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00:00:00
00:00:01
Cave Bear Games TBD
12 Playsin 4 days
Guest: Ayla Derrick, Founder & Creative Director at Cave Bear Games
️ Host: Greg Posner
🔹 Episode Summary:
What happens when a former teacher with no game dev background builds a studio of junior developers and releases a cozy solarpunk game on Steam? You get Plantasia — a passion-driven project built on heart, hustle, and clear values.
Greg sits down with Ayla Derrick to talk about the origin of Cave Bear Games, the lessons learned from launching on Steam, and the importance of leading with empathy in the indie space.
🔑 Key Topics & Timestamps:
[00:02:00] From Teacher to Game Developer: Ayla’s Unlikely Start
Discover how Ayla Derrick pivoted from teaching to game dev and built a successful studio with no prior experience.
[00:07:00] Building a Studio of Juniors — and Making It Work
Learn how a team of junior developers created a game on Steam under Ayla’s leadership, proving that passion beats pedigree.
[00:13:00] Designing Plantasia for the Bottom Third of Your Screen
Explore the design of Plantasia, a solarpunk idle game intentionally built to sit on the bottom of your screen.
[00:20:00] Going Viral, Going Live: The Early Access Launch Story
Hear the inside story of how Cave Bear’s Plantasia launched on Steam after a viral moment turned their studio real.
[00:27:00] Leadership by Teaching: Why Studio Culture Matters
Discover how Ayla applies classroom leadership to studio culture and why it keeps her team motivated and growing.
🗣️ Quotes:
“We didn’t mean to become a studio. We just went viral, and suddenly we had to be one.”
“The pillars were communication, education, and passion. That’s what kept us together.”
🔗 Links:
- Cave Bear Games
- Wishlist Plantasia on Steam
- Ayla on LinkedIn
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Transcript
Who is Ayla Derrick?
00:00:34
Greg
Good morning, good afternoon. Welcome to Player Driven. Greg here. Today, we are joined by Ayla Derrick. She is the founder of Cave Bear Games, a studio made up entirely of junior developers built from the ground up with heart, hustle, and a lot of vision, which we're going to hear about today.
00:00:51
Greg
Ayla's background is in education, not game dev, which is something I love to talk about and learn more about. And it didn't stop her from building a team and a studio and this whole passion project and bringing Plantasia, her game to life.
00:01:03
Greg
I'm really excited about the entire conversation and learning how she did it. ah Before we do jump in, Ayla, thank you so much for joining us
What is Plantasia?
00:01:10
Greg
today. How are you?
00:01:12
Ayla Derrick
Hi, Greg. I'm good. Busy, super busy, of course. um Sorry, i'm not seeing little waves.
00:01:20
Greg
I hear you're good.
00:01:21
Ayla Derrick
Okay, sorry.
00:01:22
Greg
Now you're good.
00:01:22
Ayla Derrick
Hi, Greg. Hi, Greg. I'm doing so well. Really, really busy. um Obviously, our game recently launched into early access, and so we're still actively developing for final release.
00:01:33
Ayla Derrick
And I got a bunch of other stuff going on just everywhere in life. ah But super happy to be here, really happy to talk about what we did, how what went right, what didn't. And um I think more people can do stuff like this if they want. So um I want to kind of share the knowledge.
00:01:49
Greg
Yeah. And you know what? It's funny that you don't have a game dev background, but here you are Your game just launched right into early access, like you talked about. And we're going to get more into it, but I'm really curious.
00:02:00
Greg
You know, it's been maybe like three-ish weeks, right?
00:02:02
Ayla Derrick
Okay.
00:02:03
Greg
What's the pulse check? what What are those daily things that you're looking into at Steam, measuring, monitoring, or maybe it's nothing right now?
00:02:10
Ayla Derrick
You know, if I remember to look, I will look. Some days I definitely forget ah because, you know, it's just going well. I'm not, you know, hyper focused on our stats or anything. i think we have already exceeded everyone's expectations, including my own.
00:02:24
Ayla Derrick
ah So, yeah, I mean, when I go on Steamworks, you know, the back end of Steam, I look at how many wishlists we have. We've grown about 600 wishlists since we started. So now we have around 2,600.
00:02:35
Ayla Derrick
Um, we have sold almost 250 copies. I think it's been a couple days since I checked. So maybe I'll do that. Uh, so about 260, 250 copies. um I mean, that's kind of just what I look at. I look at the discussions. We have a very like some discussion posts that people have done, and I will respond to those as the founder. And usually it's just like bugs and stuff. And I'm like, yeah, we're working on it.
00:02:58
Ayla Derrick
ah And like the reviews as well, I also look at it because i I like to see the reviews.
00:02:58
Greg
you
00:03:03
Ayla Derrick
Thankfully, they are all overwhelming overwhelmingly positive. We have 20 reviews now. um Yeah, it's just been really good. The response has been really good. And the game works as intended, which is what I was very nervous about.
00:03:15
Ayla Derrick
So, ah yeah, it's been overall a good time. Nothing. and don't think we've had any really truly negative reviews ah or or comments at all. Like, you know, besides like bugs, but everyone's very respectful and very like, I'm sure you're working on it. Just here it is, you know, helpful.
00:03:31
Ayla Derrick
Yeah.
00:03:32
Greg
I know this is a weird question, but do you kind of want to hear a negative review just so you can start to say, hey, what am I not seeing here? Or is the feedback enough?
00:03:40
Ayla Derrick
No, the feedback is really good. I mean, the feedback is very respectful, very in-depth. I mean, I think that helps
Ayla's Gaming Journey
00:03:46
Ayla Derrick
that most of our audience is devs from like LinkedIn, and so they know how to give like feedback, which is helpful. um Honestly, like the only kind of even remotely negative stuff we've gotten is when people don't understand the whole bottom of the screen thing.
00:04:00
Ayla Derrick
So our game, it sits on the bottom third of your computer screen instead of taking up your entire monitor. Because it's an idle game and it's meant to be played while you are doing other things like work or school. And ah some people don't realize that despite all of our promotional material.
00:04:16
Ayla Derrick
um And they'll be like, the game is bugged at the bottom of my screen. And I'm like, brother. like just read and but I get it it's fine it's fine and I just tell them yeah it's actually supposed to be like that but it is it's a learning curve um it's hard to to understand that it's a new type of genre um so you know I'm nice but sometimes in the back of my head I'm like just read the thing yeah just like watch it okay
00:04:39
Greg
and just Just watch one video. That's all you need to do. That's it. You found the game. Just figure that out. um I want to talk about that in a little bit. right I think the lower third of the game is is such a unique take on a PC type of game.
00:04:52
Greg
And and I love that it's not genre bending, but it's a different way to look at it. But but let's talk about let's talk about you first.
