Did I just waste 3 years? • Hacker News Board

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#231

Post by p1necone » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 10:09 PM UTC

skybrian wrote: post #87

Retra wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Super Metroid is literally my favorite game, and I don't really have a strong urge to play this. Metroid is an exploration-based game. The game rewards you for finding secrets and for knowing how to get places. It teases you to find a way to break sequence, and much of the replay-ability of that game is based on the possibility to do that and to bask in what you've already learned about the world. Procedural generati…

I'm curious about where the story happens? I've played a rogue-like (Pixel Dungeon), while I found it fun, I didn't think it had much of a story. Are others better?

At the risk of sounding like an elitist - Pixel Dungeon isn't a "real" roguelike. Check out something like Nethack, or ADOM, or Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Or maybe Tales of Maj'eyal if you want something with lots of graphical polish (this one also has a decent amount of actual scripted plot).

These games have the extra depth and detail that cause the kinds of emergent gameplay and "storybuilding" that people are talking about.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#232

Post by lgeorget » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 10:10 PM UTC

> I have a backlog of dozens of purchased-but-never-played Steam games picked up at ridiculously low prices from Humble Bundles, Steam sales, etc. Does the world need any more games at this point?

When I started to find myself with half a dozen of such games, I remembered the year we spent saving money with my brothers to buy a hard copy of Caesar 3. I was just a child. It costed us what would now be 15€. Considering the inflation since then, games were quite expensive.

So, I've decided to stop buying games in those promotions and having games in my library that I will never play. I prefer paying the full price for a game I really want to play, like before. I think it's more honest to the developers. Whether that will mean more money to them in average I don't know. Does someone know if the developers/editors really benefit from the sales on HumbleBundle and the like (the prices really look pretty low)?

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#233

Post by rwallace » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 10:12 PM UTC

zeroname wrote: post #127

The game looks bad . You will not get a foot in the door with a game that looks like this in 2018. It looks like amateur/programmer art. There are some people that aren't bothered by that, but when it comes to media the looks are paramount. If this game had an appealing art style, it might stand a chance in the already saturated market of Metroidvanias.

Looking at the trailer, personally I think it looks awesome. Nice subtle shading and detail on the environment and enemies that doesn't detract from the overall simplicity, and then you get to light up the whole screen with massive firepower when you start shooting with one of the big weapons. What do you think looks bad about it?

(Not a rhetorical question. I'm not a graphic artist. I'm curious if I am missing something that a professional would spot.)

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#234

Post by Nition » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 10:14 PM UTC

projektir wrote: post #223

Nition wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just had a look myself. The first one I see is "Fantasy Farming: Orange Season"[1]. Looks very similar to Stardew Valley, review average is 96% positive, but it only has 61 reviews (a good general indicator of sales) vs Stardew Valley's 86,000. I'm sure it's probably not as good as Stardew Valley, but one has probably 1400x the sales of the other. It did also release after Stardew Valley which is a problem. You can…

This game looks obvious problematic as far as marketing goes in my opinion. I mean, just look at the name, for starters.

Stardew Valley didn't do much marketing either.

Yeah the name isn't very good. And yeah the base engine is RPG maker (re the other comment here).

But this is kinda my original point. Making a game with a good name, or a different engine, isn't going to mean it's successful. You can always point out something in terms of "well it's clearly failed because X". Hell, people even say the Unity3D logo scares them off. But people really like that game. They like it as much as they like Stardew Valley. And it's probably sold less than 0.1% as much.

And that's just the first game I saw on the list.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#235

Post by Retra » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 10:21 PM UTC

skybrian wrote: post #87

Retra wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Super Metroid is literally my favorite game, and I don't really have a strong urge to play this. Metroid is an exploration-based game. The game rewards you for finding secrets and for knowing how to get places. It teases you to find a way to break sequence, and much of the replay-ability of that game is based on the possibility to do that and to bask in what you've already learned about the world. Procedural generati…

I'm curious about where the story happens? I've played a rogue-like (Pixel Dungeon), while I found it fun, I didn't think it had much of a story. Are others better?

