Killing My Darlings, 'Cause the Data Made Me Do It
This is going to be a departure from the regularly scheduled programming.
TL;DR:
What's changing: More audiogram devlogs on YouTube, less audio-only devlogs on Spotify, more narrative lore, maybe some short fiction. The newsletter and the audio devlogs both change.
Why: my hours are limited, and the numbers, thin as they are, have been sliding.
What I need: tell me if I'm reading the data wrong. Hit reply, or use the comments. Your answer can change what I do.
One small ask: tell one person you know about this newsletter.
Why I'm changing it
The idea behind this newsletter was to build Porchirren in public. Which is plenty scary!
Today marks week five of making a weekly newsletter a dedicated and concerted effort. I'm proud of the ongoing commitment, but it hasn't been easy. It reminds me quite a bit of my journalism days, which feel like several lifetimes ago.
Porchirren is a tactical solo-first tabletop RPG ruleset powered entirely by a standard pack of playing cards. I've been an entrepreneur in the creative space since 2018. I've had some wins I'm proud of, plus more than a few failures that haunt me, and I count the lessons as a net positive. The entrepreneurial idea behind Porchirren is to apply those lessons from the jump: build the ruleset and the creative business model in lockstep, so I can make data-driven decisions. As a creative person, I can tell you that making objective business decisions doesn't come easily or naturally.
What does any of this have to do with the newsletter? you might be asking.
I've only got so many hours per day, the same as everybody else. I'd love to spend most of mine making or playing games (the former to get money to support the latter). But Porchirren is more than the ruleset and the game parts. I also have to tell people about the game with child-like enthusiasm, make non-game content like this newsletter and the audio devlogs, and do other necessary (read: less fun) work. Hours spent on one thing aren't available for another. Like sleep, but I sleep like [expletive] anyhow.
So every hour has to earn its place.
What the data says (and what it doesn't)
I spent today laboriously crunching the analytics. Here are the numbers, so you can check my working. They come from the newsletter platform for 14 September to 12 October. The list is small, so one person opening or not swings a rate a lot. The percentages count every address on the list, including mine, and none of them are a verdict.
The list
Nobody has unsubscribed. Thank you.
No new subscriber since 25 September. That's 17 days of nothing.
Totals. The four newsletters averaged about 45%. The two devlog emails averaged about 20%. In four weeks there was 1 click, on Issue 002. The two devlog emails got none.
What I read into it
Opens slid across the last three emails, from about 55% to about 30% to about 15%.
The devlog emails do worst and got no clicks, and the host's play counts agree: almost nobody is listening. That fits my hunch. It isn't proof that you don't want them, because so few people have been shown the show. It tells me the hours aren't buying listeners right now.
Not what I expected: Newsletter 003, a mechanics one (Colour Decides Who Bleeds), had my second best open rate. So the numbers don't say mechanics deep dives are the problem. And none of the emails I've sent so far has been a lore issue. Issue 001 touched on the setting, but it was an introduction.
With a list this small, this is more of a signal, than a clear a verdict.
So why change anything? Because a weekly devlog costs me hours, and the latest announcement had the lowest opens of anything I've sent, with no clicks and next to no plays. I'd rather test something new than keep spending hours on a hunch. Is the data right here? You can tell me.
What's changing
More audio playtests: live, card-by-card playthroughs with nothing fudged, like the first audio devlog.
More talking about the narrative.
Maybe some short fiction.
Mechanics deep dives:
Audiogram devlogs: More audiograms, still dropping Wednesdays
The newsletter still lands every Monday (except for this one, [expletive!]).
What I need from you
Please reply by email, or leave a comment. Even one line helps. Three questions:
Which would you rather read: lore, mechanics deep dives, or playtest stories?
Do you listen to the audio devlogs? If not, what would make you?
Is there anything here you'd miss if it went?
One small ask
As a consumer of digital content, particularly on YouTube, I never understood why creators ask people to like and subscribe. They say it's free but helps the creator a lot, and I used to think it was a bit cringey.
Now, I do understand.
I'm the creator here. So let me be explicit. Thank you for subscribing. Since you're reading this, asking you to like and subscribe would be pointless. What you can do that has a point is tell somebody you know about this newsletter. If you tell one person, that's one more person who knows I'm doing all of this, and one more voice telling me what works. If each of you brought one person, the list would double.
ICYMI: catch up with issue 004. Also, check out the first audiogram devlog on YouTube.
If the cards you're dealt aren't kind, don't flip the table, have fun anyway.
See you next Monday.