00:04:56
Ayla Derrick
yeah
00:04:59
Greg
right you You're not a
Building Cave Bear Games
00:05:01
Greg
game dev. You were in education prior to this. Were you a gamer at some point? Why why go into gaming?
00:05:09
Ayla Derrick
Yeah, I mean, I've always been a gamer, um but I think... As a woman, I didn't really consider myself too much of a gamer. you know i played things like The Sims um and you know the cozy girl games, Nintendogs on the DS. i was a big DS girl when I was a kid.
00:05:27
Ayla Derrick
um Whereas I had brothers who were playing Halo and and Star Wars and and League and all those games that were actual games or whatever. um So, you know, I didn't I never encountered any actual like discrimination ah for being a woman in games or as a gamer.
00:05:45
Ayla Derrick
But it was more of those like really casual kind of baked in things of like, yeah, well, your game isn't really a game kind of thing. um And so I never really considered myself a real gamer. i was more of just like, yeah, I like games, but I'm a very casual gamer. That's what I call myself. It's very casual. I'm not trying to be super competitive and be a world ranking player.
00:06:06
Ayla Derrick
I don't play like shooters or or like competitive games like Apex or, or you know, League. um So I just play I just play have fun. Right. And so that, too, I never really kept up with the gaming industry at all.
00:06:20
Ayla Derrick
i I don't know. I didn't know. I'm only learning now. I didn't know anything about devs or publishers. I never paid attention to credits like or anything like that. didn't care. ah Sometimes I just wanted to play a game and sometimes I just didn't know what that game was called because I never paid attention to to those things. It just was something that I had.
00:06:40
Ayla Derrick
um But yeah, I was also one of those people who like wanted to work at GameStop as a teenager, like really, really wanted to because I really did like games. ah But I always told myself, no, you actually like don't know enough about games to actually work at GameStop because they have to know stuff and like you know, we go to GameStop and we ask for recommendations and they know what to tell us.
00:07:01
Ayla Derrick
And so i I talked myself out of working at GameStop as a teenager. And now I regret it Like, I really regret it. I wish I worked at GameStop. It's such a classic, like, origin story. And I want it so bad.
00:07:15
Ayla Derrick
honestly would still work at GameStop, to be real. ah But now they're not nearly as cool as they used to be. It's fine. um But yeah, so and very casual gamer. um And so yeah, anding up ending up here a dev, as a founder, as a creative director is not really what I expected at all, but I'm very happy to have gotten here.
00:07:36
Ayla Derrick
yeah
00:07:37
Greg
It's really funny. When I was growing up, I really wanted to work at Blockbuster because whatever case they used to take off when they were they had the games and like those plastic cases, I was just like, I want to do that for a living.
00:07:48
Greg
i want to do that for living. And then realized it was nothing. But I know those feelings of like, I just want to be there and do this.
00:07:52
Ayla Derrick
That's sad. Yeah.
00:07:56
Greg
um What I love that you're doing is that you came into gaming, and I still want to explore this subject, and you didn't know the full back end of gaming, but you built a game or a team of juniors up, right? These other people that might be having a hard time getting their voices, their work being seen.
00:08:15
Greg
What you're doing is you created a platform to help amplify the voices of those others that wanted to help and be a part of this as well. And I think where the gaming industry is today, you know, And you probably have taken a look at things like Manor Lords. How do you build this community up? You're building this mega community up, but you're also enabling those people that work for you, help you volunteer to learn more and get their work being seen. And I think we need more of that in the industry today.
00:08:39
Greg
How can I help you get your work seen? What is the mission that's being done? And I think even though, and I hope this doesn't come off as rude, right? You may not be the expert in the industry, yet you are taking people under your wings and you're kind of showing them, hey, here's what we can do. And I commend you for that because I think that's the knowledge share we need in this industry. Some people will look and say, hey, I need to compete with these developers or these developers, right? But the end of the day, when you're an indie, you guys want to work together to build up a better product, right? And when you start involving your community, when you bring people on to help you, I think you're empowering those people. And I think that's something that's maybe overlooked, but something I think that you do that's amazing.
00:09:14
Greg
So first all, thank you for that.
00:09:15
Ayla Derrick
Yeah, thank you. No, I mean, I'm a teacher, right? So it's kind of natural for me to want to teach other people and help other people. ah I'm a lifelong learner, growth mindset, all that jazz. And I think that it doesn't matter, you know, if someone is equal to you, higher than you or lower than you, you can learn from everyone.
00:09:34
Ayla Derrick
Everyone has different experiences and they've navigated the world differently. And, you know, there's just always something to learn. So yeah, I don't mind ah teaching people what we have done or answering and questions when they come to me.
00:09:49
Ayla Derrick
I am definitely not an expert. I i never have claimed to be. ah But I have done something different and that not a lot of other people are doing and it has succeeded for me. And yeah, I'm more than happy to share that if other people want to do that. um I run a program where I work with other ah indie studios that are pre-seed, you know, volunteer similar to Cave Bear.
00:10:09
Ayla Derrick
um and they're all they're all doing their own thing. I don't tell them how to run their business. But we do work under a mission of you know supporting each other instead of competing. you know I think, obviously, this is still a business. We are technically competing with each other.
00:10:23
Ayla Derrick
But there's so many games, so many studios that I just don't think we need to compete directly with everyone and and view everyone as like, oh, big, scary. like We can't let them know anything that we're doing.
00:10:33
Ayla Derrick
like There's so much competition already. we can definitely benefit from just some support. There's definitely a lot of gatekeeping in the industry. It's just kind of the culture. i don't think people do it really on purpose. It's just, you know, and NDAs are the norm, you know?
00:10:46
Ayla Derrick
ah So it's it's kind of going against that a little bit. and But it's been very successful. People want to share and they want to help. They want to support. So yeah, I'm just kind of giving them an opportunity to do that.
00:10:57
Greg
And I don't know if what you were referring to was the game design skills workshop that you run, but I ah feel like that's almost like a full circle connection there, right? Like you're trying to make your mark one person at a time.
00:11:06
Ayla Derrick
yeah
00:11:08
Greg
You started by learning there. Now you're running workshops there. So I think it's kind of learning from the best. Then when you become at that level, how do you share that knowledge with the rest of the people as well?
00:11:18
Ayla Derrick
Yeah, no, the partner program that I was just talking about is different from Game Design Skills. Game Design Skills is just the community that I started in. It's a game design educational community and website.
00:11:26
Greg
Gotcha.
00:11:28
Ayla Derrick
um I found them on Google when I first transferred into the industry, didn't know anything about anything. And so just learned from them. But yeah, they they really like me over there. They believe in me, which is amazing. And now I run little LinkedIn networking workshops ah just at the it's like one three hour, two hour, three hour lesson at the end of their like 12 week level design or mechanics workshops.
