lancefisher

I don't have a ton of experience in this space, but I've been looking for a good, simple 2D engine as well. My two top picks are Godot and GameMaker [1]. I've been building prototypes in both, and both have their strengths. I'm currently leaning a little more towards Godot since I've had a bit of trouble getting GameMaker to work well on my Mac (it's been fine on my Windows PC).

I tried Unity, but it really feels like an overkill for what I want. Both Unity and Unreal are really geared more towards 3D, and to me they complicated 2D development because of it.

[1] https://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker

The three founders live here, and wanted to build a software company. They worked hard to make something people wanted, and raised money from the three Fs (friends, family, and fools). They applied to YC on a lark, actually got in, moved to Mountain View for 3 months, learned a ton and made good connections.

After gaining traction in the market it was possible to raise from angels and then VCs.

I believe you can build and sell software from anywhere if you have the drive and find a way to solve problems that people are willing to pay money to solve.

Here's an article that talks more about it: https://missoulacurrent.com/business/2018/08/missoula-tech-s...

Thanks! Glad you like it!

These are great suggestions!

A few years ago I worked through building a spreadsheet in JavaScript. It was a great introduction to interpreters. I read through Writing an Interpreter in Go by Thorsten Ball [1]. Constraining the interpreter to execute formulas in cells was a straight-forward way to approach building one from scratch.

Writing a Pratt parser as part of this forced me to understand how it works. Figuring out how to process a sheet led me into algorithms and structures like directed acyclic graphs (as mentioned in the article). I found myself referencing Introduction to Algorithms and really studying it [2].

In the end I turned it into a talk at Big Sky Dev Con in Montana. The whole thing was a good experience - from researching how to do it, to sticking it out through the implementation, to distilling it to a 45 minute talk. Be sure to check out the recording [3] and code [4] if you're interested.

Any of these suggestions will lead you down a rabbit hole of learning with a clear objective in sight to keep you motivated to dig deeper.

[1] https://interpreterbook.com/

[2] https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-3rd-MIT-Press...

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj4h0DcVLL0

[4] https://github.com/lancefisher/cellularjs

I would guess the wind blows into the slit, driving just one side of the paddle.

I really respect REI for closing their doors on Black Friday. https://www.rei.com/opt-outside

In Missoula our bus system has been free for the last 4 years. I love it. It’s a simple way to help those that need it most, and it makes mass transit easier and faster for everyone. A combination of government and local businesses fund it. https://missoulian.com/news/local/mountain-line-bus-rides-to...

Submittable (YC S12) | Engineering, Product, and Design | Missoula, MT | ONSITE | Full-Time | https://www.submittable.com

Submittable streamlines the submission and application process for magazines, literary journals, conferences, film festivals, grants, and scholarships. We could use your help as we modernize our application using React, Redux, and a serverless backend built on AWS. Code you write will be used by millions of people the day after it's merged.

We are based in Missoula, Montana which is often ranked as one of the best places to live. Many of our employees own their own houses, bike to work, and visit the wilderness on weekdays.

We are hosting a hiring event in Seattle on August 8th and 9th. Later in the month, we'll be in San Francisco. These are great opportunities to meet in person and ask questions. Email me if you're interested: lance at submittable.

Apply at https://resume.submittable.com/submit

We use .NET at Submittable (YC12)! When our founders started the company, it's what they were proficient with from their previous jobs. They opted for building fast with what they knew so they could get a product to market quickly - and it worked.

Our legacy web app uses ASP.NET MVC which is a bit of a pain from a DevOps perspective since it has to run on Windows servers. We also use SQL Server which end up costing 2X what MySQL or PostgreSQL would on RDS. However, our newer code is .NET Core, and we run it on AWS Lambda. We decided to stick with C# since our dev team knows it, and it's a great language. I also really like the direction MS is headed right now with their focus on developers. We have decided to switch to PostgreSQL with our newer services for the cost savings, advanced monitoring, and scaling offered on Aurora. I'd still recommend SQL Server though. It's simple and easy to use in general.

We're a bit of an atypical startup. We are based in Missoula, MT. If you are into .NET, we're hiring - send me an email (it's in my profile).

When my brother and I were in high school, he got into a discussion with the English teacher. At one point of disagreement, he asked her heatedly, “what are you on about?” We’d been watching a lot of Monty Python. She misinterpreted it as, “are you on the rag?” and proceeded to flip out.

