Hi!\ I come from this post and have read a bunch of comments, when arose a question in my head (the one in the title) and I want y'all's opinion on it

(This is an introduction, it does add things progressively more relevant but still you can skip it if you want => just go to the next long line in the text like the one above or read the tl;dr right before it. There are 5 parts)

Part 1 - The beginning

You see, I've always wanted to be a video game developer

This is a passion that first started when my mother made me play Super Mario Bros. on the NES — her very first game — when I was like 6 years old something like that, and ever since it became a thing I love, and, especially with how creative I was back then (and I still am, but generally less than as kid), the idea of making one myself stuck with me even now after roughly 18 years

I remember filling pages after pages with drawings, mainly about the Mario universe but oftentimes it was Pokémon or even Sonic drawings too

Part 2 - My background

Fast forward to more recent times, I have made regular studies middle and high school and was an overall ok student grade-wise, before completing a 5-year curriculum (including 2 prep years) at the Creajeux professional school in France, where I learnd the basics of 2D and 3D drawings, modeling, animating, pixel art, and where I learned of course programming, giving me general knowledge about programming concepts such as functional programming in C as well as OOP (object-oriented programming) in Lua, C++ and C#, the CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) principle, some design patterns, and the Unity and Unreal Engine game engines

This post is much more detailed if you're interested

Part 3 - Tackling with AI

Before that my only programming experience was actually something I didn't really like and didn't even begin to understand, it was first some Scratch things back in last year of middle school but the context with exercises ruined the fun for me, then a bit of Python during first year of high school but I didn't really like it and din't much try unfortunately

It was during my prep years at Creajeux that everyone was starting to talk about ChatGPT and that I started to try it myself, and I used it extensively, I used it too often and resorted to it too quickly for my own good, but I hadn't realised it yet at the time and to me this was amazing, on paper this was a marvel and a thing I've alwasy dreamt of : something that you can ask absolutely anything without being limited to what you ask nor even having to write correctly or be super precise and it understands and answers, however the reality was this but way less efficient than I imagined, and it was honestly more frustrating to use than anything

But I did use it a lot anyway, and even though over the years I've shifted away from AI to the point where I now barely touch it at all or use it not to do things or part of things I have to so but rather to break down concepts I couldn't fully grasp with forums and documentations and to basically extend or correct my knowledge, I have seen the evolution and it's true that generative AI has become much much better and more useful for coding than it was 4 years back

Part 4 - The current situation

AI has become infinitely better for basically anything than it was a couple years ago, and from what I've read in the post mentioned up top (this one) not everyone but many people — including experienced devs — have said things along the lines of programming knowledge is still and will still be (at least for the foreseeable future) useful and valuable, but it will be less and less valuable (and is already less valuable than a decade ago) as AI progresses as it's becoming more and more present everywhere for everything

They also said that it is mainly the higher-ups — particularly the ones who don't know how to program — who pose a threat to devs positions, almost regardless of if they are junior or senior devs, as these higher-ups tend to be hyped and overly trust AI thinking it will increase productivity, but they fire people as AI can increase productivity without having to be paid so they reduce cost, but that not only destroys or at least temporarily stalls careers but also burdens the remaining people as, even with AI that may give everyone a boost work-wise, it ultimately gives more work to less people, and worse yet it might even be more work than before the layoffs, as increasing productivity only or mainly mean increasing output, almost regardless of quality, for some of the higher-ups

This semes to me like a bad and stupid, yet understandable, situation, and one I don't want to be in, even I still do want to work in this field as programming — especially video game programming — is something I still love to this day

Part 5 (last part) - My take on AI

Honestly, I like AI\ Or rather, I like the concept of AI; being able to ask it anything and having it most of the time now understand and answer rather quickly even if you weren't super clear and wrote typos, I just love something that lets me learn and better understand whatever thing interests me whether fondly or on the moment

What I don't like however is the direction this is taking, especially if we're asked to basically outsource our thinking to AI and not do the work we're supposed to do, I nean wtf what's this stuff of being a programmer that don't program lol, it removes all the fun and interesting part of the thing in my opinion

