14 ms·

How to Survive as a Solo Dev for Like a Decade or So

432 points by lj3 9y ago

fapjacks 9y ago
"Sit down and do some fucking work." The other stuff is just optional.
- Isamu 9y ago
  Indeed. "don’t be a fucking idiot, be sensible."
  - fapjacks 9y ago
    My comment is about being a solo dev. You can check all the other blocks, but if you aren't actually working, you're not going anywhere.
- hartator 9y ago
  and don't make 3d space game I guess. :)
  - douche 9y ago
    Unless you can fleece people out of tens of millions on Kickstarter...
    - sevensor 9y ago
      To fleece people out of tens of millions on Kickstarter, one must first establish credibility by fleecing ordinary investors out of tens of millions. It helps to have spent some of that on paying Mark Hamill to record cutscenes for your previous space games.
  - derefr 9y ago
    Seems like 3D space rail shooters (e.g. StarFox) do okay, but nobody ever wants to make one of those. (Even the StarFox team seems to only want to make games that are at most half that, to everyone's consternation.)
hartator 9y ago
> Sit down and do some fucking work. Don’t go for a coffee, that’s not work and you know that’s not work, no you’re not ‘working from the cafe’ stop lying to yourself. Get up, get on and do some fucking work. I can relate so much to the coffee trap. Just went back from grabbing coffe. Just another to delay working.
- rydl 9y ago
  Yes, coffee and reading hn and the like. You could also say "don't procrastinate". Sure, I'll start doing this right after I read this one last post ;)
  - hartator 9y ago
    Same here! Will go back to work just after replying to you! :)
    - imglorp 9y ago
      echo 127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com >> /etc/hosts
      - selimthegrim 9y ago
        The noprocrast setting also works well. Too well.
      - Nition 9y ago
        Works nicely in the Windows hosts file too.
  - ninjakeyboard 9y ago
    Damnit you reminded me I should be working.
- swalsh 9y ago
  I have to disagree, I've started working from the quiet coffee shop near my house every once in a while. After a while I just need to get out of the house. I guess if I did it all the time, it probably wouldn't work. But sometimes I start to feel catastrophic in my home office. finding a table to work by myself has been a decent productivity booster.
enraged_camel 9y ago
>>> Don’t spend any money: Do as much as you can yourself. If you can’t afford it, don’t pay someone to make assets that you could do yourself. What’s more, do you really need to hire a full time coder? Or can you just hire a freelancer for a month? If you don’t have money, make the sound effects yourself. Nah. As a solo dev you need to spend your time efficiently. You can go to Fiverr and pay literally $5 for stuff like that. Sure, what you get won't be amazing, but it will be passable and it is pretty much guaranteed to be better than what you can create as a pure beginner. That is far more preferable to spending hours or days (or maybe even weeks) learning to do it yourself.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Alex3917 9y ago
  > That is far more preferable to spending hours or days (or maybe even weeks) learning to do it yourself. It depends whether you're trying to maximize your income over the next year or over the lifespan of your career. Investing in yourself by taking the time to learn technical skills and also develop your aesthetic taste in different areas of design is usually going to pay dividends in the longterm far beyond whatever immediate benefit you'd get by outsourcing this. Once you know how to do it yourself, then by all means find a consultant to do it for you, but until then it's just a risky shortcut that's not likely to work out.
  - fencepost 9y ago
    By all means enrich yourself and learn new things, but don't delay your game for 5 years so you can teach yourself how to draw, use proper proportions on figures, color, etc. (on your own because why pay a teacher?). Remember that you're in business, and even if you're a solo dev it's not all about you and your personal growth, it's about whether your business can deliver. The good advice from a conference this past weekend: "if I was hiring, would I hire myself to do this job?"
- jharger 9y ago
  > That is far more preferable to spending hours or days (or maybe even weeks) learning to do it yourself. Unless you are interested in learning that stuff, then it is not only cheaper (in terms of cash, but not time) but you are doing something you'll enjoy as well as learning new skills.
raamdev 9y ago
