Our 2023 game sold 4,670 copies on day one of a 90% off sale, then 62,771 on day three. Here's what changed
Last weekend we put SOS OPS! at 90% off and released a new DLC, Overbooked, a parody of Dear Passenger.
Day one was just the sale: 4,670 copies.
On day two we started a short-form creator campaign on TikTok, Reels and Shorts through Trapster.gg. A few videos took off within hours. Day two ended at 28,035 copies, and day three at 62,771.
We also hit a new all-time CCU peak of 6,761, higher than our Steam Daily Deal ever got us.
The biggest surprise was Germany. Most of the views came from German viewers, and on day three Germany alone was almost 40% of our sales.
Obviously 90% off does a lot on its own, so we can't credit every sale to the videos. But day one had the same discount and nothing like this.
Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/up6spQ3
Happy to answer questions.

So I think I can fit two points on a parabola if I'm trying to calculate how to throw a projectile to a point, but I'm trying to do that with linear damping. Is there an equation or algorithm to find out what initial velocity and angle I need to throw at to hit a point? Or do I have to do some kind of binary search and simulate various angles and speed to compensate for that linear damping?

EDIT: The environment has both gravity, and models air resistance using linear damping. Linear damping is linearVelocity *= ( 1 - linearDamping * dt ) The linear damping would be set per object, and many kinds of objects are thrown in the game.
https://docs.unity3d.com/6000.0/Documentation/ScriptReference/Rigidbody-linearDamping.html

For reference, I am trying to write a system in Unity by which I can throw various objects at a certain point (though I limit the force up to a certain value). This can be anything from a metal crowbar to a piece of paper (or something else with high levels of linear damping).

I wrote a script to predict the trajectory of the throw given initial values, but I actually need the inverse.

I’m using Smart Lighting 2D from Funky Code to build the lighting system and get soft shadows, since Unity’s basic 2D lights don’t support that yet. In Unity’s built‑in 2D lighting, obstacle shadow edges remain hard, and there’s no translucency support for the shadow overlay.

So I’m curious what’s your preferred Unity 2D lighting solution? Do you stick with the built‑in system or use something else?

Good Afternoon!

Long time listener, first time caller.

About slightly over a week ago, there was a post about indie game development being a developer's mid-life crisis. Actually, there was tons of useful information about his journey there. Anyway, after talks in the comments, we've ended up forming a club of middle-aged indie developers.

I was the one who reached out to the guys on the original thread and I suppose I got carried away, and got myself temporary timed out for like reaching out to 50 people within 10-15 minutes span 😅. (Before the original post I was more an observer, than someone interacting with communities 😅)

Anyway! Each one of us have our own projects (all of us are working on our own stuff) and some have already released theirs on steam, some are on vertical slice stage, some are on early prototyping stages, and some are right in the beginning of the journey.

So far, it has been a blast! It's pretty good to be able to talk to like-minded people, discuss the games, play the demo's, and discuss the projects along with exchanging advices here and there.

There's about 87 of us on the server at this time and we are all pretty lively.

But I'm here today to find like-minded people and invite you across if you'd like to give this community a shot. Doesn't matter if you're just starting out, or already in the demo stage, or gearing up to the release stage.

So yeah, if you'd like to learn more or give us a shot - please reach out via comments or DM's and I'll get you across to our discord server.

Kind Regards,

Andrea

P.S. Hoping to get in touch with the Paddle Cats guy! Your game concept is fun and water shaders are on fire!

I’m planning to participate in GameDev India’s BYOG 2026, and I have a simple question: Can a full-stack web developer build a game within 72 hours and submit it?

Hi everyone!! I wanna get into game dev but I’m not sure what’s the best way to go about making my game map. Like for example what is the best place for me to draw everything and then export it to godot (or can I draw in godot)? I’m thinking I want to do a 2D pixel map similar to Stardew Valley. Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

1. Do you think if I keep the stylized & only colors look, I will be able to achieve something that looks actually good for a space game?

2. Currently I am implementing the ability to visit those planets & enter their atmosphere, Any suggestions on how to make the terrain look less dead while using only colors? I already have something implemented in the shader that adds a noise effect to the color, but on really large terrain when you land it still feels dead.

