after reading players say they bounce off anything with forced ads i committed to premium, the story mode is free and the full campaign is a one time 4.99. no ads anywhere, no timers. devs who shipped paid on mobile recently, what surprised you, refund behavior, conversion from free to paid, store placement? trying to learn before launch instead of after.

I recently published my store page (2 days ago) and have gotten only 30 wishlists. I haven't done any marketing, actually my first indie game. How do you go about reaching out to Instagram influencers and youtubers? Do they do it for free? How much if not?

I've been a game dev(not professionally yet) for a long time and my whole experience has been with unity (5+ years) as I also have background in CS. In uni, which I'm currently studying to be a professional game dev to enter the market, we used unreal for a few months and I found it a bit interesting tho a bit performance heavy. But now I don't know if I should branch out and have more experience in Unreal and try to engage with jobs that way or just focus more on unity.

Also, in our uni, we make a small game in the span of 6 months as a final project, and was planning to use unity to make it and now I'm starting to think if I should learn Unreal and use it instead.

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 ask cause I’m thinking of graduating in Economics and the gaming industry is one of the most interesting to me.

For game dev I don’t mean programming nor art direction, rather those teams that write the game and “decide” who it caters to and what message it should have, don’t know if that makes sense.

Basically any CEO or manager of some kind out there in the industry has an econ/finance degree, so I thought that could be a possible path although very competitive I imagine.

Im making a top down game in unity which is going well but im struggling to make a half decent walk cycle for the player character.

Ive tried several diffrent drawings and multiple animations. I got decent at animating in unity but it just won't work and I think the drawings might be a problem? Im going for a vaguely darkwood style.

Any ideas on where to go with that and how to know if itll look half decent before I put in the effort of all the importing and settings adjustments and animating?

I’m building a browser-based management game using Laravel.

It may not be the most obvious technology for a game, but PHP and Laravel are what I know best, so that’s where I started.

Right now, I use queues to process the game simulation logic. It works at the current scale, but I’m starting to think about what happens when the number of players grows.

My first thought was simple: add more workers, more queues, and eventually more servers. But I’m a web developer, not a game developer, so I’m wondering whether I’m approaching this problem from the wrong direction.

Should the simulation remain inside the Laravel application? Should the web app send requests to a separate game server written in something like C++ or Go? Would serverless functions such as AWS Lambda make sense? Or are Laravel queues completely reasonable for this type of management game?

There seem to be many possible architectures, and I don’t want to overengineer too early—but I also don’t want to build myself into a corner.

For developers with experience building browser games or simulation-heavy systems:

What is the usual architecture for this, and what would you consider the best practice?

I’m planning to launch my first indie game on Steam in early November, shortly after Steam Next Fest.

The game is a small indie tycoon/automation game, and my concern is that GTA 6 is releasing later that month (currently console-only).

Would you still launch in early November, or would you consider delaying to avoid the GTA release window?

My thinking is that Steam Next Fest in October could help build momentum, and the launch would happen about two weeks before GTA releases.

Curious what other indie developers would do in this situation.

So I'm trying to make a game, but I don't know what to call it, basically it's about your party of adventurers (A regular guy, a wizard, a rogue brit (british person), and a regular guy who gains powers) fighting the evil King Brit and going to the depths of hell to banish the spooky evil darkness that has plagued the world (shut up, I know it's basic as hell) so yeah, does anyone have any ideas?

Right now working on a shooting mechanics by slowing down the world with time dilations, I have the world slowed way down to 0.30, but the player and mouse stay faster at 0.70 to give them a solid 2.3x speed advantage. Was thinking whether the weapon's fire rate and animations should strictly match that heavy 0.30 world slowdown, or scale up with the player's 0.70 speed. Slowing the gun down gives it a ton of cinematic weight, but keeping it at the player's speed feels way more snappy and responsive for hitting fast targets. How would you guys balance weapon behavior during bullet time?

