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Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

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Re: Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

#61

Post by krapp »

I hope you're rich, because the vast majority of indie games, even when well designed and marketed, fail and most of the rest make almost nothing. And most of the rest of those only succeed for a few weeks or months when let's players happen to discover them and make them viral.

As far as the framework, my advice is Unity or Unreal for 3D or console, Godot for 2D, but Unreal only if you have a studio and a budget otherwise it's overkill. But in the end the framework itself matters less than the license, which matters less than the game itself and the platform(s) you intend to publish to. Remember the guy who made Flappy Bird crapped it out in a weekend and made so much money on it that it actually scared him.

It's also important to remember that the code is the least important part of a game's success. The code just makes it work, it's the plumbing, not the architecture. The days when clever programming could make a game are long, long gone - now, code is only notable when it breaks. What makes a game successful is design, artwork, production, the things the player engages with and cares about.

No, sorry.. what makes a game successful is mostly luck, but a game won't have a chance to be lucky without the rest of it.

Re: Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

#62

Post by auslegung »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #34
auslegung wrote: post #4

I don’t want to discourage you, and I have never built a game myself, but I have heard a lot of horror stories from small shops to large shops. If you were my friend I would recommend you read about the failures of others before you and how to avoid them. I would recommend you use lean startup principles so that you get something into users’ hands ASAP. Maybe give yourself a short deadline, like 1-3 months, and say y…

I'm not saying this is the route someone should take, but the stardew guy made stardew solely to build his resume up while he was looking for a job.

From what I read in Blood, Sweat, and Pixels, he’s kind of a case study in what NOT to do. I’m very glad Stardew Valley ended up being a commercial success, but if I were his friend at any point in his process I would’ve tried to get him to get something into the users’ hands immediately.

Re: Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

#63

Post by [deleted] »

cteague wrote: post #22
auslegung wrote: post #4

I don’t want to discourage you, and I have never built a game myself, but I have heard a lot of horror stories from small shops to large shops. If you were my friend I would recommend you read about the failures of others before you and how to avoid them. I would recommend you use lean startup principles so that you get something into users’ hands ASAP. Maybe give yourself a short deadline, like 1-3 months, and say y…

Agreed on the lean startup principles/short deadline. You've got to get something into the hands of users as soon as possible. You might also want to consider doing some design up front and making a landing page. Perhaps you can gauge interest that way and receive feedback.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

#64

Post by auslegung »

WhompingWindows wrote: post #13

Try working on the game 20 hours a week while keeping your job. If you truly love the concept and love working on it while still working full time, that'd be a good sign to potentially scale it up with your full 60-80 hours you'll be spending.

This might be ideal, but some people would not have the energy to do that much work in a week, and since the OP has a 12-18 month runway and probably can get another software job easily and quickly should they need to, it doesn’t feel as necessary in this case. But I do agree in general, and it would be wonderful to never dip into savings at all.

Re: Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

#65

Post by danielrpa »

For those recommending that you stay at your job while creating your game... Some companies have fairly strict contracts regarding "moonlighting" and doing things on the side. In certain cases, the company might be able to own your game even if you don't use company assets to build it. So before you try to do this, make sure to discuss it with a lawyer to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Re: Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

#66

Post by AndrewOMartin »

A message to my previous self: Before you write a line of code, decide what the interactions are going to be and then use an engine which can handle them and no more. If you're writing code that handles when two stacked physics enabled boxes have their supporting structure removed from them at near t speed of light, but don't require such interactions to make your game fun, then you're stuck in a tar pit from which you'll never escape.

Re: Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

#67

Post by pomatic »

You are in Spain but you haven't said where? If you are in, or near, Barcelona try to get involved in the local te h scene. There are some great EU funded incubators who would help cover all the parts of the business you don't already have expertise in, and also have a vested interest in raising your (marketing) profile.

18 months is optimistic in terms of runway. Try to raise the same again in angel/friends & family funding. It's much easier to do that now, at the beginning, than it is later on, when suddenly everything seems bleak. Very best of luck, P.

Re: Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

#68

Post by markus_zhang »

nicpottier wrote: post #38
nicpottier wrote: post #24

I built games full time for about five years, straddling the transition into smartphones. Building a mobile game that is profitable is a bit like the lottery. You need to build something great to have a chance of winning, but building something great is not a guarantee that you will win. I realize that goes for most business ventures, but I think it is more true for mobile games than most. What captures the imaginati…

I should add that we decided to stop doing this when we realized we were now playing the lottery for a living. We had a few times where we got featured in stores and made thousands a day but didn't take off from there and that was that for that title. If I can offer any advice it is to focus on simple mechanics and keep production costs way down. Don't spend more than three months on launching your first title.

When reviewing the history of ID Software I came upon an interesting fact: Back in Softdisk, i.e. before ID was a thing, the team managed a product called "Gamer's Edge", which is a bi-monthly subscription service (people nowadays would love the idea) that gave players two full games and a bunch of other smaller tools.

I'm wondering if indie teams should more or less do the same if they are not eyeing big hits, which few managed to pull off. Two months might be too stingy, but with the engine and tools built it might not be impossible to pull off a by quarter subscription?

Re: Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

#69

Post by cableshaft »

MeinBlutIstBlau wrote: post #34
auslegung wrote: post #4

I don’t want to discourage you, and I have never built a game myself, but I have heard a lot of horror stories from small shops to large shops. If you were my friend I would recommend you read about the failures of others before you and how to avoid them. I would recommend you use lean startup principles so that you get something into users’ hands ASAP. Maybe give yourself a short deadline, like 1-3 months, and say y…

I'm not saying this is the route someone should take, but the stardew guy made stardew solely to build his resume up while he was looking for a job.

That guy completely relied on the financial support of his girlfriend for years. I think he did some odd jobs here and there, but mostly he was just working on the game not making any income. Obviously for that game it paid off in spades, as they were millionaires pretty much overnight once it was released, but that won't be the case for every game, or in fact most games, and it's not something you should ask of your significant other most times.

I've worked on eight titles professionally working for game companies that never made the money spent developing them. It's a hit driven industry and there's no guarantees, unless you hit on an untapped market with a lot of pent up demand for something (like Natsume had been dropping the ball and releasing garbage Harvest Moon sequels for over a decade at that point, Stardew Valley came along and showed them what the fans actually wanted). Even then it's still not a guarantee.

I'm out of the video game industry now, but still work on my own games, but it's only a few hours a week here and there. I've had some success over the years, but not enough to justify asking my wife to let me quit my job and do it full time.

Re: Ask HN: I'm quitting my job, will create a game – any advice?

#70

Post by m00x »

dinkblam wrote: post #11

just don't. i wasted 18 months on creating a game. it was an awful time with millions of boring-but-necessary tasks and sales on mac+linux+windows were basically zero. if i had a time-machine, this would be the one decision i'd reverse.

Just because this was your experience doesn't mean it'll be his.
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