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

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131–140 of 346 posts

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

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What is a "Partner position"?

Traditionally, a partnership is a type of privately held company where the partners hold equity and receive a % profit share based on tenure.

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

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Funny enough, I now live in Bali, earn less than $150k, drive a $3k scooter and have a supermodel partner. She just made me pumpkin soup.

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

#133
The games industry is a harsh mistress. With the number of games coming out, being a great game is not enough to make a "hit", even with modest goal of 700 sales.

I feel like he put a lot of faith on his effort instead of looking at the results. 187 e-mails and 10K tweet impressions does not translate into games sold. How many of those e-mails got a positive response? How many previews on Youtube, Twitch, other channels? From what I have read steam wishlists have a 1:6 ratio to sales on good days, but again it's all empty promises.

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

#134

Yeah, quitting the job with no savings is a mistake. The things he could have done better are mainly 1) Proof that people want to play this game. Post the gameplay video on /r/indiegaming, see what people say. I remember the early days of Minecraft, people went wild for it, even though it was very basic. 2) Marketing. Tweeting is not enough. Submitting to reviewers is not enough. On the positive side, he is fast and…

I think for small games like this, there's a lot to be said for building up a corral if releases. Once one makes a decent splash, you'll have a better audience for future releases, as well as people exploring your back catalog. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

On the flip side, even previous success is no indicator of future success. See Scanner Sombre:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4a7K-I-F5s

"We didn't think it was possible to sell only 6000 copies" [after PA sold 2 million].

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

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>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.

Always read the contract very thoroughly, there can be a lot of gotcha's preventing you from striking out on your own on the side. IP, non-compete, and directly prohibiting working on the side as --- according to some --- this distracts you from their business.

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

#137

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…

Yes... the pitch seems confusing, and the game itself seems uninspired.

I'd try a demo because this is the sort of thing I might like but I see nothing there worth paying for up front.

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

#138
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…

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's the other way around. That is the default for the US (see [1]) but I believe it's unenforceable in the EU. [1] https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2016/12/09/developers-side-pr...

Nice link. I like Joel's writing. Haven't kept track of it in a while. The last para really rubbed me the wrong way ("sleeping with boss"). Most likely it was in jest but we need to have a zero tolerance to this kind of crap now (men and women).

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

#139
I wonder if he'd find supporters on Patreon. The way supporting a musician is like pledging to buy the next $1 single, would it be possible for him to make downloadable games instead of relying on Steam? His needs are modest, he loves making games and wants to devote himself to it, so it seems worth a try. I'm impressed how he wrote updates and did bug fixes, just to please game fans. With a little support, he could flourish.

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

#140
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The demographics of gamers may be broader than you think - "older" gamers are a significant segment of the market.
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