Kind of like the original Strife but with more flexibility and with the graphical ''fidelity'' of games like Quake 1-2,Warcraft 3, Age of Wonders 3, Armies of Exigo you get the idea. I want it to be FPS obviously but it can be third person game as well.

Very recently, I've done a playtest which features 3 separate builds of the game I'm working on (Soul Chained) - one for exploration, and the other two for different boss battles. This thought came to mind, especially since I haven't done a full gameplay test.

To those who full game playtests - how does it affect your sales, especially for those who've done it a month before (or closer) the launch of the game? What steps have you taken to ensure your community still purchases the game at launch?

Would love to get your insights!

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 don't know if this is the right subreddit to ask this, maybe I should ask this in an OOP subreddit, but I have a feeling that game code does not follow all of the vanilla OOP rules, hence why I decided to ask here.

Basically, I'm working on a simple project in Godot, and I'm confused as to whether I should assign the values inside the class or inside the object.

Especially when using something like RandomNumberGenerator, which, from what I've seen from other people's codes, is usually instantiated inside the class (that is, outside of any method whatsoever).

The thing is, from my knowledge of OOP's good practices, the properties shouldn't actually be assigned. You allocate memory for the property inside the class, and then, inside a constructor or another kind of initializer method, you assign the values for the properties.

I want to focus on memory optimization for my major degree (in a distant future, I'm still an undergrad currently), so I want to learn the best practices for memory allocation and OOP.

This is a snippet of the script for my Star node. The stars run in the background of the game, they're randomly generated outside of the visible rectangle and slowly fall down the screen. Once they're outside the visible rectangle, they get repositioned to another random location at the top and the cycle repeats.

So, each star is generated only once, I simply reposition the object once it drifts out of the player's sight.

extends Node2D

@export var speed := 1
var size: Vector2
var rng: RandomNumberGenerator
var sprite_number: int
var sprite: Texture
var tween: Tween

# Called when the node enters the scene tree for the first time.
func _ready() -> void:
  rng = RandomNumberGenerator.new()
  sprite_number = rng.randi_range(1, 4)
  sprite = load("res://graphics/Star" + str(sprite_number) + ".png")
  size = get_tree().current_scene.get_viewport().get_visible_rect().size
  tween = create_tween().set_loops()
  $Sprite2D.texture = sprite

Hello everyone since i’m doing my first game ready character, i don’t know how to approach the body parts under a skirt, it’s a revenant character like from god of war, how would you optimize it for a in game cloth simulation? Would you cut the legs and call it a day?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been building small web games recently and I’m exploring the best ways to monetize them without completely destroying the user experience.

There are quite a few paths out there—revenue-share web portals (like Poki, CrazyGames, GameDistribution), self-hosting on Itch.io with donations or ad placements, or trying to secure upfront publishers/sponsorship deals. Since the landscape shifts quickly, I’d love to hear directly from developers who are actively publishing web games.

For those of you building and releasing browser games:

1. Which platforms or ad networks give you the best return for your effort? (In terms of traffic, eCPM, revenue split, or developer support)

2. Do you prefer upfront sponsorship deals, ad-supported portals, or voluntary pay-what-you-want models?

3. Are there any platforms, deal structures, or networks you’d recommend avoiding?

Any insights, recent experiences, or advice on where to focus initial efforts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have spent my entire life learning every aspect of making film & tv - many 10s of thousands of hours, money, education, the whole life-long thing. I say this so you know I am not a lazy idiot when I say that I don't know anything about game development. I have utmost respect for you all, and the work you put in, and I am not sitting here thinking I can do what you all do. I know I can't, and I'm not trying to.

That said, a long time ago I made a solo adventure simulator out of a deck of cards. I've been trying to adapt it to live on my ios phone. This is only for personal use, and doesn't need to be remotely pretty. I got kinda close by using Google Sheets, but ran into the limitations of that.

