I’m trying to make a pocket pet game, like the evolution of all the little calculator screened toys in the 90’s and 00’s. I don’t want it to be the whale hunting, spyware riddled garbage that most phone games are. I’d rather like to release it on F-Droid instead of Google if I release it at all. I have all of it worked out on paper, from the random tables to the creature stats, to the combat mechanics, you can play it as a pen and paper if you wanted to. Problem is, I’m a pen and paper guy, and I’m having an awful time trying to learn anything about code. Where do I go to get help with this?
When you hear “I’ve got this great app idea—it just needs someone to code it,” it may sound to you like you’re halfway there. But from a programmer’s point of view, that’s actually the least interesting and riskiest way to start. Here’s why:
1. There’s no roadmap—just “code this”
2. You’re asking me to invent half the project
3. No incentives, no commitment
4. Real success stories are team sports
What you can do instead
In short: coding is only about 20% of what it takes to launch a successful app. If you can’t show a programmer that you’ve thought through the other 80%, they’ll politely pass—because turning a half-baked idea into a working product is a lot more work (and risk) than it looks.
Not what OP asked
This is No Stupid Questions and you ranted about how annoying and useless OPs ask was because you assumed they didnt have any of the information you wanted to know before YOU would consider helping them.
Its fine to educate them on what problems they may encounter, but you didnt actually answer “where do i go to find someone”
Dick move bro, real dick move.
Is OP likely to use this No Stupid Questions community in the future after your completely off topic response? I cant answer im not OP but it will definately deter some people.
Hope you feel real good about your “answer”
I really want to point out what you said
That is literally the advice they are asking for
Have a nice life
Dude!
Op wrote one of the kost comprehensive answers I’ve seen here and you’re bitching about him ranting?
He gave a perfect and detailed explanation on why this won’t work, and to top it off, he added what the person can do to go from here, if he/she is serious about it.
This is exactly what op asked
Have a nice life? Seriously? Have a nice life too a-hole
Reread everything man, im not the asshole here.
It ia a very well written answer. But its absolutely NOT what was being asked.
OP literally said in the text body “I have everything worked out…im a pen and paper guy and cant code”
From saying i dont want to release on Google, want to release on F-Droid
The question is “Where can i find someone?” And the comment you think is so great does NOT answer that. Almost the last point of advice given in it is
Do you understand that this what OP is already asking? Like its literally what was being asked for, not a diatribe of why being asked to help with a project is often a waste of the programmers time?
Seriously go re read the entire post, and the entire comment that i replied to, you should see how douchy it is. It comes across as belittling and condescending. And it makes absolutely zero mention of where to go looking for someone help with this project.
If you reread them both and still think it is exactly what was being asked for, i will listen and genuinely try to understand how you think it answers the question.
And please, keep in mind that the question was posted in No Stupid Questions, so it should not matter how likely OP is to not have someone agree to help and accuses OP, obliquely, of having a "half-baked” idea, which i assert is a really shitty thing to do in this specific community.
And i dont think the post is bad advice, but that it is specifically NOT an appropriate response for this post, as it was written.
Like, answer the question first, and then give all that advice, but its pretty condescending to end it in a bullet point fashion with telling them to do what they LITERALLY by posting in the first place
This response is sort of the issue I keep running into. I’ve already gotten this talk, learned from it, and moved forward. I now have nearly two notebooks detailing every mechanic, mock ups of ui design, animation ideas, sprites, complex dice roll mechanics to engage with tables for content generation, and even a roadmap for the first 15 major updates to assess timeline based on the time it takes to convert to a digital format. I’m not even looking to offload the work, database entries are like 90% of this.
I’m here asking because I don’t know how to do the next part where I find the other 20% of making this happen.
I really like how they ended that comment with
As if that isnt what you are literally doing by posting here
Upwork is a website where you can search and hire freelance software devs - and there are other, similar sites out there as well. Vetting the person you hire will be a whole process in itself.
If you believe data entry is 80% of the work here, you do not in the slightest understand the other ”20%”. I can assure you that data entry is the least of your problem. If you have the data, a script to enter it into a DB will be the least of the worries here.
That’s also why you likely can pick someone up on Fiverr to do it for you for a couple of hundred bucks. Or do it yourself. Want someone to build your app, even without the data entry? You’re looking at thousands.
And that’s basically what you will need to do. Pay someone to do the work you can’t. Look at upwork or similar sites.
I get paid $150/h to write code at work (horrible pay compared to many parts of the world). Why would I spend months on your project for less?
What do you think the response would be if you asked on a remodelling forum, how you were to complete your new kitchen? You’ve bought the tools needed, the material. Drawings are made. It’s just the last ”20%” left. Where can I find someone to do it? Well, it’s not the last 20%. The job hasn’t even started yet. And you pay someone, or learn to do it yourself.
What?
Some constructive criticism? This is info you should have put in OP, it would likely have made the thread more productive.
I got another suggestion, use the game development design to start. This will get all of the foundations of the games design that you just need to implement.
Edit: GDD(Game Design Document) search what it is and what’s the purpose and it will help the most.
I have even bigger aversions to anyone coming with “I have this fully specced Game Design Document”
Why? It’s literally proving that you did the 80%?
“Waterfall process” is a curseword in software development for a reason.
To me it proves the person is thinks that a game can be created without prototyping and iteration. In addition to only doing 10% of the work, they are under the illusion that they have done 80% and completing it is just a rote exercise. They have also overdesigned untested features and mechanics which makes any iteration harder. I’d have to break their thing down and iterate over the parts with them while also explaining this to them.
It’s just double worst.
To be fair tho this is what happens when you get involved with passionate but ignorant people? Where else would people go to get help if you just shut them down? This seems like gatekeeping but maybe there needs to be more context to game development in general? This is about someone who has an idea but no knowledge about implementation.
It doesn’t sound like gatekeeping to me.
Gatekeeping is trying to prevent someone from doing something. This sounds more like a lot of people just saying that it sounds like a nightmare for reasons non-devs might have trouble understanding and they wouldn’t want to touch it.