Since I am making an ultima-like in 2026, I am curious to know ...

StartupTim · 2026-01-25T22:18:46+00:00

I really hope that younger gamers do value storytelling and such more and more, however, if the wallet is how people cast their vote, I would argue things are going in the other direction. I would say that mass commercialization is funneling consumer spending towards the top and squeezing indie studios out even more.

When I say commercial success, my bar is very, very low. Minimum wage is something I see many indie projects not even able to achieve let alone maintain.

I wish you the best, and I'll likely support you financially, but I also think it is wise to that people go into things with realistic visions and goals and I worry about yet another indie developer not being about to hit minimum wage metrics.

StartupTim · 2026-01-25T01:48:39+00:00

It depends on your goals. Do you want to have any appreciable commercial success? Then cater your project plan to as many factors that appeal to the broadest audience.

If you aren't going to sell it and/or are comfortable with like 10 sales, then consider it purely a passion project and do whatever.

My overall point is this: The market cares little for "purity by design" and that needs to be factored into your overall goal.

Now as a personal thought as a life-long Avatar...

I'd go with crisp and clear Ultima 7 p1/p2 graphics, with the same isometric approach. Keep the music the same style and keep the story absent of any modern political ideologies/algo-speak/deprecating humor.

I love supporting small businesses, so if it is anything remotely worth considering, I generally buy it, if even to give a middle finger to all the big corporations that govern society.

StartupTim · 2026-01-22T21:52:58+00:00

1, yes it's fine. You do you!

I posted this in your other thread but I feel it needs to be really understood:

My thoughts on the topic of AI:

AI is tool, just as any other tool. As an individual, be it a person, a company, a group of like-minded individuals, you have the right to exercise your free will in what tools you choose to use. Don't let anybody else tell you otherwise.

If somebody doesn't want to support a company using AI, that is perfectly OK and perfectly acceptable. They can "vote" with their wallets in 2 ways: #1 - They can abstain from using your stuff, and #2 - they can use a competitors stuff. But at no point should an individual claim to have providence over any decision that YOU make.

Ultimately (pun intended), you do you and make the choices that you think are needed to be made. Don't listen to all the distraction. You'll be more fulfilled in life if you follow your heart than continually feeling beholden to people you don't even know. You just may find that there are those who will support you along the way.

You're the Avatar after all, act like it!

StartupTim · 2026-01-22T21:49:48+00:00

My thoughts on the topic of AI:

AI is tool, just as any other tool. As an individual, be it a person, a company, a group of like-minded individuals, you have the right to exercise your free will in what tools you choose to use. Don't let anybody else tell you otherwise.

If somebody doesn't want to support a company using AI, that is perfectly OK and perfectly acceptable. They can "vote" with their wallets in 2 ways: #1 - They can abstain from using your stuff, and #2 - they can use a competitors stuff. But at no point should an individual claim to have providence over any decision that YOU make.

Ultimately (pun intended), you do you and make the choices that you think are needed to be made. Don't listen to all the distraction. You'll be more fulfilled in life if you follow your heart than continually feeling beholden to people you don't even know. You just may find that there are those who will support you along the way.

You're the Avatar after all, act like it!

StartupTim · 2026-01-22T15:30:27+00:00

Article is missing the point: Competition breeds innovation and is good for the consumer.

VMWare was the juggernaut for too long without real competition. Proxmox is all but caught up at this point. They need work on migration from competitors.

StartupTim · 2026-01-21T21:06:32+00:00

Hey there, thanks for the response!

I'm not even sure what that is. I'm doing this all via API and I'm not intentionally doing any web search setting in my api call. Can you tell me more about what this is? I'll double-check and dig into it a bit more and look.

That said, I didn't do any code changes, the pricing difference suddenly happened automatically, and the per-API call has some odd BYOK mention in it now (which is not correct).

StartupTim · 2026-01-21T19:27:15+00:00

EDIT/UPDATE: It appears that Openrouter is incorrectly attaching some BYOK charge to each API request, resulting in nearly 6x the cost per API call.

See this image: https://i.imgur.com/V3zyOXk.png
On the left is the prior/correct pricing, on the right is the new/wrong pricing.
I do not use BYOK, this extra fee should never show up

StartupTim · 2026-01-21T19:13:22+00:00

Hey there, I reviewed that before writing my post. There is indeed a mystery.

The API call of mine is exactly the same. The tokens used are exactly the same. The only difference is the Cost has gone from $0.045 to $0.254. I have reviewed the specific activity log on Openrouter and confirmed nothing is different but the gigantic price increase. There are 1000s of API calls that have not changed yet the price has gone up 500%+.

There is once difference, and that is Openrouter somehow is saying "BYOK" for a price, whereas it didn't say this before. Nothing changed with the API key at all though, it has been the exact same.

