Macsenour

My phone number used to be 222-3212 and every day when I got home from work I had a filled phone answering machine, (yep that long ago). Mostly random kids, but sometimes sales people.

I think there are two factors, 1) cheaper production costs and 2) Using crowdfunding to not be forced to "bet the farm" on potential sales.

I've published two games and I wouldn't consider a third without crowdfunding.

I've grown to like a few no's to getting a ton of yes. I'm sure someone here knows the quote better than I do, something like: If you don't get a few no's, you're not innovating enough.

I have a lot of tech friends who are busy doing their own things. I set up an informal board of directors and I consult them on ideas, tech problems etc. I feel no need to have them as partners. They pick me up when I'm down, give me advice, help with direction, keep me focused.

They took the equipment down so they knew it was there and recording them. Not getting all of them COULD mean that since they thought they got them all, that they were no longer being recorded and now safe. Safe meaning reasonably assured of privacy.

Don't think I'm agreeing with the behavior at all, just voicing a thought.

I was living in my car for a month, seems like a short time, but 30 days seemed like years, so I know what intant pang of being unsure. I;m much better off now, but I think that feeling never actually goes away.

I actually create that feeling now by moving all but the bill paying funds to savings. Every 2 weeks it feels like I am broke. It gives me a sense of ownership and a feeling I am in control of the situation.

That's a good start. You'll need to join the Scrum Alliance mostly because that's where employers look. Lots of info free online. Feel free to PM me if you have questions.

I'm a Scrum Master who took over for a SM who was fired. The first thing I did was ban computers from the planning meetings.

I played that... what I loved about it was that we all looked alike. Cracked me up! I think maybe we could have different colored clothes, but the faces were identical. It might just have been that there were few face options.

"What? Me worry?" - Alfred E Newman (YC applicant for the 10th time)

If you love what you do, it's not work.

Having made games for 30 years, I can tell you that a big part of it is a love of making something fun. I get to make something, and then play. Joy comes from playing and I am very joyful.

I'm interested in this new wrinkle, and always looking for something that will help out my day. But is $30 a month, for a single person, a competitive pricing plan?

"they" want you to have this attitude, and do nothing. Your comments re a matter of public record and can be used in a suit. But not if you don't make them...

I worked at a game company where "they" brought in someone to teach us to game-ify our work. We rejected it during the meeting. We already make games for a living, we don't need to add another layer of gaming on top of that.

The basic concept of competition WITHIN the company is counterproductive to a creative workplace. We should ALL be working TOGETHER to make the best product. We have plenty of competitors outside the building, don't need to add to the list.

My site, gamerustlers.com, uses just Twitter. It's required to use the site. We use Twitter to communicate when a game is created, and when seats are taken.

Using something other that Twitter makes no sense for us.

I don't feel repressed in any way and I have the freedom of speech, by law, that repressed people do not. Comparing those two is an insult to those that lived in the Soviet era.

I think specific social networks will be profitable. Such as a doctors social network, or golfers network. I think a larger catch all network has issues as we're all talking about here.

I'm moving TO Feedly since they've already had their attack. Next round would be the some other provider.

I agree. Signing up for free, then actually using, THEN using it when it has a fee. All of those are additional levels.

I was at a board game convention, as a venue to launch my site gamerustlers.com, and although we got great reactions, what I really cared about was how many people walked up to the kiosk and actually signed up. The second metric was how many signed up on their phones. While in Beta the site is free so I can't call them "sales", but there is a HUGE difference between someone saying "Hey, great idea" and that person actually signing up, even when it's free to do so.

Yes, and never forget the BMI opcode.

Fair point. Again, thanks for the comment. I'm going to that con in Burlingame this weekend, I'm sure there will be many more suggestions.

Thanks for the comment. My guess is that you didn't click one of the miles boxes. It defaults to 3000 miles, which I know is not reasonable, but that way you can see all the conventions. Yes, right now there are only 2...

Again, thanks for trying it out.

I worked at a video game company that had the Atlanta Olympics license. As Manager of Development instituted a "sign off" on all documents and packaging. I left the company after a few months of banging my head on a wall. The next day the CEO sent a memo around recalling all of my procedures. The next game they produced was for the "Olympcis". All copies had to be recalled off the store shelves.

Third time is the charm. I have no doubt these things happened, but they're not usual.

Ride a cable car and see the buffalo in Golden Gate park.

When someone spreads a rumor, they get a reaction from 3 or 4 people. The fun is to see how far it goes. With an app, they get a reaction from many more.

It's nice to say "ignore it" and when it's 3 or 4 people they can actually do that, but with an app you're talking about the will power of many more people. Much harder to self control.

The first title of this type I recall playing in the arcades was Scramble, but you had lasers and bombs. Of the non-increasingly difficult type, they're a dime a dozen. We did one at MTV with SpongeBob and I think AddictingGames did one for Potty Racers. Pretty common, still fun if the controls are done right.

And that's the hitch.

The controls in the Potty Racers version were poor, to give it a compliment. Getting things in any game exactly "right" is what makes one game better than another. Lots of physics games before Angry Birds, none got the physics exactly right.

I'm sure some of your remember Doodle Jump. There was a game before that, that was the exact same type. Same controls, same type of character. But the controls, and what was expected of the character were both off, so no huge hit.

In the game industry, we'll continue to learn this rule over and over as long as accountants tell us what is a good game and what isn't.

They generally go hand-in-hand... those execs who treat game engineers poorly, think they can replace those same engineers in a day or so.

After 30 years of seeing this over and over, I left the game industry.

I mostly agree with you but I have 2 points:

1) I wouldn't say "from being short...", I think it's more accurate to say "from JUST short...". My reasoning here is that we have deeper long games, heck Knights of the Old Republic comes to mind, and short fun games like Cut The Rope.

2) Couldn't you say basically the same thing about the movie industry, regarding the lack of new ideas and abundant cloning? When games and movies take so much investment, it's not always easy to convince barely imaginative accountants to spend the money.