5 ms·

I started a small "no-name" studio to build games handful of years ago. Built and released two games thus far -- SimAirport & SimCasino. I'd potentially be int

I started a small "no-name" studio to build games handful of years ago. Built and released two games thus far -- SimAirport & SimCasino. I'd potentially be interested, my email is in profile if you'd like to reach out. :)

capableweb 4y ago
Funny to come across you here! I've played lots of SimAirport since something like 2017 I think, somewhere around the initial version available on Steam. Thanks a lot for providing countless of fun hours managing an airport :)
- adanto6840 4y ago
  It's incredibly rewarding & gratifying to hear that, thank you! I still firmly believe that making games -- especially under an "old-school" business model (ie no loot-boxes, no microTX, etc) -- has to rank extremely high on the "work gratification" scale. I'm obviously super small -- but it's AWESOME to know >80k people have played SimAirport for >20 hours and ~20k have played >100hrs (!!) -- so damn rewarding!
ChicagoBoy11 4y ago
I just took a peak at SimAirport... just insane. As someone whose coding has amount to little else but a few small webapps here and there, it completely and utterly boggles my mind that a single person would be able to accomplish something like that. I was aware of the RollerCoaster Tycoon person, but I figured that was an abherration. Completely amazing and awe-inspiring. How on Earth do you get going on something like this?!?!
- rolha-capoeira 4y ago
  Well, 1) we have no idea how long it took to develop SimAirport. I'd be curious to know! And 2) Rollercoaster Tycoon IS an aberration, since it was written in Assembly by one person!
  - ChicagoBoy11 4y ago
    r/suddenlycaralho ?
- adanto6840 4y ago
  Initially, thought it would be easy -- it's all simple logic, right? Will be far less tedious & mundane than doing web/app development, right? Haha. I was in for quite the rude awakening, but luckily the challenges ended up being a pleasant and enjoyable surprise (at least on the whole). Lots of work is the answer, though. We actually got to Early Access release in ~11 months (~20 man-months). We had to learn a new programming language & learn a game engine during that time, too (and learn what a game engine really was/what it meant). Really though, I think the most difficult (and important) part was more about learning the nuances of game development, even just understanding the (understandably high) UX expectations that a player has from a game -- it took a while to really "get there" and I'm still learning, every day. It's also worth mentioning that SimAirport was really not very good when we initially released it -- definitely rushed to release, far too early, and it was a mess at that point. After the EA release another ~3yr of full-time development went into it (and more dev resources), and it became a much better game/product in that time. I wish I could work on SimAirport forever. That's the downside with the games industry; it's ultra competitive and the amount of competition is increasing every day. Much of "the money" is heavily concentrated at the "top" of the pyramid, amongst a relatively small selection of titles. It's not the easy way, I can say that with confidence.
cfiggers 4y ago
Every time I go through an airport the thought occurs to me that it could make for a really cool sim game. I will check yours out!
maxencecornet 4y ago
Your games looks really good. Do you handle art + programming by ourself ? As someone that would like to create my own (basic) games, what would be the right tools and frameworks In your opinion to create art and game logic ? The easier to learn the better haha
- sgtnoodle 4y ago
  Ultimately you just need to pick a goal and then struggle any way you can to achieve it. Python with the pygame package is a rather approachable way to get pixels up on the screen.
hnthrowaway0315 4y ago
Looking good. Do you agree with the 1:20 review:sales ratio? BTW plz ignore if you don't want to disclose thanks.
- adanto6840 4y ago
  I think that the ratio has substantial variance; it has also changed over time, somewhat dramatically, as Valve/Steam have made changes & added features/UI/UX that I suspect are intended to increase the % of users who leave reviews. About 5 years ago, the belief was that the ratio was in the realm of 1 : 50-100 -- based on my own data & data shared with me by other indies. Even then, there was substantial variance; genre, theme, price point, developer involvement, discounts, review score (proxy for player experience/overall game quality), etc -- were some of the key variables that I believed were having a significant impact on review-to-sales ratio variance between games. Over time, changes to the UX have been made (by Valve/Steam) which appear to have increased the rate at which players leave reviews -- quite substantially, it seems. On the whole, I think that a far higher percentage of players are leaving reviews now (ie a lower review-to-sale ratio), but I also believe that the variance is even higher now than it was before. It's still helpful for making estimates, but I don't think it's as highly-correlated as it once was (~5yr ago it was much more consistent & highly correlative).
  - hnthrowaway0315 4y ago
    Thanks for sharing. Yeah I agree that the "you have played X hours, do you want to leave a review" dialog really pushes me to add a lot of reviews.
101008 4y ago
I loved SimAirport - probably the only game that I got obsessive. I usually abandon sim videogames after a few minutes. I love aiports and I like casinos, so it may be a bad idea to download the second one, ha. Congratulations and thank you for the good times!
- adanto6840 4y ago
  Thank you! :)
DonHopkins 4y ago
Arthur, I enjoyed playing your early version of SimAirport, and I'm glad you finished and released it -- that's excellent work and persistence! Will Wright always wanted to make a game called "SimTapeworm", however he could never get the green light on that from Maxis or EA. I hold out hope that some clever indie developer will figure out how to monetize the serious educational parasitic infection simulation genre. Maybe you could make a plug-in to SimAirport, so parasites and contagious diseases could spread internationally via Vomit Waves like in Theme Hospital and Two Point Hospital and Oxygen Not Included. https://two-point-hospital.fandom.com/wiki/Big_Kahuna:_How_to_Avoid_or_Overcome_a_Vomit_Wave https://two-point-hospital.fandom.com/wiki/Big_Kahuna:_How_t... https://youtu.be/Z7XCXq8j4iA?t=1402 https://youtu.be/Z7XCXq8j4iA?t=1402 Or how about Toxocariasis Tycoon, where you try to take over the world by controlling your hosts' behavior to widely reproduce and spread out through enough people to swing the election and control the government?
- adanto6840 4y ago
  I always enjoy seeing your posts on HN; I'm honored that you played the early versions of SA (and admittedly a little embarrassed at how rough & unpolished it was back then). Really appreciate the kind words, means a lot coming from you -- thank you! I don't remember if we actually shipped it or not, maybe it was only on a beta branch (or maybe it's sitting on a git branch still), but I actually implemented an "infectious disease" concept at one point. I think the idea at the time was for it to be a holiday "easter egg" maybe, but I don't recall for sure. I do vividly recall testing it one morning, though, and I had the "contagion" values (way) too high. I'm pretty sure the concept was wholly taken from Theme Park, where I recall one post-coaster puking agent could yield a rapid mess. The day I was testing my copy, I ended up making a video of the hilarity that ensued when a single infected passenger deplaned and suddenly there were hundreds (maybe thousands) of agents (passengers) all "stumbling around" spreading the ultra-contagious disease like wildfire, making a disgusting sound & leaving the floors covered with ick. I'll have to search the repo history -- maybe it's worth revisiting! A disease tycoon, eh? Like SimAnt, but on a wholly different scale? =D Would love to connect if you're ever in Vegas! Thanks again for the kind words, makes my day & sincerely means a lot to me. :)

