[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?
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Ask HN: Any solo game developers here?
Hey HN, I'm a full time game developer fifteen months into
creating my city builder game. It's a lonely journey so I put
together a very small group of other solo game developers. We meet
up every week (currently Tuesday nights, EST) to relate to the
struggle, hang out, and sometimes rotate one person who presents
for the night (they can teach or talk about anything game dev
related, including their game). It's been a success and motivating
for all involved. There's also a second group that meets on
Thursday's, but this group is currently full. There's about 10
total people on the Discord server. I'm looking to add 2 people to
the group who can commit to weekly meetups. You must be working on
your game full time. Must be serious about finishing/releasing your
game. About the group: We are late 20s - 30s and serious about
releasing our respective games. We are pretty open and honest with
each other, and will question each other/provide feedback freely.
About our games: My game: Metropolis 1998 Person #2 Game:
Basketball GM Person #3 Games: 9001 and It Usually Ends In Nuclear
War Other people's game on the server who can publicly share:
Drift Reisha Falls Email is in profile
Author : YesBox
Score : 234 points
Date : 2023-03-13 12:30 UTC (10 hours ago)
| onikolas7 wrote:
| I am solo building a 2D game engine. Does it count?
| stodor89 wrote:
| I couldn't take the loneliness and joined a small studio. Good
| initiative, I wish you best of luck!
| shaunrob wrote:
| Hey game devs, check out Legends of Learning! We've built a game
| based learning platform for k12 education. Units of curriculum
| are delivered through games built by indie studios all over the
| world.
|
| We provide the curriculum and materials and you build educational
| games for our platform.
|
| You get paid a revenue share based on the percent of playtime
| your game earns. Teachers and students review the games and their
| favorites rise to the top.
|
| Our game devs have a community on discord for ideas, tips,
| mentorship and all other aspects of game design and dev.
|
| If you're interested, here is more info:
|
| https://www.legendsoflearning.com/get-started-game-developer...
|
| or email me: shaun [at] legendsoflearning [dot] com
| spandrew wrote:
| I am! But I feel like I'm already apart of 20 gazillion game dev
| discords and streams. Focus is a real drain doing solo game dev
| (using Unity to make a 2.5d platforming survival game). Good luck
| to you and your crew!
| sadpolishdev wrote:
| Yes, I've worked in multiple indie teams on various titles, I'm
| doing gamedev professionally, as well I'm solo dev making
| sideproject in spare time... on the span of 4 years or so.
|
| My two cents - excluding people who "not work on their game full
| time" isn't very smart, most people have responsibilities and
| jobs, and can't afford to spend all the time on their pet
| project, and it doesn't mean they are not serious about releasing
| their games.
|
| I wish you all the best on your development anyway.
|
| You can check what I'm doing here: https://twitter.com/piropro
| gentoogames wrote:
| im not much of a HN regular, but a friend forwarded this over my
| direction. absolutely love the idea of more exclusive game dev
| communities. understandably, large parts of the game dev space
| have become oversaturated with a ton of "beginner-help-spam", and
| while getting that entry-level help is necessary to integrate
| into any new community, it feels as though some of the more
| nuanced and mature parts of the community get lost in the noise.
| all that to say I love the idea, and wish you luck!
| xeonax wrote:
| I'm developing a racing game as a hobby. But I generally don't
| discuss my game with other developers since they are not the
| target audience for my game. I prefer to talk with players and
| get 360deg feedback. I don't get the benefit of sharing the game
| to fellow developers.
| hitpointdrew wrote:
| This kind of makes me sad. I feel like this is a terrible trend
| that is/has basically ruined gaming.
|
| The way I see it, making a game is art. I want to make games to
| express my ideas, and my feelings, and I want to do the best I
| can to convey those feelings and ideas in my games. The moment
| you start seeking player feedback for your game you are no
| longer making art, you making a product. I suppose that is all
| well and good if your goal is only to make money (although I
| highly suspect that this often has unintended and sometimes
| opposite affect).
|
| Seeking player feedback is like Michelangelo asking random
| people on the street how he should have carved the statute of
| David.
|
| This is my art, this isn't a collaboration, I don't have any
| desire at all to sink, time, effort, and talent into someone
| else's ideas, especially when they aren't willing to sink any
| time or effort to do it themselves, they just want to sit back
| and call the shots without having any skin in the game at all.
|
| This seems like a loose/loose situation to me, the game often
| ends being worse in the end, and the artist becomes a cog/slave
| to the masses (who often don't have the foggiest clue of what
| they really want, or what makes a good game, because they
| aren't putting real time and thought into how the mechanics
| will interact, what is technically easy or hard, they just trow
| out "It would better if it did x, y,z").
| mywittyname wrote:
| Not every artist is Michelangelo.
|
| Collaboration and feedback can be extremely helpful for
| creative endeavors. Successful writers have editors,
| successful musicians have producers, successful directors
| have EPs, etc. Sometimes the one-man-army approach works, but
| especially early on, it's best to get feedback.
| hitpointdrew wrote:
| > Collaboration and feedback can be extremely helpful for
| creative endeavors. Successful writers have editors,
| successful musicians have producers, successful directors
| have EPs
|
| Fair enough, sometimes art is collaborative, but even in
| your example it's collaborative with a very small group of
| experts, who also have skin the game. It isn't
| collaborative with 80 different arm-chair musicians, or
| 100's of arm-chair writers. Seth McFarlane doesn't give a
| rats ass what YOU think would be funny in family guy, nor
| should he. Taylor Swift isn't soliciting her fans if they
| think a key change in a song is a good idea.
|
| So why in video game dev is it expected that the devs have
| public discords where anyone can jump and and spout off
| anything, and that they pay attention to, and incorporate,
| every suggestion from some random steam comment?
| meheleventyone wrote:
| Most game devs like to interact with their audience and
| contrary to your opinion don't pay attention to or
| incorporate every suggestion that comes along. Most
| player feedback is terrible! Even good feedback has to go
| through a process of picking it apart and trying to
| understand the root of what the player is saying or
| suggesting.