> I find it astonishing that startup indie devs pay out for an office, with all the extra bills that entails. Work from home, keep your overheads as close to zero as possible. I've been a solo dev for nearly a decade (8 years) and I found that sometimes it makes complete sense to pay for an office. Before my daughter was born, I was able to work from almost anywhere: noisy cafes, at home, the library, etc. But after she was born it was like my brain needed a space away from home where I could close a door and have a room all to myself, a place where I couldn't hear family sounds or be within walking distance of anyone I knew. I tried cafes and libraries but, oddly, they no longer worked for me—the noise and the people walking by suddenly became a huge distraction. I couldn't focus. I decided to rent a tiny artist studio for $350/mo that I found on CraigsList and it was the best $350 that I spent each month in terms of direct impact on my ability to get work done.
- johnwheeler 9y ago
  Library?
  - raamdev 9y ago
    > I tried cafes and libraries but, oddly, they no longer worked for me—the noise and the people walking by suddenly became a huge distraction.
    - devgutt 9y ago
      For me, the reason is different. I don't mind people walking or even talking nearby, but I really hate the process of pack/unpack. Before work, I need to setup the laptop, the cables, the IP to access my local server from Android, get notebooks, pens, ohh my earphones, and a lot more, only then I can jump to work for maybe 2-3 hours (I feel a little uneasy to stay longer in the cafe). If you are working alone, the bathroom is more complicated. Oh and the outlet. And internet... It doesn't work for me. Office is my only option, because I want everything ready to start immediately.
      - 9y ago
throw9966 9y ago
The best advice that I got was don't quit your full time job. My desktop sharewares dont sell that often nowadays, but its enough to pay my rent and monthly expenses. The salary that I get from my full time job goes direct to my bank untouched. > "Working from a cafe" 100% agree. For me, no work gets done from a cafe. I wonder what work people do by sitting at Starbucks. I cant write one line of code if I am being constantly distracted. Does anyone feel different ?
- jblow 9y ago
  I work in cafes most of the time and seem to get a lot done.
- ghostly_s 9y ago
  I've written tons of code in cafes. As a notorious procrastinator I find the cafe setting very helpful for avoiding the obvious distractions like Wikipedia holes, etc. I'm sure it sounds stupid to people who are more naturally focused but just the feeling that strangers _could_ be judging my use of time is pretty effective (I know I do it...I may not know why you brought your Macbook to this coffee shop but I'm pretty damn sure it wasn't to read rumours about Kim Kardashian). What I do find hard is thinking through difficult architectural problems in such a setting...often I'll spend an hour in the park with pen and paper thinking about that stuff and then hammer it out at the coffee shop. Different strokes I guess.
  - lamby 9y ago
    > the cafe setting very helpful for avoiding the obvious distractions like Wikipedia holes, Don't forget a cafe (or anywhere) is also "not home" in that -- over time -- you are conditioning yourself that a cafe is a place of work whilst your home is not. This helps one be more productive in both environs.
- steinso 9y ago
  I am very productive in a cafe environment, I like the atmosphere and it is a nice change. I just pop in some noise cancelling headphones and code away. At a cafe there is a lot of noise, but other than that there is really no distractions.
ninjakeyboard 9y ago
nice article and I almost bought your game but I don't play games on my pc :( But if I did I would - looks mint - Nice trade on experience for advertising
- erikb 9y ago
  Well huge suggestion there. Download games instead of handling disks/cartridges all the time; Use your controller (XBox, PS, individual versions all there) as you're used to; Be able to play games from indies like these or from competitions like Ludum Dare; Damn, even be able to make your own games!
  - ninjakeyboard 9y ago
    Not sure I understand. I don't have an xbox or anything. I play mobile games sometimes! It's just my personal use. I'm starting a company so I'm glad I don't but I guess I find some other distractions (such as hn)
erikb 9y ago
Now that I've experienced the start-up world twice I have to say: What's the big deal about working full time in big corp? Not all of them have cubicles and ask their devs to wear suits. T-Shirt, free coffee, huge desk, free hardware, other smart people who are just like me, reliable income, some level of attractiveness to the other gender due to stable life. Honestly I don't know why I didn't do that from the start and worked on my projects in my spare time.
- zzzcpan 9y ago
  I don't think it's possible to work as a software engineer full time and have enough mental energy to do meaningful work on your own projects in your spare time.
  - quickben 9y ago
    Sadly, you are right.
  - Mikushi 9y ago