capableweb 4y ago

Funny to come across you here! I've played lots of SimAirport since something like 2017 I think, somewhere around the initial version available on Steam. Thanks a lot for providing countless of fun hours managing an airport :)

adanto6840 4y ago
It's incredibly rewarding & gratifying to hear that, thank you! I still firmly believe that making games -- especially under an "old-school" business model (ie no loot-boxes, no microTX, etc) -- has to rank extremely high on the "work gratification" scale. I'm obviously super small -- but it's AWESOME to know >80k people have played SimAirport for >20 hours and ~20k have played >100hrs (!!) -- so damn rewarding!

ChicagoBoy11 4y ago

I just took a peak at SimAirport... just insane. As someone whose coding has amount to little else but a few small webapps here and there, it completely and utterly boggles my mind that a single person would be able to accomplish something like that. I was aware of the RollerCoaster Tycoon person, but I figured that was an abherration. Completely amazing and awe-inspiring. How on Earth do you get going on something like this?!?!

rolha-capoeira 4y ago
Well, 1) we have no idea how long it took to develop SimAirport. I'd be curious to know! And 2) Rollercoaster Tycoon IS an aberration, since it was written in Assembly by one person!
- ChicagoBoy11 4y ago
  r/suddenlycaralho ?
adanto6840 4y ago
Initially, thought it would be easy -- it's all simple logic, right? Will be far less tedious & mundane than doing web/app development, right? Haha. I was in for quite the rude awakening, but luckily the challenges ended up being a pleasant and enjoyable surprise (at least on the whole). Lots of work is the answer, though. We actually got to Early Access release in ~11 months (~20 man-months). We had to learn a new programming language & learn a game engine during that time, too (and learn what a game engine really was/what it meant). Really though, I think the most difficult (and important) part was more about learning the nuances of game development, even just understanding the (understandably high) UX expectations that a player has from a game -- it took a while to really "get there" and I'm still learning, every day. It's also worth mentioning that SimAirport was really not very good when we initially released it -- definitely rushed to release, far too early, and it was a mess at that point. After the EA release another ~3yr of full-time development went into it (and more dev resources), and it became a much better game/product in that time. I wish I could work on SimAirport forever. That's the downside with the games industry; it's ultra competitive and the amount of competition is increasing every day. Much of "the money" is heavily concentrated at the "top" of the pyramid, amongst a relatively small selection of titles. It's not the easy way, I can say that with confidence.

