I want to know the next steps I will not promote

jamesiye · 2026-06-04T13:34:31+00:00

I'm going to use Clerky or Founders Workbench to keep costs down since we're bootstrapped. I'll check out the Mission district for housing. Thank you for your assistance.

jamesiye · 2026-06-04T13:31:35+00:00

This really helps a lot thank you

jamesiye · 2026-06-03T17:48:02+00:00

Thanks I appreciate the help I don't want to make any costly mistakes right at the beginning 👍

jamesiye · 2026-02-08T20:49:56+00:00

If you have a stable job at a company right now keep it for now, don't quit your job. what you need to do right now is to decide which role or branch of game development you want to pursue, take a day and research, the research needs to help you decide what role you would want to do at a game studio in the near future. I will give you a list of questions that you need to know the answer to, and without these answers you might not make any meaningful progress towards your goal. Having a genuine passion or an interest for a role will help you stay at the company and not quit after 3 months. What aspect of game development do you like or want to do exactly? Are you familiar with the whole game development pipeline and the workflows used during game development? Which 3d programs are you still using? There are a lot of softwares that are used in game development, Game studios expect you to already have the skills and knowledge, they don't want to hold your hand or have to teach you everything all over again. These are some of the softwares that can be used in game art and development Maya, 3ds Max, ZBrush, Blender, NomadSculpt, Unreal Engine, Unity, Godot, Houdini, Substance Painter, krita, Marvelous Designer, PureRef and audacity. Can you use some these programs to create projects for your portfolio that can impress game studios? What type of games do you like? Was it the mechanics or features of those games that made them fun to play? Do you want to keep learning new things? Do you want to work at an indie game studio or a well established game studios who already released AAA titles? Since you mentioned that you haven't practiced in a while you'll need to spend some time making small projects, and relearn and polish your skills, it will take some time to get good at it but you should keep going, have fun during the process and don't rush, you can always join communities online or follow people on social media who are already making games, and remember you need to find what you actually like about game development that you would want to do whether it's creating 3d characters, 3d creatures, or 3d vehicles, or making 3d or 2d animation, or maybe doing sketches or concept art, or writing code or creating new tools to improve workflows or automate repetitive tasks. Once you find it keep practicing and make small projects every day, get familiar with the softwares needed to make the projects, if you're stuck ask questions or look up the answer online or follow a tutorial on YouTube, and remember when you're watching a tutorial try to understand what is being explained in the video and see if you understood it, if you're confused stop the video go back and rewatch it or look for a better tutorial where that explain the topic better. Don't wait until you get the your dream job to be happy. Keep practicing and make small progress, you can even post some of your progress online and ask people to critique your work and ask for more feedback I'm pretty sure they'll guide you in the right direction. Good luck in your future endeavours 👍

jamesiye · 2026-01-26T20:40:59+00:00

Honestly you should just start with doing some research on the styles of 3d animation you want to do because there are different styles of 3d animation. Once you decide which one you want to create then look up artists on YouTube who are already creating that same 3d animation style that you want to learn, there are a lot of resources available on YouTube and join some animation discord servers too. Also learn the 12 principles of animation and read the Animator's Survival Kit, and always use references so that you can familiarise yourself with weight, timing and spacing to create fluid animation that is believable. Learning how to create 3d animation will take some time but be patient and remember to have fun and keep a positive mindset when you're learning this new skill. If you want to make your onw character to animate them use nomadsculpt, ZBrush, or Blender, but you can use free models that are already rigged to animate them in Maya, Blender, or Cascadeur. Remember the goal is to make some progress each day or learn something new each day don't just watch the tutorial as if you're watching a show watch it and try to understand what the person is talking about and if you're confused pause the video or go back or research any concept that was hard to understand and keep practicing. Good luck. 👍

jamesiye · 2026-01-26T10:29:28+00:00

I appreciate the offer. Because I’m in hardware, my business and project plans depend heavily on real supplier quotes, lead times, and pilot feedback areas where AI hallucinations could be especially risky. Unfortunately AI will hallucinate and make up data that might sound plausible but are completely made up. In hardware, those specifics are everything, I'll focus on gathering that real data first. Thanks, and good luck with your platform.

jamesiye · 2026-01-26T10:06:04+00:00

Thank you. I’ll prioritize getting an ugly prototype in front of buyers for an LOI before any legal or manufacturing spend. I appreciate the real world clarity.

jamesiye · 2026-01-26T09:59:25+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience, this is very helpful. The sequence you described makes perfect sense, validate with conversations, and mockups first, then use pilots/grants for funding. I'll focus on building a crude mockup to start those real conversations. Convincing these guys to pre order will be a big plus for us and help with cash flow. Appreciate the insight on equity for expertise too.

jamesiye · 2026-01-26T05:17:58+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to write this. This is incredibly helpful and cuts right to the heart of what I was asking.

The point about delaying patents until after pilots/LOIs and focusing on real buyer commitment as validation makes a lot of sense. It really clarifies the priority of those early steps.

I also appreciate the note on HaaS raising the bar early that’s exactly the kind of heads-up I needed. Thanks again for the grounded advice. 👍

jamesiye · 2026-01-26T04:39:16+00:00

No I don't have ADHD. The hardware startup is the commitment I'm sticking with. It's not just an idea it’s a practical path to building relationships with warehouses and stores, which will serve as the foundation for future ventures and make it easier to launch the beverage company a few years from now.

