4 ms·

Ask HN: Advice on boostrapping my RPG Playground project?

3 points by koonsolo 10y ago

So I'm quitting my full-time job as a programmer, to try and get RPG Playground (http://rpgplayground.com) profitable. I saved up some cash to survive for about a year, so basically that is my runway to become "ramen profitable". Since there are a lot of entrepreneurs on Hacker News, I hope to get some advice or tips on how to pull this off, or things to stay clear of. I'm happy to share any info or numbers of the status of the project.

dozzie 10y ago
First, you may want to be much more specific about what is this about. You see, there are so many different things under the "RPG" umbrella, some of them requiring computer to play, and some requiring a dungeon master and fellow players, but no computer involved.
- koonsolo 10y ago
  It's an online game editor to make RPG video games. http://rpgplayground.com http://rpgplayground.com already has an early version of the product.
brudgers 10y ago
Ok. What is your plan for becoming profitable?
- koonsolo 10y ago
  Current plan is to get to enough features and go to Steam Greenlight, and start selling with early access. It will be the standalone version for Windows and Mac that is sold. After that I will release a premium version of the Flash release and get revenue from that.
  - brudgers 10y ago
    How many features are required and of what complexity? Why not go with the product as is? What is the projected revenue from Steam Greenlight? What are alternative channels for delivery if Steam changes its policies or deprecates the service?
debacle 10y ago
The most important advice you need to hear: your Flash tool is never going to get the adoption it might deserve because it's in Flash. Your potential user base is shrinking, not growing, and it is only going to shrink faster. https://chrome.googleblog.com/2016/08/flash-and-chrome.html https://chrome.googleblog.com/2016/08/flash-and-chrome.html
- koonsolo 10y ago
  Not a real problem for now. I can compile my AS3 code to Windows & Mac, and have the option to go mobile thanks to Adobe AIR. If the shit really hits the fan and Flash is completely blocked, I will convert my code to OpenFL (Haxe), which will not be that much of an effort. Then a whole new range of platforms become available, including HTML5. So I keep my options open.
  - debacle 10y ago
    Then get yourself a Patreon, and good luck!