25 May 2022

Putting Video Games On Pause, Indefinitely

4 MINUTE READ

Hello everyone – time for a well due blog update. There are a few things, so let's get straight to it.

Force Of Habit is going on hiatus, indefinitely.

There have been a few contributing factors. It's a sad day indeed. But – there is a silver lining at the end.

1. No Progress

This blog hasn't been updated since 2019. That's a long time. I'd refocused my blog/content creation efforts towards YouTube, which was a great learning experience, however, getting things out consistently was an eternal struggle.

The latest video there - on goal setting - scraped its way into 2021 by the skin of its teeth, and the latest game project - Retro FPS Roguelike - was hitting roadblock after roadblock, in both technical and aspirational/design respects.

Contracting full-time (since the start of Covid) has not been conducive to experimenting and making games, to making YouTube videos, to maintaining a brand, to writing tweets, to hosting a community.

Things go dark without reason and without communication. As the saying goes, "life gets in the way".

With no co-founder, working solo since 2016, no investment/deals, and thus juggling passion projects and the mortgage (etc.), some might say this was inevitable. ☹️

2. Twitter Suspension

In May 2021, the Force Of Habit Twitter account - @forcehabit - was compromised through a Connected App token. It posted horrible racist abuse and bomb threats. This is obviously unacceptable, and the account was suspended by Twitter.

After countless support ticket requests, and receiving the same blanket response each time, it looks like the situation is unresolvable.

I can't delete the tweets, I can't export the data, I can't get the 8+ years of outreach and audience-building back. Twitter was our primary social platform. Our years of video game history is lost.

If you are using Twitter for your games company, be aware of the risk that you are exposing yourself to; migrate and/or mitigate as soon as possible.

Don't end up like me. Here's what you can do:

TAKE OWNERSHIP OF OWN YOUR AUDIENCE

Message all your followers

Direct message all of your followers, and ask them to sign up to your mailing list. If you don't have one, start one.

Regularly export your data

You can find this option in your account settings. You can't do this if your account is in a suspended state. Very stupid IMO. Do it regularly.

Clean up your unused connected apps

This is what got us. Remember some throwaway "Login using Twitter" sites from way back? You never know when something outside of your control might be compromised. Delete anything you're no longer using.

Enable two-factor authentication

Lesson 101 in InfoSec: enable 2FA. You don't need to tie it to a phone number, it can be done with Authy. This couldn't have stopped our suspension though, Connected Apps with tweet permissions can tweet regardless of that!

For all of Twitter's latest appealing to the creator economy - introducing super follows, fleets, acquiring Revue, etc. - none of that is any good if it can't fix its support system.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket"!

What if you've paid for Twitter Ads too? Well, turns out you're not special; try submitting your request a few more times, maybe you'll have better luck than I did.

/rant

3. A Pivot To The Future

The sombre, helpless tone of this blog post, the lack of progress, and the figurative burning of the Twitter-history books might suggest that I'm giving up in the games industry — that's not true.

Force Of Habit as a brand / name / thing is just no longer the right vehicle for my creative, entrepreneurial journey. I'll be taking my nearly 10 years experience as an indie game developer forward with me onto my next endeavour.

Thank you for following, trusting, and believing in me. Thank you for all the good times... and for the bad ones also, 'cause I've learnt one hell of a lot. Moving forward, I'll no doubt be learning a hell of a lot more.

IMPRESS

So, here's the new thing: IMPRESS!

I'm taking my experience of marketing & publishing games and building tools to help indies and smaller publishers streamline their audience ops.

"Your toolkit for indie game publishing! Whether you need marketing essentials, media monitoring & reporting, social & community growth metrics, or direct-sales & distribution — we'll soon have you covered!"

I'll be launching the platform and the new IMPRESS blog soon. I'm really excited for it.

Please show your support by giving the new mailing list your email to get the launch notification, as well as giving the new IMPRESS Twitter a follow... if that's honestly still your preferred commitment level after reading this!

Legacy

if you're happy to leave a comment on what Force Of Habit games meant to you through the years, writing one last goodbye/comment, that would be super swell, and would leave the legacy of this studio on a positive.

If I receive more than one (ha!), I'll include a bunch on the front page of this website as a nice gesture.

One last time!

Cheers,

Ashley

P.S. Legal stuff...

Force Of Habit Ltd will continue to exist as a UK registered limited company (Company No. 08198901), and the games will remain on the stores, however it will now also be trading as impress.games too. It's all a technicality! 👀