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How I tried to get into game development and failed

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Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#61

Post by humanrebar »

bane wrote: post #56

Something lots of people in the tech community get really hung up on is focusing on tech and technique rather than what the technology is doing for the user. There are writeups on here fairly frequently that talk about successful companies being successful despite their product being built on barrels of spaghetti code. This is because those companies are focusing on accomplishing something for the user, not trying to…

> ...anything else is distraction

Is it? I was under the impression that many game shops do several releases based on the same code. It seems it would be valuable to limit the incremental cost for extra episodes, DLC, Madden YYYY+1, etc.

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#62

Post by nevertoolate »

jmull wrote: post #51

I love reading this kind of open, honest postmortem. By the way, I think the people here saying things like, "Oh, he should've just done x, y, and z to solve his problems," are most likely kidding themselves. Developing and releasing decent software is hard. Making a financially successful indie web game is even harder, no matter your process because a substantial parts art and luck which are inherently not predictab…

What have you learnt from the postmortem?

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#63

Post by masiulis »

jmull wrote: post #55
swat17 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems so obvious reading his post that he went at this backwards. The basic idea of developing and iterating on a lightweight MVP is completely absent. I'm genuinely curious - because I see this error replicated all the time when engineers try to take a side project to market - why otherwise rational people do this. This approach is obviously doomed to failure. I understand that as programmers we enjoy solving tec…

Well, wait a minute. The author started with a simple, fun-to-play game, worked on it iteratively until it reached a certain level, did a release push, and continued to iteratively improve the game. (I realize that "fun-to-play" is subjective, but that's the author's call at that point.) I'm trying to see how this is fundamentally at odds with what you're thinking the approach should be? If you, as the creator of a g…

Maybe test it locally with a split screen mode? Or lower your coding standards? It takes a day max to start a node server with websockets (he did that in the end anyway).

The biggest mistake I think was that the author "personally prefer strategies (such as Civilization) over action/arcade type of games", but decided to build a multiplayer game. With no experience. Now that is a recipe for a disaster.

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#65

Post by georgeecollins »

This is a great example of the fallacy that if you like games and can program a game, you can be a game developer and get any traction. Programming isn't really the hard part, and it gets easier every day. It is true if you can do something technically bleeding edge you will be sought after by game companies and other companies as well.

Imagine: I have liked movies my whole life. I read that Paranormal Activity was made by a guy with a video camera and very little money. So I thought I would get a camera and become a film maker. Surprisingly, it didn't work.

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#66

Post by jnaddef »

smaddox wrote: post #46
Matheus28 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the guy that made Agar.io, and I personally hate that term, but I don't think we'll ever win the war of getting people to stop calling those browser MMO games "io games"

Great game. Was it a side project, or were you a full time game dev? And what about now after its success? Did it provide enough income to pursue whatever you want full time?

Depends if you consider several millions US$ as 'enough income'

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#67

Post by swat17 »

jmull wrote: post #55
swat17 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems so obvious reading his post that he went at this backwards. The basic idea of developing and iterating on a lightweight MVP is completely absent. I'm genuinely curious - because I see this error replicated all the time when engineers try to take a side project to market - why otherwise rational people do this. This approach is obviously doomed to failure. I understand that as programmers we enjoy solving tec…

Well, wait a minute. The author started with a simple, fun-to-play game, worked on it iteratively until it reached a certain level, did a release push, and continued to iteratively improve the game. (I realize that "fun-to-play" is subjective, but that's the author's call at that point.) I'm trying to see how this is fundamentally at odds with what you're thinking the approach should be? If you, as the creator of a g…

> how could you justify not resolving it prior to release?

I'm not objecting to him addressing the lag, I'm objecting to him resolving it first. Until you've built something people want to play, addressing lag (and similar tertiary problems) is solving a hypothetical problem for a hypothetical player. And it may well be wasted effort, if you never nail the core product. But if you approach it from the other direction, as most game devs would, you know with a greater degree of certainty whether you should spend the time polishing. You either nail the core mechanics of the game and know that your polish work is justified in bringing the product to market, or you discover you don't have a product at all and avoid wasting your life solving imaginary problems.

Because even side projects are resource constrained. He missed a vacation with his wife. This is tragic, and happens all too often when you approach a product from a technical perspective prematurely.

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#68

Post by Practicality »

ambrop7 wrote: post #64
krosaen wrote: post #25

the game is pretty dang fun http://bist.io

The best part is how you can zoom out in your browser and you can see as much around you as you need.

I've been trying to figure out how people could see farther than me! HA, now I know

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#69

Post by Practicality »

I have been having a lot of fun playing this game with lots of others here on Hacker news.

Some suggestions: 1) Make the levels more obvious. It's not clear why players are stronger than others for some time. It would also be nice to see how far I need to go to level up more clearly.

2) ADD CHAT! I can't emphasize this enough. We need to be able to yell at each other and complain and work together.

3) Add the ability to switch classes more often.

4) Make the differences between bots and humans more obvious. I want to immediately know when I am fighting a person. A different color name, make them glowing, something.

5) Show the leaderboard after you finish. I want to be the best player today, or the last hour, or the last week or whatever.

6) Don't deduct any stats when I level up. Sometimes when you level up you are suddenly slower. I shouldn't get punished for leveling up.

7) Show my kills against different players. Let me develop a grudge. It makes it fun.

8) Show a message when a player kills a player! Let us know something cool happened.

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#70

Post by caseysoftware »

humanrebar wrote: post #61
bane wrote: post #56

Something lots of people in the tech community get really hung up on is focusing on tech and technique rather than what the technology is doing for the user. There are writeups on here fairly frequently that talk about successful companies being successful despite their product being built on barrels of spaghetti code. This is because those companies are focusing on accomplishing something for the user, not trying to…

> ...anything else is distraction Is it? I was under the impression that many game shops do several releases based on the same code. It seems it would be valuable to limit the incremental cost for extra episodes, DLC, Madden YYYY+1, etc.

Notice that those examples are wholly dependent on the first thing being successful.

Cash flow can solve many, many problems.

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