|
| From an artistic point of view feedback from players is
| essential because games are based around an interactive
| dialog with the player. As a sculptor you can see the end
| result. As a game dev you can't see how other people will
| play your game and it's incredibly eye opening when you
| do.
| xeonax wrote:
| Maybe you are right. I'm not an artistic kind of person. I'm
| more of the technical implementor kind. My goal with the
| current game, is to learn stuff and implement all the systems
| that go into making it great. And then finally publish it.
| I'm currently on track to achieving all my goals. I have
| certain ideas w.r.t. to the game that I won't deviate from.
|
| But I don't know everything. I'm not even a pro player at my
| own game. This is where the player feedback comes into the
| picture. I'm not trying to make my game from a very unique
| idea. But it's a mish mash of ideas I got from other games. I
| take feedback to know that I'm not doing something
| offensive/player denigrating accidentally.
|
| I got few good ideas from my players which I included. Many
| ideas I have straight away denied to be included, because it
| didn't fit into my vision for the game/or I lacked the
| skills/efforts to give it justice.
|
| I'm making a game, to scratch my itch of building something.
| Something that makes me happy, when people play the game and
| really like it. People keep coming back to give it a try.
| Sometimes even after weeks. Its nice to hear their feedback.
| It's nice to discover that people have been talking about
| your game in your absence, where you are not the first one to
| introduce the game.
|
| I don't get actual users appreciation/feedback at my day job.
| No one says there they liked the attention to detail that was
| given there. This is why I'm making the game.
| barrysteve wrote:
| Quite often people do not listen or seek to hear from their
| play-testers. They watch how they attempt to solve the
| puzzles and otherwise play the game. The devs ask specific
| questions about how the player approached the situation.
|
| The idea that the 'untrained eye' of the random playtester
| gets to make creative decisions about the game overall..
| simply because they showed up to playtest the game, is a bit
| much.
|
| Often programmers and artists don't even get full creative
| control over the work they do at game studios, random
| playtesters are far from ruining Michelangelo's David.
| Michelangelo is not even in full control, the techniques he
| learnt, skills he obtained and decisions he made earlier in
| the work, limit his sculpture too.
|
| There is a way to integrate playtesters without demoting
| Michelangelo from control over the work.
| acomjean wrote:
| Games and art can be quite different, but both are mediums
| that can have an audience. I volunteer at an arts
| organization and I do play games (board and some video). Both
| have vision. Feedback can be helpful.
|
| But a game has a time component to it. Its asking a lot more
| of the player. It needs to be fun, or the player will stop
| playing and your vision will stay stuck in the game. Some
| feedback is helpful to make it fun and let them experience/
| see your vision.
|
| For Art, Open Studio events are really rewarding for artists
| to get their art out there and also talk to visitors. I did
| it for a few years. Putting your art out there for public
| consumption was hard. Some loved it (some enough to buy a few
| things), some did not. But I could talk to some of them and I
| grew and got better.
|
| For games one of the fun things I do during the year is go to
| "Figg Fest" https://www.bostonfig.com/fest-homepage/ Its been
| virtual, but I liked it better in person. Game makers display
| their games, and most have a version to play (some simplify
| as 2+ hour board games at a 5 hour convention...). I like
| talking to the board game makers, their inspiration and how
| they develop. They teach us visitors and watch us play.
|
| But if Solo development is your thing, thats cool too. I get
| not having things "wateredown by committee" but feedback can
| be helpful.
| robertlagrant wrote:
| > 9001 and It Usually Ends In Nuclear War
|
| I thought this was a game about ISO certifications for a minute.
| Marijenburg wrote:
| [dead]
| ronyeh wrote:
| Anybody here going to GDC? I can meet up next week if you're
| interested. I'll play test your game and give feedback haha. I'm
| based out of Palo Alto.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| I am, and would like to attend a Hacker News game dev meet-up
| too!
|
| It would be good to have it somewhere near the conference, but
| where people who haven't registered with the conference can
| attend.
| ronyeh wrote:
| There is a discord server for facilitating meetups at GDC.
|
| https://discord.com/invite/mwkNcAR
|
| I'll also ping you via email.
| ronyeh wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35139687
|
| I posted an Ask HN to organize a GDC x HN meetup. Depending on
| interest level, it could just be a quick meet and greet between
| sessions, or it could be a bring your own lunch and hang
| outside Metreon on the grass.
| gabereiser wrote:
| Have you looked into IGDA meetups and support? Having plenty of
| online channels for discussions with other game devs (solo,
| teams, etc) with Discord and all is great but having face to face
| time with folks is better. I basically did what you did. Gather a
| group of like-minded friends that we can riff and talk about our
| games while we build them.
|
| It's been a while for me though. The recipe is still the same.
| People, find your people.
| quelsolaar wrote:
| Yes I'm a lone indie developer. A long time ago I made a game
| called LOVE. Now im making a Real-time stealth tactics game
| called EXO. However I'm not doing it full-time.
|
| Sounds like a great group! Making a game yourself can be very
| tough, but also rewarding. Having people to share your experience
| with is really important. If you ever want a guest who spent many
| long years working on a game and came out of if scared but a
| happier person, please reach out.
| valtism wrote:
| I remember reading about this game as a full feature in a
| gaming magazine years ago. I was so entranced by the mystery of
| it and gorgeous art style, but never actually got to play it.
| I'll have to see if I can get it up and running.
| Pfiffer wrote:
| I've spent a fair bit of time wandering through your C
| libraries before, very useful stuff. It's been a while but your
| memory leak checker was pretty cool.
| atum47 wrote:
| > Must be serious about finishing/releasing your game.
|
| What are you talking about. Of course I'm gonna finish HoboHero
| [1]. Anyday now...
|
| 1 - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3pnEx5_eGm-
| LpaFqWNN0...
