Preface

The information you are about to read is a recollection of events and experiences that stick out, for better or for worse, from my own point of view. The topics discussed are all in reference to co-founding NindieNexus.net.

It could be seen or interpreted as either a general a form of entertainment or a personal history. I don’t claim to be an expert or a professional on any of the topics and situations discussed. They are merely observations and opinions. I consider this piece of writing just a way to put down some honest, free-floating thoughts of my venture into something new.

If there’s enough Interest, I may consider doing more pieces like this. Either way, my only hope is that those reading take something away; whether that is a piece of knowledge, or something that makes them/ you smile.

Let’s Start from the Beginning

A new start to any venture can be a daunting and overwhelming experience. For instance, it could be something like . . . oh I don’t know – starting a blog? Having a website to call my own is something that I had always wanted to try, but never knew where to start. Luckily, we live in an age where the entirety of human knowledge and existence resides literally at our fingertips.

The way I saw it, throwing up a web blog would come down to a few key steps: doing some research, putting in a fair amount of effort, and allocating a good chunk of time. Of course, there is the money aspect too; nothing is free in this world. Suffice it to say this is lots to consider.

Bubble Guts

Well, wrap all of that up into a warm tortilla and what you really have is a spicy burrito ahead of a long road trip. What I mean is an equation with an unknown outcome. For both, you better hope you can stomach all of it and ride it out for the long haul. Or at least until a pit stop. Not to mention all of those aforementioned aspects are aside from all of the time actually spent writing and creating content.

Yeah – no. I didn’t do any of that. Okay, so maybe I did do a tiny bit of research but, like the WiiU’s lifespan, it ended prematurely. So little research also meant no further steps were taken; no balls started rolling. Despite quite liking the idea of my voice being heard, I had bills to pay . . . and a restroom close by. Also can’t forget to mention that coffee addiction to fund.

My Two Cents?

I’m not going to lie. As soon as I caught of glimpse of the amount of money needed to maintain a blog with a legitimate domain name I killed that idea. It’s not worth it. Screw it. Why waste my time and money on making something that nobody will read? I mean, really the only logical way anyone would stumble upon a no-name blog buried in the depths of the interwebs is out of pure boredom.

I’m talking the unfortunate procrastinator who acts like they’re working but is really just looking up amateur . . . memes, getting lost in Reddit rabbit holes and looking for new ways to waste their money (Hold on, wait – maybe there is an audience). And even if they DID find it, I’m sure they would likely just sh*t on it anyway, right? Because they’re undoubtedly more knowledgeable than I am. They’ll have graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Master’s in game design, taken home dozens of trophies (DOZENS!) as former captain of their high school debate team, AND have an uncle who is an executive at Nintendo. These highly esteemed people exist all over the internet.

I got off on a ranting tangent there, but we’re back. What I am getting at is there are lots of unknowns in the world. But the real fact of the matter is nothing is guaranteed – not even life. Hold up – you’re probably thinking I’m about to head into something either really positive and uplifting . . . or really dark and depressing. Well, would it surprise you if I said I’m splitting the middle? Right down the line. Let’s just say Michael Scott had it right when he quoted Wayne Gretzky. My question was, where’s the puck?

Working Hard

Luckily, one day while doing some serious work browsing Reddit, I came upon a post in the r/NintendoSwitch subreddit. Side note – if my actual boss happens to read this, I promise I get a lot done. And I found this thread that caught my eye. Keep in mind this was PIFM (pre-iron fist modding). The post wasn’t out of the ordinary by any means, as I had seen plenty of similar ones in the past. It was one of those “Hey guys, DAE love the Switch?!” blasts. Well, we’re talking February of 2018 – almost A YEAR after the Switch had come out, everyone still riding the high fresh off Mario freakin’ Odyssey. OF COURSE, ROB, we all do.

I say that now anyway, but at the time the Switch really was still in its infancy. I decided to investigate further. “What does this person want, free Karma?” To my surprise, what it actually was was someone who seemed genuinely interested in wanting to write about the Nintendo Switch. They were looking for a few other passionate souls to speak with who might be open to potentially creating something.

Maybe it was that past hope in me resurfacing, or new naivety forming, but I felt compelled to reply. I thought, “Maybe this is my puck.” I didn’t actually think ‘puck’, but you get the point; don’t dwell on it. Also, having a creative mind and spell-check instilled in my DNA strands helps.

The Discussions

So if anyone knows anything about Reddit, you’ll know it’s almost impossible to settle an argument with someone. I’ve seen argument threads long enough to wear out a sewing machine (sorry gram gram); imagine the discussion with about 6 of us. Okay, so it wasn’t THAT bad. Everyone was cordial, brought great ideas to the table, and it genuinely seemed like this thing may just take off. I had faith in it, anyway.

Let me tell you this, and it REALLY shouldn’t have been this difficult: coming up with a name was probably the single most painful WEEK-LONG discussion I’ve ever had in my time working with Nindie Nexus. We didn’t even have an article written – heck, we didn’t even have an article THOUGHT OF and we’re already in gridlock. Lo and behold, there’s a split decision. And this was on both name and direction of the *potential* site. WOAH DIDN’T SEE THAT ONE COMIN’!