    Agreed, I just moved to Product Management as I want to have the mental energy to work on my own stuff. While I was a full time Software Engineer I'd get some done but would be way to fried to get any real progress going.
    - lacampbell 9y ago
      How did you transition from dev to product management? I'm keen to stay in this industry, but I am thinking seriously about getting away from the coding side of things. I'm part BA at the moment.
      - Mikushi 9y ago
        Managed to find a company where the product fitted my technical knowledge, took a bit of a pay cut as well but well worth it. It's been a few months and I do not miss coding full time one bit, hell even no longer being involved deeply in tech is a breath of fresh air. I've had previous management experience (CTO in small start up, Lead Dev ...) so I managed to leverage that during my interview process, then it was mostly showing I was really interested in growing a product and see it succeed.
dennykane 9y ago
I've survived as a solo dev for the past decade by driving cabs, living on the streets (mainly West LA/Santa Monica), dumpster diving, etc, and now its starting to pay off as I conquer the world with a new kind of operating system!!! Check it out: https://linuxontheweb.appspot.com/about https://linuxontheweb.appspot.com/about
gcb0 9y ago
was the author abused by a 3d space shooting game? why pick on that genre as the holy grail of a game that won't be finished? Iam almost sure I'm missing some internal game dev joke.
- gommm 9y ago
  It's a reference to Star Citizen which is well known for the repeated delays and promises.... Or maybe a reference to No Man's Sky...
karmajunkie 9y ago
This would be more accurately titled, "I survived 10 years as a solo developer and here are the choices I made". Here's my version: 1) Craftsmen pay good money for their tools. Invest in your office space, whether its a dedicated space in your home or a coworking membership. But be honest about what tools you need. You probably don't need a $1000 aeron chair. But you do need one that's comfortable. You probably don't need that super-cool triple-panel 17" laptop Razer pumped at CES for web development. You probably do need something with enough RAM to run a few VMs sometimes. 2) Outsource everything that doesn't make you money or that you aren't good at. Taxes and bookkeeping, for example. But know enough about it so you can tell if you've hired good help there. 3) Invest in yourself. Learn some new technology at least once a year—whether thats a framework, a language, or a skill like design. Go to at least one regional conference, and at least one national conference if you can afford it. 4) Work the shit out of your network. Set a limit on how many unpaid lunch meetings you'll take to hear about other people's problems, and always try to find a way to help them even if you don't wind up taking the job. And then try to hit your limit most of the time. Farm favors like they're a cash crop. 5) Find a way to keep yourself accountable, whether that's a mentor, a coach, or an accountability partner. We all need someone to keep us honest about our motivations and rationalizations from time to time. 6) Try to exercise some self control over how many self-indulgent HN comments you make in a given period of time. :)
- ChemicalWarfare 9y ago
  >> You probably don't need a $1000 aeron chair... my most productive setup is a self-made workshop desk and a $40 craftsman workshop stool :)
  - throwanem 9y ago
    Not gonna lie, I'm in love with my Aeron at home. I've never had such a comfortable chair. But I'm building a desk from scratch to go with it - just a few more coats of polyurethane and a weekend spent getting it set up, and I'm good to go. Tips from the process: - The "get a solid core door and stick legs on it" process really works. You don't need to get fancy unless you want to - legs can be as simple as chunks of 4x4 cut to length and mounted with right-angle brackets and lag screws, and you don't need to be remotely competent at carpentry to get a solid result. (But if possible, get a door that isn't veneered, because that'll have a microscopically thin layer of wood veneer over several layers of what's basically cardboard, which is just terrible to try and work. $70 versus $300 isn't nothing, though, and you can work with a veneered door if you have to.) - Iron acetate stain really works, too, but you need to know what you're doing, and you need to test on a scratch piece of the same wood first. I let the steel wool soak about 18 hours and got a very handsome steel-gray result. Then I stupidly put on a second coat without testing, and got a medium brown that's still decent but not what I was going for. - If you don't have shop space, you can get away without it, but be prepared to put in more effort as a consequence. I'm doing all the work, including staining and sealing, in my ~600sf one-bedroom apartment's living room. A circular saw is pretty much a