Reaction:
*Slaps Josh* How dare you! How dare you presume to know what we want from you! We are here because we fell in love with you and your dream, not because you showed us pretty things. (though admittedly that helped.
)
Your 2 years of near complete radio silence cannot be forgiven easily, and certainly not with a "Hi, I'm still here. I've been working hard on a really hard problem, let me tell you just how hard it is". You have utterly failed to place as much in trust us as we have in you, and that hurts. You'd best remember that for the rest of your career.
I've always called you Wonderboy, I meant it, and still do. I only have a vague understanding regarding your technical narrative, but it sound to me like what you're really saying is that the FPLT is that you are a human being and the 3 lbs of fat in your skull has limitations that no programming language can overcome. Well of course it does, you're Wonderboy, not the god of code who writes reality from atop Mt. Olympus.
In the last year, I've increasingly come to believe that as brilliant as you are, you simply aren't brilliant enough to make your dream a reality by yourself. Your post suggests I'm unfortunately right. The Fundamental Problem of Limit Theory is ironically the Skullfat Limit, and there is only one sure way to overcome the Skullfat Limit, more Skullfat.
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Suggestion:
DWMagus is right, you need a think tank. You actually probably need more than that, you probably need production help. Luckily, you and your project has attracted many talented people that can and would help you to various degrees in various capacities, utilize them. You have also certainly met people almost to more skilled than you in your years who might be willing to help.
At the very least, you should make a space for brainstorming with others. This would be a secured space for trusted individuals (Who can be required to sign a NDA) where you can reveal your Intellectual Property to work out solutions to the issues you're facing. The first rule of good writing is "Show, don't Tell"; this would be a space where you can Show people what you're doing, what extremely specific problems you have and are currently facing, what you've tried, and how(
not why) it didn't work. From what you said, this does not sound optional if you are going to release LT before the end of the decade. Additionally, this would also be a solution for communicating with the community, having someone give a general summary of what's going on in this development forum.
More radically, and perhaps only in the event the first doesn't work, is giving one or more people complete open access to everything; perhaps even every version and attempted solution you've tried from the very beginning. A dreaded prospect I'm sure, but if a finished LT means as much to you as I think it does, it would be worth it. If you have truly reached your Skullfat Limit, you have to add more Skullfat to at least some core aspects of the project and then you need to trust them to hold and feed and nurture your baby.
Would these people be paid? Would they receive a portion of the profits? Would they receive a single payment after release? Would they have guaranteed employment at your company? The details would be between you and them.
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Most of us still believe in you. ALL of us still want LT as soon as possible. Collectively we have put in thousands of hours thinking about and developing game mechanics that you likely never would/could have come up with. As you said, those sorts of things take an enormous amount of time and creativity. So many of those ideas were only possible because we broke the Skullfat Limit and hammered them out together. You've been banging your head at a problem for
2 Years without a solution. Yes, you've learned a lot in doing so; yes, you've made progress; yes, you may eventually figure it out on your own (Though several people think you'd practically deserve a Nobel prize for that). But you are a human being, prone to blindspots, typos, and other errors in thinking that can cost enormous amounts of time as you pursue dead ends.
You have accomplished so much, and you deserve ample praise for it. BUT, and I mean this in the most supportive sense,
you are your own biggest obstacle to making LT a finished reality.
I wish you the very best, and hope you take my words to heart and fully embrace your community and all we can do for you.
Also, *Hugs Josh a full 5 minutes after it becomes awkward and he struggles to escape*
Challenging your assumptions is good for your health, good for your business, and good for your future. Stay skeptical but never undervalue the importance of a new and unfamiliar perspective.
Imagination Fertilizer
Beauty may not save the world, but it's the only thing that can