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A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

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

#201

Post by mikekchar »

pinchharmonic wrote: post #130
k__ wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol, I did a year off with 10k.

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

I've done something similar, though still working full time: went to rural Japan to teach English for about $30k per year (and subsidised housing -- it ended up costing me about $150 per month). I had lots of free time after work to write software and since teaching and programming are completely different things to do, I had a fair amount of energy left over. My work day officially ended at 4:30 and usually I stayed until 7-7:30 at my desk programming.

I was quite happy living in rural Japan doing my own thing and spent less than $10K per year, which meant that after taxes, health insurance, pension, etc I saved more than $10K per year.

I did that for 5 years, then I got married and I'm back in the programming business ;-). But anyway, the point really is that you don't actually have to take time off from "work". Find a cheap and wonderful place to live in the country side and a 9-5 job that will pay the bills, but leave your mind free. Then replace TV, video games, socialising, etc with programming in your free time. Even with limited time, because of the complete lack of politics, it's amazing how much you can actually do.

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

#202

Post by pyro2927 »

l33tbro wrote: post #139
matt_wulfeck wrote: post #131

> So here I am with a disgusting $140,000 in total compensation. A sea of cubicals, souless sheep that want nothing more than to do their time and go home. We need to learn the art and skill of finding joy in any circumstance. This detached, negative view of your coworkers does nothing but signal your inability or unwillingness to become something apart from your selfish, personal desires. This entire generation is l…

Did you read the entire thing? > The people I once called sheep, aren't that. They just didn't have the means to roll the dice. Source: later in blog.

That's still an extremely opinionated viewpoint. Some people are happy to work a 9-to-5 gig because it affords them stability in exploring their other hobbies.

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

#203

Post by amirrajan »

downandout wrote: post #188
amirrajan wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1. This guy took a huge risk and is an idiot. He got stupid lucky.

I didn’t say you were an idiot. You bought a lottery ticket, and won. All I was saying is that most people in the app business lose, especially if they don’t use aggressive monetization.

No seriously. My current self would be slapping my past self in the back of the head saying “you idiot, do you have any idea what kind of bullet you dodged?!”

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

#204

Post by amirrajan »

dankohn1 wrote: post #184
amirrajan wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really really happy that ADR gave you some (hopefully) great moments during your commute. Seeing thing comment means the world to me (it really, truly does). If you get a chance, download A Noble Circle and play it with your child. You may find that you can connect over it's ridiculous story and crazy gameplay. I'd love any feedback you may have about it.

Thanks, my son and I really enjoyed playing A Dark Room, and were definitely freaked out when we saw the workers had become slaves. I'll try A Noble Circle with him.

This is exciting!!! All the random criticism from this post will be entirely worth it if your son ends up smiling even once while trying to navigate Mr Circle. Let me know!

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

#205

Post by tylerhou »

tikhonj wrote: post #118
JamesBarney wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ycombinator has made a lot of money based on the idea that some people are better at creating start ups than others. They don't just bet on ideas they also bet on people.

On the flipside, it could be that Y Combinator has made a lot of money by creating an environment that helps startups succeed . Apart from money, they provide founders advice, structure and a set of motivated peers. More cynically, they also provide prestige, validation and connections. I have no doubt Y Combinator would still be successful even if their selection method was not very good. (I tend to think about top…

Personally, I feel like the success of Harvard students is mostly selection bias with respect to their admissions department - i.e., everyone who gets into Harvard would be successful anywhere else.

But then again, I was just rejected from Harvard, so you might want to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

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

#206

Post by thaumasiotes »

tylerhou wrote: post #205
tikhonj wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flipside, it could be that Y Combinator has made a lot of money by creating an environment that helps startups succeed . Apart from money, they provide founders advice, structure and a set of motivated peers. More cynically, they also provide prestige, validation and connections. I have no doubt Y Combinator would still be successful even if their selection method was not very good. (I tend to think about top…

Personally, I feel like the success of Harvard students is mostly selection bias with respect to their admissions department - i.e., everyone who gets into Harvard would be successful anywhere else. But then again, I was just rejected from Harvard, so you might want to take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Studies of people accepted to Harvard but who chose to attend other schools support your theory.

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

#207

Post by yhavr »

- 215k$ in savings after game had succeed, according to the graph in the article

- managed to spend in few years

There's plenty of decent countries where you can live off this sum for decade, at least, and have much more dice rolls.

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

#208

Post by shard »

computerphage wrote: post #92
TheCoelacanth wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is with dice. Startups are not independent random events because some people are better at making startups than other people are.

I think your parent is saying that when you actually measure whether your claim is true, it isn't actually correlated in the failure case. I remember reading something that corroborated this [1]. That source claimed that previous founders of successful companies had a much greater chance at additional success, but previous failures didn't increase your chances (ie. you don't, in fact, learn more from failure than suc…

Two caveats: 1. That study only applies to venture-funded startups, so startups funded by other sources are not included. 2. There is a small difference between success rates of 1st time entrepreneurs (18%) compared with entrepreneurs who previously failed (20%), so previous failures may give a small boost in future success rates.

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

#209

Post by cableshaft »

amirrajan wrote: post #70
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…

Mad props to you. Email me and we’ll exchange war stories.

Thanks for writing this. I got out of the game industry myself after working as a developer on 8 games in a row that failed to make hardly any money at all, for three different companies (two startups, one small business).

I've been working on corporate software for 3 years now, and while my finances are back on track, it's gotten harder and harder to stay motivated and I've been really tempted to take another stab at it, despite not really having enough saved up to do so (especially if my girlfriend and I are going to buy a house this year).

Anyway, it's tough to just sit and stare at the die and not roll it. I have done some board game design as a hobby, since that doesn't totally drain me like extra programming does, and I've even gotten my first publishing offer recently, but I know firsthand from other designers of successful titles that the money you can expect from it is minuscule compared to making a successful video game (one person told me he made $10k in royalties off a game that you can buy at Barnes and Noble. I've made more than that off a video game that was only somewhat successful).

Anyway, I've played and enjoyed A Dark Room. I should probably check out your other games. Thanks for taking the time to share your story, it's given me something to think about.

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

#210

Post by woolvalley »

downandout wrote: post #69

I have never been directly employed at a large Silicon Valley tech company. Is it really that difficult to work on side projects on your nights/weekends while working at these places? To be sure, it would take longer to get your projects finished, but you would also be doing so with the benefit of a steady paycheck and health insurance. If you happen to hit the lottery with your finished project, great - quit your jo…

No it isn't. He also isn't employed in SV with those comp numbers. I'm kind of surprised he isn't working there with his personal levels of ambition. Being married also helps him avoid the difficult hetero male dating scene there too. I guess family or something similar is keeping him from moving.

There is a lot of cool stuff to work at a big silicon valley tech company. They actually have the budget & the need to do engineering 'properly' somewhat :).

I have read that in most businesses, you want to start with marketing & sales as the major focus vs. the product itself. Creator types like us software engineers like to focus on creating, which can create problems in making an actual business.

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