10 ms·

Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

• somenameforme 2y ago
  How did you go about choosing a publisher? What stood out about Raw Fury? If you were making another game now do you think you would go with a publisher again?
• oscord 2y ago
  Congrats!
• billconan 2y ago
  Congratulations! The game looks amazing—its quality is truly impressive. I'm currently feeling burned out. I have an app idea and a prototype that I believe could turn into a viable project to support myself. However, I don't have the courage to quit my job—I’m afraid of the anxiety that comes with paying rent and insurance without a steady paycheck. I do have some savings to sustain me for a while, but I'm unsure if taking a break to recharge, learn new things, and build something I'm passionate about (which could potentially become profitable) is a good idea? I'm also worried about how a long gap on my resume might be perceived when I look for a job in the future. I'm also interested in making video games, but I often get discouraged by the sheer amount of artwork required—something I struggle to handle and afford. How did you manage the artwork side of your project?
  • newobj 2y ago
    Thanks Bill :) I can relate to the first thing you mentioned, and I never really took action. Layoff was thrust upon me, with the privilege of a severance, and I had been working for decades, so I figured "why not try now?" I'm not sure if I ever would have been brave enough to proactively try, but that's just me. Video games in particular are brutal, economically, and not something I would ever recommend someone take a risk on in hopes of a payday. Regarding art: don't get distracted by art. The original prototype of Ballionaire was made using Twemoji -- you can see a video of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwIwcGewZME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwIwcGewZME Later I switched from Twemoji to images sourced from https://www.flaticon.com/ https://www.flaticon.com/ When I signed a publisher, I was lucky enough for them to hook me up with an in-house artist. I knew the style I wanted (the style you see in the game) and luckily the artist Hanja absolutely nailed it. I would recommend avoiding art as long as possible if it's not your strength. You will go much further on making something feel really fun then making art that's one click above terrible. If you get traction, the art can come later. For future prototypes I am working on straight up text mode (or near to it, in like stock Godot UI) right now.
    • billconan 2y ago
      Thank you for the helpful tips! How do you gain traction or test an early prototype? Is finding a publisher more like job hunting (where there is a standard application process) or pitching to a VC (where you need to be social and build up connections)?
  • newobj 2y ago
    btw this was the moodboard I put together for the artist -- https://www.canva.com/design/DAF1ZIStuTY/j66Hl6xPyMNU6cfRsw2Cqw/edit https://www.canva.com/design/DAF1ZIStuTY/j66Hl6xPyMNU6cfRsw2... imho even if you can't make art, it's good to have inspirations for a coherent vision that hopefully you'll be able to articulate to someone!
    • billconan 2y ago
      Adventure Time! No wonder the art style feels familiar and lovable.
• jmcgough 2y ago
  Congrats, I've seen a few people playing this lately :)
• switz 2y ago
  200,000 units is a far cry from just a 'minor hit' - congratulations! During the project, what was the biggest instinct you had that was ultimately validated by its success, but still surprised you? What was a lesson you learned that you didn't expect? How was working with a publisher? What did they do right and what did they do wrong?
  • newobj 2y ago
    Honest answer? Dancing stick figure guy on the title screen. I did it very early in the project, in a fugue state at 3am. It lingered and lingered there, with ppl wondering "Is this real? Is this the actual title screen?" and luckily by the end I think everyone had drank enough psychedelic koolaid to agree - stick figure man stays. The artist made some better art for his hands/feet, and that was that. He's divisive, but everybody at least remembers him :) Lesson learned that I didn't expect - hmm. Ah, one good one: I spent a LOT of time worrying about stuff being "OP" or degenerately good. Well, turns out, people like OP stuff, or degenerately good stuff, at least in single player score attack games. My biggest lesson learned on the project: people experience your game individually. If they find something broken, in their head, they are the one to have found something broken, and it feels good. You don't have to design for the entire community at once. Don't over-balance your game. Embrace the jank.
    • redeux 2y ago
      > Embrace the jank Love this! I wish you would be been involved with the release team for Helldivers II.
    • Waterluvian 2y ago
      The minute I read “dancing stick figure” I knew exactly what game we’re talking about. I’m not a stoner and am not really into stoner culture but I’ve watched that figure dance for like 10 mins once, entranced by it. I dunno what exactly it is, but it’s just an absolute home run. I’m not joking, I’d pay for an app that’s literally just that guy dancing to some music.
    • _ache_ 2y ago
• bobsmooth 2y ago
  You do the art yourself or did you hire someone? How did that go?
  • newobj 2y ago
    I wish I could draw like that! The artist is Hanja Grgičević and she works for a sister dev company of the publisher Raw Fury. I gave Hanja my mood board (https://www.canva.com/design/DAF1ZIStuTY/j66Hl6xPyMNU6cfRsw2Cqw/edit https://www.canva.com/design/DAF1ZIStuTY/j66Hl6xPyMNU6cfRsw2...) and we iterated from there. I'm so happy with her work :)
• MrLeap 2y ago
  Damn nice. Love seeing indies make it! I hope for a small fraction of your level of success when I finally ship Tentacle Typer.
  • newobj 2y ago
    Wishlisted! I love the premise and the look of your game! Good luck!!
    • MrLeap 2y ago
      Thank you!
• fdlaks 2y ago
  Looks awesome, congrats on your success 200k sales is a huge achievement! What factors led you to seeking out a publisher, was it mostly getting art for the game or did the publisher bring more to the table that made you decide it was worth it? What advice would you have given yourself just starting out knowing what you do now? What did you get stuck on the most when making the game? I know a lot of people who have great ideas for games but a lot of the ideas don't translate well into being able to realistically do them in the game because of complexity. Did you ever have ideas that you thought would be really cool to do but it ended up being too hard / time consuming to do? How close was the functionality of the game when you released it to what you had envisioned at the start? Did you go through any major design changes while developing it?
• monideas 2y ago
  You should make a youtube series or a long series of blog posts explaining your journey from a personal perspective, the emotional ups and downs on working on this instead of getting a new job, from a technical perspective, and from a business perspective. What types of skills did you have to learn, what were the technical challenges, what pieces of code are you particularly proud of. What was your marketing strategy?
  • KaiserPro 2y ago
    That might be challenging as large companies tend to hit people with strong NDAs which means that any reference to time at $company would need to be approved by $company. IF you don't do this then you might be rinsed by the court.
    • sarchertech 2y ago
      That’s not a thing. I’m not sure where you heard that. Large companies definitely don’t try to prohibit you from telling people you worked there.
      • devsda 2y ago
        > Large companies definitely don’t try to prohibit you from telling people you worked there. They don't. But they do sometimes prohibit talking/writing about their work, the nature of it or anything remotely connected to it. My current employer explicitly prohibits us from blogging about technical topics, creating learning material or even teaching anyone on technical subjects(e.g. on weekends at nearby school) outside the job for free/money.
        • sarchertech 2y ago
          That’s not very common either. I’ve never signed anything like that in 20 years in the industry (worked everywhere from tiny startups to very large tech companies). In the case where your company does have a policy that that prohibits you from discussing the nature of your work, it’s likely completely unenforceable beyond them firing firing you. The prohibition from teaching or blogging is definitely unenforceable.
• rustyspacecadet 2y ago
  what engine did you use? anything you would you have done differently in hindsight?
  • newobj 2y ago
    Godot 4.2 with C#. Done differently? Hmm. It was an intense duration of work and I set a firm deadline for myself of EOY 2024 to avoid it dragging out into a longer-than-it-should-be project. Gaining design skills along the way, I could make better use of the same amount of time now, just by being a better designer. But that's not hindsight. There were trade-offs in that aggressive schedule, and a lot of triaging. One of the things that probably could have used a little more time in the oven, perhaps trading off against content, was the meta progression. I wasn't in love with what shipped, and it seems to be the main criticism of the game, besides RNG. It's something I may still potentially address in a patch though.
