One of my favourite technical talks is by Jonathan Blow: http://the-witness.net/news/2011/06/how-to-program-independe...
‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game
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Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game
#112"Jonathan Blow's beautiful, distinct 2008 platformer Braid is largely regarded as the original indie game" Really? I find this difficult to believe, considering the success of Cave Story back in 2004.
That statement shouldn't be read as Braid being the first indie game (it wasn't by a long shot). But as Braid making indie games popular.
Before Braid, the average (console) gamer did not know what an indie game was. Or if they did, generally considered indie games to be terrible.
Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game
#113Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think pg would behave like that, let alone say that. He was 29 when he started Viaweb, which is not far from 35. YC has funded people over 35 as well.
I love that I'm being downvoted for quoting pg.
You didn't exactly quote him, you stated his opinion and reasoning, without clarifying if it was your interpretation or his direct statement, and included no reference.
That said, I generally agree with the sentiment. People with commitments are less free to play with their resources, at least if they are responsible. An who wants to invest in someone who's not responsible. There are, of course, exceptions, and even times when the opposite holds true; commitments can force a level of responsibility and drive because the stakes may be higher.
Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game
#115Jonathan Blow is also passionately into the creation of a new programming language to compete with C++, with an emphasis on performance and ease of use. https://www.youtube.com/user/jblow888/videos
Haven't many tried, and failed, to compete with C++ when it comes to gaming?
He explains his reasoning quite well at the beginning of this video:
Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
I played indie games in 1981. Making indie games by 1982. Selling my own indie games by late 90's. so yes this another case of the "kids are so cute, thinking Katy Perry invented rock-and-roll" pattern.
We were making commercial games from our bedroom in the 80's and 90's but we were not calling ourselves "indies". I'm pretty sure industry comparisons with indie filmmakers and indie music bands started before Braid (IndieCade was founded in 2005), but as a widely used and popular term, I think it's fair to choose 2008 as a turning point [1], and Braid as the poster child. [1] http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/13…
That segment of the market has gone through many names. I remember playing Wolfenstein 3D and Doom as "shareware" which defined a fairly large chunk of the indie market back in the early 90's. Before that there were people putting games out on BBS systems that you could buy the full versions of by mailing in checks of money with your return address. You don't get much more "indie" than that (but you can).
Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game
#117Interesting story, but I'd hardly call this "sacrificing his fortune." The title led me to believe that perhaps there was some sort of looming intellectual property or non-compete battle -- instead, he just spent his money in development efforts for his next game. That said, the game looks great -- and I'm sure he'll be very successful with this one, too.
I agree, but on the other hand you have examples of possibly richer and more famous developers that in order to make their next game decided to pull off millionaire kickstarters, when they probably could have financed it with their own money if they decided to do so, so the guy deserves some respect for that.
Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game
#118Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is good advice for a very narrow segment of creative people and not everyone at large. It's terrible advice for people with children, for example.
Your mindset is exactly why pg refuses to invest in anyone over 35; they've become unable to take risks due to commitments.
Funny then that this whole discussion is about a 40+ years old guy risking his fortune on a single project.
Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really like his attitude on the turing-complete compile time metaprogramming feature: 'Yes you can shoot yourself in the foot, hang the compiler, and launch missiles at the same time. You're a good programmer or you wouldn't be using this language. So don't do that. If you do, don't do it again.' That's not always a good attitude to have in software development, but a modern language that backs away from the "wrap…
Are there any common languages that allow you to do compile time metaprogramming in the language itself? I'd like to write little miniprograms which output source code and get evaluated at compile time. For example: #include #include #COMPILETIME int fib(int n) { if(n and then at compile time that would get run and the source could generated would be: int fib(int n) { switch(n) { case 0: return 0; case 1: return 1; c…
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