non-starter, but that's okay; a miter saw will go through 4x4s with enough effort, and you can hand-drill pilot holes for lag screws. (A drill press stand is preferable, though.) A dropcloth or two preserves the carpet from stain and sealer drips. The only hard part was getting an eighty-pound door up three flights of stairs - I don't want to do that again! - Iron acetate-stained wood will smell of rust to the touch forever, so you really need to seal it. General Finishes water-based polyurethane is effectively odorless; where the vinegar reek of the stain lingered for hours even with the windows open, the sealant doesn't smell at all even while it's being applied. - It's a really nice feeling to build a piece of really solid furniture out of wood with your own two hands and have it exactly meet your needs. I highly recommend it!
return0 9y ago
I find that the frequency of posts about solo entrepreneurs has increased. Are there any startups working for this niche?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
slaunchwise 9y ago
I was a solo for 10+ years. I rented an office when my kids were too little to simultaneously grasp the ideas that 1) I liked them and wanted them near me and 2) I could not actually have them near me right now. When they were old enough to understand I moved back home. It didn't make much of a difference in terms of productivity for me. One thing that did help was a sense that my workspace was both mine and a place for work. I needed to know that and no one had the right to interrupt or try and shoo me away. Public spaces never worked for me because other people had a right to them, too, and they could bring their kids or ask me questions about the nearest chair or whatever. I could concentrate better knowing that was true. It was worth money to me.
slaunchwise 9y ago
I was a solo for 10+ years. I rented an office when my kids were too little to simultaneously grasp the ideas that 1) I liked them and wanted them near me and 2) I could not actually have them near me right now. When they were old enough to understand I moved back home. It didn't make much of a difference in terms of productivity for me. One thing that did help was a sense that my workspace was both mine and a place for work. I needed to know that and no one had the right to interrupt or try and shoo me away. Public spaces never worked for me because other people had a right to them, too, and they could bring their kids or ask me questions about the nearest chair or whatever. I could concentrate better knowing that was true. It was worth money to me.
redwyvern 9y ago
Not really well written, but some of the points on not wasting money and time with BS activities and expenditures were important.
kristianp 9y ago
> Say Game1 brings in £40,000: with rent and beer and socks that’s probably two years’ salary, Be prepared to not make a huge amount of money, but you get to write games for a living.
vpresident 9y ago
Being an indie developer for 10 years feels too much for me. I mean, once you do 2-3 games and you have a little success, I think you should use that notoriety to gather more talent and assemble a team. Forget starting a startup, studio, being an entrepreneur. I say you should continue doing what you do, but instead of doing all the development yourself and outsourcing the graphics or the sound effects, just bring them in. A team of 2-3 developers, 1-2 artists, and a composer should level up faster. Watch Fullbright[1], they had amazing success together, while on their own they were.. just ok. There are any former solo devs here that could share their story? What was the next step for them? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullbright_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullbright_(company)
- tonyedgecombe 9y ago
  But then you are an employer rather than developer, not all of us want that.
jacquesm 9y ago
If you want to make it for much longer than just a decade plan for those once-every-in-10-years dry spells and accidents and SAVE. Sock money away as if your life and career depend on it, one day they will and if you don't have savings you will end up in trouble. Save 20% of your gross at a minimum, then, once you reach 100K or so of rolling reserve you can relax and start spending a bit but really try to maintain that reserve.
jmspring 9y ago
I've worked as part of a larger local remote team for a number of years. I'm dealing with customers, group meetings, or hackfests on about a 3-5 day a month basis. Outside of that, I'm fully remote. I used to have a garage office, but the last several months the coffee table is the remote office. Soma.fm queued up when I start working. I take breaks for bike rides/lunch/exercise, if I feel the need to be "social", the local brewery (more like park + brewery) has outside seating and friends are there. Solo - just gauge how much interaction you need and when you need it.

