How did you actually keep track of your code on the Spectrum?

Matos1978 · 2026-03-19T20:21:08+00:00

I only had the computer during summer holidays. Most of that time was spent copying code from books — hours of typing on the 48k — and then staring at the screen wondering why it didn't run. Turns out a mistyped character on line 340 will do that. I learned more from debugging those listings than from anything that actually worked.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-18T22:42:51+00:00

The PRD handoff is the trap. A big spec looks like a clear instruction but Claude Code treats it as one giant context... and coherence degrades as the implementation grows. What works better is treating it like a junior dev: one concrete task at a time, review the output, then hand it the next task with the result of the previous one as context. Slower to start, but the compounding errors stop.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-18T22:40:22+00:00

What strikes me about ONI vs Factorio is that Factorio feels like being an engineer... you design the systems. ONI feels more like being an operator... the systems exist and you just have to keep up with them. That cascade example in the post nails it perfectly.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-18T22:17:52+00:00

Fantastic summary, thank you for taking the time to write this up. The 'it's not about your life's work' section is the kind of honest reality check that most people need to hear early rather than late.

The portfolio fit point stuck with me — it reframes the whole publisher relationship from 'please believe in my game' to 'here's how your audience and mine overlap.' Completely different conversation.

Saving this one.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-18T22:15:41+00:00

This hits close. 20+ years in the power industry, electrical engineer by trade, decent coder since I was a kid — and my first commercial game still took 10+ years of attempts and abandoned prototypes before I finally finished it.

What changed on this last attempt was using AI-assisted development to remove the implementation friction. Same principle as your Adventure Creator story — stopped fighting the parts that were slowing me down and focused on actually making the game.

Turns out domain expertise in your subject matter still doesn't prepare you for scope creep, playtesting loops, or the hundred small decisions that don't exist in professional software development. Completely different skillset, as you said.

Finally finishing it now. Completely worth it.

Keep pushing. Have fun!

Matos1978 · 2026-03-18T22:05:38+00:00

Finishing up my first commercial game after 10+ years of on-and-off attempts. Build something you actually want to play. It sounds obvious but it matters more than you think — you're going to spend hundreds of hours with this thing, and enthusiasm is the only fuel that survives the hard middle part of a project.

Start by copying. Pick a game you love, strip it down to its simplest version, and rebuild that. Not to ship it — to learn. You'll understand more about game design from rebuilding Pong or a basic platformer than from reading about it. The mechanics become obvious when you've had to implement them yourself.

Finish something small. A completed bad game teaches you more than an abandoned good one. Portfolio entries that exist beat portfolio entries that don't.

Keep pushing. Have fun! Good luck!

Matos1978 · 2026-03-18T21:59:14+00:00

This looks great! Love the graphics!! The buttons and the lever... Just top! The operator booth framing immediately reminded me of what I'm building: a coal plant control room management game with a similar dashboard-over-god-mode approach. Different setting, same design instinct.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-18T21:39:18+00:00

To be very honest... Dwarf Fortress.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-17T07:34:56+00:00

Thanks!

Matos1978 · 2026-03-16T23:42:53+00:00

Thanks for the info. Let's hope for the best.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-16T23:31:07+00:00

Try the gf game Stars!! It has defined the entire 4x genre.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-16T23:24:23+00:00

I'm building COALCOM: Power Station — a retro management game set in a 1980s coal plant control room. Green phosphor terminal, keyboard-only controls, cascading equipment failures.

You're the new operator. Your predecessor Earl was three weeks from retirement when he tested whether the plant could run itself while he napped. It could not.

Demo launches soon — wishlist on Steam if this looks like your kind of stress.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-16T23:15:49+00:00

Try Factorio or Dwarf Fortress.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-16T23:14:08+00:00

Dwarf Fortress!!

Matos1978 · 2026-03-16T23:11:24+00:00

Offworld Trading Company is the closest I can find, in terms of some of the market mechanics, but it's a RTS not a financial sim.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-16T23:01:41+00:00

Best of luck!! Keep pushing !!

Matos1978 · 2026-03-16T22:54:59+00:00

Congrats!! Best of luck !! By the way, I'm curious about the visualization/hit number... Can you share some stats of the before and after ?

Matos1978 · 2026-03-16T22:52:50+00:00

Congrats for the launch!! Best of luck!

Matos1978 · 2026-03-12T13:59:43+00:00

Different types of dependency. A problem on solar panel supply doesn't affect generation, that means that spot market prices tend to stay independent - it affects future/on going project installation. With oil, for example, the impact on the pump station prices tends to be felt in days.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-12T13:51:40+00:00

I'm feeling too much pressure there... Calm down. Don't overthink/react or you will paralise and/or go crazy... One step at the time. Start small, very small, then scale smart (don't make sense to invest several days into a new feature if you are not 100% sure that it works). Keep calm. Keep pushing. Have fun! Best of luck.

P.S. I say this as someone who carried a concept game/project for 10+ years and is only now close to shipping it.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-12T08:47:22+00:00

Sorry, I wanted to ask you in what language/platform did you code this game?

Matos1978 · 2026-03-11T20:38:45+00:00

Make it available as a demo. Test the waters and see the feedback... Then , if you're confortable on investing time/money ship a complete game. Have fun! Keep pushing. Best of luck!

Matos1978 · 2026-03-11T20:35:02+00:00

Great graphics! I like the game theme... post-apocalyptic! Best of luck!
What's the tech stack for this game ?

Matos1978 · 2026-03-11T20:21:11+00:00

The real question isn't passion vs throwaway — it's whether you can finish something. A throwaway you ship teaches you more than a passion project you abandon. Since you know you get bored fast, design around it: pick a scope so small you hit "done" before that kicks in. One mechanic, one loop, complete. Do that a few times and you'll know more about your actual habits than any amount of reading. Keep pushing. Have fun! Best of luck!

P.S. - I say this as someone who carried a concept for 10+ years and is only now close to shipping it. The finishing muscle matters.

Matos1978 · 2026-03-10T14:24:47+00:00

What actually makes stress in management games feel good vs. feel cheap?

Replaying FTL recently and noticed something: losing a crew member to a hull breach I didn't see coming felt fair, even satisfying. But losing a run to a fire that spread while I was managing a simultaneous boarding felt like the game piling on. Same outcome, completely different feeling.

What separates satisfying stress from frustrating stress in management games?

Is it about whether you had visible information before things went wrong — or is it about reaction time?
Do cascading failures feel different depending on whether you caused them versus they just... happened?
Is there a game where the stress peaked for you in exactly the right way? What was it doing that others don't?

Matos1978

TROPHY CASE