3 ms·

I launched an idea 75 days ago, here as Show HN. It snowballed into a little community and a game that now sells every day. Maybe not an overnight sensation but

by phaser 8mo ago

I launched an idea 75 days ago, here as Show HN. It snowballed into a little community and a game that now sells every day. Maybe not an overnight sensation but the encouragement I found in the community was the motivation that i needed to take it further to a bigger audience. It was not just a product launch for me. I was, sort-of in a crisis. I had just turned 40 and had dark thoughts about not being young, creative and energetic anymore. The outlook of competing with 20 year old sloptimists in the job market made me really anxious. Upon seeing people enjoying my little game, even if it's just a few HNers, I found an "I still got it" feeling that pushed me to release on Steam, to good reviews. It was never about the money, it was about recovering my self confidence. Thank you HN, I will return the favour and be the guy checking the new products you launch. If Show HN is drowning, i will drown with it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46137953 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46137953

vdupras 8mo ago
> sloptimists That's a good one! Did you just come up with it? I've never seen it before.
- frizlab 8mo ago
  18 relevant results in 0.96s, from Kagi.
- phaser 8mo ago
  it was in this link included in this same story https://johan.hal.se/wrote/2026/02/03/the-sideprocalypse/ https://johan.hal.se/wrote/2026/02/03/the-sideprocalypse/
sph 8mo ago
[flagged]
- phaser 8mo ago
  I get that a lot. I’ve wondered why. It’s a bit sad and funny at the same time. I’m not a native english speaker which makes it even more confusing…
- htnthrow11220 8mo ago
  It’s good to keep your skepticism but at some point you have to be able to recognize normal human usage of these conventions. And as we all read more AI content and talk to chatbots, that will influence how we do our own writing as well, humans will start to sound more like LLMs.
  - phaser 8mo ago
    yeah! I love the em-dash — they really took it away from us :(
carabiner 8mo ago
Your site https://microlandia.city https://microlandia.city and OP blog https://www.arthurcnops.blog/death-of-show-hn/ https://www.arthurcnops.blog/death-of-show-hn/ as well as most personal sites posted on HN are almost always inaccessible via my corporate job's firewall. Does anyone know why this is? Something with security certificate? They're not explicitly blocked, because you get a "this is blocked" page in that case. With these sites they just show a "can't connect" error.
- tempaccount5050 8mo ago
  They probably have a newly registered domain rule.
  - netrap 8mo ago
    Seems like .blog .city etc are just banned via cisco umbrella policies...
- BrokenCogs 8mo ago
  You shouldn't be browsing games while working, that's why
rijavecb 8mo ago
I missed your Show HN, but I got the game now. Looks fun, and the fact that each citizen is simulated reminds me of Banished, which I enjoyed playing! Was happy to spend some wallet money I got from CSGO cases. Thank you for making it, and don't give up. Passion and vision > vibe coding sloptimists.
DetroitThrow 8mo ago
Wow so cool! I think a big part of the Show HN slop are GitHub links or libraries that haven't even been read or used by their authors outside of the test suite on their local machine. I'm sure a happy medium is shutting off links to vibe coded source code, and only letting vibed hosted applications or websites. For us who want to read code, source code that means nothing to anyone is pretty disappointing for a Show HN.

by phaser 8mo ago

vdupras 8mo ago

> sloptimists That's a good one! Did you just come up with it? I've never seen it before.

frizlab 8mo ago
18 relevant results in 0.96s, from Kagi.
phaser 8mo ago
it was in this link included in this same story https://johan.hal.se/wrote/2026/02/03/the-sideprocalypse/ https://johan.hal.se/wrote/2026/02/03/the-sideprocalypse/

sph 8mo ago

[flagged]

phaser 8mo ago
I get that a lot. I’ve wondered why. It’s a bit sad and funny at the same time. I’m not a native english speaker which makes it even more confusing…
htnthrow11220 8mo ago
It’s good to keep your skepticism but at some point you have to be able to recognize normal human usage of these conventions. And as we all read more AI content and talk to chatbots, that will influence how we do our own writing as well, humans will start to sound more like LLMs.
- phaser 8mo ago
  yeah! I love the em-dash — they really took it away from us :(

carabiner 8mo ago

Your site https://microlandia.city https://microlandia.city and OP blog https://www.arthurcnops.blog/death-of-show-hn/ https://www.arthurcnops.blog/death-of-show-hn/ as well as most personal sites posted on HN are almost always inaccessible via my corporate job's firewall. Does anyone know why this is? Something with security certificate? They're not explicitly blocked, because you get a "this is blocked" page in that case. With these sites they just show a "can't connect" error.

tempaccount5050 8mo ago
They probably have a newly registered domain rule.
- netrap 8mo ago
  Seems like .blog .city etc are just banned via cisco umbrella policies...
BrokenCogs 8mo ago
You shouldn't be browsing games while working, that's why

rijavecb 8mo ago

I missed your Show HN, but I got the game now. Looks fun, and the fact that each citizen is simulated reminds me of Banished, which I enjoyed playing! Was happy to spend some wallet money I got from CSGO cases. Thank you for making it, and don't give up. Passion and vision > vibe coding sloptimists.

DetroitThrow 8mo ago

Wow so cool! I think a big part of the Show HN slop are GitHub links or libraries that haven't even been read or used by their authors outside of the test suite on their local machine. I'm sure a happy medium is shutting off links to vibe coded source code, and only letting vibed hosted applications or websites. For us who want to read code, source code that means nothing to anyone is pretty disappointing for a Show HN.