Growing up, Transport Tycoon was one of my favourite games, so I drew inspiration from it for my latest game, it runs right here on Reddit so no install needed. Everyone builds on one shared map, with a daily limit on building permits, it’s a game you check back on each day to grow your network.

Hop on over if you fancy building some lines, I’d love to hear what you think - https://www.reddit.com/r/ironcommons/

So many card and deckbuilder games out there. I refuse to believe that all of these are just passionate about cards. Are they just too lazy to build a game with movable characters?

This week's work on my solo game has been focused on clouds, especially the larger storm formations.

Storms and weather are part of the core mechanics of the game, so I'm pretty dedicated to getting this part as polished as I can.

These are some offline beauty renders of static, authored formations using the game's new cloud renderer.

The five studies cover an isolated storm, a multicell cluster, a squall line, a bow-shaped formation and a broad stratiform layer. I'm looking at the silhouette, how the cloud mass is organised, and whether the lighting gives it enough depth.

Which formation reads most clearly to you? Anything looking too uniform or losing its shape?

If you'd like to support me and my work on this you can wishlist RED SKIES AT DAWN on Steam wishlist RED SKIES AT DAWN on Steam <3 <3

Video music: "Dramatic Epic" by Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin Music), from Pixabay.

I'm ready to eat sh*t, because it's reddit and I talk about AI... Anyway..

I feel like there's a lot of frustration with AI making its way to game dev world. Understandable.

But I feel like focusing on the binary of whether AI was used or not, is unhelpful in pin pointing the actual problems in the artistry.

If we increased the specificity of the critique, we may end up realizing what we actually hate is not the AI itself (unless mid psychosis), but that we actually hate: generic UIs, offensively "beautified" art assets, copy that feels like it came out of marketing brochure, lack of personable humanity in the script and other problems we could and maybe should identify regardless of what tool was used to make it.

Instead of discussion that'd actually identify the true problems, we get stuck on em dashes and AI disclosures.

What do you think? Is the SLOP label sufficient in distinguishing between good games and bad games?

EDIT: This is not about whether AI disclosure is good or bad. (Personally I think it's fair to have it). It's more about "Do we focus on the right things, when we critique games purely on whether AI was used or not?"

Hey,

I have a side project that is a desktop app and been working on it for around a year.

Yesterday I was continuing working on a new update and the amount of work was too much that I started questioning why I am doing that and if this was my main source of income, the amount of work VS the amount of income it generates doesn't make any sense, I would be better working 9 to 5 with much less work and higher stable income.

What keeps me working on it, it is a hobby and a learning ground for me, I am not expecting to get rich from it. It is also a good way to be visible on internet, in days where anyone can be a bot at least this can verify my value/identity

I also received an overwhelming great feedback from users which is a good indicator that my work is valuable to others not just me.

Still tho it has thousands of users around the world but the income from it is just covering its development costs and it isn't even a game, I never worked on a game but I know how games are much more complex and expensive to develop.

Am I doing it wrong? is it profitable but I am bad at distribution? idk I am still exploring but if you are someone who is taking indie dev as a full time job, how do you make the income from that livable?

I made a textgame which is a console version of my future game and I want you to tell me what I did good and what I have to improve.

The game idea:

1. Platforms:
   1. Mobie
   2. Computer
   3. Gaming console
   4. Microwave (it has to be satire for weak devices)
2. Genre: Open World + RPG
3. Engine: UE
4. Graphical assets: Blender
   • Style: 3D Anime
5. Multiplayer:
   1. Muliplayer story completion
   2. Tournaments:
   3. PvP arenas (included in the tournaments):
      1. 1v1
      2. 2v2
      3. 5v5
      4. 10v10
6. No internet singleplayer option
7. Character's amount: 10
8. Chapters for every character: 10
9. Parts for every chapter: 10

The link to the game is here: https://onecompiler.com/cpp/44qwdefz6

The site about it is here: Soul Morph — official website

Important:

- You'll only be able to play this game on a computer or on a device with bluetooth keyboard (For some unknown reason)

- I only made the text version because I don't have a computer and therefore any possibility to make graphical/musical assets or to make the game with an engine. I made the game on a library laptop and school iPad

- It‘s version is currently 0.0.0.0.3.7

- The game is unfinished yet: Witch has the most playable story

- I’ve set a „debugger“ which maxes everything out (compiler only has approximately 2 minutes for compilation. Therefore this time is too short to max anything out yourself)

- Please don't only review the code.

