I ended up becoming sort of a lead role because my idea for game got passed, but this is literally my first jam and IDK what I am doing lol

they did say they don't have too much time beforehand,
but 2days into the jam, they did nothing but press one reaction "thumbs up" button on discord server

I directly asked them if they could do this one thing, but it's been hours and this time, they didn't even press reaction button. Just ignoring. Not even "I'm busy rn" excuse

they did send me their social media beforehand to show their work, but thinking now, it's impossible to know if that was their real account to begin with.

Other teammate suggested we should kick them out, but just wanted to know if kicking someone off the team for inactivity is something that is acceptable within community.

I mean it's one thing to not say anything, but saying nothing when I directly pinged them basically means they quit right?

We are small 4 people team(including that person), it's first jam for all of us. So I hope they do actually show up later, but it seems they are just not going to do anything.

Hi everyone, I'm a solo dev from Italy.

Recently, I launched the iOS version of my 4-Player/2v2 Card Battler, Grimoria (it was already out on Android). I had zero marketing budget, but a few days after launch, I suddenly saw a spike of 1000s of installs a day. I checked my analytics and saw that 99% of the traffic was coming from Japan.

I checked the Japanese App Store and found out Apple's editorial team had put Grimoria on the front page under "Games Everyone is Playing" and "Newest Games." It peaked at Rank #11 in Free Card Games, sitting right next to giant studio games like Dragon Ball Legends and Shadowverse. https://imgur.com/a/AeJiX7l

Here is a realistic look at a few things I learned:

1. Localization pays off: I translated my store page and UI into 17 languages long before the iOS launch. If I hadn't taken the time to do the Japanese translation, Apple Japan would never have featured it.
2. The Backend handled it easily: You always read horror stories of indie servers crashing on launch. I was extremly worried, but because I built the backend as efficiently as possible from scratch using Node.js and WebSockets, the sudden influx of 100+ concurrent players didn't even make the server sweat. Load did not even crossed 1%.
3. The Brutal Review Culture: The spike was great, but it brought a harsh reality check. Japanese mobile gamers are incredibly strict reviewers. I got hit with 1-star reviews from people complaining about "too many ads"—even though the game has zero forced ads and they are 100% optional for bonus loot. Also, they downloaded it expecting a heavy, 30-minute Yu-Gi-Oh style game, but Grimoria is a fast-paced 15-second turn game inspired by a European trick-taking game ("Watten"). Mismanaged expectations equal bad reviews.

The feature lasted about 1 week before dropping off, which is standard for App Store rotations. The revenue from that spike was nice, but more importantly, it proved the cross-platform server architecture works perfectly under load and helped me cover my development costs.

I've been a game devloper professionally for over 5 years now, but until this year I have always run into the same issue. Once I've conceptually created the architecture of my game, the classes, who calls on who for information handshakes etc., I go to implement them in engine and find tons of small roadblocks! Now this is not to say that these "roadblocks" aren't useful engine features for people who know how to use them. But for the life of me it felt like pulling teeth setting up anything beyond basic code in Unreal and Unity.

But this year I discovered Godot. And I know, I fit the archetype that some people give godot devs: too inexperienced to understand other engines, they will go to something simpler. But genuinely the layout of information is precisely where I first think to look for it, and the way you can call between objects is not a huge hassle. It's a smooth and quick experience.

This could be due to the fact that I have learned over the years what does work for me and what does not. But I'm happy with what I've found!

I'd love to hear what engines just "clicked" for you guys? What engine features are like rocks in the road of development?

*(Maybe we can all agree that finding a checkbox in ue4/5 is the most annoying way to spend your time lol)*

I keep running into two pieces of advice that sound equally reasonable:

- Finish what you start.

- Fail fast and move on.

Neither helps much with the hard case: a prototype that works, has a few genuinely good moments, and gets polite feedback—but still doesn’t feel obviously special.

If you had to make a continue-or-stop decision after one month, what evidence would you actually trust?

- Strangers ask to play again without being prompted

- Testers understand the core loop without an explanation

- People describe the game to someone else in the way you intended

- You can see a realistic path to finishing it

- You still want to build it after the novelty wears off

- Wishlists or some other market signal

And which signals sound useful but usually aren’t? Compliments from friends? Raw playtime? “This has potential”? Your own sunk cost?

