An intertwined creative challenge: make a more ambitious game than I've made before, make it work as a business, and succeed in marketing it well. In this Polytechnicast I focus on the marketing part of that challenge and what I've learned these past few months publishing a video every single day. Especially the adapting from being stressed about aspects of it to finding framings and habits to make it sustainable, meaningful, and still figuring out the effective part. Related Links and Resources...
Jul 28, 2025
Not sure when exactly the marketing push should have started with Word Turtle Island but I do see it needs to be happening now. In this epsisode of the Polytechnicast I'm exploring the creative challenge I started to do daily video posts, while also doing more marketing, while also getting Word Turtle Island ready for it's next updates in June and hopefully 1.0 in July. Remember that time I thought it'd be ready soon a couple years ago? This estimate is more credible but also please be kind cons...
Jun 15, 2025
Two main topics this episode. First it's what I've been learning so far with making small videos while exploring topics like teaching interactive design, show and tell about Word Turtle Island, and even video blogging inspired by the old Art Soundoff creative challenge. Second it's about reaching a point of saturation in learning by researching with people playing my game. The bulk of this I recorded into my watch while running errands so the audio isn't great, but I've reviewed and edited and g...
May 29, 2025
Last episode of the Polytechnicast I shared some projects I'd begun and was about do dive into. These are the spinning plates driving this episode. Did any fall? Are there more plates spinning? Related Links and Resources Fourthwall - Rob Stenzinger's Workshops + Creative Designs + Merch Store Word Turtle Island - The Arcade Machine - Photos From Woodworking to Electronics to Finished Cabinet at Midwest Gaming Classic Previous episode: Polytechnicast - Teaching Interactive Design and Word Turtle...
Apr 19, 2025
Sharing some work in progress and what led me to this point - getting back into teaching interactive design and how I've begun making a physical arcade machine for my game Word Turtle Island. In a nutshell I have a few months of ambitious work and this is my planning and thinking about it all. Outline: Starts with how I focused on making WTI for 2.5 years, summary of why and how that came about. Learning from 6 months of further iteration, marketing, and being published as an early access game. ...
Dec 31, 2024
A question from someone who knows someone who met me at 2D Con. Every person's path is their own but it's also fun to learn how olther folks got to where they are. Related Links and Resources Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Word Turtle Island on Itch (free demo available) Ask Me Anything — Blog of an Interactive Storyteller Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support What I Make Buy or wishlist Word Turtle Island on Steam . Take one of...
Nov 19, 2024
Earlier this summer I visited Columbus Ohio to visit my friends Anne and Jerzy Drozd. Part of the plan for our visit was to make some creative experiments together, one of them is this very recording with Jerzy . For the first time I can think of both he and I are launching products at the same time. Both projects took years of development. Both we made solo. His project is the book The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue and mine is the action + cozy game Word Turtle Is...
Jul 25, 2024
A new ask me anything form. Some example topics to ask me about like why I made a game for 2.5 years without publishing a whole lot about it publicly. And most important - it's official that Word Turtle Island is going to be available publicly as an early access game on Steam and Google Play June 21, 2024! Related Links and Resources Word Turtle Island - Details Plus Official Trailer Word Turtle Island - Press Kit Word Turtle Island on Google Play Word Turtle Island on Steam Ask Me Anything — Bl...
Jun 18, 2024
Wort and Portia from Word Turtle Island About 2.5 years. That's how long I've been working on Word Turtle Island to get it ready to publish as an early access game. It's about the right time to be getting the word out and to get myself into practice with showing up social. Practicing being more present even if it's chaotic and inconsistent. Such as this 20 some minute audio podcast. Hi. Related Links and Resources Tell The Damn Story, 305: How To Dive into Game Writing, And Make Words A Positive...
Apr 20, 2024
This is Spell, the magical cat who hosts a save place to practice spelling words. In the middle of working on my next big game Word Turtle Island, where you use words as weapons to battle creatures taking away the books of power, the idea for Spell's Spelling came to me. In this episode of the Polytechnicast I reflect on how this came about and how sometimes a project that takes time away from another project can be worthwhile. Related Links and Resources Spell's Spelling Practice Interactive St...
