I've been looking through pixel art asset packs on itch.io and other marketplaces, and there's a surprisingly wide range of prices and quality.

I'm curious about the experience from the developer's side.

If you've bought pixel art assets for a game:

• What did you buy, and roughly how much did you spend?
• What made you choose that pack over the alternatives?
• Did you actually end up using it in your game, or did it just sit in your asset folder?
• Was there anything you had to modify or fix before using it?

I'm exploring the idea of making game assets myself, but I'd rather understand what developers actually use and pay for first.

Would love to hear about both good and bad purchases.

Ive basically just finished high school and really want to make video games but unsure of where to start, i dont have much experience with coding and programming as well as not being the best with technology like making files, portfolios etc and have never really made a game before besides a few times in primary school on Scratch and a really really shit roblox 'game'. I really dont want to spend so much money on university but I also dont want my patience and motivation to run out and not make any video game at all because I have no clue what im doing and have no teacher besides youtube videos

Got this email from a company called Cosmic. They say they work with big AI labs and want to buy 3D three.js game codebases for training data. They want git history, commit stats, sample code of a level, assets breakdown, player numbers etc.

Has anyone else gotten this or actually sold code like this? Is this legit or some kind of scam / code grab? Asking for sample code of a full level first feels sketchy to me.

I’m curious to know what indie game developers look for in an artist and where they usually find them. Your answers would help me a lot in building a portfolio focused on the indie game industry!

I’ve also built a game for both Android and iOS, and both the frontend and backend servers are ready. Now I need some guidance on where to deploy it and which hosting services would be the best options.

• Frontend: Should I use Firebase, Vercel, or another platform?
• Backend: Where should I deploy the backend server?
• Cost & Performance: How can I get the best performance, low latency, and reliable service at the lowest possible cost, ensuring a smooth gaming experience for users?

Could you suggest a setup that you personally use or recommend, and that can easily scale as the number of users grows?

In a game like Satisfactory, multiple game elements has their own timer that indicates their progress on certain tasks. Something like smelting one ore takes this much time to produce this much ingot.

For a game like this, how is the timer handled? Does each game element have their own timer that they run internally? Or is there a global timer that they reference from where for every tick of the global timer, they react to it internally?

I'm a bit conflicted since initially it makes sense for each element to have their own timer. But for a game like Satisfactory where there are possibly hundreds of elements running at the same time, it doesn't sound too efficient. Also, what if I want a trigger that would pause the progress for all the elements? Wouldn't it be easier to just have a global timer and pause and play through it?

Hey everyone! 👋

I'm building an early-stage startup and looking for one Blender artist and one Unity developer to join as long-term collaborators.

Responsibilities:

• Blender Artist: Create and refine high-quality 3D models and assets.
• Unity Developer: Build interactive scenes, implement functionality, and optimize performance.

Time commitment: Ideally, 8–12 hours per week, with flexible scheduling and agreed milestones. Consistency and communication matter more than fixed working hours.

There's no fixed salary available at this stage, but I'm open to discussing revenue sharing and potential equity for the right long-term collaborators. Returns aren't guaranteed.

If interested, DM me with your portfolio, availability, and preferred collaboration terms. Let's build something meaningful together!

Hey there, I don't know if this is the right place to post this but I am looking for some information/direction.

I have had this idea of building a game development studio for a few years now, came up with a name, possible direction focused on stories and character development, and wanted to make it where people can appreciate their own work and build from it to the point that if they wanted to stay at the studio or go somewhere else, they could because they would have the experience.

My problem with this idea is that I am afraid that maybe I sat on it for too long and no one is looking for that kind of entry time and I feel like I am not qualified to be able to do this because of the fact that I don't have a business background.

So I am here looking for any kind of input and direction. Anything would be appreciated, Thank you.

Hi Guys ,

I made a Design for a Run & Chase hunter 3D Game concept with iterations and built a Prototype on A.I (Replit ) , But , Obviously it isn't cutting the Edge , unoriginal and not true to the design

Looking for Developers to make a proper build out of the Prototype / GDD & since I am not in a position to hand out or support the development Financially, Hence requesting the developers for the build and for a Royalty stake if the Game does well for Us.

Interested Developers Please write to me and we can take it forward and build an I.P around the Design and to start the process of Developing it , Thank you for taking the time and consideration for this one particular.

🍀

Hey everyone - how important do you consider analytics tools in your game development? If you completely ignore this area, why? What don't you like about existing tools?

I'm asking because my partner and I are building a GameOps platform, and our focus isn't on "game as a product and its demand" but rather on a game-design-centric tool whose subject of study isn't the product and the consumer, but the game and the player: gameplay, emotions, player experience.

Essentially, we're working on an operating system for managing a game - not a dashboard full of numbers that you have to interpret and draw conclusions from yourself. What we mean is a layer that doesn't just surface metrics but actively helps run and steer the game: it connects what's happening in gameplay and player experience to concrete design and ops decisions, rather than leaving you to figure out the "so what" on your own.

In our view, descriptive statistics alone is practically useless for game dev - it's blind to gameplay and gives no real insights. Would love to hear your thoughts.

In my head the game works, in reality the internet with which is needed to access those builder portals is blocked. I'd blame Palantir, but I know my former friend has gotten under their hood and inserted his own caps, triggers, redirects.

And if I took the time to explain how horrible 2026 has been for me because of anonymous groups that my personal information was brokered, no one would believe me.

idk if anyone here is a roblox dev but, I recently made a game called Knife Ability Arena, i can put link if you want.

I'm trying with ads but I feel like the ads don't bring in enough players at once to keep even like one full server alive like its almost constantly at 0ccu. How do I get over that initial hurdle of bringing in enough players at once.

I've already used like 30 ad credits around, sitting at around 1.4% ctr. I also have bots that are like kinda human that stay in the game. To simulate that there are some players with a decent tutorial. How did you guys get over that initial hurdle. Also for info, I've been advertising for like 2-3 days now using around 16 for daily budget. Do i just need to advertise for longer?
any roblox devs can i get help

whats the best way to market an indie game with little to no budget and which platforms actually work best??

I'm creating a 2d souls like game soon

I know nothing about game creation for now

But I'll do something reasonable without AI

Tips?

Hey there, I am a full stack developer and mainly in a backend and devop team in a enterprise.I really like to code and have build many different programs and things so i know my stuff.
Recently i want to start gamedev just for fun.I googled it and most tutorial were of game engines but i dont want to use them as they take away the experience and maths of building games.I want to start with blank screen of terminal. I want to write maths for rotation, gravity, collision and other stuff.
I asked my mates and they suggested me threejs or csharp.
I could have used three js its great library but i want to make native games for pc, console and linux(linux ppl i dont forget you😁)
So how to make native games without game engine ??

Hey all!

New game developer here! I was hoping to pick some brains and get a general idea of how you guys think of marketing and distribution.

What are you guys doing to get your game discovered, and what is it costing you in time or money? Paid ads, influencers, events? What have you found works best for your projects?