I'm just tired of hearing people around me going "I had my shots, I'm going to that party / going to that event" or "It's just a flu, nothing to worry about".
Isn't this a problem for the device manufacturer to write a driver that supports ChromeOS? Or a hardware toggle for the buttons to switch them?
That's like me writing an operating system right now, from zero and OP downloads it and feels left-out that I do not have support for re-assigning mouse buttons. What if I wrote an OS specifically for power users with no disability because I'm targeting that exact group? Or an OS that only works with gamepads (I am exaggerating here). Should I feel bad because people who can't use gamepads want to use it even tough it is not made for them specifically?
To me, a person with no disabilities and that does not know what you're going through, it feels like this: I'm way to tall to fit in a Disney World ride and instead of going for another ride I could fit in I complain that they discriminate against me and demand they make changes specifically for my tallness.
Or due to my physical condition (way to tall and a bit overweight) I can't make it as an astronaut for Nasa's next mission since I don't fit in the capsule and I demand they compensate for my extra kg's and need of space inside the capsule instead of choosing someone that fits their current capsule.
I'm not being ignorant of your problem I'm just trying to understand how the dev team behind ChromeOS is responsible for all the edge-cases out there. I'd see it as a problem if they were designing an OS specifically for people with disabilities.
Probably late to the party but almost a year ago I had my gamasutra blog post about failing to sell 700 copies of my game, to stay in business, featured on HN.
It's been almost a year since then. I kept updating the game, doing quality of life improvements and actively engaged with the people and reviewers playing it. I also kept people up to date with twitter and talked about the game every chance I had.
Hacker News initial exposure helped me sell about 200 copies and by March I passed my 700 copies goal. Enough to stay in business but, by then, I already moved cross-county and got a few consulting gigs happening.
Almost a year later I have over 4700 copies sold on steam with the total amount of copies sold being around 6000. The game was only recently added to a bundle that added ~1000 copies ("retail activations" are still happening). I'm at a point where I am so grateful for the luck I had after the initial HN exposure that now, one year later, I'm releasing the biggest update ever for the game and I finally got a professional artist to help me upgrade the graphics.
What I want the dev to know is that there's still a chance, but in my case, I already managed to secure enough money from my consulting gigs so updating the game and working on it was done on the side and I could afford to do some more marketing and sink time in it. If you are not financially dependent on the game, keep working on it and slowly build up your fanbase and outreach. Take note of people's feedback and if a common theme occurs maybe do something about it.
Hope you'll end up being happy with your project. If it reaches Steam I'll be your first buyer. On your site, I tried purchasing it via paypal and I cannot get pass the re-captcha. I'm trying to click on the "I'm not a robot" checkbox and nothing is happening. Might want to look into that.
+ 7 years designing mobile and pc games (worked for Gameloft on The Dark Knight Rises, Nova 3, Asphalt 6 - Mobility-Games/Disney on Frozen) as well as an indie (Ebony Spire, Mutant Gangland, Pimps vs Vampires)
+ 10 years experience with integrating and using Lua in projects ranging from Games to Home Automation Software and Web Development
+ 5 Years of C# and Unity for client work / game development
+ Level Design
+ PC (Linux, Windows) and Mobile (Android, iOS) for development
There are 5 other people in the same situations (the other ones had experience with friends/relatives on things like this and sorted everything out themselves). It's costly to sue, takes a lot of time and it's not a guarantee to get the money back (corruption and Romania go hand in hand). And even if I want to sue it's me vs him because the other people cannot afford the costs. Not worth it in the end.
Edit: There's an entire article to be written about buying an apartment here when the developer pretty much has a monopoly in this part of the city. For example, you can rarely find a already-built new building (that's not in shambles and will fall at the next big-ish earthquake) to buy. Most people pay for it in advance (before it's even built) and in the end can end up with a shit hole (it happens). And you pay mortgage on a building that's not even completed.
Hi everyone OP here. Just to clarify some confusion/mentions from the comments.
I'm from Romania. I used to make around 1.5k euros monthly from my last job + a small side gig. An average salary here is between 300-600 euros. My mortgage is around 200 euros. I was in the extremely lucky position to be the tech field and do so well pay-wise. When I took the decision to quit my job and finish my game the following statements were true:
- I had money saved up to pay 4 months of mortage + living expenses + a few beers in the weekends
- I was making games for about 10 years now and launched a few games before hand, smaller projects that had success (for me). I worked on bigger titles in the industry at a few big studios and even at small ones.
