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

Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 476 posts

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#281

Post by akg_67 »

westoncb wrote: post #139

I've maxed out a couple credit cards and spent all my severance pay etc. trying to finish building this '3D abstract visual debugger,' which I'm calling Lucidity [video]: http://symbolflux.com/projects/avd I started working on it in 2014 and it's been on my mind ever since. I applied to YC with it a long time ago (was not accepted, and I can see so much wrong with the application I sent now...) I was laid off in Nove…

Very interesting concept. Excellent job. As others mentioned, it can be extended in to other attractive domains than code visualization. Developer tools don't tend to be as financially rewarding.

Reminded me of a conversation with my friend over a year ago about using VR for data visualization. His son had sold a VR startup, another of his friend was working on DNA/RNA visualization with VR, and he was exploring dashboard data visualization with VR.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#282

Post by harigov »

westoncb wrote: post #139

I've maxed out a couple credit cards and spent all my severance pay etc. trying to finish building this '3D abstract visual debugger,' which I'm calling Lucidity [video]: http://symbolflux.com/projects/avd I started working on it in 2014 and it's been on my mind ever since. I applied to YC with it a long time ago (was not accepted, and I can see so much wrong with the application I sent now...) I was laid off in Nove…

As a developer, I would love to have something like this. If you can make the visualization easily traversable using simple text queries, that would make it even more useful. Heck, there is value in simply being able to query your runtime data structures anytime. So monitored data structure is in itself a very cool idea.

I highly recommend coming up with a small enough use case to ship sooner so that you can build something that users want and pay for. Also, if you can document the client/server API, other devs will write monitored data structures for you.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#283

Post by westoncb »

harigov wrote: post #282
westoncb wrote: post #139

I've maxed out a couple credit cards and spent all my severance pay etc. trying to finish building this '3D abstract visual debugger,' which I'm calling Lucidity [video]: http://symbolflux.com/projects/avd I started working on it in 2014 and it's been on my mind ever since. I applied to YC with it a long time ago (was not accepted, and I can see so much wrong with the application I sent now...) I was laid off in Nove…

As a developer, I would love to have something like this. If you can make the visualization easily traversable using simple text queries, that would make it even more useful. Heck, there is value in simply being able to query your runtime data structures anytime. So monitored data structure is in itself a very cool idea. I highly recommend coming up with a small enough use case to ship sooner so that you can build so…

> If you can make the visualization easily traversable using simple text queries ...

That's a cool idea. I've been working on something similar, but that takes kind of a different angle which I like. What I have at the moment is a way of specifying filters for which properties should be displayed or not.

Yes, small enough use case... unfortunately the smallest one I can think of is MASSIVE :P

I will document the API and probably open source the client before long. Clients pretty much just send serialized Operation objects as JSON. Operations are like add/remove to/from whatever location, using a shared addressing systems for all data structures.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#284

Post by akamaka »

ianleeclark wrote: post #4

I have a project which may never generate revenue, despite the fact I spent 2 months after hours working on it. I did a dumb thing and dove directly into the project without first finding a fit or customer base for it. More or less, it's a scheduling application that allows a user to set when they're open and allow anyone to book that time for however much the original scheduler valued that slot of their schedule. It…

I'd have no idea what your product does from looking at the website.

I'd suggest putting the app right on the homepage, so that people can set it up immediately, like this popular group scheduling app: http://doodle.com/

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#285

Post by s_m_t »

hellbanner wrote: post #267
s_m_t wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just played your game, it is extremely fun but I think there is a lot of missed potential and to be honest I would never buy it in its current state. It feels like a tech demo rather than a full game. My unsolicited advice is as follows: The art is boring. Most bullet hell games either have a mecha or anime art style with a lot of flashy effects. The closest in style to your game is probably geometry wars but your…

Thank you for your feedback! I will have to think about the art. I went for minimalist approach where nothing but core mechanical data is shown. I see that this kind of minimalist approach isn't super popular (you + others have commented, I forgot to put that in my first comment). In my next game (a 2P versus game, also available at www.Combo.Zone ), I experimented with excessive particle effects but art is a major w…

> Thank you for your feedback!

No problem, I love ranting about video games

>Levels: Thanks for bringing this up. Fully continuous gameplay felt a little too confusing + overwhelming - by clearing a wave down to the last enemy you get a moment of relief.

I hadn't considered that, it could be that something like a continuously scrolling background could get the feeling I was looking for. I guess it has something to do with having a sense of location or presence in the game. This might seem a little bizarrely nitpicky but when I get teleported back to home position at the beginning of each level it feels sort of wrong... like, is the space I'm in now even the same space as the last level, has any amount of time passed for my spaceship since then? I'm not sure if anyone else cares about this sort of thing though...

>I'm sorry to hear you found the first parts boring so quickly.

This is a very common issue I have with games like this, geometry wars, asteroids, etc. I want to be playing the crazy parts! It's a difficult problem because the early parts also have to function as a sort of tutorial and a breathing/ramp up period and you also might not want dynamic difficulty because of things like high scores so it isn't a trivial problem. It isn't unique to your game at all and I'm not sure anyone has solved the problem satisfactorily.

>If you want to try the more fun part, open up game.js in the source and change line 626 to " this.quantumpilot = true" ... to make the weapons random every level.

Awesome, thanks!

