Ah too bad! I figured it would be more outside of you’re demographic though.
I have worked on a commercial poultry farm my family owned since I was 6, I was given a very basic allowance for my work starting at 12, then at 15 I started my first job, 9-5 m-f as a certified lifeguard, then when I turned 16 I had that job along with a pizza job so I was working 9-5, 5 days a week and then 5:30-10, 3 days a week. It was all of my college savings I had at that time. It was actually $3800 but 25% sounded easier lol.
My parents had a car fund and a college fund for me saved up with around $4,000 each and then I made the remaining money through working during this contracted period (18 months is a long time) and selling my motorcycle.
I wouldn’t say I lost it. If I could go back and either do it the exact same way or not do it at all, I’d re-live it. It shaped so many facets of my life professionally on what I want to do. I learned such an enormous amount of things from it (even though it was the school of hard knocks). The first year after the game was published, I had trouble reflecting back on it admirably. At 17, I felt like I let myself and my parents down (even though they were so incredibly supportive!). I hadn’t dealt with a professional failure before this; on top of that I had never done any sort of business venture. I can’t stress enough how much I learned and absorbed from this experience but it truly is one of the most shaping moments of my life up until this point, outside of personal situations. The game made back very little money. It peaked some downloads around the 4th of July and also on Chinese New Year (due to its celebratory firework content) but I ended up taking it down, I just didn’t feel it was ethical to keep it up and allow those accidental downloads, as the game was very buggy and laggy. The studio I did it with has now since shut down, and the owner actually apologized to me months later after everything saying he should have approached it better and dropped the ball on it. But oh well, live and learn!
If you really do have some interest, I’d love to explain it to you in detail and send you a design doc if you think there is a chance to reconsider. I’ve discussed the idea with around 15 professional programmers/experienced freelance developers and each have noted the surprise of how unique my main mechanic is. Buuut because I could easily take the “oh yeah its so unique, its basically like a zombie call of duty but for mobile with super realistic HD graphics everyone will buy it, you can build it in 3 months for $150 and 2% equity k thxs”, sky ping you about it or chatting privately would probably be more effective :). And I’m sure you’re wondering “Ok, so why haven’t you built it yet?” Well I’ve been focused on a much much larger mobile project that I currently haven’t had the money to pursue so I’ve decided to put it on the back burner and re-pursue this idea.
I also just want to re-do it as a form a cathartic release… It was really teeth-grating to see an idea turned into an awful, terrible game that was so buggy it was unusable. I don’t think my idea is revolutionary, I just think it has a solid mechanic that has some potential. I’m a firm believer that a great team with a mediocre idea is 1000x better than a mediocre team with a great idea (not that I felt my idea was “great”, that would be a bit conceited).
Hope this gave you a better picture of me and my experience, and as I said don’t hesitate to get into contact with me further, even if you just wanna pick my brain :)
Carter
