pain_relief.md

read this script it’s C# and runs unmodified the same in Unity and Godot

let’s talk about pain relief for whom? and why? would they pay? who would pay? for what? be realistic! what are reasonable revenue expectations within 12 months?

assume some headstart, book writing experience, 107 github stars in 3 months

I’ll read the script first to understand what we’re working with.## Pain Relief Analysis for LunyScript

For whom?

  1. Game developers doing rapid prototyping - tired of verbose Unity/Godot boilerplate for basic game logic
  2. Solo indie devs - need to ship fast, hate context-switching between visual scripting and code
  3. Technical game designers - want code-like control without full C# ceremony
  4. Educators teaching game dev - need clean, readable examples without framework noise

Why the pain exists:

Would they pay? Who?

Realistic payers:

Would NOT reliably pay:

Revenue expectations (12 months, realistic):

Optimistic but grounded:

Realistic total: $5-12k in year 1

The brutal truth:

Wildcard paths to more revenue:

  1. Enterprise support contracts for studios using it seriously ($5-20k/year, but need 2-3 clients)
  2. Consulting leveraging your unique expertise (bill $100-200/hr, easier than product sales)
  3. Patreon with exclusive tutorials (recurring, easier than lump sales)

Your writing experience + technical chops suggest content monetization (courses/books showing LunyScript patterns) likely outperforms raw tool sales. The tool becomes marketing for paid content.

The tool becomes marketing for paid content. Elaborate! Give me all angles.

the project is currently fully open source (MIT), and I intend for it to stay that way

the scripting is easy, and easy to extend, and behind that is a cross-engine framework effectively uniting both engine’s APIs, making it consistent and easier to get into, and with room for native and custom features - it would generally be easy to contribute to compared to most other foss projects (ie compared to Godot itself WAY more approachable).

I’m just not the outgoing, socializing kind. I can record videos but haven’t done so consistently. I should limit this to 4-8 hours per week otherwise I worry I won’t make enough progress.

Tool as Marketing: All Angles

Core insight: MIT license + growing stars = credibility engine. You’re building authority, not a product. Authority converts to revenue through paid knowledge transfer, not paywalls.

Primary Angles (4-8 hrs/week viable)

1. “Implementation Guides” (Gumroad/Lemon Squeak)

The play: Sell PDFs/mini-courses showing patterns, not basics

Why it works:

Time budget: 6-8 hrs/guide, produce 1/month

2. “LunyScript Cookbook” (Self-published book)

The play: Technical book on Gumroad/Amazon

Why it works:

Time budget: 2-3 months initial (20-30 hrs total), then passive

3. “Office Hours” Sponsorware (GitHub Sponsors/Patreon)

The play: Tiered recurring sponsorship

Why it works:

Time budget: 2-4 hrs/month + setup

4. “Template Projects” Marketplace

The play: Sell starter projects on itch.io/Gumroad

Why it works:

Time budget: 8-12 hrs/template, release 1 every 2 months

5. “Extension Packs” (Sponsor-Exclusive)

The play: Keep core MIT, gate convenience layers

Why it works:

Time budget: Fits existing dev schedule (4-8 hrs/week)

Secondary Angles (Lower effort/Higher leverage)

6. “Contributor Onboarding Course”

The play: Paid course teaching how to extend LunyScript

Why it works:

7. “Integration Services”

The play: Charge for custom integrations

Why it works:

8. “Battle-Tested Patterns” Newsletter

The play: ConvertKit/Substack, free + premium tier

Why it works:

The Funnel (How it compounds)

GitHub (MIT tool, 107→500+ stars)
         ↓
   Free docs/examples (show surface-level usage)
         ↓
   📧 Newsletter signup ("Weekly LunyScript patterns")
         ↓
   🎯 Paid offers (guides, templates, book)
         ↓
   💰 Sponsors (ongoing value seekers)
         ↓
   🏆 Consulting (high-ticket, selective)

Key: Each layer filters upward. Not everyone pays, but enough do. Your 107 stars suggest 1-2k users by year-end. If 5% buy something ($20 avg), that’s $1-2k. If 1% sponsor ($10/mo avg), that’s another $1.2-2.4k/year.

Non-Outgoing Friendly Tactics

Since you’re not the “socializing kind”:

✅ Do:

❌ Avoid:

Realistic 12-Month Path (4-8 hrs/week)

Month Activity Time/Week Output
1-2 Write “Combat Systems Guide” 6 hrs $15 Gumroad product
3-4 Record 4 tutorial videos 8 hrs YouTube → newsletter signups
5-6 Build platformer template 8 hrs $20 itch.io product
7-9 Write “LunyScript Cookbook” 6 hrs $40 book (Gumroad/Amazon)
10-12 Launch sponsors tier + Extension Pack 4 hrs $5-50/mo recurring

Expected revenue by month 12:

The Brutal Honesty Check

This only works if:

  1. ✅ Tool genuinely solves pain (cross-engine abstraction is real pain)
  2. ✅ You can explain why it’s better (writing skills)
  3. ⚠️ You can tolerate some marketing (4 hrs/week min)
  4. ⚠️ You accept slow burn (years, not months, to $50k+)

Your edge:

Your constraint:

Verdict: Sponsorware + guides + book is your best bet. Tool stays free, knowledge gets monetized. Fits your personality, leverages your skills, respects your time.

