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Goal : Make 1 Billion dollars and give it away

Why : To reduce suffering and give more people an opportunity to do similar. Living in Bangladesh I am surrounded by people who were beaten by life's unfairness. These people lost the chance of 'making it' at birth, as due to circumstances they had no education and are stuck doing low-level jobs. I want to change that for future generations.

Failure
: I have been playing games for the last 10 years aka all my teens have been wasted in video games. So I wanted to make a game for which I found a strong need in the market. So I got into massive execution and learned the whole game development process in just three months( except programming, I learned it in school). I learned 3D modeling, texturing, rigging, and animation and how to use Unreal Engine 4. But after 3 months of executing every waking hour, I realize the sad fact that making a game by myself would not be really viable as the type of game really needed a small dev team to have a chance of getting built. This gave me mild depression and for the next 3 months I did nothing and here I am writing this. Tired of doing nothing and sinking deeper into hating myself for not taking action.

Next Up : I am eyeing a big problem in the game development industry, but the solution is going to be capital intensive so I need money. But I am only 20 and need to go to University in Canada in September for my Plan B, to get into AI and ML solve problems with them if my next game dev venture falls apart. I have about 6 months of more free time and want to utilize it to build a foundation to learn Unreal Engine 5 and understand how it works deeply. Learn machine learning and build a SAAS app to gain experience. Don't want to chase quick money and build a strong foundation as billion-dollar problems are not that easy to reach without a lot of knowledge.

I have gone through a lot of execution threads and intros here and no one seems to aim for a Billion dollars or at least no one seems to admit their crazy goals. So why am I admitting my crazy goal here? To find out if people like me are actually as rare as it seems, and also to take feedback from enterprise entrepreneurs and MJ himself if possible and of course to record my journey.

I will update this thread monthly.
 
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Will be following this with interest Ali, all the best.
 

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Update 1
After a few days of looking around, I stumbled upon a great opportunity. I found a game series that is really fun but all the titles look like it was made in 2004 and after some research, I found out that the initial games of the series were made with only 1 programmer in the team. And in several youtube videos regarding the game, the graphics were a common complaint. The game is very niche and the devs are fully exploiting that by charging 60 dollars for a game that looks that bad. Online multiplayer is also a pain to play, requiring a lot of literal file transfers from a 3rd party software just to play it. The game's performance is also very bad, it lags on my mid-tier GPU. Researched the game's market, steam spy says the game has around 30k owners, which in reality might be lower but it still amounts to a possible revenue of 1.8 million per game and they have recycled almost the same game multiple times.

The biggest pain point of the game that is also causing potential new players to not even play the game is its graphics, which can be solved by Unreal Engine 5. Based on the facts mentioned above, I believe I can replicate a similar game being a solo programmer.

I tried making a game before as mentioned in the og post, these are the things I will do to ensure I don't commit the same mistakes again and this time actually ship the game for real.

1. Evidence its possible solo -
Last time I tried to tackle a game opportunity I got lost in the hype of a golden opportunity and overestimated what could be done by a single person. This time I have the facts with me that I can really code a similar game as it was done by the starting dev team, sure it may take me more time but its achievable.

2. Start with code - Last time I started the process with learning to create 3D art and animations when Instead I should have been learning how to code the game. The art, animations can all be outsourced easily and were better suited for other people who have had years of experience perfecting their craft, and also 3D assets could just be bought on the store and used in the game. But code cannot be bought easily and seeing the struggles of hiring freelancers in @AppMan execution thread it is clear if anyone is attempting to make a game solo, the first and only thing they should focus on is the code itself. If the game solves a problem and runs well, you can just hire artists and/or buy assets and stick them on top of the code. No wonder games are prototyped without using assets that make them look nice.

The plan
I will Make a free demo with free assets and advertise and market a Kickstarter campaign, use funds raised to buy professional assets or have them made. I could also launch the game directly in steam early access but that would mean that I have to buy assets with my own money and thats not really viable.

I have made a comprehensive list of all the features needed for the game to ship in full.
14 features are needed for the demo to function and 10 additional features can be added after the demo to make the game on par with its competitor feature-wise. Demo completion shouldn't take more than 6 months and could be way earlier if I can adopt Unreal's C++ quicker.

What has been going on
Been playing the game I am trying to replicate to get information on how its systems work and master it so the recreation process can be smooth. Also been learning Unreal Engine 5's C++. Its really hard right now but I am hoping with time it will get easier. Machine Learning and SAAS app plans have been shelved for now. Focus is fully on this game.

What to do now
C++ is pain and Unreal Engine's extra complex version of C++ is currently chewing my brain like bubblegum. Engine Documentation and tutorials and courses are my best friend now. Next update on 30th April.
 