432 points by lj3 9y ago

fapjacks 9y ago

"Sit down and do some fucking work." The other stuff is just optional.

Isamu 9y ago
Indeed. "don’t be a fucking idiot, be sensible."
- fapjacks 9y ago
  My comment is about being a solo dev. You can check all the other blocks, but if you aren't actually working, you're not going anywhere.
hartator 9y ago
and don't make 3d space game I guess. :)
- douche 9y ago
  Unless you can fleece people out of tens of millions on Kickstarter...
  - sevensor 9y ago
    To fleece people out of tens of millions on Kickstarter, one must first establish credibility by fleecing ordinary investors out of tens of millions. It helps to have spent some of that on paying Mark Hamill to record cutscenes for your previous space games.
- derefr 9y ago
  Seems like 3D space rail shooters (e.g. StarFox) do okay, but nobody ever wants to make one of those. (Even the StarFox team seems to only want to make games that are at most half that, to everyone's consternation.)

hartator 9y ago

> Sit down and do some fucking work. Don’t go for a coffee, that’s not work and you know that’s not work, no you’re not ‘working from the cafe’ stop lying to yourself. Get up, get on and do some fucking work. I can relate so much to the coffee trap. Just went back from grabbing coffe. Just another to delay working.

rydl 9y ago
Yes, coffee and reading hn and the like. You could also say "don't procrastinate". Sure, I'll start doing this right after I read this one last post ;)
- hartator 9y ago
  Same here! Will go back to work just after replying to you! :)
  - imglorp 9y ago
    echo 127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com >> /etc/hosts
    - selimthegrim 9y ago
      The noprocrast setting also works well. Too well.
    - Nition 9y ago
      Works nicely in the Windows hosts file too.
- ninjakeyboard 9y ago
  Damnit you reminded me I should be working.
swalsh 9y ago
I have to disagree, I've started working from the quiet coffee shop near my house every once in a while. After a while I just need to get out of the house. I guess if I did it all the time, it probably wouldn't work. But sometimes I start to feel catastrophic in my home office. finding a table to work by myself has been a decent productivity booster.

enraged_camel 9y ago

>>> Don’t spend any money: Do as much as you can yourself. If you can’t afford it, don’t pay someone to make assets that you could do yourself. What’s more, do you really need to hire a full time coder? Or can you just hire a freelancer for a month? If you don’t have money, make the sound effects yourself. Nah. As a solo dev you need to spend your time efficiently. You can go to Fiverr and pay literally $5 for stuff like that. Sure, what you get won't be amazing, but it will be passable and it is pretty much guaranteed to be better than what you can create as a pure beginner. That is far more preferable to spending hours or days (or maybe even weeks) learning to do it yourself.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Alex3917 9y ago
> That is far more preferable to spending hours or days (or maybe even weeks) learning to do it yourself. It depends whether you're trying to maximize your income over the next year or over the lifespan of your career. Investing in yourself by taking the time to learn technical skills and also develop your aesthetic taste in different areas of design is usually going to pay dividends in the longterm far beyond whatever immediate benefit you'd get by outsourcing this. Once you know how to do it yourself, then by all means find a consultant to do it for you, but until then it's just a risky shortcut that's not likely to work out.
- fencepost 9y ago
  By all means enrich yourself and learn new things, but don't delay your game for 5 years so you can teach yourself how to draw, use proper proportions on figures, color, etc. (on your own because why pay a teacher?). Remember that you're in business, and even if you're a solo dev it's not all about you and your personal growth, it's about whether your business can deliver. The good advice from a conference this past weekend: "if I was hiring, would I hire myself to do this job?"
jharger 9y ago
> That is far more preferable to spending hours or days (or maybe even weeks) learning to do it yourself. Unless you are interested in learning that stuff, then it is not only cheaper (in terms of cash, but not time) but you are doing something you'll enjoy as well as learning new skills.