• posnet 2y ago
  I realise you can make games in any language/engine. But could you explain the language/system/engine you used? How did you go about validating the game is fun? Did you end up having an intuitive sense for it, or did you need external feedback to refine the mechanics? My steam deck might as well be a billionaire/balatro machine.
  • newobj 2y ago
    Godot 4.2 / C#. Godot is an amazing engine and I highly recommend it for indie devs. The iteration cycle is a few seconds. IMHO, using Unity will absolutely slow you down, as a designer/programmer. I can't comment on the reality of a 3d game with a complicated art pipeline, however. But for a game like Ballionaire, Unity or Unreal would have been a mistake. Ballionaire was fun by day 3, the first time a ball dropped and hit a trigger that caused an effect. It was luck a bolt of lightning to me. I am a VERY pessimistic person. So the fact that it felt compelling that early, and like, anyone who saw it could understand it and felt the fun, was a huge sign to me. Unfortunately, not every game has a premise that allows for that. I don't think you could hope for the same kind of feeling while making a 4X for example. But if you're making a game that ultimately should feel fun from moment to moment, like these kind of quick-play games are, well, I think you can get there quickly and with little work, if the idea is solid. And if you can't get it to feel fun, I would be wondering if the idea is solid, versus it needing more time/polish etc.
    • protocolture 2y ago
      >I can't comment on the reality of a 3d game with a complicated art pipeline, however. But for a game like Ballionaire, Unity or Unreal would have been a mistake. Going from Zero to Working 3d Game is very quick in Unity as long as you do everything the Unity way. Going from Zero to Working 3d Game if you need to create functionality from scratch in Unity is a heartbreaker. I am actually planning to take one of my old projects and rebuild it from scratch in Godot, for exactly this reason.
    • havercosine 2y ago
      A fellow Godot enthusiast here. Love to see Godot being used in commercially successful indie game like this. In 2021-22 time, I tried (unsuccessfully!) building educational video games for maths using Godot and I have fond memories of being in the flow state while working with Godot. IMO Godot fits well with programmer's brain much better than Unity etc.
• knuppar 2y ago
  Congrats on the game! Did you ever do game jams at all with the original idea or was this a larger project from the start? And a more realistic-adult question lol: how did you handle not having insurance from your workplace after severance?
  • newobj 2y ago
    Thank you! I absolutely suck at game jams. Like, really bad. Ballionaire is the one time a gamejam (https://itch.io/jam/eggjam-20 https://itch.io/jam/eggjam-20) went right for me (good idea, microscopic scope) - you can see a video from about ~10 days into development here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwIwcGewZME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwIwcGewZME Normally I either scope way too big, or scope small and lose motivation because the idea is too itty bitty to maintain motivation. I have no idea how to hit the sweet spot more frequently. Some people are just really good at this, but not me. For insurance: private insurance via ACA/Obamacare. I had savings.
• rustyspacecadet 2y ago
  what engine did you use? what's the best advice if someone wants to go down the same route?
  • pier25 2y ago
    Godot
• vishalontheline 2y ago
  Very cool! - What choices did you make to give yourself more time to work on this project? - At what point did you begin getting feedback of some sort? - Were there clearly things you wished to include in the game but had to cut out in the interest of time? How did you decide what would be "good enough"?
  • newobj 2y ago
    I very explicitly, with my family's support, set up the expectation that the game was my #1 priority in 2024. I only took one small vacation, during which I still worked. My wife and I would watch one 30 minute tv show at night, and do the crossword in the morning, and other than that, aside from meal time, the expectation was that I would be working on the game by default (not that I worked non-stop, just that the default was "the game"). It was fully 7 days a week for like 30% of the project. Involuntarily, I sacrificed exercise and diet too :( I just couldn't manage the discipline. I also absolutely annihilated the quality of my sleep. I got feedback from my wife within a few days, the first time she saw the game. Even she, a non-gamer, could tell that there was something compelling about the idea. And if you look at an above response, you'll see that I explained that the prototype, about a month into dev, go streamed to thousands of people. The feedback was VERY early and very positive. I wouldn't have been brave enough to keep at it otherwise, knowing myself. I wish meta progression was better, what shipped was a compromise with respect to time. "Good enough" was just purely just vibes and an editorial eye. No articulable criteria. Just a lot of vibes and trusting my intuition (a skill I gained verrrrrrry late in life)
• flunhat 2y ago
  Congratulations! How did you get the process started for distributing your game? Were there any early channels for marketing you found particularly effective?
• tombert 2y ago
  Out of curiosity, what kind of margins do you get when you sell a game on Steam? Like, what percentage of a sale ends up in your bank account (pre-taxes). Also, how do Steam sales affect that? Congrats on making a game to completion, and doubly so for making something that gets fairly popular. Making a real game has been on my bucket list for about as long as I've known how to program, and I haven't completely given up on it, but I would need to make friends with someone who knows how to do art and music.
  • brianwawok 2y ago
    Generic steam fee is 30%
  • echoangle 2y ago
    Steam takes 30% and the publisher ( https://rawfury.com/developer-resources/ https://rawfury.com/developer-resources/ ) takes 50%, so the dev should end up with 35% of revenue (which then needs to be taxed etc.).
    • stickfigure 2y ago
      Maybe a dumb question but... in the age of Steam, what does the publisher do these days? Advance funding? What do those numbers look like?
      • shakna 2y ago
        Most of the marketing will come from the publisher. It's easy for a game not to be noticed, and to crater thanks to no audience. The publisher runs the early and mid ad campaigns.
      • teamonkey 2y ago
        Depends on the deal. Promotion and fronting of cash are the big ones (usually). They can usually also offer various development services (testing, translation, porting, getting special deals with platform holders). They can also act as a stakeholder for quality, advising on certain things that should be improved (as an editor would in book publishing).
• pier25 2y ago
  Congrats! This game looks amazing.
  • newobj 2y ago
    Thank you! :)
• dylanz 2y ago
  I haven't played your game but I've watched a ton of Real Civil Engineer's videos on it. It looks like a blast and I love watching his videos. How did you get into game development? Congratulations on the success!
  • newobj 2y ago
    I started trying to make games as soon as I got an Apple //c when I was like 9 years old. I went to MSFT out of college but quit to work on games like a year into it. My first games job was at Monolith (RIP as of yesterday) and was there for ~4 years, then I helped S2 Games ship "Savage: Battle for Newerth, but then went into FAANG for like 20 years. I always wanted to come back to gamedev. Glad I got the chance :)
• leetrout 2y ago
  Oh neat! I wishlisted it when it came out but was heavy into balatro, slay the spire and the diceomancer demo but I will pick it up soon. Curious if you would be up for recording a podcast about the project? I love to pick people's brains about stuff like this. I recorded one with Ange the Great about his creation of Engine Simulator, for example.
  • newobj 2y ago
    Yeah, I'm open to podcasts! I did one with openindie already: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/openindie/episodes/33---Ballionaire---newobject---USA-e2qp7pn https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/openindie/episodes/33-... (dm me on bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/newobject.bsky.social https://bsky.app/profile/newobject.bsky.social)
• WCSTombs 2y ago
  Congratulations! That's a huge accomplishment, and not something I'd call "minor." When I think about game development, these are the skills and types of work that come to mind: - software development - game design - graphical art - musical composition - writing - marketing and promotion and I'm sure there's more that I'm missing. I'd be very curious to know how you navigated through all of that...like did you start on one end, like with a game engine, and then fill in the rest, or was it more of a holistic iterative process? I hope that's not too broad of a question, but frankly I'd appreciate any insights you can share.
• compscistd 2y ago
  I had to stop playing for a while because the music really got stuck in my head. What a fantastic game though, it really is so fun. The "Woooow" at some upgrades always make me chuckle. I'll definitely come back to it soon.
