Hacker News Reader

Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

There seems to be plenty of VC money around if you want to start your own company. Might be better than dying at your current job.

View on HN

It's funny, where everyone else seems to have the problem of "ideas are a dime a dozen, but time to execute is scarce", I just have zero ideas. My only true passion in the world of software development is gaming (the one area where I, like everyone else, have lots of ideas), and, well, being an independent game developer is an even worse crap-shoot than lining up for leetcode interviews! (I won't argue that it's not a self-defeating attitude to have in regards to considering indie game development, but the numbers certainly don't lie here)

No, it's a very realistic attitude to have about being an indie game developer. The market is flooded and unless you have a really good idea, can make a really good game, and can promote the living fuck out of it you're going to have a hard time.

Still, at this point I'm almost willing to just try it and off myself when it doesn't work out and I'm broke. Looking at job ads right now is incredibly depressing.

I'm in the same place as you, and I've been trying to figure out if there's some intersection between games and my current web dev specific skills that's both a safer route than traditional indie dev, and somewhat less tapped out. I have a couple ideas, not really sure if they're good though.

Yeah same, I won’t say I have no ideas, but I have none that are commercializable.

Heh, I have some that I think are commercializable, then I go online and look for companies that are doing similar things, and lo and behold, there are already several competitors who are doing a pretty good job.

At least a good enough job that there's no way I can easily cut into their market share or take some of their clients without significant outside funding.

There's nothing new under the sun. Almost all ideas will have already been done by somebody else. And if nobody has even tried it, then it's possible it's not a good idea.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com