+--------------------------------------------+ | P A N I C D E P A R T M E N T | | hypemail no.01 | +--------------------------------------------+
THIS IS PANICORE!!!!
Well, it's actually Panic Department's inaugural creator "hypemail." I'm calling this a hypemail rather than an email, because we're all here for the same thing: games. Hyping games is what we all do in some capacity. It's our shared DNA: games = good. Even bad ones.
I'm still working out what this should be, or if it should be a regular thing. More on that at the bottom. First, the actual useful bit.
Sundew Studios and Tearoom of Terror are one of my favourite discoveries so far this year. There's a demo coming to Steam Next Fest, but you can get your hands on early preview keys in the next couple of weeks. It runs about 2 hours based on journalists playing it in closed demos at PAX, which makes it one CHUNKY demo. If you like Slay the Princess, Strange Horticulture / Antiquities, or the Rusty Lake games, you need to check this out.
You may have seen my massive face on Instagram. It's because we have quietly launched a demo for what I think could be a total brainworm of a game: imagine Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet met Balatro, had a baby, and the baby was Yahtzee and pink. It's on itch.io as a "soft punk narrative roguelite" and it is a VIBE. Itch discovery hates us however, so we badly need people playing it in the next two weeks and giving us a lil bit of feedback. If you or your community fancy a go, we'd be very grateful for the eyeballs. It should take about 20 mins to complete.
If any of the above floats your boat, hit reply with the title(s) and platform(s) (if it's not available on consoles, I'll default to Steam key).
Like a biker gang, but more digital and less scary (probably).
What I want: a brain trust of creators who are into indie, searching for their next games or into chatting about how to make the creator community better.
What I don't have: any idea what would make that worthwhile FOR YOU.
So tell me. I see lots of creator programmes kicking around and I genuinely have no idea if they are actually good, or useful, or enjoyable.
Reply and tell me what you'd want out of it. My ideas are scattered right now, but I'm doubling down on setting this up over the December break, between mouthfuls of turkey and struggling to exist in a novelty Christmas jumper.
Also: does this all need to look cooler? Do we need a logo? The neuro-spicy is strong today. Answers on a postcard (or email).
I made a creator page on the Panic Department website. It's informative. It also has a picture of me, and a Doodle Machine, so: possibly useful?
Why am I getting this?
Honestly, I think you're a good egg. At some point I have contacted you about a game or sent you a key. As I am trying stuff, I thought it would make sense to see if you actually like something like this, or think it's a tremendous waste of life force.
What is this?
At the moment, it's a one-off "hypemail". I'd like it to be a regular-ish thing but I'd only send it when I had something interesting to tell you. It may evolve. Like a Nidoqueen 👀
Who are you?
We're Panic Department, an indie games marketing agency, run by Sarah and Korina. Sarah does the creator shizzle (and some other stuff) and is the one sending this email.
I hate it here.
If you no longer wish to hear from me, please unsubscribe. This is meant to cut down your emails and bring you joy, not clog up your inbox.
I have opinions.
If you want to chat about anything, you know where to find me!
Stay awesome!
Sarah 🤜