Cool game, I'm gonna follow your future games, the choose your own adventure barista game sounds interesting

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#286

Post by westoncb »

akg_67 wrote: post #281
westoncb wrote: post #139

I've maxed out a couple credit cards and spent all my severance pay etc. trying to finish building this '3D abstract visual debugger,' which I'm calling Lucidity [video]: http://symbolflux.com/projects/avd I started working on it in 2014 and it's been on my mind ever since. I applied to YC with it a long time ago (was not accepted, and I can see so much wrong with the application I sent now...) I was laid off in Nove…

Very interesting concept. Excellent job. As others mentioned, it can be extended in to other attractive domains than code visualization. Developer tools don't tend to be as financially rewarding. Reminded me of a conversation with my friend over a year ago about using VR for data visualization. His son had sold a VR startup, another of his friend was working on DNA/RNA visualization with VR, and he was exploring dash…

> it can be extended in to other attractive domains than code visualization

I'm glad people are pointing this out to me because I hadn't really given it any thought. My first instinct is that the data being visualized here is somewhat unique in how its structured—but if nothing else, once I get graph/state machine visuals in, I could see that probably being useful elsewhere.

With a lot of the dashboard kind of stuff though (which I admittedly haven't had so much exposure to), it seems like line graphs etc. are more appropriate from what I can tell.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#287

Post by vram22 »

ineptech wrote: post #140
ineptech wrote: post #89

I made Word Nazi, which is essentially just a dirty version of Taboo (in the same way that Cards Against Humanity is a dirty version of Apples to Apples) in app form. Lessons learned: * I should've paid someone to do some decent graphics, turns out "minimalist aesthetic" is not the same as "no effort put in to design" * Making it a free demo, with the full game available as an in-app-purchase, sounds like a good deal…

For those checking out the ineptech site, please don't miss the poetry compiler joke! It's the bit I'm the most proud of. It's in an unlinkable modal so actually I'll just paste it here: Upon a stack of bits, about so tall, // Boolean[] isprime = new Boolean[n]; just think, O traveller, what we could do // Arrays.fill(isprime, true); if every other bit was set to false // for (int i = 4; i (You may have figured out t…

Very creative, congrats.

The fact that you made it a poem, reminds me of some extempore poems that I made up as a kid - inspired by reading a book that my uncle bought me as a gift - The Golden Book of Fun and Nonsense [2]. It had a lot of funny poems, limericks, etc. in it.

Here are two I made up at the time:

Poem 1:

Mr. Jolly had a brolly [1]

Its handle was made of silver, and its body was made of gold.

And Mr. Jolly used the brolly when it was very cold.

[1] Brolly is a Brit term for umbrella.

Poem 2:

I climbed up a mountain.

There I saw a fountain.

One, two, three, four, five!

In it I'd like to dive.

Go ahead, laugh. It's meant to be funny and silly.

I'll also mention a few good ones I read in that book:

Into the drinking well

Which the plumber built her.

Aunt Eliza fell.

We must buy a filter.

Old Father William:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Are_Old,_Father_William

[2] The book is suitable for kids of all ages:

https://www.google.com/searchq=the+golden+book+of+fun+and+no...

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#288

Post by harigov »

westoncb wrote: post #283
harigov wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a developer, I would love to have something like this. If you can make the visualization easily traversable using simple text queries, that would make it even more useful. Heck, there is value in simply being able to query your runtime data structures anytime. So monitored data structure is in itself a very cool idea. I highly recommend coming up with a small enough use case to ship sooner so that you can build so…

> If you can make the visualization easily traversable using simple text queries ... That's a cool idea. I've been working on something similar, but that takes kind of a different angle which I like. What I have at the moment is a way of specifying filters for which properties should be displayed or not. Yes, small enough use case... unfortunately the smallest one I can think of is MASSIVE :P I will document the API…

Redis provides data structures to be stored inside its key-value database. It also allows you to setup hooks to listen to whenever something changes. You can potentially use it to connect client/server. Wrappers around client objects will sync with Redis whenever anything changes, and your visualization tool will listen to changes in Redis to update. The advantage with this is that some aspects of your system will benefit from years of testing and thought that went into building Redis.

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#289

Post by acreux »

https://theothermail.com

TheOtherMail generates throwaway email addresses so you can try new products and services with no risk. We deliver all emails from your generated accounts to your personal email address so you don't have to remember stupidly long emails.

We spend a few dollars per month to run it, and we haven't made any money yet. Give it a try!

Re: Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?

#290

Post by hellbanner »

s_m_t wrote: post #285
hellbanner wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your feedback! I will have to think about the art. I went for minimalist approach where nothing but core mechanical data is shown. I see that this kind of minimalist approach isn't super popular (you + others have commented, I forgot to put that in my first comment). In my next game (a 2P versus game, also available at www.Combo.Zone ), I experimented with excessive particle effects but art is a major w…

> Thank you for your feedback! No problem, I love ranting about video games >Levels: Thanks for bringing this up. Fully continuous gameplay felt a little too confusing + overwhelming - by clearing a wave down to the last enemy you get a moment of relief. I hadn't considered that, it could be that something like a continuously scrolling background could get the feeling I was looking for. I guess it has something to do…

Thanks for the solace re: difficulty. It's a fine line because if you offer players "jump into the crazy parts" they may jump in and decide it's just too much.

You're the first person who's called out the warp back to the bottom!

Your X position is maintained. I warp you back in the Y because with the clones spawning, you could be right in front of them as they shoot with zero reaction time.

An earlier iteration had you maintain movement control while each clone phased in (took about 3 seconds total), with the path they would follow being drawn out temporarily. I liked the positioning + keeping your control aspect but everyone who played ( from games to bar patrons ) kept mashing shoot.. they wanted to keep fighting, so I took it out for the sake of minimalism.

Thanks! You can follow on my itch http://Combo.Zone or look for quantumpotato on Devlogs https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?board=27.0

Post reply on HN