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Showing posts from February, 2025

New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam 1076 by newobj | 250 comments on Hacker News. I was at FB/Meta from late 2013 to early 2023, mostly working in the compiler/runtime spaces. I got hit in the spring 2023 layoff wave. I immediately started making games in my newfound free time (a lifelong interest, and I even worked in AA(A?) back ca. ~2000), and in October 2023 I stumbled upon the idea of a roguelike pachinko/plinko game inspired by Luck Be A Landlord. Things snowballed quickly, I started talking to publishers, then worked like crazy through all of 2024, almost the hardest I've ever worked in my career, and launched the game in December 2024. It's sold ~200,000 units in its first 10 weeks on Steam. So it's no Balatro, but I'd still say it did very well :) AMA? (my game is Ballionaire: https://ift.tt/jtuK4UF... )

New best story on Hacker News: Show HN: I built an app to stop me doomscrolling by touching grass

Show HN: I built an app to stop me doomscrolling by touching grass 897 by risquer | 227 comments on Hacker News. i wanted to change the habit of reaching for my phone in the morning and doomscrolling away an hour so i built an app to help me. now i have to literally touch grass before accessing my most distracting apps the app is built in swiftui, uses the screen time apis provided by apple and google vision to recognise grass or not i'd love to get your thoughts on the concept.