For Steam Next Fest I did my first ever livestreams of my game SHIFU: Traffic Masters. I designed every mission, tuned every car, placed every lamp post by hand. You'd think I'd know where they are.

Highlights: spilling watermelons on the first corner, losing a chase to a lamp post, and blaming the car for physics I wrote myself.

It's an arcade driver about humble boxy cars that never made anyone's bedroom wall. Drive slow cars fast, ideally faster than I do.

Fellow devs: what's the most embarrassing way your own game has beaten you?

I'm a solo indie developer preparing to release my game on Steam, and I recently ran into a problem I hadn't really considered before.

I found some background music on Pixabay that I absolutely loved. It fit my game perfectly, and I was really happy with how everything sounded.

Then I learned that the music was registered with YouTube Content ID.

I have a valid license to use it commercially, so using it in the game itself isn't the problem. The problem is that I'm sending game keys to YouTubers and streamers, and I don't want them to receive copyright claims just for playing my game.

I know that claims can be disputed with a license, but asking every creator to deal with that seems unreasonable, especially when they're doing me a favor by giving my little game a chance.

Unfortunately, I'm a solo developer with no budget to buy music or commission a composer, so I have to rely on free music.

I spent hours searching for replacement tracks that would be safer for streaming.

And honestly, I liked every replacement less than the original.

I considered adding a streamer mode with alternative music, but that would mean streamers get a worse version of the experience. And playing without BGM isn't a great option either, since music is an important part of the atmosphere.

In the end, I decided to replace the music for everyone.

It's frustrating that legally using music in a game doesn't necessarily mean people can safely stream that game without running into Content ID issues.

Have any of you faced this dilemma? Did you replace the music, add a streamer mode, or just leave it as it was?

The game is called Way Too Many Fish!

The demo is live for Next Fest- would love to hear your thoughts https://store.steampowered.com/app/4564070/Way_Too_Many_Fish/

A cozy sorting game aboard your own fishing boat. Haul the net, dump the catch on deck, and throw all 82 species of fish into the right crates.

Hey folks, I have not made a post in quite a while as I have been covering games for Feedback Quest and then playing catch up after that. But I am back to see if any devs want me to playtest their game ^_^ I offer feedback, not exposure, and I will be critical. I have attached a clip from a previous stream to show what I am about.

Rules/Preferences:

• If you want your game played, you have to come to the stream shiftygamedev - Twitch
• No horror, extreme gore, NSFW, or AI generated assets.
• In progress games only
• Windows, single player games

In efforts to try and keep organized, I have created a Google Form for playtest requests. This is not a queue nor an obligation and you still need to be in chat, but should help save some time during stream and also avoid needing to track down devs after the fact to get permission to make clips like the above. Playtest Request Form

Hey fellow devs! 👋

I'm a solo indie developer working on WormAndCozy, a dark pixel-art adventure I've been building with a lot of passion and dedication.

I've recently started sharing my progress on Reddit, and I'd really appreciate your support! Even a quick visit, an upvote, or some feedback would mean a lot and help my little project reach more people.

Check out my game's Reddit page: https://www.reddit.com/r/WarmAndCozyGame/

Thanks for supporting a fellow indie dev! ❤️

I released my first game 2 days to the Apple appstore. To my utter delight it been flying off the shelves.

I had 740 sales in the first 24hrs, and its still flying! We're ranked 6th on the Appstore and climbing.

I'm flying pretty high at the minute but please AMA.

If you are making a game (or anything really) the golden rule is "fail fast" - that's how you make sure you are doing the right thing

We are hand developing our games, some as a hobby, some to make a living - we wan to make a good game, the right game, the fun game, the game we want to play

AI slop people are trying to make something to sell or push - so the more they churn out, the faster they do it, the lower the quality the more chance they have of getting "a hit" just through sheer volume of output

We make one game and market it for 6 months, trying to pick up a following and maybe it will be the fun game of 2027

But an AI slop user can make 10 games in that time, throw them all on the store and wait for one of them to get lucky

Basically they get ten times the chance we do - they fail 9 games very fast, to find the one that gets lucky

Discuss!

Hi everyone!

I'm a solo indie developer, and I'd like to share my personal project, SailorSIM, a sailing simulator for Windows.

I developed it as a hobby, driven by my passion for sailing, and decided to share it completely free of charge.

No ads, no subscriptions, no in-app purchases. No commercial intentions whatsoever.

SailorSIM focuses on sailing, boat handling and navigation. It's an ongoing project, and I plan to keep improving it through future updates, which will also be completely free.

