28 karma · joined March 28, 2015
So what is the current status of the project? it seems like you have not done anything for a year on the project but now it got submitted to HN? Bitcoin must have changed a lot in that time so i guess this is already a dead business just a cool project idea?
Its amazing you can fund a company these days with a statement like "the business model is yet to be discovered - we’ll probably provide paid-for oracle hosting services, or launch/invest in some smart contracts ourselves."
That basically is a business model of "we have no business model or intention of ever making any money - if people stop giving us money perhaps we can host a virtual yard sale - btw bitcoin is cool!!!!!
A three person team of SEO consultants think there is so much value in their understanding of an open source codebase they can somehow turn that into a business because bitcoin - lol.
Yes, it is possible but not easy - look at for example Shenandaoh's Desert Fox / Battle of The Bulge). But I don't know if that is a long term model for success. $19.99 is the highest price point you can set for a game and then you are competing with things like FMC2015 or Xcom (heck, you can get GTA San andreas for $6 or so - is your game better than GTA?!?) which are full PC ports. Clever developers will I think make a game for more established platforms, and if successful port to iPad for additional revenue. The iPad has millions of active premium gamers, but a tiny number compared to any non-portable system.
A contrasting company would be someone like inkle's 80 days - that's was an odd iPad game that was hard to sell just on screenshots, but it was marketed brilliantly and had a vision throughout the product that was reflected in taht and the buzz around it was and is huge because of that
The ipad is a marketing platform in the best and worst way I can mean that. Looking at this company they seem aggressively anti-marketing. Their entire presentation style and format is opposed to the kind of experience the ipad offers. They are the anti-flipboard. The fact that someone as interested in ipad gaming as me was not even aware their games existed until now suggests it is probably not the best platform for them at all.