| fwsgonzo wrote:
| I see alot of comments here who are wondering if they're good
| enough to join. At the same time, it looks like this group is
| very picky about who can join.
|
| Perhaps there is another Discord someone could setup where part-
| time game creators could join. I am making a procedurally
| generated world simulation game that is a little bit too early in
| the process to showcase, and definitely not work full-time on,
| but it still has several tens of thousands of lines of code in
| it. That's just reality for making a game from zero. I would be
| interested in talking to other people about game creation.
| yakattak wrote:
| I would be very interested in this.
| luxuryballs wrote:
| here's an active one https://discord.gg/mc5QRVJQ
| luxuryballs wrote:
| Come on in, most of the time people are streaming their active
| game dev work https://discord.gg/mc5QRVJQ
| YesBox wrote:
| I'll clarify:
|
| I created a small community where everyone knows everyone's
| face/name. I am really restrictive with the number of people in
| the server not because I want exclusivity per se, but rather
| that I dont want to lose the deeper connections you develop
| with people in a small community. There's about 10 of us total
| right now.
|
| It also helps that everyone is on the same page (serious about
| releasing their game) so we have a common goal to work towards
| together (and separately). It's great, I've been running the
| server for almost a year now. Everyone has said it's been
| really motivating.
|
| So please, email me if anyone here wants that. Otherwise, the
| other discord links posted here are probably a better fit for
| you!
| chaostheory wrote:
| You're saying that you don't want exclusivity, but that's
| what you have with such an arbitrary constraint. People are
| right to call you out.
| kirab wrote:
| They want a tight-knit group. Which is inherently exclusive
| but that's not the predominant attribute.
| chaostheory wrote:
| The result is the same, so it's a moot point.
|
| Why post this to such a large community like HN if
| they're adamant about exclusivity? Why not post it
| somewhere smaller like Indie Hackers or a reddit sub
| instead?
| ekzy wrote:
| Why post your job ad on indeed or LinkedIn if you're only
| looking for one person?
| oifjsidjf wrote:
| He can do as he wishes as it's his group. You are free to
| start your own.
| hitpointdrew wrote:
| I would love to join a community like this, as I am a part-time
| hobby game dev. Unfortunately, Discord is a bit of a deal
| breaker for me, especially with their updated TOS. If something
| was setup on another platform I would be happy to join.
| tcmart14 wrote:
| Same here. I dabble a little bit in the evenings, but it is not
| my full time job. Would love to get into a good group of people
| in similar situations where perhaps it is more of a
| hobby/learning experience. Since after all, my biggest reason
| to dabble in the idea of game dev is to improve myself as a
| developer. Game development seems to be on of the few things
| you can do where you can truly touch most to all areas of
| computer science. I would say game dev and operating systems.
| AI, ML, graphics, optimization, data structures, algorithms,
| fundamentals of software design, etc... It seems like there
| isn't an area in CompSci that can not run into with game
| development.
| Silverback_VII wrote:
| >At the same time, it looks like this group is very picky about
| who can join.
|
| He is using a psychological trick to make people feel insecure
| and inadequate, and thus create an imbalance of power within
| the group. However, his requirements may backfire because being
| a full-time solo game developer may only be possible if you
| have someone supporting you, or if you live in your mom's
| basement or on social security. It excludes people who are
| serious about their endeavors but still have to pay the bills.
| echelon wrote:
| Finally a game dev thread on HN that's more than an engine
| announcement!
|
| > I am making a procedurally generated world simulation game
|
| That's so awesome. Procedurally generated worlds and systems
| are so powerful, and they'd only going to grow more so with AI
| advances.
|
| Would you or someone in this thread be interested in part time
| contract work at my AI startup? We're doing a lot of procedural
| generation and AI animation in Unreal Engine and I'd like to
| have more hands on deck than just me.
|
| https://storyteller.ai
|
| https://twitch.tv/FakeYouLabs
| Folcon wrote:
| I would 100% want to talk to you =)...
|
| I've been working on and off on simulation games in my spare
| time for a few years. Written some small ones that model things
| like elections / voting, as well as economic systems of various
| flavours.
|
| If you're interested email in my profile!
| 4pkjai wrote:
| I used to be an indie game developer from 2010 to 2014. I created
| games using the XNA framework for Xbox360. It was a fun time,
| most of my games made very little money but a few them were
| popular.
|
| When I switched from game development to app development I got
| the feeling that game development required 3x the effort to make
| a $1 when compared to business app development.
|
| I guess it's like the difference between being an artist and a
| graphic designer
| thsbrown wrote:
| Full time indie game developer here. I've also done a myriad of
| other development in the past.
|
| I always say the difference between software development (app,
| website, ect) and game development is that with software you
| have a predefined problem and your trying to solve it. With
| game development you are creating the problem and you are
| trying to solve it.
|
| In my opinion software development can arguably be more
| straightforward as a result because you know that what you are
| building is meant to relieve some pain point.
|
| I love game development but it can be very tricky to sell
| people on entertainment.
| levmiseri wrote:
| I have been working on a programming game https://yare.io but
| kinda burnt out on it. The last 5% of polish/onboarding/marketing
| is so hard to get through. Would happily join the group to
| hopefully rise my spirit a bit!
| adanto6840 wrote:
| I started a small "no-name" studio to build games handful of
| years ago. Built and released two games thus far -- SimAirport &
| SimCasino.
|
| I'd potentially be interested, my email is in profile if you'd
| like to reach out. :)
| capableweb wrote:
| Funny to come across you here! I've played lots of SimAirport
| since something like 2017 I think, somewhere around the initial
| version available on Steam. Thanks a lot for providing
| countless of fun hours managing an airport :)
| adanto6840 wrote:
| It's _incredibly_ rewarding & gratifying to hear that, thank
| you!
|
| I still firmly believe that making games -- especially under
| an "old-school" business model (ie no loot-boxes, no microTX,
| etc) -- has to rank extremely high on the "work
| gratification" scale.
