Najmah Salam’s Post

🌶 HOT TAKE ALERT 🌶 There is a universal yet surprising truth that I have found in my career gallivanting around the world as an adult in my mid-30s... Are you sitting down? Are you ready for this HOT take? PEOPLE! LOVE! STICKERS! Shocking? Perhaps not. But absolutely true. Because of this, I often print out limited edition versions of the stickers I sell and give them out to people. For example, I have my super secret holographic 'Email's Not Dead' and 'Email Geek' stickers which I only ever hand out to people personally. So what's the deal with sticker love? What is this phenomenon? How has this come to be? I have a few theories. 🔸 People love SHOWING their identity. We want to show the world what we're all about. Just look at my increasingly growing pile of geeky/gaming t-shirts. Stickers are perfect because you can exclaim your fandom or love for something with just a palm-sized design on the back of your laptop. 🔸 People love SHARING a secret code amongst their tribe. My 'email geek' stickers have become a sort of secret handshake amongst the email community that yes, they LOVE what they do, with all of its quirks. 🔸 People love COLLECTING. Inside all of us is a dragon/magpie hybrid that desires hoarding things. Stickers are especially great because of their unique designs and the fact that they're light to carry. (The hard part is committing to sticking them somewhere.) Is this post just an excuse for me to profess my undying love for stickers as a 90's kid who owned several books (that were later stolen at the airport by some devious so-and-so who I curse to this day)? Perhaps. It is hard to say. How about you, friends? Do you love stickers? And what's your favourite sticker design of all time? - - - - - - Wow, you made it to the end of my breathless ode to stickers! You get a dinosaur 🦖 If you are a sticker aficionado like I am, you might enjoy my sticker designs: https://lnkd.in/eZecP5H7 #graphicdesign #stickerdesign #stickers #design #justabitobsessed

Introducing the 🕹 GAME VISION CANVAS 🎮 ! If you're currently working on a concept for a game, I've created a useful #figjam template that you can use to flesh out your ideas and communicate it to your teammates. This template is based on the document I created to pitch an idea, which later became #TheOuroborosExpress, Small Loan Studio's most recent project. When building out your game idea, you might find this method useful instead of a standard written document because: 🔸 It'll prompt you to consider game elements that might not come naturally to you. As someone who feels most at home in narrative and art, using this template forces me to consider elements that I might not be as familiar with, like gameplay mechanics. 🔸 It'll help you communicate your ideas quickly. You can develop a visual shortcut that your team will immediately understand by dropping in image and video references. 🔸 It'll give you a base document that can be built upon. This template is designed to be a flexible jumping-off point! You can use it as a brainstorming document or as your own version of a game design document. It's totally up to you and what your team requires! To recap, by using the Game Vision Canvas, you clarify and communicate your next amazing game idea! 🕹 Give it a try here: https://lnkd.in/eEqjr7Qf - - - - - - Well, hello there, friend; thanks for making it to the end of the post! You get a pretzel 🥨 I'm a Marketing Alchemist 🧪 & Multiclassing Maven - I'm passionate about gaming and making cool, geeky things. If you liked this resource, why not check out some of the other ones I've made for other creators? > https://lnkd.in/etKy3AuN #gamedesign #indiegamedev #ideation #creativity #gamedev #narrativedesign #creativedirection #gaming

I've just released an asset pack of hand-drawn cafe food assets! Perfect for your next game project without having to worry about making images from scratch. It's totally free (but if you'd like to leave a tip, that's cool too!) 🥐 Download the asset pack here: https://lnkd.in/eGadTm-m - - - - - I'm a Marketing Alchemist & Multiclassing Maven with a passion for #gaming. If you need help with branding, producing or narrative, just give me a shout! #indiegamedev #indiedev #gamedev #gamedevelopment #gameart

Here's a selection of some recent design work! I love giving my designs excitement and movement, so I often start with a hand-drawn sketch before cleaning up the design in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or Figma. Being a multiclasser, I often draw upon my marketing and narrative expertise to ensure that designs also tell a story. If you or your team need some freelance design support, I'd love to have a chat, just DM me! #design #graphicdesign #gamecover #logodesign #branding #stickerdesign

One of the elements I enjoyed immensely about 'The Ouroboros Express', Small Loan Studio's most recent project, was defining the vision. I based the art direction heavily on art Deco, evoking images of The Orient Express, luxury, and timelessness. I also wanted to ensure that every element of the game would reflect this theme for a cohesive look, so I spent a lot of time: • collecting reference images and doing design research on real examples of Art Deco interiors and furniture • mocking up the UI • creating moodboards in Miro • and even mapping out what each location would look like. For a 30-day game jam, you don't really have the luxury of spending lots of time in preproduction, so I knew that the vision had to be set very early on so our team could hit the ground running. I'd like to think that the initial vision I set out was successful, but why not play the game and let me know what you think? 🚂 Play The Ouroboros Express now > https://lnkd.in/eNeqBaX2 #gamedev #indiegamedev #gamejam #visualnovel #artdirection #creativedirection

Hooray it’s out!! I had the distinct pleasure of designing the cover for Geek Out, the brand new podcast from two of my personal email heroes! Check out the podcast now 👇👇👇

A big thank you to Email Love for featuring me! #emailgeeks #emailmarketing

It’s one thing to know which KPIs and data points to track, it’s another thing entirely to have all your data in one place. In this clip, Sandy Kartopawiro talks about the how email marketers need to track three different types of analytics which often sit in different platforms. And this is often on top of being in charge of strategy, design, copywriting, and other responsibilities to keep the email marketing function going. This is why data reporting can often be left behind, or isn’t given the attention it needs… Stay tuned for more snippets as we discuss the email marketing analytics starter kit! #emailmarketing #emailgeeks #emailanalytics #marketinganalytics

I've been working with Patrick Knisely over the last few months with some marketing coaching, and it's been a delight to see Monochrome Heights evolve. I'm so excited for everyone to experience this game! Check out the demo now 👇 👇 👇 #IndieDev #GameDev #Platformer

The Ouroboros Express has arrived! The game jam I've been directing over the last 31 days has come to an end, and I am so proud to share our game with you all. It's been an incredible effort, and I'm looking forward to sharing my findings over the coming days of all the things I've learnt. For now, some reflections! In the last month I: • Led a team of over 30+ people for most of the project which grew to 41 at the end, including our playtesters. • Created the story and the base character profiles. • Mapped out the plot in numerous flowcharts and diagrams, and turned this into a working system in Notion for our writers to assign themselves and follow. • Set up project management systems and documentation in Notion so our team had full transparency of what was going on. New members were able to hit the ground running even when they joined us later. • Wrote treatments for each of the scenes to give the writers direction as we worked in pairs. • Created the art direction and gave the art team direction. • Designed the ouroboros logo. • Streamed early builds of the game regularly and discussed them as a team, even pulling in people to do some voice acting to get a sense of the dialogue's flow. • Held weekly team meetings for the project leads to keep everyone updated on their progress. • Created the QA and playtesting process, including a data dashboard that compiles player feedback that I will be sharing soon! • Dove into implementing code fixes and pesky illogical narrative leaps. • and the list goes on... Naturally, there is still a lot of work I would love to do with the game. For now, I'm very happy with what Small Loan Studio have achieved with this project. We've grown in leaps and bounds from our debut game, Santa's Secret: A Chrome Steele Mystery, and I know that our team have so much more they'd like to do! 🚂 Play it now! > https://lnkd.in/eNeqBaX2 #GameDev #IndieGameDev #GameJam #VisualNovel #NarrativeDesign #CreativeDirection #Gaming #IndieGame