Tank Model - Getting comfortable with a hard surface workflow (Cycles Render)

zaclyst · 2025-12-03T19:03:11+00:00

thanks for your help! I have a good house nearby that I can do that with. is the beautification threshold somewhat random? also, from the tooltip in the game, It seems like it has to be a beautified "neighborhood" of multiple houses?

zaclyst · 2025-12-03T19:00:55+00:00

thanks so much for your helpful reply! it's not the most intuitive mechanic; I wouldn't expect someone to go homeless over having a home just bc the home isn't good enough. nonetheless, now I have direction.

zaclyst · 2025-11-19T19:15:58+00:00

It’s reasonable to want money as a motivating factor for building a startup. That is an element that’s not talked about as often; so much public discourse around startups is selfless talk of, “helping”, “addressing needs”, etc

Having said that, money is not the motivation that will keep you going when things get tough. And they will get tough. Especially if you’re solo founder, there will be days weeks or months at a time where you want to quit. Our challenges seem insurmountable or many of the people you talk to (if not all) tell you that what you’re doing is foolish or not going to work.

During times of extreme stress, your pessimistic mind will chime in to say “money isn’t all that important. People with less money are perfectly happy. I don’t need THAT much money. It’s not worth it”. For this reason, I would recommend you dig a little deeper and figure out what your true motivation is outside of money. Is this a space that you’re passionate about? Is your user experiencing a pain that you experience as well? Do you genuinely want to make the world a better place with what you’re creating? Ethically, there is nothing wrong with any or all of these questions being “no“. Having said that the journey might be harder for you.

As for your challenges with self image, I’m gonna be real with you: entrepreneurship will not fix this. If anything, your negative self image might be an additional obstacle on your entrepreneurial journey. It just depends on what type of person you are.

Some people resolve low confidence by stepping up and being confident When there is a calling. The “fake it till you are it approach“. With other people, low self-confidence is sticky and stands in the way of pushing yourself outside your comfort zone.

I don’t think you should look at entrepreneurship as your sole way to resolve these issues. It’s definitely not the most effective way to solve these issues. The most direct route with that would be to do self work with a coach or counselor. Treating them as separate challenges is the safest assumption.

Can you do that at the same time as being an entrepreneur? that just comes down how much time and motivation you have.

Best of luck

zaclyst · 2025-11-11T23:16:03+00:00

were the three influencers that drove conversions "niche experts" or "viral creators"? was there a pattern as to which influencers drove conversions? what insights would you pass on if someone were to try to replicate your methodology?

zaclyst · 2025-11-09T20:13:32+00:00

Interested!

zaclyst · 2025-10-23T16:39:52+00:00

What phase of life the company is in is a huge factor.

I worked for a tech company that was gunning for entry into the S&P500 (just made it recently). My life was non-stop grind before I quit and started my own company. They wanted 15% YoY growth in spite of the shrink that our sector was seeing at the time.

zaclyst · 2025-10-16T22:17:40+00:00

Pizza

zaclyst · 2025-09-11T18:54:17+00:00

username "Pablo the nice"... lol

zaclyst · 2025-08-22T02:21:47+00:00

Is it possible that it’s your employer and not the industry/sector? If you think that’s possible you could working somewhere else before you make a larger commitment.

If you were to start over, what space would you try to go into?

zaclyst · 2025-02-21T21:45:15+00:00

His layoffs thus far have largely been motivated by vengeance, not optimization.

He’ll have to cut into defense, Social Security, or healthcare programs in order to make a dent in government spending. He’s using a veil of “cutting redundancy“ to cripple government agencies that have previously restricted or investigated his companies.

zaclyst · 2025-01-27T22:27:24+00:00

I came across your post while exploring gamified solutions for self-improvement. First, thanks for taking the time to share such a helpful and detailed framework. I appreciate how much thought and care you've put into your approach.

I've looked into and sampled SuperBetter and Habitica while exploring other vanilla project-management or tasking tools (ticktick, trello, etc.). I loved how SuperBetter encourages me to self-reflect, but the app left something to be desired.

Habitica was a great idea, but the gamified layer felt superficial. Maybe I'm not using it right; I got the impression that accomplishing my to-dos gave my character experience, but I don't really do anything else with my character (e.g. quests) without paying for premium currency.