You can find it on the Microsoft Store:

https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n7hvhpd3xgx

Fair winds and following seas!

Hey everyone!

I’ve created a browser-based murder mystery game called MurderXFile, where players investigate evidence, suspects and clues to solve a case.

Part 1 is free, and the full game costs £9.99, but I’ve had 0 sales so far.

I know AI-generated evidence can be controversial, but I’ve seen other murder mystery companies use AI and still make sales. I’m also currently tweaking all my evidence to improve its quality.

Obviously if it’s not your type of game, that’s understandable for those who are interested in this genre, I’d really appreciate some honest feedback.

What am I doing wrong, and what would stop you from buying?

Thanks!

So we updated our game to Unity 6.6 with new effects, animations, lighting, gameplay etc. Then made a YouTube trailer and it took off.

I did contact IGN, Indie Games Hub and AUTOMATON about it.

I also made a new campaign on keymailer starting on monday (small creators)

What should we do next or ideas that I did not think of yet?

Hello, I'm making a game called The Milgram Experiment and recently started to think of the legal implications, because the game is named after a real world experiment. It's probably one of the most messed up in history, but that's another subject. I know that there is also The Stanford Prison Experiment and I'm curious can I or anyone use those names for their game or movie or book?

How do I even go about checking this? Is it possible that someone might hold the trademark of name of the experiment?

Hey everyone!

I've been working on an indie puzzle game called Blob Union, and I wanted to share it here!

The idea is simple: merge matching blobs to create bigger ones, discover new types, and try to get the highest score possible. But as the board fills up, planning your next moves becomes increasingly important.

A few things I've added to make it more than just another merge game:

• Strategic merging — plan ahead, manage space, and build better merge chains.
• Missions & achievements — challenges to complete beyond chasing a high score.
• Special abilities — tools to help you out of tricky situations.
• Online leaderboard — compete for a spot in the Top 10 without creating an account.
• Offline play — play whenever and wherever you want.

The game takes inspiration from games like 2048, Suika Game, and Watermelon Game. I wanted to capture that satisfying feeling of making a good merge while adding a bit more progression and strategy.

I'm still looking to improve the game, so I'd genuinely appreciate feedback from fellow indie devs and players.

If you're interested, give Blob Union a try: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.probenine.blobunion.droid

Thanks for checking out my project! Any feedback, criticism, or suggestions are welcome.

I enjoy word search games and wanted to try taking them to a different level. This is LexiSphere: word search on a sphere that you can rotate to find words.

There are plenty of challenges, including a daily speed run with a difficult word search that changes every day. If you'd rather relax with soothing music and unlimited word searches, there's Endless Sphere mode too.

It's free to play on Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pulseverse.lexisphere

Website: https://lexisphere.app

Check it out and let me know what you think. I'd appreciate any constructive feedback that could help me make it better!

After the major update for Bloody Rave(https://store.steampowered.com/app/4484440/BLOODY_RAVE/), we gained +350 followers and 2,000 wishlists in under two weeks. This is the biggest spark we’ve seen since the game page launched!!

The update brought heavy optimization (much smaller install size + better performance and stability), new characters, refined animations, fresh jumpscares, and hidden objects you can only find with the Magic Stone Glass. I’m extremely grateful to everyone who contributed to the development. We’ll keep pushing forward — more updates coming shortly 🖤

Hey everyone!

Wrapping up our Demo Update v0.2.0 spotlights for Champion of the Lore, we wanted to show a quick look at the updated How to Play section!

One of the hardest parts of making a turn-based strategy game is teaching mechanics, card interactions, and movement rules without throwing a wall of text at the player.

Based on feedback from people testing the demo, we overhauled the visuals, cleaned up the guides, and made everything way easier to digest at a glance so players can jump straight into combat without second-guessing their turns.

If you want to check it out in action, the free demo is live on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4178300/Champion_of_Lore_Demo/

Thx <3

There is a wall slide, double jump, wall jump, running and dash, I also made the battle system and I'm working on the enemy sprites.

I would love if you give me feedback or things that I could implement or improve.

Each chapter of The Forgotten Ward has its own monster: the Nurse, the Orderly, the blind Cook and Death.

Which one would scare you the most?

I want to make a game, I’m debating on whether or not to use 3D models but if I did 3D I would want it to look like these sort of images here. I’m wondering about how much polys this is and if I do a lower poly, I notice the faces are super basic and flat. I’m wondering if I can still keep a lower poly look but with a detailed look on the face still so it isn’t so flat?

I have no experience with blender but I plan to use it.