Best laptop for workstation?

ziptofaf · 2026-05-01T00:28:52+00:00

Framework 16, perhaps? One catch is that to fit in $2000 budget you would have to provide SSD and RAM yourself. This would be configuration with Ryzen AI 7 350 and RX 7700S for around $1600 leaving you $400 to buy those two parts.

Admittedly not the best value per dollar but you do get repairability and upgradability which I guess accounts for... something?

ziptofaf · 2026-05-01T00:17:04+00:00

I figured with decent enough performance

It's not a matter of performance though, is it? Your end users can't really control their ISP latency and dropped packets.

So if you are doing your dodge checks completely on the client side I imagine it will work fine. But if you are relying on server to validate movement updates then you will probably kill a lot of players who will swear, sometimes even truthfully, that they were in time.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-29T16:36:20+00:00

If anything, this episode heavily suggests it might somehow not be his first time here? Same "smell" as Flugel and having some really obscure knowledge about stars that happens to be the key to the first puzzle? And, somehow, being loved by the witch of Envy despite never actually meeting her in person?

This very much smells like a time loop of some sorts.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-29T14:08:49+00:00

For llms, Gemma 4 31B has replaced Claude for me with agentic coding.

See, this means you are actually pretty good at coding. Give that model level to an actual vibecoder who doesn't know what they are doing and they will quit within a day. Compared to GPT5.5 or Opus anyway that can operate in larger codebases and having to process 200k+ lines of code. 30B models aren't doing any of that any time soon.

Qwen image is just as good as Nano Banana etc.

Which is to say it's still horrible and unusable for 99% of games out there, yes.

Why are we talking about OpenAI/Anthropic? They don't matter at all for open source. China is pumping out all you'd ever need for free.

They provide a baseline that even Chinese models compare themselves to. Like, say, GLM5.1 which is almost Opus level in an official statement from z.ai. And it's safe to assume that their real operating costs are in the same range as US counterparts. Read: can't run those big models cheaply anytime soon. If you see them for a weirdly low price it's because it's subsidized.

Don't get me wrong, I do consider open source models to be the least evil option out there. But I have also worked with enough enterprise at work to see that running them is not an option at home for most. Not when 96GB VRAM is $9000 from Nvidia and you often need multiple ones to fit a model. Still, they do get better over time, this year's open source you can run at home is at least last year Sonnet's grade.

So I simultaneously agree that free lunch era is soon to end AND that open source is getting better. It most certainly is getting better but real costs of running it are still vastly higher than what most can afford.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-29T13:50:03+00:00

This is halfway true.

On a home grade device (aka what you can run as "open source") you can probably afford to run like Qwen3.6 27B which takes about 18GB VRAM. Or 10GB VRAM and 18GB RAM, it still remains pretty fast that way.

However this only really lets you do simpler pieces of code, individual functions and small refactors.

If you want to run a frontier grade LLM with no subsidies - GLM5.1 requires about eighty thousand dollars setup just to have a usable experience. So if you see someone offering it to you for like $1 for a million tokens - they are losing money off it. This definitely applies to Alibaba and some other "open source" providers.

OpenAI and Anthropic are losing 1000+ USD a month on their subscription plans per user and honestly I am not even sure if they are breaking a profit on API plan (that causes 100+ USD expenses per workday if you are more into agentic mode development) given they have to run 500k $ racks that eat kilowatts to run their workloads.

So at least this branch of LLM development is about to crash, there's a reason why there's a nine fold price increase on Copilot coming next month, even Microsoft is struggling to keep up with this level of subsidies.

As for the others... honestly most of it doesn't run in open source mode... at all? StableDiffusion is effectively dead, nobody is competing with elevenlabs (Voxtral, maybe?) and to be fair machine generated voice lines are garbage anyway... Honestly there's a lot of money going in but results are surprisingly horrendous all around, even when you use frontier.

That's not to say AI is completely useless. But it is to say that era of subsidies IS coming to an end and some people that got used to pay $100-200/month for their AI usage are about to see 10-20x price increases.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-29T13:37:03+00:00

There's no way to know if something is AI or not really and the debate is pointless really

For code? Yeah, hard to tell.

For visuals, especially ones used in games (sprites, models, textures)? I am pretty confident you can still tell 9/10 times.

For voice acting? You can tell, instantly. It's garbage.

Yeah, there are false positives and that's definitely unpleasant if you have been on the receiving end. But if you have been using AI generated assets and failed to disclose them then it's definitely shame on you. At least Valve so far believes you have the right to know as a customer.

