Hacker News Reader

Comment by swiftcoder | Hacker News Reader

> how can it be that and then inside the article i read

> > Last year’s indie darling, the Myst-inspired Blue Prince, was funded by a solo developer’s personal savings and the ad revenue from his Magic: The Gathering website. “When I finally approached publishers, it was only after I had completed my game, looking for marketing, porting, and release support,” Blue Prince developer Tonda Ros says via email.

Blue Prince is an interesting case, because the developer had a successful SaaS business that funded a significant part of development.

Without such a source of "passive" income, I doubt most us have the kind of savings that would allow us to spend ~8 years working full-time on our game

View on HN

I don't know if English has a word for when you are half confused and half amused, but that is how I feel.

From this same article, here is the co-head of the studio that wanted to produce Myst.

> “I don't think people realize the true cost of developing games,” Anderson says, having used Kickstarter to partially fund two of Cyan’s past titles. “A million dollars seems like a ton of money, but it doesn't even come close to covering the full cost of a production like Anglerfish.”

Thanks for making me checkout in detail Blue Prince.

I don't understand why an article can say that a random dude has built a Myst-like game for what looks like less than a million, and then the very same article is about an indie studio, which says "nah, need more than that".

I mean, what I understand is that: you CAN make a Myst-like game for less than 1 million (see Blue Prince), you just cannot be sure that you will make the money back. Also, financing is easier when money is free.

In which case sure, I understand it. But please read the title, read the article, come back here and pls join me in a petition to add /s to the title.

Because obviously the author is implying "nah Anderson, YOU cannot make that game, check Blue Prince ;) ". Right?

Apples to oranges, I think. Blue Prince was self-funded and solo developed for much of its long development time. Publisher funding was sought to polish and market the game.

The developers in the article are taking about seeking upfront publisher funding for a small studio to develop the game with a much shorter time horizon. The publisher would likely need to invest much more, but would take a much greater percentage of revenue, and with an established franchise like Myst and a team of veteran devs the risk is - in theory - lower.

Indeed. Folks with a trust fund/juicy investment account/etc have always been able to self-fund their solo gamedev career. It’s a whole other process to take a pitch deck to a publisher and get funded in the strength of your reputation alone

I appreciate your answer, thanks! Unfortunately my curiosity about the videogame industry has been replaced by anxiety over the newspaper one.

That said yes, put in those terms it makes sense, one thing can be true under a financing model and false under another one.

Can you please get hired by Wired? It would really help me address some trust issues.

To be honest, I still don’t know if no one can or cannot afford to make a Myst games anymore but I think at this point I will just accept the answer is

> I don't know if English has a word for when you are half confused and half amused

I think bemused is the closest I can think of.

I only think of bemused as "confused".

Maybe incredulous at a stretch?

I was iffy on it as well, so looked it up before suggesting it. M-W has it as the 3rd definition, for example. It's hit or miss whether that usage is in a given dictionary, it seems.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bemused

Sure enough. Oxford only gives a bewildered definition. Although, their ambiguous examples could fit an amused/confused definition.

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/eng...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com