raamdev 9y ago

> I find it astonishing that startup indie devs pay out for an office, with all the extra bills that entails. Work from home, keep your overheads as close to zero as possible. I've been a solo dev for nearly a decade (8 years) and I found that sometimes it makes complete sense to pay for an office. Before my daughter was born, I was able to work from almost anywhere: noisy cafes, at home, the library, etc. But after she was born it was like my brain needed a space away from home where I could close a door and have a room all to myself, a place where I couldn't hear family sounds or be within walking distance of anyone I knew. I tried cafes and libraries but, oddly, they no longer worked for me—the noise and the people walking by suddenly became a huge distraction. I couldn't focus. I decided to rent a tiny artist studio for $350/mo that I found on CraigsList and it was the best $350 that I spent each month in terms of direct impact on my ability to get work done.

johnwheeler 9y ago
Library?
- raamdev 9y ago
  > I tried cafes and libraries but, oddly, they no longer worked for me—the noise and the people walking by suddenly became a huge distraction.
  - devgutt 9y ago
    For me, the reason is different. I don't mind people walking or even talking nearby, but I really hate the process of pack/unpack. Before work, I need to setup the laptop, the cables, the IP to access my local server from Android, get notebooks, pens, ohh my earphones, and a lot more, only then I can jump to work for maybe 2-3 hours (I feel a little uneasy to stay longer in the cafe). If you are working alone, the bathroom is more complicated. Oh and the outlet. And internet... It doesn't work for me. Office is my only option, because I want everything ready to start immediately.
    - 9y ago

throw9966 9y ago

The best advice that I got was don't quit your full time job. My desktop sharewares dont sell that often nowadays, but its enough to pay my rent and monthly expenses. The salary that I get from my full time job goes direct to my bank untouched. > "Working from a cafe" 100% agree. For me, no work gets done from a cafe. I wonder what work people do by sitting at Starbucks. I cant write one line of code if I am being constantly distracted. Does anyone feel different ?

jblow 9y ago
I work in cafes most of the time and seem to get a lot done.
ghostly_s 9y ago
I've written tons of code in cafes. As a notorious procrastinator I find the cafe setting very helpful for avoiding the obvious distractions like Wikipedia holes, etc. I'm sure it sounds stupid to people who are more naturally focused but just the feeling that strangers _could_ be judging my use of time is pretty effective (I know I do it...I may not know why you brought your Macbook to this coffee shop but I'm pretty damn sure it wasn't to read rumours about Kim Kardashian). What I do find hard is thinking through difficult architectural problems in such a setting...often I'll spend an hour in the park with pen and paper thinking about that stuff and then hammer it out at the coffee shop. Different strokes I guess.
- lamby 9y ago
  > the cafe setting very helpful for avoiding the obvious distractions like Wikipedia holes, Don't forget a cafe (or anywhere) is also "not home" in that -- over time -- you are conditioning yourself that a cafe is a place of work whilst your home is not. This helps one be more productive in both environs.
steinso 9y ago
I am very productive in a cafe environment, I like the atmosphere and it is a nice change. I just pop in some noise cancelling headphones and code away. At a cafe there is a lot of noise, but other than that there is really no distractions.

ninjakeyboard 9y ago

nice article and I almost bought your game but I don't play games on my pc :( But if I did I would - looks mint - Nice trade on experience for advertising

erikb 9y ago
Well huge suggestion there. Download games instead of handling disks/cartridges all the time; Use your controller (XBox, PS, individual versions all there) as you're used to; Be able to play games from indies like these or from competitions like Ludum Dare; Damn, even be able to make your own games!
- ninjakeyboard 9y ago
  Not sure I understand. I don't have an xbox or anything. I play mobile games sometimes! It's just my personal use. I'm starting a company so I'm glad I don't but I guess I find some other distractions (such as hn)

erikb 9y ago

Now that I've experienced the start-up world twice I have to say: What's the big deal about working full time in big corp? Not all of them have cubicles and ask their devs to wear suits. T-Shirt, free coffee, huge desk, free hardware, other smart people who are just like me, reliable income, some level of attractiveness to the other gender due to stable life. Honestly I don't know why I didn't do that from the start and worked on my projects in my spare time.

