starting a business | Jennifer Awesome v5.0

Tag Archive for starting a business

Update, and New Sites Coming Soon

Hi readers. I know I’m bad at keeping this blog updated, but I just wanted to check in in case anyone is wondering what happened to me. I feel like I have out grown this type of blog, I am in the process of creating a new personal website that will serve as a professional portfolio for my writing.

In the meantime, I have recently started writing on HubPages. Check out my articles! My favorite ones I’ve posted so far are Naughty Children Watch Out, Krampus is Coming to Town, Shield-Maidens or Housewives? The Real Role of Viking Women, and Introducing A New Kitten to Your Resident Cats. The rest of my HubPages “Hubs” can be read from my profile. For writers who want to write about many different topics, I think it makes more sense to publish them on sites like HubPages than in a blog (unless you want to have a bunch of separate blogs for different topics, and are willing to actually keep them all updated). While I do get search traffic on this blog for my video game posts, I think I will have more success with most topics on HubPages. It also gives me a place to publish some of my writing to link back to when my portfolio website goes live.

I am also planning on expanding my business, Nýbiru Studio LLC, to provide freelance writing services including copywriting, content writing, blog posts, email marketing and newsletters, product descriptions, and other custom writing services. I may also offer social media services and graphic design.

I will keep this website up since people are still searching for QR codes for Miis and other 3DS game content. I may post more here in the future if I have such things to share.

On a personal note, my husband and I bought a house last December, and I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and English last spring. I have accepted a new job as a substitute teacher for this school year, but ultimately I am going to focus on my career as a writer. My goal for 2018 is to build up my freelancing business, continue adding to my portfolio, and hopefully get a regular job as a writer.

Petal Quest is Now Available!

May 2, 2015 Jen Ný College, Games, Gaming, Nýbiru Studio No comments

My game Petal Quest is now available for purchase! Since it’s my first game, I set the retail price to $1.99, and am offering an introductory sale of 50% off until the end of July! I also need to sell at lease 5 copies by the end of the semester.

Petal Quest is an arcade-style side-scrolling brawler about a flower who must save it’s garden from being invaded by weeds. The weeds will stop at nothing to defeat the flowers and take over all of the Earth’s gardens.

The game features a regular arcade/story mode and a score attack mode, where you can play each stage individually to try to beat your high score.

There are five different stages with different garden/nature themes. It supports both gamepad and keyboard input.

I wanted to make a side-scrolling beat ’em up game, but I also wanted to do something different and more unique. I thought the idea of a flower having to save it’s garden was a fun concept. I think there is a place in the market more female-oriented games (that aren’t about babies, cooking, or dressing up).

It can be purchased directly from itch.io and from my new website for my game studio, Nybiru.com.

Busy Bee

March 27, 2015 Jen Ný College, Nýbiru Studio No comments

This semester has been super busy so far. Between my four classes, planning my wedding, and keeping Dinosauring.com updated, I haven’t had time to blog here.

For Advanced Game Programming, I have to make a game and sell at least five copies by the end of the semester. I chose to make a 2D side-scrolling beat ’em up game. I haven’t thought of a name for the game yet, but you play as a flower who has to save a garden from evil weeds (like dandelions!) who are trying to take over. It will be for PC, and I’m using XNA. I’ll post more details about it here later with a link to purchase. It will likely be between $0.99-$1.99.

I’m also working on a game for Serious Games and Simulations to help students study math. I haven’t gotten much done for that game yet since the first project I was going to be working on for this class fell through. I originally was going to do a different educational game that one of the instructors at the college wanted, but that project had to be cancelled do to administrative decisions that were made regarding the department that I was working with. But I was able to come up with another neat idea for my project anyway.

I’m also learning Unreal Engine 4 in 3D Game Level Design, and Xcode and Android Studio in the Mobile Game Apps class.

As I expected, I’m the only student in Advanced Game Programming, Serious Games and Simulations, and 3D Game Level Design this semester. It is what it is, I guess. It might actually be a blessing in disguise, however. Being the only student means I can make my game projects on my own without worrying about any teammates. I’ve always disliked group work, as I either end up having to do the whole thing by myself anyway while still having to give credit to the other group members, or they completely ignore most of my ideas.

Since I’m working on my game on my own, it makes things easier from a business standpoint (no one to argue with over profits and ownership and such). My beat ’em up game will be the starting point for my business, Nýbiru Studio. I’m planning on having the website for my business up and running by the end of the semester where I can advertise and showcase this games and games I create in the future.

I’m going to be graduating from LCCC this spring. I’m thinking about finishing my bachelor’s degree online now, so that I can keep working and won’t have to move to finish school. There’s an online program I’m looking into right now.

