The author seems to want to return to "Create games as a hobby" instead of having an industry that creates the best creative jobs involving a computer. There has been so much development in the last 10 years in computer games that would not have been possible if there wasn't an industry. Of course there is some unnecessary hardware and depending on your income, there are parts that you can't afford. On the other hand, thanks to current game engines (which would not be affordable for indie developers if there wasn't an industry), there are so many possible hardware configurations to play the game you want on, you just don't have to buy the newest stuff every two years anymore.
Especially for indie developers, the current games industry landscape is a big opportunity. Yes it is very hard to be successful, but it was never easier to create a game, and that would not be possible if we stick to open source games and old hardware.
SEEKING WORK - Remote possible - located in Frankfurt/Main, Germany
I’m a web developer doing frontend (Javascript, Coffeescript) and backend (Ruby, Rails, node.js, PHP) work with 7 years of experience and graduated as “Mediengestalter” and Game Designer (Games Academy).
Be aware that the key for saints row does not work when you are in Germany.
Luckily, the humble bundle support is good and will help you out if you have problems, at least they helped me very fast :)
It would be even nicer though if they would mention this on the official page.
>We are aware of the issue going on with Saints Row: The Third Steam keys for German customers who purchased the bundle prior to 23:00 CET on November 29th.
>Please email us at contact@humblebundle.com with your Transaction ID and the subject "Saints Row Steam Key", and we can get you a Steam key for the German version of Saint's Row: The Third.
thanks, you are right about the landing page. This is one of the things you just forget about when you develop the whole app, but its the first thing the future users see, so it should be really nice. will start working on it immediately
Yes, getting users is the first obstacle, where I really got problems with. If you are developing apps and doing websites 24/7, its really hard to be a marketing expert, too, thats what my blogpost is about.
I would lie if I said I didnt write the story to generate some buzz for the game, but I really think if I have those problems, many others have them, too. There must be ways for developers to market their ideas, people who can't be 24/7 online for social connections like a garyvee.
That is a really nice collection. I think many of us are in the situation to have great products, but don't have the money to create a big marketing campaign or even buy a few ads to deliver it.
One thing: keep the dark color scheme, but don't put dark grey links on black background (like one commenter already mentioned here), and increase the line height by a few pixels, makes it a lot easier to read.
The technique has one major advantage over GTD and other systems (and I tried them all...), it is damn simple. You don't even need a tool, just a kitchen timer is enough for the start.
The only thing I don't like to do in the standard 25 minutes pomodoro mode is programming. You need the tunnel, and a deep tunnel experience can't be achieved if you are interrupted every 25 minutes. My tip: Try 25 minutes first for two weeks, if you can't get into the tunnel, try 50 minutes, if that doesn't work either, try 1 hour 10 minutes. I found this to be the maximum time I can work fully concentrated. And of course, don't even think about checking your mails, reading HN or watching youtube while in a pomodoro.
I think HTML5 is the future of application development. It has some very specific advantages compared to native apps, and we will see a lot more web apps with unique abilites.
There is an interesting talk about that topic from the google io conference. It is a bit mobile specific, but really worth a look [1]
Of course, I am a bit biased, because I am currently building a browsergame on HTML5 techniques (canvas and local storage at the moment, but of course audio and video will also be a part) at http://www.breederisland.com. It is really amazing how fast the new javascript engines in the browsers are, if you don't use an internet explorer, of course ;)
First I wanted to use an existing game engine too, but I decided to write everything myself to get a better understanding of how canvas etc. works.
Do you have any gameplay videos, yet?
thanks :) wasnt my intention do advertise the game (yet), but I'm working full time on it, so it makes progress.
I also plan to release the engine as open source in the future, once it is more stable and has better documentation.
Interesting post, though I don't agree with the last point. A good rails developer will present himself as a rails developer, even if he does other things. A typical rails app includes html, javascript, maybe even xml or some other fancy stuff, so a real rails developer is always a bit of an jack-of-all-trades.
Btw, outside US, it seems like it is the other way round. I develop rails apps and have trouble finding work at the moment.