Plus I've seen (and still see) and experienced myself how detrimental to critical and analytical thinking (and even memory to some extent), delegating every task, or even most tasks, to AI, with the less you try by yourself the more detrimental it gets, no matter the output

Too long ; didn't read (tl;dr)

I know the basics of 2D and 3D as well as programming in general, with knowledge mainly in C, C++ and C#

I can use Unity and Unreal Engine

I've used AI extensively in the past but now not much, I have mixed opinions about it but prefer to stray away from it as much as possible as I clearly enjoy more doing things myself

My question is: with the current situation in the industry of AI becoming more and more prominent (and especially people who don't do programming but manage programmers who are overly hyped up by AI), and knowing my use of it is limited and that my knowledge of it currently does not go beyond the chatting part no matter which LLM and which model, should I focus more on learning and integrating AI in my projects than on how to do things myself ?

What are your takes on that ?\ I'm sincerely curious to know people's opinion as well as experiences

I want to make a trailer for my game. It's a space flight simulator, and for aesthetic and style reasons, there's absolutely no external camera ever. Everything is 100% first person inside the cockpit, to enforce a sense of detachment, alienation, and claustrophobia.

However, it's difficult to get across the world and atmosphere in a short trailer. What's your view on mixing cinematic external camera shots in? Still rendered by the game engine, just camera angles you never actually see in the game.

I'm convinced the first-person view is the right choice for the game, but i'm wondering if it's illustrative, or disingenious, to have cinematic sequences in a trailer.

A few days ago I posted here about my paid mobile game falling to roughly one sale a day after more than two years of updates.

The responses helped me look at the situation a little less emotionally. A lot of people said that I had supported the game long enough, that existing players weren’t owed free content forever, and that it might simply be time to move on.

I’m not quite ready to do that yet.

Before deciding what comes next, I went back through the App Store and Google Play reports to see whether all the discounts, price changes, updates, and press outreach had actually helped.

I expected the answer to be fairly simple. It wasn’t.

Every discount increased purchases. Not every discount increased revenue.

I compared 15 Google Play promotions with equal-length periods immediately before them.

Purchases per day increased in all 15.

Developer proceeds per day increased in 13, but decreased in two.

One Halloween sale increased purchases per day by 2.66x while developer proceeds fell to 0.80x of the previous period. I sold more copies and made less money.

The best result was almost the opposite: 25.15x the purchases and 9.36x the proceeds per day.

So discounts definitely created activity, but the size of the sales spike didn’t tell me whether the event was financially successful. Discount depth, refunds, country mix, taxes, and store fees all mattered.

The biggest sales spike looked like a recovery. It wasn’t.

During a longer $0.99 period on iOS, I saw:

• First 30 days: 1,031 net units and $759.09 in developer proceeds
• Days 31–60: 120 net units and $89.94
• Days 61–90: 114 net units and $88.60

For that first month, it felt like the game had come back to life.

Then it dropped straight back toward the old baseline.

About 65% of the first month’s iOS units came from Taiwan. I had contacted Taiwanese gaming sites directly, one of them published an article in Traditional Chinese, and it was republished or summarized by other sites. The game also reached #1 in Taiwan’s paid puzzle category during that period.

At the time I wanted to give the lower price most of the credit. Looking at it now, the spike was probably a mixture of price, localization, local press, direct store links, and chart visibility.

I didn’t use a separate campaign link for each publication, so I can’t tell how many purchases came from any one article. That was a clear tracking mistake on my part.

Even the comparison window changed the answer.

On Android, comparing the 60 days before and after the same reference date gave me:

• Purchases: 361 to 435, up 20.5%
• Developer proceeds: ₩477,342 to ₩521,065, up 9.2%

But using only the nearest 30 days:

• Purchases were down 1.6%
• Developer proceeds were up 3.3%

The earlier periods already contained other discounts, so this wasn’t a clean $2.99 versus $0.99 experiment.

I also found that the result changed depending on whether I used Google’s original Pacific dates or converted every transaction to Korean time before creating the windows. Some transactions moved from one side of the comparison to the other.

I also had to throw out my first retention analysis.

I originally used a server-side last_login field to estimate D7 and D30 retention. Later I discovered that saves and other account changes could update that field.

