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Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

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Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#51
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/13Bananas/policies/blob/main/13_bananas_p...

Perfect. I just bought it just because of that. (I might have bought it otherwise to if I remembered it tomorrow, but this was enough to get me to do it now :-)

Thank you! We really don't know how to track people. That's a whole 'nother discipline that we're really not interested in.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#53
Congrats! It's absolutely refreshing to dust off an old hobby and do something with it!

I'm only 28, but during the pandemic I decided to dust off my old electronics hobbies that fell by the wayside when the mobile app boom started.

Middle school and early high school me thought I was going into robotics, but the iPhone came out the year I started high school. When the App Store came out the following year, the smartphone revolution started, and about a year later I went all in on mobile apps and gaming for the rest of high school and my college years. Contract iOS and Unity3D work got me through college.

It's somewhat ironic, because I haven't written or worked on a single mobile app since I left college (nor have I owned an Apple device). I ended up taking all of the knowledge of embedded Linux systems I gained doing robotics and started doing esoteric high performance storage virtualization systems as the starting point of my career. Never saw that one coming.

I hadn't really done any serious hobby electronics in nearly a decade, but I've continued to lug all of the equipment around every time I move. So, I dusted off some old hardware and got hooked once again, only to find out that the AVR is old news and everyone is into ESP32 and ARM these days :)

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#54
I like the spirit :) keep up the good work!

By the way, do you have a blog or a github account?

I am quite comfortable finding useful information and lately I have collected a good amount of game development libraries and resources that could help me become a better programming adventurist.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#55
Looks cool, bud! I was in a similar situation a while back and published a game too. It never made any money, mostly because I didn't market it too hard, but it was one of those milestones that I accomplished just to say that I did. :)

Heads up! You misspelled 'distractions' in your screenshot.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#56
You really need a video as the first thing you see so it is easier to grasp what the game is about.

EDIT: The video from your 13bananas site should be the first thing in the App Store page.

Looks very well done, still confused about what the goal is other than flying around planets.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#58

So, you've published your first game. What's your goal? Is it to make money from this game or do you just want people to play it? Are you going to make a second game? If so, will the goal be any different?

In an ideal world, we'd want to be sustained by our creative efforts. Not be a gazillionaire out of it, just make a living in a way that is pleasurable and inspiring. This is something I wish for everyone, btw.

I hope that people will play our game so that we can keep doing this. But maybe they won't, that's ok too. I've been discussing this very thing with my husband and he said something that was inspiring to me: our dream and our income stream don't have to be the same thing.

In gamer metaphor, we know our main quest...but sometimes you need to gear up before you can tackle the more challenging stuff. And so I've never minded the side quests. :-) The path will reveal itself.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#59
post #56

You really need a video as the first thing you see so it is easier to grasp what the game is about. EDIT: The video from your 13bananas site should be the first thing in the App Store page. Looks very well done, still confused about what the goal is other than flying around planets.

It's an infinite jumper. Jump 'til you can't jump no more.

Re: Show HN: I'm 48 and finally learning how to be a game developer

#60

Congrats on releasing the game! Great work! I'm 49 and I have basically the same story you did... and also share the same secret dream to write games "one day", so I'm starting really small with a simple little 2D game in GameMaker Studio. So far it's slow going but super fun. But you've inspired me to keep going, so thanks! EDIT: Purchased! Looking forward to playing it!

Thank you! How's your experience with GMS2?
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