zzzcpan 9y ago
I don't think it's possible to work as a software engineer full time and have enough mental energy to do meaningful work on your own projects in your spare time.
- quickben 9y ago
  Sadly, you are right.
- Mikushi 9y ago
  Agreed, I just moved to Product Management as I want to have the mental energy to work on my own stuff. While I was a full time Software Engineer I'd get some done but would be way to fried to get any real progress going.
  - lacampbell 9y ago
    How did you transition from dev to product management? I'm keen to stay in this industry, but I am thinking seriously about getting away from the coding side of things. I'm part BA at the moment.
    - Mikushi 9y ago
      Managed to find a company where the product fitted my technical knowledge, took a bit of a pay cut as well but well worth it. It's been a few months and I do not miss coding full time one bit, hell even no longer being involved deeply in tech is a breath of fresh air. I've had previous management experience (CTO in small start up, Lead Dev ...) so I managed to leverage that during my interview process, then it was mostly showing I was really interested in growing a product and see it succeed.

dennykane 9y ago

I've survived as a solo dev for the past decade by driving cabs, living on the streets (mainly West LA/Santa Monica), dumpster diving, etc, and now its starting to pay off as I conquer the world with a new kind of operating system!!! Check it out: https://linuxontheweb.appspot.com/about https://linuxontheweb.appspot.com/about

gcb0 9y ago

was the author abused by a 3d space shooting game? why pick on that genre as the holy grail of a game that won't be finished? Iam almost sure I'm missing some internal game dev joke.

gommm 9y ago
It's a reference to Star Citizen which is well known for the repeated delays and promises.... Or maybe a reference to No Man's Sky...

karmajunkie 9y ago

This would be more accurately titled, "I survived 10 years as a solo developer and here are the choices I made". Here's my version: 1) Craftsmen pay good money for their tools. Invest in your office space, whether its a dedicated space in your home or a coworking membership. But be honest about what tools you need. You probably don't need a $1000 aeron chair. But you do need one that's comfortable. You probably don't need that super-cool triple-panel 17" laptop Razer pumped at CES for web development. You probably do need something with enough RAM to run a few VMs sometimes. 2) Outsource everything that doesn't make you money or that you aren't good at. Taxes and bookkeeping, for example. But know enough about it so you can tell if you've hired good help there. 3) Invest in yourself. Learn some new technology at least once a year—whether thats a framework, a language, or a skill like design. Go to at least one regional conference, and at least one national conference if you can afford it. 4) Work the shit out of your network. Set a limit on how many unpaid lunch meetings you'll take to hear about other people's problems, and always try to find a way to help them even if you don't wind up taking the job. And then try to hit your limit most of the time. Farm favors like they're a cash crop. 5) Find a way to keep yourself accountable, whether that's a mentor, a coach, or an accountability partner. We all need someone to keep us honest about our motivations and rationalizations from time to time. 6) Try to exercise some self control over how many self-indulgent HN comments you make in a given period of time. :)