John Doe

For the purposes of anonymity I am not going to use any names besides Rob’s and my own (Rob is the founder). I’ll refer to the others as either, “Antagonist” or “Protagonist” accordingly. So Primary Antagonist (the one leading the negotiations for the other . . . vision for the site) has a compelling story: they have a background in web design. But of course they do. For all I know they probably graduated Valedictorian with a bachelor’s in small business management and passed the CA bar for kicks n’ gigs by the way they spoke. Again, refer to my nephew of a Nintendo exec comparison; just goes to show – you just never know.

Regardless of the objective truth, Primary Antagonist wanted to make a deal. They essentially volunteered to put everything together. The stipulations? They go with the name they chose, they maintain full control of the site, they decide its direction (which was a clickbait copy/paste news hub), AND they wanted to go full-on monetization.

Don’t get me wrong, it sounds like a pretty sweet setup. I might even be getting ahead of myself but they even went on to create and run said site (*emphasis on PAST TENSE INTENSIFIES*). However, Rob and I (and two others) just wanted to spread FUN. We wanted to have fun playing, have fun writing, and continue to have fun sharing our experiences. Queue the breakoff!

The Split

As shortsighted as it may have seemed at the time, we decided to part ways with the Antagonists. The remaining four of us didn’t let it get us down. We proceeded to start trying to come up with ideas for launch articles. During this process, we did actually end up settling on a name too . . . but more so because Rob went ahead and just purchased the domain to finally put the argument to rest (originally, we had a dot com address created through Wix). And thus, Nindie Nexus was born circa February 2018! At this point, at least we had a foundation, and an identity . . . what we needed now was a plan.

Nindie Nexus needed a focus. What goal could we create to shoot for? Of course, we had large, ambitious ideas flowing. World domination is great and all, but have you ever tried taking a baby step? It’s not as easy as it seems. The OG members (as we came to call them later) decided to scan around the interwebs – specifically Reddit – in search of questions. We wanted to address what the fans were asking about! “Find the niche and deliver results” seemed to be our frame of mind. To our pleasant surprise, we came up with an idea that worked . . . surprisingly well.

But I’ll get to that in a bit. Flash back to a handful of paragraphs ago when we had just narrowly avoided a head-on collision by taking our own route for the site – I may have downplayed the energy expenditure involved in those . . . we’ll call them “negotiations”. It was very taxing. But, we were determined to create. And that’s what we did.

Hustle and Flow

Not-so-pro Pro Tip: WRITE STUFF DOWN. If you have an idea, don’t spend too much time thinking about it. You’ll likely end up thinking it right back into non-existence. What’s the worst that could happen anyway? Okay probably carpal tunnel . . . but most likely not (this statement is not to be misconstrued as medical advice; don’t sue me).

All I’m saying is just put your thoughts down on paper; let them flow. Once you’ve run out of things to say, go back and edit. Then take that edited draft and edit again. Re-word things, clean it up, and by the fourth of fifth revision you might just have something that won’t scar your retinas. Digression over; back to the story.

Nindie Nexus was on its way to having some opening content! It’s a great feeling – while it lasts. Spoiler: it didn’t last all that long. During the former negotiations mentioned with the Antagonists, among everything else, we had discussed how we planned on taking our site live with a BANG! We had unanimously decided on a Nindie game giveaway on r/NintendoSwitch (which, ironically probably started the process of getting us semi perma-banned). We also had come up with a date to do so, which we planned on sticking with still. Well, guess who decided to launch one week earlier on Reddit, copying discussed ideas, along with, what do you know – a Nindie game giveaway? I’m not bitter; you’re bitter.

Nobody Makes Me Bleed My Own Blood

The ferociously beautiful Nintendo-fueled winds that were at our backs calmed to a small breeze . . . in the shape of a knife. The betrayal! Little did they know what started as a jab below the belt conditioned us into fighting shape. We wanted to do it bigger. We needed to do it better. Nindie Nexus was going to be THE conversation – A COMMUNITY. Fast forward a week later to our scheduled launch date. Reddit wasn’t ready for a SIX GAME GIVEAWAY.

Or maybe they were – because the response was epic. Met with a combined total of more than two-thousand comments and hundreds of upvotes, we managed to gain over 300 subscribers on our infant site, making the ‘previous week’s launch’ look like a used diaper. Our (original) site had a forum with threads of discussion. People were starting to comment. Nindie Nexus was alive and the positive response was overwhelming. We felt revitalized and elated that all the initial drama and hard work had something to show for it. People wonder why we’ve always advocated so strongly to remain ad-free on the site . . . suffice it to say we do things OUR way; by gamers for gamers.

GRATITUDE

We’ve seen ourselves as the champions of the Nindie movement since day one. In one of my very first articles I even reference what I called, “The Nindie Revolution”. We witnessed the birth back then and are still going strong! With a single tear in our eye, we’re watching it flourish into a historical movement! Even back then we knew the Switch would blow up to become the console we all wanted. One year later, we’re proud to say we are still here, and stronger than ever. WE ARE NindieNexus.net. In less than 12 months, we’ve surpassed 100,000 UNIQUE VIEWS on our humble, love-crafted site. Here’s to the road to 1,000,000!

This is a great stopping place for part one. I could say more. I’d be happy to write more in this style should the interest be there. But for now, I want to give the most grateful of THANKS to all who have helped keep us going and make us the site we are today. Words can’t express what the gaming community means to us. For those of you reading, you are part of our success – of Nintendo Indie games’ success. We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.