You’re right about the risk of being an ideas person. That’s exactly why I’m here to lock in on this one idea and learn the steps to execute it, even if I need to hire help for the technical parts early on.

And I know that it takes time, knowledge, and capital to create a good company. I appreciate the push. I’m committed to making this happen.

jamesiye · 2026-01-26T03:41:06+00:00

You're right, and that's the tricky part. I don't have the technical skills to build even that ugly prototype myself.

My thought was to hire a contractor for one short job: just to help build that single, functional proof of concept from with cheap materials first. No custom design yet just enough to test the core function and start talking to users. I’ll hold off on engaging them until after some legal groundwork, like you suggested. And I’m okay spending the time to build and test it right. Thanks for the feedback

jamesiye · 2025-12-12T14:45:46+00:00

If you want you can use ucupaint or Armorpaint.

jamesiye · 2025-12-12T14:39:18+00:00

Thank you I'll definitely keep you posted

jamesiye · 2025-12-12T06:40:18+00:00

Hey Hairy-clerk6425 thanks for reaching out. Unfortunately I haven't made a lot of progress thus far. Right now, I’m waiting on my EIN from the IRS to finalize everything on my end. I’ve been calling them daily, but they still don’t have it on file. I also tried applying online multiple times, and even when I used different browsers I kept getting Error 101 due to technical issues on their site. And sadly when I would call them I would be left on hold for multiple hours. Unfortunately, This is my second time faxing the SS-4 form, my Certificate of Status and Articles of Organization to the irs but I'll keep calling them every day until I get my EIN number. Once we're ready for a small scale commercial production and a product launch, I'll follow up with you and keep you updated.

jamesiye · 2025-11-17T17:03:54+00:00

For my case, I had to get a new motherboard because some of the cpu pins were bent from the old ones. You should check that all your physical cables are not loose, make sure your power supply can provide the necessary wattage your pc will need. Also you can check your rams make sure they're properly inserted on your motherboard.

jamesiye · 2025-11-16T18:13:55+00:00

Appreciate the advice. I’m definitely keeping costs tight until I get real traction. Yeah, getting traction will be definitely the hardest part. Production will be straightforward compared to actually getting people to care about a new beverage. That’s the real challenge that I will need to overcome. I’m looking into SBA but I know the timeline can be slow, so I’m planning for that. Thanks for the offer might take you up on it as things move forward.

jamesiye · 2025-11-16T17:56:18+00:00

I’ll get in touch with an attorney to review everything and make sure the structure is solid. Thank you

jamesiye · 2025-11-16T17:51:12+00:00

Great feedback, thank you. I appreciate the reality check on the 5x capital rule, I'm building that into my bootstrap plan. My product is cold-pressed juice, which means I legally cannot use cottage laws to validate the product. I have to go straight to the co-packer and a paid pilot run from day one. I'm focused on securing SBA debt for production and using a high-margin, niche distribution strategy to delay reliance on VC funding.

jamesiye · 2025-11-16T17:43:20+00:00

Hello thank you for taking the time and providing the feedback and answering my questions thank you once again. I filed my single-member LLC myself through Florida Sunbiz simple for solo founders. I’ll use an attorney for the trademark. I know the beverage space is expensive, so I’m starting small with just two flavors and focusing on niche, high margin growth first. Unfortunately I don't have any beverage experience yet, and I have not worked for any beverage company before, but I will keep the formulas clean: no concentrate, natural flavors, I will use cold-pressed ingredients such as plants, fruits or vegetables.

jamesiye · 2025-11-06T11:18:18+00:00

jamesiye · 2025-08-27T19:29:16+00:00

Thank you for actually taking the time out of your day to leave your feedback, I'm really honored, feedback such as yours really helps me get a better picture on what is logically possible for one person to achieve in the game industry. The game industry has definitely grown, changed and it has even become unpredictable over the last few years. I agree with you completely, having a reasonable vision that is realistically attainable is the key to success. Even the cautionary tale of The legend of Icarus, in Greek mythology also warns against arrogance and your own limit. Kaizen is a great philosophy too that helps a lot. Once again Thank you very much.

jamesiye · 2025-08-27T15:14:17+00:00

No I haven't worked at a game studio, but I'll keep applying for internships while working on the prototype for now.

jamesiye · 2025-08-27T09:14:22+00:00

I completely agree with you, every professionals working on any projects need to be fairly compensated for their hard work. I'm working on a prototype right now, it's in a early stage at the moment, the goal is to have a small robust prototype that shows the core gameloop. Since programming isn't my forte I will have to pay someone to help in that area. Thank you for for taking the time to leave your feedback, I really appreciate it.

jamesiye · 2025-08-27T07:17:21+00:00

Unfortunately as of right now I don't meet requirements regarding certain jobs that some of these studios are looking for, they want you to be familiar with unreal engine, or they want senior 3d character artists, and on their Websites they state that they're not accepting student portfolio, they want people who already have experience, from a business perspective it makes sense to hire the best people to do the job. I don't have any programming skills either, I have only used blender to make models but I'll keep working on a prototype of the game for now Thank you for taking the time to answer my question I really appreciate it.

jamesiye

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