|
| I'm obviously super small -- but it's AWESOME to know >80k
| people have played SimAirport for >20 hours and ~20k have
| played >100hrs (!!) -- so damn rewarding!
| maxencecornet wrote:
| Your games looks really good. Do you handle art + programming
| by ourself ?
|
| As someone that would like to create my own (basic) games, what
| would be the right tools and frameworks In your opinion to
| create art and game logic ?
|
| The easier to learn the better haha
| sgtnoodle wrote:
| Ultimately you just need to pick a goal and then struggle any
| way you can to achieve it. Python with the pygame package is
| a rather approachable way to get pixels up on the screen.
| hnthrowaway0315 wrote:
| Looking good. Do you agree with the 1:20 review:sales ratio?
| BTW plz ignore if you don't want to disclose thanks.
| adanto6840 wrote:
| I think that the ratio has _substantial_ variance; it has
| also changed over time, somewhat dramatically, as Valve
| /Steam have made changes & added features/UI/UX that I
| suspect are intended to increase the % of users who leave
| reviews.
|
| About 5 years ago, the belief was that the ratio was in the
| realm of 1 : 50-100 -- based on my own data & data shared
| with me by other indies. Even then, there was substantial
| variance; genre, theme, price point, developer involvement,
| discounts, review score (proxy for player experience/overall
| game quality), etc -- were some of the key variables that I
| believed were having a significant impact on review-to-sales
| ratio variance between games.
|
| Over time, changes to the UX have been made (by Valve/Steam)
| which appear to have increased the rate at which players
| leave reviews -- quite substantially, it seems.
|
| On the whole, I think that a far higher percentage of players
| are leaving reviews now (ie a lower review-to-sale ratio),
| but I also believe that the _variance_ is even higher now
| than it was before. It 's still helpful for making estimates,
| but I don't think it's as highly-correlated as it once was
| (~5yr ago it was much more consistent & highly correlative).
| hnthrowaway0315 wrote:
| Thanks for sharing. Yeah I agree that the "you have played
| X hours, do you want to leave a review" dialog really
| pushes me to add a lot of reviews.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| Arthur, I enjoyed playing your early version of SimAirport, and
| I'm glad you finished and released it -- that's excellent work
| and persistence!
|
| Will Wright always wanted to make a game called "SimTapeworm",
| however he could never get the green light on that from Maxis
| or EA.
|
| I hold out hope that some clever indie developer will figure
| out how to monetize the serious educational parasitic infection
| simulation genre.
|
| Maybe you could make a plug-in to SimAirport, so parasites and
| contagious diseases could spread internationally via Vomit
| Waves like in Theme Hospital and Two Point Hospital and Oxygen
| Not Included.
|
| https://two-point-hospital.fandom.com/wiki/Big_Kahuna:_How_t...
|
| https://youtu.be/Z7XCXq8j4iA?t=1402
|
| Or how about Toxocariasis Tycoon, where you try to take over
| the world by controlling your hosts' behavior to widely
| reproduce and spread out through enough people to swing the
| election and control the government?
| adanto6840 wrote:
| I always enjoy seeing your posts on HN; I'm honored that you
| played the early versions of SA (and admittedly a little
| embarrassed at how rough & unpolished it was back then).
|
| Really appreciate the kind words, means a lot coming from you
| -- thank you!
|
| I don't remember if we actually shipped it or not, maybe it
| was only on a beta branch (or maybe it's sitting on a git
| branch still), but I actually implemented an "infectious
| disease" concept at one point. I think the idea at the time
| was for it to be a holiday "easter egg" maybe, but I don't
| recall for sure. I do vividly recall testing it one morning,
| though, and I had the "contagion" values (way) too high. I'm
| pretty sure the concept was wholly taken from Theme Park,
| where I recall one post-coaster puking agent could yield a
| rapid mess. The day I was testing my copy, I ended up making
| a video of the hilarity that ensued when a single infected
| passenger deplaned and suddenly there were hundreds (maybe
| thousands) of agents (passengers) all "stumbling around"
| spreading the ultra-contagious disease like wildfire, making
| a disgusting sound & leaving the floors covered with ick.
| I'll have to search the repo history -- maybe it's worth
| revisiting!
|
| A disease tycoon, eh? Like SimAnt, but on a wholly different
| scale? =D
|
| Would love to connect if you're ever in Vegas! Thanks again
| for the kind words, makes my day & sincerely means a lot to
| me. :)
| 101008 wrote:
| I loved SimAirport - probably the only game that I got
| obsessive. I usually abandon sim videogames after a few
| minutes. I love aiports and I like casinos, so it may be a bad
| idea to download the second one, ha.
|
| Congratulations and thank you for the good times!
| ChicagoBoy11 wrote:
| I just took a peak at SimAirport... just insane. As someone
| whose coding has amount to little else but a few small webapps
| here and there, it completely and utterly boggles my mind that
| a single person would be able to accomplish something like
| that. I was aware of the RollerCoaster Tycoon person, but I
| figured that was an abherration. Completely amazing and awe-
| inspiring. How on Earth do you get going on something like
| this?!?!
| adanto6840 wrote:
| Initially, thought it would be easy -- it's all simple logic,
| right? Will be far less tedious & mundane than doing web/app
| development, right? Haha. I was in for quite the rude
| awakening, but luckily the challenges ended up being a
| pleasant and enjoyable surprise (at least on the whole).
|
| Lots of work is the answer, though.
|
| We actually got to Early Access release in ~11 months (~20
| man-months). We had to learn a new programming language &
| learn a game engine during that time, too (and learn what a
| game engine really was/what it meant). Really though, I think
| the most difficult (and important) part was more about
| learning the nuances of game development, even just
| understanding the (understandably high) UX expectations that
| a player has from a game -- it took a while to really "get
| there" and I'm still learning, every day.
