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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”

#311
post #309

> All in all just getting the business prepared ended up costing me about 550 more dollars than I was expecting. That's one month out of the 4 taken out. Damn son, $550 won’t last me a week – let alone a month! I should look into where the money is going, clearly.

Cost of living and wages are different around the world... ;)

He implies that he lives in Eastern Europe.

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

#312
post #149
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend being careful from whom you take advice.

I'm sure everyone here would be really grateful if you could expand on this a little.

Not jblow, but the video game industry is extremely dependent on big splash releases. Something like 50% of sales occur in a game's release week.

A few games have managed to become huge hits growing only organically in early access (factorio and rimworld come to mind), but they are extremely special games. That's not something you can replicate with a relatively generic title.

To be fair, I'm not sure there is any path to success for a solid albeit generic game these days. There are just too many releases.

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

#313
post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That'a big deal. EE = most likely no property tax, which makes a vast difference in financial planning compared to the west. Basically if you're lucky to have a house or apt. you're set for good.

Where did you get the info that there is no property tax in Eastern Europe? Most EE countries do have a property tax, in fact it can be quite sizable if your 50k Soviet era apartment gets appraised for the same tax base price that the luxury 500k condominium next door. The property tax bill can be a huge problem for retirees who live on Soviet era pensions in old houses next to new developments. Incidentally this is…

> Incidentally this is the problem that Prop. 13 in California set to solve initially.

It's the problem Prop 13 was sold as solving, but not at all tailored to specifically address.

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

#314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> like building cathedrals Cathedrals were AAA titles, took generations and the funds of a pope. Pixel art indies are like Norwegian Stav Kirke, a cathedral made of wood. It’s concevable you could build one yourself. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stave_church

No, they're more like "home churches", which are what they sound like -- churches that meet in peoples' homes and put on their own services and activities with the budget they can scrape together.

The best indie titles hold their own on design and experience against AAA, albeit assembled less expensively.

Not every indie is a stave kirke, some are straw huts. Just as not every AAA is a cathedral, some are just 3 walls and a price list for future construction.

Maybe your example represents the game kit or game builder games.

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

#315
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US has similar contacts actually.

examples?

It's quite common.

My last company required IP assignment of all works that were:

- created on company hardware or

- related to the business in which the company engages

...and that struck me as eminently reasonable as a default. My current company defaults to everything full stop. I'm pretty sure this is going to be the default for most knowledge work in any state that hasn't specifically ruled such provisions unenforceable.

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

#316

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…

> you probably don't like it enough or have enough passion for it to sustain it even if you hit your stride. With all due respect, I am obliged to invite you to ingest excrement. Whilst there might be some people out there who have everything they need to spend another 20 to 60 hours a week on a side gig besides passion, I believe that one needs to have a set of not so common circumstances to be able to devote 40-60…

>> I believe that one needs to have a set of not so common circumstances to be able to devote 40-60 hours a week to something other than a job.

I worked 50 hrs/week at my main job and another 40 until this one took off. All it took was not having much of a social life outside of it. There's nothing that difficult about it.

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

#317

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…

100 hours a week is an insane amount to work. Depending on how much you sleep each day (and working this much is going to mean you'll end up sleeping longer) that's probably going to leave you less than than 3 hours each day to travel to/from work and eat. It doesn't matter how much passion you have for something, the majority of the population is not going to be to do this without slowly killing themselves. 60 hours…

I average 80 hrs/week currently; married with two kids. When I was married, no kids, I was working 92 hrs/wk on average (have it tracked), 50 at my main, 42 on the side.

I work three 16 hour days and three ~10 hour days (sometimes I take two days off and work another 16 hour day). One full day with my oldest child, and the other days I wake up very early and get home to do dinner and evening activities.

>>the majority of the population is not going to be to do this without slowly killing themselves.

We're talking about entrepreneurs, aren't we? People who want to make stuff? Yeah, they aren't the majority. I never said they were.

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

#318
The idea of creating a spreadsheet and projecting future Sales projections are not where the focus of a new venture should be. Instead answer the challenge of how to create value for others. If the value (in a saturated market) was high then the sales would be the result. How to create value is the key to success not spreadsheet projections.

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

#319

Just to add my personal data point of experience... 6 years ago, I took a break from doing webdev freelancing and spent around 3 months developing a kids app. At that point the money ran out so I released the app even though it wasn't entirely finished and quickly went back to doing web freelancing in order to be able to feed my family. The app sold in small amounts but it was getting great feedback from the people w…

Great write up, I’m developing for iOS (solopreneur). Is your company UK based?
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