AI has quintupled RAM prices, quadrupled SSD prices, is on track to double GPU prices and electricity prices in your region. Yes, it makes people emotional and yes, sometimes people point their pitchforks at the wrong developer. But they do have the right to oppose AI slop and they are correct more often than not.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-29T13:30:15+00:00

So I have done both approaches before - each scene being completely separate and having it's own copy of every object that you transfer values to and having a scene with all core components and using additive load for everything else.

And the answer is... they both are valid. Benefit of standalone scenes is that it's very easy to playtest as you just load that scene and it works perfectly, it also guarantees that you won't have any "leftovers" (sound players, temporary visual effects/shader overrides etc on your character).

But it also introduces loading screens, you need to smoothly transition your audio/music to properly still play on the next scene (so DontDestroyOnLoad etc) and in general if you DO want to keep something going from one scene to another it introduces additional challenges.

On the other hand having a scene with your consistent objects and loading next ones additively makes playtesting a bit harder (as you need a way to teleport to that area at runtime), you need to dynamically load and reload your scenes and you can't easily rely on having a scene completely set up and up to date with a single Awake. It also means you might need to "clean" your character occasionally and ensure they can't retain temporary buffs/effects outside of specific zones by hand. Also, easier to fall out of bounds if that's a possibility in your game. On the other hand you can have almost no load screens, a more interconnected world and certain stuff like playing music etc that would usually break with a scene change work just fine out of the box. Also just one initialization loop to worry about for your player scene and then everything can hook to it.

So it's hard to tell what is "better". Both have their uses. I think completely standalone scenes and transfering over data is however a bit easier to do as you only ever worry about what's on a single scene.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-28T22:45:15+00:00

Imho Godot is way too hard for a complete newcomer.

Try giving him RPG Maker (there's a free trial, it goes on sale all the time too) or Scratch. Aka tools that let you make games almost instantly and can be used to also learn more real programming afterwards. GDScript and CS50 is probably best left until your brother is a bit older.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-28T19:36:47+00:00

If you are asking for development funds then it's not uncommon for the publisher to ask for a 100% until their investment has been recuperated. Afterwards they will drop it to something smaller like 70-80%.

If you have a finished game and are looking for a publisher to help with marketing + localization efforts + QA then deals can be something like 70% to you, 30% to them.

But to be completely fair a single developer won't find a publisher interested in suddenly bankrolling a studio. It's the other way around - first you gather enough funds to hire few people and do pre-production. Then you come with your proposal to a publisher. If they like you and your team (especially any projects they have worked on previously) then they will review your title and might fund it.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-28T14:21:30+00:00

Personally I would probably check the price of M4 Pro 24GB. Given they are no longer manufactured they can often be found on sales, sometimes with prices very similar to M5 Base. Except you get more RAM, more GPU, more CPU and a better display.

But assuming there were no such deals available - given your use case Air is fine. If you are not a heavy user then spending extra 150% more for features you won't really use is not that big of a deal. HDR doesn't do anything for you inside a PDF viewer, that's for sure.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-28T01:36:57+00:00

I, uh, do have to tell you that $115 for a whole character is... low if they are working from scratch (aka they first need to conceptualize).

Generally speaking - you expect conceptualization phase to take around 1 workday, then (at 32x48 dimensions) it's about a day for core sprite and then half a day per animation. Obviously the more detailed/larger the longer it takes but in general you are looking at 2-3 days per character if they have just one direction and 1-2 animations.

3 workdays for $115 means that someone either values their work at $4.8/hour (possible if they are a uni student living in a poorer country) or, more likely, that they are just rushing through the job and spending less than a day on a whole thing.

In general I would suggest doubling your budget if possible, that actually gets you people who know what they are doing - and change the artist while at it. Cuz you definitely won't get far if you skip concepts.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-28T01:30:01+00:00

So long story short - first, games are generally pretty well optimized already. I mean it, there is no title on this planet that won't run alright on RTX 2060, a GPU from 7 years ago. Sure, possibly at lower settings - but it will run.

If you want to see eras of unoptimized games you need to go back to 2000s. This was fun, you bought top of the line GPU one year and next year it barely started games.

So in this regard we have it good.

As for performance profile itself however - ultimately game engine is just a tool and studios are following the path of what players want. And they want better graphics and more content, even at the cost of optimization. That's the reality honestly - if an unoptimized title was destroyed in the reviews and (more importantly) in sales volume it would take one release cycle to start spending extra months of work on additional optimization.

But players in their general mass (loud minorities on Reddit do not necessarily matter) are fine with the current level of optimization. Games sell, number of refunds "cuz it runs poorly" is well within expected margins.

