Ask HN: I spent personal money on game dev. How to turn stalled project around?

Posted by pixelbyindex 1 day ago

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Over the last year I spent a sizable sum on a personal multiplayer game project. I designed the idea until it was ready, contracted an offshore dev team, spent several months iterating on the production and then had the unfortunate luck to have the contracting company go out of business while the project was still in a pre alpha stage.

How should I rethink my problem space and move forward in this situation? Game dev is different from some trades in the sense that investment is heavily front loaded, which makes it difficult to start bringing in revenue while you’re still building out the MVP.

I firmly believe in the project itself, it already shows promise. The game is an online battle game, and what I currently have is a (rough) playable demo with placeholder art.

Professionally, I’m a dev, so I could keep building it myself, although it involves much more than just software hours. There is a huge amount of work that includes 2D/3D art, sound, music, networking, UI, onboarding, testing, etc. Without time constraints I would love to work on all of it, but I am trying to remain realistic.

For a production grade MVP I would still need: - production grade graphics and sound - that final 20% polish that it takes to make a game - more budget for the above

Thinking a bit brings me to these options: - finish the game myself (a few years?) - reduce the scope down into something else altogether? - open-source the concept

Is there a way I can break this into smaller problems that will allow some form of revenue to come in and reignite the project? Has anyone been through a similar experience that could offer some wisdom?

Comments

Comment by fsuts 1 hour ago

In finance there is the concept of ‘sunk cost’ and not letting it factor into future decisions.

You have spent money and have got so far, now you need to forget the money spent and ask yourself if today you still see this project as viable based on projected future costs and your use of time needed.

Forget money spent already, and detach emotionally, make a decision as of today.

Comment by cyanlimetea 22 hours ago

“I basically have a game it just needs graphics, sound, and like 20% more game”

Want to know why they say game dev is so hard?

What do New World, Ashes of Creation, EverQuest: Next, and Amazon’s Lord of the Rings all have in common? All looked amazing and incredible - none even launched a v1 to the public. Too many problems that never went away.

Look at a fully launched game like Crimson Desert. It looks absolutely amazing - better than anything any solo dev could do graphically - and yet it’s “a flop” by industry standards.

Highguard - on paper looks very professional, ticks all the boxes - famous flop.

Creative masterpieces with entire staff of artists and designers flop all the time even when the game looks and sometimes even feels great.

It’s like film where it is hard to predict what will work and where energy is being wasted.

I don’t think anyone has a magic formula, so most studios ride trend waves and try low-risk experiments.

But trendwise, games are very out (gen Z does not game like Gen Y), and it’s more difficult than ever to find an audience.

I would try to release something smaller in scope ASAP to see if there’s any interest, and if you don’t have creative - for a game it’s like you’re not even out of the PoC or engine phase.

It might be a good time to just not build it, since you’re at the beginning anyway and have no way to move forward solo.

Comment by pixelbyindex 20 hours ago

One of the reasons that has caused hesitation in deploying the idea early is the possibility that the mechanics might be instantly swallowed up by a publisher who could replicate it in a matter of a few months.

However, if player's don't care about the gameplay, no publisher will either. So that's a very practical piece of advice in your comment. Building the audience to validate the idea should take a higher priority.

On the positive side, the studio showed enthusiasm across the team while working on the project (biased as it may be)

Comment by brudgers 1 day ago

How should I rethink my problem space

Games are fun problems, not optimization problems.

Also, sunk costs are sunk costs. And often the value from spending money is what you learn, not more money.

I could keep building it myself, although it involves much more than just software hours. There is a huge amount of work that includes 2D/3D art, sound, music, networking, UI, onboarding, testing, etc.

There's a reason triple-A games cost billions. When scope exceeds budget, reducing scope is often better. You can build a bicycle much more readily than you can build an airplane.

Comment by pixelbyindex 20 hours ago

figuring out the bicycle version of a fully featured online multiplayer battle game is the reason I am seeking advice on HN :)

I had not thought about the learning cost of the experience. I have been trying to avoid the sunken cost mindset and looking to wise up before the next round of decisions

Comment by brudgers 13 hours ago

If you start off constructing a bicycle out of bricks, no future design decisions will make it a viable bicycle.

That’s sunk cost.

Under-capitalization is a business architecture akin to a brick bicycle, airplane, etc.

Comment by ipaddr 1 day ago

If all you need is professional graphics hire someone or generate graphics to finish. Use AI to finish or do it yourself. Open source when you have more.

Comment by NishanStepak 1 day ago

This sounds like you could look into kickstarting so you can get the money to develop it. You kind of already know what stages and milestones you would need to go through to build the project. It would be a matter of breaking it down into stages and prizes.

Comment by pixelbyindex 20 hours ago

this is one path I have thought about. I do have enough learnings now that I could put together the milestones.

In some sense the challenge here is the production value required on kickstarter these days. Building a community, a sense of trust so that backers will have a feeling of confidence, and making sure the milestones hit on schedule.

The rough demo I have now is not enough. I will keep the kickstarter card in my hand for now

Comment by thiago_fm 7 hours ago

You could scope it down to a demo. Share with people and see the results

If good, continue with it, if bad, give up.

Demos are so good for that purpose, if you show the game loop and it sucks, you'll need plenty of work to change this situation around (if even), so try it.

Comment by mandarinclips 1 day ago

[dead]

Comment by eldhobenny 13 hours ago

[flagged]