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Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Stardew Valley developer made a $125k donation to the FOSS C# framework MonoGame

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

1. Donation as Self-Interested Sponsorship vs. Pure Charity

Debate centers on ConcernedApe's $125K MonoGame donation benefiting his own projects. Critics see it as rational business: rvnx: "he is securing his own supply chain, and for a very cheap price. It is a very rational business expense." Supporters allow mixed motives: munchbunny: "Or it could be both... just because ConcernedApe has self-interested reasons to donate doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't also come from a charitable place."

2. Indie Success (Stardew Valley) Outshining AAA Studios

Praise for solo dev's massive sales (~$500M revenue) vs. AAA failures, though rarity emphasized via survivorship bias. juujian: "This indy developer... is putting AAA studios to shame." giancarlostoro: "A single developer sold half a billion dollars on Steam alone." Counter: jasonlotito: "It's incredibly rare... Compare all the indie games released and see how often they succeed."

3. Corporate OSS Contributions Exist but Are Motive-Questioned

Cites Epic MegaGrants ($1.2M Blender, $250K Godot), Valve/Proton, but skepticism on intent. QuantumNomad_: "Epic Games has a program called MegaGrants... they gave $250k to the Godot game engine." mjg2: "I wouldn't call anything Epic Games does charity: it's all empire expansion for them." Indies seen as more genuine.

🚀 Project Ideas

OSS Game Tool Invoice Service

Summary

  • A platform that helps open-source game engine maintainers (e.g., MonoGame, Godot) form lightweight LLCs and generate professional invoices for "maintenance sponsorships" from studios, bypassing donation debates and enabling easy corporate budgeting.
  • Core value: Turns "donations" into deductible business expenses with optional SLAs, securing sustained funding without charity purity tests.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience OSS game tool maintainers and indie/AAA studios using them
Core Feature Automated LLC setup, invoice templates, recurring billing, and contract generator for maintenance/support tiers
Tech Stack Stripe Billing, Next.js, Supabase for auth/DB, LegalZoom API integration
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: 5% transaction fee

Notes

  • Addresses zoeysmithe's frustration: "roll up a LLC and market some kind of service these companies can just easily write invoices for instead of expecting a random middle-manager to fight the execs."
  • HN would love the pragmatic fix for "free-riding" corps (LeFantome) and self-interested donations (rvnx, sneaks), sparking sustainability discussions.

MonoGame Visual Builder

Summary

  • A drag-and-drop scene editor and tool suite built on MonoGame, providing Unity-like prototyping (entities, prefabs, basic physics/UI) while keeping the code-first flexibility.
  • Core value: Bridges "bring your own tools" gap for coders who hate opinionated engines but need faster iteration than raw Update/Draw loops.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience MonoGame/XNA devs, solo indies prototyping games
Core Feature Visual scene composer with live preview, asset importer, and C# code export/integration
Tech Stack MonoGame + ImGui for UI, SkiaSharp for editing canvas, .NET MAUI for cross-platform editor
Difficulty High
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Solves barrenko/orthoxerox pain: "no scene editor like Unity," "just Update() and Draw()"; users like mikepurvis want "code-first but productive."
  • Practical utility for indies (mips_avatar, giancarlostoro) grinding solo projects; HN coders would fork/contribute, fueling MonoGame ecosystem talks.

Indie Game Success Simulator

Summary

  • Web app simulating indie game outcomes based on SteamDB/sensor tower data, inputs like genre/budget/marketing, outputting success odds, breakeven sales, and Steam cut impacts.
  • Core value: Combats survivorship bias by showing realistic risks/profit curves, helping devs decide "go/no-go" before years of grind.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Aspiring solo/ small-team indie game devs
Core Feature Monte Carlo sims with historical data, ROI calculator including 30% cuts/taxes, marketing spend optimizer
Tech Stack React, D3.js for viz, Python/FastAPI backend scraping SteamDB APIs
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue-ready: Freemium ($5/mo pro forecasts)

Notes

  • Tackles vunderba/tracker1/johndough stats: "only top 8% sell 10k," "800/month releases," "lightning strike odds"; giancarlostoro/Wowfunhappy lottery debates.
  • HN data nerds would geek out on metrics, discuss indie viability (jasonlotito, renewiltord), with high shareability for practical dev utility.

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