Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 361 posts

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#131

Post by thom »

grujicd wrote: post #116

I'm making Windows/.Net based app for managing queues - QueueExplorer. Started with MSMQ support back in 2005, now it supports Azure Service Bus, RabbitMQ and ActiveMQ. It's old fashioned perpetual licensing, so revenue is a rollercoaster. Because of that, it's emotional rollercoaster as well. Good thing is you get paid for full license at the time of purchase instead of collecting it in 10-20 months. Bad thing is ev…

Any plans for Kafka support? I was frankly a bit shocked when Conduktor raised investment:

https://venturebeat.com/2021/11/22/conduktor-which-brings-a-...

If anything, it's a testament to what an absolute pain it is to develop on existing message queue/event streaming platforms, so it's clearly a valid niche.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#133

Post by thom »

DizzyDoo wrote: post #91

I make video games like this one [0] or this one [1]. It's pretty simple, you can buy the game and then download and play it. Are games 'desktop apps'? It's not the language I would normally use but I think it applies. Having been out of the web app development bubble for about seven years now, there's whole industries that work entirely in the pay-for-it-and-then-download model, and while games-as-a-service is more…

Oh wow, hope this is sustainable for you, Eldritch Zookeeper looks wonderful and has been in my wishlist since it popped up in my queue!

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#134

Post by thom »

DizzyDoo wrote: post #115
colbyhub wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been wanting to enter the game space for some time now. Is this what you do full-time? If so, how did you transition from web dev to game dev?

I got up early every day and got in an hour or two before my proper full-time backend Python programming job begun. That and working on The Cat Machine on Saturdays got it finished within a year, and then after it came out I could go full-time. It's hard to just make the switch from 'real' (normal?) job to small business game programming without already having a game that's done okay released, so that's what worked f…

How have you found the switch technically? What frameworks are you using?

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#135

Post by scarface74 »

iffycan wrote: post #17

I work on a desktop budgeting application. I love that it's desktop-only (and so do the users)! It doesn't earn a living (yet), but it makes more than enough to cover expenses. [0] https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com

Why would I want to sit at my computer to manage my budget instead of being able to access it anywhere? I always have a “computer in my pocket”.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#136

Post by omarhaneef »

Pay close attention to how you charge. I hate giving my credit card information to another company, so I end up using Amazon a lot just to have it in one place.

Similarly, with software, I am more likely to purchase desktop software from the MacOS app store. I feel exposed giving my information to a company I may not have heard of before. I do buy a lot of useful looking desktop software on the Mac OS app store.

It must be tough converting enough customers though and pricing is not easy.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#137

Post by richharms »

6+ years on a team of approx. 5 (BA, UX, software engineers) developing a Windows/WPF application to configure equipment for industrial process control. When I left the company just under a year ago additional work was being planned. It may be a specialized area, but desktop apps are definitely being built in this space - had an awful lot of fun building the app as well.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#138

Post by grujicd »

thom wrote: post #131
grujicd wrote: post #116

I'm making Windows/.Net based app for managing queues - QueueExplorer. Started with MSMQ support back in 2005, now it supports Azure Service Bus, RabbitMQ and ActiveMQ. It's old fashioned perpetual licensing, so revenue is a rollercoaster. Because of that, it's emotional rollercoaster as well. Good thing is you get paid for full license at the time of purchase instead of collecting it in 10-20 months. Bad thing is ev…

Any plans for Kafka support? I was frankly a bit shocked when Conduktor raised investment: https://venturebeat.com/2021/11/22/conduktor-which-brings-a-... If anything, it's a testament to what an absolute pain it is to develop on existing message queue/event streaming platforms, so it's clearly a valid niche.

I would love to support Kafka, and even made a simple prototype. However, hit a brickwall when discovered that .Net client (by Confluent, other clients seem to be deprecated) does not have all the features the Java one has. For instance there's no way to get current consumer offsets and I think's something that should be available in a management app.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#139

Post by optymizer »

DizzyDoo wrote: post #91

I make video games like this one [0] or this one [1]. It's pretty simple, you can buy the game and then download and play it. Are games 'desktop apps'? It's not the language I would normally use but I think it applies. Having been out of the web app development bubble for about seven years now, there's whole industries that work entirely in the pay-for-it-and-then-download model, and while games-as-a-service is more…

Congrats on releasing games on Steam! I'd like at some point quit my job and run a small game studio. I have so many questions, mostly out of curiosity. If you could answer the ones you're comfortable with, I'd appreciate it:

* What's your tech stack for the games? Are you using an engine?

* Who made the art? If you did it yourself, what software are you using?

* How was the process for releasing your game on Steam? Did you have to do a lot of marketing to get users to greenlight your project?

* How did you make the trailer for the Eldritch Zookeeper? If you didn't do the voice, how did you hire the voice person?

* The Cat Machine has 107 reviews on Steam. How many users does that translate to?

* Does your current employer have a clause in the contract discussing IP made on your own time? Did you have to get an exception from your current employer to be able to release games on Steam?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Ask HN: Anyone making a living building desktop applications?

#140

Post by jcelerier »

I'm developing https://ossia.io ; a free software for artistic creation (live shows, interactive installations, VJ, etc.).

Between public & private grants and the occasional consulting gig to add a feature or support contract, I can live :)

Tech stack is C++17/20 & Qt, I target Win / Mac / Linux (and mostly develop on Linux).

Post reply on HN