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

A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

failory.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 256 posts

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#171

Post by amirrajan »

jblow wrote: post #152
yannyu wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think most people think all success is 100% luck, but many people do find issue with those who consider themselves self-made without any consideration for privilege and luck. It feels like you're setting up a strawman here of people who believe that all success is unearned. The author only said that there are those who work as hard as he does and are as smart as him and yet don't succeed. How else would you r…

Have you seen A Dark Room? It's text. He ported a text game, that someone else had already designed and implemented, to iOS. This is not a huge amount of work compared to what most game development people do, and is not particularly challenging compared to what people are doing with 3D graphics, etc. I am pointing this out not to be mean, but to respond to your point: "those who work as hard as he does and are as sma…

Mildly Interesting RTS looks pretty good to be honest. Have you downloaded it? It's surprisingly a lot of fun. Solid review score too.

Oh and totally give A Dark Room a shot. You may find it pretty okay.

PS: I'm totally gonna frame this comment thread. I'm big fan Braid and The Witness. You? Not so much :-)

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#173

Post by amirrajan »

foxfired wrote: post #140

> The people I once called sheep, aren't that. They just didn't have the means to roll the dice. One thing I see often and often (I've done it too) is that when you quit your job to pursue your dream, everybody else working at a job is a sucker. They are too comfy in their life sucking job and one day they will get fired and realize that they wasted their time making someone else rich. I was lucky that failure caught…

>The instructor stress them to get a job.

This is really good advice. Additionally I'd say don't bet the farm. Some times the best you can do is be that rock/stepping stone for your kin to build a legacy with.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#174

Post by SeanBoocock »

jblow wrote: post #132

Yes, the game market is often hard. But I find this author's attitude fatalistic and weird. (Also I agree that the numbers do not add up). He seems to think that "rolling the dice" is the primary thing going on, and that he can't influence this substantially by any amount of development skill, proper tactics, and so forth. I wonder if this kind of mindset is a side-effect of modern-day political correctness -- that i…

I didn't draw the same conclusion from the article regarding whether the author thought, or the article implies, that "rolling the dice" is the primary element of success. The author emphasizes the sorts of elements you highlighted - formulating a long term and reasonable plan; demonstrable talent; grit and perseverance - not as necessary (or sufficient) conditions to success but rather necessary conditions to have a chance at success.

As you know more than most, game development isn't a linear path from ideation to release, and good games from smart people who worked hard on them often find little success. You can increase your chance at success with experience and talent, but games are an entertainment medium and sometimes your creation just doesn't resonate - or increasingly rise above the noise of the platform marketplaces - with enough people to be a sustainable career.

I've worked at AAA studios and am now at an independent game developer. I've sometimes thought of doing something even smaller, an indie effort akin to the author's or something of the scope of what you did with Braid. I found this article aspirational and affirming, validating the idea of taking a chance on something that is meaningful to you despite the (long in the case of the mobile app store) odds.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#175

Post by amirrajan »

anigbrowl wrote: post #135

Then. A Dark Room went viral. I suspect the author's lack of subsequent success with his other games stems from his apparent lack of curiosity about exactly how his first and only lucky break took place.

>his apparent lack of curiosity about exactly how his first and only lucky break took place

I completely agree. It's not like he wrote a 300 page book on the whole ordeal or anything. He didn't spend those 300 pages trying desperately to dissect every single day, tweet, email, news post, and website write up between 11/17/2013 and 04/13/2014. Nor did he try to analyze his other assets/how they correlated back to A Dark Room. Now... if he put that kind of effort into understanding A Dark Room's meteoric rise, then maybe his subsequent endeavors would have succeeded. At least he would have been more deserving of those successes.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#177

Post by amirrajan »

a_t48 wrote: post #147
amirrajan wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

During my free time I did a good amount of contract work with small companies. They loved what they did and it was energizing. But what they love working on isn’t what I love working on which is in essence: “artistic, evocative experiences”. Yes I’ve invested in a closet full of turtle neck sweaters while I continue my search for my “magnum opus”.

There are companies like that, but they are tough to get into (generally small company, low budget, low openings). I personally think it would be cool to work on the next Journey/The Witness/Monument Valley/etc, but it’s a crapshoot of knowing the right people at the right time with opportunity to jump on. I’m personally saving up until that opportunity comes or I go nuts like you and quit to do my own thing. Best of…

Thank you for the well wishes. You'd be surprised at how small/close knit the game dev communities are (come to TouchArcade's after party at GDC and say hello to figuratively every indie worth their salt).

There isn't really a company that any of use work for per se, but "all" of us are collaborating in one way or another to make sure we succeed collectively. It's pretty great, but you have to have the battle scars to join (actually you just have to bring cool laptop stickers to the party and we'll tell you all of our war stories in great detail).

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#178

Post by amirrajan »

SeanBoocock wrote: post #174
jblow wrote: post #132

Yes, the game market is often hard. But I find this author's attitude fatalistic and weird. (Also I agree that the numbers do not add up). He seems to think that "rolling the dice" is the primary thing going on, and that he can't influence this substantially by any amount of development skill, proper tactics, and so forth. I wonder if this kind of mindset is a side-effect of modern-day political correctness -- that i…

I didn't draw the same conclusion from the article regarding whether the author thought, or the article implies, that "rolling the dice" is the primary element of success. The author emphasizes the sorts of elements you highlighted - formulating a long term and reasonable plan; demonstrable talent; grit and perseverance - not as necessary (or sufficient) conditions to success but rather necessary conditions to have a…

>not as necessary (or sufficient) conditions to success but rather necessary conditions to have a chance at success.

Exactly this.

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#179

Post by ricardobeat »

amirrajan wrote: post #170
Apocryphon wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If he's talking to the press, here's hoping he might restore some of the content he removed in his data purge. There's got to be interesting, useful knowledge in there for other game dev and future generations.

>there's got to be interesting, useful knowledge in there for other game dev and future generations. There is, but "the few ruined it for the many". Some who got access to that information tried to "growth hack" their way to a successful app. They started name dropping me to Apple as if they knew me. This isn't a very nice thing to do.

Can’t anyone name-drop you even without such “information”? I wonder what kind of content that would be?

Re: A Dark Room: From Sabbatical Year to $800k

#180

Post by sumedh »

purplethinking wrote: post #8
cvaidya1986 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regret minimization framework. Looking back from your old age would you wish you had done something like this? Can you earn it all back with a good fall back plan on your expertise ?

I think more people would regret it if they knew what they were giving up, but most would probably not make that calculation. If he had kept his corporate job and spent the initial $30k a year he could have retired early only 10 years later. Maybe less if he'd be willing to live very frugally. Then he would be free to build as many apps and games as he wanted, giving him many chances at getting a big hit. I'm in this…

> he could have retired early only 10 years later.

That is a flawed argument. 10 years later you might not have the same drive/ambition which you have right now.

Post reply on HN