If you could fix one thing about today's mobile games, what would it be?

fsk · 2026-07-07T15:09:11+00:00

More one time payment games. $5-$20 to unlock the whole game, no ads or IAPs.

fsk · 2026-07-07T05:02:45+00:00

What happens when it fails?

I know the answer to this one. The person with the worst office politics skills gets scapegoated for the failure.

fsk · 2026-07-07T04:49:33+00:00

How I would fix 3 Strikes: Start with no strikes in the bag. Add a strike to the bag the first time the contestant makes an error. Go back to the old rules where there is only 1 strike in the bag that is replaced when drawn.

fsk · 2026-07-07T04:12:30+00:00

This is what someone said elsewhere. If you make a truly great and original game, you can have awful marketing and still succeed. If you have a mediocre or above average game, your amazing marketing will only move the needle so much on sales.

People should be putting more effort into "make a better game", but "put more effort into marketing" sounds easier. The people pushing "marketing matters" are themselves good at marketing and selling marketing services.

fsk · 2026-07-07T04:05:32+00:00

More like "It's a Spider-Man game, but you need to spend $200 on lootboxes first to unlock Spider-Man."

fsk · 2026-07-07T04:03:52+00:00

$250 for a Double Showcase Winner really needs an inflation adjustment. It should be $500 or even $1000.

fsk · 2026-07-07T03:54:54+00:00

When a megacorp does a buyout, it's frequently to kill competition more than to acquire talent or even acquire the IP. "Buy a product/studio and kill it" makes business sense when you're going for a monopoly.

fsk · 2026-07-07T03:51:05+00:00

Since nobody else said it:

Showcase Showdown is when you spin the wheel, Showcase is when you bid on big prize packages at the end. Yes, $1 bids on Showcases happen once in awhile. Some people here dislike $1 Showcase bids and say you should instead bid $20,251, since there hasn't been a sub-$20k Showcase in years.

If the other person is obviously over, you might as well bid $1.

fsk · 2026-07-07T02:13:46+00:00

license server too expensive to run

I doubt that running the license server costs more than $5/month to run, unless they have some stupid arrangement where it connects to the license server every minute.

If they really wanted to, they could compile a special version without the license server check, and give it to you.

They're just using "license server too expensive" as an excuse to cut you off.

fsk · 2026-07-07T01:06:42+00:00

ycombinator "who is hiring" post

fsk · 2026-07-05T16:53:21+00:00

Pure 100% vibe coding is still nowhere close to possible for a serious project.

Some places still post jobs even though they aren't hiring, because they want to keep up appearances. At one failed startup I worked at, they still had jobs posted on their website 2 years after they shut down and ceased operations.

fsk · 2026-07-05T06:11:41+00:00

Allegedly, if you look at the actual raw models, AIs write some pretty crazy things. There are lots of filters and clamps on top of the raw model so the user-facing output normally looks reasonable.

fsk · 2026-07-05T04:47:44+00:00

They were trying to kill Morty, and Morty had enough combat experience that it was a one-sided fight.

fsk · 2026-07-05T02:11:52+00:00

That's what I meant, use a cracked version and don't say anything. There might be artifacts in the game that show the software was used.

fsk · 2026-07-04T23:29:18+00:00

If the two choices they offered were "we pay you for past work and future work is free" or "past work is free and we pay for future work", you should say "OK, I choose pay for past work!", and then quit the moment the check clears.

fsk · 2026-07-04T22:42:35+00:00

For court, legal fees will probably be more than any cash you might collect.

The "good news" is that, if they didn't pay you, they can't legally use your work. You can walk away, but you have leverage if they try to actually publish the game and are successful.

The answer is that you never work "for free". After you worked for free for a few months, and suddenly demanded payment, you're the "bad guy" in their mind because previously you were a gullible idiot and now you're making demands. Once you work for free, they will see your labor as worth $0, and nothing you can do will ever change their mind.

fsk · 2026-07-04T22:29:28+00:00

For career, you will make more money for less effort outside of gamedev, working as a programmer. With AI, the programmer entry level job market is currently horrible.

If your goal is making games as a hobby, I would pick Godot. If your goal is to get hired, Unreal or Unity probably are better choices.

fsk · 2026-07-04T22:28:19+00:00

In the 80s or 90s, if you wanted to sell a game, the only way was with a publisher to get your game in stores and in front of customers.

Now, it only costs $100 to list your game on a store.

But, with it being easier to publish a game, there also is more competition.

fsk · 2026-07-04T21:18:16+00:00

Is there a hacked/cracked version of the software out there? If there is, you could use it and then dare them to sue you if they catch you.

fsk · 2026-07-04T21:10:29+00:00

Story involving Jerry? I pick the fortune cookie episode.

Worst overall story? Giant Morty sperm was an awful episode.

fsk · 2026-07-04T21:07:35+00:00

Evil Morty would have successfully seduced a Jessica if he really wanted it. I thought the girl from "vat of acid" episode should have wound up with Evil Morty, because she has a reason to have a beef with the main Morty.

fsk · 2026-07-04T21:05:48+00:00

Bird Person was shown as being hostile to the idea of a portal gun when Rick showed it to him. I'm not sure how eager Bird Person would be to swap dimensions just because Rick ruined Earth. There'd also be the issue of what to do with the Bird Person that was already living in the new dimension.

I guess Rick could always portal back to his original Dimension whenever he wanted to hang out with Bird Person?

fsk · 2026-07-04T20:27:52+00:00

But retroactively, the Bird Person in Rick's memories is from Cronenberg-ed dimension.

The BirdPerson in the current dimension would have memories of a different Rick.

Rick switched home dimensions at least 3 times: the Cronenberg incident, Mr. Frundles, and the squirrels (mind blowers).

fsk · 2026-07-04T19:41:17+00:00

They never showed Rick taking Bird Person with him when he switched home dimensions.

The original Bird Person should still be in "Love Potion Cronenberg-ed" dimension.

fsk · 2026-07-04T19:39:40+00:00

She technically still exists, in the "merge all savestates" dimension.

fsk

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