  • newobj 2y ago
    haha the "wooow" was very last second, and meant to kind of be ... "snide" ... watching streamers play it and saw "wooow" along with him every time absolutely delights me to no end.
• pineapple_sauce 2y ago
  Why did you go with a publisher rather than publishing it yourself?
• isaacremuant 2y ago
  Congratulations. Looks fun and one of those "omg, I've spent so much time on this" kind of game. Can you expand in the part of talking to publishers. How did you approach it, how much previous context did you have, how did you evaluate what was good vs not. I know what mobile game publishers ask for but not desktop/steam ones. Any advice? (Not that I'm making games but just curious what form it actually takes)
  • SXX 2y ago
    Not author, but fellow indie gamedev founder. Already answered one similar question in comments, but here is usual process of choosing publishers: 1 - You need to decide whatever you looking for a funding and how much you need. No matter where you're located majority of indie publishers operate with budgets under $300,000. AFAIK there is under 30-50 companies that can even provide funding over $1,000,000. 2 - Even big publishers dont like to take risks. So if you're self-funded or have investor your chances to sign publishing agreement are much higher since then publisher risks almost nothing. 3 - You go and check what games each publisher release on Steam and check how much marketing there are for their titles. "Good" publishers usually only release 1 game a month or less since marketing is both time consuming and costly. So obviously it's much harder to get selected. 4 - There are "spray and pray" publishers that can even give you some money easier than others, but they sometimes release 3-10 titles a month and just look what sticks. They mostly dont do marketing before release whatsoever so it's not exactly an optimal choice unless you working on a games that can be built cheap and under 6 month. 5 - When you start any negotiations normal net revenue split after budget recouperation is around 50/50 (with 40 / 60 both ways also possible). So you can filter out those who try to pray on inexperienced people. 6 - Also unless you getting serious funding (not $300,000) publishers usually only get exclusive distribution license on your specific title for 3-5 years, but they dont get your IP. If some small publisher ask for full IP transfer it's not a good deal. And yeah to reach out you only need at playable and fun prototype for 5-15 minutes of gameplay, but if your game is closer to release it's will drastically increase your chances for a deal. Everyone loves to publish games with no funding needed and no one loves to fund development with risk it will never be completed. Getting published by likes of Raw Fury is a huge success though, very small percent or projects get such a chance. PS: If you wish feel free to reach me, will happily share my experience.
• Benjamin_Dobell 2y ago
  Congratulations! Looks fantastic. I'm curious about marketing and your relationship with the publisher. There's a LOT of games launching on Steam all the time, some solid games go largely unnoticed. How did you get word out about your game? Did you build an audience during development? How much assistance did the publisher provide? Additionally, did you have contacts that introduced you to publishers? If not, what got their attention? Fanbase, demo, you personally?
• japhib 2y ago
  Amazing work! Questions: - How/why did you decide to talk to a publisher? When in the process did you feel like you had a good enough prototype to do that? - What have been the pros/cons of working with a publisher? When, in your opinion, should someone do that vs. self-publishing? - What was your confidence level throughout various stages of the project? Was there a point before releasing the game where you maybe got a glimpse of the success you were going to have? (I guess probably Steam wishlists?) - What's next? Congrats again on the hit!
  • newobj 2y ago
    I worked with a publisher for a few reasons: 1) I didn't know what I didn't know, and didn't want to "find out" AND make the game at the same time. I needed a partner for the business/marketing end. 2) An advance (funding) helped de-risk things for me. 3) I needed help to find an artist. I was having no luck on my own. Even with the traction the game had! Publishers actually came to me. In a weird coincidence, I happened to show the game in a Discord where localthunk, the Balatro dev, was hanging out, and he shared it with a few big streamers. The prototype was streamed to thousands of people like ~5 weeks into its development, and the publishers started showing up immediately. Not normal. Very lucky. I started very confident, and stayed relatively confident, for myself, but there were some weird days where you'd get a paranoid feeling: "Wait, all you do is drop a ball in this game. Why do people like it? Are they just blowing smoke up my ass? Am I having a manic break, thinking the gmae is good? It really can't possibly be good enough, right? Making successful indie games is something other people do, not me." Needless to say the demo getting reception in October 2024 Steam Nextfest (before being released in December) was hugely validating and was like the "pinch" I needed to prove it wasn't a dream. Next is healing and recovery ... and supporting Ballionaire. Working on a creative project intensely for a year at the exclusion of almost everything else in your life, esp. at my age -- doesn't leave you in a great state when it's over. It was self-imposed crunch mode. It's not easy to be bounce back creatively or energetically. Thanks :)
    • rsanek 2y ago
      Appreciate your vulnerability. Awesome to hear your good fortune along the way, receiving positive feedback. Working a year heads-down even with that though does sound quite difficult. I think about all the time how one doesn't have to deal with these kinds of doubts when at FAANG-style jobs. I think that, moreso even than the EV on compensation, is the reason FAANG can be so sticky.
• mococa 2y ago
  Who did the art work? You? Which engine have you used? Also, congratulations!
  • newobj 2y ago
    Godot 4.2 w/ C# The artist is Hanja Grgičević. Thanks!
• eftychis 2y ago
  Congratulations! This is a huge achievement and work -- although I do not know the space. What is the stack used? Did you end up substantially switching things in the stack during your journey? It would be great if you follow up later with experiences like the maintenance journey post-launch. Also, what do you feel the publisher provided besides the artist and guidance?
  • newobj 2y ago
    Thanks! Godot 4.2 w/ C#. I started with Godot 3 and C#, but ported to Godot 4 a couple months into the project, because it was my understanding that would help console portability in the future. It was a bit of a pain, but not too bad. Maybe a week's worth of work. Raw Fury I think also did a great job w/ marketing and promotion, e.g. connecting the game to streamers, and the trailer knocked it out of the park IMHO :)
• AndrewKemendo 2y ago
  The amount of genius talent that is being wasted making addictive products for Meta is borderline criminal. Congrats on shipping a huge hit
• daedrdev 2y ago
  How much impact to you think internet influencers had on your sales? I recall seeing it being played there first.
  • newobj 2y ago
    100%, it was really the only form of promotion the game had, besides the demo itself, and the trailer. Ballionaire was accidentally designed to be verrrrrrrry streamable.
• namuol 2y ago
  Good lord that Steam page and the trailer have a ton of appeal. It’s no wonder you’ve got a hit on your hands! Reviews are very good too. Congratulations!
• adastra22 2y ago
  What does roguelike mean? I've played the original Rogue, but haven't been a gamer for decades now. I'm not seeing how this is connected? Sorry, but you said ask anything lol.
  • Zebfross 2y ago
    My understanding is that roguelike means that when you die you start over from the beginning.
  • newobj 2y ago
    There are a lot of interpretations, but it's roguelike in the sense that: 1) It's permadeath 2) It's random 3) It's systemic The term is used quite broadly these days. Only the "Berlin interpretation" is quite strict about the sense of it you might be thinking of.
    • adastra22 2y ago
      Thanks. TIL.
    • joemi 2y ago
      Is there a term that people who don't use the Berlin interpretation call games that fit in the Berlin interpretation? Or are they just called "Berlin interpretation roguelikes"? (I'm asking both out of curiosity and out of utility, since I'm a fan of the Berlin interpretation roguelikes (and have been since before the modern overly-broad interpretation came into use), so I used to be able to count on "roguelike" meaning it was one style of game, and I miss those days. I'd like to be able to know how to specifically find those games again.) Also, congrats on the success of the game! I'm looking forward to trying it out sometime. It's on my wishlist, despite my quibbles with calling it a roguelike. :)
      • mijoharas 2y ago
        I think I've heard of "old school roguelike" or "traditional roguelike" being used to refer to those games. (googling seems to show that the latter naming seems to be more common.)
• ghfhghg 2y ago
  Wow congratulations. The game presentation is awesome. When working on this how long did it take before the game felt fun to you?