ChemicalWarfare 9y ago
>> You probably don't need a $1000 aeron chair... my most productive setup is a self-made workshop desk and a $40 craftsman workshop stool :)
- throwanem 9y ago
  Not gonna lie, I'm in love with my Aeron at home. I've never had such a comfortable chair. But I'm building a desk from scratch to go with it - just a few more coats of polyurethane and a weekend spent getting it set up, and I'm good to go. Tips from the process: - The "get a solid core door and stick legs on it" process really works. You don't need to get fancy unless you want to - legs can be as simple as chunks of 4x4 cut to length and mounted with right-angle brackets and lag screws, and you don't need to be remotely competent at carpentry to get a solid result. (But if possible, get a door that isn't veneered, because that'll have a microscopically thin layer of wood veneer over several layers of what's basically cardboard, which is just terrible to try and work. $70 versus $300 isn't nothing, though, and you can work with a veneered door if you have to.) - Iron acetate stain really works, too, but you need to know what you're doing, and you need to test on a scratch piece of the same wood first. I let the steel wool soak about 18 hours and got a very handsome steel-gray result. Then I stupidly put on a second coat without testing, and got a medium brown that's still decent but not what I was going for. - If you don't have shop space, you can get away without it, but be prepared to put in more effort as a consequence. I'm doing all the work, including staining and sealing, in my ~600sf one-bedroom apartment's living room. A circular saw is pretty much a non-starter, but that's okay; a miter saw will go through 4x4s with enough effort, and you can hand-drill pilot holes for lag screws. (A drill press stand is preferable, though.) A dropcloth or two preserves the carpet from stain and sealer drips. The only hard part was getting an eighty-pound door up three flights of stairs - I don't want to do that again! - Iron acetate-stained wood will smell of rust to the touch forever, so you really need to seal it. General Finishes water-based polyurethane is effectively odorless; where the vinegar reek of the stain lingered for hours even with the windows open, the sealant doesn't smell at all even while it's being applied. - It's a really nice feeling to build a piece of really solid furniture out of wood with your own two hands and have it exactly meet your needs. I highly recommend it!

return0 9y ago

I find that the frequency of posts about solo entrepreneurs has increased. Are there any startups working for this niche?

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

slaunchwise 9y ago

I was a solo for 10+ years. I rented an office when my kids were too little to simultaneously grasp the ideas that 1) I liked them and wanted them near me and 2) I could not actually have them near me right now. When they were old enough to understand I moved back home. It didn't make much of a difference in terms of productivity for me. One thing that did help was a sense that my workspace was both mine and a place for work. I needed to know that and no one had the right to interrupt or try and shoo me away. Public spaces never worked for me because other people had a right to them, too, and they could bring their kids or ask me questions about the nearest chair or whatever. I could concentrate better knowing that was true. It was worth money to me.

slaunchwise 9y ago

redwyvern 9y ago

Not really well written, but some of the points on not wasting money and time with BS activities and expenditures were important.

kristianp 9y ago

> Say Game1 brings in £40,000: with rent and beer and socks that’s probably two years’ salary, Be prepared to not make a huge amount of money, but you get to write games for a living.

vpresident 9y ago

Being an indie developer for 10 years feels too much for me. I mean, once you do 2-3 games and you have a little success, I think you should use that notoriety to gather more talent and assemble a team. Forget starting a startup, studio, being an entrepreneur. I say you should continue doing what you do, but instead of doing all the development yourself and outsourcing the graphics or the sound effects, just bring them in. A team of 2-3 developers, 1-2 artists, and a composer should level up faster. Watch Fullbright[1], they had amazing success together, while on their own they were.. just ok. There are any former solo devs here that could share their story? What was the next step for them? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullbright_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullbright_(company)

tonyedgecombe 9y ago
But then you are an employer rather than developer, not all of us want that.

jacquesm 9y ago

If you want to make it for much longer than just a decade plan for those once-every-in-10-years dry spells and accidents and SAVE. Sock money away as if your life and career depend on it, one day they will and if you don't have savings you will end up in trouble. Save 20% of your gross at a minimum, then, once you reach 100K or so of rolling reserve you can relax and start spending a bit but really try to maintain that reserve.

jmspring 9y ago

I've worked as part of a larger local remote team for a number of years. I'm dealing with customers, group meetings, or hackfests on about a 3-5 day a month basis. Outside of that, I'm fully remote. I used to have a garage office, but the last several months the coffee table is the remote office. Soma.fm queued up when I start working. I take breaks for bike rides/lunch/exercise, if I feel the need to be "social", the local brewery (more like park + brewery) has outside seating and friends are there. Solo - just gauge how much interaction you need and when you need it.