Did I just waste 3 years?

Not sure what OP's background is, but if he's not in the tech industry and wrote a complex C++ game engine, plus a website with Flask+SQL on his own, I'd say he has a potential career as a software developer there.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#5

Post by jchw » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 6:21 PM UTC

Mortiffer wrote: post #2

Whats the equivalent of testing your business idea before building a business in the gaming world ?

Does such a thing necessarily exist?

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#6

Post by EngineerBetter » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 6:23 PM UTC

Mortiffer wrote: post #2

Whats the equivalent of testing your business idea before building a business in the gaming world ?

It's hard, because novel mechanics are easily stolen. That said, the sooner you get user testing done, the sooner you validate your idea.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#7

Post by rfugger » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 6:24 PM UTC

Regardless of sales, this game demonstrates all sorts of wonderful qualities that successful studios are looking for in an employee, and its development was undoubtedly much more educational than any computer science program. It is never wasted time to do what one is passionate about.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#8

Post by shacharz » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 6:25 PM UTC

Mortiffer wrote: post #2

Whats the equivalent of testing your business idea before building a business in the gaming world ?

Shareware, Demo ?

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#9

Post by jtchang » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 6:26 PM UTC

What is the target market for the game? I played Metroid when I was a kid on NES and the original gameboy.

Games these days are a lot about marketing and huge budgets. The indie ones that do well need to be targeted as well as refreshing.

Some hard thoughts just watching the video and reading a bit about the game:

1. I don't really like the graphics as much as I liked the original Metroid. This is probably just a personal preference.

2. It mostly screams low quality "Metroid clone" and not something cool I'd tell my friends about.

3. Procedurally generated levels doesn't sell me. I don't really care.

That said totally not a waste of time. It shows you have the wits to bring something to market and the ability to ship. You coded the whole damn thing which is insanely involved. This is no small feat. However the market is generally the hardest critic and it doesn't matter how many hours you spent or how many lines and bugs you solved.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#10

Post by EngineerBetter » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 6:26 PM UTC

I have some sympathy, having made an indie game that gave a return of about £0.07/hour. Sold a few thousand copies, learnt a lot, made a lot of friends and had a lot of fun, but it certainly wasn't a great financial decision. And that was 10 years ago when it was a lot easier!

Games industry is like the music industry - if you do it for anything other than the love, you're likely to be disappointed. Your chances of 'making it' are astronomically small.