Interesting idea. However, I don't think that this is the first time. There have been several others who preceded Notch. Jordan Mechner of Prince of Persia comes to mind first.
Wow, thanks for sharing this. This deserves to be on the front page! We're lucky in 2010 to have a glimpse into what it was like to create things in 1986.
Also, I loved this bit:
October 23, 1986
Everyone in the office has been playing a lot of Tetris – a Russian submission for the IBM PC. It’s a classic, like Breakout. But I don’t think Broderbund is going to publish it. The knaves.
You're welcome. I actually learned about it from the HN front page, almost a year ago. I spent about 9 hours (6pm to 3am) that day reading the entire journal on an iPhone (plugged in). It was the best non-book book that I'd read in a long while.
April 3, 1989
> We chatted for an hour about peripherally related topics. Broderbund, corporate America, the rat race, capitalism, freedom. I was seducing him. At the critical psychological moment, I remarked:
“You know, all my clipping is done on the byte boundaries.”
There was a pause
> The other thing is, I liked them. Lately I’d been starting to feel jaded about this whole enterprise – “Oh well, it’s just a computer game” – but watching Chris and Stu, I realized: These guys love games. They love games the way I loved movies in college. Even more, because they’re not interested in girls yet. Computer games are like the air they breathe. If I can make one that they can get excited about, that’s a real accomplishment. That’s something I can be proud of.
"I think you should pursue screenwriting. Go for it."
I was surprised and asked her why. She said that Broderbund is a really nice, warm, friendly place to work, but for programmers it’s actually not that great a deal. The older ones, like Chris and David, are starting to get scared, because programming’s the only marketable skill they have, and it’s a young man’s game. The new crop of kids coming up are willing to work harder and cheaper, and don’t have girlfriends or families yet to cut into their working hours. And nobody knows how long the games market will be around, or what it’ll be like next year.
Chris Sawyer made at very least $10 million on Roller Coaster Tycoon, which he developed with only the aid of an artist.
He programmed it (in assembly language) and only after it was completed did he go out and get a publishing deal.
I'm sure his take could have been better (especially today, having the kind of distribution that Minecraft enjoys), but he surely did all right. It's a game programmer's dream story.
I am certain that there are more than a few code jockeys making a tremendous amount of money on Wall Street... That is, of course, if they didn't build their own quant fund.
The purpose of a literary agent is to get you published and in bookstores. Most programmers are quite capable of the former and the Internet is driving the latter into obsolescence. And I don't know many authors who make a lot of money, anyway. I don't think writing books is generally more profitable than software engineering.
All this is to say: Any "software publishing agents" would be scammers.
However, lots of programmers are not that good at marketing their stuff (I included for sure).
When I look at some well marketed JS libraries I often think "huh, why is this stuff so successfull?" and my first reaction is always "good marketing!".
I am not advocating bullshit marketing here, I am thinking about a some times possible win/win between agents/authors versus the current company/employee dominant model.
Are we going to see the emerge of "software agents", who will help programmers make money out of talent much like "Literary agents" do with writers?
That would be nice, wouldn't it?