Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12470921

by m0dE • 10 years ago

26 25 10 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi HN.

I made this game out of passion: braains.io, and it's getting some traction. What should my next step be?

wwalser• 10 years ago

Add email capture and use that to communicate with users about new features and ask what they'd like to see added to the game.

csallen2• 10 years ago

Fun game! Where's your traffic coming from? Is it growing rapidly right this instant? If I were you I'd (a) double check the servers aren't going to crash, (b) start pitching as many bloggers and Twitter personalities about it as possible, (c) try to "capture" traffic with prominent links to a Twitter account, forum, mailing list, etc.

For a game like this, if you want it to stay popular for a while, you'll probably want to add more maps, mechanics, and/or rewards for players who keep playing and do well. Skins are a fun and simple idea, as is some sort of persistent score.

You might want to ask the founders at my site for advice, too: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum. I don't think any of them have made money off games specifically, but they might have good insights regardless.

m0dE7• 10 years ago

Thanks! It is growing rapidly. Servers have been crashing, and I just put some load-balancing measure in the place.

Thanks for the tips! I'll be sure to check the site out too.

csallen2• 10 years ago

Btw, I'm curious what your tech stack is. Care to share what you're using for the front-end, the back-end, and hosting?

jblow• 10 years ago

Is this post just an ad?

m0dE7• 10 years ago

nope. looking for an advice. growth is the least of my problem at the moment: https://bboymode.wordpress.com/2016/09/10/growth-spurts/

nopit• 10 years ago

Yes, and so is his reply.

m0dE7• 10 years ago

I see where you guys are coming from, and I admit that there's an advertising nature in this post. However, I stand corrected that this post isn't "just an ad". I am also looking for advice here.

saluki• 10 years ago

It is fun . . . what's it built with.

More maps, leader board, start a signup system so users log in to keep points/score, username etc. Invite friends to play on a map together.

Add signups to an email list drip.co.

Good luck, it's fun to play so I'll keep checking it out.

programmarchy• 10 years ago

Judging by source, http://www.isogenicengine.com

m0dE7• 10 years ago

HiroshiSan• 10 years ago

Well...just tried this game for a few seconds and already a user has identified something for you to work on: http://imgur.com/a/aFEN4

m0dE7• 10 years ago

Yes. I've added some anti-spamming measures, but it seems like finding exploits.

guessmyname• 10 years ago

There is an XSS in the chat: https://i.imgur.com/Eo7dwSY.png ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

m0dE7• 10 years ago

thanks for pointing that out. :)

antoineMoPa• 10 years ago

I made a similar error previously in an app's chat. I was using node.innerHTML and changed it to of node.textContent.

dezb• 10 years ago

http://braains.io doesn't load, cloudfront keeps trying to redirect it somewhere.. blocked it..

lisefromcaptiz• 10 years ago

This is really cool!

A little story-telling + 'help' section would be great to onboard new players.

A share button, for twitter + facebook where with a description (where the cool story-telling could play a part).

sfx77• 10 years ago

cool game

kqia040• 10 years ago

Good job man, this is a really awesome game.

eb0la• 10 years ago

Been there (long time ago): no sleep, server crashing, etc..

First: get some sleep. Not sleep; but time-off periods. You'll need to think / do / whatever other stuff in your life that will be slowing and draining your energy (well, what's left of it).

Second: Get help. Someone you trust you can tell how to restart / reboot / do quick fix for the app while you are /away.

Third: Don't trust the stats. At least not what you think your eyes see: If there is rising trend, probably is just a spike. Stuff does not usually grow "linearly" or "exponentially". It grows by growth quants. That is, you get into the 1-2k users, then jump into 4-6k, then 10-15k and so on.

Fourth: Going up need energy (time, effort, money, sweat, energy). Going down wastes energy and is much easier and faster. This is like climbing. So be sure to have something built-in that makes going down harder, like rewards for daily/weekly players.

Fifth: Enjoy. Learn. Repeat.

Hope this helps.

RUG3Y• 10 years ago

I was the first zombie, I was in a room with 6 players and immediately infected everyone. That felt good. It's a pretty fun game.

Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do?

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