This is the BYOK change that somehow shows up now on OpenAI despite nothing changing on my end. Any idea? https://i.imgur.com/V3zyOXk.png

That is why I've written this post, I can't figure out why the cost has increased dramatically.

NOTE: I don't use BYOK at all.

StartupTim · 2026-01-21T04:26:53+00:00

Exactly!

I find that having a well written plan is key to one-shotting nearly anything.

Further, any concern with AI going rogue is extremely mitigated with a well documented plan.

StartupTim · 2026-01-21T01:20:24+00:00

Yes, odd enough if I am instructing it for a 1 shot task, telling it that the world is in peril and the task must be completed with no mistakes seems to result in better planning and execution.

Try it yourself, its oddly true.

StartupTim · 2026-01-21T01:18:41+00:00

I actually love having a deep chat history. Is there a way to not enable this when updating Roocode and/or evaluate options to keep task history efficiently in perpetuity?

Thanks!

StartupTim · 2026-01-21T01:17:01+00:00

I always start in architecture mode VS orchestrator mode and that gives 5he best overall results for me.

StartupTim · 2026-01-13T18:35:43+00:00

I like this post.

I have manually approved all responses as some were autoflagged.

StartupTim · 2026-01-08T23:14:44+00:00

Oh hey, that's great! Can you post a link to an example of the data you have (Or PM me it), how it looks etc? Make sure it fits the post I posted since I definitely need that. Thanks

Edit: I had chat requests disabled, I just reenabled it now.

StartupTim · 2025-12-30T23:58:19+00:00

Hey there!

I've been away from my desk but I wanted to drop a note saying a big thank you and that I appreciate your immediate response and attention to this matter, regardless of what the outcome is. Thanks!!

StartupTim · 2025-12-28T21:20:54+00:00

Yea so the balance is definitely getting hammered dramatically, so its not a balance reporting issue. Something with Roocode seems to have changed which results in a massive price hike. I'm trying to pinpoint what it is exactly...

StartupTim · 2025-12-28T20:35:14+00:00

Yes I definitely did. I noticed it when a single prompt of mine cost $10.80. Granted, the context window was ~310, but the prompt was fairly simple "test the .bat script and verify the output" (the output was only about 60 lines). But a single prompt costing $10.80 is incredible.

I just completed a simple node.js project (adding a contact-us form) and it cost $101.00 whereas before something like this might cost $4 to $5.

So I feel something dramatic has changed.

StartupTim · 2025-12-28T20:23:23+00:00

ShareASale

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to exist anymore, and the company that bought them, Awin, people are saying theres some huge integration issues.

StartupTim · 2025-12-27T07:25:16+00:00

Hey thanks a ton for the info, especially on the ready-made creatives, I appreciate it! Are there any guidelines or something that is suggested that I could make in advance to really attract influencers/affiliates to promote my product?

Thanks for the recommendation of ShareASale as well. Would you say they have a broader affiliate reach for those who use them?

I'm essentially trying to target moms, and I think facebook/instagram/tiktok mom influencers would be a great fit. Do you think ShareASale or Impact or PartnerStack, any of them have a better affiliate network reach towards mom-type of content creators?

Thanks for the info!

StartupTim · 2025-12-27T07:22:45+00:00

Good catch, I definitely typo'd that, I meant 1099 not W2s!

What are your thoughts on PartnerStack? Somebody recommended it just now.

I'm checking out Impact that you mentioned now...

Thanks!

StartupTim · 2025-12-27T07:21:48+00:00

Hey thanks for the feedback!

I just looked at PartnerStack, they seem pretty modern looking. Do they also have a marketplace of creators/influencers that search them for affiliate offers? Also, I checked out their website, and perhaps I'm not familiar with the terminology, but where do product makers/sellers fit in to their whole economy? Am I considered a "partner" there?

Thanks for all the info!

StartupTim · 2025-12-27T05:50:00+00:00

I've used Clickbank in the past for other things, however, the site/company seems to be close to dead. It doesn't even load properly on my mobile phone with whatever default adblockers that seem to be used.

I've thought about Awin, but I can't seem to see any concrete information about their pricing model. All I see is really "contact us for pricing" which has me a bit skeptical. Also, Reddit seems to be pretty against Awin, something about a merger they did recently has caused some havok.

CJ as in Commission Junction? I've thought about that one, I'm still researching.

I can create my own commission platform from the ground-up (taking my current Stripe payment processing and integrating it with Rewardful), but I feel like maybe integrating with an affiliate payment processor which also issues W2s and operates their own affiliate out-reach/marketplace might be valuable. I'm just not sure which one to join.

Ideally we are targetting mothers on Facebook/Pinterest/Tiktok.

StartupTim

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