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Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

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Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#11

Post by posnet »

I realise you can make games in any language/engine. But could you explain the language/system/engine you used?

How did you go about validating the game is fun? Did you end up having an intuitive sense for it, or did you need external feedback to refine the mechanics?

My steam deck might as well be a billionaire/balatro machine.

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#14

Post by newobj »

knuppar wrote: post #12

Congrats on the game! Did you ever do game jams at all with the original idea or was this a larger project from the start? And a more realistic-adult question lol: how did you handle not having insurance from your workplace after severance?

Thank you! I absolutely suck at game jams. Like, really bad. Ballionaire is the one time a gamejam (https://itch.io/jam/eggjam-20) went right for me (good idea, microscopic scope) - you can see a video from about ~10 days into development here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwIwcGewZME

Normally I either scope way too big, or scope small and lose motivation because the idea is too itty bitty to maintain motivation. I have no idea how to hit the sweet spot more frequently. Some people are just really good at this, but not me.

For insurance: private insurance via ACA/Obamacare. I had savings.

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#15

Post by newobj »

bobsmooth wrote: post #6

You do the art yourself or did you hire someone? How did that go?

I wish I could draw like that! The artist is Hanja Grgičević and she works for a sister dev company of the publisher Raw Fury. I gave Hanja my mood board (https://www.canva.com/design/DAF1ZIStuTY/j66Hl6xPyMNU6cfRsw2...) and we iterated from there. I'm so happy with her work :)

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#16

Post by KaiserPro »

monideas wrote: post #8

You should make a youtube series or a long series of blog posts explaining your journey from a personal perspective, the emotional ups and downs on working on this instead of getting a new job, from a technical perspective, and from a business perspective. What types of skills did you have to learn, what were the technical challenges, what pieces of code are you particularly proud of. What was your marketing strategy…

That might be challenging as large companies tend to hit people with strong NDAs which means that any reference to time at $company would need to be approved by $company. IF you don't do this then you might be rinsed by the court.

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#17

Post by vishalontheline »

Very cool!

- What choices did you make to give yourself more time to work on this project?

- At what point did you begin getting feedback of some sort?

- Were there clearly things you wished to include in the game but had to cut out in the interest of time? How did you decide what would be "good enough"?

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#19

Post by tombert »

Out of curiosity, what kind of margins do you get when you sell a game on Steam? Like, what percentage of a sale ends up in your bank account (pre-taxes). Also, how do Steam sales affect that?

Congrats on making a game to completion, and doubly so for making something that gets fairly popular. Making a real game has been on my bucket list for about as long as I've known how to program, and I haven't completely given up on it, but I would need to make friends with someone who knows how to do art and music.

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