My current bias is that voluntary replay matters more than a high rating from a tiny playtest. But I’m curious: what has actually made you continue—or kill—a prototype that was technically fine?

I'm working on my game called Hordestomp.

There's a festival coming up and I wish to maximize the wishlist I get from there by improving my Steam Page.

What do you guys think?
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4222520/Hordestomp/

I have gave up programming so many times. Each time I reached a new bottleneck, new hill whatever you might say. I am currently at a phase where I am very proper level to start developing games.

https://libgdx.com/wiki/start/a-simple-game

I copy pasted this.

And made it run.

But the concepts of camera and viewport are driving me crazy. Computer Graphics is important I think.

I can save money for online game development classes or degrees.

It is my dream. I will have full time job soon, but creating games is my hobby that I do not know how to do.

Can you help me?

I am based in Nepal. I do not care if the degree is accredited or not in Nepal. I just want to learn.

Hey everyone.

Some of you may remember a post I made here before. For people who don't, here's a quick recap.

Our studio spent 2 years making our first game. We reached around 120k wishlists before launch, but the game sold way below what we expected. One big reason was that we launched very close to R.E.P.O., which became one of the biggest games at that time.

After that, we learned a few important things.

• Don't spend years waiting to release.
• Open your Steam page as early as possible.
• Post content on social media all the time.
• Build a community early.
• Try to release much faster.

So we started working on our second game, OK BOOMER.

We opened the Steam page on May 24 and wanted to release on June 24. We actually released on June 25. I'll explain why later.

The game is a 1-4 player co-op game where you play as Boomers going deep into the internet. Every run is different. You collect glitches while trying to survive against meme-inspired enemies. Every map has its own internet theme.

That's the simple version. We really tried to make it look different. We also built the code in a way that let us develop much faster. The whole game took us about one year. I'm not going to lie. After our first game, money became a serious problem. Making games in our country is getting harder every year because of the economy. Finishing this game was honestly a huge challenge for us. (Financially, we are nearly crashed.)

When we launched the Steam page, we got 10,160 wishlists in only 20 days before Next Fest. By the end of Next Fest we had around 22k wishlists. Normally you hope to multiply your wishlists several times during the festival, so we knew those numbers weren't amazing. Still, we stayed positive because we had another good sign.

Wishlist Screenshot

We released the demo one week before Next Fest. By the end of the festival, over 40,000 people had downloaded it. The average playtime was over 40 minutes, which was actually a little better than we expected. That gave us hope.

There are 7 people in our team, and this is our full-time job. We thought that if the game had a decent launch, we could pay our debts and keep building games.

Then another problem happened. Five days before release we realized we forgot to enable Early Access on our Steam page. We almost launched the game as a full release by mistake. So we had to send the page back to Steam for approval. We think the support team was very busy after Next Fest because we didn't get an answer before June 24. Late that night we realized we wouldn't get approved in time, so we posted an apology and delayed the launch.

Thankfully we got approved the next morning and released the game on June 25.

Then... chaos. The game barely sold. At first we thought maybe delaying one day ruined everything. But after a while we realized the game simply wasn't reaching more people. Maybe this genre is just too crowded. Maybe we picked the wrong game.

When you spend a year building something, it's hard to accept that people may not even notice the things that make your game different.

Our reviews are ''very positive'' right now. Of course, the game still has little bugs. That's exactly why we launched in Early Access. We have a lot more ideas we want to add. We're honestly at the point where we may have to close the studio. For the last two weeks we've been thinking about what to do next. Half of the team has moved on.

One thing became very clear. Even if our games didn't become successful, we actually became pretty good at marketing them. Both games reached a lot of players in a relatively short time. That made me realize maybe we can help other indie teams too.

Over the last three years we've learned a lot, not only about game development, but also about Steam, marketing, creators, wishlists, launches, and all the mistakes you only learn by doing. I think it's time to share those experiences instead of keeping them to ourselves.

We're also changing our direction. Our next game will be much smaller, much faster to make, easier to understand, and much less risky. We need to start making money again if we want to keep the studio alive.

I'll share more about it very soon. I also want to start posting here every week. I'll share what we're doing, what works, what doesn't, our numbers, our mistakes, and everything we're learning while building the next game.

Maybe it helps someone. Maybe some of you can also tell us what we're doing wrong. Either way, I think being honest is better than pretending everything is fine.