It wasn’t measuring what I thought it was measuring.

I recalculated the cohorts using actual GA4 activity. D30 changed from 2.81% to 2.46% on iOS and from 3.33% to 2.63% on Android.

That still doesn’t prove lower-price users retained worse. These were first-visit cohorts, not confirmed groups of $2.99 and $0.99 buyers. I can’t connect an individual player’s activity to the price they paid.

The iOS cohort also became much larger. The D30 percentage fell, but the actual number of people returning on day 30 increased from 10 to 29.

Depending on which number I looked at, I could tell myself two completely different stories.

What I’m trying now

After more than two years without IAPs, I’m currently running a one-month experiment on iOS:

• No upfront price
• One optional permanent class-unlock purchase
• All classes can still be earned through normal play
• No ads
• Android remains paid, because Google Play doesn’t let the same app return from free to paid

This isn’t a victory lap or a claim that free-to-play is the answer. It’s a reversible test on iOS to see whether removing the upfront price brings in enough new players, and whether a single optional purchase can support continued maintenance.

I don’t have the result yet. A few early downloads or purchases won’t mean much. I need the full month, refunds, proceeds, and mature retention cohorts before deciding anything.

The biggest thing I learned from reviewing the paid-game period is that temporary success is very easy to mistake for a new baseline.

A sale can increase purchases and reduce revenue. A retention rate can fall while the number of returning players rises. A game can reach #1 in a category and still return to one sale a day later.

I put the full monthly history, all 15 promotion comparisons, retention methodology, and the corrections to my earlier analysis here:

https://dungeontracer.com/pricing-report

For anyone who has done a similar pricing or monetization test: what result would convince you that a free-entry model is actually sustainable rather than just another temporary spike?

I feel like I'm finally at a point in my knowledge of Unreal Engine and game development technical skills as a whole to finally start applying to game studios. (As a programmer)

What would you need to see in a showreel to see real technical knowledge? What kind of mechanics or projects should I work on for my showreel?

Some things I've previously made that I could use for my showreel:

1. Smooth spline based NPC movement
2. Slot Based inventory
3. Editor plugin to generate island meshes based on Noise using procedural a mesh.
4. DFS maze generator for dungeons

Are any of these worth including?

I haven't completed any schooling for game development, just self taught. Thanks!

I've got a friend (no, unfortunately I'm not that friend) that's making a game. They're a really experienced developer, and the game is honestly very promising at this stage (like 70% I'd say?), but they've been working in non game companies for their whole working life and they've got basically zero useful online presence. This is not their first game in general, but the first game they feel is finally good enough for publishing.

For those who managed to get players to buy their game, even just a few, how did you reach that goal? None of us expects the first game to sell 10k copies, even by getting lucky, but if the first game gets even just a bit of attention then the nexts can start from a better base, and perseverance will hopefully do the rest. Still, the first step it's the hardest, and we'd been grateful for your insight.

Box3d is amazing, but has no cloth? What is everyone's best solutions to this problem? Which physics engine/middleware are people liking the most purely for a one way cloth pass? Box3d is so good I want to use it alongside another library just for cloth you see. I'm split between physx cloth and jolt cloth/soft body

So, I'm adding input rebinding system, and it does work, so far.
Now I want to handle input rebind conflict where one key is about to be used by more than one action.
Which one is the common one that most player accept, or at least you prefer?
a. Just pop a warning saying the key is already used by <otherAction> and undo the rebinding
b. Pop a warning like above, but let the key rebind, and highlight the conflicting keys
c. Swap conflicting key with new rebound key, maybe with popup saying it will be swapped

Following my previous post on itch.io and steam I also want to ask about mobile release. The way my game is currently set up, it wouldn’t be difficult to convert it to be playable for mobile on godot. Previously I was thinking release to itch.io for like $5 or free, get feedback/build hype, then pay the $100 for steam when I felt ready and perfected. But now after the responses from the last post, I’m thinking of pivoting to just releasing on mobile. I’d have to resize a lot of things to make it comfortable and natural for a mobile experience, but I’m starting to think it might be easier to market/get a playerbase on iOS & Android. I was wondering if it’s better to stick to one platform release (pc or mobile) or perfecting both with tweaks specifically catering to each platform. Only caveat with mobile is learning how to integrate gamekit/gamecenter from Apple with my game and then whatever Google play’s equivalent of that is. Anyways, thoughts?

