News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by csallen on Saturday September 10, 2016 @05:57PM (#12471052)
Fun game! Where's your traffic coming from? Is it growing rapidly right this instant? If I were you I'd (a) double check the servers aren't going to crash, (b) start pitching as many bloggers and Twitter personalities about it as possible, (c) try to "capture" traffic with prominent links to a Twitter account, forum, mailing list, etc.

For a game like this, if you want it to stay popular for a while, you'll probably want to add more maps, mechanics, and/or rewards for players who keep playing and do well. Skins are a fun and simple idea, as is some sort of persistent score.

You might want to ask the founders at my site for advice, too: https://www.indiehackers.com/forum. I don't think any of them have made money off games specifically, but they might have good insights regardless.

Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by m0dE on Saturday September 10, 2016 @06:03PM (#12471072)
Thanks! It is growing rapidly. Servers have been crashing, and I just put some load-balancing measure in the place.

Thanks for the tips! I'll be sure to check the site out too.

Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by csallen on Saturday September 10, 2016 @06:31PM (#12471162)
Btw, I'm curious what your tech stack is. Care to share what you're using for the front-end, the back-end, and hosting?
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by m0dE on Saturday September 10, 2016 @10:14PM (#12471744)
it's isogenic engine. I'm using azure.
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by meir_yanovich on Sunday September 11, 2016 @06:22AM (#12472747)
what game server do you use ?
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by eb0la on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @04:23AM (#12486425)
Been there (long time ago): no sleep, server crashing, etc..

First: get some sleep. Not sleep; but time-off periods. You'll need to think / do / whatever other stuff in your life that will be slowing and draining your energy (well, what's left of it).

Second: Get help. Someone you trust you can tell how to restart / reboot / do quick fix for the app while you are /away.

Third: Don't trust the stats. At least not what you think your eyes see: If there is rising trend, probably is just a spike. Stuff does not usually grow "linearly" or "exponentially". It grows by growth quants. That is, you get into the 1-2k users, then jump into 4-6k, then 10-15k and so on.

Fourth: Going up need energy (time, effort, money, sweat, energy). Going down wastes energy and is much easier and faster. This is like climbing. So be sure to have something built-in that makes going down harder, like rewards for daily/weekly players.

Fifth: Enjoy. Learn. Repeat.

Hope this helps.

Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by dezb on Sunday September 11, 2016 @01:23AM (#12472108)
http://braains.io doesn't load, cloudfront keeps trying to redirect it somewhere.. blocked it..
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by saluki on Saturday September 10, 2016 @06:55PM (#12471243)
It is fun . . . what's it built with.

More maps, leader board, start a signup system so users log in to keep points/score, username etc. Invite friends to play on a map together.

Add signups to an email list drip.co.

Good luck, it's fun to play so I'll keep checking it out.

Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by programmarchy on Saturday September 10, 2016 @07:40PM (#12471400)
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by m0dE on Saturday September 10, 2016 @09:20PM (#12471639)
^
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by HiroshiSan on Saturday September 10, 2016 @08:26PM (#12471507)
Well...just tried this game for a few seconds and already a user has identified something for you to work on: http://imgur.com/a/aFEN4
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by m0dE on Saturday September 10, 2016 @08:54PM (#12471579)
Yes. I've added some anti-spamming measures, but it seems like finding exploits.
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by lisefromcaptiz on Sunday September 11, 2016 @07:33AM (#12472920)
This is really cool!

A little story-telling + 'help' section would be great to onboard new players.

A share button, for twitter + facebook where with a description (where the cool story-telling could play a part).

Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by RUG3Y on Tuesday September 13, 2016 @04:06PM (#12491749)
I was the first zombie, I was in a room with 6 players and immediately infected everyone. That felt good. It's a pretty fun game.
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by guessmyname on Saturday September 10, 2016 @08:42PM (#12471550)
There is an XSS in the chat: https://i.imgur.com/Eo7dwSY.png ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by m0dE on Saturday September 10, 2016 @08:54PM (#12471578)
thanks for pointing that out. :)
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by antoineMoPa on Saturday September 10, 2016 @10:49PM (#12471811)
I made a similar error previously in an app's chat. I was using node.innerHTML and changed it to of node.textContent.
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by kqia040 on Sunday September 11, 2016 @05:51PM (#12475927)
Good job man, this is a really awesome game.
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by wwalser on Saturday September 10, 2016 @05:47PM (#12471024)
Add email capture and use that to communicate with users about new features and ask what they'd like to see added to the game.
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by jblow on Saturday September 10, 2016 @06:00PM (#12471061)
Is this post just an ad?
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by m0dE on Saturday September 10, 2016 @06:03PM (#12471076)
nope. looking for an advice. growth is the least of my problem at the moment: https://bboymode.wordpress.com/2016/09/10/growth-spurts/
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by nopit on Saturday September 10, 2016 @06:31PM (#12471163)
Yes, and so is his reply.
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by m0dE on Saturday September 10, 2016 @07:30PM (#12471380)
I see where you guys are coming from, and I admit that there's an advertising nature in this post. However, I stand corrected that this post isn't "just an ad". I am also looking for advice here.
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by bbcbasic on Sunday September 11, 2016 @09:33PM (#12476640)
Ad-vice
Re:Ask HN: My game is growing fast. What should I do? by sfx77 on Sunday September 11, 2016 @01:52PM (#12474606)
cool game