Identity Complex

#7 Lazer Cats: Making a Video Game with Strangers

I take you behind the scenes on what it is like to create a video game with strangers in just 1 month. This ragtag team met on r/INAT with the attempt to make a 2D Puzzle Platformer where a mouse saves his family from the cats. After this, I made a Christmas-themed Bomberman game solo so that you can compare it. My Links: Game developer profile: https://donleyac.itch.io/ Playing With Snow: https://donleyac.itch.io/playingwithsnow LazerCats: https://donleyac.itch.io/lazer-cats Subreddits: I Need a Team: https://www.reddit.com/r/INAT/ Cofounder: https://www.reddit.com/r/cofounder/ Team Member Links: Ana: https://buhnuhnah.github.io/ Quinn: https://gasilly.itch.io/archery Lazy Genius: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/cat-and-raccoon/list?title_no=350835

#6 Gypsee: Building a Startup with Strangers

This startup story has us right in the middle of another one. The rise and fall of that story is the previous podcast episode and I strongly recommend listening to that one. The “too long didn’t watch” summary is: I quit my job at a fortune 100 company to make my weekend travel webapp my full time job. The purpose of it was to make travel planning easier and thought my proposed solution beat the dominant player in the market. Everything didn’t go to plan and I struggled to gain traction. To salvage the project I went on reddit’s r/ co-founder to find co-founders. Ultimately I didn’t find co-founders for my startup but found myself joining someone else’s travel startup. That decision started a year long journey with multiple interesting characters and moments. Strap in because this is going to be a bit all over the place! Gypsee: https://gypsee.travel/ Doordash Y-Combinator Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzlr2tNSl0U Y-Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/ Y-Combinator Sample Questions: https://lironshapira.medium.com/sample-questions-for-the-y-combinator-interview-3895913ffe89

#5 Voymas: My Solo Founder Story

This is the continuation of my startup journey. It details my adventure from leaving my company to starting https://voymas.com/ There are tons of lessons learned that in this episode I will share with you. Here is the article I wrote that goes into specifics about the technical challenges I faced when using AppSync. https://medium.com/@donleyac/aws-appsync-amplify-things-i-wish-i-knew-48e614fced28  Definition of terms I used: * Fortune 100 Company: The top 100 from the fortune 500 list https://fortune.com/fortune500/ * Legacy Code: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/25326/legacy-code#:~:text=Legacy%20code%20refers%20to%20an,modern%20software%20language%20and%20platform. * Amazon AWS: https://aws.amazon.com/ * Amazon Lambda: https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/ * Amazon AppSync: https://aws.amazon.com/appsync/

#4 Control In Progress

This episode is a little bit different than the usual. This is an excerpt from a book I'm working on. It covers the story about a boy who has been controlled his whole life to now being someone with power. He must decide what to do with this power while people forces are working against him.

#3 Conversations for Clarity

At the start of this week I was physically sick and then mentally sick. I found it useful to think back to the conversations that have really inspired and provided me clarity in the past few years. These conversation formed the basis for my decision to become self employed. I really hope they positively effect you as well.  Source material: Social Capital Chamath Palihapitiya Stanford Graduate School of Business https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMotykw0SIk [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMotykw0SIk] Elon Musk Air Force Association https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp8smJFaKYE [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp8smJFaKYE] Hidden Brain Creatures of Habit https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/787160734/creatures-of-habit-how-habits-shape-who-we-are-and-who-we-become [https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/787160734/creatures-of-habit-how-habits-shape-who-we-are-and-who-we-become]