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A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

failory.com

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Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#141

Post by sihui_io »

gargarplex wrote: post #96
jabgrabdthrow wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At which number would you no longer make the point you just made? 100 failed startups? 50,000? You’ve got a lot of faith in people. My number is maybe 5.

I've been seriously, actively interested in building a tech biz or startup since 2003. In 2003, I started selling chat bots on the Internet. In 2005, I cofounded an affiliate marketing website that cracked the Alexa top 10k In 2007, I built an app that scaled to 100k MAUs and was acquired for $20K In 2009, I started a SaaS but couldn't break $~600/month in revenue. In 2010, I built a business that ran for over 5 year…

Thanks a lot for sharing. I'm impressed by your perseverance and so glad to see things have been working out for you lately. Best of Luck!

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#142

Post by MattRix »

canes123456 wrote: post #51
fragsworth wrote: post #5

This is incredibly depressing. It hits home for me because I'm in a very similar situation. I and one other guy almost went broke making Clicker Heroes, but it turned out to be a great success. But so far since then every project has not been worth doing. > I didn't do ads, I didn't do micro-transactions, scummy energy bars, and all those other bullshit monetization tactics. We did this in Clicker Heroes, and I don't…

> We did this in Clicker Heroes, and I don't like that we did. But I'm learning more and more that it's hard to compete against scummy tactics. Props to for going against the HN hive mind. F2P is successful because most people choose it and will not pay for software. There are real issues with it but it not pure evil like HN thinks.

I think you misunderstood what he wrote... He was saying that it's hard to compete in F2P unless you use the same scummy tactics that everyone else does. That's why he made Clicker Heroes 2 as a non-F2P game.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#143

Post by MattRix »

castle-bravo wrote: post #32
ghostbrainalpha wrote: post #11

The math on this makes no sense at all. > - Live off of $15k a year. Don't buy a house. Don't buy a fancy car. Just save. - Do this for a year. - Land a job that makes you $100k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. - Celebrate by living off of $30k a year. - Do this for three years. - Land a job that makes you $140k a year. Save the rest. Max out your 401k contribution. Get a Roth, put $5k a year in…

Yeah it doesn't make any sense at all. He grossed over 800k on a video game, loves programming, but after another three years he has to go back to his day job? It sounds like he's burning over 100k/year and lying about his expenses in this report. In any case, there's a lot of information left out.

He says he has a decade worth of emergency funds saved up.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#145

Post by pinchharmonic »

k__ wrote: post #144
pinchharmonic wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice! Where did you go/what was your living style like?

To the library. Lived in a shared flat. lol

So basically you just studied/worked on projects for a year, lived very cheaply in a shared flat, cooked your own food? Worth it do you think?

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#146

Post by jondubois »

>> There is such a heavy dose of luck in success. There are those that will give one thousand percent, and because the roll of the dice wasn't perfect, nothing materializes. They have as much love for the game development as I have... they've worked as hard as I have... but just didn't get a kiss from Lady Luck. And it sucks. It just isn't fair that they want to create more than their next breathe, but can't catch a good break to devote time to it. They have to look over at those that have the privaledge to take multiple rolls of the dice, eat their cake and have it too, and if everything still fails, they get bailed out by mommy and daddy.

This is exactly how I feel.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#147

Post by a_t48 »

amirrajan wrote: post #108
alexashka wrote: post #39

I'd like to think there's a middle ground between 'corporate america' and 'at home alone'. Hitting the jackpot the first time around may have actually led the author away from a place he'd feel most comfortable in - a small company with other people who love what they do.

During my free time I did a good amount of contract work with small companies. They loved what they did and it was energizing. But what they love working on isn’t what I love working on which is in essence: “artistic, evocative experiences”. Yes I’ve invested in a closet full of turtle neck sweaters while I continue my search for my “magnum opus”.

There are companies like that, but they are tough to get into (generally small company, low budget, low openings). I personally think it would be cool to work on the next Journey/The Witness/Monument Valley/etc, but it’s a crapshoot of knowing the right people at the right time with opportunity to jump on. I’m personally saving up until that opportunity comes or I go nuts like you and quit to do my own thing. Best of luck.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#148

Post by jng »

anigbrowl wrote: post #135

Then. A Dark Room went viral. I suspect the author's lack of subsequent success with his other games stems from his apparent lack of curiosity about exactly how his first and only lucky break took place.

It's not about lack of understanding. The viral success of a "one-off" type of game like ADR is nearly impossible to reproduce. Sometimes people take a liking to something because you hit exactly the right notes without even knowing what notes they are (not that they do themselves even!), and it is impossible to hit them again. ADR looks like that kind of success. Repeating the success of GTA Vice City is very hard, but probably more tractable than repeating the success of ADR. There are a few reasons: the high resource requirements for the production and marketing create a moat, the type of game is amenable to a near "extension" to repeat the success, etc... notwithstanding that, most game publishers end up finding the way to kill a franchise after a few titles.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#149

Post by Rapzid »

sremani wrote: post #58
amirrajan wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I give you my Armchair Expert of the Year Award. Congrats :-) Must be nice to live in a world without having to give Apple 30%, insurance premiums, taxes, and royalties/partnership splits. Take this comment in good spirit. We all make mistakes. Nothing but love for you. Go build awesome things. Hire a CPA for all the math related stuff.

I see this every day, people take the gross income number to the bank. In software world, the operational costs are less compared to other domains, but there are still costs and taxes. Apple taking 30% cut is insane.

YESSS.. By itself it's just business right? The price of doing business. Don't like it? Go somewhere else. But that somewhere else is Android and Google ALSO charges 30%? Hmmm..

This duopoly situation isn't really good developers. Apple taking 30% cut and tossing it on their pile of 250b in cash; that's a depressing image.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#150

Post by dankohn1 »

I spent every morning for several weeks playing A Dark Room while commuting by subway with my 7yo, so I this story really engaged me. My biggest takeaway is to think about this advice from Sam Altman:

http://playbook.samaltman.com “A word of warning about choosing to start a startup: It sucks! One of the most consistent pieces of feedback we get from YC founders is it’s harder than they could have ever imagined, because they didn’t have a framework for the sort of work and intensity a startup entails. Joining an early-stage startup that’s on a rocketship trajectory is usually a much better financial deal.”

There are so many good jobs out there that are not just being a corporate drone. He has amazingly relevant experience for tons of companies.

He should find one that has already taken venture funding and ride the rocketship (along with punching a lottery ticket) while still getting a reasonable salary.

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