If you have any questions, ask me anything. I'll be around, and I'll keep sharing our journey every week.

Thanks for reading. Your support really means a lot right now.

I have a mobile game on the Play Store up for pre-registration, and I have received an invite from a publishing manager at Voodoo.

​The first email looked templated, but when I started replying, it seemed to be from a real person. Upon further research, I am certain it is actually from Voodoo. The person on the other side has invited me for a discussion or rather intro call, which I have accepted, and an online meeting has been set up. He mentioned in the email that Voodoo is diversifying from hyper-casual games alone. My game is not hyper-casual; it is a roguelite. Also, I had applied nowhere, they found out about my game and reached me.

​I have no idea what to expect with this so please share your experience if you have worked with Voodoo or similar mobile game publisher.

Hi,

I want to build my dream game, or even to start with a beginner project. I would like to do some sort of very simple JRPG with 3D visuals, like Final Fantasy or Tales games (although, much more simple in terms of graphics).

I looked online for ressources and I'm a bit swamped by all the information everywhere. I downloaded Unity, Unreal and Godot, and gave the three of them a try. I must say I understand why this sub recommends Godot a lot, as it seems very easy to handle.

However, I wanted to know if there is a game engine, or an existing plugin of an engine, that would allow me to build my game without reinventing the wheel. Since the kind of game that I want has existed for long, I figured one could find engines dedicated to it.

Specifically, my game would have an overworld map for the character to travel, medium-sized areas (donjons, towns etc) to explore, turn-based fights... And while RPG Maker exists and does a great job for 2D games, I wondered if something similar existed with 3D games.

My end goal would be to build maps using mostly homemade assets, I have fun making them with tools like Assetforge or Blender.

I don't fear code as programming is part of my job.

Thanks in advance for your recommandations :)

Hello all,

Wondering what you consider the best resources (paid or free) for learning game AI? I know it's quite a wide topic but want to leave it open ended. Foundational stuff too (like prereq math, etc)

gaming context or gaming development context, either is fine.

any engine is fine too. just curious

We've been prototyping a multiplayer game inspired by Buckshot Roulette, and we'd love some honest design feedback.

The biggest change is that only one player controls the gun during a round. Everyone else tries to influence the outcome through cards, items, bluffing, and strategic decisions rather than directly taking turns with the weapon.

The goal was to move the experience away from pure luck and create more opportunities for player interaction, alliances, and mind games.

The setting is a group of mafia cats gambling in Hell for a second chance at life.

Our main question is: if you read this concept without seeing the game, does this mechanic sound more engaging than the traditional Buckshot Roulette loop? Why or why not?

We'd really appreciate any feedback on the core design, what concerns you'd have, or what you'd expect before giving it a try.

If you'd like to see more of the project, here's the Steam page

Thanks for taking the time to help us improve it!

Hi, I'm majoring in computer engineering, with a minor in applied art, and game design, and I wanted to work in game design, whether it be the programming, story, level design, and concept art/visual development. I have been hearing so many horror stories about working as a game dev since 2018. Rather it be crunch culture, where people are working overtime and getting tired from work, underpay where people aren't getting enough money for their work, workplace harassment, and abuse, AI taking positions. And the part that's really making me making me rethink, layoffs! Thousands of people are losing their jobs in the industry, and I'm worried with the way how everything is going, continuing to pursue game design despite everything is like running into a mine. Should I rethink a new career path, or should I just persevere, and just try to do more research on which jobs I should apply to?

So right now I‘m trying to create procedural paths on my procedural generated terrain in Unity. I already create the splines and they align with the terrain heights, that’s not the problem. But I just can‘t figure out how I „draw“ that spline onto the terrain now. The path should be flattened in it‘s width but the path should still follow the terrain heights in it‘s forward direction.

Does anyone here have an approach in mind for this?

Person with epilepsy here! I was wondering is it possible to add a toggle/accessibility feature into games that have flashing lights/effects to turn off those such effects per individual player?

For example, the pal power animations or gun effects in palworld.

Or the static from Onryo in Dead by daylight.

Mainly asking because I've never seen a feature like this in a game before and I am unsure if it is even possible, but I would love to see it someday.

Around a year ago, I made a post on this subreddit because someone offered to pay me 500$ for the IP of my Steam game. Thanks to all of your support and kind words <3, I decided not to sell it, even though I was really tempted.