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Update 2
Great news! - when I wrote the last update I totally forgot about blueprints - a scripting language that is basically visualized node-based C++. Unreal's C++ was taking too much time to learn and unreal engine veterans recommended learning blueprints first, and so I did and I love blueprints, I am very comfortable with them and can work really fast. I made a complete list of all features required for the game to launch and out of 29 I have already completed 7 of them! So at this rate the game will be feature complete by the end of July. Hoping for a full release at around winter 2022 if it keeps going at this rate.

The process is crazy I must say, most days I felt like a genius solving one problem after another, and some days although few, I wondered wtf is going on and had crippling anxiety.

Update on the assets plan, I have figured out that doing a Kickstarter would undermine the value of the game, so going to have the assets made by freelancers. This is going to be costly, especially for a 20y/old in Bangladesh but the signals of the market suggest even in worst case scenario I still make 10x ROI.

For marketing I have made a discord but its currently filled only by friends. I will make a YouTube channel in the coming days and post devblogs there. I will reach out to my competitor's audience (my target audience) when I have a fully working demo available, eg. all basic functionalities work. ETA on that is about 10-15 days. When I do that the call to action will be to join the discord and subscribe to the YouTube channel. Will try to get the Steam store page up before the end of May as it contains the most useful tool for sales - WISHLISTS. Its basically a user saying I wanna buy this game when it comes out and will be notified when it releases. The main goal for me during development is to get as many Wishlists as possible through marketing.

I want to share the game's progress visually here, even though there might actually be no one reading this yet, but better timing will be when I actually have a working MVP.

Creating this thread has been the best decision ever. Everytime I feel like taking a chill pill I remember that I have a thread to update and how stupid I would feel writing a update in which I didn't do much, It acts like a accountability partner who I have at all times. Ditching the Idea of monthly updates, going to try and post updates every week/ two weeks, that way I have something to work towards every week.

Never have I ever felt so confident in my endeavor with such clear signals from the market, all I now need to do is make the game and Market it and to think that my dreams could start as early as winter this year literally makes me wanna jump in excitement. When I saw my competitors discord channel and and youtube videos suggesting a relatively large audience I couldn't sleep the whole night due to excitement. The break is near, I can see light at the end of the tunnel.
 

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Update 3
So a lot of stuff has fallen downhill, and my productivity has fallen downhill largely due to my mental health becoming very all over the place. I have a lot of resentment in my life and whenever that enters my headspace I get unproductive. I was laser-focused last month but this month has been really slow. Hopefully, things will pick up speed from this point on.

The game is still progressing and have applied for an International credit card to have 3D assets made for the reveal. I have canceled my plans of going to university in Canada to get funding for this game from my parents. If this game succeeds I don't think I really want to go to university especially for computer science, when MIT has all their courses for free on the open-courseware website. Self-learning is definitely the better fit for my future plans.

Problem 1
In game development visualizing your progress is very hard as a huge amount of work goes into the smallest visual changes. The solution to this is to document all the small tasks that you have completed, im using google keep, thinking of switching to trello for that. That way after a day of work you don't feel like you did nothing as nothing changed visually.

Problem 2
Steam will take 30% of all revenue my game makes. This is too much and epic's 12% is way better but steam has a huge userbase so I have to stick with steam for now. This is really demotivating.

Problem 3
I have also come to a very harsh realization, I have lost all my friends. I have been so busy in the process and trying to protect my rare mindset that it has caused me to lose all of my friends. At this age in life, almost everyone loses their old friends at least in my country, but they all make new ones at University - the place I don't see myself going. My life goals also have made it extremely difficult for me to even relate to others my age who are all focused on Netflix and short-term thinking and entertainment - stuff I have largely ditched from my life.

Problem 4
Also these last few days I also realized I can't feel fun anymore. Working is not giving me the same joy it gave me before and activities that used to give me fun are not fun as well because while doing them I constantly feel like I'm wasting time. The only way I used to feel fun while also working was music - also not enjoying it anymore. It's a really shitty feeling, I hate it - I don't know what is going on. I really hope this is temporary. Also visualizing short-term success isn't giving me the adrenaline and high like before. This might also just be side effects of the desert of desertion taking a toll on me which hopefully ends within next 1-2 weeks when I reveal my game to my target audience.

I decided almost 1.5 years ago I don't want a normal life I want something incredible, something out of this world in terms of positive impact, while I have found the medium(entrepreneurship) and a plan to get me through the journey to the end state, the costs seem to keep piling up and up, and the near end of the road to my dreams (ie next 10 years) seems less and less exciting each passing month. Meaning is at the top of my pyramid of priority. The love for the dream is still there and I won't give up no matter what though. The key here is finding a way of thinking that can carry me through all the hardship that is to come, these problems that I have encountered this month are helping me develop that way of thinking.

I didn't want to write this update as it is kinda more personal but realized the feelings I'm having, someone else could be feeling the same and this might help them in their process.
 