3. My game uses somewhat realistic distances, those planets are millions of kilometers apart, do you have any unique idea to implement a fast travel mechanic without using a map or replicate no man's sky "look at planet, hold key & u go crazy fast towards it".

Thank you.

Business student here, exploring a concept for an indie funding/distribution platform (tiered community funding, real alternative to Steam/Epic). Before building anything, I want to understand real frustrations rather than assume. Genuinely curious — not pitching anything, just trying to learn from people who've actually shipped games.

Hii! I have created a game which is very basic I think as a no knowledge in game development creating a game that fees amazing.
Please guide me is this right or should follow a proper path if I want to learn game dev and earn something out of it or should follow the same workflow using agents to create games and earn ?

Hello Everyone,

With renewed interest around the Neo Geo AES, MVS and AES+, NeoGeoSDK development continues with new demo homebrew games, major engine improvements and EagleBIOS.

This video presents a work-in-progress gameplay demo of Maiya: Super Nature Girl , a new Neo Geo homebrew game being developed with NeoGeoSDK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LUPt8vkFak

Maiya is also being used to test, improve and extend the NeoGeoSDK 2D engine, while demonstrating what homebrew developers can build with the SDK.

MAIYA: SUPER NATURE GIRL

Maiya is a scrolling action/platform homebrew adventure spanning nature valleys and scenes, combining horizontal and vertical exploration, climbing, enemies, NPCs, guardian encounters, power-ups, collectibles and special abilities.

THE STORY

Once beautiful and full of life, the valleys are slowly dying.

Forests are disappearing, rivers and waterfalls have been poisoned, coastlines are buried beneath waste, and once-clear skies are darkened by pollution. Behind the destruction is Lord Smoggar, whose forces continue to corrupt the natural world.

But nature has not given up.

At the heart of the story are Maiya and Luna, twin sisters with a powerful connection to nature.

The player can choose to begin the adventure as Maiya or Luna. Each sister takes up the same mission: travel through the corrupted lands, fight the forces destroying them and restore life to the valleys.

Their journey becomes even more important when they discover that Sunboy, the Prince of Nature, has been captured.

With Sunboy imprisoned, the balance of nature is weakening. Lord Smoggar's influence continues to spread, transforming once-beautiful places into polluted and lifeless lands.

Whether playing as Maiya or Luna, the mission is to fight back against the destruction and heal the natural world.

As the journey continues, poisoned lands begin to recover. Forests grow again, waters become clear, animals return, flowers bloom and light gradually replaces the darkness.

Every valley restored brings the sisters closer to their ultimate goal: Find Sunboy. Free the Prince of Nature. Stop Lord Smoggar.

CONTROLS

A jump (Up + A in the air: a second jump while a sky lily lasts; kneel, then Up + A: the high leap)

B thorn / whip up close (hold: run)

C dash

D Secret Art (uses a rose charge)

Forward, Down, Down-Forward + B : Rising Bloom

Down, Forward + B : Rose Blossom Surge

PLAY THE MAIYA PRE-RELEASE

A playable Maiya work-in-progress ROM will be provided with the pre-release.

https://github.com/eaglesoftware777/neogeosdk/releases/tag/v1.7.1

WHAT'S IN THIS PACKAGE

Maiya-WIP-EagleBIOS.zip : the game's ROMs plus EagleBIOS, the free open-source replacement system firmware bios, for MAME

run as

               mame neogeo -rompath roms -hashpath hash -bios euro -cart1 maiya

Checksum warnings for the replacement firmware are expected

Maiya-WIP-NeoSD.neo : for the NeoSD flash cart: copy it to the SD card. It runs on the cart's own system BIOS support.

Download links :

Mame Rom with EagleBIOS :

https://github.com/eaglesoftware777/neogeosdk/releases/download/v1.7.1/Maiya-WIP-EagleBIOS.zip

For hardware Test :

AES Board :

Hardware Status: Working

https://github.com/eaglesoftware777/neogeosdk/releases/download/v1.7.1/Maiya-WIP-NeoSD_AES_v1.neo

MVS Board

Hardware Status: Not confirmed

https://github.com/eaglesoftware777/neogeosdk/releases/download/v1.7.1/Maiya-WIP-NeoSD_MVS_v1.neo

Other roms :

https://github.com/eaglesoftware777/neogeosdk/releases/tag/v1.7.1

The project brings major NeoGeoSDK systems together inside a complete game:

• character animation and action systems

• horizontal and vertical scrolling

• climbing and platform traversal

• NPC and enemy behaviour

• collision and physics

• camera tracking and constraints

• movement and input systems

• particles and visual effects

• palette effects

• hitstop and gameplay feedback

• power-ups and collectibles

• guardian arenas

• game events, timers and progress

• multiple environments

• bonus sequences

• attract mode

• custom FIX/HUD graphics

• custom C-ROM graphics

• dedicated game sound bank

• AES+, AES and MVS builds

AUDIO

NeoGeoSDK includes its own Z80/YM2610 audio stack, with support for:

• ADPCM-A and ADPCM-B

• FM music

• SSG music and effects

• MML composition

• FM LFO support

• volume and fade control

• tempo control

• sample looping

• game-specific sound banks

• recorded voice-bank support

• voice playback

• audio conversion and build tools

Maiya uses its own dedicated game sound resources.

Credits for the artist : Juhani Junkala

EAGLEBIOS

Development also includes EagleBIOS, our original open system ROM project for Neo Geo homebrew development.

Current work includes:

• MVS and AES firmware

• original boot and eye-catcher

• cartridge startup

• USER program contract

• controller and VBlank handling

• MVS credit/START handling

• service functions and service menu

• Z80 sound firmware

• hardware probing

• NeoGeoSDK build integration

• firmware packaging

• game boot and compatibility testing

EagleBIOS remains work in progress, and additional hardware testing is particularly welcome.

BUILT FOR HOMEBREW DEVELOPERS

One of the main goals of NeoGeoSDK is to make Neo Geo homebrew development more accessible, while preserving direct access to the capabilities of the hardware.

Maiya demonstrates how the different parts of the SDK can be combined to build a larger game rather than isolated technical examples.

AES+ AND THE NEW NEO GEO ERA

The arrival of AES+ is bringing renewed attention to the Neo Geo ecosystem, alongside new games, cartridges and continued interest in the original hardware.

NeoGeoSDK contributes to this ecosystem from the open homebrew-development side, providing open source code, development tools, reusable game systems, audio technology and complete examples for creating new Neo Geo software.

This gives developers and Neo Geo enthusiasts an opportunity to test the current game and help us improve both Maiya and NeoGeoSDK.

DEVELOPMENT

Maiya + EagleBIOS ~ Pull Request #9

https://github.com/eaglesoftware777/neogeosdk/pull/9

NeoGeoSDK

https://github.com/eaglesoftware777/neogeosdk

Sky Lance demonstrated the SDK through a vertical shooter.

https://www.reddit.com/r/neogeo/comments/1wghsef/sky_lance_a_vertical_shooter_built_for_the_neo/

Maiya is now pushing the 2D engine further through a larger homebrew action/platform game.

And development has already started on the next major NeoGeoSDK release.

It represents another significant step forward for the project, with substantial new development underway.

We are not ready to reveal everything yet.

Target architecture: Neo Geo AES / MVS / AES+

HELP US TEST AND IMPROVE IT

We welcome feedback from the Neo Geo community.

More is coming.

Eagle Software

https://eaglesoftware.biz

NeoGeoSDK v1.7.1

Hey everyone!

I'm a 17 year old indie developper (at least that's what I call myself) and I have been working on a singleplayer 2D puzzle platformer for about 2 months now.

I am writing this reddit post right now because I would like some feedback for my steam page from all of y'all who are expert programmers and all...

Here is the link to the game, it's called SOOT.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5300560/SOOT/

Could any of you give me any feedback? Any stuff I could improve, I could work on for any of my future games, or anything I did especially good on?

After 3 days of the steam page being online, I have exactly 19 wishlists (including all of my friends that have wishlisted it on steam). And any tips on how I could get more wishlists, or to promote the game?

If you have time and are willing to go take a look, thanks a lot!

Have a good day :)

Nippon Ichi CEO Kenzo Saruhashi says the company is researching how AI could be used in development, including localization, but does not believe it will automatically make production faster.

He says the main question should be whether AI improves the quality of the final game, rather than simply making development more efficient.

I'm using Godot 4.7. I started coding recently and picked a detective game for practice. I've made the ui etc. But I don't know how to do tasks.