  • newobj 2y ago
    Honestly it felt fun on day 3, the first time you could drop a ball and there were a couple triggers that did things. As a verrrrrrry pessimistic person, the fact that I actually thought it felt fun was like a huge flashing light above my head that there was something to the idea.
    • ghfhghg 2y ago
      Awesome! Especially as a pessimistic person being able to find that and break through. Thanks for sharing!
• bb88 2y ago
  Hi, I enjoyed playing Ballionaire. I do like this style of rogue-likes where things can maybe break the game itself (infinity, slow down the game completely when too many eggs are spawned). I was curious in your platform choice of windows only. Was this due to the framework/programming language you're using? Or was this more of a time savings of trying to support more than one system at a time? Or maybe both?
  • newobj 2y ago
    FWIW, it works on the Steamdeck, natively, without Proton -- so it's a native Linux game in other words. Apparently a lot of folks are playing it on desktop Linux, as a result. It's just not "officially supported". I'm a one-man dev operation, so it's strictly a matter of opportunity costs of my time. Linux and Mac are miniscule gaming markets, like 1% of Windows, but could potentially generate a significantly proportionately greater burden of support. So I have to be careful there.
    • bb88 2y ago
      I am playing it on the linux desktop. It's super nice. I'm also curious about the changes required between linux and windows, is it quite a bit? Or is that just abstracted mostly by the framework?
    • timvdalen 2y ago
      How do you get it to run? The first time I clicked the [Play] button it installed Vulkan shaders, but it doesn't do anything on subsequent launches. EDIT: Ah, a re-install fixed it!
    • TomK32 2y ago
      Godot makes it easy to export to Linux and I'm sure it's still true that feedback from Linux users is better even in terms of finding bugs as mentioned in this interview with Croteam in 2015: > The feedback from Linux gamers is great – they seem really happy that we’re supporting the platform and they are a huge help in finding bugs. Often, bugs that are initially reported as Linux specific turn out to be issues in all version of the game, it just sometimes happens that it’s easier to reproduce on some platforms. So, yeah – we’ll definitely keep on supporting Linux in the future. [1] https://www.marcosbox.com/2015/02/13/interview-with-croteam-on-linux-and-the-world-of-video-games/ https://www.marcosbox.com/2015/02/13/interview-with-croteam-...
• mrsofty 2y ago
  Outstanding!!! Spent some time in the valley in the 90's. Tom Perkins was our Chairman and Ceo so I learnt a LOT. One of the takeaways was that innovation starts with an itch you want to scratch, to KNOW that your idea is better than the others. Doesn't matter if you are delusional, the market will set you right either way. WELL DONE!!! taking this step and I wish you all the best for the future. I'll pass the message onto my chums.
• deelowe 2y ago
  I bought it day one. The marketing was great and I had I ton of fun with the game! Congrats on the success.
• uejfiweun 2y ago
  Congrats on your success! Making games is what got me into programming and while I'm currently doing the same big tech stuff you were, I would love to become an indie game dev after this phase of my career ends. The biggest challenge I've had in my various personal projects is the art, for sure. I may have programming skills but I certainly have no art or animation skills. How did you get over this hurdle? I've made so many cool prototypes for games that I end up having to shelve due to hitting a progress wall when it comes to art or 3d modeling.
• xetrics 2y ago
  I bought ballionaire a couple weeks back. So funny that I see the creator on HN. Congrats on your win!
• kurokawad 2y ago
  The trailer is hell good!! I love it!!
• bodegajed 2y ago
  So I'm here practicing writing small apps in 40 mins, leetcoding medium and hard. I think I should rethink my next plans.
• thehodge 2y ago
  I've seen this game played on YouTube a LOT and really want to give it a go.. Any chance of a Mac port?
  • newobj 2y ago
    "There's always a chance" .. People have had luck playing it via Whiskey/WINE, but I would hate for you to spend money and find out it's not a great solution, so I can't encourage it.
• axus 2y ago
  Did you like Peglin?
• mips_avatar 2y ago
  How did you structure your work in the first year? Did you set specific goals or just follow what felt right? Where did your motivation and energy come from, and how did you keep momentum?
  • newobj 2y ago
    The game took one year to make and I am a severe workaholic, so, I found it easy to just put the pedal to the floor for exactly one year (and then simply die afterwards, lol)
    • mips_avatar 2y ago
      but like it's a creative thing, you must have had moments where you weren't sure?
• mentos 2y ago
  Love the quality of the marketing videos did you produce those or work with another entity?
• deleted 2y ago
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• mattigames 2y ago
  What is your opinion about the top bad review on Steam? Have you addressed those issues or perhaps you disagree with them? Posted here for reference > Really fun game at first, and it has a lot of potential. Unfortunately you are very strongly incentivized to NOT UNLOCK ANYTHING (i.e. the meta-progression).... because after you unlock many additional items and get to the higher difficulties, the vast majority of runs become impossible since there are way, way too many items in the pool and way, way too few rerolls (and no ban feature for some reason), so you end up with random unrelated crap almost every run and auto-lose because of it, as strong synergies are mandatory to win on the higher difficulties. It feels really bad having to fish RNG over and over again just to get a run that's actually winnable. They could easily fix this with many solutions, like: stronger reroll tag affinities, more choices per round, item bans, 10x the amount of rerolls, builds/profiles with more limited pools, map-specific limited pools, etc. etc. If they fix this massive roadblock then this game has the potential to be a amazingly fun.
  • newobj 2y ago
    It was intentional that the game got harder by broadening the pool of drafts. The design goal was that you need to develop your skill to build more flexible boards, that don't rely on just forcing a single synergy to materialize. Unfortunately, I don't think the game communicates this goal well, AND prevailing design trends (rogueliTe, which this game is NOT) I think have trained players to expect that games should get artificially EASIER over time by increasing the player's power level. It's a point of the design I'm willing to concede, so it's something I do hope to address. But not increasing the power level as in a roguelite, just by preserving the density of drafts and taming dilution a bit.
    • martinmakesgame 2y ago
      The widening of the pool of drafts doesn't work because it is not fun. When you find something that works you want to use it as much as possible because as the player all I want to see is the numbers get higher and higher. This is where the fun is. Most of the additional drafts aren't fun. Some I never use. When I play I don't even care about the forces that make it harder at the start anymore because most of the gameplay comes from what cards show which is heavy random number generator. There should be a continue play button when you fail the run though just so you can keep playing and see the numbers go higher and higher.
• burgerquizz 2y ago
  I love the animated stickman! building myself html games myself[1] with my own game engine. Getting players is really hard. I was betting on SEO, but results will take a long time. do you think getting a publisher worth it? I was reluctant putting the game on steam too since I think the target players wont be there Happy to hear recommendations! https://pixelbrawlgames.com/game/blast https://pixelbrawlgames.com/game/blast
  • optymizer 2y ago
    1v1.lol is fun! The mouse movement gets janky at times but I had a blast
• npinsker 2y ago
  No questions but congratulations on your game and success! It's a great idea.
• hoten 2y ago
  This reminds me of the high quality, addicting PopCap games. Very nice!
• napierzaza 2y ago
  I am also working on a project after being laid off, though I got hired elsewhere. Any suggestions on how to promote your work? I am fairly far away from that but it will be a harder thing for me I think
• prashp 2y ago
  Congrats, great to hear a success story. I wish I had the time to do this too. How did you pitch to the publisher so they would find you during development? How did you find a publisher?