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Update 4
The anhedonia-like problem is gone, turns out I was just burnt out of programming features and seeing little visual changes.
But bad news, I had severely underestimated the cost of a single 3D model. I contacted a freelancer who I thought would do my models relatively cheaply but no the dude asked 9600$ and a whole month to model and rig a tank... and after looking at other freelancers prices it was clear that the quality I was looking for was going to cost a lot, maybe even >90$ per model. But here is the thing - my budget is 600$ when I need around 50 models xDD and its still a lot of money in Bangladesh.

This signals the sad fact that I will have to ditch the philosophy of 'do only code outsource art' and literally have to do something mad like FYQD did with Bright Memory - the only AAA quality game made by one person. But guess what the market need is so strong that I am ready to do a mad feat like that and its likely that my endeavor will be even more insane as he actually stole free 3d assets to make his game and I won't do that and I have to make way more models than him.

My credit card has not arrived yet and its pissing me off, its been weeks since I applied for it. Its delaying my reveal as I need to buy Character models which I cannot make currently (yet to learn marvelous designer). So currently only been making 3d Models that will be required for the game, will code more functionality once the card arrives. The model I made within a week is posted below, the freelancer wanted to charge 9600$ for this and a month of time lol. I actually think my tank (pic attached) looks way better than his as well xD

I will do the first dev vlog after my card arrives and my desert of desertion will officially be over! cant wait!!
 
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Update 5
The thing about game development is that things always take more time than estimated, there is always a little bug/ problem hidden around the corner. And it happens with everything.

I am really close to the point where I will make the first dev vlog and advertise my game to my competitor's Reddit. The trick is to try and get more members in my game's discord channel, that way they can stay updated and I can send them a notification once the game releases. Way behind on schedule though :( I think and hope the reddit subscribers don't have much brand loyalty as the devs I'm competing with seemingly don't care much about making the game better... If they have brand loyalty which is unlikely, then my first attempt at advertising will fail and my post will get deleted or something which will be a big mental setback.

I just need to keep working on this, it's really simple but simple problems keep popping up. Yesterday I realized that I do not have a clue on how to code a fundamental feature of the game. It didn't let me sleep for quite a while.

This desert of desertion is the most annoying part of Entrepreneurship, especially for someone who has OCD like me, because of that my anxiety stonks on setbacks every other day.

LOL.jpg
 
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Update 6
Life happened... I set myself a target that I am going to reveal my game with a dev vlog in July 5th. All 8 days of July I have been sick to the point where I could not get out of bed for 3 days and the other days I couldn't sit on a chair for more than 1 hour. So couldn't do any work at all. The sickness also blew my motivation and drive. I feel like doing nothing anymore. Also had to take a trip to the ER because of a panic attack. It was a trippy experience. I have this weird feeling thats been a residue of my sickness. During the sick time I also felt like quitting my goal of a billionaire... Idk I felt like I was dying and was like "maybe I don't wanna save the world, maybe I just wanna live and be happy." Had a mental breakdown around that time.

So I have immense pressure to release this game in some form of completion as I have yet again changed my mind, the loneliness is getting to me hard and bad, I also found a new program that sounds like the next billionaire will have that - Mechatronics Engineering and also sounds really interesting to me so its a win for me all around but for me. Its not offered by any Bangladeshi Unis so Canada is my hope but for it I need to release my game within 180 days and 10 days just got eaten by sickness b r u h. Also need my game to make at least $60k so I won't have to do uber deliveries to just afford my education.

Also this means I will have to take a second gap year - this first one although helping me build, I am at this point a lonely dude who is trapped in his room making a game. No social interactions other than with my family. I think this is the most pressure I have ever felt in my entire life - the feeling of being a complete outcast, the feeling of "What if I fail", "What if this is all a waste of time", " What if it sells only $10k", I also no longer feel like sitting in front of a computer anymore. All days literally look the same. I am literally acting like a bot. Songs are only interesting till so many days before all of them start sounding the same. On top of that I have OCD fighting against me. Its as if the whole universe hates me and wants me to just disappear. This second gap year is now making me hella nervous, even if I succeed I don't want to spend another year locked up in my room working on my desktop. And before anyone says "Just take a walk outside" bruh I live in a bad area where roads are narrow af and there are no pavements so its always vehicles about to run me over aka not the best place to take a leisurely stroll. There is a lake 4km away but it smells like shit.

At this point I'm just using this thread to journal my thoughts and talk to my self and maybe give my future self some motivation. Idk if anyone ever reads this because there have been 0 interactions after the opening post. Ig it makes sense - no one gives a shit until you win. Maybe its the way it should be.

edit - I forgot to mention I also had the shittiest bday of my life. I literally did nothing and even couldn't eat anything good due to being sick.
 
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Update 7
Desert of Desertion is over! And market has responded positively!! I posted on my competitor game's reddit and the people there put a lot of positive comments on my post, 10 to be exact. The Devlog got 100+ views and 10 likes and got me 15 subscribers! One of them even joined my discord. These numbers are small but at such early stages of the game getting these numbers and support is really encouraging. Past 3 months I had been making a game without any encouragement or confirmation of market need.