cfiggers 4y ago

Every time I go through an airport the thought occurs to me that it could make for a really cool sim game. I will check yours out!

maxencecornet 4y ago

Your games looks really good. Do you handle art + programming by ourself ? As someone that would like to create my own (basic) games, what would be the right tools and frameworks In your opinion to create art and game logic ? The easier to learn the better haha

sgtnoodle 4y ago
Ultimately you just need to pick a goal and then struggle any way you can to achieve it. Python with the pygame package is a rather approachable way to get pixels up on the screen.

hnthrowaway0315 4y ago

Looking good. Do you agree with the 1:20 review:sales ratio? BTW plz ignore if you don't want to disclose thanks.

adanto6840 4y ago
I think that the ratio has substantial variance; it has also changed over time, somewhat dramatically, as Valve/Steam have made changes & added features/UI/UX that I suspect are intended to increase the % of users who leave reviews. About 5 years ago, the belief was that the ratio was in the realm of 1 : 50-100 -- based on my own data & data shared with me by other indies. Even then, there was substantial variance; genre, theme, price point, developer involvement, discounts, review score (proxy for player experience/overall game quality), etc -- were some of the key variables that I believed were having a significant impact on review-to-sales ratio variance between games. Over time, changes to the UX have been made (by Valve/Steam) which appear to have increased the rate at which players leave reviews -- quite substantially, it seems. On the whole, I think that a far higher percentage of players are leaving reviews now (ie a lower review-to-sale ratio), but I also believe that the variance is even higher now than it was before. It's still helpful for making estimates, but I don't think it's as highly-correlated as it once was (~5yr ago it was much more consistent & highly correlative).
- hnthrowaway0315 4y ago
  Thanks for sharing. Yeah I agree that the "you have played X hours, do you want to leave a review" dialog really pushes me to add a lot of reviews.

101008 4y ago

I loved SimAirport - probably the only game that I got obsessive. I usually abandon sim videogames after a few minutes. I love aiports and I like casinos, so it may be a bad idea to download the second one, ha. Congratulations and thank you for the good times!

adanto6840 4y ago
Thank you! :)

DonHopkins 4y ago

Arthur, I enjoyed playing your early version of SimAirport, and I'm glad you finished and released it -- that's excellent work and persistence! Will Wright always wanted to make a game called "SimTapeworm", however he could never get the green light on that from Maxis or EA. I hold out hope that some clever indie developer will figure out how to monetize the serious educational parasitic infection simulation genre. Maybe you could make a plug-in to SimAirport, so parasites and contagious diseases could spread internationally via Vomit Waves like in Theme Hospital and Two Point Hospital and Oxygen Not Included. https://two-point-hospital.fandom.com/wiki/Big_Kahuna:_How_to_Avoid_or_Overcome_a_Vomit_Wave https://two-point-hospital.fandom.com/wiki/Big_Kahuna:_How_t... https://youtu.be/Z7XCXq8j4iA?t=1402 https://youtu.be/Z7XCXq8j4iA?t=1402 Or how about Toxocariasis Tycoon, where you try to take over the world by controlling your hosts' behavior to widely reproduce and spread out through enough people to swing the election and control the government?

adanto6840 4y ago
I always enjoy seeing your posts on HN; I'm honored that you played the early versions of SA (and admittedly a little embarrassed at how rough & unpolished it was back then). Really appreciate the kind words, means a lot coming from you -- thank you! I don't remember if we actually shipped it or not, maybe it was only on a beta branch (or maybe it's sitting on a git branch still), but I actually implemented an "infectious disease" concept at one point. I think the idea at the time was for it to be a holiday "easter egg" maybe, but I don't recall for sure. I do vividly recall testing it one morning, though, and I had the "contagion" values (way) too high. I'm pretty sure the concept was wholly taken from Theme Park, where I recall one post-coaster puking agent could yield a rapid mess. The day I was testing my copy, I ended up making a video of the hilarity that ensued when a single infected passenger deplaned and suddenly there were hundreds (maybe thousands) of agents (passengers) all "stumbling around" spreading the ultra-contagious disease like wildfire, making a disgusting sound & leaving the floors covered with ick. I'll have to search the repo history -- maybe it's worth revisiting! A disease tycoon, eh? Like SimAnt, but on a wholly different scale? =D Would love to connect if you're ever in Vegas! Thanks again for the kind words, makes my day & sincerely means a lot to me. :)