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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

#153

Post by guywithahat »

XCSme wrote: post #135
guywithahat wrote: post #120

Not to get too personal, but how did working on a video game affect your personal life? If you worked from home, do you have a wife/kids? Was anyone upset or disappointed you were working on a game and not getting another job at a big tech company? I don’t mean to be critical, but I’ve always faced pushback working on startups/side projects, and I’m wondering how that was for you?

The most pushback you get while building it if there is no money coming in. They see you working a lot, being stressed, but still struggling financially, so from their side it's hard to see the benefit of doing it.

I mean video games are notoriously competitive, and very little money comes in until it launches after a year of building. It was not impossible OP was going to launch to 4000 customers.

I think OP’s story is inspiring, and I’m happy to hear he had support, but I could also see a wife being upset her previously highly paid husband is working on a video game, and presumably a low salary from a publisher (if any).

When I was working on my previous startup we had a couple customers and a small investment, but I got intense pushback from a female friend who would often come and live with me. She couldn’t stand the fact I was passing on a high salary to work on something I cared about, and we weren’t even dating. The 1.5 years+ she referred to me as unemployed lol

Again though I don’t mean to be critical of OP or his dream, I was just curious about the social dynamic he encountered.

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

#155

Post by devsda »

sarchertech wrote: post #124
KaiserPro wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That’s not a thing. I’m not sure where you heard that. Large companies definitely don’t try to prohibit you from telling people you worked there.

> Large companies definitely don’t try to prohibit you from telling people you worked there.

They don't. But they do sometimes prohibit talking/writing about their work, the nature of it or anything remotely connected to it.

My current employer explicitly prohibits us from blogging about technical topics, creating learning material or even teaching anyone on technical subjects(e.g. on weekends at nearby school) outside the job for free/money.

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

#156

Post by mupuff1234 »

sky2224 wrote: post #142
mupuff1234 wrote: post #117

I still don't really get the appeal of roguelike games, to me it always just comes off either repetitive/boring/frustrating/etc. Could someone explain why they prefer it over just a "normal" game progression?

Maybe this will help a bit. I'm a drummer. Drums are literally all about doing the exact same thing for hours and hours on end, but with the goal of perfection. What's perfection? That's all in the eyes of the player. Been doing it 15+ years and don't plan on stopping. I can do repetitive stuff like that for hours on end. A roguelike takes that and makes it a game with some slight variation to keep it interesting (ki…

I definitely get wanting to perfect something, but for me it's frustrating because a roguelite forces you to do so vs just you deciding to redo something to perfect it.

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

#157

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

newobj wrote: post #147
Nition wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly very impressive to plan a one-year game project and have it take one year! How many planned features did you have to cut? ;)

None. What I delivered is what was in the contract.

What a concept. Like back in the cartridge game system era, where what the developers burned onto the ROM was the final game.

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

#159

Post by joemi »

newobj wrote: post #73
adastra22 wrote: post #59

What does roguelike mean? I've played the original Rogue, but haven't been a gamer for decades now. I'm not seeing how this is connected? Sorry, but you said ask anything lol.

There are a lot of interpretations, but it's roguelike in the sense that: 1) It's permadeath 2) It's random 3) It's systemic The term is used quite broadly these days. Only the "Berlin interpretation" is quite strict about the sense of it you might be thinking of.

Is there a term that people who don't use the Berlin interpretation call games that fit in the Berlin interpretation? Or are they just called "Berlin interpretation roguelikes"?

(I'm asking both out of curiosity and out of utility, since I'm a fan of the Berlin interpretation roguelikes (and have been since before the modern overly-broad interpretation came into use), so I used to be able to count on "roguelike" meaning it was one style of game, and I miss those days. I'd like to be able to know how to specifically find those games again.)

Also, congrats on the success of the game! I'm looking forward to trying it out sometime. It's on my wishlist, despite my quibbles with calling it a roguelike. :)

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