Ask HN: What's a side project you built to make money that hasn't?
Arcade game developer here.<p>I loved the game concept of ABA&#x27;s &quot;Defeat Me&quot;: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;wonderfl.net&#x2F;c&#x2F;9ykQ" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;wonderfl.net&#x2F;c&#x2F;9ykQ</a> . SHMUP where each enemy is a copy of you. Round 3 you fight a clone of Round 1, Round 2, mirrored.<p>but I disagreed with several major design decisions:<p>1) Rounds were too difficult (a deadline came in very fast, the bullets were nearly the size of the ship)
2) Player movement &amp; weapons changed rapidly (speed &amp; number of shots per spread was a modulo on the level number
3) Losing meant you retried the same level.. at that point in the game, you basically be stuck. I wanted the game to restart.<p>I improved on the game with pixel-perfect collision, weapon animations and other design decisions like letting the player screen-wrap around the edge but not the clones, regaining time on the deadline when you killed a clone and more.<p>I even experimented with a co-op, 2 variants of 1 Versus 1 mode and a Replay site before removing them for the core experience.<p>I made the game because I wanted to play it. Making money was a secondary goal but I&#x27;m proud of the game and find it way more fun than most games I&#x27;ve played. How many games do you know that have an AI procedurally determined by <i>your</i> movements?<p>Revenue earned: 3 * $10 on &quot;pay what you want&quot; from itch.io.  1 from a friend&#x27;s friend who overhead on a Skype chat that I made a game, 1 from an indie developer at a games meetup and 1 from a friend when I sent them a link.<p>+ &lt; $100 from iOS sales (I switched from the iOS app to Desktop (Win&#x2F;Mac&#x2F;Linux with Eletron packager) for a better experience and more fun coding.<p>I think it&#x27;s cool that $10 was the amount chosen by 3 people who didn&#x27;t know each other as a valuation for the game. However it&#x27;s disappointing that all 3 were people who knew me.<p>I sent out ~100 emails to game reviewers with download links and got 1 brief article but no revenue.<p>Why: Discovering games is hard. Marketing to people who would like this kind of puzzle-y arcade game is difficult to reach without looking like a spammer or spending $.<p>Differently: Not try so many weird experiments with gameplay and focus on the core relentlessly + Playtest more.<p>Iterations: 2 prototypes from TigJam. 2 more iOS versions then another re-write for an App Store launch. 2 Javascript versions (the latter being launched) + 1 seperate version for multiplayer.<p>Time: Hundreds of hours. Maybe a thousand? A lot of this was done earlier on when I was less experienced with programming + design. I playtested a lot<p>Lessons for Game Developers: Playtest <i>often</i>, stick to the core relentlessly. Carve away crap that doesn&#x27;t fit no matter how cool it is or fun to make. I spent too much time iterating on mobile interfaces when gamepad controller support was <i>far</i> superior and passed &quot;the bar test&quot; (give to strangers at a bar and watch them cheer other strangers on as they pass the controller around).<p>Play [1], An old trailer [2]<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;QuantumPilot.me" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;QuantumPilot.me</a> (redirects to itch.io)
[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=oy_GBLM_6Qs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=oy_GBLM_6Qs</a>