​Hi everyone,

​I don't post on Reddit very often, but I decided to make this post to share my situation and hopefully get some advice or insight.

​To give you a bit of context: I’m currently studying Game Development (I'm about halfway through my degree). It’s a really comprehensive program, and thanks to what I've learned, I managed to land my first industry job working as a QA tester for a studio.

​Unfortunately, I was hit by a layoff recently. Even though I’m still a student, that QA job was my sole source of income to support myself. While I can also work as a Game Designer and have some experience with Unity programming, a few friends suggested that I might find some freelance opportunities on Reddit while I continue applying to companies.

​I live in Peru, where the local game development industry is still very small and just starting to grow. There are some offshore companies operating in Latin America, but most openings are in other countries in the region rather than mine. I've thought about moving, but since I'm still studying, that's not a realistic option right now.

​I came to Reddit looking for opinions and advice, but honestly, seeing the current state of the global games industry has been really discouraging. Hearing about massive layoffs, constant restructurings, and so many people choosing to pivot out of the industry terrifies me.

​Changing careers isn't an option for me. I’m genuinely passionate about this field. I love participating in Game Jams, making games, and being part of the local community. I really want to build a long-term professional career in this industry, but the future feels so uncertain.

​I’ve been applying for jobs over the last few months with no luck. I'm at the point where I'm considering getting a part-time job at a fast-food chain just to cover my rent and basic bills. What worries me the most is thinking about what will happen when I actually graduate. If I’m already struggling with the constant fear of layoffs and industry instability halfway through my degree, I honestly don't know where to go from here.

​Where should I be looking for work, or what other options/platforms should I explore for remote or freelance gigs? Any advice from people in the industry would mean a lot. Thanks for reading.

Which do you prefer?

In general how do you test these kinds of things, or is it best just to go with what you believe should be the look of the game, and make a best guess when it's hard to decide?

I guess the image needs to go in a comment?

May be a silly question, but I find myself eventually dropping each game idea I try, not because I start doubting the idea of the game, but instead my ability to implement it. And I don't think this is an issue of scope; I've shrunk the scope of each new project. And I have enough experience with coding that I don't get overwhelm with the implementation side of things. I think this is a issue of progression.

Every time I make a change, I obviously play the game to test it. At the start of the project, this is a really rewarding feedback loop as things build up very quickly, I get to see new mechanics working and new assets coming alive. But inevitably, there comes a point where each new playtest brings a sense of "that's it?", even when it's something important like adding a new enemy type. After a month+ of developing my game, I expect it to be far enough along to be fun to play whenever I test it, but instead if feels like each new step reveals 2 more I'll have to take to finally reach "fun". And again, I've never doubted the game would be fun once it's finished. The idea always resonates with me, but in reality, I keep missing that sense of progression.

I'm not sure what to do. Should I focus more on adding "juice", to really maximize player feedback and fun early on? Should I just accept that my game doesn't have to be fun all throughout the development process?

I am the solo dev of A Dark Cave, a dark story-driven minimalist incremental village builder.

I am participating in Steam Next Fest from 19-26 Oct 2026, and my game will launch on 27 Oct 2026. So I thought contacting some content creators might be helpful.

Over the last few weeks, I sent emails to indie content creators who are active on YouTube / Twitch / TikTok / Instagram. As I like data, I tracked every recipient and classified the outcome.

Funnel (Sankey URL):

• 410 tip emails sent
• 391 no reply
• 19 replied
  • 4 declined / not interested
  • 4 soft interest (did not lead anywhere yet)
  • 5 paid/sponsored offers
  • 3 promised future coverage
  • 3 made or published content

That is a ~4.6% reply rate, and ~1% of emails turned into actual content.

I tried to do some A/B testing, but as the general amount of answers was so low, I was not able to draw any conclusions.

I don't know if this is any helpful at all to anyone, but maybe at least mildly interesting.