• RheingoldRiver 2y ago
  We had someone request a wiki on wiki.gg for Ballionaire, and it's at https://ballionaire.wiki.gg/wiki/Ballionaire_Wiki https://ballionaire.wiki.gg/wiki/Ballionaire_Wiki. Assuming you have structured data easily accessible, you can pretty easily use the MediaWiki API to create some automated pages for each of the items and any other entities that should have pages. Example repo: https://github.com/RheingoldRiver/sorcerer-update https://github.com/RheingoldRiver/sorcerer-update That repo is assuming that some "infobox" templates already exist, which you can find documentation about here: https://support.wiki.gg/wiki/DRUID_infoboxes https://support.wiki.gg/wiki/DRUID_infoboxes or feel free to email me (address in bio) if you'd want to create the pages assuming that the infobox template already exists and have me make said template for you!
  • genewitch 2y ago
    Thank you for saying what game everyone is talking about. I have it on my wishlist already.
  • Pikamander2 2y ago
    There's also a small subreddit for it if anyone is interested: https://www.reddit.com/r/Ballionaire https://www.reddit.com/r/Ballionaire
  • Ragnarork 2y ago
    Bit of a tangent but nice seeing you here and offering support. I remember your name from my time when I admin'd one of Liquipedia's wikis (IIRC you were going through some hardship with one wiki provider or something at the time), happy to see you're still kicking in that area!
• Lucasoato 2y ago
  How did you reach publishers? Did you have any previous contact/connection to get to them?
• merillecuz56 2y ago
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• jeffchien 2y ago
  Congratulations, that is a roaring success I daydream about all the time! I think you've already answered a lot about your development journey, so I want to ask about the post-release experience. - How were the weeks immediately after release? Hectically shipping out patches 3 times a day? - Now that we're months out after release, what are you doing now? Are you still spending a lot of time on this game (ports, updates), or are you thinking of another game or returning to office work? Frankly I bought it on release but couldn't get into it because the meta progression (unlocking triggers that dilute the trigger pool for little perceivable gain) didn't feel as good as Luck be a Landlord or Balatro. I hope later updates address that.
• kevinmchugh 2y ago
  My friend Joe from the Anime Sickos podcast talked Ballionaire up a lot and I'm looking forward to playing it, which would happen sooner if it were available on switch. Congrats on your success!
• tastyface 2y ago
  Congratulations! I saw Yahtzee playing this a few weeks ago — seems like a fun time. The market is notoriously saturated right now, any wisdom on how you broke through with marketing/outreach? (Or was that entirely on the publisher?)
  • newobj 2y ago
    I crunched myself to get the game out by the end of 2024 before the saturation I knew was coming took place. I think the simple premise, watchability, humor, and presentation of the game helped it stand out. My advice: Have a super solid hook, that's marketing. Everything else is promotion and is far less effective.
• yapyap 2y ago
  My god, you’re the creator of Ballionaire!! I dont know what I was expecting clicking on this article but it wasn’t that. Magnificent game, I watched Northernlion play this after he beat Balatro.
• kbenson 2y ago
  Strong Peggle[1] vibes from the video on the store page, which is a good thing IMO, since I enjoyed Peggle quite a bit. Maybe I'll take a look at this. 1: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3480/Peggle_Deluxe/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/3480/Peggle_Deluxe/
• gennarro 2y ago
  Oh yes, I've played that actually. The mechanics weren't my jam, but the art and level of polish are great.
• Conan_Kudo 2y ago
  Congratulations on the game! It looks great and I kinda want it. :) I'm going to be that guy... Native Linux build when? I assume your game stack supports exporting native Linux builds. :)
• mupuff1234 2y ago
  I still don't really get the appeal of roguelike games, to me it always just comes off either repetitive/boring/frustrating/etc. Could someone explain why they prefer it over just a "normal" game progression?
  • sky2224 2y ago
    Maybe this will help a bit. I'm a drummer. Drums are literally all about doing the exact same thing for hours and hours on end, but with the goal of perfection. What's perfection? That's all in the eyes of the player. Been doing it 15+ years and don't plan on stopping. I can do repetitive stuff like that for hours on end. A roguelike takes that and makes it a game with some slight variation to keep it interesting (kind of how a drum beat is the same thing, and then you change it to add some variation).
    • mupuff1234 2y ago
      I definitely get wanting to perfect something, but for me it's frustrating because a roguelite forces you to do so vs just you deciding to redo something to perfect it.
  • deleted 2y ago
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• mantovanidaniel 2y ago
  I just bought your game :)
• winrid 2y ago
  One of the OG devs from Netpanzer in the late 90s went on to do AAA games and then compiler stuff at FAANG, is that you?
  • newobj 2y ago
    Not me
• guywithahat 2y ago
  Not to get too personal, but how did working on a video game affect your personal life? If you worked from home, do you have a wife/kids? Was anyone upset or disappointed you were working on a game and not getting another job at a big tech company? I don’t mean to be critical, but I’ve always faced pushback working on startups/side projects, and I’m wondering how that was for you?
  • hijinks 2y ago
    if op was working at Meta for 10 years and they started at 2013 they probably have more then enough money stashed away to not worry about bills for a few years.
    • n9com 2y ago
      highly likely they have millions from the stock alone, assuming they didnt sell
      • dot1x 2y ago
        correct, the guy is not exactly strapped for cash after 10 sweet years at Facebook. He's 10M+ NW probably.
  • newobj 2y ago
    It was discussed with my family (wife/kid) that this was going to be my near singular focus for a year, and it basically was. Luckily everyone was supportive because they knew how long I'd wanted to do this, and the fact that I already had a "good idea" with some proof on my hands certainly made it easier. Having traction helped convinced everyone, myself included, that it would be a worthwhile investment of time, and not just "fucking around in the basement." No one was disappointed that I was not getting another big tech job. I'd just spent 20 years in FAANG.
    • Nition 2y ago
      Honestly very impressive to plan a one-year game project and have it take one year! How many planned features did you have to cut? ;)
• rationalfaith 2y ago
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• keyle 2y ago
  Nice one! Looks like peggle on mushrooms instead of coke. I've done many games myself, including PS4 exclusive, and I haven't been able to afford anything else than 2 mins noodles for my effort. So I applaud you on "making it." I should really talk to publishers. I don't really know how, how did you approach them? How did that initial aspect go?
• mmastrac 2y ago
  Hey Brian, so happy to see this! I always knew you'd knock it out of the park with one of your games!
  • newobj 2y ago
    Oh hey Matt! Thanks!!!
• randfish 2y ago
  Incredible work, Brian! I'm in awe of what you've done in such a short amount of time. I started an indie game company (still working on our first title) and had a few related questions if that's OK? 1) If you didn't need a salary or marketing help, would you still have signed a publishing deal? My sense is most of the publisher value lies in getting paid before the game launches, and with marketing around launch, but curious if those are wrong assumptions? 2) Early Access vs. Straight Launch - any insights about why you chose to do a full launch vs. an early access beforehand? Was it something you and the publisher discussed in detail? 3) Outside of Steam's ecosystem, how much marketing, promotion, social media, YouTube, Discord, etc. stuff did you (or the publisher) do? Do you think that pre-launch work had a sizable impact on the launch and post-launch success? Or would you say it's mostly the Steam algo making the game more visible to the right buyers as the positive reviews rolled in? Truly kind of you to share so openly here. Already sent some of your other replies to our game team
  • XCSme 2y ago
    > My sense is most of the publisher value lies in getting paid before the game launches, and with marketing around launch, but curious if those are wrong assumptions? Don't publishers pay you a cut AFTER sales start coming in?
    • jotson 2y ago
      Yes and some provide funding during development which they recoup later. Every deal is different. Raw Fury provides funding in advance for some.