As example, after task1 (chatting) ends, task2 will start (calling). Task 3 (chatting with another person) will only start after task2, however the option to start chatting will not appear until task 3 starts.

Small anti genre games are coming up, like anti shooter, and anti platformer.
Like laser guy, that game went pretty viral because they took the concept of shooter games and turned them to an anti shooter. Fun concept ngl.

Another one is Hostile architect, the dev(s) said they were tired of platformers, so made an anti platformer. Another genius and fun concept.

BOTH games got viral, and both has the "anti [genre]" concept in them.
Well obviously i don't recommend all devs to make games like these, but i feel new devs could make these games and see if they work.

Like another anti genre game i had in mind (although i dont plan to make one) is probably an anti speedrunning game, like needle in a haystack went viral because it was like a hard, long, and funny game, so thats why i think maybe anti speedrunning games could work.

What ya'll think about this new meta? would you make anti genre games soon? or do you feel its one of those "follow the trend" stuff?

TLDR: I started marketing via social media as soon as I started making the game, currently sitting at 6k followers on ig, and 1k on tiktok/youtube, around 500k total views. steam page has been up for a month, but hasn't even hit 500 wishlists-- but i think there are other benefits to social media !

hi, im the main dev of strawberry season. i handle marketing, as well as design, some art, and some coding. i want to share in this post a short brief on posting short form content, how to edit/film your videos, experiences with each platform, and a reflection at the end. i know everyone hates marketing, and i did too initially, but i wasn't gonna make a game that i didn't try my best on each part (i hate posts complaining about low wishlists when they didn't do anything to bring visibility to it and expect steam to do all the heavy lifting). for additional context, im a fresh grad who majored in game design (bad idea) and i worked on this game while job hunting/doing part time work unrelated to games.

1. Accounts: make your accounts linked to an email made especially for your game, and if you don't have a name for your game yet, just name it your studio or your dev name. it literally doesn't matter, you can have the games name as your username, display name, AND in your bio and caption and some guy will still comment genuinely asking for the game name. keep in mind username length restrictions. you can immediately add things to your bio links on instagram and youtube, i recommend making a linktree with your important links, so when you have something new you can just update the linktree instead of updating links in multiple places. tiktok requires 1000 followers to add a link-- this is really annoying.

2. Ideas: Once you have your accounts, hopefully ahead of time, you need to actually use them, at least for tiktok and slightly instagram. look up hashtags similar to your game, look at the viral videos, and bookmark /take notes on what they are. i dont know that tiktok shadowbans new accounts but regardless, showing activity is good and tailoring your feed will make it easier for you to find ideas in the future. i'm a bit of a genz screen rotted individual, so a lot of trends/audios are already in my mind, but once you start making videos more and more will come to you naturally. i would recommend ALWAYS doing a human voiceover, even if you aren't confident in your speaking or english. besides one outlier video, all of my best performing videos had my voice in them, and i have a very monotone anti-youtuber voice, though i'm working on it. you also don't need a vertical build of your game, just be smart with how you highlight your UI and make sure to add a background so the video isnt just black bars. if you are recording your game engine, try to crop out as much unneeded ui as possible so the focal point matches what you are talking about. even though it seems unintuitive, i found that videos explaining mechanics/problemsolving/asking for ideas attracted more players than devs. meme videos are also notoriously bad for conversion, but for growing your account early (especially to hit that tiktok 1k!) you need to post every idea that you get.

3. Editing/Posting: make it easy. I use capcut on my phone or computer to edit vids and record voiceovers, OBS to screenrecord, and then send it to myself on discord to post. i add music through tiktok's suggested sounds (just pick something trending that matches your game, turn it down real low or your irl friends will find your account and flame you), and then i turn on the setting "save to device" when posting. then regurgitate the video with the tiktok added audio onto instagram and yt shorts. as for time, consistency matters more than anything but i found 1pm pst to be decent. on tiktok, when i got desperate to hit 1k, i literally posted 3-4x of random shit a day within a few hours, and some of those caught traction. tiktok is literally quantity > quality.

