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“It’s done, there is no way back. We tried, we failed”

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Re: “It’s done, there is no way back. We tried, we failed”

#291

Post by jdc »

dasil003 wrote: post #282
vezzy-fnord wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In colloquial English, no. The distinction between two main types of simplicity, those of parsimony and elegance, has been a long-standing philosophical topic [1]. In engineering, the so-called KISS principle (first coined as such in the early 20th century) has always had the implication of minimalism and implementation simplicity, in contrast to mere ease of use. Fred Brooks wrote a famous paper in 1986 [2] perfectl…

"historically illiterate" are pretty strong words. Actually everyone is historically illiterate by these standards because the ideas that any one person is familiar with is a vanishingly small percentage of all the ideas the human race has ever had. Furthermore, the origins of ideas are impossible to trace with any great precision. Is the most famous person the person with the best ideas? Was the person with access t…

Alan Kay has similarly criticized the computer software industry and its "pop culture."

https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1039523

Re: “It’s done, there is no way back. We tried, we failed”

#292

Post by atilaneves »

cylinder wrote: post #271
blakeyrat wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all from the top of my head. Credentials: I play a lot of video games. AAA game (typical example: Skyrim): * Sells for $50-$60 * Has cutting-edge graphics and (generally) runs on the newest generation of hardware * Is available on most/all gaming platforms * (Nowadays) Usually has some celebrity involvement (Skyrim had Max von Sydow, Christopher Plummer, Michael Hogan. Oblivion had Patrick Stewart.) * 20+ hou…

I haven't played a game in 10+ years. Kind of miss it. If you had to pick one console game I should play what would it be?

The Last of Us. Best game I've ever played.

Re: “It’s done, there is no way back. We tried, we failed”

#293

Post by jacinda »

rkangel wrote: post #44
dmbaggett wrote: post #10

I wanted to believe that a team of 6 to 10 people could make a game that looked and felt AAA. Boy was I wrong! When we made Crash Bandicoot (with a team of 7), it was already virtually impossible to make a AAA game with 6-10 people, and that was 20 years ago. I tell inexperienced entrepreneurs to take their honest best estimate and multiply by 10. Or, as Mark Cerny (our producer on Crash) used to tell us, "add one an…

Issues with estimating, particularly something like this, mostly comes down to meta-ignorance: you don't know what you don't know. Given a particular problem of a similar sort to something he's worked on, an experienced engineer will be able to list 10 different issues that might crop up. An inexperienced engineer won't know of those potential problems and will just see the most optimistic path possible. When you're…

Even some of the smartest people in the world fall victim to this. For example, Elon Musk originally estimated that SpaceX would launch its first flight in November 2003. The first launch, which still failed, didn't take place until March 2006 and the next two launches also failed. The first successful launch didn't take place until September 2008, a delay of almost five years.

In his biography, Elon Musk acknowledges that his original estimates for SpaceX were completely ridiculous and based on his experience with writing software and ignorance of the realities of building spacecraft.

Re: “It’s done, there is no way back. We tried, we failed”

#294

Post by marincounty »

"What about our Kickstarter backers?

The people that believed in us from the beginning? People we made promises too. People we have let down. Even worse… people we will not be able to give the full rewards they invested in.

The crazy thing is, that we have most of the rewards ready for postage. All the backer stickers and letters of enlistment just need a stamp. All the poster sets printed, signed and ready. The artbook is ready to be printed, the soundtrack is ready for distribution, the DVD case is ready for production. But we have literally no money whatsoever to pay for stamps, let alone print the artbooks and dvd-cases. "

I understand you failed. Find money for postage though? These were Kickstarter investors? You have money for a bankruptcy attorney? Just shopping around for a bankruptcy attorney can save thousands? (Maybe you are doing the legal in house?). My point is the Kickstarter Backers will appreciate a small gift of gratitude, and just might fund you in the future?

I think most small companies know they are going under weeks--months in advance? I knew months for myself. There's nothing illegial about keeping a small fund for the last days of a business.

Good luck, and with Capitalism, and all its risk-thank goodness for Bankruptcy. When I was younger, I didn't quite appreciate bankruptcy laws. I now keep a close ear out for any changes to bankruptcy laws.(There are entities that want to change the federal statutes. I knew the Obama administration wouldn't let lobbiests touch them. I worry about the next administration?)