00:11:48
Ayla Derrick
Very small. um But yeah, it's it's nice because I'm a teacher and it's now I'm just teaching in a game design ah community, which is fun. um But yeah, it's different than the partner program where I do.
00:11:59
Ayla Derrick
We bring together other studios in general, whereas GDS is more of like the individual trying to to learn a specific skill.
00:12:01
Greg
Gotcha.
00:12:05
Greg
Gotcha. That's still awesome. I think, you know, when you can bring other studios and and share those industry knowledge, I think that that's where real partnership, real power is made.
00:12:13
Ayla Derrick
Mm-hmm.
00:12:16
Greg
um I want to talk about that step when you decide to start cave bear,
Core Values of the Studio
00:12:21
Greg
right? You, you said, Hey, I'm going to do this. What are those first few days like, or maybe let's back up before you decide doing it. Do you talk to other people on how you want to get started? Do you just say, Hey, I'm going to do this. do you start a discord channel?
00:12:34
Ayla Derrick
I was in the GDS community. I was, um you know, there. I was active there. I had become an admin as well. And I was just, you know, it was a group of friends that I liked.
00:12:45
Ayla Derrick
um And I had the game idea and I knew that I couldn't do the game idea any justice by myself. So I wanted to see if anyone would join me. And so i slowly, very casually started putting it out there like, hey i have a game idea.
00:12:59
Ayla Derrick
you know, if you're interested, like maybe working on it, let me know. Portfolio project, you know, that's something we need. um And a couple of people were interested. and so that was the very start of the team. And then we got a couple of people more from people that they knew. um And then the only thing we needed ah to really start was a programmer. And that's when I went to LinkedIn and was like just really casual on my post in in my ah like my own profile because I was already getting just a little tiny bit of traction on LinkedIn.
00:13:28
Ayla Derrick
So I thought maybe I could find someone. And that's when I was like, hey, we need a Unity programmer. um And we got one. So that really worked out. But that was that was kind of it. that I think that is when I made the Discord.
00:13:41
Ayla Derrick
um I think it was like, if I remember correctly, the Discord was just like a personal Discord that I had already. And I just made like a private channel in there for our team. And that's where we started. And and now that personal private discord is now the Cape Bear Games discord. And we do actually still have like that personal friends channel in there that's hidden under a special role.
00:14:04
Ayla Derrick
It's not active. Like no one ever talks in it, but it's still technically there. so I used my friends as like my first community members ah to boost those numbers on the Cape Bear discord. But now it's like obviously so much, so much more than that.
00:14:17
Greg
I love it yeah That's the original seed. The original seed is still there and just kind of like like Plantasia, what did it what did it blossom into?
00:14:20
Ayla Derrick
It is. Yeah.
00:14:23
Greg
You you have this whole community of of plants now all over the place, and I think that's awesome. um When you get started like that, right you have these volunteers or whatever you want to call them, juniors that want to help and be a part of it.
00:14:36
Greg
At that point, is a kind of do you have an order of operations? Is it like, hey, we you have the Discord, we're going to start community management, we're going to start growing the community, we're going to start doing development We're going to start creating images like, is it throwing a bunch of crap against the wall, see what sticks, or you had a plan?
00:14:54
Ayla Derrick
I mean, the thing is with with us is we didn't have a plan at all. um And so when I recommend things to other people now, it's completely different from what I did. um But I think there were a few because we never meant to be a studio or anything fish official at all. It just be kind of happy.
00:15:12
Ayla Derrick
happened like that because we went viral on LinkedIn. And that's when I was like, okay, maybe we can do something more official and more substantial here. Um, but it was really just like supposed to be a portfolio projects, really casual kind of thing.
00:15:24
Ayla Derrick
Um, but I tell people to do different things, but there were a couple of things in the beginning that were natural to me, I think just as a teacher and just also who I am personally, that, uh,
00:15:39
Ayla Derrick
defined our success ah immediately. um And that was the pillars of the studio. We talk about game pillars a lot. I'm actually not very good at them. We had game pillars for Plantasia.
00:15:50
Ayla Derrick
They were bad. We don't use them. um I'll do better next time. But yeah, I did make pillars for the studio um and they were pretty much just values that I personally valued and wanted the team to value as well.
00:15:55
Greg
Thank you.
00:16:06
Ayla Derrick
And that was communication and education. Education, obviously, former teacher, very important to me. And we were all juniors. We're all trying to learn. So I wanted us to make sure we were still learning. And then communication just personally very, very important to me. I'm a huge communicator.
00:16:20
Ayla Derrick
I over communicate in some in some ways. um You know, I don't believe in holding things in. We are working as a team. You need to communicate. And so that was really, really big for me. But I know communication is really hard for a lot of people who haven't mastered it.
00:16:33
Ayla Derrick
ah And so I wanted that. um kind of expectation that we will be working towards that. ah But then the third pillar was passion. um And that isn't like super relative to who I am passion wise. I mean, I guess I i have passion, sure.
00:16:52
Ayla Derrick
But it was more of like, hey, this is the reason we are here ah is because we all have this passion for this game. And so we need to kind of keep that at the top of our minds, say, you know, keep reminding ourselves of that passion and making sure that we are fostering that passion.
00:17:06
Ayla Derrick
And that has what has kept us together as a volunteer team. You know, with with paid teams, you're paid. That's what's keeping you around. That is the motivation. But with volunteer unpaid teams, it's it's. um passion. So those were kind of the three pillars.
00:17:23
Ayla Derrick
And, you know, for other studios, they can have their own pillars, but I think those three are still very important to just kind of have as expectations ah and just, yeah, have make sure all the team knows that. And that I think those three pillars are are huge a factor to the entire team's success.
00:17:42
Ayla Derrick
Honestly, it's one of the the main things I think made sure we we have stuck together and built and released a game.
00:17:49
Greg
I love the fact that you bring up pillars. I think on like my fourth or fifth podcast I ever did, someone, a game director told me about the concept of pillars. And was just like, wow, this is genius. Like, I guess everyone knew it at the time except me.
00:18:01
Ayla Derrick
Mm-hmm.
00:18:02
Greg
But like you start to create create the foundations that you're built on or your studio or the game is built on. And it just kind of, even if it wasn't good your first time, the fact that you did it, right? And you followed the best practice. And then the next time you'll do it a little better.
00:18:15
Greg
You're never going to be perfect at it, right? But at least it gave you hope it gave the people that were following you hope that one thought hey there's a bigger thing going on here i can feel it and the fact that i think that goes a long way even if it wasn't perfect it it was good enough to get people to go with you right
00:18:30
Ayla Derrick
Yeah, exactly. ah it's um And I think that's perhaps my strength, if I can brag about myself for a moment. um Just my strength as a leader in and going into this project as the leader, where I was able to recognize these things really early on. you know Obviously, the project, the game is what we were all focusing on. And I think a lot of leaders focus a little bit too much on that, where they're just really excited to have this game idea and they want to get working on it as quick as possible.