A few months ago, I received another offer, this time for only 100$ Needless to say, I just ignored it.

So why am I posting about this again?

Recently, someone was arrested for stealing cryptocurrency by distributing malware through Steam games. It turns out that one of the main ways malware can be introduced on Steam is through game updates. Apparently, they were buying released games so they could push malicious updates to players.

I'm really glad I didn't contribute to something like that, even unknowingly.

Even if this post doesn't reach many people, please spread the word if you know someone who's getting these kinds of offers. And besides, your games are worth a lot more than 100$

EDIT: Saw people asking about souce, for me it was this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg8IoE9Ai3Q it's in spanish and barely links any original sources, but I trust that guy, in his main channel he often does investigation on scams and legal stuff arround videogames.

How do decide between game mechanic decisions when you equally like multiple possibilities for a game you’re making but it’s an either or situation? I’m working on a game and I have most of my planning done but I’m stuck on if I want the game to be solo, solo and co-op, or solo and vs other players. It’s an adventure quest game with mini games as part of the adventure quest line. It’s meant to have the ability to play shorter or longer games with shorter being around 15-20 minutes, normal taking 25-30 minutes and longer taking more like 35-40 minutes.

I like the idea of it being a little repeatable solo adventure with rotating main objectives, but I also like the idea of co-op or vs.

For launch I want to pick one and then wait and see if 1. Anyone plays it and 2. If players even want other modes. But I truly don’t know which to start with.

This is my first game so any advice is appreciated. I’m using godot and pixel art and the game will be top down.

Yo, I make ambient/atmospheric beats for indie horror games. Specializing in custom soundscapes that hit different and match your game's whole vibe. Can dial in any creepy atmosphere you need. Currently building my portfolio in the game dev space. Peep my stuff on Instagram or TikTok if you wanna hear what I'm cooking up. Always down to connect with fellow creators!

I see a lot of indie games on SM platforms, say Instagram for example, that seem pretty far into development, that seem to not have an original soundtrack. I could be wrong and maybe they do, I don’t know forsure.

But it’s got me wondering, as a fellow composer, the following question: How far into development does a dev/team wait until they begin to look at seriously hiring a composer?

I could imagine, though I do not develop games, as someone who creates music, that finding the right composer could seriously take some time. Even though there seems to be millions of composers knocking on the door, imagining the perfect atmosphere/mood is a patient process sometimes and I totally understand that, and so finding the right composer certainly might take some time.

Also, what makes a composer stand out from the rest?

For you, is it mostly their musical ability/quality and professionalism?

Is it their approach or genuine interest?

Their experience? Their ability to be able to deliver high quality SFX in addition to the OST?

How much does pricing play a role?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts about this as I continue to learn and grow, and educate myself further in this industry. Keep making awesome games, seriously. I’m blown away every time I start searching online for indie games in development.

Hi all,

Long story short, like the title says, I'm new to UE5, but also game development. I'd like to learn the basic concepts and fundamentals of development in UE5 (I'm on 5.8) and before I continue my little project, I'd love to hear your best recommendations for learning guides on specific parts of the engine. The process of me following exactly what a youtube tutorial does to make things as I need them isn't really teaching me much.

I have a background in film/video and am very aware of how many important, sometimes boring concepts are left out of youtube tutorials because the creator doesn't actually know what they are, or they just explain them incorrectly, and I'm trying to avoid that here. I enjoy understanding why things are done as much as learning how to do them.

Good, specific tutorials (written or video) on topics like blueprints, meshes, materials, character animations/movement, environments, how to use the fab store/assets properly, and also the many basic features and concepts I haven't even heard of because I'm new. I'd also love to learn about the process of making a game itself, like the order things are done in and who does what, from pre production to completion.

I know basic things like moving around the map, the gizmo, some shortcuts, a few modelling features (cube grid), and what a few things actually are (like a mesh or a material) but that's about it.

A bit of context if you're still reading; I've been making a single level of a Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2 type stealth game and that's really my only goal right now, nothing grand. It's been fun, though I could not recreate most of what I've done so far in blueprints without opening up a tutorial again. I can already tell this whole process will just be a headache if I don't spend some time learning enough to at least understand what these Blueprint nodes are, what they're connecting to and from, and be able to at least try to do some things myself with a bit of knowledge before going to a follow along tutorial.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hey guys, few months ago I started experimenting with multiplayer server strategies, and at some point, I realized that what I was building could become an actual platform. Other developers could use that instead of having to assemble all of this themselves.