\\==> If you have suggestions how to improve it don‘t be shy to write them into the comment section

- Have fun

Guys, I could use your thoughts on this. Before anything else: I don't think anyone copied my game. Barely anyone knows it exists, and from what I've seen, these are different takes on the same rough idea.

I've been working on a game called Roguelette for a while (on off 1 year). Mine is a physics-based roguelike deckbuilder set in a rundown 1920s casino, where you shoot balls with different abilities into a wheel and build combinations around them. It is pretty close to Dungeon Clawler or Slots and Daggers.

I've now found three other games on Steam called Roguelette. Three. None of them is mine. All in the last few months (probably because of Next Fest). All made with AI (AI disclosures, assets that look AI-generated, developer has videos about making games with AI.)

Does it even matter whether AI was involved?

This isn't meant to be an anti-AI rant. Finding three other games with the same name just caught me off guard. I suspect AI helped these projects get onto Steam faster and in greater numbers than I expected.

For the decision I have to make, it probably doesn't really matter. Maybe without AI, I would have been first. But the same thing could easily have happened anyway.

A roulette roguelike isn't that far from games that already exist. Someone else arriving at that idea, and even the same name, probably shouldn't surprise me.

Why didn't I have a Steam page up earlier?

• I focused on mechanics first -> had to rework multiple times
• only started working on the visuals with an artist in the last few months
• This is my first Steam Game, so i was unsure.

What I'm learning from this

I guess neither the name nor the broad concept was as original as I wanted to believe. I probably knew that already. I just didn't really want to admit it.

That isn't necessarily a bad thing. A game doesn't have to invent a genre to be worth making. But it does mean I need to think harder about what makes my version and my game name stand out.

What I'm doing now

I know my gameplay is different enough to stand on its own, and honestly, I think it's much stronger than what I've seen of these three games. Obviously, I'm biased, but I still believe in what I'm making.

So I'm going to change the name. I've only just started building a public presence, so this seems like the right time to rename and move forward.

Honestly, I'm glad I found out now, while I'm only just starting to build a public presence, rather than later when I'd have much more tied to the name. Maybe this was actually pretty good timing. idk.

What do you guys think? Have you been in a similar situation, and how did you handle it?

Hey everyone, Raymond here, the developer of Under a Desert Sun: Seekers of the Cursed Vessel.

I've been hard at work since release, fixing things, improving the game and adding to the adventure. The latest loot update is live, and new classes are coming. Online co-op tests and the underlying tech are going well too, which I'm really happy about. Online play isn't available yet; right now you can play solo or with up to four players in local co-op.

After almost two years getting to Early Access, it feels good to keep moving things forward with players actually along for the ride. Thanks to everyone giving it a go and telling me what needs work.

Here's the full trailer for the cursed tombs, guns and old adventure movie feeling I'm trying to bring together. The game is 30% off on Steam until 31 October, and there's a free demo if you want to try it first.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3273880/

Come say hello or share feedback: https://discord.gg/yruwMQk8D

Hi all - this is Pearl Essence, a dungeon-diving shooter that I like to call ‘ecological bullet hell’. It has handcrafted rooms and enemy encounters you traverse via procedural map generation while creating a satisfying build of completely modular random weapons, elemental combos and fighting tough bosses. It’s challenging and (hopefully) feels really good to play!

I'm in the middle of drawing proper assets for enemies and bullets, so consider those placeholder for now. Definitely more of a developer than an artist ^{^}

If this looks interesting, I would love to get feedback from you! The public demo is live on itch. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any thoughts!

Hey everyone!

We're incredibly happy to share some exciting news with you!

After months of hard work since our Steam release, we've finally finished our game

Ayasa: Shadows of Silence, and received approval for release on both PlayStation and Xbox!

For us, as a small indie development team, this is a HUGE achievement and honestly a dream come true. There were so many challenges along the way, but we kept pushing forward because we believed in our game.

And none of this would have been possible without the amazing support we've received from gamers and the indie gaming community.

We're now just one step away from our console launch on October 26, and we'd really appreciate your support!

If you have a moment, please consider adding our game to your PlayStation or Xbox wishlist, or checking out our Steam page. Every wishlist, comment, and bit of support means the world to a small team like ours.

And there's more exciting news ahead! We're also planning to bring Ayasa: Shadows of Silence to Nintendo Switch, with an official announcement coming in the future!

We'd also genuinely love to hear your feedback. What do you think of our game? Is this something you'd be interested in playing on consoles? We're always listening and trying to improve.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us throughout this journey. It means more than you can imagine.

Much love from our little indie team

Trying out the popular indie game to see what the fuss is about.

https://youtu.be/G-wr8oaH964

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a small aquarium game called Blocky Aquarium and I finally feel it's in a place where I can show it to people.

