itch.io

Fun little adventure; I liked the single-page typed version best.  One typo: "Gaping *w*hole in server tower."

Really great article, thanks a bunch for writing it!

In a sense, your $0.68/ hour business was a failure (although keep in mind that LOTS of people lose money starting gaming companies).  That makes it the hardest thing to write about, because no one likes to tell the world "I'm a failure!"

But at the same time, if you've read The Lean Start-up, or any other book from the Lean business movement, you'll know that the most important thing a new start-up produces isn't their first product: it's the knowledge they acquire which leads them to a viable business model.

Everything you do as a new business is essentially a series of experiments to find that viable business model, and if an experiment fails to yield it, hopefully it at least suggests some potential "pivots" you could take to make that business viable (eg. switching to a production model that involves less up front time investment).

I say all this both because you're very brave to report your failure, and because I hope to give you some small inspiration about how you actually achieved something great ... but also to thank you.

Again, this sort of thing is so hard to share, but precisely because there are lots of other people who would like to form gaming start-ups, and precisely because it's so hard to share ...  that makes the information you've presented here all the more incredibly valuable to any such person who reads it.

Thank you very much for "performing the experiments" with your business, thank you very much for sharing the results, and best of luck in pivoting to a model that works better for you!