Guy Hasson

Don't charge by the hour. Don't compete with others who do the same as you. Then you become a commodity with others, where the only distinguishing difference between you is the price. So lowest price wins, and it's a race to the bottom. Instead, charge per project or per month, etc. And become the only provider of [decide what your unique thing is]. Find how you can position yourself as the only one who provides that thing that you provide, and then you can set any price. It's not a race to the bottom, it's just the top.

Here's something that has been done successfully by others in other field: Own the land. Create a podcast which you can turn into YouTube videos, a newsletter, etc. in which you do one of the two: 1) Interview all your future clients not as someone who can supply their solutions, but rather to hear their problems. That will give you a doorway into all of their worlds and they'll be so happy to be interviewed rather than unhappy that another person is trying to get business from them. 2) Interview all the top leaders in your field. Just by association you will very soon be considered an expert. And as you interview the leaders, you get a little bit of their audience every time.

The word 'memorable' is important here. What if instead of 'memorable' you searched for 'unforgettable'? Ask yourself what makes something unforgettable in your eyes. What would make your character truly unforgettable? Aiming for 'unforgettable' rather than 'memorable' can increase the lifespan of your game by hundreds of percent, and make it a worthwhile memorable brand for decades.

There is a level in which humor can really take you out of the narrative, not take you out, and anything in the middle. The best example for humor that works but takes you out is Joss Whedon's humor (writer of Buffy, Angel, and the first two Avenger movies if you want to see what I mean). His humor is always on point but also takes the viewer out so much so as to appreciate the writer and give the writer a good reputation for his sense of humor rather than the series' or movie's sense of humor. How much you take the player out of the narrative is a scale you have to consider very carefully.

Remember that humor makes a point. The way to think of something natural to whatever you're telling or writing about is for a point to be made through something funny. Otherwise, you distract the players, you take them out of the story or narrative, which is bad. The way to practice is this: Go to any show or book or game or movie that you thought had some really funny moments and see how they use the humor to make the point they needed to make. Because of this you have to remember that there is no pattern you can repeat over and over again. You have to use this insight in a different way in every case. It takes a lot of practice, and never assume you're funny. Test it on others.

The thing to remember about what emotions you bring out is that different stories and different games need to bring out different emotions in the player and the game. Extreme examples are easy to give: If your players come to play your game for the escapism, you're not going to show them pictures of world hunger just to get emotion out of them. Know your genre: Players come to each genre expecting a certain types of emotions. From these you can expand and surprise, but anchor yourself in the emotions players look for when turning on your game.