  • newobj 2y ago
    Thanks Rand! 1) It obviously varies w/ each dev's situation, but I think your sense of the value prop is a fair default one w/o context. In my case, there were four reasons: 1) having a partner to help with (to me) "the unknown unknowns" (i'm only a dev and a novice designer, literally anything else would be my first time doing it, so i figured having an experienced partner there would be wise) 2) the advance was nice just from a "bird in the hand" mindset 3) they helped me connect with a really good artist (critical to the project's success imho) 4) having a big name behind you can't hurt, and bigger publishers do have more relationships with the ecosystem (streamers, platforms, etc) to help your game succeed. 2) EA is appropriate for certain kinds of games. But I knew exactly what Ballionaire was going to be, and felt it could be achieved in a year. I knew that this mechanical space was going to be rapidly saturated, once all the games inspired by LBAL (including Balatro!) started appearing. So I was determined to get the game out before that happened, which set a certain scope and pace, obviating EA. 3) The trailers were a really good promotional tool, very effective. But most of the paid promotion was sponsored streams, not traditional "marketing" (ads). I think the game has a natural tendency for organic spread, due to its fun/simple premise, watchability/streamability, low price point, and so on. It's just an easy game to see, and say "ooh, I wanna try!" because it's instantly understood how to play, and IMHO is very inviting aesthetically. My takeaway: Make sure your hook is glowingly radioactively good. Don't overbalance. Leave in some jank. Scope down and finish quickly. And avoid tropes. Stand out. (Of course this only works for a certain kind of game!)
• 29athrowaway 2y ago
  You need to put this on the Nintendo Switch
• deleted 2y ago
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• davidczech 2y ago
  The main menu is awesome
• greenheadedduck 2y ago
  Did your work at meta help a lot with this project. Tell us about it if so!
• ttt444 2y ago
  How much is left after steam takes their cut, taxes, etc? Heard it's about 30-40% which is really demoralizing
  • rrr_oh_man 2y ago
    Then ask yourself this: How much in sales do you lose if you don’t launch on Steam?
  • SXX 2y ago
    If your game funded by publisher your company will get like 30%. Then it's depend on location of company, corporate tax, etc. So 25-30% of net profit for game development studio.
• dartharva 2y ago
  I first saw it on Second Wind's "Bytesized" review and it looked so good I instantly wishlisted it. Will try it out soon. Congratulations!
• danielhanchen 2y ago
  Love the red tomato and balloon faces :)
• mattfrommars 2y ago
  I'm been fascinated to make games but never truly jumped into it. I'd love to pick it as a hobby but quiet unable to balance this hobby when always worrying about to put time into 'doing certification' or doing 'LC'. To get an idea on your situation and compare it with mine, 1) did you have any formal game development experience in the past? say in school? 2) since you made it into FAANG, did you LC before or time during FAANG to find another FAANG job? 3) does anyone in your personal circle does game development? 4) so instead of first developing the game, you already were in talking with publishers? what kind of background did you have for publisher to 'ok' you which i'm guessing supported you financially?
• hv_ 2y ago
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• pfisch 2y ago
  Use every sale period available to you and not as weekly sales. Make custom 14 day sales. Add steam cards to the game asap. You should start doing this right after reading this comment really. Also you should lobby steam for a daily deal sometime next month. If they say yes you should set that daily deal for the day the summer sale ends if you can. Also you should push raw fury to do a publisher sale, those can really generate a lot of money. I've been managing games on Steam for a long time and doing stuff like what I said will have a very large impact on your long tail revenue. I'm the game director of Kingmakers. Also you should really have some kind of DLC asap, even if it is small or like an art book even. You are just leaving money on the table because there are gamers with lots of money on steam who just buy all the dlc when they buy games.
  • rrr_oh_man 2y ago
    You, sir, are the devil. :) Just kidding, or maybe not.
  • k4rli 2y ago
    How will trading cards help the game? As a Steam user, they seem useless and badges, which they create, are also completely useless. Unless to target sales to those who buy up all the cards to get really high profile levels.
• zer0zzz 2y ago
  I wonder if I worked with you. I was a compiler guy myself.
• telcal 2y ago
  Congratulations! As a non-gamer I have absolutely zero idea what this game is about or how to play it, but you've got a big audience!
• crazypyro 2y ago
  Love your game. Is there any plans for expansions? I find the different maps to be less interesting. I want some kind of harder progression, higher levels of difficulties and of course more of everything that exists. I found myself out of stuff to do at ~20 hours (which is awesome and beats a lot of games I've tried to buy.).
• jaydeegee 2y ago
  Myself and my 6yo son watch a youtube channel Real Civil Engineer as he plays cool games like this. We saw the Ballionaire video and instantly got it we play it a lot.
• joez 2y ago
  Omg! the creator of Ballionaire is a laidoff metamate?! That's so inspirational. I'm sure this will make it on Meta blind sometime. I'm at Meta still and working on my own take on the roguelike game inspired by Balatro/Luck be a landlord and Ballionaire too. Any advice for myself and others on how to balance work/life/game? If you're interested, I bet people would love to have you back for a tech talk. I think we should at least link this to your badge post haha. How much time did you spend on tweaking the tutorial? Do you use analytics to balance your game? (So Meta right?)
• coderunner 2y ago
  First of all congrats on the success of your game. I've been mulling over taking a break from my corporate engineering job and making a game. Would it be possible to send you an email in about two weeks or so with some retrospective questions of your game dev journey? I'm currently in a crunch mode for a work trip then going to be with limited internet access while on the trip so wanted a chance to get my thoughts/questions together before asking. If you don't have time, totally understand and congrats on all your success.
• cytocync 2y ago
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• somenameforme 2y ago
  Beautiful and really appropriate artwork. You mentioned in another thread that the publisher connected you with an artist. Can you share, in vagaries if contractually necessary, the literal cost of this? Was it percent of revenue, fixed rate, a mix. Substantial (given you two would be the team), or more like a typical contracting affair?
• xyst 2y ago
  Now that you have some reputation, and insight into what the publisher does to get your game out there. Do you think your next game will be managed completely on your own and reap all of the profits (—steam cut)? Do you still see value of using current or another publisher?
• ILikeCats321 2y ago
  Congrats on the game! Saw the trailer and instantly brought it on steam :D
• ponderchan 2y ago
  keep it up brain! great game tho
• docmars 2y ago
  This is an amazing story, nice work, and congrats on the hit! Looks like a lot of fun. I've always wanted to buckle down and make the RPG of my dreams, but working full-time just doesn't make that feasible, and I care very deeply about balance (i.e. not "working" outside of work) unless I have an idea that's achievable in a short amount of time and won't burn me out. Looks like the hard work paid off for you! Maybe if I can retire early I'll finally realize a similar dream.
• Ishivax 2y ago
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• dustbunny 2y ago
  How was the process of talking to a publisher? Did they find the development? How did they help? What was the pitch process like?
• Buttons840 2y ago
  Do you think "diamond in the rough" games exist? Some claim that there are games that are hidden gems that haven't received the recognition they deserve. Other claim they have never seen a generally good game that didn't have generally good success. What is your view? I think some games are good within their niche, but their niche sucks. Something like a hardcore roguelike with ASCII graphics. Within the hardcore roguelike niche, the ASCII game might be "good" and have some interesting new mechanics, good execution, etc; but within the entire gaming industry, classic roguelikes with ASCII graphics are outdated, they "suck". Some will say the ASCII roguelike is underappreciated, but only because they over-appreciate the niche. I'd like to believe that a generally good game guarantees at least some success.
  • ChadNauseam 2y ago
    I'm not sure if it counts, but I had a great time playing screencheat but it never really seemed to be very popular. I think part of the problem may be that it's only fun to play with friends, so you kind of had to buy copies for yourself and your friends which added a ton of friction.
  • SXX 2y ago
    Around 19,000 games are released on Steam in 2024 and platform itself give very little traction. You can't sell bad game with all marking in the world, but good games flop without marketing. > I'd like to believe that a generally good game guarantees at least some success. Many "good" games werent "good" in very beginning during early access or first release. If game dont get any traction at all there simply no resources for developer to keep refining it.
