‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game • Hacker News Board

Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game

#51

Post by cromwellian » Fri, Feb 06, 2015, 9:40 PM UTC

jared314 wrote: post #11

Blow is also attempting to build a programming language [1], based on his experience in game development. While I don't agree with his direction, so far, watching the process is very interesting. The next Jai demo was announced for Feb 11th [2]. [1] Jai: https://sites.google.com/site/jailanguageprimer/ https://www.youtube.com/user/jblow888/videos https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8541509 [2] https://twitter.com/Jo…

Actually, he's been doing this for a while. When he was at XCF at Berkeley in the early 90s, I had contributed to his FMPL (Frobozz Magic Programming Language) project, writing MUDs in it. (I wrote a Dikumud/D&D like system).

He's a wiz, and his C code was humorously commented that makes it a joy to read.

Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game

#52

Post by archagon » Fri, Feb 06, 2015, 9:40 PM UTC

ericd wrote: post #50

archagon wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very true. However, I recall it being in the first crop of commercially successful indie games: World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, Castle Crashers, Braid.

Doom was pretty commercially successful...

"Indie" doesn't just mean independent. It is (or was) a specific scene, centered to an extent around TIGSource and its forums. The games that came from this scene are what put the genre in its current spotlight.

Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game

#53

Post by kybernetyk » Fri, Feb 06, 2015, 9:41 PM UTC

archagon wrote: post #36

justintime2002 wrote: post #7

"Jonathan Blow's beautiful, distinct 2008 platformer Braid is largely regarded as the original indie game" Really? I find this difficult to believe, considering the success of Cave Story back in 2004.

This is very true. However, I recall it being in the first crop of commercially successful indie games: World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, Castle Crashers, Braid.

What about Doom, Wolfenstein, Duke Nukem, etc? Or Elite?

All pretty indy and commercially successful.

Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game

#54

Post by archagon » Fri, Feb 06, 2015, 9:42 PM UTC

Retra wrote: post #47

archagon wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very true. However, I recall it being in the first crop of commercially successful indie games: World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, Castle Crashers, Braid.

All those remind me of Steam. Which was new at the time, yeah?

Actually, this was around 2008 or so, so Steam was already out for a few years. Most of those games hit it big on XBLA before heading to Steam a few years later.

Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game

#55

Post by LaneRendell » Fri, Feb 06, 2015, 9:46 PM UTC

melling wrote: post #3

One of the contributors is creating a video game from scratch in a series of videos. http://handmadehero.org He just did day 60 today. It's probably going to take at least a year. It's quite educational to start from scratch without any libraries.

Thanks for the link, cool series!

Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game

#56

Post by anigbrowl » Fri, Feb 06, 2015, 9:47 PM UTC

GigabyteCoin wrote: post #34

irishloop wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haven't many tried, and failed, to compete with C++ when it comes to gaming?

That is entirely irrelevant. Improvements can always be made on man-made things like C++, even if improvements aren't always obvious at first. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take!

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take!

Tangentially, I hate this phrase. It ignores the fact that there's an opportunity cost to missed shots. If you're imagining the metaphor of a ball game, it's possession (and thus time and position). If you imagine the metaphor of a gun, it's your limited supply of bullets. This exhortation has an implicit assumption of endless resources, which are typically not available in the real world. Of course there are times you should risk things on an uncertain outcome, and be willing to move on to the next opportunity - trying to hold on to a declining situation is often motivated by a sunk-costs fallacy.

But I've heard the 'miss shots you don't take' thing proffered too many times as an excuse for ego-driven, risk-indifferent, and resource-wasting decisions and I'm pretty tired of it. There is a certain sort of person (but I don't men you, parent poster) who comes into a situation, fucks everything up, and then sails off with the excuse of what a bold, visionary risk-taker they are, blaming any obvious failures on the timidity of the team/colleagues. An excess reliance on sports metaphors has become a huge red flag for me in picking the people I work with.

Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game

#57

Post by ForHackernews » Fri, Feb 06, 2015, 9:51 PM UTC

justintime2002 wrote: post #7

"Jonathan Blow's beautiful, distinct 2008 platformer Braid is largely regarded as the original indie game" Really? I find this difficult to believe, considering the success of Cave Story back in 2004.

I mean, if you go back far enough, there wasn't such a thing as a games industry, so everything was an "indie" game.

I say Spacewar! is the original indie game.

Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game

#58

Post by nkuttler » Fri, Feb 06, 2015, 9:51 PM UTC

listic wrote: post #35

Puzzles, puzzles everywhere. I've read the interview and didn't get it - what's so great in this new game that he is spending all his money on it. I hoped there will be some ambition to the like of Ice-Pick Lodge https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1535515364/pathologic or Tale of Tales http://tale-of-tales.com/videogames.php but nope, another game with puzzles.

You probably just have to accept that pure puzzle games aren't for you. It's the same for me, and Braid is the game that made me accept that fact. I could see it was great, but I couldn't enjoy it past a certain point. No need to be negative, just move on and play games you enjoy.

Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game

#59

Post by archagon » Fri, Feb 06, 2015, 9:51 PM UTC

kelukelugames wrote: post #46

archagon wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found his Twitter very frustrating to follow sometimes, but I also learn a ton from the things he links to and talks about. For example, I'm certainly not in the anti-OO camp, but his perspective keeps me on my toes and has been informing my programming decisions to a degree. He also seems like a good person in general — just one who happens to be an old school programmer with a very specific view on how things…

Why doesn't he like us?

I don't think he thinks most people here are "good programmers".

Re: ‘Braid’ creator sacrifices his fortune to build his next game

#60

Post by martincmartin » Fri, Feb 06, 2015, 9:53 PM UTC

sp332 wrote: post #42

frandroid wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole early PC gaming industry was indie games... Infocom, Sierra On-line, etc...

How do you consider Infocom and Sierra to be "indie"?

Sierra started with Ken and Roberta Williams working out of their house on Mystery House, in their spare time while Ken held down a full time job. Later, of course, they became a big company and so no longer indie.

"Next time, be more careful!"