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Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game

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Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game

#91
post #87
post #86

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>I find ui design to be some of the most boring work involved with a game so there are some instances where the ui could definitely be better. I kind of feel the same way. Unfortunately, if you're going to do this all on your own, you're going to have to find a way to get interested in everything. I've only finished one game myself (a very poor Space Invaders clone, without Unity) and getting text to work was definit…

>I kind of feel the same way. Unfortunately, if you're going to do this all on your own, you're going to have to find a way to get interested in everything. Oh yes I definitely agree. I don't want the game to be worse because I couldn't bring myself to do something boring XD > I think maybe just tone down the anthropomorphism and it will be better. That actually bugs me a bit too. But I had chance to gauge the respon…

> Do you have a website yourself or something I can follow you on.

I have an empty Wordpress that i'm being lazy about updating with a child theme and actual content (I kind of fell out of blogging a few years ago.) I am planning on doing (and maybe blogging about) the one game a month challenge[0] starting next year, so maybe I can post it to HN then. I'm not good at selling myself and I really need to work on my online presence again.

I'm on twitter at @kennethrapp but there's nothing interesting there either.

If you want to see me suck at some Japanese shooters, My youtube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUALtf6GWYntaliNPUjWVUQ

[0]http://www.onegameamonth.com/

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game

#92
post #18

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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…

I'm sorry that it took me a while to reply. The response has been so overwhelming that I honestly don't know how to react.

I wish I could show gratitude better through text. Thank you so much for that. I'm fixing up some important bugs at the moment but I'll send you an email as soon as I can.

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game

#94
post #18

Earlier 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…

you're awesome!

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game

#95
post #75
post #33

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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.

Surely with the audience here on HN you could get some upvotes across there. Worth a try.

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game

#96
post #56

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Don't be shy about that. The code in some successful commercial products is terrible. People who play a game care less about how elegant the code is and what language it's in, they just want to play something fun they enjoy. Please take advantage of the offers here to help bootstrap your own permanent website, and please consider making a paid version. Even if it's just an "I donated!" edition that does nothing but s…

Thank you so much for your kind words. It really means a lot to me more than you know. You can bet I definitely would like something to come from this. I'm working on it full time without being paid. Even just a job would be life changing right now. I'd love to hear your take on what I'm thinking of doing with it and get any advice anyone has. I thought about making it a commercial game, but I'm very strong on the co…

One tip: try adding an email address to your Hacker News profile, so that people are able to get in touch.

You mentioned that a job would be life changing. Not sure if you're interested in freelancing, but if you're able to put together some kind of website about yourself & your skills and link it in your HN profile, it might help you catch more opportunities out there. People need a way to get in touch if they want to offer you an opportunity!

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game

#97
post #73

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> 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!

I'm honestly curious, do you know of any games that remained commercially successful after open sourcing, without having some secondary meta-game source of income (multiplayer servers, f2p, etc.)

Eldritch, I know is, but I'm not sure how commercially successful it was.

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game

#98
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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!

Have you actually made any money making games, because this all reads as hopelessly naive?

Re: Show HN: I spent 6 years making a cool free game

#100
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