|
| It's also worth mentioning that SimAirport was really not
| very good when we initially released it -- definitely rushed
| to release, far too early, and it was a mess at that point.
| After the EA release another ~3yr of full-time development
| went into it (and more dev resources), and it became a _much_
| better game /product in that time.
|
| I wish I could work on SimAirport forever.
|
| That's the downside with the games industry; it's ultra
| competitive and the amount of competition is increasing every
| day. Much of "the money" is heavily concentrated at the "top"
| of the pyramid, amongst a relatively small selection of
| titles. It's not the easy way, I can say that with
| confidence.
| rolha-capoeira wrote:
| Well, 1) we have no idea how long it took to develop
| SimAirport. I'd be curious to know!
|
| And 2) Rollercoaster Tycoon IS an aberration, since it was
| written in Assembly by one person!
| ChicagoBoy11 wrote:
| r/suddenlycaralho ?
| cfiggers wrote:
| Every time I go through an airport the thought occurs to me
| that it could make for a really cool sim game. I will check
| yours out!
| luxuryballs wrote:
| Oh yeah I remember we met on video, you said how the people not
| chosen would be sent a link to a discord for "everyone else",
| then after an email saying you went with someone else you never
| sent the link to the discord and then ghosted us. I made a mental
| note to remember that this guy was a liar who only said/did
| things for his own benefit.
| helloplanets wrote:
| Let me get this straight based on the other posts in this
| thread. You suggested the idea of the other person sending out
| invites to another server, and he said that he's already on it?
| And after he did not come up with the invite, he's a liar
| because he said he was already working on your suggestion but
| didn't go through with it? Or am I getting this wrong?
| satellites wrote:
| I'm sorry that happened to you but this seems like a bit of an
| overreaction.
| YesBox wrote:
| I dont know who you are, but what actually happened was I
| decided to double the server size and accept way more people
| than I originally planned (which I am not going to do this
| time). That gave me a lot of work to do so I'm sorry if I
| forgot to keep you posted.
| luxuryballs wrote:
| you immediately blocked on discord after sending the
| rejection message making it impossible to even say "thank
| you, good luck" in response, so there was no feasible way to
| reply or stay in contact or even follow your game, and I
| remember thinking he's going to regret treating people this
| way later on when it comes time to build a community around
| his game... lesson learned now I hope?
| YesBox wrote:
| I just checked my discord and I dont have anyone blocked. I
| close/leave conversations so I dont clutter my inbox, so
| maybe discord internally severs the connection? (That would
| be really good to know moving forward). (edit: I also dont
| recall "immediately" closing any chats, but I may have?)
|
| Anyways, sorry you feel that I wronged you, it really was
| not my intention. I received over 30 responses last time
| and it's a lot of work to interview everyone, then video
| interview them. It looks like you are running a discord
| yourself and managed to build your own community, which is
| great. Maybe you have an idea how much work this is, and
| perhaps you are better at handling this type of work than I
| am :)
| bkanber wrote:
| This type of interaction is exactly why I stopped running
| communities online. People thrust their expectations upon
| you and then expect you to do either mental labor to meet
| those expectations, or emotional labor to make amends for
| not meeting their expectations that you never consented
| to in the first place. It burnt me out very quickly.
| luxuryballs wrote:
| lol there were no expectations other than those that were
| presented, we had a face to face call during which I
| suggested an idea: send discord invites to a secondary
| server so all the people who didn't fill the open slot
| could meet up since they were seeking similar connections
| and later during that same call he literally said "funny
| you should say that because it turns out that's exactly
| what I am doing!" but this was a lie or at least
| immediately forgotten (which is what made the "that was
| my plan all along" part seem like a lie)
| bkanber wrote:
| Calling them a liar publicly when you didn't have all the
| context definitely counts as asking them to do emotional
| labor for you.
| wheybags wrote:
| Discord won't let you dm someone unless you share a
| server with them (or you're friends with them), so if you
| just happened to leave the server you shared, it could
| look like you blocked them.
| luxuryballs wrote:
| there was never a shared server, and I expect it was
| exactly that, a block or a friend removal, DMs worked
| fine until they suddenly didn't after the "sorry we had
| only one slot to fill...", but that was hardly the issue
| (it was the lie about the "other community" invite) and
| perhaps he was just afraid people would try to argue? it
| was just a little jarring, after having what seemed like
| a good faith, face-to-face convo, to write "no problem at
| all, thanks and good luck on your project, I look forward
| to..." but it didn't go through because suddenly DMs
| didn't work anymore
| luxuryballs wrote:
| not my discord, but either way, just be careful what you
| tell people if you don't intend to follow through... and
| now that you can see my responses I can finally say:
| thanks for taking the time to video chat with me and good
| luck on your project!
| maxilevi wrote:
| I recently released an open world RPG game I wrote completely
| from scratch while in high school (I only used OpenGL) to Steam
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/1009960/Project_Hedra/?l=...
|
| And now I am currently working in a few other prototypes and
| tools. Would be interested in joining
| jackling wrote:
| Looks cool, was the terrain procedurally generated?
| maxilevi wrote:
| Yes! Actually the entire world is a infinite voxel grid
| jackling wrote:
| Very impressive! I'm 3 years in Software Engineering, and
| can't build simple stuff in OpenGL. Really impressive for
| someone in HS.
| fwsgonzo wrote:
| Looks like a lot of work, and very well done! Procedural too!
| david422 wrote:
| That looks great! That's the sort of thing I have in my head
| and never ever would complete. Congrats to you :)
| DontchaKnowit wrote:
| That looks incredibly good for a solo high school project. I
| mean it looks great period, but you must be a pretty special
| programmer to have made that solo as a high schooler. props!
| maxilevi wrote:
| Thanks. To be transparent, I started it in high school but
| finished recently (started it at 16 and I am 22 now)
|
| Personally I wouldn't recommend anyone rolling their own
| engine
| DontchaKnowit wrote:
| lol I sorta figured as much. That level of dedication to a
| single project is completely beyond my comprehension, very
| impressive.
