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.

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.

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.

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.