Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49510787

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

I had not thought about the learning cost of the experience. I have been trying to avoid the sunken cost mindset and looking to wise up before the next round of decisions

In some sense the challenge here is the production value required on kickstarter these days. Building a community, a sense of trust so that backers will have a feeling of confidence, and making sure the milestones hit on schedule.

The rough demo I have now is not enough. I will keep the kickstarter card in my hand for now

However, if player's don't care about the gameplay, no publisher will either. So that's a very practical piece of advice in your comment. Building the audience to validate the idea should take a higher priority.

On the positive side, the studio showed enthusiasm across the team while working on the project (biased as it may be)

How should I rethink my problem space and move forward in this situation? Game dev is different from some trades in the sense that investment is heavily front loaded, which makes it difficult to start bringing in revenue while you’re still building out the MVP.

I firmly believe in the project itself, it already shows promise. The game is an online battle game, and what I currently have is a (rough) playable demo with placeholder art.

Professionally, I’m a dev, so I could keep building it myself, although it involves much more than just software hours. There is a huge amount of work that includes 2D/3D art, sound, music, networking, UI, onboarding, testing, etc. Without time constraints I would love to work on all of it, but I am trying to remain realistic.

For a production grade MVP I would still need: - production grade graphics and sound - that final 20% polish that it takes to make a game - more budget for the above

Thinking a bit brings me to these options: - finish the game myself (a few years?) - reduce the scope down into something else altogether? - open-source the concept

Is there a way I can break this into smaller problems that will allow some form of revenue to come in and reignite the project? Has anyone been through a similar experience that could offer some wisdom?

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49058923

Points: 3

# Comments: 9

It is intended to be simple: - with the power of a mac mini, you can host (almost) anything - pay for the mini, it is your machine to do with as you please (we will host it for you) - if you decide you no longer need hosting, we will mail you back the machine that rightfully belongs to you

if anyone is interested in becoming a partner, shoot me a message, felipe@ind3x.games

- [0] https://www.minimahost.com/

There are a few important things to consider, like unstable IPs, home internet limits, and the occasional power issue. Cloud providers felt overpriced for what I needed, especially once storage was factored in.

In the end, I put together a small business where people can run their own Mac mini with a static IP: https://www.minimahost.com/

I’m continuing to work on it while keeping my regular software job. So far, the demand is not very high, or perhaps I am not great at marketing XD

At the same time, I quickly ran into several of the limitations involved, ip addresses fluctuation, limited up speed on residential internet, electricity problems, you name it.

I didn't want to pay the crazy prices required for a dedicated server on AWS, and my storage needs were much greater that I was willing to pay for.

So I started a local business that allows you to run your own mac mini and access it with a dedicated ip for whatever purpose you would like: https://www.minimahost.com/

I'm hoping that over time I can grow it to a point that it could replace my software day job.

Oh, and I am about 3 years into an online mobile battle game. Hoping to publish in the next year or so.

Post publish, I will probably try Unreal and see where it takes me. I think Tim Sweeney has brought some good ideas to the space, so I am more willing to hop on his bandwagon.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41141112

As far as the conversation goes, 1st party implementation by Apple would be nice and all, but 3rd party doesn't bother me in the slightest. (at least in this case)

[1] https://rectangleapp.com/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41007998

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

  Location: San Diego, CA
  Remote: Preferred
  Willing to relocate: Yes
  Technologies: Javascript / Typescript, React, C# .Net, Python, MongoDb, PostgreSQL, AWS services, many more
  Résumé/CV: https://felipemullen.com/resume
  Email: felipedmullen@gmail.com

I also have a variety of skills that go beyond writing code, with UX and design, creative thinking, and systems design, and managing a team of 3 over the last 2 years. Currently building up my indie game company, https://ind3x.games during my spare time. The goal is to one day be able to make some major OSS contributions, both individually and via the company.

Some links to my online presence:

  https://www.linkedin.com/in/felipemullen/  
  https://github.com/felipemullen/  
  https://felipemullen.com/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40232896

Points: 88

# Comments: 12

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40226863

Points: 56

# Comments: 15

I think I understand that you mean to say "Corporations", whose governing body is made up of board members and executives. In that sense, there certainly seems to be a strong correlation.

In my case, however, I started a game company this year, and my goals are not profit driven. I haven't sat down to write things out but I probably should. Loosely, my company's two main goals:

- To make fun/mindblowing/entertaining pieces of Art. This is done by working on the gaming dreams that myself and my employees have.

- To give my employees a future where they care about the company as much as I do, feel financially well compensated and satisfied in their career, and have support for their aspirations and ideas.

Looking at the latest usage share of linux desktop users[1], this is still under 2% of the market

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste...

I think one of the problems Godot suffers from is the inability to market themselves properly. A big highlight of that is their logo. In terms of design, it does not have a "serious" or "professional" feel. Of course, there is a subjective nature to the conversation, but it has been discussed [2] in the past, and dismissed entirely as if it was not an important conversation, because of personal attachment.

I hope that when 4.3 is released, they will be able to add a little more to their write up to highlight all the important changes. Otherwise it feels like there are no important changes.

[1] - https://godotengine.github.io/godot-interactive-changelog/#4...

[2] - https://github.com/godotengine/godot-proposals/issues/79

I have a couple of suggestions for you to consider:

- don't treat this as the end of the journey for the project, try to keep it up to date over the next 6mo-1yr (as they say, maintenance is 80% of software)

- go on fiverr or similar, and pay someone a little bit to redo your screenshot graphics, they do not look very polished

- also go on fiverr and have someone make a trailer using the game recordings you have

The last two suggestions are based on the fact that games are very heavily driven by visuals. Unless there is something very unique about the gameplay to draw a player in, you will want to spend the extra time or money polishing the visuals to create more appeal.