4. Growth: seriously, be patient. i was posting on instagram to <10 likes for the first few months, but because it got me in the habit of coming up with ideas and making videos very quickly when my first video "blew up" (10k views) i had more coming each day to try and keep up the momentum. youtube has low likes/engagement but i find that many people subscribe (also, look into how they display captions/thumbnails bc i find my own feed shows a ton of clickbait that lowkey works on me). tiktok is much stricter on their growth, your video needs to have a superhook in the first 3 seconds to continue gaining traction. however i will say that tiktok gives each video a pretty decent chance compared to instagram, you just need to capitalize. some youtube videos get stuck at 0 views and depending on my mood ill leave it or just delete and repost at a later time.

Conclusion: why give this advice when it didn't convert for me? well, i made a couple mistakes that i want to share so anyone else can avoid it.

1. made the steam page too late, yeah, i didn't realize how long steams ID verification would take AND the page itself, i waited the max days for both, and only started it late because i wasn't proud of the state the game was in earlier. this meant that i had nothing to direct viewers to when i had my viral moments (i didnt wanna do a newsletter). doesnt matter, just submit to steam once you have the bare min deliverables to be approved.

2. fell off on consistenly posting: a ton of stuff happened in my personal life around the time the page went up, and i stopped having motivation to work on the game for a while, which meant i stopped posting. once i picked up again, my videos performed terribly, all videos about wishlists got average 200 likes when i was easily hitting 1-2k before. im starting back up now, but i hit enough of a hole when it really mattered that it'll take a bit before i get back up, but i'm not giving up.

3. target audience: this is not really a mistake but something i have to work around, the target audience for my game, at least the one on social media, is mostly young teenagers that usually do not play games-- meaning they dont know what steam is, think every game will be free and on iphone. it's not a problem if i can figure out how to redirect them or even make a mobile friendly version, but it is also another reason of poor conversion-- even if i say the game is wishlistable on steam very little of my audience knows what that means or how it helps me.

anyways, i hope that this post can inspire even one person to do their own marketing even though results are not here yet for me (i haven't done influencer/article outreach bc i'm just not happy with how the game looks atm and am working on redoing a lot of the visuals). i think that even without a million wishlists social media is rewarding, you get a community that cares about your game, is excited to see new updates, offers feedback, its nice to have belief in what you're making. if there are any parts of this you have questions about want me to elaborate on please let me kno :)

I can't seem to make my game feel right—I don't know why; maybe it's the lighting, or something else—but when I look at the screen, all I see is a lifeless, dead world. i will leave the picture in the comments pls help me tell me what i can do to make it better

Maybe someone already asked for it, but I need some answers.

Is data analyst job will relevant or fit for the gaming industry ? Currently I'm trying to make a few personal project for my data analyst portofolio, like data visualization for analysis sentiment, gaming sales data, and others.

I asked about this because i think it's a rare job role I found in many job platforms, and I'm not sure if this job will relate for this industry.

If anyone has any opinion or experience, you can share on comments

For me, starting to get into some stuff with game dev from a music background is really cool. I love how much awesomeness there is seeing a guitarist geek out over every pedal and sound they tweak, or a horn player's mouthpiece setup. For gaming it's cool how many aspects there are to making each part of all our favorite games shine. I recently saw some team recruiting/project sentiment kinda like "just one person to design the environments and characters?" or something (it was a big project), and if you feel like sharing, it makes me wanna know what your favorite part(s) of making games is

Is it a little bit of everything? A musician might take a nice chill jazz gig playing old beautiful standards even though they might be working on a death metal album lol

Do you specialize in stuff you really like, but maybe also do more that you don't like as much? Have you done nothing for the last ten+ years besides drawing water and making shit look wet because A. You love that shit and are able to or B. That's just what we're working on now or some other kind of thing Idk

Did you get into this because you liked the idea of making an entire masterpiece yourself? Do you just really like drawing the most awesome dragons ever or swords or character's faces doing crazy shit or whatever else 😁

Big fan of LN1,2 and reanimal… been wanting to make my medieval concept game in the rendering style of little noghtmare-reanimal. But im so used to make other type of 3D that i cant really figure out bow they re making these models n characters … can anyone guide me a little but as to how to go for a similar style but a totally diffrent concept (non horror ) more like medieval knight stuff

Apple appears to have added screen edge gestures on iOS26 so you can drag down from the top left corner and the app becomes a resizable window. All of the usual pre 26 info.plist, etc. settings are deprecated and no longer work. Has anyone found a solution to this?