She went to the principal, and they began some Title IX paperwork along with extreme disciplinary action.

This was a small rural school. My class had less than 70 students. My parents didn’t have a lot of resources, but they showed up the next day with a lawyer in a suit carrying a briefcase. The school was completely unprepared for that type of response and immediately backed off. They were able to clear up the misunderstanding.

It means so much for parents to listen to their kids with respect, and stick up for them. I’ve never forgotten it.

I also highly recommended working through The Elements of Computing Systems by Noam Nisam. There’s more info available at the website https://www.nand2tetris.org/

Apparently, they’ve lightened up a bit on this. https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/28/18117172/nintendo-youtub...

If you are working to get published try Discover by Submittable (YC12):

https://discover.submittable.com

We list many opportunities from literary journals and other orgs for free. You can get the app for $5 which has a couple small extras like push notifications when your submission is accepted. Our newsletter is high-quality and free as well.

We’re hiring, and I’d be very interested in a candidate with your experience. I don’t care at all about not having a degree. Email me if you’d like to move to Missoula, MT. lance at submittable dot com.

Submittable (YC S12) | Senior Full-Stack Web | Missoula | Onsite | Full-Time Submittable streamlines the submission and application process for magazines, literary journals, conferences, film festivals, grants, and scholarships.

We could use your help as we modernize our application using React, Redux, and a serverless backend built on AWS. Code you write will be used by millions of people the day after it's merged.

We are based in Missoula, Montana which is often ranked as one of the best places to live. Many of our employees own their own houses, bike to work, and visit the wilderness on weekdays.

Apply at https://resume.submittable.com/submit/130381/senior-full-sta...

We also offer a Summer Technical Fellowship for engineers with special skills, but less experience: https://resume.submittable.com/submit/126212/summer-2019-tec...

Submittable (YC S12) | Senior Full-Stack Web | Missoula | Onsite | Full-Time

Submittable streamlines the submission and application process for magazines, literary journals, conferences, film festivals, grants, and scholarships.

We could use your help as we modernize our application using React, Redux, and a serverless backend built on AWS. Code you write will be used by millions of people the day after it's merged.

We are based in Missoula, Montana which is often ranked as one of the best places to live. Many of our employees own their own houses, bike to work, and visit the wilderness on weekdays.

Apply at https://resume.submittable.com/submit/130381/senior-full-sta...

We also offer a Summer Technical Fellowship for engineers with special skills, but less experience: https://resume.submittable.com/submit/126212/summer-2019-tec...

I strongly recommend Crime and Punishment.

That's right. Check out JSONP for more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSONP

This was really common before CORS.

From my experience, move to Missoula. Go running through the woods at lunch and work from home on occasion. It’s really a great place to live and work.

Then you would use the pronouns “she/herself”. Obviously their boss is a man.

There are a whole host of compliance and security issues that you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) worry about when you’re small. Employee background checks, documented disaster recovery plan, 3rd party pen testing, etc. Those are things you worry about once you have built something. It’s different than just application security which itself can always be improved over time even if it wasn’t an afterthought.

Really great news, and heartwarming to see so many people pulling for her.

Curb extensions are awful for bicycles.

The natgeo cover image is a fantastic play on the old iceberg composite: https://twitter.com/vaughnwallace/status/996751709321027584?...

Yes, smuggling them out of war zones does seem better than having them destroyed like these: https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/150901-isis-dest...

Submittable (YC12) | Senior Front-End Engineers | Missoula, MT | Full time | Onsite

Submittable streamlines the submission and application process for magazines, literary journals, conferences, film festivals, grants, and scholarships.

We could use your help as we modernize our application using React, Redux, and REST APIs, and many other interesting frameworks and tools. Code you write will be used by millions of people the day after it's merged.

We are based in Missoula, Montana which is often ranked as one of the best places to live. Many of our employees own their own houses, bike to work, and visit the wilderness on weekdays.

Apply at https://resume.submittable.com/submit/69032/front-end-engine...

We also offer a Summer Technical Fellowship for engineers with special skills, but less experience: https://resume.submittable.com/submit/36451/summer-technical...

I started doing this after I read that article last month, and it has worked wonders for me. I was surprised it worked so well.

Move to Europe, and file a right to be forgotten request after May 25th, when the GDPR goes into effect.

Same. It’s always bittersweet re-reading his essays.

Be sure to let AWS know you are pentesting before you start testing your app hosted there. https://aws.amazon.com/security/penetration-testing/