How to Survive in Gamedev for Eleven Years Without a Hit

Why HN readers recommended it

Recommended in indie and solo game development threads as a grounded account of making a living in games.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel

GDC Festival of Gaming

Topic

indie game business

Format

talk

Level

intermediate

HN recommenders in dataset

3

HN mentions in dataset

4

Recommendation years in dataset

2017–2024

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

• GDC: How to Survive in Gamedev for Eleven Years Without a Hit [VIDEO] TL;DR: prepare for this to happen, and build a long tail of games/sales. I don't want to sound mean but I don't think anyone should buy the game because they feel sorry …

• > None of the big (or small) moneymakers in last few years came close to "10 years" of popularity and probably won't. I don't think much of the software out there behaves like this either. It might apply somewhat to game or software franchises, though. …

• I see this sentiment a lot on Twitter and Reddit, but it's a an overpressured Copium tank You can see a ton of polished, fun games that weren't successful by just skimming over lists of games on phones, Steam, or Nintendo Switch. I'm not going …