| harph wrote:
| On the contrary, I would recommend everyone to try and make
| a game engine. Through my teens and university years I
| tried many types (3D, 2D, visual novel...) and it's an
| awesome learning experience. Of course, for a real project
| that you want to actually finish, that's a different story
| maxilevi wrote:
| Hahaha well yes, for learning it's great but for shipping
| something it's awful.
|
| It's not even the time it takes, there is a lot of
| compatibility issues that need to be dealt with that are
| overwhelming
| dgunay wrote:
| I currently am just hacking on a Pong clone in Bevy in my spare
| time, so I'm not serious at all. Just want to say props to all of
| you who are putting serious work into creating games full time or
| otherwise. It has been quite a challenge in ways that web
| development just isn't.
| namrog84 wrote:
| I am 38 and recently quit my job at Xbox Microsoft as a Senior
| Engineer (mostly C++) to pursue fulltime indie gamedev. As I've
| quit my day job, I am all in on this. I have a few friends who
| will be quitting their jobs in a some years and it's sorta on me
| right now to start generating revenue to help speed up them
| joining me if at all possible. I have a long runway and expect
| quite a few failures on the way but it's my goal to find success
| and balance.
|
| I've only ever done various ludumdare or other misc gamejams,
| maybe 20 in my life. No substantial games to show/demo. Have used
| many tools and frameworks over the years, such as flash,
| libGDX(Java), Visual 3D, Unity, and finally a die hard Unreal
| Engine fan.
|
| There is a lot of other posts already here of far more successful
| and qualified folks. So if not OP, if there are other communities
| with less restriction. I am always open to more.
|
| Discord: namrog84#0880
| [deleted]
| syngrog66 wrote:
| I've made about 30 games over the last few decades, and did it FT
| solo indie for a few years.
|
| as a PT hobby currently I'm building a new interactive sim, with
| game-like aspects, related to democracy. Goal for UX is a mix of
| education, persuasion and entertainment.
| mhitza wrote:
| That sounds cool. Where do you publish your games? Itch or on
| your own website?
| [deleted]
| dboon wrote:
| Yeah! I made this science fiction VN [1] and am currently working
| on a follow up with overworld and graphics. I've got a Discord
| server where my friends who make games hang out -- we've got a
| couple different games being made as well. If anyone's interested
| in joining, my Discord handle is in my profile.
|
| [1] https://boonbane.itch.io/firmament
| hello_moto wrote:
| Is there a good resources for a non-game-dev person to learn
| about game-dev?
|
| Preferably a more guided approach (starts with A, then B, then C)
|
| I'm interested to make my own game (2D, RPG, simple games, not
| touching 3D) just for fun.
| ted_bunny wrote:
| SOSCSRPG.com is a fun little beginner tutorial IMO
| smartties wrote:
| I'm interested to join, but I'm not doing it fulltime (I went
| back to uni to get a master degree). As a side project I'm
| developing a factory game (conveyor belts/factories/insertors..)
| with some Spaceflight Simulation game mechanics [1]
|
| I'm planning on releasing the full game this December, but the
| game is already not doing so well (only 4K wishlists. 12K is
| recommended for a successful launch)
|
| [1]
| https://store.steampowered.com/app/2219580/Spaceflight_Facto...
| dimgl wrote:
| I was a building an action RPG for six months. I made a ton of
| progress. Then I just gave up due to life situations and I
| haven't picked it up since. I'm itching to get back on it, but
| not being an artist is really hurting my game development
| journey. I need a partner for the art, or I just won't be able to
| make the game at all. It's unfortunate.
| Madmallard wrote:
| you could probably get your main systems made so that designers
| can go on top of them with free assets / stable diffusion then
| get an artist after you have all that
| dimgl wrote:
| I was using free and paid assets to make the game. I think
| part of it is that the game I was making just wasn't very
| fun. For my next game I'm focusing on making the game fun
| first before worrying about the assets. I may continue on the
| action RPG, but idk. So much of making a game is the actual
| graphics, and even some features in games are graphical
| features, so I'm unsure where to go from here.
| Madmallard wrote:
| The assets that make the aesthetic yeah probably a majority
| of the work unless your game is very mechanics heavy
| drusepth wrote:
| I put out a small card game demo a while back using Midjourney
| assets for most of my art. The tech has wildly improved since
| then (this was ~v2 and we're about to see v5, Stable Diffusion
| is out now and actually good, and many companies are starting
| up specifically to provide AI assets to game developers), so I
| would imagine you could get pretty far without an artist now.
| At the very least, you can definitely produce a good-looking
| demo with enough reference material to hand off to an artist
| before a final release. Feel free to hit me up via email
| (profile) if you aren't familiar with the tech; if you're on
| Discord or something I'm usually around to give some tips &
| pointers when indie devs have questions. :)
| SeanAnderson wrote:
| Hah, this technically applies to me, but I don't feel I am taking
| my own work seriously enough to reach out even though I'm working
| on it full time. I've saved this post, though, and will reach out
| if I get to the point of feeling confident enough to say I'm
| actually an indie game developer.
|
| Here's some info (okay, a lot of info) on what I'm trying to
| create for anyone curious:
|
| https://docs.google.com/document/d/17ACH1XLCn7hkKz2dhuL1c_nx...
| schizo89 wrote:
| I'm doing 10 day jams every 6 months or so.
| DvnZook wrote:
| itch.io has been my go to for both hosting my interactive
| projects as well as finding good community within game design.
| Not only is it where you can find game jams to work on side
| projects, but there's some pretty good forums & dev logs that
| allow you to find dedicated people.
|
| I think it's only coincidental that I'm a game developer & on
| hacker news. I haven't seen a lot of cross-over until this post.
| Glad to see it though.
| felipemnoa wrote:
| Hello! Working full time on game right now. Been working three
| years on this game now.
