Hello, I'm Zack the Nerd! 

I'm currently the only developer working on Wake Up, Teniad! and this page might come as a surprise to a few of you who haven't been in the loop much. I thought I'd do what I can only describe as a self QnA to talk about some things. I'd use the term FAQ, but none of these questions are asked frequently, if at all.

Who Are You?

Well, I figure I did a good enough job at explaining that already, but if you need more info here's the scoop: I'm not all that special. I'm 17 (at the time of writing) years of age, a trans woman, and an aspiring game developer. Aspiring meaning I'm way out of my depth with little knowledge as to what I'm doing nor how to even do it. I've been an artist, animator, and most recently a musician, for quite some time. Wake Up Teniad started as a small Homestuck fan comic on the website MS Paint Fan Adventures. Since it had amassed an audience, and I was growing quite apathetic of the source material, I decided to call off the comic and instead pursue a more active medium, with the same characters in a new, entirely original universe.

Why Are You Here?

Well, I need something to keep me motivated. I'm not pursuing crowdfunding due to the major obligations that comes with. Having investors and buyers wanting a full product and all. Before this, all of my progress was confined within one or two channels within a few Discord servers, and it wasn't enough. Due to Discord's nature as a chatting service it became easy for me to neglect updating my project or anything of the sort due to all the other things going on. If I'm going to be honest, the game hasn't gotten far out of the prototype stage because of it. The reason as to why I'm launching an itch.io page so early in the projects life span is that itch.io provides enough of an obligation to keep people filled in without any of the financial stress. Also, because I'm dedicated enough to this game and it's story to be able to work on it for the foreseeable future regardless of what's to come now.

Are You Working Entirely Solo?

As of now, yes. I have people I talk and consult to, but in regards to active development, I am the only one working on the game, for better and for worse. I'm not a programmer, had zero interest in it prior, and I find it hard to get invested in it now. I'm not very privy to getting help. As of now I'm not entirely sure as to why. Whenever asked about it I say excuses along the lines of "I have had bad experiences with teams," or "I don't want to bring team members onto such a personal project" but in all honesty if I had to give an entire 100 percent honest answer I'd say for certain that it's because I'm too afraid of getting the wrong person or messing things up. Because of this, until I'm able to find a programmer, if at all, I am going to be working on this game entirely solo.

Any Fears?

A lot, genuinely. To elaborate on the last question, I'm not sure if I have the personal confidence for long and sustained work over the period of months if not years. The workload is so monumentally large and I have a lot going on, personally. I can't pay anyone to come on for the project and to bring them on for 2-4 hour part one of a larger game is something that doesn't entirely sit right with me. I'm not nearly capable enough of understanding to what lengths people would be willing to sacrifice their time and effort. It's something that if someone were to offer me, great, if not, I'll try and manage, I guess. There's the fear that nobody will like it, but in all honesty I'm pretty sure that that's something everybody grapples with at some point or another. I want to make a game that I'll enjoy. All of my fears are entirely personal and in regards to my ability to accept help from other people.

Any Last Words?

No, not really.

Actually, I will say this. If you're interested in this project, or anything of the like, and were willing to read all of this, if you would like to maybe consider programming (Unity!) and working alongside me, I would be willing to open up and crawl out of my slimy dark shell and listen to the words of other breathing functional humans for a brief bit.

If you want to talk to me about programming for Wake Up Teniad you can either DM me on my Twitter or shoot me a friend request on my Discord at Zack the Nerd#6551.  Be sure to have examples of your work prior to show me.

If working directly on the project isn't your speed, but you're still feeling generous, you can always buy me a coffee.