But a lot of the comments complained about the name of the game, at this point in development I think its better to just stick with the name I gave it even though I agree its not the best name. But once gameplay and demo is released I think people are just going to get accustomed with the name and not notice it much.

The market is still skeptical of my ability to develop the game. My Reddit post certainly did not get the hero's welcome I expected. But its okay as there was no tangible gameplay in it, it just showcased foundational features of the game. So its time to put the pedal on the gas and sprint towards a working demo, that will cement my status as a serious competitor and once I get the community YouTubers attention, I will be on my way to a successful early access launch this december. Off to work!
 
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Update 8
Update on the performance of the Devblog.
The reddit post I made on my competitor game's subreddit got 2.9k views and 42 upvotes, making post one of the most upvoted when compared to other text only posts. It also got 12 positive comments which also got a lot of upvotes. All positive signs confirming need. The YouTube video of the devblog got 700 views till now even with an average thumbnail. It also got 31 likes and 2 dislikes. I also posted in another community, I also got 6 positive comments there. Overall its going great. YouTube has started promoting my devblog after the initial 300 views from reddit which is a great sign.

I also changed the game's name after the community expressed dislike on the name saying "it sounds like a mobile game". I have no way of knowing if the new name is better. I only asked one of my friends which sounded better. So here is to hoping the new name is not shit.

I am now hurrying to get a working prototype ready to send to Epic Games for the Epic Mega Grants award. Basically they might award me with free funding. I absolutely need another 5k dollars to Buy a better pc to upgrade the game's realistic graphics with Realtime Raytracing. Also need to buy sound and more vfx and probably need to hire an Animator for new animations and a new monitor. I really hope I get the grant as its going to make my life much easier. I also need to work faster and provide more updates on the game. I need to think like a YouTuber on this one as its views that are going to sell the game as I don't have a loyal following to rely on.

Alright back to work!
 

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做游戏前先做好市场调研,再深入技术领域。你首先要知道有规模效应的受众需要哪个领域,其次,先用模块化的工具做个种子,再推广给身边的朋友。,得到基本的反馈,然后进行优化。当种子用户达到一定规模后,再考虑对游戏程序进行深度学习的问题,否则会翻车。
 

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Do a good job of market research before making a game, and then go deep into the technical field. You first need to know which field the audience with scale effect needs, and secondly, use modular tools to make a seed first, and then promote it to friends around you. , get basic feedback, and then optimize it. When the seed users reach a certain scale, then consider the problem of in-depth learning of the game program, otherwise the cart will be turned upside down.
 
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Do a good job of market research before making a game, and then go deep into the technical field. You first need to know which field the audience with scale effect needs, and secondly, use modular tools to make a seed first, and then promote it to friends around you. , get basic feedback, and then optimize it. When the seed users reach a certain scale, then consider the problem of in-depth learning of the game program, otherwise the cart will be turned upside down.

So my research on my game's market needs went like this -
I found a game franchise that has huge glaring issues, but the community keeps buying it because "there is nothing like it" and the devs are exploiting the lack of competitors and doing almost no work to improve the game.
So I am building a similar game that solves all the glaring issues effectively solving a problem / fulfilling a need. I have around 10 value skews over my competitor one of which is that my game will cost 30$ while my competitors charged 60$ for their game.

I heavily agree about surveying the market to figure out what game to make. Most game devs make the mistake of using their Artistic intuition to choose what game to make when in fact they should be using the CENTS formula to decide what to make. They need to see games as a Product instead of a piece of Art.
 

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Update 9
I quit Instagram and Facebook and Twitter a week ago... combined with Nofap is giving me the mental clarity that I dreamt of when I saw the movie Limitless(my DP is also from that movie)... This is incredible!!! I haven't felt this way in a long while if ever. Constantly going to Insta and scrolling had become a habit and not doing that is doing wonders for me.

So A guy on Reddit literally interrogated me about my ability to develop the game in the comments section of my reddit post about my game. He did ask a valid question of how I would develop a fundamental feature of the game that would be hard to code, which at the time I didn't know would be hard to code. So I looked it up and to my horror it was true and it seemed it would be very hard to code indeed. I freaked out from the inside as it looked like Unreal Engine 5 source code would need to get modified for the feature to run which would take way too much time for me to do. An engine contributor also said the same in the forums. There was still another fundamental feature that I also didn't know how to code. With 2 huge problems, I realized I was screwed...

With my newfound mental clarity, I went to work, constantly looking for ways to fix these. Then another problem hit me and this time it was even more game-breaking. I was now scared shitless to the point of panic. But with mental clarity, I also got calmness as well. Instead of getting crippled with anxiety, I went through a lot of videos, and articles on the topic. I tried all sorts of stuff to no avail... Then I finally found the cause of the problem and I thought it would require a $100 dollar plugin to fix. Then later I tried a weird "just-in-case" tactic to solve the problem and voila!! The most game-breaking problem solved!! And immediately after that, in somewhat of a state of euphoria I started trying to code in my head to solve the other problem. In another movie like fashion, stuff in my head automatically started connecting and after looking at how other games fixed the issue I figured out a simple solution to the supposedly complex problem which I thought would need engine code changes. After that I was 2 for 2, If at 5 am I could solve the last one it would be over... I started walking as walking gives really helps me think. Then after a while, I took the complex problem and looked at it from a really fundamental and simple perspective, and there it was - a higher-level structure of code that would serve as blueprints to actual code. I had done it.... Within mere hours I solved 3 of the most fundamental coding challenges of my game. This was truly a Limitless moment.