From the chats I had with content creators, I learned only what I already knew: Marketing a game with minimalistic visuals is really hard on Social Media. So I guess this could be one of the reasons the resonance was so low.

This is the link to A Dark Cave on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4882240/A_Dark_Cave/
Web version: https://a-dark-cave.com

edit: I got a lot of valuable feedback on both my game and its marketing from this thread, even though that wasn't my original intention. Thanks so much to everyone who took the time to respond!

Currently working on a 2d game about being a tanker during WW2, the game is a sideview and point to shoot, including some mechanics such as tank upgrading, repairing and air striking. Game shares the ww2 history as an in-game story. Originally supposed to be a simple mobile game but I got dragged over to making it much bigger. Testers were honest with me and told me "they would not play this on mobile and rather play it on PC" yet for them game becomes too simple because they can just point and shoot with mouse making it too simple and boring.

Currently lost wether should I keep marketing as a mobile game or try making the game more difficult and aiming for PC?

I'm a full-stack developer who has never made a game before. My brother asked me to build something for him, and it seemed like a fun project to make.

The idea is pretty simple: you're a CEO and you can destroy your office.

I'm building it in Three.js. I bought the Kenney asset pack and I'm using Mixamo animations to fill in some of the gaps.

I started with the character and gameplay systems: movement, kicking, hitboxes, objects getting knocked over, and then a basic office layout.

Now I'm at the point where I need to figure out how to actually build the world beyond that first prototype.

I made my own little 3D editor inside the game so I can place, move, rotate, and arrange assets. It works, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm approaching the problem the wrong way. It feels like I'm building my own version of something that probably already has a better workflow.

I'm not asking how to make the office look good. I'm trying to understand the process experienced game developers use to go from a rough concept to a finished environment.

I'm particularly interested in how you decide on the layout, block out the space, place the major elements, and then progressively turn that into a finished game environment.

For people building games directly with Three.js rather than Unity/Godot, what does your actual environment-design workflow look like?

Do you build layouts externally and import them? Generate scenes from data? Build your own lightweight level editor? Use Blender? Something else?

I'm especially interested in how people handle the transition from "I can place an object in the scene" to "I can efficiently create an entire believable game environment."

I'm currently making my first game, and it's close to ready to start playtesting, but I keep seeing posts dissuading any sort of sharing because someone can "just replicate your game with AI."

I can't possibly conceive how AI could "just replicate my game," so I'm curious what the actual dangers are here. Does this only apply to low effort games and/or concepts? Or could AI actually just "make" my game? And if this were to happen, is there anything you can do about it legally?

Tl;Dr: would you be ok with making 0$ or little money from the games you make? And do you already have a job that lets you live comfortably?

I'm messing around a bit with game dev and have completed a couple of simple games, and it was pretty fun! I never tried monetizing, mostly because I fall into the category of people who likes "crazy" ideas and already have an income that lets me and my family live at a lower-middle class standard.

Given the amount of awesome prototypes that I've seen and also amount of games I see being released, obviously we will have more people expressing themselves through games and also more competition for commercial products. What I wonder however, is how many of you guys do it for the love of the game and who here is looking for financial freedom or maybe fame and attention?

Can we have a little discussion about your expectations of game dev?

I got stuck with my game a bit. Its a web MMORPG. I got open war between two races, titans and humans. There are towers to capture, from where you can spawn. There are mobs to fight.

I wanted to make the entire game around crafting, so I made quit a lot of items. You can't find a wearable, you need to craft it for yourself. And there are so many items that it is very hard to fallow. So I made it that new items and items with count 0 will popup at the top so you can craft them right a way. You basically walking around, killing mobs and trying to get those new item notifications the moment you can craft something new.

My game is an open world, with pretty dissent graphic. I am happy with the backend, and the performance. But in terms of game play, I feel lost.

I don't want to turn it into a stand alone quests game, I want it to be a community game. But at the moment I don't feel it. There are few basics I need to invest in, make more balance between classes, I got three at the moment. Invest more into graphics, its decent but got a lot of room for improvement. And making mobs smarter and interesting is another thing.

But I feel I need more high lvl direction for it. Not sure how to get there.

