Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

sizefivegames.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 171 posts

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#61

Post by ChuckMcM »

ryandrake wrote: post #34
raamdev wrote: post #8

> I find it astonishing that startup indie devs pay out for an office, with all the extra bills that entails. Work from home, keep your overheads as close to zero as possible. I've been a solo dev for nearly a decade (8 years) and I found that sometimes it makes complete sense to pay for an office. Before my daughter was born, I was able to work from almost anywhere: noisy cafes, at home, the library, etc. But after…

I remember when I was looking to move houses a while back and we saw one WAY out in the boonies that was otherwise unremarkable but had a small, but physically separate "in-law house" in the back, that had a bedroom, a tiny kitchen (enough room for a fridge and microwave) and a tiny bathroom. We didn't move there but I couldn't stop thinking about how well something like that would fit as a work-from-home office. Cur…

I was extremely fortunate to be able to get a house with a 'lab' over the garage. The previous owners had built it as a sort of 'party' room with a wet bar and a small toilet. Makes an excellent 'home' office.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#62

Post by ninjakeyboard »

rydl wrote: post #7
hartator wrote: post #3

> Sit down and do some fucking work. Don’t go for a coffee, that’s not work and you know that’s not work, no you’re not ‘working from the cafe’ stop lying to yourself. Get up, get on and do some fucking work. I can relate so much to the coffee trap. Just went back from grabbing coffe. Just another to delay working.

Yes, coffee and reading hn and the like. You could also say "don't procrastinate". Sure, I'll start doing this right after I read this one last post ;)

Damnit you reminded me I should be working.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#63

Post by ninjakeyboard »

erikb wrote: post #51
ninjakeyboard wrote: post #30

nice article and I almost bought your game but I don't play games on my pc :( But if I did I would - looks mint - Nice trade on experience for advertising

Well huge suggestion there. Download games instead of handling disks/cartridges all the time; Use your controller (XBox, PS, individual versions all there) as you're used to; Be able to play games from indies like these or from competitions like Ludum Dare; Damn, even be able to make your own games!

Not sure I understand. I don't have an xbox or anything. I play mobile games sometimes! It's just my personal use. I'm starting a company so I'm glad I don't but I guess I find some other distractions (such as hn)

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#64

Post by quickben »

zzzcpan wrote: post #53
erikb wrote: post #41

Now that I've experienced the start-up world twice I have to say: What's the big deal about working full time in big corp? Not all of them have cubicles and ask their devs to wear suits. T-Shirt, free coffee, huge desk, free hardware, other smart people who are just like me, reliable income, some level of attractiveness to the other gender due to stable life. Honestly I don't know why I didn't do that from the start…

I don't think it's possible to work as a software engineer full time and have enough mental energy to do meaningful work on your own projects in your spare time.

Sadly, you are right.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#65

Post by mstade »

raamdev wrote: post #8

> I find it astonishing that startup indie devs pay out for an office, with all the extra bills that entails. Work from home, keep your overheads as close to zero as possible. I've been a solo dev for nearly a decade (8 years) and I found that sometimes it makes complete sense to pay for an office. Before my daughter was born, I was able to work from almost anywhere: noisy cafes, at home, the library, etc. But after…

I kill two birds with one stone: my apartment is actually two in disguise. I have two front doors, one leading to a third of the apartment (it's a rather large 4-bed) which is quite literally closed off from the rest by simply locking the internal door that connects the two. It may sound silly to have to literally exit the apartment to enter the office when it's literally next door, but it does have some value. Also it makes it much easier for tax purposes. Consequently a third of my rent is paid by my company, because it rents it as office space. Maybe it sounds weird or immoral or whatever, but it truly is office space and 100% legit, it just happens to be I'm also the landlord.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#66

Post by artifaxx »

erikb wrote: post #41

Now that I've experienced the start-up world twice I have to say: What's the big deal about working full time in big corp? Not all of them have cubicles and ask their devs to wear suits. T-Shirt, free coffee, huge desk, free hardware, other smart people who are just like me, reliable income, some level of attractiveness to the other gender due to stable life. Honestly I don't know why I didn't do that from the start…