I am also considering switching to C++ from Blueprints at this point. I have become really efficient with blueprints and I know regular C++. The moment I am done with the coding part of the game and I have made all the required assets, I will start learning the UE-exclusive C++ macros and start converting the game to C++ for better performance.
 
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Update 10
So some niche spaces and forums and caught news of my game. A news website in the niche of my game has even featured my game in one of its articles which is pretty cool.

But there is bad news... In my competitor game's forums, I saw the thread in which fans of the game I'm competing against have expressed severe disbelief in my ability to make or finish the game in the given timeframe of December. I will quote one of them -
"I wish him the best of luck but id recon there is a better chance that hell freezes over than him producing a better game"

Although as the developer of the game, I know development is going well and I have progressed a lot, but still seeing such alarming posts about my game has given me a lot of anxiety. The weird bugs in my code are not helping that situation as well. I am working towards a very early demo by August 15th. This undertaking is proving to be way more difficult than expected. I have to battle on all fronts - loneliness, anxiety, problem-solving, the stress of a second gap year, and so on.
 
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1st: Following to support a fellow developer.
2nd: Kudos for the end goal.
3rd: Respect x2 because C++ and Unreal are both a bitch.

The gaming industry is extremely pessimistic, especially with how the industry has evolved over the last couple of decades. I definitely know how lonely it gets sitting in a dark room programming all day/night.

I currently have a rather wonky schedule, so hmu if you ever want someone to chat with here and there. Can give you my discord or something similar.

In regards to your development, while I probably won't be of much assistance personally (I'm more of a web developer), I have plenty of connections within the developer community. I may be able to find some talent for you, as you continue to grow and make progress.
 

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Update 11
I have been looking around and found another problem game that I can solve. That game has a way better time cost/profit ratio but would require around $200k - $300k to build. So now I only require 400k from my first game, that would give me enough resources to start the second game.

So at this point I have really lost all passion for the game I am building currently and have lost a lot of motivation. As my motivation is gone I need to fall back on discipline, which tbh needs real work. But I will not switch projects as right now I have $0 to my name lmao.

On the current game - development has slowed down because of me being unable to buy a $200 plugin needed to make the game function. My parents will give me money for it sometime later. I wrote code for it to function temporarily inplace of what the plugin was supposed to do. Still working towards the next devblog that I will use to apply for a Epic MegaGrant.
The first Devblog has 2.2k views and 84 subscribers and the discord of the game has 30 members. The Reddit Posts gathered over 12k views which surprised me or maybe that is normal for reddit? I am not used to that platform so can't tell.

The path to success is pretty clear, but another problem has jumped into my life. Majorly struggling with nofap and its making me lose all my energy and focusing ability, I have never struggled so hard with it before than this week. All my friends are gone, and I do nothing for entertainment except listening to music and watching YouTube. That is clearly not working, its a bad strategy. NoFap is the first thing I need to succeed at, all other distractions, if quit at once only make me fall back to this degenerate habit. So I am thinking of using all other distractions as crutches to succeed at nofap. Once Nofap is gone, other distractions are easy to eliminate (music will be hard).

So new strategy for nofap would be to bring back my long lost addiction and much hated time waster, video games lol. I have noticed that I have no system of rewards that succeed the daily hard work, no mid day breaks. Basically no discipline at all. I thought I could monk mode it out by just ignoring all distractions and that is one of the worst strategies ever, atleast for me. The true gigachads maybe can just switch to that mode but I can't. I need to build discipline up in my life step by step. So new hybrid strategy would be to work for some time and then take a well deserved break like the pomodoro technique. Tomorrow I will wake up and think up a detailed routine I can follow everyday.

I am pretty late on my promised release date of december that I promised in my reddit post, although it still seems possible I might have been a little too unproductive this month and now it's gonna be a really close race. Knowing how much I mess up under pressure, that is extremely alarming news.

I have learned the importance of one very important thing in the past month, which is patience. Everything that excites me is very very far away... even getting, rich even if 3 months away, 3 more months of sitting in front of a desk and working is making me really frustrated and sad. Each day like this feels like a whole week. Its a sad way of existing really. Especially since its been 2.5 years of this lifestyle. This journey feels more like a marathon at this point, and I feel like I sprinted for first 10 miles not preserving energy for the next 10 miles lol. But I will endure, I need to take it one day at a time, not think about the months. Patience and consistent hard work is key.
 
