesdays they clean the place, what if we worked together heist-style to slip concetrated antiseptic into the coffee?

I'm not over the moon about the chicken prison idea, mostly because a prison is too one-dimensional. It really only has one face: prison. Systems with inadvertent collateral damage, oblivious actors and gray area ethics are much more interesting to me. But hopefully the whole chicken prison thing gives you an idea of what I'm talking about.

I have been playing with a handful of ideas/prototypes along these lines for the last few years that revolve around this "thesis" but I haven't gotten out of the muck with any of them quite yet. I have a couple ideas that are quite ambitious and then a few more that are far less so. However, I am not attached to any of these specific ideas, only the idea that these games fall within this rough rubric outlined above.

Through all the tinkering and toiling I've realized something about myself: I need a design partner. I have (most of) the abilities to make a game by myself but the really hard part, The Game Design, is proving too much for me. I've found it a very lonely process to try and design a whole game by myself. Even getting feedback from friends and peers in the field doesn't cut it. It's not the same as when we both take ownership over our work and always have it in the back of our heads. That sort of energy keeps momentum going.

I am not looking for a programmer or an artist, but a game designer to partner with. Though if you are a designer it's somewhat expected you'll be able to at least express yourself with some amount of script, and if not that then some detailed diagrams and art/animation.

Of course if you're a better programmer and/or artist than I am, that's a big bonus. On the other hand, if you can't code sufficiently etc. don't let that discourage you from reaching out either. If we gel super well that could be even more valuable!

Partnership can sometimes mean a lot of things and I'm somewhat flexible to what works for you. But the ideal arrangement would be we both take an even split of sales revenue with nothing up front. I know that's not realistic for many folks. In the past I have done stipends with revenue splits after recouping those costs. I'm also open to working together in a less flat structure where I pay an independent contracting rate etc.

Ok, I think that covers it. If making these kinds of videogames resonates with you please reach out below.