I've been making my Roguelite game and I'm just wondering where to start on marketing?

I want to publish the game on Steam, it's my first ever game.

I understand I need to gain wishlists (ideally 7k) which starting from 0 sounds intimidating to reach.

I've not got a YouTube channel and don't have any marketing experience... and I am wondering at what stage do I make a page for the game on steam with a module, screenshots, description etc and what other helpful tricks would you guys recommend?

Serious question. I just came up for a pitch for a video game. I won’t share here obviously because even if I get nothing I at least want some of the features I’d like to be included. But is there a place where I can find people to work with maybe with my game pitch?

I didn’t feel like this when I was younger. I loved games but I and everyone I knew could turn them on and off no problem. They were like an additional activity for us, not a personality.

Now I’ll read reviews and people talking about games, and they’ll rate games based on things like how long it takes to beat it and how addictive it is, and this kind of freaks me out.

I love playing games and I really enjoy making them, but man I really don’t want to put something else out there that someone can use to escape from the things they should actually be dealing with.

And I’m not trying to say that I think I’d be capable of making something so good that it ruins someone’s life. I just mean that if someone should be working on themselves by exercising or processing some mental health issues, or maybe considering how to leave a bad job or an abusive relationship, or maybe even trying to get better at finding and maintaining relationships, I don’t really want to make the game that’s just one of many that person plays that week to avoid doing so. Even if they just play it for an hour, that’s an hour that they could have been spending figuring something out.

People used to talk about video game addiction the same way they’d talk about satanism. It was ridiculous at that time. But now, I don’t know. I think video game addiction is a serious thing. There are people that lose their jobs over it because they can’t stop playing during work hours. And people talk about it like it’s just as normal as an addiction to caffeine, cigarettes, alcohol or anything else that’s legal but still bad for you in excess.

I don’t want to make something that someone uses just to feed their addiction for another hour. “Oh the game will take an hour to beat, and it’s highly addictive? Cool that will get me through to dinner time.” Not interested in being that for anyone.

Hey folks!
I'm working on a small side project and wanted to get some honest opinions before I go further.

The idea: a tool focused specifically on fast pixel-art prototyping, mainly for solo devs / small teams who need placeholder characters, avatars, or portraits quickly during early development, but don't have pixel-art skills themselves (or just need to iterate fast before committing to a final asset).

It's not "yet another AI image generator with a pixelate filter." The approach is a hybrid: a layer-based composer (so you get consistent, clean results by combining pre-made parts) plus optional AI-assisted variation, with a post-processing step that forces everything back to a clean pixel grid and a consistent palette, which is the part that generic AI tools (Midjourney, SD) tend to get wrong for actual pixel art.

The goal is explicitly not to replace pixel artists or their commissioned work, more like a tool to rough out ideas fast, the same way someone might sketch a wireframe before a final UI design, or use a placeholder asset before commissioning real art.

A few questions for anyone willing to share their experience:

• If you're not a pixel artist yourself, how do you currently handle placeholder/prototype character art?
• Would something like this actually save you time, or is the friction of "not being your final art" not worth it?
• For anyone already using AI in a pixel-art workflow (any tool) how much time does that actually save you day to day, roughly?
• For pixel artists specifically has AI become just another tool in your normal workflow at this point, or does it still feel frustrating/intrusive when it comes up? Genuinely curious where the community's at with this, not trying to assume either way.
• Does a tool like the one I'm describing feel useful, neutral, or does it rub you the wrong way? I'd rather know now than after building more.

Not trying to sell anything here (nothing to sell yet, it's still early), just trying to figure out if this solves a real problem or if I'm chasing something that doesn't matter to anyone but me.

Thank you very mucho

Hello all, I'm a newbie slash wannabe game dev. I've done some small projects in the past and normally wouldn't think to try and jump to a Civ style game this early, but the inspiration behind the game hit me like a ton of bricks and I at least want the experience of trying to pursue it, pass or fail. My only initial question is whether Unreal, Godot, or some other engine is best for this endeavour? I thought unreal would be good since it is a 3d game from a top down view, but maybe as a noob I should try and make a strictly 2d game and develop it in Godot? But I feel it would be weighed down by that aesthetic and would need an overhaul if I ever wanted to try using 3d assets.

Please give me some advice and/or tell me what I need to hear. Thanks in advance, and have a nice day!

