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Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

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Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#191

Post by tjogin »

runjake wrote: post #72
aresant wrote: post #6

The most refreshing part of this story is that it's not about the Apple / Google / etc App stores. Shows that exceptional indie products can get huge traction on a traditional platform, sort of like Braid on XBOX / PC / etc. That said, also excites me for the future when MSFT's & Apple's standard OS come with a servicable app store baked in.

iOS basically is Apple's standard OS at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if Mac OS X was renamed to "iOS Development Environment" at the next WWDC. It seems pretty clear that at some point iOS (and a desktop version of its touch paradigm) will be the future on Mac desktops.

Apple created iOS because lightweight devices with a touch screen demand entirely different solutions and paradigms than mouse driven desktop applications do. They're not converging any time soon.

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#192

Post by ido »

derefr wrote: post #128
ido wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, the java community is one of the best and most helpful I've encountered. Much better experience than I've had with the supposedly enlightened lisp community. Also, Markus programs in straight java, not scala or clojure.

I didn't mean to imply that Notch doesn't program directly in Java—just that, like a C programmer writing assembler will write assembler with C conventions (like almost always passing parameters on the stack, etc.), a programmer who knows [any other non-Blub language] writing Java will think of things in terms of higher-order functions, duck-types, etc., then just type it in in a way java understands (many small anon…

    Let me restate the problem another way: there
    are many more programmers who only know Java, 
    than programmers who only know [other 
    language X].
Is this little bit of personal opinion by any way confirmed by evidence?

I know many more programmers who only know php, actionscript, or perl than programmers who only know java.

I know you're not one of the cool kids around here if you don't build compilers in haskell, erlang or some dialect of lisp but this unsubstantiated anti-java sentiment is ridiculous.

I've programmed in a dozen+ languages (including scheme and python, which seem to be considered acceptable with the cool language crowd) and consider myself proficient with 4 of them (as in - I would have no problem starting a new project in those languages and will not often need to look up language docs) and for many uses I still prefer Java.

I suspect I am not the only one who shares that sentiment.

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#193

Post by [deleted] »

nihilocrat wrote: post #39
aresant wrote: post #6

The most refreshing part of this story is that it's not about the Apple / Google / etc App stores. Shows that exceptional indie products can get huge traction on a traditional platform, sort of like Braid on XBOX / PC / etc. That said, also excites me for the future when MSFT's & Apple's standard OS come with a servicable app store baked in.

On a similar note, Minecraft is written in... get this ... Java Which seems to be the dorkiest and most uncool language on the planet if you were to ask HN.

[deleted]

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#194

Post by kranner »

scrame wrote: post #187
Groxx wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not aware of that reference... care to enlighten me? The wikipedia entry didn't really answer it for me.

Malcolm Gladwell writes books about "success" where he uses many anecdotal (albeit fascinating) stories to come to a very vague conclusion of how people can be "successful". GP was referring to "qualities of success" (passion, writing something for yourself), which don't necessarily cause success. It was tongue-in-cheek.

Thanks, well put, just what I meant.

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#195

Post by davidmurphy »

icefox wrote: post #17
aresant wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think Hollywood director type job offer. Use somebody else's money to build your dream product with a huge incredible staff. Get gauranteed, huge up front salary to do so. Take away a sizeable piece of the action on the success.

And being forced to justify every small thing and have to use outlook.

Or Lotus Domino

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#196

Post by masklinn »

msie wrote: post #73
nihilocrat wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a similar note, Minecraft is written in... get this ... Java Which seems to be the dorkiest and most uncool language on the planet if you were to ask HN.

Forget Valve or Bungie, pretty soon Oracle will come knockin' on his door. ;-)

Oracle?

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#197

Post by masklinn »

Groxx wrote: post #93
tvon wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know it wouldn't be better and more successful if it was a Valve product?

More successful (assuming a sales-metric): quite likely, given a guaranteed advertising budget. But less of it (%-wise) would go back to Notch. Better: depends on your metric. Fewer customers = less feedback = more likely to get your idea implemented. More customers = more employees = more code backing the game (overall better), and likely more bugfixes and better-performing graphics. More control in the hands of one…

> But, at an absolute minimum, being part of Valve will put more pressure on sales than there currently is.

Really? Do you know anything about Valve? If they had so much pressure on sales, why no ep3 yet? Why no new Counter Strike? Why no Half Life 3? Why a free Alien Swarm? Why Portal to start with (it was released as a pretty minor freebie of the Orange box, there were few things hinting at it getting such a cult following)? ...

Valve is Gabe's company, and as long as Gabe is there Valve's main focus will not be "pressure on sales" but "pressure on good games". They know sales come from that.

I wouldn't see Minecraft fit in Valve's universe and structure well, but I don't think it would change anything to Notch's control of his baby.

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#199

Post by Tichy »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #162
Tichy wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many = 10? (Rough estimate)

If you can't retire comfortably on $3.5 mil you're probably doing it wrong.

That's what I mean - I think Minecraft's creator has made it by now.

Re: Minecraft creator banks $350k a day, turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie

#200

Post by _delirium »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #180
Groxx wrote: post #35

> turns down job offers from Valve and Bungie Thank God . Not that they haven't been successful, but I really want this to stay entirely in Notch's control, as that's precisely why it's succeeding.

An astute acquirer would leave him to do pretty much as he pleases, while providing the infrastructure to support him. E.g. Buffett / Berkshire are famous for letting their subsidiaries be run by the original, passionate management.

Does that actually happen in the game industry? Admittedly, to some extent that's the treatment Will Wright got from EA when Maxis was acquired (they weren't 100% hands off, but he could win basically any concessions he cared enough about), but there aren't very many people with Will Wright level freedom at big studios.
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