[Noisebridge-discuss] Gamebridge?

Sat Jan 18 16:59:58 UTC 2014

Ok- I'm going to take a whack at restoring vibes of Be Excellent To Each
Other!

Let's be adult and honest here- PASSION in one's crafts simply is what sets
many of us apart as "Role Models" and i see that while we DO have honorless
louts that are pure thieves- others get blinded by passion or simple lack
of clue... We see both the skills and the fails?

>From which the Truly Dark Sides gain a power we might contemplate being
scared shitless of. Scared  so by what I call the NOD Rule:

 A tech guru is not inherently a #DEITY. Not Our Deity means- they're HUMAN
and can screw up on so many levels as can ANY of us.

I hope my point is taken at the simplest evaluation. Cherish the skills
some folks have. Pardon them for being mere humans. Remind them as others
have- bad acts are unacceptable =NOT EXCELLENT.

TealDeer: LIVE by the   Be Excellent Meme.  Oh yeah- that does include the
needful compartmentalization of skills from misdeeds.

Constructive comemts on list- flame me  privately to keep drama off list:>

Oren Beck

816.632.3695

On Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 12:41 AM, Romy Snowyla <romy at snowyla.com> wrote:

> It's also common to see people at noisebridge bashing VC as if they were
> all dumb.
>
> Well wow kick starter doesn't have due diligence does it. ? Kick starter
> doesn't have a board if directors that will dis your collective consensus
> bs that refuses to fire your best buddy and no board that pushes back when
> you hire a gigantic team?
>
> Geez.
> ;)
> All of these would've been prevented by a good VC. They don't generally
> invest less than a million in a company that would expect to pay more than
> two or three engineers a living wage. Of $70k either
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jan 18, 2014, at 8:30 AM, Adrian Chadd <adrian.chadd at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Romy,
>
> It's the dirty side of the startup culture. Everything is hyped, all ideas
> will change the world.. and less than 1% of 1% of them will. Those that
> succeed stand to make stupid amounts of money and/or fame, but the rest ..
> fall into this kind of category. They have this kind of drama. The people
> involved end up this kind of burnt out.
>
> I'm disenheartened by the comments left on the website. People took a risk
> on kickstarter and now they want their money back? It's a risk. Unless you
> have proof that Alex mis-spent $170k, it's totally easy to spend $170k on
> legitimate business purchases and run out of cash before delivering. People
> are .. expensive.
>
> I meet plenty of people with similar drive, similar ideas, and similar
> experiences in Silicon Valley.
>
> Alex - I hope you've learnt your lesson. :-)
>
> -a
>
>
>
> On 18 January 2014 08:18, Romy Snowyla <romy at snowyla.com> wrote:
>
>> Al
>>
>> All these guys angry at Alex are complaining about how they didn't get
>> credit.
>>
>> Why don't they come out of the woodwork and take credit for the failure?
>>
>> Why don't they take credit for the product sucking? It really wasn't that
>> great.
>>
>> Why don't these angry people take credit for trying to run a company by
>> consensus and too many chefs spoiling the soup?
>>
>>
>> They are all so eager to blame Alex for the failure.. But they want
>> credit for any success. It's confusing. Why pin the failure on one person
>> and then greedily grab credit if there's success ?
>>
>> It's very childish!
>>
>> I also think anyone quitting their job expecting a great wage from a
>> company with only $170K in funding is pretty foolish. I'm not saying anyone
>> deserves bad fortune but it's easy to blame others for your lack of
>> foresight
>>
>> I'm also wondering how any company can raise money without a figurehead
>> like Alex. You want to raise a couple million by consensus ? Without a
>> spokesperson ? Forget it
>>
>> You're all so eager to blame Alex for your troubles .., why not share it
>> if you were all so eager to share the success?
>>
>>
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Jan 17, 2014, at 8:44 PM, Aduct lex Peake <empowerthyself at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Al:
>>
>> It pains me that you think ill of me because I highly respect you, your
>> book, your work teaching programming, and your contributions to
>> Noisebridge. (The lockers you added recently are amazing.)
>>
>> I do think your view of me and my work is based on incomplete
>> and inaccurate reports by journalists, online critics and disappointed team
>> members.
>>
>> As bleak as the picture they paint of me and Code Hero may seem, it is
>> not the whole story.
>>
>> I know you've posted negative remarks about me online in the past and I
>> regret not speaking to you previously.
>>
>> I've responded to backer concerns already, but as a fellow Noisebridge
>> community member bringing this up on the mailing list your concerns deserve
>> an answer here.
>>
>> I would like to take this opportunity to clear a few things up.
>>
>> I'd also like to speak to you in person so you can express whatever
>> concerns you have with me and we can address them.
>>
>>
>> TLDR:
>>
