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“I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

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Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#111

Post by icebraining »

icelancer wrote: post #43
ccozan wrote: post #25

The country he mentions is Romania. Well, bureaucracy is high, but like other said, no need to setup a company in advance. But, he saved anyway way to little money ( I found strange that he is counting in USD, since euro is de facto currency, besides the RON ) to be able to sustain him and an apartment. Lessons learn: don't quit your job until you have some sale volume. However, since he's in Romania, he will get a j…

>>Lessons learn: don't quit your job until you have some sale volume. Don't quit your job until your side gig is fully self-sufficient and you are being paid enough to cover bills/food/necessities and you have a few months saved up for emergencies and such. If you can't work 40 hours per week at a basic job (and squeeze in a few hours of at least thinking/reading about your side project, if not actually coding/writin…

Depends on why you can't, no? If it's lack of interest, sure, but it may simply be that you have other obligations (e.g. familial).

Plus, as others have said, releasing the game while employed may expose you to the risk of having your employer claim IP ownership.

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#112

Post by ryandrake »

speedplane wrote: post #87
ninjaroar wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

600k base salary? What type of position is that? Developer salaries in the big four (I assume you mean Google/Facebook/Amazon/Apple) are high but that is still twice what I normally hear (and have gotten offers for), and that's assuming you're talking about total comp. I'm not doubting you, i'm just curious what type of experience you need to get that.

If I had a nickle every time a HN commenter said they make 500k+/yr as an engineer, I'd make 500k+/yr.

Don't you know? Everyone on HN makes $500k+, drives a Ferrari and has a supermodel partner.

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#113

Post by _s »

worldsayshi wrote: post #71
repomies691 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I started my company like 10 years ago, I also had savings for only like 4 months. However my plan was not to do games specifically but anything that pays the bills. Though I made one game as well but more like for fun and training, not for money. My various products did little money, though I had to look for gigs quite often to support the development. After 1-2 years I made enough money from the products so th…

I'm curious what kind of work you found and where you found it? If you don't mind telling.

I find digital consultancies / agencies always have spikes of work and they need folks to join in for a couple of weeks or months. Just make connections there - send in your cv, ask about part time positions etc. Agencies usually have one or two recruiters they trust so go and make friends with them too, chances are that recruiter is connected to a few other agencies and so forth. It’s all about networking though, and finding individuals that are reliable.

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#115

Post by ryandrake »

thelittleone wrote: post #94
ninjaroar wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

600k base salary? What type of position is that? Developer salaries in the big four (I assume you mean Google/Facebook/Amazon/Apple) are high but that is still twice what I normally hear (and have gotten offers for), and that's assuming you're talking about total comp. I'm not doubting you, i'm just curious what type of experience you need to get that.

It was a Partner position at a big four consulting firm. Leading up the Cyber Security practice.

What is a "Partner position"?

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#116

Post by misnome »

rootlocus wrote: post #105
mindfulplay wrote: post #89

The main advice should be: not another pixel art game. Please. We have enough of these. Folks let's move on from the 1970s. Also this is getting tired seeing honest, hard-working, self-motivated talented individuals push themselves into the same tried and tested crappy old corner of 'indie pixel art games'. It's quite difficult to see anything innovative or even remotely enjoyable from this genre anymore. It's not Ro…

> It's quite difficult to see anything innovative or even remotely enjoyable from this genre anymore. You probably haven't seen Undertale then http://store.steampowered.com/app/391540/Undertale/

But surely this is part of the problem; Exceptions to the rules, that have succeeded due to an unpredictable combination of luck, timing AND developer inspiration.

Nobody should look at Undertale and say "Yes, this is definitely a good area/style/genre to go into to make easy success.

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#117

Post by coldtea »

jbb67 wrote: post #100
cousin_it wrote: post #49

His sense of what games are "cool" wasn't in tune with the public. That's the cardinal sin. Pixel art dungeon crawlers aren't cool. It's as if he was a musician and decided to release a glam metal album today. Low budget, poor marketing, uncooperative bureaucracy - nah dude, none of that matters, you're just too in love with glam metal and people aren't buying glam metal.

Yeah, it's the kind of thing I might have been interested in 20 years ago. Now I looked at it as a result of this thread and thought "that's cool!". But do I want to play it in competition with so many other things I could play? Not really. Sorry :( I'm sure it's very well done and I might enjoy it, but there is no reason to move it to the top of my large to-do list...

>Yeah, it's the kind of thing I might have been interested in 20 years ago. Now I looked at it as a result of this thread and thought "that's cool!".

That also means you're now 20 years older, and perhaps not in the target demographics for games in general.

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#118

Post by eps »

1ammergeier wrote: post #48

I assume part of his problem is the Steam description - some of it reads like nonsense (the twist/USP makes no sense, “fervent goddess,” “20 levels of pure mishap”) and the rest is actually discouraging, describing it as “back-to-basics” (read: not many features) and literally has a section entitled “why you might not like this game”. Overall the concept is confusing. It’s a “coffee-break game” but also a really diff…

It's not even the description, it's the screenshots.

They look like a half-baked demo of a Wolfenstein clone. There's no video of the gameplay either, so it'd be pretty damn hard to convince a random person to sink any time into this even if it were free.

I bet he's losing 99% of the audience at the first image.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/725040/Ebony_Spire_Heresy/

EDIT - There's a video now, not sure why it wasn't showing up before. The first image was just of two stone walls around a flat looking inset door. It looked as unexciting as it gets.

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#119

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

Gaelan wrote: post #101
virgilp wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the name, I'm guessing he's Romanian; it's not illegal here to have a contract that states "everything you create, even in the spare time, is the company's property, unless you get written manager approval first". I have exactly such a contract. And yes I know it would be illegal in the US. (I'm not exactly sure how enforceable such a clause would really be, but that's another story, and I really understand him…

US has similar contacts actually.

examples?

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#120

Post by Retric »

repomies691 wrote: post #66
ajnin wrote: post #28

Quitting your job with only 4 month worth of savings, with a new mortgage, to enter an industry known for its oversaturation, extreme competition, and high luck element for indies ? That's insane. Maybe I'm just risk-adverse. That said, I think he actually succeeded, despite appearances. Managing to release a working game in 3 month, that actually got sales, is a feat in itself. The game will keep trickling sales, if…

When I started my company like 10 years ago, I also had savings for only like 4 months. However my plan was not to do games specifically but anything that pays the bills. Though I made one game as well but more like for fun and training, not for money. My various products did little money, though I had to look for gigs quite often to support the development. After 1-2 years I made enough money from the products so th…

Having 4 months of living expenses should be doable within 3 years of having just about any programming job. Saving 10% gets you there and that's on the low side. X% / (1-X%) * 12 * years or savings / living expenses * time spent savings ignoring interest and taxes.
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