We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Raquel King a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Raquel, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Although I’ve spent the majority of my adult life exploring various creative mediums (writing being one of my favorites) I think my most meaningful project to date is a collaborative project I’ve been working on for a music themed game! The goal with this project to bring people closer together through that nostalgic feeling one gets when revisiting certain songs, and to share stories about their past relating to music.

Music is so important to me. It’s carried me through some of the darkest of times, and it’s helped elevate the most positive of experiences! I think there’s something magical about the connection that music brings to people. And by incorporating the magic of music into a game, you can really see that connection play out in real time!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My career as an artist has humble beginnings. In my twenties I spent much of my free time working on various crafts to sell at concerts, festivals and art fairs during the summer months. My best friend and I would make paintings, jewelry, hair accessories, enamel pins (you name it) and go on tour throughout the country selling and promoting our work. Fast forward to my thirties, I had begun flying with a major airline but was quickly grounded when the pandemic hit. This is when I delved further into my writing and discovered the art of making and creating board games! In the past year or so I’m happy to say that several of the recent projects I’ve worked on are now out in the world and available to the public. This is something I’m really proud of, especially given the number of hurdles and struggles it’s taken to get to this point.

Some say that artists exists in this weird space between “wanting to hide” and “wanting to be seen” and that’s something I totally resonate with. The act of creating is something that is often done behind closed doors – especially when it comes to writing or making board and card games. But in order to get your creative projects out into the world – where other people can enjoy them – you have to be willing to take risks, and to be seen in a big way. You have to put yourself out there. It was something I struggled with at first, but I like to think I’ve gotten better at it more recently. The rewards of this are finally starting to pay off!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being an artist, for me at least, is connecting with other creatives. I love bouncing around new ideas and collaborating with people who have a similar vision or goal. Right now, the main thing we are trying to work on with our games is building connection…

We are living a time where people feel incredibly alone. And through our quest of trying to help mend this epidemic of loneliness and disconnection, we met Ankit Buddhiraju and Kubrat Danailov. These two guys started a company called Ludio, and their mission statement is exactly what we’ve been trying to achieve! If you’re not familiar, Ludio is a platform where people can play social games and connect in an authentic way. They have a growing community of people who love to playing games, and who regularly get together for online game nights. After experiencing this for myself, I have to say, what an absolute blast it is to play games in this fashion!

Not only does Ludio have major appeal for companies with remote employees, as the platform can be a great way to create team building with coworkers, but it also gives individuals an opportunity to play games with friends or family who live far away. Now, what I’m super excited about, is that one of our games should be up on the platform soon! This means we will be able to play it with people from all four corners of the world, and we can do so FROM anywhere in the world! How cool is that?

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Resilience is something that is extremely important as a creative person. There are going to be speed bumps, road blocks and things that get in the way of achieving your goals. That’s just life! And when you are trying to get your projects out into the world in a big way, it takes a lot of time and effort to see results. If you are a writer, you may have to endure many rejection letters before you get a publisher. If you make games, it’s sort of the same thing.

Now the secret is, knowing that there’s more than one way to get to the finish line. If your goal is to be published, maybe you want to think about doing it on your own? Or maybe you want to take your time and put yourself in positions where you will meet people in similar industries? People who can help you get to where you want to go… There’s no right or wrong way of doing these things, but I think some artists can get a little down about things not going a certain way, or things taking much longer than expected.

It took me many years of writing to finally get a book published, and many years of making games until the first one finally went up for sale. While there were moments that I felt discouraged, I knew that the important thing was to never give up! So here I am, still writing, still creating, and happy to be working with some amazing people all throughout the process.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/itsnotsane
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/singactdrawshout
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/singactdrawshoutgame/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SingActDrawShout
• Other: https://www.ludio.gg/