00:19:01
Ayla Derrick
And that's great. That's exactly what I wanted to do as well. But you have to kind of think of the bigger picture. If you want this game to come out, you need the team to do it and to have to look at them and, hey, what are their expectations?
00:19:11
Ayla Derrick
What can they ah expect from themselves? What can they expect from you? um And what can they expect from the project? And that's another thing I tell people as well as like expectations. You need to set that out very, very clearly. That's part of the communication pillar, in my opinion, um so that everyone is aware how long this project is going to go, ah what is expected of them, what is expected from the leader.
00:19:31
Ayla Derrick
ah And yeah, clear communication. Just it all goes back to either communication or education, everything in the world, honestly.
00:19:38
Greg
Yeah, I think you look at the role of a teacher, right? And a teacher probably has one of the hardest jobs in the world of creating lesson plans, trying to work with these kids, depending no matter what the age, right? ah Grading, following up, keeping them disciplined, teaching them. like you're youre creating this model You want to provide this model example of how things work. And when you look at a studio, you have a bunch of kids that are running around trying to do things, right? So how do you clearly communicate with them? How do you get through to them? How do you make sure things are clear? I think the skill sets of a teacher are very managerial, right? and you can motivate people with that. And and it's one of the one of the jobs that I often hear a lot of people coming from education into gaming. I think it's just they understand how to keep order when there's chaos. And I think that is often overlooked. You know you have these
00:20:26
Greg
these amazing developers coming and starting their own indie studios, but they don't really know how to manage people because they don't like their geniuses of what they do. But management is a whole nother skill that this is just so hard to use that if you haven't, and I think it goes a long way and everything you're talking about shows the kind of leader that you are based on that.
00:20:43
Ayla Derrick
Yeah, and I think you know i think management and the type of leadership that we are talking about oftentimes goes to the producer. I love my producer. i I don't personally want to be my own producer.
00:20:56
Ayla Derrick
I think that's a lot of like little work that I'm just not a fan of. I like the more bigger picture stuff. um But i've I've learned that oftentimes a producer is a people manager alongside. And while I have taken that role from my producer where where she does help me with it, um I am the main people manager on the team, which is not I'm learning as common for a creative director. Usually they are just like in the meetings directing things.
00:21:20
Ayla Derrick
um But I enjoy it. I i i enjoy people. i like people i like managing people. And like I said, that that teacher background really helps because as a teacher, you have to know how individual students learn, what motivates them, what drives them. You have to learn them specifically and then make sure that you are communicating with them in a way that allows them to participate with the whole class and learn what everyone else is learning. So it's very individually focused.
00:21:48
Ayla Derrick
And that's what I do with with my team is I make sure I know them well enough to know what they are interested in, what they are invested in, ah and give them that opportunity to explore that.
00:21:59
Ayla Derrick
ah And that maintains their passion as well. Yeah, i the teaching aspect of my background has transferred a lot more than I expected into this role.
00:22:12
Ayla Derrick
I didn't think, i thought i thought I was going to rely on my writing background and to it to get into games. And I don't like it all. Sometimes I help my narrative designer. um But for the most part, it's it's by far the teaching that that affects my leadership.
00:22:27
Ayla Derrick
And I'm glad because it's worked out.
00:22:29
Greg
I think most people are in some sort of job or career that don't think that their skills can translate to another industry, but that's not the case.
00:22:37
Ayla Derrick
the
00:22:37
Greg
It could be a different name. It could be a different title. But if you're a project manager, it might be a project manager here. It might be a game director here, or like you said, a producer or, right? Like your skills can translate very well from one vertical to another.
00:22:51
Greg
You just got to figure out how you use it and how you kind of flex that skill.
00:22:54
Ayla Derrick
Absolutely.
00:22:56
Greg
um
00:22:56
Ayla Derrick
Definitely.
00:22:57
Greg
I have one last question that want to go to our ah fireball round where I ask you quick questions. But from the studio perspective, if you could go back to the beginning, what is one change or one thing you would do different than you did?
Marketing Challenges
00:23:11
Ayla Derrick
You know, we've made a lot of mistakes. Obviously, we're a junior team. um You know, we did pre-production wrong. We didn't in involve QA and playtesting early enough. um But I think the one that has caused me personally the most stress has been marketing.
00:23:26
Ayla Derrick
There were just a lot of I didn't fully understand what marketing meant. I didn't understand that it really is a whole separate thing nearly as big as development itself. um and so I understand now why why kind of publishers exist ah and they kind of take all that marketing off the plate of the development team.
00:23:46
Ayla Derrick
I still like doing marketing internally if I can manage it. Hopefully, I can in the future. ah But I definitely see the appeal of just handing it off to someone else. um You know, I just I kind of hired backwards. We hired a community manager ah first and then a marketing director last. And that definitely should have been switched.
00:24:04
Ayla Derrick
No hate to my community manager. She's great. um But yeah, it's just kind of that order of operations that I just didn't know. The thing is, like, I thought that I was personally interested in marketing. So I thought that I would kind of be doing most of it. That was definitely the wrong assumption. i have way too much other stuff to do. And I also don't know marketing like that.
00:24:22
Ayla Derrick
I just was kind of mutually interested in it. Not interested in anymore. Don't want to do it at all. oh not just like so Not interested. um but yeah i mean Marketing, I think, is the one that has caused me the most stress because And it shouldn't because then I tell myself this ah it shouldn't because the goal of our game isn't even financial success.
00:24:43
Ayla Derrick
It's not. It's just more of it caused me so much stress because I could see the game that they that we were building and how sorry, this is really inappropriate of my cat.
00:24:51
Greg
I love it. This is i but like a warning before the episode.
00:24:54
Ayla Derrick
um like and no I could see the progress and I could see the game that our team was making and I could you know see all of our team members and how amazingly talented they were and how this game we were making was actually really good in quality. um And I just wanted people to see it.
00:25:10
Ayla Derrick
I wanted people to be there when it came out. and i just And so I was really kind of focused on marketing because I knew that was the only way that they could see it. If we succeeded in marketing, they would they would be able to see it.
00:25:22
Ayla Derrick
And so I almost felt like that responsibility to the team to make sure marketing succeeded. So I definitely put a lot more pressure on myself with it than I needed to. And I constantly told myself, like, it's not it supposed to be a financial success. It's okay if marketing doesn't work out the way you wanted it.
00:25:36
Ayla Derrick
um But i I put the pressure on myself nonetheless. And so that's probably what I would change is just kind of go about understand marketing more ah from the beginning, ah build the team a little bit differently. And um yeah, just...
00:25:50
Ayla Derrick
Yeah, lower my expectations a little bit for myself.
