Hello community.

I have a story to share and a favor to ask.

I've been around here for more than 10 years, and things have changed a lot during this time. Here on SG, on Steam, in the world in general, and in my private life as well. This is the story you are going to read.

Life's not been an easy ride for me. I was born with a malfunctioning of the hip that got badly treated by a certain docter which lead to severe deformations of my joints and me never being able to walk like everone else. I had to undergo several surgeries in my childhood, never fit in like all the rest, could not do sports or participate in school hiking trips and such.

Alas, I was a happy and resilient child, and I managed. When puberty hit though, things took a turn for the worse. Bullying started, alongside identity crisis, because being female I was told many "facts" I found unacceptable.

So, to make a long story short, I never quite found my place in society. Which resulted in even more personal problems, one of them always being broke, as I didn't manage to keep any job for long, mainly because I hated it, but also because of my whole quirkyness I ihad developed during my childhood experiences.

As I aged my hips got worse, and at one point walking was so painful, I felt like the little mermaid. It was a downward trend, until in the end, I could hardly walk at all.

Whenever I would see a doctor, they would tell me either my hips were unresectable, or I was too young to get surgery, as hip replacements don't last a lifetime and you cannot replace them infinitely. In the end though I somehow made it happen, the miracle I was praying for. I got hip replacements! It was during the time of receiving these surgeries and the following rehab that I discovered SG. This place helped me so much in the process! Thank you, SG ♥ Now I can walk without pain :D

Convinced this would be the solution to many of my life's problems I ventured on with new, fresh ideas on how to create my life. All of them failed, bit by bit, little by little.

Then, three years ago, when I did not see no way no more, things set itself into motion and I ended up in Peru, being originally German. It was Ayahuasca and the spirits of the land here calling me for the deep transformation I was seeking. Something needed to change, if only I could put my finger on what exactly....

I've since tried tons of endeavors to keep myself afloat, all of them failing so far, and on top of that, as soon as I arrived here, I noticed some knots in my right breast which were diagnosed to be malign tumors one and a half years ago. I had them removed in June of last year, but they came right back. Well, I did not undergo any kind of treatment after the surgery, so you could say it's my own fault, but honestly, I am badly traumatized by western medicine, and on top of that I did and do not have the funds either. And I'm also not quite fond of the allopathic appraoch towards the big C: Nobody ever asks where it's coming from, they pull out their knives and their radiation guns and booom, you're at war with your body...

I started building a business shortly after that in an attempt to get a grip on life finally and end at least the financial struggle (and who nnow's, maybe all of this is connected, what do I know?!), because my spirit is strong and I want to live. I had high hopes in this business, I felt like finally, after all this time, I had found the right thing for me, because I could use my creativity and it basically combines all the jobs I've ever done in my life into one business with little start-up cost and great potential. Said business did not take off as hoped and expected though either, and now I just came back from the clinic with another surgery where some tumors got removed and the strong recommendation to go back home to my country to get treatment.

Which I will probably do. Unless ... I can make miracles haapen! And here's where you all come into play:

The point of me writing this whole wall of text:

I want to give the business a new try. I've been told I'm not niched enough with what I have created so far. So I'm tinking of creating a completely new stoe for the gamer niche. I mean, it's kind of obvious, right? Videogames have accompanied my whole life and have been a prefered pasttime (and distraction) over many other things!
The whole business model is called POD (Print On Demand), where I create designs, put them on t-shirts and sell them. It's a little like playing Sticky Business irl.

Community, can you please help me?

I do have my own ideas running in my head, and there's also always market research and AI nowadays to be sure you never really run out of ideas. But this time, I not only really want it to succeed, I also want to make it something exciting and original. Something the gaming community really digs. Soooooooooo:

I need ideas for at least 100 design ideas for motifs to put on t-shirts. If you would share your favorite memes, your funniest puns and wildest ideas around gaming, all kinds of quotes and phrases, image ideas, all of that combined, you name it? :D Everything you have always wanted to see on a t-shirt, I'd be delighted to know. The more, the better! All I need for them is to be gaming related without trademark infringement (meaning no direct naming of games, characters of games. or anything that is trademarked, really).