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Update 11
Devblog 2 is released, it currently has 319 views on YouTube, 2.5k views on reddit. Although its a failure compared to my previous devblog which has 3.8k views in YouTube, a YouTuber who makes videos on my game's genre of games has commented on my latest devblog. This means I am already on his radar and when my game progresses to the point where content can be made on it he will make the content. The Youtuber has 250k subs and honestly, that is insane. I never thought Youtubers would reach out to me this early.

My plan for marketing my game was just this, use my game's channel to promote my game, and then when it is ready to get content made on it I would have sent YouTubers of my game's niche, emails informing them of my game. Things have started to happen before their planned time which is great!

During these two months, development speed slowed down as there were power cuts for a long time each day due to the energy crisis that happened in Bangladesh. Thankfully the power has stabilized but my productivity has stepped down a bit due to me realizing that coding my game will take way more time than expected. I have also canceled the December release date - a new release date will be announced when the game is near completion.

I also got contacted by a Witcher 4 developer which is incredible! Witcher 4 is also being developed in UE5 so I got some really useful industry information about development in UE5. He also told me that he likes how my game is turning out, which are huge words of motivation for me coming from someone working on such a huge game.

Overall a lot of positives from this devblog release, the marathon of development goes on.
 
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Desolation Row

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Update 11
Devblog 2 is released, it currently has 319 views on YouTube, 2.5k views on reddit. Although its a failure compared to my previous devblog which has 3.8k views in YouTube, a YouTuber who makes videos on my game's genre of games has commented on my latest devblog. This means I am already on his radar and when my game progresses to the point where content can be made on it he will make the content. The Youtuber has 250k subs and honestly, that is insane. I never thought Youtubers would reach out to me this early.

My plan for marketing my game was just this, use my game's channel to promote my game, and then when it is ready to get content made on it I would have sent YouTubers of my game's niche, emails informing them of my game. Things have started to happen before their planned time which is great!

During these two months, development speed slowed down as there were power cuts for a long time each day due to the energy crisis that happened in Bangladesh. Thankfully the power has stabilized but my productivity has stepped down due to me realizing that coding my game will take way more time than expected. I have also canceled the December release date - a new release date will be announced when the game is near completion.

I also got contacted by a Witcher 4 developer which is incredible! Witcher 4 is also being developed in UE5 so I got some really useful industry information about development in UE5. He also told me that he likes how my game is turning out, which are huge words of motivation for me coming from someone working on such a huge game.

Overall a lot of positives from this devblog release, the marathon of development goes on.
I wish you all the best and really admire your passion and perseverance !
 

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Update 12
There is another.....
So till now, my game was only competing with a 20-year-old dying game franchise. Another game developer accidentally bumped into me in discord through an asset pack server. Turns out that person is developing an extremely similar game to mine. The game is in the same genre as mine, also uses the same factions... His game is also in Unreal Engine 5, which is also my flagship feature! So after we both realized that we were in each others way, the guy gave me a funding offer. Basically, he is looking to remove my game from competing with his. I rejected his offer twice after a long conversation.

It seemed like I was further in development progress as I had publicly revealed my game. The guy also claimed that he doesn't know the game development process, any part of it (coding, 3D modeling, animating etc) and he is trying to get the game built by throwing money at freelancers. He also complained about low quality of freelancers. But TURNS OUT that he was hiding his well-made assets!! I found them at Artstation, where the freelancers he hired posted pictures of them and described the game the assets were for and that description sounded very familiar to the game the guy is building. I asked him about it and he confessed that was his game. Dude is literally applying Sun Tzu tactics with me, covering up how far he is in development so I can think my coast is clear. Now its clear it is not. Not sure how many of his words were lies or something to trick me.

All this time I thought I was gonna blow my only competition away but now this dude is in my way and I can't take it slow no more. I need to get it going and that too fast!! Target is releasing the game before he reveals his game, that way competition with his game will be minimal.

His freelancers posted his assets in July, right when I revealed my game to the public so I am sure he wasn't trying to copy me. It is just we accidentally became each other's competition, which is kinda funny not gonna lie.

I also found a lot of assets for a lot cheap than is normal so that is great! I will have to modify them to make them game ready. Current goal is to release devblog 3 and apply for the Epic Games MegaGrant. If I get awarded the grant then I can hopefully neutralize this threat of a second competitor.
 

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Update 13
Its been a solid month of development. I have managed to garner a small community of about 72 people in my discord, some of whom are actively following the development progress I post there and react to it. I find their words and feedback really motivational as finally, the game I am building is getting attention regularly. As I work towards finishing the foundational code of the game its getting easier to work as I can now see the finish line - its only a few months away. Current target is an March-April Steam(Game selling site) early access release. Also the recent competitor of my game is still silent. No public reveal yet from him.

State of Development -
I have planned about 3 novel flagship features on top of modern graphics over my main competitor, the 20 year old game franchise.
One of them is a code plugin that costs 94$ which I have yet to buy. Another one will need to get coded by me and the last one is mainly handled by the default engine's code so I don't have to code it much.

