41–50 of 71 posts
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does Kickstarter post stats on these kind of things? Like what percentage of funded projects are delivered? if not, why not?
probably because its not beneficial for them to publish these stats, but I would love to see these statistics.
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Ok so you're a realist, fine. But I'm curious, do you not think lucid dreaming is real? Or do you just not think it can be triggered with flashing lights?
I've had many lucid dreams, non of them involved flashing lights in my face. More importantly of all the methods to induce lucid dreams, flashing lights in your eyes isn't among the practices normally used in scientific studies. If it were actually reliably effective, it is highly likely it would be used in studies as a reliable method of initiating lucid dreams.
But as far as I know, lucid dreaming in general is not something that is being studied by a very large number of scientists, so we're not likely to find a whole ton of studies like this regardless of how effective it is.
What is the point of this article? The guy said he'd make a video game, and people pledged money. He's pretty upfront about what he's making on the Kickstarter page. The article author is upset because the fellow is using a tutorial? Who the hell cares? So long as the supporters get their "sidescrolling platformer action/adventure game, reminiscent of console classics like Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog"…
Vast majority of the people, slog till the calcium in their bones disappear to learn the craft of software. HN'ers are full of Clojure learning, Python beauty appreciating programmers who would happily burn a summer down practicing exercises in Structure and Interpretation of computer programs. They would never hire anybody who doesn't know how to sort a million integers in a million different ways.
And yet after they learning how to do 22nd century algebra using haskell and learning how to bend the skies with macros some one here comes along reads a tutorial and builds an app to sell for a decent amount. This upsets their whole belief systems and makes their expertise seem irrelevant to winning the game.
This is called 'Holier than thou' attitude.
Anybody who doesn't go through the regime of K&R C -> Algorithm book -> DS Book -> Haskell -> Lisp is considered shit.
He is not supposed to win, succeed or do any thing big with software.
This happens all the time. Anybody who doesn't have a CS degree and can't handle the math/Algo quizzes is not supposed to win ever. And if he does, he is considered undeserving, lucky or just evil.
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Actually, don't even pick on it because it's a poor game (and granted, it looks like one whopper of a poor game and I'm as shocked as anyone that this got funded). The magic of crowd funding is that decisions as to quality belong to the backers. They felt it was worthwhile, it's their money, so it's none of our business. If it's fraud, then sure: Kickstarter would be on the hook for abetting it. If he promised someth…
>If it's fraud, then sure: Kickstarter would be on the hook for abetting it. I'm not even sure that's the case, is it? They provide a platform, and take a cut, but I'd be a little surprised if that's enough to make them legally liable.
What is the point of this article? The guy said he'd make a video game, and people pledged money. He's pretty upfront about what he's making on the Kickstarter page. The article author is upset because the fellow is using a tutorial? Who the hell cares? So long as the supporters get their "sidescrolling platformer action/adventure game, reminiscent of console classics like Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog"…
Two reasons: 1) If the guy's following a tutorial, the game will suck. I made games for years before I made one that didn't suck enough that people paid money for it, and even then, it sucked. It's equivilant to hiring a guy to make a non trivial Rails app, and he goes out and buys a copy of Ruby for Dummies. 2) This is a great indication that Kickstarter game funding is a bubble right now, and there's going to be a…
And users don't open up code bases and do code review before buying something.
Just like how you and I, don't tear down washing machines to just check the wiring inside it.
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Two reasons: 1) If the guy's following a tutorial, the game will suck. I made games for years before I made one that didn't suck enough that people paid money for it, and even then, it sucked. It's equivilant to hiring a guy to make a non trivial Rails app, and he goes out and buys a copy of Ruby for Dummies. 2) This is a great indication that Kickstarter game funding is a bubble right now, and there's going to be a…
People who need to decide whether something is good or bad are his users. And users don't open up code bases and do code review before buying something. Just like how you and I, don't tear down washing machines to just check the wiring inside it.
You're talking as if the game is already done, it's fun, but is held together with duct tape. I'm questioning whether the game will ever come out at all.
He's painting a picture about what the game will be like; his users aren't savvy enough to know whether he's going to be able to make it a reality.
If something stands out as a red flag, bringing into question whether he's got the ability to produce the project he is taking money for, it's absolutely appropriate to point it out.
I've been in the indie development scene ten years; projects like this are a dime a dozen, and a single digit percentage of them ever get finished.
What is the point of this article? The guy said he'd make a video game, and people pledged money. He's pretty upfront about what he's making on the Kickstarter page. The article author is upset because the fellow is using a tutorial? Who the hell cares? So long as the supporters get their "sidescrolling platformer action/adventure game, reminiscent of console classics like Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog"…
I think the problem is something like this. Vast majority of the people, slog till the calcium in their bones disappear to learn the craft of software. HN'ers are full of Clojure learning, Python beauty appreciating programmers who would happily burn a summer down practicing exercises in Structure and Interpretation of computer programs. They would never hire anybody who doesn't know how to sort a million integers in…
Anthony Flack, the creator, made a fantastic game. Absolutely brilliant.
I'm not saying you need technical chops to know how to make a game. I'm saying you need to make games to know how to make games! There's not a game developer alive that didn't play around extensively before finishing their first project.
Using a tutorial is a smoking gun that the author has not had this experience. It's literally like someone learning scales on the guitar, trying to write a song.
Except he's taking money on the preorders to that song.
He's not successful because of what he's done, he's successful because of the promises he's made.
If you don't see the problem there, I just don't know what to say.
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I think the problem is something like this. Vast majority of the people, slog till the calcium in their bones disappear to learn the craft of software. HN'ers are full of Clojure learning, Python beauty appreciating programmers who would happily burn a summer down practicing exercises in Structure and Interpretation of computer programs. They would never hire anybody who doesn't know how to sort a million integers in…
I was tasked with porting Platypus to the Mac, which was probably the most nightmarish code base I've ever seen. The entire code base consisted of hundreds of arrays, and three or four, twenty thousand line long functions. But the game was brilliant. Anthony Flack, the creator, made a fantastic game. Absolutely brilliant. I'm not saying you need technical chops to know how to make a game. I'm saying you need to make…
Lets say you develop a hobby for making furniture. You start developing Tables. You read a DIY book and start making stuff. In the meanwhile, you make mistakes, you don't put as many nails where there are necessary. You put more gum than what is necessary. Your finished product is definitely a table, but you've made is so badly it could hardly last for a couple of years.
A carpenter down the street comes down to you shop and gives a detailed critique of what he thinks is wrong with your table.
Now you both go and try to sell your story, You have a table and he just has a critique. The user comes and sees your table and listens to his critique. He decides something that exists is better that just talk. Remember the user is seeing the table only, he didn't see you making it. He decides to go with your table despite the carpenters critique.
He orders 50 more tables from you to be made based on what you showed it to him.
Now the professional carpenter can argue about how bad and how many technical deficiencies exist in your tables. But you know what, the user won't even understand that language.
Because, Shipping is a feature. And the one's who ship almost always win. Sometimes even if they ship crap. That is what is happening here.
Have these types of things happened on Kickstarter before (or has anyone attempted to just completely game the system?) What types of recourse do investors have? Any?
Here's some snake oil for $270,000: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1047510073/remee-the-rem... Kickstarter isn't particularly thorough about vetting technical projects.
http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/backing%20a%20project#Wh...
They also don't do any checking to validate that the person behind a project is who they claim to be:
http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/backing%20a%20project#Ho...
Their entire fraud prevention program can be summed up in two words: caveat emptor.