Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do?
13 comments
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.
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.
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.
Thanks for the tips! I'll be sure to check the site out too.
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?
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.
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.
http://braains.io doesn't load, cloudfront keeps trying to redirect it somewhere.. blocked it..
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.
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.
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
Yes. I've added some anti-spamming measures, but it seems like finding exploits.
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).
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).
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.
There is an XSS in the chat: https://i.imgur.com/Eo7dwSY.png ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
thanks for pointing that out. :)
I made a similar error previously in an app's chat. I was using node.innerHTML and changed it to of node.textContent.
Good job man, this is a really awesome game.
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.
Is this post just an ad?
nope. looking for an advice. growth is the least of my problem at the moment: https://bboymode.wordpress.com/2016/09/10/growth-spurts/
cool game
I made this game out of passion: braains.io, and it's getting some traction. What should my next step be?