Aug 16, 2023
In the overlapping circles of feasible, viable, desirable, what is the emphasis and culture practiced? I received a question via my Mastodon account about minimum lovable product vs minimum viable product. @Nycteris@mastodon.art : "So @robstenzinger I was just reading about “minimum Lovable product” vs “minimum Viable product” because you want to have enough features to maximize love of a core group of users - do you think this is a real strategy?" Related Links and Resources Audiences and Princ...
Apr 20, 2023
W-O-R-D up. Reflecting on game development and how it feels affirming in a way that other video game projects meet delays. I thought I'd have Word Turtle Island ready for first or even early access by now yet I also feel good about how it's coming along. Related Links and Resources Why are so many video games delayed and cancelled? - Verdict Why Video Games Are Delayed So Often More posts and extras like coaching sessions at my Buy Me a Coffee page (coaching sessions are all sold out again, stay...
Mar 31, 2023
Prototype cards for my creative warm up cards game Doodle Creatures Have Needs. An update about Word Turtle Island and a few other projects I tried to finish this month. Related Links and Resources More posts and extras like coaching sessions at my Buy Me a Coffee page (coaching sessions are all sold out at the moment) Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, ...
Feb 01, 2023
In this episode I ask why I've posted so few things in 2022. It's a bit about what I'm currently working on and it's also something I've been trying to figure out for years. Related Links and Resources More posts and extras like coaching sessions at my Buy Me a Coffee page Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter Games and Classes Rob offers and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Take one of my classes about collaboration, creativity, and UX design: Skillshare Get the game Guitar F...
Dec 31, 2022
Whether the work that you take on is building on skillful work in the past or not, things got to the way they are for some reason. Now you're here. In this journal I share reasons to find others past work as useful research and signals to help instead of joining a narrative that it has little to no value. Even if that past work wasn't well done, it holds clues and questions to dig into. Related Links and Resources Day One - a journal app Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter Gam...
Dec 09, 2021
Have you been part of an organization that seems to repeat projects that don't learn much from one another? It's a thing I've wondered: why do companies forget? This episode of the Polytechnicast I journal about group memory and wonder if it would be helpful to remember what different teams have tried and learned in the past. Is it because we resist repeating other peoples stories? Related Links and Resources Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge, join the class at Skillshare or download your...
Nov 11, 2021
Any path that brings you to journaling about your art, here I share some context around planning what you'd want to get out of your journaling plus choosing and creating prompts that are a good fit for what you want. Related Links and Resources Art Soundoff Customizing Your Next Creative Challenge, join the class at Skillshare or download your own copy at my workshop store . Interactive Storyteller blog Sign up for my newsletter , be in the know of what I'm making and learning about. Rob's Produ...
Nov 04, 2021
Something I'm grateful for is to be on a learning adventure together with folks I've worked with. At times I get questions from folks who listen to the show and folks I've been on teams with in the past. I'm going to include all this in a category of listener questions and make a few Polytechnicasts based on these questions. In this episode I get a question from a colleague who is wondering about practicing communication skills coming from a product team and engineering perspective. How could th...
May 08, 2021
The emotional work of discovering, including, representing, and collaborating in design is what I explore in this think aloud journal. This recording didn't start as a Polytechnicast or even an exploration about UX Mindset but that's where I found myself going. Since the beginning of 2021 I've been blogging every day on my Interactive Storyteller blog . I hope you'll join me there too as I talk about illustrating , making games , and UX design . It's very much the prose form of the Polytechnicas...
Feb 08, 2021
Here I explore some of the reasonable and unreasonable goals I had for this month of journaling and developing the UX Mindset series. Practicing this kind of thing helps you meet your own creative process quirks and explore ways to change and work around those quirks. I recorded so many more rough draft journals than I posted, at least 2:1 if not 3:1. It helped me explore the big topic and discover a concept for a UX Mindset book. We'll see where the UX Mindset series goes from here. Probably be...
