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Making a Physical Product

b.jonw.com

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Re: Making a Physical Product

#61

Post by p0ckets »

tantalor wrote: post #16
DividesByZero wrote: post #12

"I spent a few hours hacking together a little rails app which would play out 100,000 rolls in a few seconds and tell me the chances of everything coming up. " Why did the author write a rails app to run statistical experiments on what are easy to calculate probabilities? It seems that if you want to make a probability based game you ought to have at least a working knowledge of the basics.

Maybe the rules are too complex to work out the probabilities directly. For example, landing on each property in Monopoly. The real question is why write a rails app? How does a web application framework help you roll dice?

Actually, it's pretty simple to use Markov chains to calculate the expected time spent as each property in Monopoly.

Re: Making a Physical Product

#62

Post by nnq »

> I spent a few hours hacking together a little rails app which would play out 100,000 rolls in a few seconds and tell me the chances of everything coming up.

Can't people do the math anymore, they have to simulate everything?! And they have to do it with a mtf web framework?! A spreadsheet and some pen and paper to figure out the formulas would've sufficed...

Re: Making a Physical Product

#63

Post by steveklabnik »

tantalor wrote: post #16
DividesByZero wrote: post #12

"I spent a few hours hacking together a little rails app which would play out 100,000 rolls in a few seconds and tell me the chances of everything coming up. " Why did the author write a rails app to run statistical experiments on what are easy to calculate probabilities? It seems that if you want to make a probability based game you ought to have at least a working knowledge of the basics.

Maybe the rules are too complex to work out the probabilities directly. For example, landing on each property in Monopoly. The real question is why write a rails app? How does a web application framework help you roll dice?

> How does a web application framework help you roll dice?

Many games also include an online component. This can easily just be the start of a new product...

Re: Making a Physical Product

#64

Post by jere »

fragsworth wrote: post #59

The costs breakdown neglects his own time put into the project. To get the real total cost (which must be estimated), we should know how many hours he spent on it, and what his expected hourly rate might be if he were an independent contractor. You can't really decide whether or not the endeavor was a net gain unless you also take your own time into account.

Did you ever consider maybe some endeavors in life are pursued for reasons other than profit?

Re: Making a Physical Product

#65

Post by pseut »

MrThousand wrote: post #51
gcheong wrote: post #20

Why make an iPhone app to keep track of planets owned when you could just make a simple paper based scorecard? Or am I missing something about the complexity of the game? An app might be useful but you want the game to be playable by the largest number of peopl possible and there could be some opportunity for recurring revenue from selling the scorecards.

I think the idea of an iOS app sounds great. Why waste paper when you can simply click "new game" on your phone?

Why waste plastic on dice when you can click, "new roll" on your phone? Some people might like games like this because they're not digital.

Re: Making a Physical Product

#66

Post by incision »

DividesByZero wrote: post #12

"I spent a few hours hacking together a little rails app which would play out 100,000 rolls in a few seconds and tell me the chances of everything coming up. " Why did the author write a rails app to run statistical experiments on what are easy to calculate probabilities? It seems that if you want to make a probability based game you ought to have at least a working knowledge of the basics.

>Why did the author write a rails app to run statistical experiments on what are easy to calculate probabilities?

Perhaps it's along the same lines as the physical prototype he made prior to that.

"It really helped to make a prototype, as I could actually play the game rather than everything being hypothetical."

Building the app seems like perfectly logical extension of that.

>It seems that if you want to make a probability based game you ought to have at least a working knowledge of the basics.

Yet here he is with a fully finished product in spite of that notion. He wanted to make a game, he made a game using the tools he was aware of and comfortable with.

Re: Making a Physical Product

#67

Post by fragsworth »

jere wrote: post #64
fragsworth wrote: post #59

The costs breakdown neglects his own time put into the project. To get the real total cost (which must be estimated), we should know how many hours he spent on it, and what his expected hourly rate might be if he were an independent contractor. You can't really decide whether or not the endeavor was a net gain unless you also take your own time into account.

Did you ever consider maybe some endeavors in life are pursued for reasons other than profit?

Well, it is possible to simultaneously enjoy your work and also put a monetary value on your time. These two things aren't mutually exclusive.

And besides, if profits are not a motive, why analyze them to begin with?

Re: Making a Physical Product

#68

Post by Torrents »

muratmutlu wrote: post #37

Loved this post, great that he wrote a rails app and nice to get the costs at the end too. I tried to make a wi-fi kettle with a wifi module in that had a API, the prototype alone was a huge expense (£25k+) and to get it into production was around £200k (CE certified etc). In the end I just wrote up the blog post (here http://www.mobileinc.co.uk/2010/03/introducing-the-twettle-p... ) Props to anyone who makes somethi…

So did you make it onto kickstarter? You just spent the £25k out of pocket for the prototype?

Re: Making a Physical Product

#69

Post by Torrents »

tantalor wrote: post #16
DividesByZero wrote: post #12

"I spent a few hours hacking together a little rails app which would play out 100,000 rolls in a few seconds and tell me the chances of everything coming up. " Why did the author write a rails app to run statistical experiments on what are easy to calculate probabilities? It seems that if you want to make a probability based game you ought to have at least a working knowledge of the basics.

Maybe the rules are too complex to work out the probabilities directly. For example, landing on each property in Monopoly. The real question is why write a rails app? How does a web application framework help you roll dice?

Maybe because that makes it easier to put it online and link to it from a blog post, and raise awareness of the game. Blog posts can be both useful for other entrepreneurs as well as great marketing.

Re: Making a Physical Product

#70

Post by grannyg00se »

soggypenny wrote: post #43
willtheperson wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad runs a small plastic injection molding company. He's got a single bread and butter product they make, but he's always looking for new ideas. Is there a way for people to easily connect with manufacturers in the USA? My dads shop is really small and hungry vs some shop you could find in a google search with lots of machines (and expensive)

A solution to this problem is EXACTLY what my co-founder and I are working on right now. We're working to be Match.com for custom-made parts, and highly specialized shops like your dad's are the ideal use case for our product. Would you be willing to talk directly or put me in touch with your dad? We'd love to help out any way we can.

I'm looking for a match to a die casting or cnc milling shop. Your contact info is not in your profile. Care to shoot me an email?
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