

Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt - aston
http://www.immadsnewworld.com/2009/02/heyzap-launches-forming-of-heyzap-and.html

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knarf
Sorry if I am coming over as offensive, but I just need to share that it feels
kind of weird when you submit a business idea like that, get rejected and than
5 months later read about how yc chose somebody else (who had already in the
program before) to create a business - which is just your idea - and he had it
like 3 to 4 months ago.

Of course the idea for such a thing will always be born in many heads at the
same time so it was probably just choosing the better team - and this happens
probably a lot of times. And of course if you believe in a thing you don't
need someone like yc to approve it when you can just go out and build it on
your own. Still I feel kind of bad right now. I don't want to blame anybody of
misbehavour or s.th., but it would have been nice to at least get a rejection
mail that says s.th. like "We already have another team for a similar product"
so you don't end up like me wondering about the timing of things later.

Anyway all the best of luck with this thing - I truly believe it's a great
idea.

~~~
Alex3917
I had to come up with 111 business ideas for Seth's alternative-mba program
this week. The idea was both to make sure we weren't choosing the business we
wanted to start just because it was the first good idea we came up with, and
also to prove that ideas were worthless because we could come up with a
million billion-dollar ideas. There are nine of us, and so that's 999 ideas
between us. We are going to take the best of these ideas and publish them all
online. Of the 150 or so ideas we publish online, I suspect that 145 or so
will be done by someone within the next five years. It's not that uncommon,
it's just that everyone tends to think of the same stuff at the same time.
That's why hit movies come in pairs.

~~~
nihilocrat
Makes me think of game design:

[http://lostgarden.com/2005/08/why-you-should-share-your-
game...](http://lostgarden.com/2005/08/why-you-should-share-your-game-
designs.html)

Anyone can design a fun game, but there is a huge gap between an idea and a
finished product.

~~~
jaxn
You can say that again!

We did a game as part of Startup Weekend and then decided to pursue it after.
Hopefully it will go into beta this week, but holy smokes it turned out to be
a lot more nuanced than I ever imagined.

Really fun code to write though.

~~~
jacquesm
Game programming is some of the most satisfying code you can write outside of
coding up your own operating system.

It's real time, lots of subprocesses that you have to schedule properly to
keep the game ticking along at a playable pace, all kinds of interaction
between objects and if you're 'lucky' a good bit of math and 3d stuff.

~~~
wallflower
OT: Is a subscription to Gamasutra worth it?

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erik
I have a subscription to Game Developer magazine. It's a typical industry
magazine. Very heavy on the advertising and PR, with an occasional high
quality article. They sometimes offer free subscriptions, and if you search
around you might find a sign-up form. They make their money off advertising,
and they seem to be more interested in increasing their readership than
collecting subscription fees.

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webwright
Out of curiosity, how did your leaving your co-founder(s?) at Clickpass effect
Clickpass's acquisition? At first blush, seems like harsh timing.

~~~
jgrahamc
Going to go pedantic on you, but I believe you mean 'affect' and not 'effect'.
I used to always have a have time with this until my doctoral supervisor told
me to remember the mnemonic RAVEN: Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun. So 'to
affect' is the verb and 'an effect' is the noun.

Of course, English being what it is there's an exception or two! Effect can be
a verb when used in the form 'to effect a change'. And affect is from time to
time a noun when used by psychologists.

But mostly RAVEN applies.

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axod
Whats with the 'adverts'?

"You have 1 challenge request [approve] [deny] [view friends]"

Then I (foolishly) believe it, and click on it, and it directs to (null) (from
[http://partners.tattomedia.com/sw/42/CD1/&dp=725](http://partners.tattomedia.com/sw/42/CD1/&dp=725)
) - Broken redirect...

:/

Something odd going on there (Tried playing Bloons on safari/firefox).

Some very addictive games there :)

~~~
judegomila
Ads are currently served by mochimedia. We will complain! Thanks for the
feedback.

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rantfoil
Congrats Immad and Jude -- I knew you guys were on to something when I tried
it and ended up spending a few hours playing an RPG game just totally
randomly.

~~~
judegomila
Thanks! Was it monster's Den? That game is pretty addictive...

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coglethorpe
Any sites have this loaded so I can try the games out?

I could do it myself, sure, but I don't think my (current) sites are exactly a
fit.

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immad
<http://www.heyzap.com/embed> goes straight to the widget. Or you can try it
on this site: <http://www.dhingana.com/games>

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maxniederhofer
congrats on launch! sounds like things are going really well!