I also have made huge strides in rebuilding the foundational structure of the codebase and have upgraded the game from unreal engine 5.0 to 5.1.

I also made an important decision of choosing of not using flagship UE5 features like nanite and lumen. They are corrently working nice but are incredibly costly interms of performance. Using them would render vast number of lower tier GPUs incapable of running this game and that would have a very bad impact on game sales. So I am basically underusing UE5 to the point where its almost like UE4 lol by using baked lighting.

Stats -
YouTube Subscriber Count - 163
Discord Member Count - 72
Devblog 1 - 4600 views
Devblog 2 - 860 views

Financials -
On paper I have already recouped development costs already assuming the 163 people who subscribed to see this game developed are going to buy this game.
Cost till now - 658$ Assets + 1000$ credit card fee = 1658$
Paper Revenue till now - 163 * 30$ = 4,890$
Obviously, my targets are way bigger than this but I have to celebrate my small wins.
Target financial result at end of 2023 - $450K worth of game copies sold
Game's Market size is 15k-30k people approx and I want to sell to 15k of these people by year end.
 
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Masterklm

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So a lot of stuff has fallen downhill, and my productivity has fallen downhill largely due to my mental health becoming very all over the place. I have a lot of resentment in my life and whenever that enters my headspace I get unproductive. I was laser-focused last month but this month has been really slow. Hopefully, things will pick up speed from this point on.

The game is still progressing and have applied for an International credit card to have 3D assets made for the reveal. I have canceled my plans of going to university in Canada to get funding for this game from my parents. If this game succeeds I don't think I really want to go to university especially for computer science, when MIT has all their courses for free on the open-courseware website. Self-learning is definitely the better fit for my future plans.

Problem 1
In game development visualizing your progress is very hard as a huge amount of work goes into the smallest visual changes. The solution to this is to document all the small tasks that you have completed, im using google keep, thinking of switching to trello for that. That way after a day of work you don't feel like you did nothing as nothing changed visually.

Problem 2
Steam will take 30% of all revenue my game makes. This is too much and epic's 12% is way better but steam has a huge userbase so I have to stick with steam for now. This is really demotivating.

Problem 3
I have also come to a very harsh realization, I have lost all my friends. I have been so busy in the process and trying to protect my rare mindset that it has caused me to lose all of my friends. At this age in life, almost everyone loses their old friends at least in my country, but they all make new ones at University - the place I don't see myself going. My life goals also have made it extremely difficult for me to even relate to others my age who are all focused on Netflix and short-term thinking and entertainment - stuff I have largely ditched from my life.

Problem 4
Also these last few days I also realized I can't feel fun anymore. Working is not giving me the same joy it gave me before and activities that used to give me fun are not fun as well because while doing them I constantly feel like I'm wasting time. The only way I used to feel fun while also working was music - also not enjoying it anymore. It's a really shitty feeling, I hate it - I don't know what is going on. I really hope this is temporary. Also visualizing short-term success isn't giving me the adrenaline and high like before. This might also just be side effects of the desert of desertion taking a toll on me which hopefully ends within next 1-2 weeks when I reveal my game to my target audience.

I decided almost 1.5 years ago I don't want a normal life I want something incredible, something out of this world in terms of positive impact, while I have found the medium(entrepreneurship) and a plan to get me through the journey to the end state, the costs seem to keep piling up and up, and the near end of the road to my dreams (ie next 10 years) seems less and less exciting each passing month. Meaning is at the top of my pyramid of priority. The love for the dream is still there and I won't give up no matter what though. The key here is finding a way of thinking that can carry me through all the hardship that is to come, these problems that I have encountered this month are helping me develop that way of thinking.

I didn't want to write this update as it is kinda more personal but realized the feelings I'm having, someone else could be feeling the same and this might help them in their process.
Personally as someone who is trying to start a business, I found the thing that has motivated me the most is that- it never gets any easier, in fact it's the easiest right now because run a business with 10 customers is way easier than running a business with a million customers. It's like building muscle it has to get harder for you to progress, it was work when you started, and it's work in middle and it's work in the future. No matter how you cut it. I'm rooting for you
 

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Update 14
3rd Development Progress video has been uploaded and it has been moderately successful. The biggest takeaways from this upload were more confirmation of market need and a comment of praise that will be remembered by me for quite a while. The video got 1050 Views on YouTube.

"This might be my most expected game in 2023, and it only costs $30 as well! Definitely will buy it once it comes out" - this is the comment on the video I am talking about. This is incredible to hear considering I have been making this game all on my own for the past year or so.

I have also found a way to get the flagship features of Unreal Engine 5 to run on moderately powerful PCs so they are back in the game and it looks really good if I say so myself.


