First I've heard of fractional roles. Is there any loose guidelines of what level of experience is required to break into the space?
I've been doing software for about a decade now. But I'm still (relatively) young. I do feel I have good breadth though and could provide value to a fledgling company to move in the right direction.
I just learned about fractional jobs. I've bounced around my company for a while and also led some independent projects.
I'd like to break into this space. I'd be curious to know what was causing your CTOs to strike out to know what pitfalls I could avoid (Also open to discuss your role specifically if you're interested in someone trying to get their feet wet in fractional work, but am comfortable in the engineering space)
I actually enjoy reversing APIs. A game I really liked to play announced EOS last year. I ended up capturing a bunch of mitm traffic and built my own API instead and now head up a private server for it.
I don't dare monetize that project, but I wish I could use my skills to make some extra money at reversing APIs. Wouldn't know where to begin though.
I have the same wish, and wish that for you, but tangentially I wanted to offer that if you were to publish the game server you built, to the very best of my knowledge alternative implementations are protected by US law (assuming that applies to you, of course) and then everyone in a similar boat could sponsor your project, straight up donate to you, or at very least you'll have made the world a better place for the players in a similar situation as you were
The game is Gundam Evolution, so Bandai Namco is the owner. They are known to be very litigious and protective of Gundam IP.
The game was a multiplayer FPS and involved cosmetic micro transactions.
Due to mismanagement they shut down in one year. It launched in late 2022 and EOSed late 2024.
I'm in the US, yes. The company is Japanese though and they may not care as much about US law when choosing to pursue. Even if they ultimately don't have a case, there's still enough gray area to torment-by-lawyer.
For that reason I chose not to take any cash for the project. I also don't distribute any game files. Trying to minimize risk as much as possible.
But yeah! It was a good community building project. We're about to hit 10,000 members I hope it leads to some connections that are profit rearing.
You're a hero. I couldn't care less what laws say, companies that go after people like you deserve to be boycotted mercilessly. I haven't bought a single EA game since they C&D'd the people reverse engineering Battlefield 2 and 2142 network protocols. They just wanted to keep some beloved games alive. I will never forgive them for it.
Whatever you're doing, I hope you get away with it.
I appreciate it. So far so good. We've been hosting lobbies for about about 6 months now.
Also, I made a typo. They shit down in late 2023, not 2024. So between November 2023 and March 2024, there was no public place to play the game we've brought it back since though.
Hope Bamco lets us be in our little corner for now!
I feel the same way about monetizing my api reverse engineering skills. I taught myself to program by reverse engineering api's, and it's what led me to pursue computer science. I'm pretty good at it, but I can't seem to find a role to flex my skills.
> game companies are highly incentivized to work with (or at least not antagonize) the elite players
Actually, this is generally untrue. Companies BELIEVE this but often times, these players are a vocal minority put on pedastal and they often end up making the game worse for the general player base.
Sorry for not being more clear, I was referring to the advertising or promotion that comes via the elite players. Take Valorant, for example. Riot Games leveraged their League of Legends user base and gave early access to high-end players and that apparently played a big part in helping its popularity take off. Now it has a robust presence in eSports, again helped by the high-end players.
It's not uncommon now for popular professional streamers to get early access to new features/modes because the game companies know that those players can help build or retain the player base.
I wrote a screen reader for an MMO I play that does day trading on the in game market.
It hooks into the games public API to determine items in my price and demand range and does buy orders everyday.
Since it doesn't do any injections, it isn't a violation of the games policies or anti cheats. Been doing it for years.
The items I trade in don't stack in inventory, which makes it tedious for any normal human player. But given the buying and reselling is scripted, it doesn't impact me.
I've generated a few thousand dollars worth of gold over the years doing this.
The games marketplace also is deflationary. 15% buy and sell fees. I imagine I've burned a considerable chunk of gold keeping my operations going.
The system is incredibly hostile to foreigners though who need to interact with a government agency. Especially on holiday.
I'm sure that goes well with all the ZTL signs posted 8 ft high and hidden behind the trees.
For live service games, self-hosting is increasingly uncommon. During the Source era of Team Fortress 2, Half-Life Deathmatch, etc, self-hosting was certainly a thing. But in the modern era, games like Overwatch 2 have no means to be a server or listen server. Even "custom games" where you can make your own game mode and do fun, arcadey-style things connect to a dedicated server.
For things that are "single player", (e.g. Tutorials/Practice), I agree with you that it's to be expected that some sort of mock-loopback is likely stood up. But what was unusual in this situation is the _entirety_ of the code is there, to the point it even would bind to a UDP port and handle full bi-directional UDP communication.
I would expect that for something like this, they'd include a trimmed down version, and not ship the _entire_ thing.
Is it tyranny to allow an option to load an extra app store?
I can tell you from 14 years of android experience that nothing else is going to really compete with the App Store even if Apple had a setup screen advertising alternative app stores on every device. The alt store will be where
1) a few super rich apps to dodge the 30% (which as of now consists of... Fortnite on Android. And that's it. Apple already banned that. And from previous articles, they are already maliciously complying with this anyway)
2) apps that are on the Grey market (emulators, certain readers)
3) porn, or any other app that is simply not allowed on IOS for moral reasons as opposed to legal. There are less of these than you think, though I can see Japan taking advantage of this to balance it out.
4) some niche homebrew stuff or otherwise apps that have a strong ideology for Open Source as opposed to selling a service
So, nothing Apple really cares about (and Fortnite, which has been out of the picture for 4 years now).
My blue sky hopes is that Valve makes a mobile Steam for premium games one day if this opens up properly, but I don't see that happening this decade, even if IOS opened the floodgates worldwide tomorrow.
Looking for some part time remote contracting. Focus on backend web in NodeJS/JavaScript and/or data engineering. Proficient with Snowflake, DBT, and other data focused tooling.
Not looking for full time opportunities at this time. Interested in game or game service opportunities, but open to any business ventures.
Several YOE in backend web + data. Have tackled a few reverse engineering ventures too. Currently working on private servers for an end-of-service game. Can check out the project on my website (see below).
Location: Sacramento, CA
Remote: Yes
Willing to relocate: No
Technologies: JavaScript, NodeJS, SQL, Snowflake, DBT
Résumé/CV: https://1379.tech/content/files/2024/02/2_12_24.docx.pdf
Email: contracting@1379.tech
I'm a backend and data engineer that loves working in both. I have the same issue as OP. I don't really have any passion of a business I'd like to start. I just like using my skills to build and enable.
Been hoping to pick up some contract work here and there. Think you may have some use for my skillets or know someone who may?
I've been doing software for about a decade now. But I'm still (relatively) young. I do feel I have good breadth though and could provide value to a fledgling company to move in the right direction.