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Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

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Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#151
post #119

The dev is a person from Indonesia (Rizky Nova) who's device has 16GB of ram. Being able to use the Unreal Engine for free to develop this is awesome. This couldn't have happened 10 years ago.

> Being able to use the Unreal Engine for free to develop this is awesome ... and paying Epic 5% of all lifetime profit is a blessing too (if he makes money appropriate for "the best train sim ever made")

Can’t tell if you mean it (that it’s fair) or you would’ve preferred a different pricing structure?

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#152

I never got the appeal for these sim games. From the screenshots, it looks like a beautiful game and I guess I could enjoy the visuals for an hour or 2. But I don't see how it'd entertain me for hours on end. If someone here is into these sim games, what's the reason you keep going back to them?

Have you ever wanted to try flying a plane or running a city or being a tycoon of roller coasters without having to invest much time, money, and energy to take flight lessons, run for political office, or work your way up through an amusement park company? Sim games let you play with these complex systems easily and walk away when you get bored.

I have often said that for many people that want to change the world (for the greater negative), they need to get addicted to Sim games. They will end up doing a lot less harm in that situation.

The real question is, how do you determine who is going to do negative or positive gains. A debate that is millennia old.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#153
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nowadays most games will run on Linux thanks to Valve's Proton compatibility layer.

"most" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Multiplayer games generally don't. Haven't tried this one yet, but in my experience it's like 90% of single player games work and the remaining 10% will never work.

I do not play multiplayer games, and it has come to the point where I don't even check Proton compatibility on these because it is so reliable now in that situation.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#154
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"most" is doing a lot of work in that sentence. Multiplayer games generally don't. Haven't tried this one yet, but in my experience it's like 90% of single player games work and the remaining 10% will never work.

Games with anticheat generally don't. Multiplayer games without anticheat generally so work.

I see that MS is trying to force anti cheat stuff out of lower level OS rings. They may unintentionally allow future compatibility with Linux compatibility layers. That is a funny situation.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#155
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being able to use the Unreal Engine for free to develop this is awesome ... and paying Epic 5% of all lifetime profit is a blessing too (if he makes money appropriate for "the best train sim ever made")

Unreal devs have bills to pay as well. We already know what happens in Nebraska.

What happens in Nebraska?!?

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#157
post #59

I always wonder how a solo developer can source high quality assets like these, plus develop a full game with them. In this case did the dev create the assets or did they purchase them from a freelancer? How much would purchasing this many assets cost?

Almost every time I see a halfway polished “solo developer” game, they did not do all the work themselves. Especially, they usually hire out the music, maybe other sounds, and much of the artwork. Sometimes they also have freelancers doing marketing and such. Sometimes even some paid help writing the software. I highlight this not to bring those developers down, but because I think it’s important people understand ho…

I depends on the background. I'm 2 years into solo developing a game and all programming, artwork and animation is my own. I had to invest into quite some learning to make it possible, but I figured it's a worthwhile investment. I do work with a composer, though.

Point being, it depends on which skills you bring to the table, which ones you are willing to learn and which ones are worth collaborating on.

I still think the term Solo-developer is justified in any case. The one who soley carries the burden of bringing the game from idea to the finish line is the solo developer, IMHO.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#158
post #59

I always wonder how a solo developer can source high quality assets like these, plus develop a full game with them. In this case did the dev create the assets or did they purchase them from a freelancer? How much would purchasing this many assets cost?

Almost every time I see a halfway polished “solo developer” game, they did not do all the work themselves. Especially, they usually hire out the music, maybe other sounds, and much of the artwork. Sometimes they also have freelancers doing marketing and such. Sometimes even some paid help writing the software. I highlight this not to bring those developers down, but because I think it’s important people understand ho…

The perception of what a polymath is is changing incredibly fast, as both the floor and ceiling for being passable or outstanding in any field is rising exponentially. For the last 50-oddish years, it's been the case that being proficient with a single piece of software can make you an invaluable asset in industry; understanding the concepts behind the software and the problems it solves even moreso. Rather recently, we've reached a point where software ergonomics, freely available education and information, and even AI assistance in development or usage have lowered this floor in terms of cost, knowledge, effort, and skill. For example, it's trivially easier today to create a 3d animation than it was 5, 10, or 20 years ago, and the visual quality of it would be similarly disproportionately better.

The domains of different crafts are ever-expanding, including all of their history and all new developments, of which new developments seem to be coming at an ever-increasing pace as populations grow, internet access grows, and the free time of populations spent doing things other than merely surviving grows. There is a larger and broader base of knowledge necessary for a person to be considered competent in the current state of anything, and the number of disciplines is also increasing. Two decades ago, having a person specializing in frontend development for a specific web browser would have been unthinkable.

All of this work is built upon the backs of other people. Game engines, 3d modeling and texturing and animating, language design and implementation, audio software and sound design, graphics libraries, runtime optimizations, operating system APIs, networking improvements, distribution networks, etc. etc.. To think that any one person could possibly create everything they use to then create these final products, no matter the scale they are, is ignorant.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being able to use the Unreal Engine for free to develop this is awesome ... and paying Epic 5% of all lifetime profit is a blessing too (if he makes money appropriate for "the best train sim ever made")

Can’t tell if you mean it (that it’s fair) or you would’ve preferred a different pricing structure?

It was sarcasm to remind this is a commercial product.

Re: Train sim created by just one person is being called the best ever made

#160
post #119

The dev is a person from Indonesia (Rizky Nova) who's device has 16GB of ram. Being able to use the Unreal Engine for free to develop this is awesome. This couldn't have happened 10 years ago.

> Being able to use the Unreal Engine for free to develop this is awesome ... and paying Epic 5% of all lifetime profit is a blessing too (if he makes money appropriate for "the best train sim ever made")

Unreal is completely free for up to $1 million in revenue. And at that point, the 5% royalty is very much a happy problem.
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