|
| The game is a machine building game. Hoping to finish within a
| year.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/indiegames/comments/zolsc4/dominoes...
|
| In retrospect, I probably should not have tried to build a full
| game engine, which is why it has taken me so long. Oh well...
| Live and learn. C'est la vie.
| [deleted]
| YesBox wrote:
| I forgot to add the specific time (oops). We meet at 8:30 PM EST
| every Tuesday, and the meeting typically ends 2 to 2.5 hours
| later.
| Fartus wrote:
| [dead]
| es7 wrote:
| Fifteen months is major commitment. Good for you! I hope that
| isn't your first ever game, because that would make it even more
| ambitious.
|
| I don't think I could do that. I've built a number of mobile
| games, but the longest I worked on before releasing was four
| months and that was hard enough.
|
| I've always found it much easier motivationally and financially
| to launch early and iterate based on player feedback, but maybe
| the economics are very different with free-to-play mobile games.
|
| I stopped doing it full time after a while and eventually went
| back to work. Game dev could support a family but not as well as
| a tech job, at least for me with my not-that-huge games.
|
| Besides, for me I love that my game income is beer money/vacation
| money/new car money and not mortgage/health insurance/grocery
| money
| bilsbie wrote:
| I'd love to have a group like this but for learning AI. Is it
| only possible for people in tech cities?
| entelechy0 wrote:
| [dead]
| VoxelBoy wrote:
| My games on the app store are MobileUO and Sandbox City.
|
| MobileUO is a Unity-port of ClassicUO, which is an open-source C#
| client for Ultima Online. My hope was to get support from
| community on Patreon to keep developing it but the financial
| support didn't really materialize. But it's ok because close to a
| thousand people seem to be using MobileUO daily to play UO on
| their mobile devices and are happy with it as it is.
|
| Sandbox City is a really mini-tiny-not-even GTA style game for
| mobile where the player gets to run around in a city, driving
| cars, and running over pedestrians and zombies. I'm working on
| adding more content into the game but it already gives me decent
| passive income from ads and IAPs. I also have it published on
| CrazyGames (html5/webgl online game platform) and it is also
| played a lot there and bring in additional income.
|
| I'd be interested in joining your Discord. My email is in my
| profile.
| EamonnMR wrote:
| I've gotta say, I've seen your game before. You're very good at
| marketing.
| insraq wrote:
| I am a solo indie game dev - and have released Industry Idle[1] -
| a factory building/supply chain management/trading sim about two
| years ago during pandemic where I've got some free time. Now I am
| working on a spiritual successor called CivIdle while maintaining
| Industry Idle (it has a global real-time player driven market,
| which surprisingly takes quite some effort for maintenance, and
| that has slowed down the new development by a considerable
| amount)
|
| P.S. Industry Idle has been open sourced a while ago, if anyone
| is interested in the code[3]
|
| [1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/1574000/Industry_Idle/
|
| [2] https://store.steampowered.com/app/2181940/Cividle/
|
| [3] https://github.com/fishpondstudio/industryidle
| FumblingBear wrote:
| Just wanted to say I'm a huge fan of Industry Idle! Thanks for
| the hard work you're doing by maintaining such a fun
| incremental game :)
| qprofyeh wrote:
| For all developers who are curious about the solo gamedev
| lifestyle business, I'm sure there are many, what are the basic
| economics that can make it work? (Other than money saved at
| MAANG.)
| quadcore wrote:
| _what are the basic economics that can make it work?_
|
| Ah i was coming here to warn you about that.
|
| Ill brace for downvotes but if i can light a candle for just
| one person, that would be fantastic.
|
| A big misconception about the economy of games is that they are
| content - economically-wise. An example of content is music or
| movies, think spotify or netflix.
|
| This is absolutely not the case. Economically, games work like
| software: a handful of games are played for years and
| represents 98% of the playtime / money.
|
| Treat games like a startup: what will make your game still be
| played 10 years from now?
|
| Dont think "im gonna do one game and then another". Think "ill
| make one game". You wouldnt think "ill make a startup and then
| another and then another" even though you could its not really
| how youd think about this stuff right. Do the same with games.
|
| One game. One startup. One product. Played for years on end.
| Diverge from that strategy and chances are you wont have a good
| life as a game developer like millions before you.
|
| That being said, lets say you want to make a "content game",
| that is, a clone (your 2d platformer with a nice plot and rpg
| elements). Nothing wrong with that but just understand that on
| the long run it wont be sustainable economically, even if you
| take a lucky jump.
| badpun wrote:
| On the other hand, there's a lot of people wealthy enough to
| buy games on a whim, try them out for an hour or two, and
| then never launch them again (and don't refund). So, maybe
| that helps the situation somewhat? Otherwise, I agree - no
| one I know is a serial gamer. We all have our favourites
| which we've been playing for 10+ years. The best game studios
| can make in such situation is make a game with in-app
| purchases, or sell a newer, better version every so often.
| ajkjk wrote:
| I think the games people are buying on a whim, though, are
| the games with 10-year staying power that they haven't
| gotten to yet -- not throwaway projects that aren't good
| enough to care about.
| izacus wrote:
| That is absolutely not how the market behaves. None of
| the big (or small) moneymakers in last few years came
| close to "10 years" of popularity and probably won't.
|
| Where do you get this stuff?
| KronisLV wrote:
| > None of the big (or small) moneymakers in last few
| years came close to "10 years" of popularity and probably
| won't.
|
| I don't think much of the software out there behaves like
| this either. It might apply somewhat to game or software
| franchises, though.
|
| For example, LibreOffice has had multiple major releases,
| but has been around for a bit over 12 years, a bit longer
| if you include the predecessors. Ubuntu LTS is usually
| supported for around 5 years, but Ubuntu as a whole has
| been around for almost 20 years.
|
| Similarly, Counter-Strike was released over 20 years ago,
| even if there's been multiple separate games over the
| years. It's more or less the same story for Battlefield
| and Call of Duty.
