spacemarine1

5 ms·

1.
by spacemarine1 3mo ago
One of our earliest Humble Bundles featured Voxatron as did the Humble Mozilla Bundle (where Voxatron was featured as a snippet on the Firefox home page). Will always have a soft spot for Voxatron. While in Japan last year for Tokyo Game Sh
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Duskers, the scary command line game, is getting a sequel(elbowgreasegames.substack.com)
157 points by spacemarine1 3mo ago|44 comments
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by spacemarine1 3mo ago
This is so good. I keep making jokes with founders I know that all AI agents are like meseeks. Life imitates art (and art imitates life).
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by spacemarine1 5mo ago
Thank you. I agree. When done well, a good mashup can feel “easy” and “obvious” but really the devil is in the details. Creating the perfect balance of features across the whole design space for a shippable game takes extreme skill, taste a
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Turning chess into a roguelike via design first principles(elbowgreasegames.substack.com)
16 points by spacemarine1 5mo ago|4 comments
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Voxile: A ray-traced game made in its own engine and programming language(elbowgreasegames.substack.com)
279 points by spacemarine1 7mo ago|77 comments
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by spacemarine1 7mo ago
The founder, Wouter, has created or helped design 10 programming languages. Voxile is built in his newest language: Lobster. Wouter has been a major contributor to WASM and LLVM while also inventing flatbuffers. He’s worked at Crytek, Ge
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
One EGG studio is wiring LLM’s to npc’s in a hilarious way. We’ll be curious to see everyone’s feedback when they make a playable available. However, I’ll say that as a result of their AI integration they are also doing way more human writi
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
I was just having some fun with the John Wick poster. I too have heard that Keanu is a good, honest human who works hard. PG does say he actually looks for “naughty” founders as one of the key filtering traits. I link this essay in my post
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
Well said!
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
Both Mark Andreessen and Andrej Karpathy say AI is unique as a new technology in that small teams and individuals seem to be the earliest and most cutting edge adopters. (unlike computers and the internet which were used by government and t
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
Agreed. It is possible to make money in video games while treating customers with respect. This is the way! (and what EGG looks for because it builds stronger IP and longterm retention and good will) I helped Indie Fund Hollow Knight back i
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
Many people agree that being a video game founder is harder than being a tech founder. Staying small and being as resourceful as you can is a good way to mitigate risk.
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
The industry has experienced slowed growth and is restructuring which is scary for many people right now. There have been continuous layoffs and studio closures. That sucks (though is not all caused by AI). But a few quick thoughts: Video
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
I think it is possible to be successful in games without being predatory. Humble Bundle was a demonstration of that. I don’t believe that ultra-predatory mechanics are long-term sustainable. They usually yield a “ring of fire” effect that
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
AI tech has the spotlight right now for sure amongst VC’s. But I believe AI is also a huge tailwind for video games. Namely, small, clever teams will be able to do big and entertaining things that were not possible before. (But yes there w
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
It was all of the above in my opinion. VC’s raised easy money (ZIRP era) and they wanted to deploy fast. Founders told VC’s what they wanted to hear to secure capital.
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
Fair point though Humble Bundle was B2C. There are clever gaming platforms out there and the best games seem to turn into platforms effectively.
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How Y Combinator made it smart to trust founders(elbowgreasegames.substack.com)
186 points by spacemarine1 9mo ago|119 comments
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by spacemarine1 9mo ago
Y Combinator forged a long-term, high-trust ecosystem to the benefit of all tech founders. The video games industry needs to do the same.
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by spacemarine1 1y ago
Very cool!
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by spacemarine1 2y ago
Rumor: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/1iheqzg/valve_is_...
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by spacemarine1 2y ago
Interestingly, Steam’s first hardware product was a Steam Box: a little computer brick that could boot Steam on linux and let you play all your games on your TV (with a Steam controller or game controller of your choice). The cycle is now c
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by spacemarine1 3y ago
Government subsidies are a wonderful source of pre publisher funds but in many places (like the US) they don’t really exist for video games.
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by spacemarine1 3y ago
You’re right. Though I haven’t formally announced yet. I’m more lurking in the shadows talking to studios quietly than trying to be noticed by the public at large. I will post more info soon.
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by spacemarine1 3y ago
I see equity funding as useful starting funding. Publishers are great for finishing funding once you know what your game is.
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by spacemarine1 3y ago
I think early equity funding has a role to play in video games… a role that’s very similar to YC. So I started EGG: https://www.elbowgreasegames.com/
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Ukraine Game Bundle Raises $5M in a Day, 6 Days to Go(humblebundle.com)
7 points by spacemarine1 5y ago|1 comments
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by spacemarine1 5y ago
Humble Bundle has put together a Stand With Ukraine Bundle. It is over $2500 of content for $40 and all proceeds go to Razom for Ukraine, International Rescue Committee, International Medical Corps and Direct Relief. Only 6 days left.