00:25:52
Greg
I appreciate hearing that. I think, you know, understanding even if you want to do something, knowing that this might be someone that's more talented or better out there, right? i think i think a good leader hires people that are really good in their position and just say, hey, take it and run. it Maybe every once in a while I want to do something and let me be me, but like you're an expert at this. And I think that self-identification of saying, and next time around, I know to do this, right? I think that's the learnings there.
00:26:18
Ayla Derrick
Yeah, I think that's what, you know, ended up making the whole team in general is I had this game idea and it was very cool and I liked it, but I knew that I was simply not capable of doing it myself.
00:26:29
Greg
Mm-hmm.
00:26:29
Ayla Derrick
um And, you know, thankfully it was it was a pretty simple game idea and I wasn't too attached to, to, extra stuff on it so I was able to give my team the freedom to to change things.
00:26:40
Ayla Derrick
um But honestly, they all loved the game idea to begin with so they didn't even want to change a lot. I'm very lucky there that they enjoyed what I was ah thinking about. um But yeah, like the thing is, i understand that I'm good at people and I'm good at managing people and I'm good at the, ah you know, maintaining the overall vision of the game, ah but I'm not good at anything else.
00:27:00
Ayla Derrick
And that is why I have amazing 15 person team, which is bigger than most indie studios. And that's because I just want them to be able to handle it. A, because I'm selfish and lazy myself, but also just because I know that they can do it better and I want the game to be good.
00:27:16
Greg
Well, we were all lazy at heart, so so I appreciate hearing that.
00:27:20
Ayla Derrick
I agree.
00:27:20
Greg
stuff ah Fireball round, I just kind of throw a few questions at you. ah Good to go?
00:27:25
Ayla Derrick
I'm ready.
00:27:25
Greg
all right, what is the last show you binge watched?
00:27:31
Ayla Derrick
Oh God. Um, what terrible question to ask.
00:27:32
Greg
Or movie?
00:27:34
Ayla Derrick
Um, am watching so many shows right now that are coming out one at a time, which is unfortunate.
00:27:43
Greg
Hmm.
00:27:43
Ayla Derrick
Um, Oh, Severance.
00:27:47
Greg
severance
00:27:48
Ayla Derrick
Well, we watched we watched that every week. We watched we binge watched the first season.
00:27:52
Greg
hmm we just finished that one as well back to back you should see it uh oh i don't say no it's not game of thrones level that's too much hype you were just let down by game what is the last game that's not plantasia that you played
00:27:52
Ayla Derrick
i don't know. I'll say Severance. Severance is really good. yeah Yeah. If you haven't seen it, you absolutely have to see it because that show is Game of Thrones level, but it has not yet let us down.
00:28:03
Ayla Derrick
um
00:28:07
Ayla Derrick
It's worth I'm sorry if you don't agree. It is that good.
00:28:16
Ayla Derrick
ah I play Infinity Nikki every day.
00:28:18
Greg
All right. how accurate
00:28:19
Ayla Derrick
i fucking love Infinity Nikki.
00:28:20
Greg
I haven't played that. I heard it's very ah gotcha. Is that what it is?
00:28:24
Ayla Derrick
It's not, you know, it's my first gotcha game.
00:28:27
Greg
yeah
00:28:27
Ayla Derrick
ah It definitely has gotcha. I do believe that it does it in a way where I don't feel like I have to participate money wise if I don't want to.
00:28:35
Greg
Okay.
00:28:39
Ayla Derrick
I can definitely ah not spend money on it. I do allow myself $10 month.
00:28:45
Greg
There you go.
00:28:45
Ayla Derrick
But that's very strict on that.
00:28:45
Greg
I like that. It's fair. paying for the developers. People are working on that game.
00:28:48
Ayla Derrick
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
00:28:50
Greg
I think when you're in the industry, you don't mind spending a few bucks here and there if you know where it's going.
00:28:53
Ayla Derrick
yeah exactly.
00:28:55
Greg
What is your dream vacation?
00:28:57
Ayla Derrick
um i went to Hawaii for the first time. Last year, ah it was amazing. It was everything I thought it was and more. ah The water temperature was beautiful. I'm from South Florida. I'm big on beaches and being able to swim in the ocean. And I cannot do that here in San Diego. The water is too cold.
00:29:16
Ayla Derrick
And Hawaii was gorgeous and beautiful. So maybe a cruise to Hawaii because I'm also and this is just. It. There's so many issues both with traveling to Hawaii and cruises separately that it's guilty pleasure. Okay. I understand all the bad things that, okay. He asked dream vacation.
00:29:35
Ayla Derrick
Um, Hawaii, I think would be, would be it. Cause I, I really want to go back. Um,
00:29:40
Greg
We're going to edit that to Hawaiian Cruise just to let you know.
00:29:42
Ayla Derrick
Hawaiian cruise. Yeah, Hawaiian cruise. Ideally, I do love cruises. It's just like the free food. ah I'm just really big on unlimited free food. And then my husband will be like, because he's not a fan of cruises, he'll be like, it's not free. You you pay for it I'm like, well, you pay for it in the ticket price.
00:29:57
Ayla Derrick
So it doesn't change depending on how much food you eat. So in my head, that's free. Okay. um So anyway, yeah, I like cruises too.
00:30:06
Greg
I'm with you team cruise. My, my wife is begging me to do a Disney cruise when my youngest is a little older. older So that, that will be in our future one day.
00:30:12
Ayla Derrick
Oh, cute.
00:30:14
Greg
Uh, the last question I had for you, if I can remember it was, I don't remember it now. I'm just gone. This is why should write things down. I don't write things down so we can go back to Plantasia.
00:30:28
Ayla Derrick
Okay.
00:30:29
Greg
um Now, you talked about it being your idea. You kind of bring it up. You built this whole team up to help build it, right?
Collaborative Development
00:30:37
Greg
did you Once the team was built, did anything change? do you hear from the the developers on what they wanted to do? that the I mean, the inspiration seems to be Solar Punk, right? That's kind of the the feel.
00:30:48
Greg
ah We got a disconnected thing, but I think we're still here. um And then idle gameplay as well, right? So ah has anything changed once you involved more of a group into this?
00:30:59
Ayla Derrick
um I mean, honestly, yeah. I mean, things have changed, but i don't think enough for me to even really remember. um There's nothing that I was super hung up on. Really, my whole thing was I wanted Rusty's Retirement meets Plant Tycoon, um which is a a game from 2007. So Rusty's Retirement, 2024, Plant Tycoon, 2007. Yeah.
00:31:16
Ayla Derrick
twenty twenty four like tycoon two thousand and seven um that was kind of That was kind of it. I don't even remember if i if it was my idea for Solar Punk or if it was my narrative's idea or if it was someone else.
