Another Week, Another Game Launch, Another Cold

11 Nov 2006

Sitting on the sofa. It's cold outside, but the sun is low and bright. The annoying kind that blinds you when driving.

Just been shopping. Rach is putting it away. She's still not feeling well, poor thing, after nearly five days.

After that, I don't know what we'll do. Might try and get some sleep. Feel rotten now too. I have an odd sensation in my head that isn't too far removed from a feeling of having a hand pump valve inserted into your brain and filling all available empty spaces with pockets of air, slowly increasing until the pressure makes your face and brain throb.

The annoying thing is that it's the weekend and I don't want to feel sorry for myself. I could be going out for Ali's Stag Do Reloaded, or shopping for badly needed clothes to stop me from continuing to look like a tramp. Or clearing our garden from the invasion of the tall weeds. Or playing through the new Sonic game that I've actually been liking a lot. Or reading the last book in the His Dark Materials series that I've been enjoying loads recently. I can almost feel a grim tantric perversion in holding back these pleasures, because once they're finished, they'll be gone. Afterwards, I'll have to scramble around and look for something else to pass my time with, so I wait before continuing on with them.

The thing is that there's always another project to get involved with. There's new Stephen King/James Herbert novels out there. There's LOTS of DVD boxsets of programmes that I always wanted to try. I see Ulysees 31 is available on DVD for £24.99 now in HMV. But I'm scared it might not be as good as I remembered. The same thing happened when I tried to re-read C.S Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia - you have to be 11 years old to appreciate them.

This week sees the release of our second big game for the year. It's out there now, and seems to be doing well. What do I do now though? My brain is bloated and misshapen after intense concentration. Do I turn my attention to the next one in line, or have a break? Launching a big game for a PR really is like giving birth.

You spend a large chunk of your time planning and mangling your usual normal routine, so that by the time the game is due, brain activity is at a crescendo, your body is screaming for a rest, but come release, there's always a massive anti-climax.

It's a strange thankless thing, PR. And there's no midwives to help.

The horrible reality is that it never ends. There will always be more opportunities and gaps to fill - and when the games come out, there's always countless others to work on.

The thing that really gets me is that the only thing other people really pay attention to is the one thing that we can't directly control = reviews. PR to me is helping along preawareness, not about getting great review scores. It's down to the developer to make sure a game does well. Why is it then, after pages and pages of preawareness, everything is eclipsed by an average review score.

Nevermind, Stef, you tried your best. So here's the bewilderment after the storm. And breathe. Regroup, reload and start again :)