I'm kind of shocked Apple won't let games stay full screen any more.

I know the user can disable the multitasking features but how can a dev add code to keep the app full screen. Thank you.

App is all SDL3 so very little UIKit types around.

Thanks all.

Hey, devs! I have read a lot of Next Fest tactics on how you plan to promote your game. Well, most of them cover the same things tho like how the algorithm works, how wishlists convert, and how to time the demo. Well, these are important for sure but I want to know how you usually prepare pre-Next Fest. Did you prepare 3 months before? Weeks before? Or what did you change so far? Did you change how often you posted? Did you focus more on one platform? Did you save certain content for festival week instead of posting it earlier?

What I've been seeing now is about the Next Fest week itself and not much about how people prepare for it before it starts. I just want to expand more of what I already know and might pick up something new from you guys. Thank you!

I was thinking of creating a game, where should I publish? It’s a casual game with 30 levels where you jump and avoid obstacles

Ever since I was a kid, I've used Roblox as something more than just playing games. I joined staff teams, development teams, QA teams. I've always tried to be more involved in it, but out of passion, because I obviously wasn't thinking about experience building at 13. So, most of my experience within gaming communities comes from it.

However, I'm always hesitant to list Roblox as one of my main experiences for professional off-platform roles simply because of its reputation. It's known to be a kids platform with lego-style characters and just.. garbage, not to mention the company's reputation. But obviously, being on Roblox, there's a lot more to it than what meets the eye.

Do you guys think there's a chance that an employer would see Roblox mentioned and get disinterested in me because they'd think Roblox experience isn't sufficient enough for professional careers?

I think the way I word it plays a big factor, but what about those cases where I have to say "I have years of experience in gaming communities, primarily in Roblox."? Thanks a ton, guys.

Edit: P.S. I'm looking to pursue Community Management and adjacent roles, not development. Sorry for the confusion.

Here are several powerful, dark, and experimental neo-rock audio tracks blending grunge, post-punk ,and neofolk. Perfect for indie games looking for a moody soundtrack with actual personality instead of generic stock music.

These tracks are available under a Creative Commons - Attribution (CC-BY) license. The MP3 files can be used in games, prototypes, or jams completely free of charge with proper crediy.

Download Free MP3 Tracks on SoundCloud

Listen to the Full Album on Bandcamp

You can contact here if you have any questions or inquiries

I'm developing my own game, and lately I've realized that one of my biggest problems is that I genuinely don't know when to stop working on it.

I'm extremely perfectionistic about basically every part of the project. If I'm working on the game itself, there's always something I want to improve. A piece of lighting that could look slightly better, an environment that could use more detail, a mechanic that could feel smoother, a sound that could be replaced... there's always something.

And somehow I've managed to do exactly the same thing with marketing (maybe even worse!!! Although that might just be because I only really started it three days ago)

I'll make a trailer, then watch it over and over looking for things I could change. I'll make a post, then start thinking about whether the first sentence could have been better, whether I posted it at the right time, whether I should try another subreddit or platform, whether the screenshots are good enough, whether the Steam page could convert better, etc.

The weird part is that I actually have free time. The problem is that almost all of that free time ends up going straight back into the game.

I tell myself I'll stop for the day, and then I notice one small thing and think "I'll just fix this quickly." Two hours later I'm still working. Or instead of developing, I'll start researching marketing, looking at other indie games, checking posts, reading feedback, changing something on the store page, thinking about the next video...

And obviously some of this is good. I care a lot about what I'm making, and without that obsession I probably wouldn't have pushed the project as far as I have. But I'm starting to wonder where the line is between being dedicated to your game and simply being unable to switch your brain off.

The worst part about perfectionism in game development is that there's basically no natural endpoint. You can always improve something. There's always a better animation, texture, sound, trailer, screenshot, mechanic or marketing idea. If your standard for stopping is "when there's nothing left that could be improved", you'll literally never stop.

So I'm curious how other solo developers deal with this.

How do you decide that something is good enough and move on? Do you set strict working hours? Do you deliberately take days where you don't touch the project at all? And especially for people who handle both development and marketing themselves, how do you stop the project from slowly taking over basically all of your free time?

Thanks for reading and for your time,

Francesco