- And my game was supposed to sell 300 copies in the first month so that together with my savings I could test the waters and scratch an itch I had.
I was in a position that few other devs are: I live in a low cost country. Again from the scores I heard in Seattle and other US cities 1 month of mortgage there would cover my expenses for a year! I had the benefit of being able to live off of 500 euros a month which ties back to the previous sentence. And I had a game I was close to completing (I started it last year but stopped when I went to my last job).
I targeted a small niche in a specific subgenre with a backup niche in the roguelike genre. Dungeon crawlers are indeed a small niche but not so small that I couldn't sell 700 copies. My biggest problem was having no experience with the way steam works right now (as opposed to the experience I had when I was freelancing a few years back after Gameloft).
If you google right now that average amount of copies and indie game sales on steam google points out 12,000. Not that it's not true anymore (because it isn't) but from where I was standing (and a few other devs who have other games in progress) moving 300 to 700 copies should be easy.
And I targeted my niche specifically: Older gamers (even developers), who don't care about the graphics that much and who want a short, fast game they could play during breaks (or in my case while the compiler is busy).
I went over this facts quite a few times and it sounded doable. Worst case scenario come January I would go in search for another job. And this is were I was wrong, it sounded way too good and easy. At worst I'd finally scratch steam off my todo list and just do software again.
Now I understood, I took a gamble and it turned out to be worse, way worse than I ever expected. I could loose my apartment and all the money I put into it. And I was afraid of screwing even more things up (when things go wrong, they go wrong it seems).
A few days before launching my games (and way after the dice have been cast) I saw tweets from other developers on why people shouldn't risk their lives and go full time. And I thought: "It can't be that bad". Turns out I can't just release a game nowadays and have it sell directly. I was banking a bit on getting covered by a few specific niche websites during launch (it didn't happen). And after I realized what hole I dug myself into I only had one thing on my mind: "There's a bunch of people like out there who still think it's 2012-2013 when you could move decent money in releasing a small, niche, game". And there are. I have been speaking to a ton of devs since the post went live that did not see the reality factor here. The whole point was to warn a few other people that it's not at easy. And I wanted to give me as an example because, again, I had a ton of things going for me: Low mortgage, I can live on peanuts and I don't need to sell a whole lot of copies + some savings and a backup plan come January.
And with all the things going for me I still failed so what chances does someone else living in a higher cost country to succeed with a similar plan like mine?
I said this a few times since release on twitter, I just wish someone would have woken me up from my dream. Those tweets from my friends/devs came too late for me. But maybe with the exposure this story is getting I can keep another passionate yet fool-ish dev from going through what I went through this month.
Edit: Small edit. The amount of devs who reached out to me with a game in production for about 2-3 years - part time for a few - is huge. And they are all scared because the math they did at the beginning does not line up with where things are today. Back then STEAM WOULD guarantee a huge amount of eyeballs on your game. Now all those eyeballs are split between so many releases. It's scary for many, especially those naive (like yours truly).
Hi, OP here! Just now got around to check Hacker News and reply. The thing with the apartment is, I've wanted to buy one for a while and in Romania there's a state aid that allows you to buy one with just 15-25% advancement. At the beginning of the year I had enough money saved up for the advancement and I was making about 1.5K euros monthly through work and another side-gig.
The thing is, a salary in Romania outside of tech is between 300 - 600 euros. With most people who have non-tech jobs (cashier, seller, construction) and even some it jobs being on the low end of that spectrum (even lower). I was making 4 times what most people make. My first job as a game designer gave me about 400 euros. With a 200 euro mortgage nowadays and savings it was a no brainer to finish up the game in the remaining month working full time on it and release it. However there were some problems on the developers side:
- The building had power, via a contract with the local power energy and a written promise from the developer that he will handle all the legal documents to connect me to the power grid properly and handle all the payments.
- The same thing as above with gas.
A few weeks ago I received an e-mail informing me (and all people who owned property in the building) that the contract they had with the power company will expire and we need to get our paperwork sorted out. Now again, I met with the developer and have in writing the fact that he was to take care of things. It turns out, he did but he just applied for all the permits and did all the paperwork but he didn't pay for anything. And I got word of this 1 week before the plug was about to be pulled. In that situation I had to run and pay for everything so I can keep the power up and work on my things. And gas since we all use gas for heating here during the winter - same story.
I'm just tired of hearing people around me going "I had my shots, I'm going to that party / going to that event" or "It's just a flu, nothing to worry about".