Top all-time · #1204
Positech Games
Personal blog · positech.co.uk/cliffsbloggamesbusiness
Positech Games is a personal blog at positech.co.uk about games and business. Since 2008, 56 different Hacker News readers have linked it 85 times, most often “Selling games direct from your website in 2018”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (17) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Cliffski's blog for posts from a solo game developer, covering development progress, business and running an indie games company, such as selling games directly from one's own site.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 17 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Positech Games - Independent UK game developer. Creators of Democracy 4, Gratuitous Space Battles, Production Line, Big Pharma, Shadowhand and more.
Most-linked posts?
- Selling games direct from your website in 20184 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-11-23
- Common mistakes by indie game developers3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-10-14
- /democracy3/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2017-05-30
- /gratuitousspacebattles/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-12-22
- Money is not the objective of growing a big business2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-03-08
- The curse of staggeringly slow code2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-06-17
What Hacker News says?
Cliffski's blog is one of the only ones I follow that is still active. Not every post is on development progress, but enough that I find it worth following: http://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/ A couple of recent posts I liked: https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2019/12/16/stability-p... https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2020/01/14/trying-to-a...
Comment linking /cliffsblog/2020/01/14/trying-to-avoid-the-small-indie-valley/
on “Ask HN: What are good solo developer blogs that you enjoy reading?”Submitted Hi, I’m from the games industry. Governments, please stop us as a story · 344 points
HN discussionHow does this compare to Gratuitous Space Battles ? https://positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/
Comment linking /gratuitousspacebattles/
on “Cosmoteer: A starship design, simulation, and battle game”Submitted Indie games don't make money as a story · 155 points
HN discussionThere is a game about that Democracy 3 ( https://www.positech.co.uk/democracy3/ ). I think it should be a mandatory exercise for any politician - and voter.
Comment linking /democracy3/
on “Loopy: a tool for thinking in systems”Submitted Strategy games, pricing, and the enjoyment curve as a story · 79 points
HN discussionOfficial announcement - https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/blog/announcing-the-epic-... "Developers receive 88% of revenue. There are no tiers or thresholds. Epic takes 12%. And if you’re using Unreal Engine, Epic will cover the 5% engine royalty for sales on the Epic Games store, out of Epic’s 12%." "From Epic’s 12% store fee, we’ll have a profitable business we’ll grow and reinvest in for years to come!" This is g…
Comment linking /cliffsblog/2018/11/23/selling-games-direct-from-your-website-in-2018/
on “Fortnite dev launches Epic Games Store that takes 12% of revenue”Submitted Code bloat has become astronomical as a story · 51 points
HN discussionI think Democracy 3 [1] covers the first half of your description. [1] http://www.positech.co.uk/democracy3/
Comment linking /democracy3/
on “Civilization 6 is coming in October, with big changes”Submitted Why advertising always works, using science, not bullshit as a story · 45 points
HN discussionA game I love playing is Democracy 3[1], I believe it's an excellent example and exercise of simulating democratic systems. There are so many toggles you can tweak, dozens of policies to enact, setting whatever budget you want for each policies. Maybe around ~50 different situations (think GDP to pollution to gang wars) all interconnected with each other, and a bunch of voting groups - every person belongs to severa…
Comment linking /democracy3/
on “Systems Thinking in Practice (2016)”Submitted Time for the ‘teenage coding god’ meme to die as a story · 44 points
HN discussionFWIW you may also be interested in selling directly from your site[0] since you can give away as low as 5%. [0] https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2018/11/23/selling-gam...
Comment linking /cliffsblog/2018/11/23/selling-games-direct-from-your-website-in-2018/
on “Valve creates new revenue sharing tiers to give big sellers a break”Submitted Pricing is weird as a story · 37 points
HN discussionThis reminds of the game Kudos http://www.positech.co.uk/kudos/ It's a game where each game day you get to make 4-6 choices what to do with your time. Like relax and watch TV from 7 to 10pm or take a class. Based on your choices new opportunities open up or don't. It was so in my face to see my life presented like that. Sure it's obvious but more though provking in a compressed time span. That is not in anyway to im…
Comment linking /kudos/
on “Medicine Hat becomes the first city in Canada to eliminate homelessness”Submitted This article is too long for you as a story · 23 points
HN discussionIn Gratuitous Space Battles (aka the best-named game ever) you plan out your strategy, hit play, and watch. I haven't actually played it yet, but it seems like a perfect "baking" style game for you. http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/
Comment linking /gratuitousspacebattles/
on “SpyParty: a Turing Test disguised as a game”Submitted Modern Technology: Please stop trying to be helpful as a story · 21 points
HN discussionBased on his blog (which I subscribe to) he is still working on GSB quite a bit. Every few posts he talks about a tricky bug or the next patch or the new big features going into the Expansion Pack. http://positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/
Comment linking /cliffsblog/
on “Making Of ‘Gratuitous Space Battles’”Submitted How to sell your game online without using an app-store as a story · 17 points
HN discussionLooks good based on the gameplay video here: http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/ (scroll down) I just wish there was a Mac version :( I'd buy it.
Comment linking /gratuitousspacebattles/
on “Making Of ‘Gratuitous Space Battles’”Submitted Talking To Pirates as a story · 15 points
HN discussion>There is an issue with Bertrand Competition: it excludes the impact of marketing; it assumes that one pair of shoes is as good as another pair of shoes; it doesn’t factor in the cost of comparison, or the cost of switching, all of which are real. Well that's an understatement. There's definitely a race to the bottom and it saddens me. At the same time, games aren't commodities. Shoes is a pretty laughable analogy.…
Comment linking /cliffsblog/2013/11/19/lessons-from-launching-democracy-3/
on “Valve has just started the PC games race to zero”Submitted The immaturity of silicon valley as a story · 13 points
HN discussionYou could look at Democracy 3 [0] for inspiration, its a game that tries to model a democratic country from the point of view of a candidate. [0] http://positech.co.uk/democracy3/
Comment linking /democracy3/
on “Ask HN: How best to model a government programmatically?”Submitted Is indie game dev even viable as a business in 2025? as a story · 8 points
HN discussionhttps://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/about/
Comment linking /cliffsblog/about/
on “Examples of games developed by a single developer?”Submitted How to stay motivated (whilst programming a game) as a story · 7 points
HN discussionIt seems like a lot of what you're saying is from the perspective of a lifestyle that you want, not from the perspective of what a successful or failed business would involve. There's a bit of interesting stuff on cliffksi's blog: https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/2018/10/03/state-of-in... https://www.positech.co.uk/cliffsblog/category/business/
Comment linking /cliffsblog/category/business/
on “Ask HN: I want to build a games dev company, what do I need to know?”Submitted Common mistakes by indie game developers as a story · 6 points
HN discussion