Nov 29, 2020
Actively learning is a lot like using applied research. It's a very useful place to work from, you can be confident enough to proceed making things yet not too confident to prevent learning as you go. We setup teams and organizations to sink or swim based on too much certainty. We're certain often from a combination of ego and efficiency seeking without adapting until expensive mistakes happen. What if we practice being confident enough and setup teams to actively learn instead? And the UX Minds...
Nov 13, 2020
Where does UX go wrong? Whether a system is broken at the surface or takes deeper understanding to see how it's not serving the health of its audience along with it's other constituencies: UX can be used to help fix or to make things worse. How can that be? Organizations have a lot to do to just exist and maintain exsistence. Some are not questioning things they could question to fix what's broken. Let's pay attention, be curious, inclusive and move what we make toward collective health. And the...
Nov 13, 2020
It's useful to have even a rough concept of what you're working toward, things you know are important or likely to encounter, or at least are worth checking to see if they'd be helpful. For example, a mental model like a creative progression going from rough concept to refined to complete. You can have a UX Mindset informed mental model of getting your work done so that you are working toward including your audience. And the UX Mindset series continues! Related Links and Resources Introduction t...
Nov 13, 2020
Any product we make connects a variety of groups of people. UX Constituencies are groups of people I find relate to most any project/product/system/endeavor: your audience, your team, your organization, the world, and you. Here I explore why considering each of those groups helps you make more meaningful things whether you're a UX expert or any person with a UX Mindset. And the UX Mindset series continues! Related Links and Resources Introduction to the UX Mindset Series UX Mindset for Business ...
Nov 12, 2020
Listening is the most powerful thing you can do to understand. Here I share a few ways of listening that work individually or combined to meet the needs of you and your team in the moment. And the UX Mindset series continues! Related Links and Resources Introduction to the UX Mindset Series UX Mindset for Business UX Mindset for Software Engineering UX Mindset for Designers UX Mindset for Artists UX Mindset - Lists Creative challenge I'm taking part in and co-founded with Jerzy Drozd : Art Sound...
Nov 12, 2020
Being open to including others is a big start to making something more meaningful. List making is one of the best tools you can use no matter if you identify as a ux designer or not. This episode continues the UX Mindset series! Related Links and Resources Introduction to the UX Mindset Series UX Mindset for Business UX Mindset for Software Engineering UX Mindset for Designers UX Mindset for Artists Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Get Guitar Fre...
Nov 10, 2020
Audiences learn about your work, then what's it like for them to learn more, to support your work. If you offer a variety of products how do they find the one they need in this moment? UX Mindset for artists has two distinct and useful concerns: Making your work findable, purchasable, useful, and usable Including the audience in the work itself This episode continues the UX Mindset series! Related Links and Resources Introduction to the UX Mindset Series UX Mindset for Business UX Mindset for So...
Nov 07, 2020
Advocate for design in order to advocate for and include learning about our audiences. We designers practice many useful skills to help us and those we work with to make inclusive decisions that shape products and systems. Something that can get overlooked along the way: helping others see the value of this including of human context. It's useful to practice helping others learn from their audience and include human centeredness. This episode continues the UX Mindset series! Related Links and Re...
Nov 07, 2020
As someone who's worked both as a software engineer and ux designer I want to share the value adding human centered design tools for making engineering decisions. This episode continues the UX Mindset series! Related Links and Resources Introduction to the UX Mindset Series UX Mindset for Business Art Soundoff — Lean Into Art Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar . Available on iOS...
Nov 06, 2020
Continuing the UX Mindset series, I share why I think it's so useful for anyone running, planning, or leading a business to see user experience design and human centered design tools as so worthwhile to include in decision making. Related Links and Resources Introduction to the UX Mindset Series Rob's Products and Ways to Support the Polytechnicast Get Guitar Fretter, an action puzzle that makes a game of memorizing the note positions on a guitar . Available on iOS, Android, Windows 10, and MacO...
Nov 06, 2020