>> I started Code Hero to make a game that teaches people programming. I was
>> inexperienced at the outset and made a lot of mistakes along the way.
>>
>> I overreached on the design and tried to do more than our Kickstarter
>> budget allowed for, our team ran out of funding and we all suffered because
>> of that.
>>
>> I didn't update Kickstarter backers often enough and I upset a lot of
>> people who felt betrayed because they thought I had abandoned the project
>> I've never stopped working on Code Hero and it has come a long way closer
>> to completion since then.
>>
>> I apologized to everyone who was hurt by my miscommunication about our
>> setbacks.
>>
>> I promised to deliver what people were owed and I continue working with
>> the development team to achieve that.
>>
>> I apologized to David and everyone on the team who worked without pay at
>> the end of our funding and I do so again now for not being able to pay
>> folks until we first fulfill our obligations to the backers.
>>
>> I apologize to you Al as a member of the Noisebridge community for the
>> negativity this cloud of disappointment has made you feel.
>>
>> We're now working hard on the game and delivering backer T-shirt rewards.
>>
>> You can try the latest beta at http://www.primerlabs.com (click Guest
>> Mode in-game) and let us know what you think.
>>
>>
>> For Al and whomever else wants to know more of the Code Hero's history:
>>
>>
>> I started Code Hero, a game that teaches Unity game programming.
>>
>> I applied to YCombinator with a friend and we recruited a small team to
>> help build the prototype.
>>
>> We got interviewed but didn't get accepted to YCombinator.
>>
>> The team split up after that, as often happens with teams who are
>> counting on funding and don't get it.
>>
>> I continued working on it for a year and raised a small amount of money
>> to survive..
>>
>> I released a first alpha that taught the player enough to solve
>> Portal-like puzzle levels and beat FizzBoss.
>>
>> The game showed enough promise that it was time to hire a team to work on
>> it.
>>
>>
>> We raised $170K on Kickstarter with the help of many supporters.
>>
>> We hired and paid most of the team to work on it full time. Some of us
>> already had jobs and worked on it part-time. David was one of those.
>>
>> We worked together at IGN's Indie Open House incubator alongside other
>> indie game dev teams and learned a lot from them and other game dev mentors.
>>
>> An investor offered to fund us beyond the Kickstarter and we worked with
>> them to set up the company for that to happen.
>>
>> We were invited by Kickstarter to exhibit with them at PAX East and we
>> showed the second alpha there with a new orientation level.
>>
>> We worked on it more to implement the rest of the game's introductory
>> levels and level editor gameplay mechanics.
>>
>> We were invited to show the third alpha at PAX Prime in the Indie
>> Megabooth.
>>
>> What we showed was a big step forward but it was still buggy and
>> incomplete and there was a lot of work remaining.
>>
>>
>> At that point we were nearly out of funds and were counting on the
>> investor to fund us further.
>>
>> While we were there, the investor withdrew their offer and we were faced
>> with a difficult financial situation:
>>
>> If we continued working on it, there was no guarantee that we'd have the
>> money to get paid for it.
>>
>> I paid some of the developers out of my own pocket at that point to keep
>> things going but without a funding source, the paid team stopped working at
>> the end of the month.
>>
>>
>>  I and a few other volunteer programmers continued working on it and
>> released more alphas.
>>
>> We made Kickstarter updates, but there were long delays between them and
>> Kickstarter backers got frustrated.
>>
>> I tried to raise money to rehire team members to work on the project and
>> I continued working on it unpaid.
>>
>> Then some frustrated Kickstarter backers made threats and shared their
>> complaints with journalists.
>>
>> The writers spoke to some team members who were understandably
>> disappointed at not getting paid after the project ran out of funds before
>> completion.
>>
>>
>> In our Kickstarter update, we apologized to backers for delays.
>>
>> We vowed to fulfill backer rewards, to complete the game, to rebuild the
>> team, and to eventually refund backers and repay teammates including David
>> wages we couldn't pay when we ran out of funds.
>>
>> I recruited a project coordinator who has helped organize our new team
>> and I did contract work to earn enough money to start producing Kickstarter
>> rewards.
>>
>> Since then, we've released Code Hero Beta 0.2 and we're preparing to
>> print and ship the t-shirts for backers.
>>
>> You can download it at http://www.primerlabs.com and try it (just click
>> Guest Mode in-game).
>>
>> We've got a long way to go still.
>>
>> We've been rewriting the server backend, redesigning the alpha levels to
>> match the new beta level design style, and we welcome feedback and
>> suggestions to make it better.
>>
>> There are still many critics who've interpreted our delays between
>> updates as proof that Code Hero is a scam, skeptics who think we can't