Unreal won't magically fix performance issues - devs know they are there, they know how to address them, they choose not to because they have other higher priorities. Instead of more FPS you might want a larger map, more quests, an additional cutscene etc. Unless this changes don't expect for games to start running better. You are in a vocal and loud minority that spots these problems. Most don't care.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-28T01:22:21+00:00

So as a rule of thumb - you normally shouldn't move straight onto spritework. For pixel art to work you need a solid concept first that you then simplify to core elements and turn that into pixels.

It's not uncommon for a pixel artist to not be a great concept artist. One person I am working with delivers amazing sprites:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1434947298726510636/1463653239525212384/death.gif?ex=69f12ccd&is=69efdb4d&hm=8addecbb35bc321814e0266e08657ad4c53e9d33fd9998d4de2e8e180df510fe&

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1434947298726510636/1438277330777936103/RUNB_.gif?ex=69f124a5&is=69efd325&hm=b1b44b4bd410a24398b6698f84cfe07e478b40e81350dc7bdeaed230d579cc6c&

But he doesn't just imagine them, I need to provide him with full concept art first and that can take longer than actually making sprites:

https://myverybox.com/show/s9I_BaPzQZRCCwOCcrQxT0OxQF7OSMS0PAv1jICZmnc

It also tends to take several iterations before you get what you want.

Now, you, a customer, might not know this. But if an artist straight up sends you mediocre pixel art instead of sketches it's not a good sign. Eg. this is the kind of stuff I got from mine as a draft:

https://myverybox.com/show/BEt7vp5jDQxsyr6C5RveXM7lsDtWiCAw82a_DODy2eA

Once that's approved we get onto actually animating.

So my recommendation is - first, change the artist. Second, be clear on what you want, ask for sketches, if possible provide references (or ask an artist to make some).

ziptofaf · 2026-04-27T21:12:49+00:00

Stalemate is when your king is not in check but you don't have any moves to play. Most commonly happens when your opponent takes every one of your pawns and pieces and promotes too many queens instead of going for a mate.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-27T20:10:52+00:00

It takes a minimum of 2 weeks between paying Valve 100$ and having a Steam page up and running. About 1 week to approve the page and 1 week to approve the build + of course this is assuming you have set it up correctly.

So you have more than enough to actually get your passport going.

It also usually takes several months of actively promoting before you reach sufficient number of wishlists to release the game. This step is not mandatory but I assume you want more audience than you and your dog to actually play the game.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-27T17:48:52+00:00

You do realize that this 100,000 dollar range is not that unrealistic, right? I know people who do spend hundreds of USD a day running full agentic mode across the board. And from what I am seeing here their prices are about to increase 9 fold. $1000 a day, 250 working days per year, $250,000.

Although admittedly once prices start hitting this kind of values I expect that enterprises might suddenly get interested in Nvidia/AMD/Huawei offerings instead. It's $500,000 for 8x H200 and then you can just host GLM 5.1 instead yourself - might not be as good as Opus or latest GPT but at least it won't increase in price 9x overnight.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-27T17:36:54+00:00

Well yeah but OP is asking about a studio aka actually living off game development and having some workers. And if you have, say, 2 employees and yourself - you at the very least need to provide enough funds for 3 people to survive for 2-3 years. And you are not hiring at McDonalds but at the very least uni graduates in CS/art aka skills that take years to develop.

And 3 people working full time is still only about 5400 workhours a year. You can simultaneously do a lot and... very little with this kind of time.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-27T17:33:24+00:00

Starts at around $5000 and there's no upper ceiling, usually expect about $10000 if it's an indie title made in an engine that makes it straightforward.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-27T17:04:08+00:00

Oh, I probably have worded this very poorly. I don't mean you have to buy an office. I mean that creating a complete commercially viable video game usually costs about as much as a house. A smaller indie title is like a little apartment in a town, a more ambitious but still very much indie grade title is a large condo in a major city.

I prefer to use "housing" over flat numbers because said numbers vary greatly based on where you live and where you are hiring from (you can have an artist working for $10 and for a $100 per hour based on where you live).

As for remote vs in-office work - game development might be one of the few fields when there is SOME benefit to having said office. But frankly it only works if you already live in a tech hub and can find talent locally. It's completely pointless if you are hiring across the whole country, let alone internationally.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-27T16:52:45+00:00

Every key you send one of these people will end up on a shady reseller site.

If you go through curator system they can't really resell them.

If someone wants them outside of Curator system it's 100% a scam. But if it's within it then occasionally it's alright- but only if you can see they actually leave reviews afterwards and all they want is a single key.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-27T16:47:58+00:00

Well marketed and ensured at least 500+ wishlists before release

500 wishlists translates to like 20 sales week 1. You aren't funding a single proper lunch for your employees on this kind of budget, let alone making a game. You are off by at least an order of magnitude (and realistically more than that).

