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Here's the difference: DF is Toady's baby, his life work. Toady has the idea for it, and he does not want anyone else working on the code. Minecraft started
by MereInterest 13y ago
Here's the difference: DF is Toady's baby, his life work. Toady has the idea for it, and he does not want anyone else working on the code. Minecraft started out very rough around the edges, and only started polishing it once it had already hit it big and he could hire other people.
With a one-developer game, you don't spend time polishing things. You bounce around different areas, adding things as you wish. Letting yourself get bogged down in polishing details that aren't exciting makes you start looking for other things to do, losing interest in the project altogether.
- rorrr2 13y agoMinecraft was developed by one person - Markus Persson (aka Notch), at least till 2011 when it already got insanely popular.
- gnarbarian 13y agoA perfect analogy! Toady's baby is legally blind, is very dumb, is very slow, speaks 4 languages in different contexts but none fluently, is very ugly, and is not fun for 99% of people who play with it. There are cures for all of these problems, but he refuses to treat or allow anyone else to treat his baby.
- eropple 13y agoIt's fun enough for enough people, myself included, for him to live off the project. And that's enough for him.
- d23 13y agoFor now. What happens when interest slowly peters off as the current fanbase gets bored or distracted with other areas of their lives?
- eropple 13y ago...then he does some user-facing stuff to lure them back and add new ones? This project isn't some attach-rate-obsessed no-value-add startup. As long as he can pay his rent, he doesn't need to make anyone happy but himself.