Along with all the other suggestions fir hosting, Red Hat Openshift has free tier that you can pretty easily set up a website with as well.
Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game
71–80 of 100 posts
Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah I definitely agree. I actually had a website up once but I had to let it go because I couldn't afford the domain and server costs. Currently living off of government assistance so it's rare to have more than a few dollars extra. I also tried to contact some publishers for a bigger version but I've never received a reply. It is how it is. I'm hoping the game is good enough to travel through word of mouth :)
It's that time of the year where I'm feeling altruistic, so I just registered boxbytelyte.com for one year. Just let me know where you want it to point, and then I'll transfer the ownership to you in a year's time (or sooner if you like). Also, have you thought about open-sourcing the game? That would definitely relieve people's qualms about downloading an anonymous binary blob. Edit: Forgot that there are no direct…
Good on you, this is a great gesture. Hope they take you up on it.
Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game
#73It would be nice if you put the open source the game as well (seeing as it's free atm, so no profit loss from it). I'd like to see how you wrote it, and learn from it!
> It would be nice if you put the open source the game as well (seeing as it's free atm, so no profit loss from it). This is terrible advice, unless you think you'll never be able to profit from the product itself. Don't give up prematurely! That said, the typical case is that hobby games don't make any money, so it may be a good idea to open source it, but later. Definitely not immediately.
The money isn't really in the source code - it's in the execution, and community building afterwards. Making a free game can create a following that can help you win players in the future. Making it open source just gives you a bigger audience - people who likes to tinker would be more interested. It's not a black and white situation, where value is lost when you open source!
Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game
#74Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh wow I've never heard of itch.io! I wonder if they allow games in beta.
Have you considered publishing on Steam? Its a good avenue to monetise as well.
It's actually pretty hard to get on Steam without a publisher. Without a publisher, you have to go through the Greenlight process which requires a ton of people voting "Yes I'll buy it if available" for your game.
Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game
#76Is it just me, or would it make much more sense if it switched in order of red > green > blue? Most people already know that sequence, so there'd be much less of a learning curve.
Also, KB+M doesn't work on the Linux build. Gamepad does, though.
Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game
#77Is it just me, or would it make much more sense if it switched in order of red > green > blue? Most people already know that sequence, so there'd be much less of a learning curve.
Also, KB+M doesn't work on the Linux build. Gamepad does, though.
Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game
#78Ignore all the people here telling you to open-source this (for now). You have a product and a compelling story. This could be one of the rare games that actually makes money. Once you have a playable game that looks good and is fun, your main problem is getting noticed and making it easy for people to get your game and pay you for it. You've got a good story, which is key to marketing and getting noticed. You worked…
Absolutely agree with this. I haven't even played the game yet, but what I find compelling is the "worked on making this for 6 years" / "I'm a self-taught programmer" / "I can't afford a domain" story. If there was a website with a Buy Now button I'd already be clicking it.
Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game
#79Very interesting! I have a few questions: 1) Is this your first time releasing your game to the public? 2) How were you able to focus on such a project for so long? 3) I've never made a game before, do you have any tips for me? (Comfortable with code + design)
1) Yes actually. And it's my second game XD 2) It was very painful. I actually lost the whole game once from a hard drive failure and had to remake it whole. I guess I had to learn to use version control sometime lol 3) A: Focus on the fun. B: Just start working, even if you're not in the mood. Sometimes you're not in the mood until you're actually doing it. C: Accept that restarting from scratch is actually awesome…
Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game
#80Congratulations on shipping. Most people who want to get into independent development never even make it past alpha, if that.
Really, I think the basic idea is alright, but the actual gameplay and design need a bit of polish.
However, as soon as I opened it up I got a warning from Windows. If I have to choose to let your app through the firewall that's a bad sign. I feel like a beta shouldn't be making network requests and posting my score to a remote server (which is what appears to be happening here.)
The text seems too difficult to see in some cases. For instance - the red text on the grey dialog box background in the tutorial. Some of the UI elements are difficult to read as well, and seem superfluous. I kind of feel like the only thing I need to have is an immediate idea of my health and maybe the score.
I thought the tutorial was a bit condescending. The mechanics of the game aren't that complicated, I just want to know what the controls do, what the basic premise is, etc.
I feel like one or more of the following are probably true: the enemies are too small, the field is too large, or the controls are not responsive enough. Maneuvering to catch the enemies seemed to take far more effort than needed. Perhaps if the movement were restricted to a grid or some kind of graph the actual puzzle aspect of the game could become more prominent. I understand it's supposed to be difficult, but the difficulty in this case seems a bit artificial.
The klaxon sound effect was annoying, and to me sort of detracted from the general sci-fi action feel of the game.
The background isn't doing much to enhance the experience to me - this game would be just as enjoyable (and be a smaller download) if you just had a simple background. It would also make everything else a bit easier to see. Then again, it isn't hurting anything either.. it's just uninteresting.
Being told that my scores were too low for the leaderboard was a bit aggravating. It's never a good thing to be told the game you were playing is a test and you failed it, since I wasn't actually intending to play for a global leaderboard to begin with. Maybe allow my scores to sit on a local scoreboard, then give the option to send the highest score?
Overall though, if this were on Greenlight, I might consider it. It's not yet at a state that I would be willing to pay money for, but it's got potential. It might work well as a mobile game.