Stats -
YouTube Subscriber Count - 221
Discord Member Count - 93
Devblog 1 - 5900 views
Devblog 2 - 1400 views
Devblog 3 - 1050 views

Financials -
Cost till now - 685$ Assets + 1000$ credit card fee = 1685$
Paper Revenue till now - 221 * 30$ = 6630$
 
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heavy_industry

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Congratulations for sticking with the process for 14 months and posting updates on schedule. Most people are not capable of doing it for even a few weeks.

This is one of the best indicators that you will eventually see massive success, either with this project or with another one.

Everything that you do right now will build your future self. If you keep executing the process, just imagine where you would be in 5 years. How about 10 years? What will your 30 year old self look like?

You are deciding his destiny at this very moment.

Do not stop until you get exactly what you want out of life.
Congratulations and good luck!
 
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Update 14
3rd Development Progress video has been uploaded and it has been moderately successful. The biggest takeaways from this upload were more confirmation of market need and a comment of praise that will be remembered by me for quite a while. The video got 1050 Views on YouTube.

"This might be my most expected game in 2023, and it only costs $30 as well! Definitely will buy it once it comes out" - this is the comment on the video I am talking about. This is incredible to hear considering I have been making this game all on my own for the past year or so.

I have also found a way to get the flagship features of Unreal Engine 5 to run on moderately powerful PCs so they are back in the game and it looks really good if I say so myself.


Stats -
YouTube Subscriber Count - 221
Discord Member Count - 93
Devblog 1 - 5900 views
Devblog 2 - 1400 views
Devblog 3 - 1050 views

Financials -
Cost till now - 658$ Assets + 1000$ credit card fee = 1685$
Paper Revenue till now - 221 * 30$ = 6630$
Keep going man you got this.
I have so much respect for you actually keeping at it and not quitting.
 

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Update 15 - End of this Thread

A lot has changed since I started this thread. I remember when I wrote the first post, I had a severe lack of meaning in life. I really wanted to be "great". Everything I hoped and planned to do were to counter the hole that feeling created. While I still want to be successful, its for very different reasons now.

Why : To reduce suffering and give more people an opportunity to do similar. Living in Bangladesh I am surrounded by people who were beaten by life's unfairness. These people lost the chance of 'making it' at birth, as due to circumstances they had no education and are stuck doing low-level jobs. I want to change that for future generations.

"To reduce suffering and give more people an opportunity to do similar." Unfortunately, people having access to more capital/ living in developed countries does not mean they will be happy or their suffering will decrease. In fact, the view I now hold is that due to hypercapitalism people are more unhappy in developed countries than in less developed countries. So this goal of becoming a Billionaire and giving it away is rendered quite useless after this change of perspective. Thus the ending of this thread.

I still am working on my game though and nothing has changed work wise. Just my goals now are to avoid working for someone else. I already had this goal of working for myself / being free financially before I read the MJ's books, that is why they resonated with me.

Development on the game is going great. I still am in regular communication with my competitor. I think he is quite a bit behind me interms of progress on development of the game and his game is bigger in scale but he also has ~3 programmers hired so I can't slow down.

Stats -
YouTube Subscriber Count - 254
Discord Member Count - 111
Devblog 1 - 7100 views
Devblog 2 - 1700 views
Devblog 3 - 1900 views

Financials -
Cost till now - 715$ Assets + 1000$ credit card fee = 1715$
Paper Revenue till now - 254 * 30$ = 7620$

I will create a new aptly named progress thread to journal the rest of my execution. Will also link this thread there so continuity is maintained.
 

heavy_industry

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Unfortunately, people having access to more capital/ living in developed countries does not mean they will be happy or their suffering will decrease. In fact, the view I now hold is that due to hypercapitalism people are more unhappy in developed countries than in less developed countries.
Yes, this is correct (the unhappiness part).

But it has nothing to do with capitalism. Capitalism is the machinery that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of abject poverty in the last 30 years. It's the best economic system in the history of mankind.

The chronic unhappiness that plagues the west is not an economic issue, but rather a cultural, health, and mental health crisis.



Congratulations for being tenacious, sticking to your goal, and posting updates for more than a year. Looking forward to your next progress thread!
 
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Yes, this is correct (the unhappiness part).

But it has nothing to do with capitalism. Capitalism is the machinery that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of abject poverty in the last 30 years. It's the best economic system in the history of mankind.

The chronic unhappiness that plagues the west is not an economic issue, but rather a cultural, health, and mental health crisis.



Congratulations for being tenacious, sticking to your goal, and posting updates for more than a year. Looking forward to your next progress thread!

Yeah, the "why" of the unhappiness is a dense and nuanced topic with a number of reasons. No disagreeing the good of capitalism. I should've phrased it better - I meant unregulated capitalism like Social Media companies designing their apps like slot machines to make them addictive and not getting held accountable by the government.
 

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I should've phrased it better - I meant unregulated capitalism like Social Media companies designing their apps like slot machines to make them addictive and not getting held accountable by the government.
Freedom comes with responsibility.

If that's what people choose to do with their lives, that's their personal problem. And they will suffer the consequences.
 

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