00:31:27
Ayla Derrick
I think maybe it was mine, but I honestly can't remember. um yeah Everyone on the team has brought their own ideas into the project and I have allowed them to do that because I did not have an extremely strict vision.
00:31:40
Ayla Derrick
I had a vision and it is strict, but it's in a way where it's like pretty simple. And they, again, all really liked that idea and were down with it. But, you know, we are all juniors making a portfolio project. And so I wanted each team member to be able to bring the skills ah that they had, but also be able to challenge themselves in areas that they were interested in.
00:32:03
Ayla Derrick
So everyone has influenced the design. you know, I, well, no, maybe not. I was going to say, I think maybe we did want solar punk or maybe I did. Maybe it was my idea because I, I looked at my artist's portfolio before we, he joined.
00:32:16
Ayla Derrick
Uh, and I was specifically looking for kind of a solar punky thing and his portfolio was really geared towards that. Um, so maybe I did, i don't remember either way, not important, but yeah, I let everyone kind of bring their own thing into, into the game.
00:32:30
Ayla Derrick
Um, Our designer, it's funny enough, is ah not a cozy game designer at all, not even a cozy game player. ah But I knew that he could do the job.
00:32:41
Ayla Derrick
ah And also he was one of like the first team members. So he was back when I was not being picky on team members at all. um
00:32:47
Greg
I think we're speaking.
00:32:47
Ayla Derrick
I knew he could do the job and that was really all that mattered to me. So he has brought in some of his interests. We have some ARPG elements in the game, which you wouldn't expect from a cozy game, but we do have so have some ARPG elements in the game that I think are are interesting and neat and provide more depth to the game for those people that want it in an optional way.
00:33:07
Ayla Derrick
um Obviously, our artist has highly influenced the game because it's all his art style, his personal art style, and he determined that entirely on his own. um You know, even our our ah programmer, our lead programmer has brought in so many of her own ideas and she has some like animation ah skills. And so she has like the Only animation in the game right now is totally her.
00:33:29
Ayla Derrick
We have not done any animation outside of just when she was bored and wanted to try something. um So everyone has brought in their own our own aspects. And I think that is really important for a leader to allow.
00:33:42
Ayla Derrick
you know i understand that we have these very specific ideas of games in our head. And I think that we can achieve that within a team. But you have to be flexible enough to understand that everyone, especially in a volunteer team, when you're not paying them,
00:33:57
Ayla Derrick
their motivation comes from being able to see themselves in their work. ah And so, yeah, you need to allow that, that freedom for sure.
00:34:04
Greg
i I love that. And I think it's lovely that you're you're letting them kind of show them their feathers or however you want to put that, right? And what they want to do. I'm curious with that, as well as the community that you're building on Discord, how do you manage many ideas like this, right?
00:34:22
Greg
There must be lots coming at you. Is it just throw things in JIRA?
00:34:24
Ayla Derrick
I,
00:34:25
Greg
Is it just pray?
00:34:27
Ayla Derrick
I mean, obviously our our um project, like our our game development is done in Discord and in Notion. When it comes to the community, the partner program, everything else, I am not very organized.
00:34:40
Ayla Derrick
um I'm not just very organized in general. You should see my desk right now. ah So it's more of like I try to remember things. And if I remember it, that means it's probably more important to me.
00:34:51
Ayla Derrick
um But also not necessarily. I just forget shit a lot of the time. My memory is not good. I need to be more organized, especially when it comes to the partner program. um So, yeah, I mean, I'm definitely not perfect.
00:35:03
Ayla Derrick
I'm definitely very messy. um And that's why I have like my own producer, right? Because she is the organized one. My marketing director as well is extremely organized, too. She goes through our... um company email now and organizes it which is great because before she got there it was a fucking disaster it was absolutely a mess uh and now it's like all organized and i'll go in there and there's like only two emails in the inbox instead of like 300 so uh yeah i'm not organized really at all
00:35:30
Greg
i I feel that. I feel like every week I try a new program, whether it be Notion or Airtable. like I'm going to take notes here.
00:35:36
Ayla Derrick
and i love
00:35:36
Greg
going to take notes here. I'm going to take notes here.
00:35:38
Ayla Derrick
I know and I love it and I do use Notion a lot. um It's the only app that has allowed, has maintained my attention for long enough to actually use it relatively often, ah but it's still, even still in there, it's really disorganized and all over the place, but at least I use it every once in a while. I like learning all the new apps. I wish I was organized. I wish I was one of those amazing organized girlies and I, God, I want that so bad, but I'm just, I'm not, it's not me.
00:36:07
Greg
Now I started using chat GPT for some notes as well, because I love how it can reference them and It's not bad.
00:36:13
Ayla Derrick
Yeah.
00:36:13
Greg
You got to be careful of kind of some hallucination type stuff.
00:36:16
Ayla Derrick
Wonky stuff. Yeah, yeah.
00:36:17
Greg
But I mean, it's just a great way to just think of your data in different ways that you haven't looked at it before.
00:36:17
Ayla Derrick
Yeah.
00:36:23
Greg
um You also went into Steam. So Steam was your launch. You launched it about three weeks to ago into early access, right?
Launching on Steam
00:36:30
Greg
I know you kind of had some bumps, I think, on the way to launching on Steam.
00:36:34
Greg
Can you tell me about kind of What was your Steam experience like when it was time, maybe the first couple weeks leading into launch? How does that work? What's that process look like?
00:36:44
Ayla Derrick
so hard. it was really hard. The Steam backend, if you've ever been in it is a lot. It's a lot. and there's like And they have documentation, but the documentation is also a lot.
00:36:55
Ayla Derrick
and it just And if you're not technical at all, which I'm not, it it was really confusing. i'm I'm very lucky that our game is small um because if it's under a certain amount of megabytes, like 2000 megabytes or something, then you can upload it in this very easy way directly through the back end of Steam.
00:37:06
Greg
Thank
00:37:11
Ayla Derrick
But if it's bigger, you have to go through this whole other process that i literally don't even know how to describe. I don't know how to do it. I'm glad I don't have to do it. Um, so I don't, I don't know how that works. You know, it's very complicated.
00:37:23
Ayla Derrick
um it's, it's just a lot. It's really steam. It's a lot. I think that's why release managers exist so that they know how to work steam and all of the millions of fucking things that they require. Sorry, I'm cursing a lot.
00:37:37
Ayla Derrick
um They just require so many things and they have a checklist and that checklist is helpful, but sometimes it's hard to understand what they're doing. But yeah, I mean, the Steam process is difficult. they they First, they want you to set up the page itself and get all the assets in and all the copy in.
00:37:53
Ayla Derrick
and they need to approve all of that. ah They have, again, very specific, annoying little rules. um That part took a while because we needed to get the assets the right, exactly correct um in dimensions and just content.
