Ask HN: I have some side-project ideas. What do you think I should work on?

4 points

10 years ago

I've just finished working on a little iPhone game. It was a great learning experience, but otherwise mostly a failure. I can't say I'm surprised though, since it's not that good, and I didn't put in a huge amount of effort (less than one month). It was still very fun to work on, and I had fun writing the app store description. [1]

Right now I'm looking for a new side project idea, and I don't think I'm very good at working on the right thing. I tend to gravitate towards stupid jokes [2], or things that are very easy and quick to build. Or affiliate sites [3] (and they wouldn't approve my Amazon affiliate ID).

* [1] http://boopsboopsswoops.com

* [2] http://whattypeofanimalareyou.com/

* [3] http://youshouldbuythese.herokuapp.com/

I've written down a few of my ideas over the last few months, and it would be great if I could get some of your feedback so that I can figure out what to work on.

Here's a short summary of some ideas. This HN post is already too long, so I've put all the details in a Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jE9YBu66gozEkAIEmmPVYVdH1lNYVJbQD8P4i95t9qQ/edit?usp=sharing

1) A service that is a very high-level boilerplate/kickstarter for side-projects and startup infrastructure.

2) A gallery for web and mobile screenshots that are generated during your CI test runs.

3) A mobile racing game (silly/comedy).

4) A Virtual Reality dining experience.

5) Procedurally generating the entire population and history of a small town.

6) A mobile app that encourages people to do small amounts of fun exercise throughout the day.

I would love to hear any of your thoughts, including: "all your ideas are bad and you should feel bad."

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