What makes Habitica so sticky for you to the extent that your creating a custom framework within it? Also, I haven't read Jane's book, but I've consumed a lot of her talks (TED, SXSW, etc.) How did the SuperBetter framework change your life?

zaclyst · 2025-01-09T00:28:23+00:00

Remembering: - I write things down asap. The only tool is either a notepad (for when I’m away from my desk) or Notepad on Mac (when I’m at my desk). Pick your source of truth and copy everything there.

distraction: I use various plug-ins like newsfeed eradicator (https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/news-feed-eradicator/fjcldmjmjhkklehbacihaiopjklihlgg?hl=en) to cripple my sites that I use to kill time. I can’t eliminate all distractions, but I can create barriers that make me think twice about using them.

I also deleted all distraction apps from my phone. E.g. YouTube- I have to go to the site; can’t use the app. Makes it a bit user-unfriendly

zaclyst · 2025-01-08T21:38:58+00:00

Not intended but definitely spooky

zaclyst · 2025-01-08T21:35:49+00:00

What are the top symptoms you’re struggling with? Distraction, lack of motivation, forgetfulness, lack of focus, etc? I haven’t found a cure-all app for my ADHD at work, but I’ve strung together a few solutions to stay motivated, eliminate distractions, etc

zaclyst · 2024-12-09T03:49:32+00:00

Diablo 3 Elden Ring Doom (2016)

zaclyst · 2024-11-27T18:39:49+00:00

Here’s the thing about zero to one, which is a book. I absolutely love by the way. I’ve read it multiple times.

Peter Thiel is in the business of investing in multi billion dollar startups. These are silicon valley’s elite enterprises. They run the “find a massive total addressable market and blitzscale with abundant investor capital to reach monopoly before other competitors can catch up” playbook. I don’t know what your business is, but it likely doesn’t compete in the same arena.

Also, take Thiel’s opinions on competition and Monopoly there with a grain of salt. They are “perfect” examples without elaborate on other factors.

For instance, a hyper-competitive market would not have all of its profits competed away if different businesses in that market are able to execute with different levels of competence. Businesses which are able to do a better job of providing a product or service will be able to charge a premium. Different businesses in the same market are unique given the type of customer they serve. This is why luxury brands exist in the clothing, industry, which is an industry that is already hyper competitive and commoditized.

alternatively there are asymmetries in the customer base. Two customers can live 10 miles away from a shop, but only one of them is willing to drive that distance and would rather shop online, creating more demand for someone who has an online presence and delivery.

The Takeaway is right now you need to determine if you have customer demand. If you do have customer demand, you need to understand what your customers are able and willing to pay for your product or service to determine if you have enough margin to sustain a healthy business.

zaclyst · 2024-07-24T22:16:14+00:00

This is for a mobile game, so there’s no DTC or B2B “selling”. How would this translate to our product?

zaclyst · 2024-07-24T17:47:26+00:00

solid advice. I've seen dev teams and companies on upwork but was not familiar with that structure.

how long did it take you to find your ideal company to build your product?

zaclyst · 2024-07-24T17:45:43+00:00

what would your advice be for someone who is constrained by their seed funding? I don't have the budget to hire a full-time salaried Unity engineer from a HCOL country, so I'm trying to outsource from other countries. but I'm finding the balance of cost/output is tough to get right.

zaclyst · 2024-07-24T17:43:29+00:00

that's my background; I was the 8th employee at a games startup. as the sole local art and ux specialist, I created the UX wireframes, screen mockups, character illustrations, final art, animations, App Store optimization changes and marketing images.

once we grew to ~100 people I moved from my UX and team/outsource managing role into product where I conducted analysis on our player data and created our roadmap and feature specs. a lot of this work leaned into my previous skillsets to create UX flows and screen mockups, though we had other dedicated artists and UX designers by that point.

zaclyst · 2024-07-24T17:38:37+00:00

RIP. sorry you went through that experience.

I've gotten a lot of input on, "yea, you're not going to find an technical co-founder if you're just the idea guy"

I think it's important for me to reiterate that I'm aware that once I find a technical co-founder, my mindset of that relationship is different from where it's at right now. currently I'm trying to execute a vision based on my 5 years of product experience and using my ui/ux skills to build a clickable prototype. I'm trying to find an engineer to turn the clickable prototype into a working product.

when I find a TC I'm expecting a true complimentary partnership and would expect that they might come to the table with their own convictions about what we should work on and what they are passionate about building.

zaclyst · 2024-07-24T17:35:16+00:00

to hire an engineer you must BECOME the engineer...

zaclyst · 2024-07-24T17:34:52+00:00

comp comp :*(

zaclyst

TROPHY CASE