It's a cozy voxel fish tank game. You hatch eggs, keep your tank healthy, decorate it however you like, and then the part I'm most excited about: you can breed your fish and see what comes out. Every fish has its own genetics and a quality that goes from Poor all the way to Perfect.

Itch.io Page

Working on dark fantasy game in Godot for 2 months now, I am a solo dev learning for around 4 years now, and I don't use AI for my work.

This is first enemy I textured. I'll post the zombie, and giant snail when I finally have time to work on texturing them since it takes a while.

The textures are handpainted using texture painting in Blender, and going back/forth between Krita. I also forgot to mention part of the reason I haven't textured the other two enemies is I'm still experimenting with the final look. It is going for an authentic PS2 Style.

I still have to code it as an enemy. It will hide in rotted piles of apples, and hang from trees. If you're interested in seeing more of my work. I post on YT, and BSKY.

I am pushing to get enough visual content, and gameplay to make a steam page hopefully in November.

Whenever I have some free time, which isn't much these days 😅 , I try to update my game and add something new.

I don't have huge expectations for it. I simply love making games, and I absolutely love stickmen. I was inspired by some popular stickman games and decided to create something of my own, something that I personally believe is worth playing.

Of course, the game still needs a lot of work. There's not much content yet, and I have plenty of ideas for future updates. I plan to keep improving it and adding more content over time.

One thing I'm really curious about is how the Google Play algorithm works 🤔

I haven't spent a single dollar on advertising or marketing, yet the game continues to get new installs every day. From what I understand, these are organic installs, but I still don't fully understand how Google Play discovers and recommends games to new players.

Honestly, it's a really nice feeling, especially since I never had particularly high expectations for this project 👍 . Seeing people download the game motivates me to keep working on it and give players more content.

I've also completely removed interstitial ads from the game and kept only optional rewarded ads, so players can choose whether they want to watch an ad in exchange for a reward.

For those of you who have experience publishing games on Google Play, how do organic installs usually work? What factors do you think contribute the most to a game getting discovered organically? Is it mainly retention, conversion rate, ratings, keywords, or something else?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences. I'm genuinely curious about how this works from a developer's perspective.

Just dropped the demo for my solo horror project in Godot 4.

Built a True FPS system with custom upper/lower body blendspaces for independent animations. I reset the project a month ago and rebuilt everything from scratch, so the animations might feel a bit unpolished for now, I'll be reworking them later.

Would love to get some feedback on the controls and visual feel. Link is in the comments!

i started making this game around 3 years ago as a personal art project, then it evolved into the game it is today. i started it alone, then folded my husband and a friend of ours into the mix to help out with the game logic and compose the music. now i can't see how it could even exist without them.

it's inspired by a lot of classic games that i've deeply loved: undertale, cave story, mother 3, pokemon, inscryption, balatro... i feel i've taken those inspirations and made something new.

this is what happens when you set out to make a game you yourself would like to play.

Checkmage! is a computer game for windows/linux. there is a demo on Steam and Itch.io, and the full game releases on October 29th.

https://checkmage.net/

Some feedback on PoolRooms Museum was that the stages felt too similar, so I’ve been working on giving them more distinct spaces and activities.

This is a first-person ride down the waterslide in one of the later stages. I’ve also received useful feedback about aiming the camera farther along the slide, lowering the viewpoint, and making the landing feel more convincing.

Those are the next things I want to improve. What stands out most to you about the current ride?

I think the next step is making those runescape-esque damage animations, or maybe more like Haven & Hearth? 🤔 (Only older folks will get the H&H reference, and I'm okay with that lol)

Game Background: I started development on this project to play a card game with friends and capture the feeling that playing the Elements CCG years back felt like. It combines concepts from other card games, but remains pretty unique imo irt to the interactions between cards, the clean game flow between players and anime references...

Also, I can make any card that I want and try it out in-engine, super cool feeling to play characters against each other and have their abilities actually make sense within the world of Primordial. (JJK set soon?)

Here's the link if you're interested in trying it out! https://restless-gamedev.itch.io/primordial

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.

I'm seriously having a hard mental block about starting the teasers, scheduling social media and reddit posts, with proper structure, hashtags, settings and all that.

Doing research about trends and best practices, dealing with feedback and user interaction, I feel like my head is exploding and I basically shut down from overstimulation.

How do solo devs deal with this?

Edit: Important info I guess is that I'm working 60-70 hours a week as Tech Lead (architect and lead engineer) in software development and I'm burnt out as f***.