Myself and my 6yo son watch a youtube channel Real Civil Engineer as he plays cool games like this. We saw the Ballionaire video and instantly got it we play it a lot.
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
#172Amazing work! Questions: - How/why did you decide to talk to a publisher? When in the process did you feel like you had a good enough prototype to do that? - What have been the pros/cons of working with a publisher? When, in your opinion, should someone do that vs. self-publishing? - What was your confidence level throughout various stages of the project? Was there a point before releasing the game where you maybe go…
I worked with a publisher for a few reasons: 1) I didn't know what I didn't know, and didn't want to "find out" AND make the game at the same time. I needed a partner for the business/marketing end. 2) An advance (funding) helped de-risk things for me. 3) I needed help to find an artist. I was having no luck on my own. Even with the traction the game had! Publishers actually came to me. In a weird coincidence, I happ…
Appreciate your vulnerability. Awesome to hear your good fortune along the way, receiving positive feedback. Working a year heads-down even with that though does sound quite difficult. I think about all the time how one doesn't have to deal with these kinds of doubts when at FAANG-style jobs. I think that, moreso even than the EV on compensation, is the reason FAANG can be so sticky.
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#173Love the quality of the marketing videos did you produce those or work with another entity?
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#174Omg! the creator of Ballionaire is a laidoff metamate?! That's so inspirational. I'm sure this will make it on Meta blind sometime.
I'm at Meta still and working on my own take on the roguelike game inspired by Balatro/Luck be a landlord and Ballionaire too. Any advice for myself and others on how to balance work/life/game?
If you're interested, I bet people would love to have you back for a tech talk. I think we should at least link this to your badge post haha.
How much time did you spend on tweaking the tutorial?
Do you use analytics to balance your game? (So Meta right?)
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#175First of all congrats on the success of your game. I've been mulling over taking a break from my corporate engineering job and making a game. Would it be possible to send you an email in about two weeks or so with some retrospective questions of your game dev journey? I'm currently in a crunch mode for a work trip then going to be with limited internet access while on the trip so wanted a chance to get my thoughts/questions together before asking.
If you don't have time, totally understand and congrats on all your success.
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#176Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#177Incredible work, Brian! I'm in awe of what you've done in such a short amount of time. I started an indie game company (still working on our first title) and had a few related questions if that's OK? 1) If you didn't need a salary or marketing help, would you still have signed a publishing deal? My sense is most of the publisher value lies in getting paid before the game launches, and with marketing around launch, bu…
Thanks Rand! 1) It obviously varies w/ each dev's situation, but I think your sense of the value prop is a fair default one w/o context. In my case, there were four reasons: 1) having a partner to help with (to me) "the unknown unknowns" (i'm only a dev and a novice designer, literally anything else would be my first time doing it, so i figured having an experienced partner there would be wise) 2) the advance was nic…
How far were you into building the game before you began to approach publishers? YC speaks frequently about investing in the founders, and not the idea---but then dives right into well you need to have revenue and/or users and it's a bit of a double-standard---so I'm curious what stage you were at when you started talking to publishers and what state your product was in when you finally signed a deal.
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#178[dead]
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#179Beautiful and really appropriate artwork. You mentioned in another thread that the publisher connected you with an artist. Can you share, in vagaries if contractually necessary, the literal cost of this? Was it percent of revenue, fixed rate, a mix. Substantial (given you two would be the team), or more like a typical contracting affair?
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#180Not 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?
Sounds like you need a better partner
Saying the quiet part out loud, but yeah this is a very weird relationship where you have a partner who wouldn't be outright enthusiastic about you pursuing something you really want to, so long as your family can still live comfortably.