>> finish the game, and worried supporters who wonder if we can pull it off.
>>
>> Despite all the mistakes, setbacks and criticism so far we're learning
>> from it and persevering to finish Code Hero.
>>
>> We have a lot of enthusiasm to finish the game and teach people
>> programming,
>>
>>
>> I am also dedicated to teaching Unity programming at Noisebridge and I'd
>> like to expand the number of teachers who can do that so it doesn't depend
>> on just me and whomever I can bring to help teach for the class to happen.
>>
>> I've taught Gamebridge classes for over a year with a few breaks when
>> travel or work prevented me from being there, and lately I've been too busy
>> working on Code Hero to make it.
>>
>> If anybody is interested in learning Unity programming and/or learning to
>> teach, I'll be expanding on the the teaching materials I've used for the
>> classes at Noisebridge, Hack The Future and other workshops and sharing
>> them in an organized spot with a mailing list for people who are teaching
>> and attending to notify each other of class plans.
>>
>> I'd like to hold a teacher teaching class soon and I'll contact everyone
>> who contacts me with interest in participating.
>>
>>
>> PS:
>>
>> I have not addressed every single concern or claim people have made here
>> because this is already too long for those dedicated enough to read it all.
>>
>> However, I'll answer any questions people have via email or here.
>>
>> Keep in mind that there are some made-up claims out there like people
>> saying I flew to Amsterdam with Kickstarter funds.
>>
>> In reality, I was paid including flight and expenses to teach a
>> programming workshop in Amsterdam. No Kickstarter money was spent on that.
>>
>> People speculated that we somehow misused our funds simply because they
>> were worried at our lack of communication and assuming the worst.
>>
>> We were required to keep careful accounting of project costs by investors
>> who required us to spend project money carefully.
>>
>> ᐧ
>> The reality is one which many game projects have in common: We put all
>> our resources into paying staff to build a game that took longer to finish
>> than we had funding for.
>>
>> In hindsight, I should have made half as ambitious a game and polished it
>> with the resources we had and set aside our bigger plans for component
>> scripting and editor gameplay till after the first polished release.
>>
>> What we completed with the funding we had was the technical core of the
>> ambitious editor design, and what we're completing now is the polished
>> content that makes good on that design one level at a time.
>>
>> I owe a thanks to those who speak up on my behalf, and I hope the critics
>> will give us another chance as they see the game improve.
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 4:23 PM, Al Sweigart <asweigart at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> If he's ever around the space again, I'll introduce you to David. He was
>>> a 3D artist employed at a studio who left his job to work for Alex. The
>>> agreement was that Alex would match his previous salary. After 3 months,
>>> David was only paid for one month, and less than what they had agreed on.
>>> David finally realized he wasn't going to ever see a check, and quit. The
>>> thing is, this was only a couple months after the Kickstarter, so Alex had
>>> plenty of funds. David will also tell you how Alex's personality made him
>>> difficult to work with, how he took credit for other people's work, and
>>> basically exploited people who really believed in the project. There were
>>> several people who worked with him, got fed up, and then left. He's always
>>> recruiting new people.
>>>
>>> Meanwhile, Alex has no accounting whatsoever for how the $170,000 he
>>> received was spent. He didn't even reveal it was all gone until half a year
>>> after the fact.
>>>
>>> If he wants to help train new teachers in Unity or lead some classes,
>>> that's great. But as soon as he asks them to contribute to Code Hero,
>>> that's when people need to politely and firmly tell him No.
>>>
>>> -Al
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jan 17, 2014 at 4:09 PM, jarrod hicks <hicksu at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I was not aware of troubles with the Code Hero project, that is a
>>>> bummer.
>>>>
>>>> As far as being a positive example, contributor, and someone who
>>>> should have the nerve to be at Noisebridge. Alex was one of those who
>>>> stepped up when my partner asked the Noisebridge community for help
>>>> showing her physics students the wonders and possibilities of
>>>> Noisebridge, and in turn the greater hacker/maker community. He worked
>>>> with rotating groups of her students and within 20 - 30 minutes he had
>>>> them making games and seeing the basic possibilities of programming
>>>> that many of them were not aware of. Alex, and all those who helped,
>>>> showed Noisebridge at its best that day, and my ongoing commitment to
>>>> this space/community is in large part because of people like Alex.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>>
>>>
>>
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>>
>>
>
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