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Show HN: I made 30 apps this year and I'm 15

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Re: Show HN: I made 30 apps this year and I'm 15

#61

Post by bliti »

BlackDeath3 wrote: post #41
bliti wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May you please link to any of your projects? Were any built without using any third party tools or libraries?

Please. There is quite a difference between not using third-party tools/libraries, and (arguably) not programming at all . I mean, the tool's tagline is "Create Games. Effortlessly." This isn't an attempt to put the OP down, but let's keep things in perspective.

I disagree. It is an attempt to put the OP down. The tool may not have people writing code, but they are programming. They have define algorithms through the use of data types, loops, conditionals, etc. What the OP did is noteworthy because he/she was able to create cool games with the limitations of the tools (and went as far as adding his own JS).

No software these days is run or built without the help of others. Why make such comment? It is not constructive nor does it aim to develop the conversation.

Re: Show HN: I made 30 apps this year and I'm 15

#62

Post by gertisen »

C1D wrote: post #50

EDIT: I apologize for coming off as arrogant. Criticism isn't really doing any good and I regret that post. To the creator, I'm glad to see a 15 year actually doing something in computing. I understand that this was a good experience for you and hopefully has further developed you skills. Sorry for the unnecessary criticism and blatant self promotion. My post was pointless, possibly narcissistic and I was doing what…

> I haven't developed any games I have created a RSA secure chatting social network website and app for it too which could communicate between each other using websockets and a node.JS server

I would avoid talking like this. To me it sounds like you only vaguely know what you're talking about. To non-techies you sound like you're trying too hard.

As someone who started freelancing as a sophomore in highschool I hope I can lend some advice I learned the hard way. You have a head start, which will seriously come in handy when you do something amazing. To get there you have to leave the ego at the door. Your success will be more centered on how you communicate with people, not machines.

Re: Show HN: I made 30 apps this year and I'm 15

#64

Post by sillysaurus2 »

MJR wrote: post #43

This doesn't detract what the fact that you had the initiative and drive to complete 30 different games. But if I can offer some advice now, rather than when something real happens: Create your own characters rather than borrowing someone else's creations and building them into your games. Pac-Man, Mario, Minecraft, My Little Pony are all great characters, just unfortunately not yours to make a game with. Find a frie…

Create your own characters rather than borrowing someone else's creations and building them into your games. Pac-Man, Mario, Minecraft, My Little Pony are all great characters, just unfortunately not yours to make a game with.

Speaking as a game developer, this is remarkably bad advice for a young gamedev to follow. It doesn't matter whether or not they're "his". It matters that he continues creating. That's the most important thing. He's not making money off of other people's work. He's building a skillset that will serve him for a lifetime. Wasting time fitting society's arbitrary moral standard is time not spent becoming a better gamedev.

Even if he's served with a DCMA takedown notice for some of his apps, it doesn't matter even slightly, because the app isn't the end goal. Talent is. And the way to foster talent is to not stop working.

I'd encourage him to pursue art if he wants to, as it's also a skill which will serve him the rest of his life -- the creators of Minecraft, Super Meat Boy, and World of Goo were all artist-programmers, which seems more than a coincidence -- but it's not a requirement to be a gamedev.

Re: Show HN: I made 30 apps this year and I'm 15

#65

Post by will_work4tears »

krrishd wrote: post #29
mtrn wrote: post #26

Wonderful. And - nostalgia advances. And how, at 15 I probably was a more productive programmer than now, where I barely manage to wrap up a few miniscule open source projects per year, if any. Back then I wrote what looks like major projects to me now - in month, alongside school, friends, holidays and everything ... Any experiences or tips on how to get 15 again in terms of productivity? :)

I think it would be slightly unrealistic to 'get back to 15'. I'm 15, and I'm a developer; the main advantage I have right now is that I don't need to worry about rent, food, and other stuff, since I'm still with my parents. This gives me time to work on whatever project I want without any other worries. I guess in your case, you would probably have to get some sort of job where they are a lot more lenient and give y…

Well, you've got school, no? That eats up about as much time, if not more, than a job. ( 8 hours of school plus homework, right?)

On top of that, add chores (if you have any), family events, and other misc distractions I'm sure you don't have that much free time. I mean, don't sell yourself short. It's not like you just get to work on stuff 16 hours a day and nothing else.

Sadly, I'm 36, married with a < 2 year old son. Wife is social (so lots of distractions) and I'm an escapist (love to read) and lazy, so I'm seriously envious of you and the OP's dedication and success at such a young age.

Re: Show HN: I made 30 apps this year and I'm 15

#66

Post by dualogy »

radicalbyte wrote: post #36
krrishd wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would be slightly unrealistic to 'get back to 15'. I'm 15, and I'm a developer; the main advantage I have right now is that I don't need to worry about rent, food, and other stuff, since I'm still with my parents. This gives me time to work on whatever project I want without any other worries. I guess in your case, you would probably have to get some sort of job where they are a lot more lenient and give y…

No chores, no kids, no girlfriend/wife. That's where time goes. I was crazy productive when I was 15 (and when I was 12). Now I'm 33 with a wife and kids I just don't have the time. But then again I work on problems that are two-three factors harder than this during the day, so it all evens out. Keep up the good work kid, try lots of stuff out now, find something you like, then go deep. It only gets more fun :)

It's not about chores, kids, wives. I purposely avoided all those in order to "stay in my 20s even well into my 30s, ideally forever". Sad to report that simply doesn't work, even with zero money or chore worries whatsoever!

Re: Show HN: I made 30 apps this year and I'm 15

#68

Post by mynameishere »

kybernetyk wrote: post #40

That's pretty cool. Somehow I wish there would have been app stores back then when I was 15 and making games. Not to earn money but to get people to play my games - which was pretty damn hard back in 1997. Nowadays you can get 100 users pretty easily just by releasing the game. 100 users back then was something I dreamed about reaching some day :)

I remember the equivalent years ago. I would make (awful) games in turbo pascal, and submit them to BBSes. The sysops usually put them available for download.

I doubt anyone ever did.

Re: Show HN: I made 30 apps this year and I'm 15

#70

Post by C1D »

joebo wrote: post #58
C1D wrote: post #50

EDIT: I apologize for coming off as arrogant. Criticism isn't really doing any good and I regret that post. To the creator, I'm glad to see a 15 year actually doing something in computing. I understand that this was a good experience for you and hopefully has further developed you skills. Sorry for the unnecessary criticism and blatant self promotion. My post was pointless, possibly narcissistic and I was doing what…

I disagree completely. I'm over twice your age and started programming when I was 12. My birthday present for my 14th birthday was a $99 retail copy of Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0. Back then I wrote a notepad clone, cab archiver (zip was a fad, really!), and various other utilities. I remember thinking how cool it was when I was 14 to have over 50,000 downloads. I've been a professional programmer (big corp, consulting,…

I'm definitely glad to see another 15 year old taking a interest in computing but I guess the reason i'm not overly impressed is that for me- and I don't mean to sound arrogant,- this would be an extremely easy task and the reason I'm not doing something like is because I prefer Software Programming more than Gaming and I hate Windows (I'm on Ubuntu).
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