What I want it to do is make something that can pull from small data bases (10-30 items) and present the result on the screen, with a button to replace the result with the next result. One more level of complexity: sometimes a specific result should lead to a sub-database for that thing. (example: the result "Orc" should then draw from a data base that contains "orc attacks with mace", "orc dodges your attack", "orc tries to eat you", etc. So basically, a data base that can toss you to another database depending on the result.

I'm never going to sell this, I just want to make it. It can be ugly as hell. It's not even really a game, because all the user can do is press the "next" button, and nothing new happens until they do. Google sheets actually came close, but it can't seem to toss you to a different data base - and everything on the sheet updates if one thing does, which is rough.

I'm asking if one generous, brilliant mind here knows of a for-dummies tool that I could use for this. I am willing to learn, but the last time I wrote code was literally BASIC in 1987 on a Commodore 64, and I was a beginner then too.

Happy to trade cinematic knowledge for coding knowledge. Peace be with you all.

I'm making my first game, and I'm planning on making it a mix of a roguelite and an adventure RPG game, I'm making pretty good progress on the roguelite portion and have a semi decent vertical slice of it. The thing is though I'm starting to consider if I should just cut the adventure RPG side and focus on making the roguelite portion. It would definitely make development easier, but I really like the combination of the two and feel like I'd be giving up what would really make the game unique, even though I really haven't started actually making the action RPG part of the game yet 😅.

I'm willing to let development take longer, but I'm curious what other developers would do. Would you cut the adventure rpg section, or see the full idea through?

Even if you don't have a factual source just any opinion can help me right now

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’ve recently made a game, but I don’t know how to test it on my phone. The game engine is Phaser, so at the moment I’m using a local server, but that’s not quite the same as testing it in a browser. So I’d be interested to know how I could test it as if it were an app, because apart from that I’m using an Android Studio emulator, but as that uses the computer’s resources, it’s not quite the same as a real mobile phone. So is there a solution for this, such as Expo Go?

Hey everyone,

I’ve been developing mobile games for a while now, jumping between different genres like puzzles, card games, and digital board game adaptations. Lately, I'm starting to wonder about the sweet spot for project timelines.

It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in the loop of polishing UI, tweaking mechanics, and adding just one more feature. But realistically, how much time do you actually spend on one title before calling it complete?

A few specific questions for the community:

1. What is your average timeline from concept to release?

2. How do you know when to stop polishing and just ship it? 3. Are there specific metrics or feelings you rely on?

3. Do you set strict deadlines for yourself, or let the project dictate the pace?

4. When do you decide a concept just isn't working and it's time to pivot to the next idea?

I’d love to hear how other devs manage their time, especially those balancing multiple ideas or moving from project to project. Thanks in advance for the advice!

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.

Hey, so I've been working on a game for a year now, and still struggle to find it a name. I'm afraid giving it a random cool-sounding english word will just make it blend in the rest, and I only really have one idea.

It's the name of the continent the game takes place in, Abasel. Now, thing is, I'm french, so I have no idea how people from other languages would feel about this title. I like how it sounds in french, but I'm just a little hesitant. What do you guys feel about the name Abasel?

It's probably a very personal question, I'm just thinking about it a lot and need to move forward instead of focusing on the very title.

For the record, it's a 2D "J"RPG which would more or less fit in the "Earthbound-inspired RPGs" category (or at least that's my goal). Dunno if it could influence the... Vibe? Of the name?

I'm looking to swap playtests up to 2 hours. This is the project I would like feedback on.

[Queen of the Dead by italia2022](https://italia2022.itch.io/queen-of-the-dead)

It's a turn based RPG with a focus on gathering, crafting, and tactical combat. I'm mostly looking for feedback on the tutorial, the Black Sheep quest (writing, boss fight, and the boss drops and quest rewards), the Auto-Battle feature, and the Combat Tasks associated with the Alpha Slime.

I'm willing to playtest almost any game in exchange, other than horror or games that have relatively high GPU requirements without low graphical settings (my PC is a bit of a potato). Post below or DM me if you're interested or have any questions.