00:38:06
Ayla Derrick
ah And so But overall, I think I could set up a Steam page pretty quickly a second time around. um The hard part was then, well, then after that, you need to make sure that you have a build ah that is approved. And that process is a lot more... um complicated in a way, but also like a lot more scary because it's way important. It's super important to to make sure your game is coming out at the right time and that it's approved and not messing up. And Steam does this.
00:38:39
Ayla Derrick
Something else seen that pisses me off is every time you can upload a build to Steam, but if you want to set it to live, you have to you know click a few more buttons. And when you want to set it to live, they will text you ah confirmation code.
00:38:54
Ayla Derrick
um There are other ways to to get around that, but you have to set those up and I haven't. And so every time i want to set a build live, it will send me a code But sometimes it just won't send that code and I will never get a text.
00:39:11
Ayla Derrick
And it will say it has texted me and I will never get a text. Other times I will never get a text because it has said failed to send SMS. um And I'm like, all right, well, what do i do now? Because you're not sending my sending me that text. message I just can't send my build live.
00:39:26
Ayla Derrick
It's So they do they also just have some technical stuff. They're not perfect. um Yeah, so Steam is really complicated. I'm i'm more than willing to to help people out if they have questions.
00:39:37
Ayla Derrick
I do want to personally make some sort of guide for my partner program, um you know, because for for first time people on Steam, it's just it's insane. It's just insane. I think second time around, I'm i'm way better off.
00:39:50
Ayla Derrick
Thankfully, it is is once you got it, you kind of got it. But initially, it's ridiculous.
00:39:56
Greg
I've heard um more studios recently launching directly to web with WebGLs being a little more popular these days, which is directly streaming on web. don't that's something you've even considered, but I'd say, hey, type the type game that you are, yeah, you're already Unity, right?
00:40:06
Ayla Derrick
I literally didn't even know about it.
00:40:09
Greg
So it's and it's in the latest Unity build, I think Unity 6.
00:40:10
Ayla Derrick
Yeah.
00:40:15
Greg
You could just completely go directly to web and then it kind of doesn't skirt steam. skirt steam
00:40:23
Ayla Derrick
Like through a browser?
00:40:24
Greg
Yep, you play directly in browser and people are creating like high fidelity games, first person shooters. And I feel like your type of game would be kind of perfect if you could pop it out of the browser and just be down there and then you could not worry about it.
00:40:36
Ayla Derrick
Interesting. i'll have to look
00:40:37
Greg
yeah
00:40:37
Ayla Derrick
I'll have to look into that.
00:40:38
Greg
Yeah, check it out. It's so it's a new hot trend that's kicking up this year is is ah web-based games. Just like ah what we used to play in high school for me.
00:40:44
Ayla Derrick
That's fun.
00:40:46
Greg
We used to do like addictinggames.com. Yeah, exactly.
00:40:49
Ayla Derrick
yeah Yeah, like java all the Java games. yeah Flash games.
00:40:53
Greg
Just like that.
00:40:54
Ayla Derrick
Very cool.
00:40:55
Greg
Yeah. Any, on the flip side though, any positive experiences through Steam? We're
00:41:03
Greg
have to edit this one out.
00:41:05
Ayla Derrick
I mean, you know, it worked as expected.
00:41:07
Greg
Yeah.
00:41:07
Ayla Derrick
ah Thanks. um
00:41:13
Greg
All right.
00:41:14
Ayla Derrick
That's kind of it.
00:41:14
Greg
All right.
00:41:15
Ayla Derrick
I mean, it just it works as expected. yeah i i don't have anything necessarily ah positive to say, not because it's not positive, but it's because it it does what is advertised.
00:41:25
Greg
It does its job.
00:41:27
Ayla Derrick
um Yeah, I wouldn't say they made it particularly easy. I wouldn't say they have, you know, promoted our game particularly well um as expected.
00:41:37
Greg
So then similar to the studio questions, the last time I asked a thing about steam is if you could go back to that pre-launch, what would you do different before launching on steam next time?
00:41:48
Ayla Derrick
Oh, to make sure that my game wasn't delayed?
00:41:50
Greg
Or in general, anything would you do anything different?
00:41:51
Ayla Derrick
Like it was?
00:41:54
Greg
ive I'm sure you would do a lot different from Steam perspective, but is there one thing like set a different price or timing or something like that?
00:42:02
Ayla Derrick
No, you know, I mean, I like the way we did it. i i um I would probably practice ah going live before actually going live, like bring in someone who knew steam and go through the whole process with them of of going live for the first time because I didn't. I just kind of woke up the morning of and was like, all right, let's figure it out.
00:42:26
Ayla Derrick
um And I definitely panicked a little bit there a couple of times. um So yeah, i would probably just Talk to more people about it, of how to do it So definitely prepare yourself for the worst.
00:42:38
Ayla Derrick
ah Talk with people who've done it before um and know exactly the steps that you have to do before you have to do them.
00:42:45
Greg
So
Values-Driven Leadership
00:42:46
Greg
let's talk about, let's talk a little bit about Cave Bear Games.
00:42:46
Ayla Derrick
Education.
00:42:50
Greg
um You're kind of a values driven studio, right? You have volunteers, you have juniors working with you. What do you wish more people out there knew about running value driven studio?
00:43:03
Ayla Derrick
I think it's just what I wish people knew about values in general. um you know I'm very, ah you know just because of how life has gone, I'm very money averse in general.
00:43:14
Ayla Derrick
um I don't like money. I know that the world runs on money. I'm not stupid. you know like I get it. um But I think everyone could just benefit so much more if money wasn't as involved.
00:43:28
Ayla Derrick
as it is. And that is something that I feel very lucky about with the way that Plantasia has gone. and I you know doubt that I'll ever be able to experience it again moving forward. um Just the fact that money was never a concern for us.
00:43:44
Ayla Derrick
We never thought about it. Obviously, we are most mostly unemployed people. We are worrying about money in our daily lives, of course. but we were all under the same expectations since the beginning that this project would not make us any money and that we were not going to look for money for it.
00:44:02
Ayla Derrick
um And so it just kind of freed it from a lot of stress and expectation and it just made it a fun thing, ah fun project. And i it's it was made it very unique and very cool and very fun.
00:44:17
Ayla Derrick
And, you know, I recommend studios, if they are in the position to do so, um try to make their game the same way we did without that expectation. Don't go for funding.
00:44:29
Ayla Derrick
ah Don't expect money. um you know You can sell it. like Obviously, we're selling it. and We do have some money, but we're also splitting it 18 ways or something. so It's not really like any money really anyone's getting at the end of the day.
00:44:41
Ayla Derrick
um but yeah It was just such an experience, such a fantastic, positive experience to to be able to go through this whole project just purely out of passion and not at all worrying about money at all. and it was yeah It was just really freeing, really nice.