This is your chance to not only see an idea of yours become real, but also to really help someone out :)

I'll create a group for all the participants: everyone who posts a design idea will receive an invitation to this group in which I'll run some nice giveaways as an incentive in three days from now. These are not going to be the fanciest giveaways you have ever seen, since money is an issue, but I do have some funds in my Steam wallet and I'll find some nice things for y'all.

Thank you for reading all of this ♥

2 hours ago*

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Vote here for the store name:

View Results
Press X to Buy
Loot Llama Emporium
Noob Necessities
Pixel Perfect Picks
Button Mash Bazaar
Critical Hit Creations
The Quantum Chuckle

Probably shoud go back and get treatment. But I wish you all the best, whichever way you go.

2 hours ago
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Der Kampfgeist ist beeindruckend. Ich könnte mich selbst noch als selbstständig sehen oder in einem start-up. Aber bei der Lebensgeschichte will ich dir bestimmt keine Zweifel einreden. 😋

Ich weiß, du hast gesagt, keine Ideen mit copyright Problemen. Aber mal so ganz unbedarft, hast du die Möglichkeit zur Zusammenarbeit mit kleinen Indies erwogen? Sprich Merchandise gerade in geringer Stückzahl im Auftrag. Du könntest Motive verwenden, Fans abgreifen, musst aber Gewinn teilen. Die größeren Indies können das vermutlich alleine bewerkstelligen. Und die ganz kleinen, haben vermutlich keinen Markt. Aber dazwischen gibt es bestimmt Interessenten. Was bei manchen Spielen auch mal aufkommt sind Plushies, falls das auch in dein Metier fällt.

Nur mal als abwegige Idee.

2 hours ago
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A t-shirt with a description "one more turn" on both sides and then when you turn the t-shirt on the left side there's this description again (4 in total).

Stardew Valley character "holding" a head of a t-shirt wearer – in a way the characters in SV hold things above their heads in the game.

"Leeeennyyyyy" from RDR2 in drunk font.

1 hour ago
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Sorry to hear about your rough health journey and wishing you all the best in recovering.

Now, I know you asked for tshirt designs and this might seem niche at first, but hear me out... You should create socks that have generic looking controllers on them in various colors but on the soles have the following:
Right Sock: "If you can read this"
Left Sock: "Pause my game"

1 hour ago
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That's a story, indeed. I'm kinda speechless.

I also had my own business a decade ago. All passion, no realistic perspective. I have no ideas ATM as I'm fighting my own demons and brain doesn't function well all the times. Barely any time, I think.

Wait, I just remembered about the group "She told me she was level 18". I'm sure they'd love to see the group's name in a t-shirt and the admins/founders would have no problem with you getting that idea (tho it's not trademarked or copyrighted, probably it's a meme from who knows where, check Memepedia.)

I do hope the best for you with the business, the health, and all the rest. Find your place.

Edit: anothed idea. Came due to the "tees" word in the title. The t-shirts. Although it's not the origin of the name, some people believe it's named for T-Rex, due to the short sleeves, apt for such teropods. So I thought of a big, pixelated or polygonized (gamified) T-Rex with a lot of different era generic gamepads from the simplest ones (NES-like) to modern ones (generic discord-like shape, you know) piled up at its feet. The T-Rex has one gamepad in one hand, trying to close up both trembling hands to handle the gamepad properly, huge sweat drop in its temple and all that, unable to do it. And thinking "so much for gamepad evolution" or similar. Poor T-Rexes, no console thought of them! (Well, they could use a Wii but, no want copyright or trademark issues with the big N, right?)

1 hour ago*
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Let us be agressive:

"Do I get any XP by talking with you?"

(You can illustrate it with some JRPG-SNES-style pictures.)

38 minutes ago
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