|
| That said, that's setting your own goals unrealistically
| high, since those are the exceptions when compared to any
| number of unsuccessful games. If you try to compete
| against games like that, you'll just burn yourself out.
| Most startups aren't necessarily built for the longevity
| either, but rather to have a product hit the market
| within a reasonable time frame and budget.
|
| If you want, make games, fail, iterate, fail some more,
| iterate some more, maybe eventually succeed. Have a look
| at some grounded experiences from other folks, for
| example watch this video titled "How to Survive in
| Gamedev for Eleven Years Without a Hit":
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmwbYl6f11c
| gamblor956 wrote:
| I handled taxes for a number of video game companies. The
| parent comment is wrong. If it were correct, the video game
| industry as we know it wouldn't exist.
|
| Most games are played heavily within the first year, and
| thereafter not so much. Indeed, game revenues in general are
| even more front-loaded than movie revenues; for most games,
| 80% of the game's _lifetime_ revenue is made in the first 6
| months of release, which is why DRM is a thing on new games
| but usually gets removed in a patch a few months after
| release: to stop piracy during those crucial first few
| months. (With movies, excluding blockbusters which live or
| die by their box office, most of the revenue is made after
| the film leaves theaters from licensing deals and consumer
| media sales.)
|
| Excluding subscription games like MMOs, only a tiny handful
| of games continue making substantial amounts of revenue after
| 6 months. Games like Minecraft, Terraria, and Stardew Valley
| are the exception, rather than the norm.
|
| Don't let that dissuade you. As a solo developer, you only
| need a few thousand in sales to make a good living.
| dgb23 wrote:
| From what I've gathered from listening to and reading from a
| couple of very successful (at least originally) indie devs that
| worked alone or in small teams for quite a while:
|
| They all had a day job.
|
| Sometimes game dev related, sometimes not so much. But they all
| sacrificed a large portion of their free time at least until
| they started to generate enough money to survive on game dev
| alone.
| quaintdev wrote:
| The fact that this is on front page with just 1 comment
| indicates there are not many solo game developers
| rafael09ed wrote:
| On hacker news
| opyate wrote:
| Perhaps folks aren't putting their hands up, because they're
| not all full time, and don't necessarily want to join a
| community on Discord.
| drusepth wrote:
| Especially one with such a high time/mental commitment, as
| there isn't a lot of that left to spare when you're a solo
| game dev.
| gabereiser wrote:
| You need a savings. Probably 3x what you think you'll need.
| You'll need a solid plan. Not just a "this would be a cool
| game". You need to be open about the development (not open
| source, but posting blogs etc). You also need to work with
| marketing and publishers to get your game(s) out there. You
| need to think about support and community from day 1.
|
| In the end, the game is its own thing. It better be fun. It
| better be enjoyable. Otherwise all the above doesn't matter.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| Another route is to work on a prototype and designs in your
| spare time and set up a Kickstarter to raise funds and gauge
| interest (and try out game development of course without
| quitting your day job), but as the others said, you'll probably
| need a lot more cash than you think you do.
| tokinonagare wrote:
| This is the route I'm taking, yet I read for a KickStarter to
| be successful you need the community first:
| https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/why-your-
| kickstarter-...
| dananabread wrote:
| I'm also interested in this.
|
| Currently trying get a small project off the ground while
| working full time at a large company. The goal is to get enough
| momentum on a project to find a good jumping off point.
|
| The project is a multiplayer adaptation of frogger, where
| players are competing be the last man standing dashing across
| roads and rivers. The USP is allowing players to push each
| other around, this really adds to the competition (you can push
| people in front of cars, off of logs etc)
|
| The target audience is "skibble.io users" so bored students /
| employees looking for something to do over zoom. So I'm
| building it out as a webpage with no login and as quick as
| possible time to game.
|
| I have some info here
| https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=72732.0
|
| And there is an old local-only prototype here
| https://danslocom.be/gamepages/crossy.html
| YesBox wrote:
| You need money saved (for yourself and for contractors), and
| publishers wont be interested in you until you are well into
| development (unless you have previous experience releasing
| something). So you're on your own until you can catch the
| attention of a publisher, assuming you want to work with one.
|
| I didnt start receiving publishing offers until 13 months after
| I started development (and notably, when I started adding
| serious art to the game).
| nektro wrote:
| anyone interested for something similar to this should check out
| https://handmade.network/
| pfoof wrote:
| I used to focus myself on game development, mostly mobile,
| several times, then I joined a game studio as a DevOps engineer
| and I'm not looking back, backend and scripting life is way
| easier but sometimes I feel that I should make an update or join
| a jam.
|
| Well, the creative process for games is much broader and freeform
| but it's like with every art.
| willemlaurentz wrote:
| I created Snake '97, the retro phone game remake that has gained
| some traction on Android and iOS (50M downloads): snake97.com
|
| On how it got where it is, including a fun back story, I wrote a
| blog post: https://willem.com/blog/2018-02-21_updating-snake-97/
|
| It must be said: developing a game and have it enjoyed by
| millions is something very special. Things really went bananas
| when I was invited to an art gallery showcasing art inspired by
| my very game: https://willem.com/blog/2022-04-18_snake-97-high-
| scores/
|
| It makes me feel humble and grateful.
| ACV001 wrote:
| That's a great story mate! Great achievement.
| senko wrote:
| Wow, 50M downloads is huge, congrats!
|
| Are you able to get meaningful income from it? (Google Play
| store mentioned it contains ads tho I haven't seen any)
| ertucetin wrote:
| I'm a Clojure developer, and for most of my career, I have worked
| at small to medium SaaS startups.
|
| However, after some time, I decided to work on some side projects
| that were in a completely different field.
|
| I started playing with the PlayCanvas game engine and created a
| 3D PvP based browser game.
|
| Currently, the game is in the alpha stage and is called Enion
| Online.
|
| Link: http://alpha.enion.io
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