Deciding between two startup concepts - Code MMORPG or Generation Tool
Hey Indie Hackers!
I've got a bit of a conundrum. I can't decide between two startup concepts that I've put significant amount of thought into over the past year and was wondering if you guys could help me decide.
I own a great 5 letter .com domain that has to do with code and an area that I've got the right mix of motivation and execution ability to build something cool.
That said here are the two concepts:
- A learning to code based MMORPG in the browser
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HTML5, subscription, teaching concepts rather than executing arbitrary user code server side.
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Had interesting success with a WebGL and Websockets demo in the past
- A code generation tool
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Focuses on server side and describing the software you want conceptually, making gui based decisions on which frameworks you'd like etc.
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Allows learning by example, bootstrapping new projects quickly, subscription model.
Looking for something people would actually want to pay for to build a sustainable business.
Any suggestions or opinions would be very appreciated!
I suggest coming up with a hypothesis for a value proposition and get some data to test out the hypothesis by doing research, interviewing potential users, and building a prototype (MVP) to test this out with potential users. The first step is to figure what problem you are trying to solve for your target users and doing some research online to find out if your target users really has this problem. Then go to some meetups and networking events to meet those target users. Ask them to explain what they are struggling with and why the existing tools/processes are inadequate. That informs you how to build your product. Your product and design is going to change many times. You are not going to get it right the first time but don't give up because revising your business model and product is all part of the process of building a startup.
How would this have worked with WoW or any MMORPG?
I think I was a fairly typical user. I'd enjoyed SC, D2 and WC3 but I would never in a million years have said I had a "problem" of not being able to raid Gnomeron with strangers from the internet.
(This is not am endorsement for taking on an MMORPG as an indie project, just a reaction to the lean startup gospel of always looking for "pain")
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Perhaps you were driven by pain to try out WoW, but I was driven by curiosity and delight.
And no, I didn't have a "pain of boredom" or something like that, before playing in 2005. I had a great social circle, had literally just doubled my income and was in a happy relationship. On top of that, we often played D2 or WC3 together on the weekends.
There wasn't a shred of pain WoW addressed for me personally. There are several core drives of human behavior and pain/loss avoidance is only one.
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I suppose my broader point was just that thinking of everything as a solution to pain is sometimes a poor fit, especially when games or are concerned. I could be wrong, but I don't think pain was the primary emotion driving the purchase for even 1% of people who bought WoW.
I do often buy other things due to pain, e.g. ergonomic keyboards, ear plugs, apartment agents' services, etc.
+100
If you can pull off #1, it would be a feat of insane heroic proportions. I really can't think of many softwareeng or business tasks harder than making a successful MMORPG, and making it educational increases the impact and difficulty another order of magnitude!
Put a landing page for both and see what resonates the best with people
That's a good suggestion. I'm thinking I should run some google ads to drive traffic to them and see how many sign ups I get?
Yes, very straight forward.