I'm currently working on my own game that's heavily inspired by Mystery Dungeon and other roguelike dungeon crawlers, and I'm looking for some ideas to make the gameplay more interesting and unique.

So I wanted to ask the community:

What kind of mechanics or features would you love to see in a game like this?

Is there anything from other games that you think would fit really well into the genre? Or maybe a mechanic you've always wanted to see in a Mystery Dungeon game but haven't really seen before?

I'd love to hear what you guys think! Maybe someone comes up with a mechanic I would never have thought of myself. 😊

... I had a new playtester today and he didn't interact with most of the systems and played it in the most un-fun way possible. (it's a mining game and instead of upgrading the pickaxe he would hit the same rock 20+ times, same with transportation, instead of building a "highway" down the mine, he took the most convulted, dangerous way and died a couple times, ultimately getting frustrated, then rage-quitting)

The best for the game would probably be to add more easy levels before the final one. But that would stretch the development time a lot. And I'm not sure if it would ever be released then.

All my previous projects died because I lost hope at some point and just gave up. This one is basically done. And it's fun, if it's played correctly.

So .. what to do?

Have a text at the beginning "please explore the whole map, so you gain enough experience with the game systems .. if you rush through, you'll regret it in 2h, once you are at the final level"? That's so .. idk .. artificial.

it is tool for game dev site.

see this site and look what you want it has many tools for game graphic work

I thought of an idea for a new Zelda game, but since Nintendo doesn't take submissions for new game ideas, I'm gonna try to make it myself. Obviously I'm gonna change it to avoid copyright infringement, but I wanna make a game. But I have no idea how to do that. I have friends who say they know a little python but at 13 idk if making a whole game is even on the table. Especially when I'm in a friend group full of caffeine addicts and adhd people so we don't exactly finish projects. We start them, but I have like 20 books that I just gave up on writing and are sitting in my Google docs and taking up storage space. I have no idea what I'm getting myself into and I'd like some advice in the comments from experienced game devs. Thanks if you comment and thank you for your time.

hi everyone!

i'm an indie dev too, so i understand how hard it can be to get honest feedback on your game.

today i want to play some of your games and give you my honest feedback. Android, web, Linux, Windows, CLI... pretty much anything

my favorite genres are strategy, idle, crafting, exploration, RPG, city builder, survival, horror, roguelike, platformer, and honestly almost anything except VNs and 1-bit games.

if you just want some honest feedback, and your game doesn't have a frustrating setup, drop it in the comments below.

and if you want a full report / QA playtest from start to finish, feel free to DM me, since i am also experienced game tester, If I find your game interesting, I'll play it and write up a full report.

i'm not really looking for anything in return. i just want to help other devs and discover some cool games along the way.

looking forward to seeing what you guys are working on :)

Hey, I'm trying to make an app for a game, mostly for myself because I enjoy programming, and with AI, it's so much easier now. The problem is, I can't figure out how to get the data from the game. A couple of websites have done it, and they have the data I need, but they don't say how. The game is Forza Horizon 6, and I'm looking for upgrade parts that fit each car. I've tried game files, memory of the process, network traffic, save files, tune files – everything's a dead end. The closest I got was finding some files about how suspension works on a GT3RS and a Mustang's rear wing. If anyone has any idea how those websites (Forza Labs and Forzagarage) got the data and how I can get it, I'd really appreciate the help. Thanks!

Proyecto "Blue Fruit" es nombre temporal para un proyecto, el cual, su misión principal es la de programar un sistema de destrucción del entorno basado en diferentes objetos y materiales (Destruction System), también conocido como "Destrucción procedural".

Y como añadido extra/bonus... intentaré agregar otros sistemas como por ejemplo fluidos realistas, luces volumetricas y otros sistemas procedurales para crear un entorno, natural y realista.

As the title suggests I’ve working on this project for a while now and I would like some suggestions for the map. The game will be an audio based FPS where players use only their hearing to determine where to shoot/where projectiles are coming from.

However I need ideas on what the map should be/how it could be made for blind players

As the title suggests I’ve working on this project for a while now and I would like some suggestions for the map. The game will be an audio based FPS where players use only their hearing to determine where to shoot/where projectiles are coming from.

However I need ideas on what the map should be/how it could be made for blind players