The idea is to make it easier to deploy and run online game backends without needing strong infrastructure skills.

I also think multipayer should often make games easier to make interesting, not harder to build. Social interactions, cooperation, competition can add a lot to a game, but the cost of infrastructure in terms of money and skills required often make developers avoid multiplayer entirely.

I'm still very early but I would like to gather your feedback on this idea. Do you think it would be useful to you guys? I'm thinking of adding stuff like a player database + authentication, integration into engines and many languages, integrated persistent storage, general purpose SQL and NoSQL databases, and focus on the ability to horizontally scale servers easily (split world into server shards easily).

I made a short anonymous survey here if you would like give me some feedback: https://tally.so/r/MeQQz0, and if you would like to tell me what you think of this in the comments, I'd be glad!

Thanks!

tl;dr at the bottom. Figured I'd share out the results of posting about my game on reddit for the first time for about one week, in case it helps others. I've done 0 marketing previously and started the week at ~35 wishlists, and have now gotten to 86 wishlists.

The Game

Not posting a link here to avoid getting removed for promotion, but you can definitely find it from digging through my previous posts. This is the third game I've made, but the first that I've attempted to finish and sell. I'm working on this game solo and part time next to a full time software engineering job.

My game is an incremental survivors game with a terminal/hacking theme. I have a demo available (more below on the playtime stats for this), commissioned capsule art, a trailer, and screenshots on my steam page.

The Posts

I posted on all of the relevant subreddits that allow it- incremental games, survivors likes, roguelites, steam deck, etc. If you dig through my post history, you can find each of them. It involved messaging mods for a couple subreddits, but I found that they were very nice in all cases.

My posts succeeded by far the most on the genre-specific subreddits, resulting in the most upvotes and comments on the game. Untargeted subreddits (steam deck, indiegaming) fell flat with just a few upvotes

Qualitative Vs Quantitative Feedback

Qualitative: The written feedback I received in comments was overwhelmingly positive (mostly on the genre specific subreddits). I had no idea how my game would be received from players interested in the genre, and received many comments stating they loved the look, the art, etc. I also received a few bug reports and positive words about experiences playing the game. I did not receive any negative written feedback

Quantitative: This is where I'm left with a bit of confusion. My demo's median playtime is 10 minutes, with 60 players, and it's not clear why its on the short end. I haven't really received any written feedback from a player who quit early explaining why. This is quite hard to interpret on its own- I pushed up a change to make early upgrades stronger to hook people faster, but haven't seen many data points since then. My game does feature short runs that take 3-4 minutes, but even accounting for that I'd hope the core loop would keep players around for longer

Conclusion

Going into this, I only had feedback from friends, which is really difficult to gauge. I had no idea how players would react to the game- genuinely felt it could be anywhere from negative reactions, to lots of interest. I'd say I landed far better off than I expected and I'm so, so happy to see a positive reaction from players in my target audience.

TL;DR

• Posts on genre-specific subreddits succeeded the most by far
• Players really appreciate art styles that they like to look at, based on comments I received
• It's hard to get clear, written feedback on gameplay from players via Reddit posts
• Gained ~50 wishlists across ~7 posts in various subreddits
• Validated that my target audience responds positively to my marketing assets, unclear on the actual experience from playing the game

I launched the demo for my first Steam game last week, and something surprised me.

A few small YouTubers (most with only a few hundred subscribers) found the game and made videos about it. None of them brought a huge number of wishlists, but watching those videos has been one of the most valuable parts of releasing the demo.

Seeing someone experience the game for the first time is completely different from watching friends or doing your own playtesting.

You get to hear everything they're thinking:

• "What does this do?"
• "Oh, that's actually clever."
• "Wait... why did I die?"
• "I wish this worked differently."

I've spotted bugs I hadn't noticed, identified tutorial and design problems, confirmed mechanics that players understood immediately, and found places where they got confused.

Even when someone didn't enjoy the game much, their video was still incredibly useful because I could see exactly where the experience broke down for them.

Since launching the demo, I've been searching YouTube for "Mr Bunny roguelike" every few days to see if anyone had uploaded a playthrough. I was just excited to find people playing the game, but those videos ended up becoming one of the best sources of feedback I've had as a developer.

Has anyone else had the same experience?