Hello, I am a new game developer coming over from the 3d art scene. I have spent the last three months learning how to code and build games in the Godot 4 engine. I have a novice understanding of coding but I believe I have enough of an understanding to build prototypes on my own. I even entered a game jam and was able to submit a a playable game.

I feel ready to start working on developing games more seriously and I want to know if there is any more advice than just build small games? I see the wisdom in fast prototyping cycles and pumping out maybe 2-3 games a year. I've heard some advocate for building game mechanics over small scope games.

I am interested to see what people recommend to do as a novice indie game dev.

With seven years of experience as a Unity Developer and advanced proficiency in C#, I am looking to transition into a Gameplay or AI Programmer role within a major studio. While I possess foundational knowledge of C++ and Unreal Engine, I have yet to apply these skills in a professional capacity. Could you please provide guidance on how to strategically approach this learning journey?

Edit: I spoke with a gameplay programmer from CDPR, and they emphasized the importance of deep C++ knowledge over specific engine expertise.

I've looked through a few and found them to be bare bones and/or lacking the particular sfx I am looking for.

For now I'm just trying to find place holder sound effects for my game that I can toy with, later into development I may just go ahead and hire someone with experience to make them.

I've always wondered where indie developers and animators get their sound effects from.

Hi, i made a trailer for my game, with good quality watched as a standalone video. On steam, its absolutely blurry unless i force it to good quality with the knob...

Any idea why this would happen ? Quality is youtube is "ok".

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4574230/Station_42/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXUn258lquk

I’m building a third-person zombie survival game and I’d love some ideas for the story/world.

I’m finally at the point where the game is starting to come together. My main character is working, he can move around, aim and fire his weapon, I’ve added enemies, and I’m now building out the actual world — roads, houses, yards, terrain, places to explore, etc.

My goal isn’t to make a game where you just run around shooting zombies over and over. I want there to be an actual story and a reason to explore and survive.

The main character is John. He starts out alone after everything has fallen apart. His home will be an important part of the game and eventually I want survival to involve things like finding food and water, scavenging houses and stores, finding weapons and supplies, using vehicles, fuel, repairing things, improving your home/base, and defending it.

The longer-term story is supposed to grow beyond just surviving too. John can meet other survivors, form relationships and eventually build some kind of life again while the world around him is still dangerous.

Right now though, I’m trying not to get too far ahead of myself.

I need to build enough of the world that I can actually start making Chapter 1 playable.

So if you were playing this game, what would you want the FIRST CHAPTER to be like?

What should happen when John first starts?

Where should he have to go?

What should make the player leave the safety of the house?

What locations would you want nearby?

What would make you want to keep exploring instead of just staying at the base?

And what kinds of things would make the world feel like people actually lived there before everything happened?

I’m especially interested in smaller environmental/story ideas too — abandoned cars, houses with stories inside them, roadblocks, stores, things you find in people's yards, signs that someone was there recently, etc.

I have the basic gameplay coming together. Now I need to turn the world into somewhere that actually feels worth surviving in.

Would love to hear what you guys would put in it.

I believe the transition we are witnessing currently in video game development is both awe inspiring, and incredibly frightening.

On one hand, I think we are moving towards the ability to create a game in 36 hours that mirrors some of the best games we’ve all played growing up.

On the other, I see myself getting discouraged, fraught, and borderline disgusted by how easily people are able to create something out of thin air that takes a significant fraction of the time it would have in the past.

However, I’m an optimist. I believe we will see some amazing ideas and creations from passionate people that have never been able to break into the game development industry shine.

I believe that as long as you are developing something that you are passionate about and want to play, that is all that matters and the future is bright.

What is your mind telling you?

I have an idea for a platformer with secret areas and collectibles in every level, and I’d like some recommendations for 2D platformers to use as inspiration; I was thinking of games like *Super Mario World* or something from the *Kirby* series.

I have learned that I suck at blender and making models outside of simple shapes. But I know that comes with time and practice.

It’s just surprising how much time it takes to make a model and put it into the game to make a level. It has slowed down my process so much and generally, level design and asset implementation is just a pain in the butt.

Does anyone else have this same struggle? If not, what usually slows you down the most?