tomdeal

The author seems to want to return to "Create games as a hobby" instead of having an industry that creates the best creative jobs involving a computer. There has been so much development in the last 10 years in computer games that would not have been possible if there wasn't an industry. Of course there is some unnecessary hardware and depending on your income, there are parts that you can't afford. On the other hand, thanks to current game engines (which would not be affordable for indie developers if there wasn't an industry), there are so many possible hardware configurations to play the game you want on, you just don't have to buy the newest stuff every two years anymore. Especially for indie developers, the current games industry landscape is a big opportunity. Yes it is very hard to be successful, but it was never easier to create a game, and that would not be possible if we stick to open source games and old hardware.

SEEKING WORK - Remote possible - located in Frankfurt/Main, Germany

I’m a web developer doing frontend (Javascript, Coffeescript) and backend (Ruby, Rails, node.js, PHP) work with 7 years of experience and graduated as “Mediengestalter” and Game Designer (Games Academy).

Portfolio: http://www.dievolution.com/projects

mail: thomas@dievolution.com

Be aware that the key for saints row does not work when you are in Germany. Luckily, the humble bundle support is good and will help you out if you have problems, at least they helped me very fast :) It would be even nicer though if they would mention this on the official page.

thanks, you are right about the landing page. This is one of the things you just forget about when you develop the whole app, but its the first thing the future users see, so it should be really nice. will start working on it immediately

Yes, getting users is the first obstacle, where I really got problems with. If you are developing apps and doing websites 24/7, its really hard to be a marketing expert, too, thats what my blogpost is about.

I would lie if I said I didnt write the story to generate some buzz for the game, but I really think if I have those problems, many others have them, too. There must be ways for developers to market their ideas, people who can't be 24/7 online for social connections like a garyvee.

That is a really nice collection. I think many of us are in the situation to have great products, but don't have the money to create a big marketing campaign or even buy a few ads to deliver it.

One thing: keep the dark color scheme, but don't put dark grey links on black background (like one commenter already mentioned here), and increase the line height by a few pixels, makes it a lot easier to read.

I like the pomodoro technique, obviously, because I created an online tool for it, http://www.pomodorohelper.com.

The technique has one major advantage over GTD and other systems (and I tried them all...), it is damn simple. You don't even need a tool, just a kitchen timer is enough for the start. The only thing I don't like to do in the standard 25 minutes pomodoro mode is programming. You need the tunnel, and a deep tunnel experience can't be achieved if you are interrupted every 25 minutes. My tip: Try 25 minutes first for two weeks, if you can't get into the tunnel, try 50 minutes, if that doesn't work either, try 1 hour 10 minutes. I found this to be the maximum time I can work fully concentrated. And of course, don't even think about checking your mails, reading HN or watching youtube while in a pomodoro.

First I wanted to use an existing game engine too, but I decided to write everything myself to get a better understanding of how canvas etc. works. Do you have any gameplay videos, yet?

thanks :) wasnt my intention do advertise the game (yet), but I'm working full time on it, so it makes progress. I also plan to release the engine as open source in the future, once it is more stable and has better documentation.

I think HTML5 is the future of application development. It has some very specific advantages compared to native apps, and we will see a lot more web apps with unique abilites. There is an interesting talk about that topic from the google io conference. It is a bit mobile specific, but really worth a look [1]

Of course, I am a bit biased, because I am currently building a browsergame on HTML5 techniques (canvas and local storage at the moment, but of course audio and video will also be a part) at http://www.breederisland.com. It is really amazing how fast the new javascript engines in the browsers are, if you don't use an internet explorer, of course ;)

[1] http://www.videosinhtml5.com/videos-about-html5/google-io-20...

Interesting post, though I don't agree with the last point. A good rails developer will present himself as a rails developer, even if he does other things. A typical rails app includes html, javascript, maybe even xml or some other fancy stuff, so a real rails developer is always a bit of an jack-of-all-trades.

Btw, outside US, it seems like it is the other way round. I develop rails apps and have trouble finding work at the moment.

Its quite hard to follow the interview because of all the noise around the office there, too bad. With all the money, they should have built a small room with good noise reduction for calls or... interviews :)

This is very general speaking. Of course, make something people need is good, because you have a nice niche then to sell something, but I think it is not accurate enough. Everything a person needs are 4 walls, a roof, something to eat and someone to love. Lets find a better sentence, something like: "Make something which makes people smile". While it is not catchy like the original sentence, it is a lot more accurate. A secretary will smile when presented with a better accounting software. A lumberjack will smile when given a better axe. A developer will smile when given an awesome new programming language.

Oh, and not to be mistaken, it is totally OK to have these people pay for things that make them smile, Disneyland also takes an entrance fee.

indeed! gotta save this quote somewhere :)

I'd definetly go for the framework approach. After building apps with and without frameworks, its a lot less painful to build upon something which exists already.

There are so many advantages to go framework, I can't tell everyone: - frameworks are (mostly) under development, so you can benefit from trends and improvements in web development

- frameworks are well tested

- frameworks are more secure. Do you have all holes for XSS etc. closed? Are you sure?

- frameworks have almost always a community behind it, so you benefit from other users knowledge and plugins

- frameworks have plugins. You don't have to write anything from scratch, like DB connections, authorization or file uploads

- frameworks have documentation. Unless you are the sole developer of your app, you really want to have good docs.