Aside from working on my school projects, I’ve also been busy planning my wedding. We have our date and venue set. I got my dress already, and it’s pink! I got it from WeddingDressFantasy on Etsy, and it’s amazing! It was a sample sale, so I got a good deal and it shipped super fast. Plus it fits well and I don’t think I’ll need any alterations, other than to add a bustle, which I think I can do myself. I’m not going to post any pictures yet, because it’s supposed to be a surprise! There are still a few more details we need to get sorted out. I’m also going to refrain from posting too many details about the date and location until after the fact, since any creeper on the internet could potentially be reading this, but it’s going to be at a super awesome venue!

That’s about it for now.

One Semester Down

December 19, 2013 Jen Ný College, Nýbiru Studio No comments

I just finished my first semester of the Computer Games and Simulation Design degree. I got A’s in all of my classes, including over 100% in both Intro to Game Design and Programming in C# (due to extra credit that I probably didn’t really need to do).

Next semester I will be taking 2D Game Programming, Game Applications for Emergent Platforms, and Digital Illustration. According to the course description, we will be using the Torque game engine in the the 2D programming course. I’m hoping the Digital Illustration class uses Adobe Illustrator, rather than some other lesser known vector graphics alternative, since I already have and use Illustrator.

Right now, I’m learning how to make games in Flash on my own. I was originally going to take a Flash games class, but they are phasing it out in favor of the Apps class instead, which will be a much more useful skill-set to have now that mobile platforms are so popular. Since I already completed another degree and am on financial aid, they wouldn’t let me take extra classes that I don’t actually need to complete my degree.

I’m hoping to get my game studio’s website launched early next year. I’ll be starting out small with a few free-to-play browser-based games. Eventually I’d like to expand to mobile apps and console games (depending on how Microsoft and Sony handle indie developers in the future). Everything will be ad-supported to start out with (no evil micro-transactions! Though I won’t rule that out as a possibility for my games way into the future).

In the meantime, you can play the games I made for school. Just click on the “games” tab at the top of this page!

My New Company is Officially Registered

July 26, 2013 Jen Ný Nýbiru Studio No comments

The Article of Organization for my new indie game studio have been successfully filed and I have applied for an EIN number, so I believe I have all of the legal paperwork to start my business complete. I found the forms I needed online rather than going through a 3rd party service like LegalZoom, since they were going to charge me an extra $99 for something I could easily do myself for the price of a postage stamp.

I’m planning on launching my studio’s website sometime around October, and starting social media campaigns either around the same time or several weeks before the website goes live.

Right now, the most important thing for me to do, obviously, is to get a game finished and ready for release. There’s no point in launching the website until I have a product ready.

I’ll post more details here in my blog as I progress. I don’t want to give away too many details yet.

Stay tuned.

Going Back to School and Starting an Indie Game Company… At the Same Time

July 20, 2013 Jen Ný College, Gaming, Nýbiru Studio No comments

As I briefly mentioned in a previous blog post, I will be going back to school at the end of August for Computer Game and Simulation Design, which is my college’s fancy way of saying “video game development.” It doesn’t look like I’ll be getting financial aid this semester because of the fact that I already earned an Associate of Arts (before I knew what I wanted to do with my life), but I should be able to afford at least this semester with what I have saved up. I have an appointment to speak with a guidance counselor in a couple weeks (which is the earliest appointment they had available).

I am also in the process of starting my own independent game company. I’ve always dreamed of starting my own business, and this will give me a lot of extra industry experience by time I finish my degree in game design. It might be crazy to be starting my own company while still in school, but plenty of other people have done it, and I’m just crazy enough to give it a shot. My plan is to start out small and offer my first few releases for free (supported by ads on the download pages) to generate buzz around my company while I gain more game making experience before actually trying to sell anything.

I’ve just started a new social media project on an independent contractor basis, so I’ll have some money coming in. I haven’t yet figured out what I’m going to do about my regular job. I don’t think I’ll be able to work 40 hours a week between the two jobs, plus work on getting my own company up and running, plus going to school full time. I don’t want my school work to suffer from lack of time that I’m able to spend on homework and studying.

Aside from applying for tons of scholarships for next semester and beyond, I’m brainstorming other ways to fund my education, such as crowd-funding. Have you tried crowd-funding to pay for your college tuition? Please post in the comments of this post what your experiences have been, both positive and negative.

Also, I’d like to hear from anyone else who has majored in game design or started their own indie game studio. How did you like your classes? If you already graduated, what are you doing now? If you own an indie game studio, how successful have you been thus far?

I’d really like to hear from anyone who’s on a similar career path. In this modern internet age, networking with like-minded individuals is probably one of the most important things you can do to become successful in your career.

I’ll keep this blog updated with my progress in school and in my indie game business.

(I don’t have an appropriate picture for this post, so I’ll just use a random Grunt enjoying his Grunt Birthday Party that I took on my phone many months ago.)