4-8 hrs/week = slow compounding My mistake, I misspelled. I meant 4-8 h per week maximum for video creation and publishing. Because I want to have 30+ hours per week spent on progress, code, demos, writing. does that changed time frame change your monetary assessments?

what’s a “hard moat”?

harder word of mouth: how can I get others to do it for me? preferably without even asking … or at least not over and over again.

i will spend 4+ weeks on a zombie survivors (mini) i can’t just start selling that without first “going live”? same for paid writing, i might have 10 users and having paid courses on offer .. feels odd

Revised Assessment (30+ hrs/week on core work)

YES, this changes everything. You’re not a side-hustler, you’re building a real product company. Different playbook.

New Time Frame & Revenue

With 30+ hrs/week on code/demos/writing:

Month 1-3: Foundation (you are here)

Month 4-6: Launch Pad

Month 7-12: Monetization

Revised 12-month revenue: $12-30k (realistically $15-20k)

Why higher? More output = more marketing surface area = more discovery = more buyers. But you still need audience first.

“Hard Moat” = Competitive Defense

Moat: What stops competitors from eating your lunch?

Your hard moat:

Why it matters for revenue: You can charge for knowledge because the problem is hard. Easy problems don’t command prices.

Word-of-Mouth Without Asking

Make sharing inevitable (not optional):

1. Built-in attribution

// Every LunyScript project auto-generates:
// "Powered by LunyScript - github.com/yourname/lunyscript"
// in console on startup (Unity/Godot both)

2. Template projects are Trojan horses

3. Make examples too good not to share

4. Contributor incentives (not asking, structuring)

5. “Show your work” culture

# Built with LunyScript
Submit your project to be featured!
- [Game 1] by @user1
- [Game 2] by @user2

6. Strategic integrations

The “10 Users” Problem

“I might have 10 users and having paid courses on offer… feels odd”

You’re right. Here’s the sequence:

Phase 1: Prove Value (Months 1-4)

DO:

Goal: Get to 500+ stars, 100+ newsletter subs, prove people care

DON’T:

Phase 2: Soft Monetization (Months 5-7)

DO:

Signal it’s ready:

Phase 3: Full Monetization (Months 8-12)

DO:

Key insight: You don’t “offer” paid products to small audience. You respond to demand from growing audience.

The Zombie Survivors Launch Strategy

Since you’re spending 4 weeks on this, maximize its marketing value:

Week 1-3: Build + Document

Week 4: Polish + Multi-Format Launch

Release simultaneously:

  1. GitHub: Full source (MIT)
  2. YouTube: 10-min “I built Vampire Survivors in 4 weeks” (link to repo)
  3. itch.io: Playable WebGL build (link to source)
  4. Reddit: r/gamedev, r/godot, r/Unity3D (one post per sub, spaced 24hrs)
  5. Newsletter: “Case study: Zombie survivors architecture breakdown” (capture emails)

Call-to-action in all formats:

Post-Launch (Week 5+):

Your Actual 12-Month Plan

Month Core Work (30h/wk) Marketing (4-8h/wk) Revenue
1-2 Zombie survivors Devlog posts, 3 videos $0
2-3 2 more demos Launch videos, Reddit $0
4 Polish docs, examples YouTube consistency (2/wk) $0
5-6 Advanced features Bundle zombie template $500-2k
7-8 2 more templates Launch guides $2-4k
9-11 Write book Video tutorials (book promo) $5-10k
12 Extension pack Launch sponsors $8-15k

Total Year 1: $15-30k (heavily back-loaded)

Why back-loaded? Audience growth is exponential, not linear. First 6 months: prove value. Last 6 months: harvest credibility.

The Psychological Shift

You’re not “selling to 10 users.” You’re:

  1. Building in public (free, generous)
  2. Documenting your work (free, valuable)
  3. Eventually offering shortcuts (paid, optional)

By the time you have paid offers, you’ll have hundreds of users asking “how do I do X?” That’s when guides feel natural, not weird.

The rule: Only monetize after you’re tired of answering the same question for free. Then the paid guide is a relief (“finally, I can just link them”).

Bottom Line

30hrs/week changes the game. You’re not a content creator with a side project. You’re a product builder who creates content as exhaust.

Your demos ARE your marketing. Your code IS your credibility. Your writing IS your monetization.

Just don’t sell before you have proof people care. You’re 3 months in with 107 stars—that’s validation, but not yet a customer base. 6 more months of building, THEN monetize. By then it won’t feel odd, it’ll feel overdue.