It really depends on the person, thats great you recognize that you do well in the corporate world. Unfortunately in many places the company would own your spare projects due to the intellectual property assignment rules in their employment contracts. Beyond that some of us strongly dislike conformity and being a replaceable cog in the corporate machine. Connecting with one's customers and seeing directly how what you build helps them instead of dealing with corporate politics is a huge improvement to me.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#67

Post by DamnInteresting »

hartator wrote: post #3

> Sit down and do some fucking work. Don’t go for a coffee, that’s not work and you know that’s not work, no you’re not ‘working from the cafe’ stop lying to yourself. Get up, get on and do some fucking work. I can relate so much to the coffee trap. Just went back from grabbing coffe. Just another to delay working.

It really depends on the kind of work. I'm a programmer by day and a writer by evening. For coding, the coffee shop is useless. For writing, it's priceless. I think getting up and ambulating to new scenery helps to stimulate the creative mind, and the coffee shop is a good destination (stimulants, horizontal surfaces, electrical outlets, climate control, etc).

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#68

Post by badloginagain »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #22
enraged_camel wrote: post #6

>>> Don’t spend any money: Do as much as you can yourself. If you can’t afford it, don’t pay someone to make assets that you could do yourself. What’s more, do you really need to hire a full time coder? Or can you just hire a freelancer for a month? If you don’t have money, make the sound effects yourself. Nah. As a solo dev you need to spend your time efficiently. You can go to Fiverr and pay literally $5 for stuff…

if he comes from a decade experience, he's probably not gonna have started at a time where services like those where in existence.

It also depends on the point of the assets. If you need a proof of concept, it doesn't need to be good at all, just enough to prove that the image/sound/whatever is showing up when it's supposed to. You should be good enough at photoshop/paint.net/whatever to push out some WIP assets.

If you want production quality assets, then you'll likely have to pay more. I think what the author is saying is build shit you can build. If you can't build shiny spaceships, then choose a different direction.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#69

Post by DamnInteresting »

erikb wrote: post #41

Now that I've experienced the start-up world twice I have to say: What's the big deal about working full time in big corp? Not all of them have cubicles and ask their devs to wear suits. T-Shirt, free coffee, huge desk, free hardware, other smart people who are just like me, reliable income, some level of attractiveness to the other gender due to stable life. Honestly I don't know why I didn't do that from the start…

> What's the big deal about working full time in big corp?

I think it depends upon what you want in life from your current situation. Having worked extensively in both startups and big corps, I've enjoyed working for startups where my work and ideas can make a huge impact on the business, far more than in the corporate world. And both have asked me for extra hours at crunch times, but at a startup they know they are asking a lot, and there's a chance for abstract future rewards as a result. When I've had mandatory unpaid extra hours at a big corp, I got a couple of slices of "free" pizza (and I got to not be fired).

In recent years I've worked for small established businesses/non-profits, and I enjoy the happy medium.

Re: How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

#70

Post by brianwawok »

mstade wrote: post #65
raamdev wrote: post #8

> I find it astonishing that startup indie devs pay out for an office, with all the extra bills that entails. Work from home, keep your overheads as close to zero as possible. I've been a solo dev for nearly a decade (8 years) and I found that sometimes it makes complete sense to pay for an office. Before my daughter was born, I was able to work from almost anywhere: noisy cafes, at home, the library, etc. But after…

I kill two birds with one stone: my apartment is actually two in disguise. I have two front doors, one leading to a third of the apartment (it's a rather large 4-bed) which is quite literally closed off from the rest by simply locking the internal door that connects the two. It may sound silly to have to literally exit the apartment to enter the office when it's literally next door, but it does have some value. Also…

Was it built as an inlaw suite or something? That sounds like a sweet setup.
Post reply on HN