  • teamonkey 2y ago
    There are many, many, many great games that fail, while many mediocre games succeed. There's some correlation with fun, art style and polish, but more often it's down to marketing, exposure and luck. I've heard it said that a fun game is the baseline, though. The game should be doing the heavy lifting, not the marketing. Marketing a bad game doesn't automatically lead to success, for sure. Many breakaway hits are simply lucky by hitting the zeitgeist. Among Us is an example - without the covid hangover and some bored streamers randomly deciding to play it one day, you can imagine it not being the massive success that it is.
• tanujsh979 2y ago
  Wow, what an inspiring journey!
• iam_saurabh 2y ago
  You mentioned that 2024 was one of the hardest years of your life. What kept you going during the toughest moments? Were there times you felt like giving up?
• rrr_oh_man 2y ago
  Apologies for my ignorance, and I’m asking this because no one in this thread has done this: This looks basically like a slot machine
  • deleted 2y ago
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  • 27theo 2y ago
    Asking what?
• jaybro867 2y ago
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• msephton 2y ago
  How and when did you hook up with Raw Fury?
• myl 2y ago
  I never felt more like a grandpa developer since having to google every word in the description of what this game is :)
  • autoexec 2y ago
    These days grandpa developers (and many grandpas in general) grew up playing rogue/roguelikes and watching plinko played on TV while being reminded to help control the pet population by having their pets spayed or neutered. I don't know how popular pachinko is outside of japan though. All the pachinko video games I've played to date were old and intended for a Japanese audience.
    • genewitch 2y ago
      My favorite is pachincremental but I have an unnatural affinity for those games. Number go up. Someone called doom and quake boomer-shooters and that's funny to me.
      • rgreasons 2y ago
        This comment introduced me to pachinkremental. Thank you / goddamn you.
        • genewitch 2y ago
          You're welcome and thank you ;-)
      • autoexec 2y ago
        pachincremental really was a fun diversion! Too short though, so now I'm giving Universal Paperclips another go (never did finish it)
• 420_14_88_69 2y ago
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• MrDresden 2y ago
  Congratulations on both the launch and the success! Never having been in the video game industry, nor knowing anyone that has, I've never really understood what the role of a publisher is now that games are distributed digitally. What were the benefits for you of having a publisher, could you have gone without one and maybe finally how does one go about finding a publisher?
• parkerhiggins 2y ago
  Been following this game! Congrats! Please bring us an MacOS port!
• helsinki 2y ago
  How much of a cut does the publisher and steam take from a $20 purchase?
  • SXX 2y ago
    In gamedev we usually count it like this: * Refunds and VAT 16% overall * Steam cut 30% below $10,000,000 sales * Publisher cut from net profit after recouperation is around 50% So developer get around $5.88, but obviously for some countries it's can be better because there is no VAT or lower VAT, but price there would be like $5-15. PS: And yeah from $5.88 you still owe some corporate tax.
    • helsinki 2y ago
      Damn! Thank you very much for the info. Quite interesting - and unfortunately, more of a cut than I expected.
      • SXX 2y ago
        Unfortunately games that did not succeed never make it to the point where publisher recouperated it's investments so it's actually worse. If the publisher fully funded the game they will take 80%, 90% or everything.
    • CptFribble 2y ago
      why are refunds so commonly counted against sales in this way? Wouldn't a refund cost essentially nothing?
      • SXX 2y ago
        To be honest it's just a thing from financial models inside industry. When you plan how much copies you suppose to sell to turn profit you must consider refund rate as well. Another reason is that games on Steam can and are often refunded after quite long time has passed. E.g people buy lots of games on holidays or sales and then refund them when they decide not to play it. Sometimes refunds can happen even after a year if e.g player can't get your game to run on their device, etc. But yeah it make sense not to include it in math for single sale that was not refunded.
• jeffwass 2y ago
  What kind of up-skilling did you have to do when you started?
• kbar13 2y ago
  congrats to the author! i haven't had (enough?) opportunities to say this but - being laid off from a company that i thought was probably the best place to work at was actually likely the best thing to happen to my career. while things were real cushy at this job, my career was not going anywhere, and there was no way i would have taken the opportunities that have presented themselves after i was ejected. so, while being laid off is never a good feeling, i hope that other folks affected by the tough market can find the silver lining and motivation that i did
• kleiba 2y ago
  How hard was it to get in touch with publishers? I've always imagined that without prior contacts, cold calling a game publisher is as promising as sending your screenplay to Hollywood.
  • SXX 2y ago
    Not author, but fellow indie gamedev company founder. Getting in touch is not hard at all and there are several avenues: 1 - Majority of publishers do have public submission forms and they do look though what you send. There is a few existing lists that you can use [1]. 2 - Industry is generally very friendly so often you can also reach out to publisher game scouts on Linkedin and even ask for what kind of projects they looking for. 3 - And obviously there are industry events where again it's totally okay to pitch to people, get their contacts, etc. If you're good at followups you'll easily be able to reach right people. 4 - Also fellow gamedevs will happily made an introduction if you have worthy project. There of course some requirement what you need at very least is: * Prototype for 5-15 minutes of gameplay. Prototype must be playable and fun, not just tech demo. There is no way to make any deal without one. * Short and very juicy gif or video representing core loop that sells. * Pitch deck. The farther your build is from final game the better pitch you must have. There are some examples of game pitches you can find on internet, but if you curious reach me I'll share ours. Whatever you will actually sign with publisher will depend heavily on how close is your game to release. If it's something nearly complete you'll have more chances than with prototype. Actually getting funded though can be very tough and for small game it's hard to find budget over $300,000. Yes you read this right - whole games are being made by teams with only publisher budget of one FAANG SWE annual salary. [1] https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15AN1I1mB67AJkpMuUUfM5ZUALkQmrvrznnPYO5QbqD0/edit?usp=sharing
    • kleiba 2y ago
      Thanks for this, mate. This is very informative!
• elliegrady 2y ago
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• saejox 2y ago
  Great work! My game has some features inspired by Ballionaire. I also used Godot, i need to dissect your pck file to see how you organized things. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3499470/Rogue_Bricks_Demo/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/3499470/Rogue_Bricks_Demo... Although i should caution poeple, most indie games fail. They fail hard. #1 tip: your game must be good looking to sell copies.
  • kod 2y ago
    > your game must be good looking to sell copies Nah, vampire survivors and balatro look like crap by modern standards, yet are breakout hits.
• ViolentTurkey 2y ago
  Thank you so much! Me and my friend played your Beta, and we found it to be a really fun and a good lecture game: a game to play during boring lectures. I also love the animations and the satisfying feel of it, really cool!!
• Simon_O_Rourke 2y ago
  Well done Brian! What would you say to Zuck if you met him on the street now?
• alok-g 2y ago
  What would be good resources for me to learn about the (digital) gaming world from an entrepreneur's perspective? I am a general developer, otherwise am a complete newbie to gaming (played Mario once with my son). Thanks.
• jz10 2y ago
  Can you get it out on Geforce NOW too please so us mac users can also partake? (Also curious on the process behind enabling it on Geforce NOW actually)
• butler14 2y ago
  Played the demo of this a few months back on our living room tv + controller and my u5 y/o kids were quite taken with it. Congrats!
• Tade0 2y ago
  Is the music in the first clip on Steam inspired by I Love You So by Junko Ohashi?
• kleiba 2y ago
  What did you like/dislike about Godot? How did you find your graphics artist? Sound? In hindsight (or for your next game), what would you do differently?
• igleria 2y ago
  Congratulations! Given the results, I'd say your time was well invested. Did the project start as a hobby or did you intend it to be a source of income eventually? Again, well done!
• cwiz 2y ago
  Animations and artworks is what make this game special. Thanks for inspiration.
• itzami 2y ago
  1. What are your plans now? 2. Your style seems unique, and even your mood board that you shared with the designer has a particular style; did you always gravitate towards that type of art? If not, how did you come upon it?
• dominicrose 2y ago
  I guess Meta did you a service since you're a creator and the company stopped creating. I barely used FB at all since the beginning, but I like rogue games.