If I was to do it over again, I would have incorporated every business I ever started? I might have even incorporated my legal name right out of college--if legal?

Re: “It’s done, there is no way back. We tried, we failed”

#295

Post by listic »

The story of Little Red Riding Hood just keeps on inspiring new takes. For instance, The Path by Tale of Tales has been done a couple of years earlier, to a wider critical acclaim; and in Belgium, no less. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-path

I wonder if the developers could possibly not have heard of them?

There seemed to be quite some money in funding for artsy games in Belgium. Personally, I love games and I think both that and Kickstarter funding are needed to suppor more experimenting off the beaten path.

Re: “It’s done, there is no way back. We tried, we failed”

#296

Post by lotharbot »

dkersten wrote: post #94
michaelt wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, the original kickstarter [1] was for $50,000 with $72,000 raised. I'm not an expert on the economics of the video game industry, but I can't believe that would pay a team of 6-10 people for very long. [1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/45588301/woolfe-the-red...

I won't back games unless they either ask for a few 100k, or are vastly over target already. The reason is that I'd rather back someone with a realistic, workable (but maybe a bit too high) budget than someone optimistic about a probably too low budget. Double so if they state that they want to hire someone. I see a lot of kickstarter project where a team of 5 is looking for 20K or somesuch. While some teams can and…

I thought it was interesting to be heavily invested in one Kickstarter as it made it to the finish line with just a few hours to go, while watching a similar one fail a little while after.

Descent:Underground [0] and Starfighter Inc. [1] both had well-seasoned teams of industry veterans, including founders who had written popular space games (X-Wing, Wing Commander).

One of the big differences I identified between the two campaigns was that D:U asked for an amount of money that seemed like enough to run a small game studio for a year ($600,000) while SI asked for an amount of money that seemed like it wouldn't get them anywhere close to done ($250,000 for a bigger team). D:U was also really clear in their messaging -- if we don't raise the funds, that's a market signal that we shouldn't make this game. SI communicated several times that if they didn't reach their KS goal they'd just do it another way. What that indicated to me is that D:U had a realistic crowdfunding plan that could get them to release, while SI seemed not to know what they were trying to accomplish with kickstarter.

To be sure, there were a lot of other factors at play. With D:U, Eric Peterson pulled a lot of support from Star Citizen backers and they released an excellent trailer in the last 48 hours of the kickstarter. SI dodged questions about what engine they were using and had a number of other customer interaction problems. But I think one of the big issues was that they didn't ask for a realistic amount of money, which made it seem like they either didn't know what they were doing or were relying on additional funding which would increase the risk for kickstarter backers.

[0] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/descendentstudios/desce...

[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/impellerstudios/starfig...

Re: “It’s done, there is no way back. We tried, we failed”

#297

Post by simoncion »

cylinder wrote: post #271
blakeyrat wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all from the top of my head. Credentials: I play a lot of video games. AAA game (typical example: Skyrim): * Sells for $50-$60 * Has cutting-edge graphics and (generally) runs on the newest generation of hardware * Is available on most/all gaming platforms * (Nowadays) Usually has some celebrity involvement (Skyrim had Max von Sydow, Christopher Plummer, Michael Hogan. Oblivion had Patrick Stewart.) * 20+ hou…

I haven't played a game in 10+ years. Kind of miss it. If you had to pick one console game I should play what would it be?

The Orange Box is a fantastic collection of games. I can also recommend Portal 2.

However, if you have a friend who likes first person shooters, you could play through one or more of the Gears of War games in cooperative split-screen mode. I hate, HATE, HATE playing FPSs on consoles, but I had a blast playing Gears in coop. It was the first console FPS I'd ever played where

* the gunplay felt good

and

* I didn't find myself longing for a keyboard and mouse after two minutes of play.

Indeed, the combat works really, really well with a controller.

I don't know how the game has held up over the years, but it was lots of fun back in the day.

Re: “It’s done, there is no way back. We tried, we failed”

#298

Post by selestify »

homulilly wrote: post #287
selestify wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle, Washington. Fresh out of school (with a master's), and 120k base before bonuses/stock. And I have the lowest compensation out of all my friends who graduated with me...

72k seems pretty decent for a jr developer without a graduate degree. I started around 65k fresh out of school with a BS as did most of my friends.

How long ago was that? The undergrads I know make 100k+ base salary alone
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