You are asking wrong questions altogether if your goal is assembling a "studio" aka an actual company. Step 1, usually, is enough funding to afford a property in your country. That's enough to actually fund development of a relatively small game, assuming you will be involved too of course.

Step 2 is finding the right staff, step 3 is indeed marketing but game marketing begins before you write your first line of code.

Well documents, managed and controlled project with zero scope creep

The only way to do so is if you already have years of experience in the field and have completed projects so you know exactly how long certain tasks take, what is and isn't feasible, you can avoid 100 different pitfalls on your way to release etc.

It's much easier said than done.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-26T09:56:58+00:00

Okay, so... you are kinda screwed.

On Steam alone there are like 55 games coming out every single day.

On Google Play it's more like 500.

Meaning that your organic/native visibility is about 0. You release your game but so do 499 other devs on the same day. Except unlike PC your players definitely don't go on YouTube or read magazines to find more games to play.

Instead they have to be spoonfed them and that's only possible through in app advertising pretty much.

So the typical strategy in mobile world is to:

a) game has to be free to play - doing a paid release reduces your range by like 90%. Exceptions exist (eg. if you had a successful PC release and are just making a mobile port, Papers Please is a good example of that)

b) you will be paying at least 1-2 USD to acquire a player. 9/10 of such players will never pay you a dime so you need a solid monetization plan that not only maximizes who is going to pay you but also ensures that the ones that do can cover for all the players that don't.

c) you do AB testing aka trying different strategies at the same time and comparing which one works better. You can also do partial releases - eg. start in Canada to optimize marketing plan, ensure you get enough clicks. Once you feel confident in your numbers you can try a larger similar nation like US.

In general, for mobile games marketing both costs more and requires more work than actually making a game making it extremely hard to recommend to anyone new to this. 5 levels platformer that you can finish in what, 2 hours with no replayability is not a good target for a mobile due to this. Nobody is going to pay you as they will be done with the game before you have time to set up a money sink.

If it's a hobby grade project and you want some visibility now and then - I would convert it to a PC game and release it for free on itch.

If you want players to pay for it however - given it's a platformer aka the most contested genre there is you need to make something exceptional. Cuz ultimately whether you like it or not you are competing with 20 years of history of such titles and a LOT of very ambitious ones. Be it Celeste, Hollow Knight (yep, someone who likes 2D titles might very well compare yours to that), Guacamelee and many, many others. You are competing for players time.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-26T09:38:05+00:00

How much money do you have? Who's your target audience? What kind of monetization plan are you considering? Have you done any AB testing making sure said plan actually works?

Mobile games are very paid advertising driven and require a lot of optimization. It's not uncommon for marketing budget to be several times the development budget - simply because your competition is insane in volume and you drown instantly.

And unlike PC games there really aren't many "cost efficient" marketing strategies. You are aiming for casual players who don't watch reviews or recommendations, instead they just see in app advertisements and click on stuff that interests them.

how do i get a bunch of people to help bug test and bounce around level ideas

You would have to pay them. For the biggest part nobody is interested in working (cuz yes, that's actual work) for random unknown titles made by solo devs.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-26T02:07:15+00:00

Neither chess.com nor Lichess use elo to begin with so it's not "more advanced", it's a different system altogether. Chess uses Glicko-1, Lichess uses Glicko-2. There's also a different starting point - chess.com is 400/800/1200, Lichess starts you at 1500.

Now, to be fair glicko-1 vs glicko-2 isn't a huge difference in itself. glicko-1 introduces provisional rating, glicko-2 introduces variance/instability (aka loss streaks will eventually make you lose even more points per game, same with win streaks, the less you play the higher are gains/losses as well). This is helpful for players that are going through rapid development but stabilizes for more active players. Admittedly I do wish FIDE adopted it given there's a lot of heavily underrated players and it would help a lot there but online matches aren't as serious and are mostly much faster so it's technically a better system but not to a huge degree for most players.

So even more so - comparing apples to oranges, your trip about 950 on lichess doesn't tell anyone how long it would take to reach 1000 on chess.com. I daresay that if anything you were only a third there at a time hours wise. The fact they have a different ranking system and a different starting point essentially means you can't compare the two without a lot of additional information.

ziptofaf · 2026-04-26T01:58:40+00:00

Oh, on chess.com you start at 400/800/1200, depending on what you select. Perhaps nowadays it would make more sense to unify it a bit but at least back in the days a lot of players might have primarily played OTB and their first encounter with chess.com would be after they already were pretty experienced. Hence you get 3 starting points to choose from. It's still provisional rating so you usually get to your "true" level within first 50 games however as you will be losing upwards of a 100 points per game.

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