• lynguist 2y ago
  Can you compile your game to target Mac? Why/why not? (Like is it a technical or business decision?)
  • pbronez 2y ago
    Yes, curious about this. Looks like Mac and Linux support are available with Godot…
  • nosrepa 2y ago
    Not op, but: .https://youtu.be/qRQX9fgrI4s https://youtu.be/qRQX9fgrI4s
• eigenvalue 2y ago
  I don’t really play any games but the game play demo video looked like something that might entertain my 4 and 1 year olds for a few minutes at least (just watching, I doubt they could really play it), so I bought it. Congrats on your success. Sometimes getting laid off can be a blessing, but only if you handle it constructively like you did.
• drumhead 2y ago
  Congratulations, I've heard so many good things about your game.
• onemandevteam 2y ago
  Congratulations! I've been working on a browser-based MMORPG inspired by OSRS (https://news.reconquer.online/ https://news.reconquer.online/) What method did you use to reach out to streamers for sponsorship? Was it through email or through some other platform?
• davedx 2y ago
  How is it roguelike?
• napolux 2y ago
  woooo when is this coming to console?
• gentleman11 2y ago
  My question is: how did you manage all that the refined art in such a small amount of time? I can see the coding but I always assume art takes forever unless you have a partner who handles the art
  • 27theo 2y ago
    OP has mentioned that they worked with an artist in other threads
• deleted 2y ago
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• zug_zug 2y ago
  Wow, I think you've just become iconic to dozens of us (self included). Congrats on taking life's lemons and turning them into sweet victory. I saw in another comment you were able to make yourself work with complete focus (8 hour+ days 7 days a week). I have two questions -- In hindsight, if you had only worked 5 hour days for twice as many months do you think the project still could have succeeded? Or do you feel that there's some momentum or other factor at play here? Nextly, are there any discords or other networking resources that you found crucial to the process? I saw you mentioned a publisher. Personally I'm more motivated when I have people depending on me (or eager to see what I'm making for example).
• Clubber 2y ago
  Good for you. I've always thought one of the reasons the tech companies would hoard talent is so that talent won't become a disruptive competitor. Though there is a lot of pain involved, I hope the silver lining is that we get more tech innovation from people who aren't vested in the status quo, like the tech companies.
• deadly_syn 2y ago
  I bought your game a few weeks ago; and out of everything I've fired up on my bravia... I had the biggest smile watching all those smooth vibrant animations roll around like a dopamine factory.
• megamix 2y ago
  Hi Thanks for sharing this, I was first struck by the fact being laid off from Meta, I mean 10yrs of service and then laid off. I'm glad you did well and recovered after that. I'm curious to know about the technology behind, did you use a framework?
  • c0wb0yc0d3r 2y ago
    This article has a link to the steam page, at the end. https://godotengine.org/article/2024-cherry-picks/ https://godotengine.org/article/2024-cherry-picks/ So my guess is Godot.
    • megamix 2y ago
      Thanks!
• vjerancrnjak 2y ago
  rouguelike is such a fun genre, congratulations the only genre that made gaming fun for me after my childhood attachment faded.
• cheshire137 2y ago
  Looks like a fun game, I love the art style and that it’s Verified on Steam Deck. Just bought a copy to try it out!
• for1nner 2y ago
  from itchio to 200K+ on steam. Fantastic work. I have loved every minute of playing, and am astounded by the amount of work you've put into the game. Wild to see it a year+ ago vs today. But also still rage inducing when a drop misses every one of my triggers (gg). <3
• Uptrenda 2y ago
  Your game reminds me of a ketamine trip. So many symbols, emoji things, spites. It's so colorful and creative. Maybe it was a good thing Meta laid you off.
• failrate 2y ago
  Billionaire is great.
• c0wb0yc0d3r 2y ago
  How did you determine the price of the game?
  • SXX 2y ago
    Since this game both have a publisher and at least partially funded by them (by author comments here) most likely it was publisher decision on pricing.
• floresnina 2y ago
  [dead]
• ozarkerD 2y ago
  Dude I love your game. Been playing it on steam deck, thanks for putting good controller support in!
• coef2 2y ago
  We should thank Meta for laying off a talented engineer.
• throwme0827349 2y ago
  I'm helping an enthusiastic young adult family member write an indie game in a similar space. I'm a professional software engineer in the full stack/security space but I don't have much experience in graphics or games. We would be thrilled just to get it implemented, and we're close, on steam, and get a couple real players. Currently it's running in the browser and on android. I think he has very good taste in games, and is learning to code very quickly, so I'm acting in a supporting technical role. -- What are the crucial skills, technical or otherwise, that I should learn to be effective in this space? -- We're currently using the Godot environment, which feels a bit limiting to me (easy to start but: IDE is just ok, config feels GUI dependent/doesn't facilitate committing atomic deployment or other project changes...) Is there a different stack, or other complimentary tools I could learn that might be a better fit for a more professional dev workflow? Thank you for the inspiration. :)
  • japhib 2y ago
    Unity is kind of the default, worth trying out at least. I’ve been using it for 6+ years for money-making hobby projects. It’s not without its problems, but there are a lot of perks to using the same engine that all the pro gamedevs are using.
• Fokamul 2y ago
  Good trick is also sell steam keys in bulk. But you need a reason for steam support :)
• smugma 2y ago
  Have you considered porting to mobile? Looks like it could do well, either independent or part of something like Apple Arcade or Netflix Games.
• deleted 2y ago
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• kraig911 2y ago
  Man I bought this game for me and my kids are we love it. I am also trying to make a game/app on the side for my kids. Your story is inspiring!
• stets 2y ago
  Great work! I picked Ballionaire up during the winter sale I think? Hope it keeps crushing
• TomK32 2y ago
  Oh god, I love watching RCE playing it. I'll steer clear off it though, pachinko games are a bad idea for my ADHD :-) Congratulations on the success.
• SeeManDo 2y ago
  Just put in a request for a cheat on WeMod :)
• pabna 2y ago
  inspiring story. thanks for sharing
• yoeven 2y ago
  Cool stuff!
• serial_dev 2y ago
  I’m sorry I don’t have any questions about the game. to me the most shocking part of your post is how you were let go after 10 years at the company. Do you know why Facebook let you and/or your team go?
• cantSpellSober 2y ago
  > I even worked in AA(A?) back ca. ~2000 Cool, can you say what titles? Just curious. (congrats! they clearly laid off the wrong person :)
• rochacon 2y ago
  Congrats on the launch and success so far!! The game seems really cool and I relate a lot to the desire of working with gamedev. I think local prices/discounts can get you another 200k+ purchases worldwide. In Brazil current prices shows as ~R$42, which is quite a lot for a game for a big chunk of brazilians. Thor from PirateSoftware has some good tips on this.
• mk89 2y ago
  Absolutely not my type of game. But man, kudos to you! I wish you at least 2x the sales you got until now!
• merillecuz56 2y ago
  [dead]
• WickyNilliams 2y ago
  I've been eyeing up this game. Looks fantastic. The trailers are very well done, really capture the vibe. 200k units is a huge success. No questions, just want to say congrats. I'd love to try making a game one day!
• awilks 2y ago
  Very inspiring story! Thanks for posting.
• bookbyter 2y ago
  Well , I think there is a big opportunity to make some marketing tools: develop marketing tools specifically for indie games to help developers promote their games more effectively
• deleted 2y ago
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• toxaco 2y ago
  Man, what a wild ride! From getting laid off at Meta to pulling off a 200k-unit hit on Steam—talk about turning things around in style. That’s seriously inspiring. Ballionaire sounds like an absolute blast—roguelike pachinko? That’s a combo I didn’t know I needed! Must have been a crazy year grinding to get it out, but totally worth it. Any unexpected lessons or ‘oh crap’ moments along the way? Wishing you even bigger wins ahead!