Future Plans
00:44:57
Greg
So if someone was listening and wanted to support Cave Bear, right, they're already going to purchase the game, right, because we're going to have the Steam link it in our show notes. You can check out Plantasia, but what help would you guys need
00:45:13
Ayla Derrick
you know Maybe I should put up like a go like a like a Patreon or a Ko-Fi or something. If people want to donate money directly to us, that would be sick. A lot of us are pretty poor, including myself.
00:45:24
Ayla Derrick
um But no, I mean, just just buy the game. Play the game. Give us feedback on it. Share it with your friends. Buy a couple coffee copies for your friends. you know It's only five bucks. If you got a couple couple of those bucks lying around, that would be great.
00:45:38
Ayla Derrick
um We really just want visibility. We want people to play the game. um you know Especially if you are ah connected to influencers or news media, like that is definitely something we need.
00:45:50
Ayla Derrick
um We haven't ah reached out to news media or or influencers yet. we We plan to before final release, ah but we haven't done it yet.
00:46:01
Ayla Derrick
And so any kind of visibility, big visibility like that would be huge. um But really just buy the game. Give us some feedback in our Discord. We did have someone recently um who has been following us on LinkedIn for a while. He bought my lead programmer an ultra wide monitor so that she could test the game on an ultra wide monitor because we were having some bug issues with that.
00:46:28
Greg
Okay.
00:46:28
Ayla Derrick
But that was like $300, over $300, which is crazy. And so that was really nice of them to do. um That was insane. And so like, you know, stuff like that is really cool.
00:46:39
Ayla Derrick
um But yeah I mean, ah people have been so supportive already of the game. and And like I said, we have overwhelmingly positive reviews. We haven't really received anything negative at all.
00:46:51
Ayla Derrick
um So I'm already, you know, blown past expectations. But yeah. any kind of visibility you can give us if you want to help. That is really what we need.
00:47:01
Greg
Beautiful. we will we will We will shout to the hills about Plantasia and so will our audience.
00:47:04
Ayla Derrick
Thank you.
00:47:07
Ayla Derrick
Thank you.
00:47:07
Greg
um
00:47:08
Greg
Now, you said this is a portfolio project, right? That's the goal. Have you thought about what's next? Are you going to continue to build on this, build what's next? And you're smiling here because you get asked this all the time, but...
00:47:19
Ayla Derrick
you I have been getting asked that question a lot since we released an early access. So, um, you know I definitely know that this is what I want to keep doing. I want to keep being a creative director. I want to keep running Cave Bear for sure.
00:47:34
Ayla Derrick
At the same time, though, I want to work at an established studio. I want to know how how established studios work so that I can learn and and see what I want to bring back to my own studio. um But also, you know i have a couple of game ideas in my head They're constantly changing.
00:47:51
Ayla Derrick
I don't know if they're even doable. You know, it's just stuff like that. So really what I'm telling people and what I also just told my team this week is I don't know what's next. I know Plantasia.
00:48:02
Ayla Derrick
We are releasing Plantasia at the end of June into full full release. And that is when we will stop working on it. We will not. It is a portfolio project. It's not a live service game. is It's out and it's done and we are done with it.
00:48:11
Greg
Thank you.
00:48:14
Ayla Derrick
And then, ah less than a month later, I'm moving countries. um So that's kind of my focus right now is finish Plantasia, move to another country, and then yeah, ask me after that.
00:48:26
Ayla Derrick
We'll see.
00:48:27
Greg
That's fair. I would say the one one thing that stuck out that what you said was that you've created a game, you've launched a game. It could be nice to go work at another studio, but but you've done it all. I think at this point, you'd look at people that have been in those studios and poach them and say, hey, we were building something special here and and bring the talent from those studios to you guys and you can continue to grow. You now you have this reputation, you have this brand now that has such a great online following, right? You have a huge Discord, you have a LinkedIn, you're at over 10K people on LinkedIn, right? Like,
00:48:56
Greg
you're doing what you gotta be doing.
00:48:57
Ayla Derrick
I know.
00:48:57
Greg
You just gotta attract the eyeballs and talent.
00:48:58
Ayla Derrick
and it's so... It's so nice. and like i'm I'm very lucky to have succeeded like this so early and in my career here. um But at the same time, like I'm still like a little kid. like There are games from studios that I love and I would love to work on.
00:49:15
Ayla Derrick
um And like I want to just be a part of what they are doing. So it's hard. It's like, yeah, I can continue doing my own thing because it's awesome and who would want to do anything else. But at the same time, it's like, ugh.
00:49:26
Ayla Derrick
But if I could work on these games, that would be like so sick, you know, like, so it's hard.
00:49:30
Greg
Grass is always greener on the other side.
00:49:30
Ayla Derrick
It's hard. know. Yeah, it's hard.
00:49:34
Greg
i think that's all I have for you today, Ayla. Is there anything you want to let us know? Where can we find you guys?
00:49:41
Ayla Derrick
Yeah, um definitely. Obviously, we are on Steam. You can find the game there, Plantasia on Steam. ah It's the only one, I think. um And then please join our Discord. ah Our Discord, I hope, will be linked somewhere in comments or whatever. It's just Cave Bear Games Discord. You can find us via good Google search.
00:50:01
Ayla Derrick
um We... are there. you can If you play Plantasia, you can give us feedback there. If you are a game dev, we the vast but majority of the community is game devs. If you want to volunteer on a team project, we host over 90 other indie studios in our Discord to help you find positions just like that.
00:50:19
Ayla Derrick
If you are an indie studio and you want to join that program, you know message me. um You can also find me personally on LinkedIn. That is where I'm at, Ayla Derek on LinkedIn. I got like 10,000 followers. So I also think I'm um the only Hila Derek there. i don't know. It could be.
00:50:35
Ayla Derrick
It's a weird name. um I'm there. ah My DMs are open. You just have to connect with me and I accept most connections anyway. ah Happy to chat. Happy to answer questions. I love LinkedIn. I love chatting.
00:50:46
Ayla Derrick
um So yeah, pretty pretty accessible. ah But yeah, join our Discord if you can.
00:50:51
Greg
Amazing. we We'll have links to everything Ayla just mentioned so you can find her.
00:50:54
Ayla Derrick
Thank you.
00:50:55
Greg
We will we but push everything out there about Plantasia. Honestly, I love your story coming from education, building up this community, enabling junior developers to build something great.
00:51:06
Greg
I think it's a fantastic mission and you're doing a great job at it.
00:51:08
Ayla Derrick
Thank you
00:51:09
Greg
I would say keep keep crushing it, keep doing good, have a safe move across the world. And and thank you so much for your time today.
00:51:13
Ayla Derrick
you. Thank you for having me on. This was great.
00:51:17
Greg
Thank you. Have a great day. I never know how to end it.