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“I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

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Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#281

Post by hennsen »

emodendroket wrote: post #221
hennsen wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And about that: > But if having 6 or 12 months worth of savings is a requirement, then you can rule out just about everyone except rich kids and upper middle class teenagers. If you’re a good Software developer and have no idea how to save some 20-30k bucks in 2-3 years for your plan of your own business you’re doing something wrong. Like you are bad at contract negotiations, no good contact network in the industry t…

The post says the guy lives in Eastern Europe.

Then he earns less but also needs less to save for the targeted time frame to save for...

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#282

Post by butler14 »

I take no pleasure in saying this - and I wish the author all the best - but this is a story of someone who had deeply naive and flawed view on the practical realities of running a business and making a game at the same time.

Let alone shortly after taking on a mortgage and without taking the time to have the business largely underway before quitting your day job. That includes accountancy, which you really do not need to pay for at your scale in this day and age.

Hindsight is always 20/20 etc., but surely grinding evenings and weekends to complete that last month's worth of dev, and seeing how that went with a regular income as a back-up, would have been an infinitely better idea :/

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#284

Post by petercooper »

aedron wrote: post #8

I feel like relying on a big splash release is an intuitive, obvious, and wrong approach. It's like a kind of waterfall methodology, where we should be doing iterative: Release something early to a limited audience, gauge reactions, fix the obvious mistakes and implement the feedback from players. Then keep doing that. If you can't even get a small audience (like a small gamer forum) to play, then you're already in t…

Release something early to a limited audience, gauge reactions, fix the obvious mistakes and implement the feedback from players.

That worked for Minecraft. The core group of players was pretty small. Nearly all male geek types for the first year. You had to look up almost everything in the rather chaotic wiki to get anywhere.. which is what made it fun for me at the time.

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#285

Post by tnsengimana »

Not trying to sound mean, but I think something is wrong here. You can’t just quit your job without any proven means to sustain yourself. It’s like jumping in an ocean hoping not to drown even if you can't swim.

I feel like there was no indication whatsoever that would have compelled him to quit and focus on his own game(s). Ideally, he would instead have released the game while still employed, and then quit only if the game becomes a success.

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#286

Post by selectodude »

alchemism wrote: post #249
cheschire wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And twice your salary in a retirement fund by the age of 30, and three times your salary in retirement by 35. Basically quit your day job only if your side hustle is already making more money per month (not per hour) because odds are even making more per month is still going to result in not being able to survive much past 57. Side note, how many 57 year old indie game devs are there?

How does the average American put tens of thousands of dollars into a retirement account within 5 years at a point in life where there is a morgage and/or children? That does not seem like conventional wisdom.

It's conventional wisdom in the same way that you're supposed to drink 8 glasses of water and eat 5 servings of vegetables ever day.

The average American doesn't do what is "conventional wisdom".

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#287

Post by emsy »

jblow wrote: post #230
aedron wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure everyone here would be really grateful if you could expand on this a little.

Not really worth it -- if I put in effort to write a substantial comment here, it's just buried in the noise of all these people who think they can give advice on how to build and launch a game.

I for one usually do a CTRL+F "jblow" on game related articles, since I know you're commenting on HN and have the actual competence to do so.

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#288

Post by unreal37 »

flexie wrote: post #72
ajnin wrote: post #28

Quitting your job with only 4 month worth of savings, with a new mortgage, to enter an industry known for its oversaturation, extreme competition, and high luck element for indies ? That's insane. Maybe I'm just risk-adverse. That said, I think he actually succeeded, despite appearances. Managing to release a working game in 3 month, that actually got sales, is a feat in itself. The game will keep trickling sales, if…

It's not that I disagree, especially with the opinion that the gaming industry is over-saturated and that a lot depends on luck in that industry. But I'd say that 4 months worth of savings is in the better end when starting a new business. Most people who do startups or who otherwise become entrepreneurs have much less than that. And I think having too much of a cushion can lull you into a false sense of "doing somet…

It seems the author saved around $2000 before quitting his job. And promptly spent $1000 of it on paperwork and such.

I know 4 months sounds like a lot, but $2000 does not sound like a lot.

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#289

Post by unreal37 »

ajnin wrote: post #28

Quitting your job with only 4 month worth of savings, with a new mortgage, to enter an industry known for its oversaturation, extreme competition, and high luck element for indies ? That's insane. Maybe I'm just risk-adverse. That said, I think he actually succeeded, despite appearances. Managing to release a working game in 3 month, that actually got sales, is a feat in itself. The game will keep trickling sales, if…

I wonder how many hundreds of sales he got simply from that article.

Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”

#290

Post by rahimnathwani »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #166
zelos wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm just way too risk-averse, but 3-4 months of expenses in savings is what I'd consider a minimum while in a stable full-time job .

Yes, our mortgage advisor recommended a certain buffer amount in savings, and it was quite a lot. Either one year or 18 months, and I think that was combined income. That was just to ensure the mortgage could still be paid for a while if we both lost our jobs. I'm personally planning for an exit strategy which will see me working for myself in about 6 months time. I have roughly one year's take-home pay and will idea…

It sounds like the mortgage advisor encouraged you to borrow a larger sum, so that she/he could get a larger commission.

There's no need to keep that much money in the bank just in case you lose your job and can't pay your mortgage. Most lenders (at least where I'm from) will arrange a payment holiday if you tell them you've lost your job. After all, they benefit by earning more interest whilst you're not making payments.

Of course, there are many other good reasons to want that much liquid cash in the bank.

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