Do frameworks have disadvantages? Sure, but I don't think it outweighs the advantages.

Interesting data, but unfortunately nothing you can see a trend in (other than the most well known companies have the most followers). One good advice you can take from this data: If you want to have many followers, you have to tweet more than once a day.

Disclaimer: My experiences are based on the current german web landscape, so I don't know if this is true for other countries.

I don't include IE6 anymore in my web pages. If it works, ok, if not, well... too bad. In the last year, no customer ever really wanted to have an IE6 site.

The Problem with a site like this from Microsoft is, it is not the normal household PC which is still running IE6. There might be a few, but that number should be close to zero. It is the big companies, who are not switching to a newer version, because they have special software programmed for IE6 with funny activeX elements and big domain stuff behind so they can't simply flip the switch, and if it works, why should they upgrade? They don't want to throw a whole bunch of money at this problem. Thats sad, but you can't do anything about it...

The Kinect is a very interesting piece of technology. Because it is REAL. You can buy it, you can use it. Of course, it is not the end of the mouse and keyboard as we know today, because it is just the first step, but it is here, not just a prototype in some lab.

That said, I don't think it will replace mouse and keyboard, because the way we interact with our computer is based on the periphery, the mouse and keyboard. Without mouse buttons, we can't click on something that good (there are possibilities for clicking with a gesture, but it sucks, at least at the moment). We can't type text with gestures, perhaps we have to dance letters? :) So in order to use motion based computer interaction on a daily basis, we need to invent some new interface link between the computer and our body. The Kinect is a very first but also a very good step in the right direction, because it is here, it is open, and it is not too expensive to use it. And it is a lot of fun to play with :)

As someone with not such a Karma rating yet, I find it difficult to get feedback from HN. You only show up for 30 minutes up to two hours (depends on when you post) on the new posts list and then you vanish forever. You should not repost, obviously, so you can't do much to get your project back on HN for a while. Of course, if you know the right people, they write a blog post about you, which brings you back on HN and you'll be overwhelmed with feedback, but this is rather the exception than the rule.

Generally, it is really hard to get people to send you feedback, especially if your project/startup/tool is intended for not tech-savvy users. There will be some users giving you feedback all the time (powerusers/early adopters) and you should stay in contact even if you don't have something new at the moment

What I found to be useful is displaying a "1 minute of your time to improve the product"-form on the (in this case) applications home page, where every user will go. It is important to add a "no, I don't want to do this"-option, because you don't want to nag your users with a always displaying form-link. Don't do popups, too, they are irritating. Just a small but visible link with a do or don't option and if the user don't want to do it, don't force them again. On my last project, I got almost 20% of the user base to fill out the form this way, which I think is a really strong base for analysing and improving your application/startup/tool.

I like the "new" 5by5 podcast "Back to Work". It has some interesting informations about how to be more productive and follows the opinion of seth godin's linchpin, most of the tim. Additionally, the hosts are funny, especially Merlin Mann, and the podcast is not too long.

What do you mean exactly with responsive and snappy? Not loading fast enough? There is definitely a problem when using this game on a mobile device with a 3G connection, but on a normal dsl/cable connection, at least for me, it runs very smoothly.

I chose maps because it has a good api and it is something everyone can interact with. You don't have to learn a new technique, just click, drag and pinch or scroll. It is an unlimited source of interactive backgrounds for the game.

lol, what a start... I thought I had checked everything, no errors on the page itself, no serious bugs, a nice introduction text... and then my www. subdomain did not work!

Sorry! If you want to try TRZZL, use http://trzzl.co while the DNS Update is still running.

I think the title of the book is misleading, it should be "the 4 hour work and 30 hour doing something you like that pays your bills week". But it is a lot catchier to call it 4 hour work week, which in my opinion is the only negative thing about this book. From the title, you think you don't have to work and get enough money to do whatever you want, which is just wrong.

If you like your job at the startup, you did exactly the right thing, there is nothing better than doing the job you like and even get paid for it.

I like this job postings, although I don't need a job at the moment. They are always a good source of what skills are currently needed and where you have to improve yourself in order to stay "in the game", especially if its a job for a big company.

I've taken a different approach switching to ruby(on rails). I was eager to learn a framework to simplify stuff in php, so I learned CakePHP. This MVC experience eventually led me to the bigger brother ruby on rails and from there, I bought the pickaxe book and learned ruby. Was this the best way? definitely not :)

So my advice is: First, work a weekend with bare ruby, there are lots of good and extensive resources on the web. Second, if you enjoyed working with ruby, try another weekend learning basic MVC Rails. Good resource is rails for zombies (http://railsforzombies.org/), where the basics are well shown, and you can work through this on one weekend. Third, try converting one of your small projects to rails. There will be a lot of hiccups and frustration, but once the first project is done, you will simply love ruby.

I hope this helped you a bit, although I have not directly answered your questions (mostly because the given answers are the ones I would write, too).

Aside from the subjective Good/Average/Bad this is a very nice list of how logos in 2010 looked. Most of them are simple and clean. If I remember correctly, in 2008/2009 we had a lot of shiny logos with shadows (the typical web2.0 look) which has been abandoned almost entirely. This years logos are more designed than just made, they invlove more of the product they represent.

someone should build an app which simplifies payment. Create an account, choose the payment option you like and here is the code you have to include in your app, byebye.

Is anyone expecting more than a mediocre game?

thats really amazing!