Pentadact

Horse sized duck - quicker.

If you're still passionate about it in theory, you might consider trying something of your own with a small team. It's got much easier, much cheaper and much faster to make many kinds of games in the last decade, to the point where there's just no reason to struggle against creative restraints put on you by the clunkiness of a big corporation or team.

I made my game in my spare time, with a tool that cost $30, found amazing artists and musicians online, and it's done well enough that I'm completely independent now.

My friend Nika is doing a series of vlogs to help new writers find their feet, experiment with forms they might not otherwise try, and see how other people get on with the same challenges. You can follow along and never share what you do, or post it on the forums for constructive feedback in a safe place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-p32NSYA-w

Seeing other people take their tentative first stabs at this stuff might be reassuring and encourage your friend to get confident enough to share, if they want to.

You only get point three if you beat the average Like amount for the others.

If the Machine of Death series continues, I will probably always submit something. Writing a story to someone else's concept was an interesting challenge. Writing another story to the same concept that's not like yours or 30 other people's takes on it was an even more interesting challenge.

Carrying on after that would really test your ingenuity.

I did try Nanowrimo and gave up very early on. For a long time I tried to write novels and failed, which made me feel like a big failure who fails. Eventually I discovered, through Machine of Death, that novels just aren't a good format for me. I hate dragging things out, I want to get to the point. Short stories turned out to be perfect for that - I've only written two, really enjoyed the process, took very little time, very happy with the results, and they both got published.