I would recommend Rogue Survivor. Pixel Dungeon is an ok game, but it doesn't really encourage you to get attached to your character or environment. There's very little backtracking or foreshadowing in it, so learning the lay of the land or remembering where things are just isn't very important.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#236

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 10:24 PM UTC

Applejinx wrote: post #199

Nokinside wrote: post #150

Game industry is the economics of superstars. The Macroeconomics of Superstars[1] >Abstract >Recent technological changes have transformed an increasing number of sectors of the economy into so-called superstars sectors, in which a small number of entrepreneurs or professionals distribute their output widely to the rest of the economy. Examples include the high-tech sector, sports, the music industry, management, fna…

Absolutely. All things are turning into the economics of superstars so long as they're subject to network effects and the widest, most fluid and well-informed possible market. Uber drivers will turn into the economics of superstars. Amazon warehouse workers will turn into the economics of superstars. You'll keep on getting individual ultra-high performers who dominate whatever area it is, and more ordinary performers…

[deleted]

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#237

Post by Retra » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 10:25 PM UTC

gnulinux wrote: post #167

pawelmurias wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In say nethack you can pick up random overpowered or weird items that change the game or get into crazy adventures when you meet some weird rare creature.

I kinda like games like nethack and brogue but my only problem with them is since it's extremely easy to die, it emphasizes attention a bit too much imho. I'm not a very attentive person and when I play games I'd much rather it be a bit more relaxed. When I know that even if I play the game for a whole Saturday, one floating eye can just randomly kill me for no reason, it kinda demotivates me...

It works like gambling. You play the game 100 times and you just lose most of them, but on the rare occasion you get very lucky... and you walk away with an unforgettable story about how you defied all the odds and did something wonderful and amazing. That's where procedural generation shines the brightest.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#238

Post by savanaly » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 10:28 PM UTC

Nition wrote: post #234

projektir wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This game looks obvious problematic as far as marketing goes in my opinion. I mean, just look at the name, for starters.

Stardew Valley didn't do much marketing either. Yeah the name isn't very good. And yeah the base engine is RPG maker (re the other comment here). But this is kinda my original point. Making a game with a good name, or a different engine, isn't going to mean it's successful. You can always point out something in terms of "well it's clearly failed because X". Hell, people even say the Unity3D logo scares them off. But…

I think you're putting too much stock in the steam reviews. Just because a game has the same % positive rating as another doesn't mean it's of the same quality or even that people like it the same amount.

It's like rotten tomatoes. 2001: A Space Odyssey [0] has 93% on RT, Pick of the Litter has 100%. I'm sure Pick of the Litter is a fine film, but clearly there's a sense in which it's a lesser movie compared to 2001 by general consensus, despite what the percentages would indicate. Now the case of stardew valley and "the other farming simulators on steam" is not so extreme but that's what I'm getting at.

[0] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000085_2001_a_space_odysse...?

[1] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/pick_of_the_litter

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#239

Post by nostrademons » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 10:30 PM UTC

zeroname wrote: post #127

The game looks bad . You will not get a foot in the door with a game that looks like this in 2018. It looks like amateur/programmer art. There are some people that aren't bothered by that, but when it comes to media the looks are paramount. If this game had an appealing art style, it might stand a chance in the already saturated market of Metroidvanias.

That's not really true - take a look at the graphics from Factorio 0.1, released in 2012:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_a8_zxYLik

They've since sold about 20M copies at $20 (now $30) apiece. I started playing in 2017 with Factorio 0.14, when the graphics were better but still decidedly retro and they'd sold maybe 4M copies.

The difference is that Factorio has a unique gameplay concept that is both extremely addictive and not really found in any other games. People will overlook shitty graphics if the game has a compelling concept that they can't get elsewhere.

Re: Did I just waste 3 years?

#240

Post by outside1234 » Sun, Sep 30, 2018, 10:35 PM UTC

Its probably hard to see this right now but any code you wrote was not a waste of time. You learned something that will become invaluable two years down the line in another role and probably will boost your salary more than the opportunity cost of washing dishes and thus repay itself every year.

Everyone who tackles a project like this should keep this in mind. Its almost certainly not going to make you immediate money, but you'll learn a lot doing it, and that will repay itself down the line.

I've done this twice to myself and it was hard at the time to watch them fail but I now make $500k+/yr at one of the FAANGs and a lot of that salary I attribute to trying build these things, end to end, myself. I just have a much broader context on the industry, on technical stacks, and on software development than if I hadn't.

So, congrats. :)