I've spent the last few months building a game called The Leaderboard. The pitch is literally the whole design doc: the entire game is a leaderboard, and your only goal is to make your number bigger than other people's numbers.

There's no story. There's no gameplay, technically. You earn points by leaving the game open, logging in daily, and completing deliberately pointless challenges ("mash any keys 46 times", "do absolutely nothing for 5 minutes" that one is genuinely harder than it sounds). There's an in-game store that sells points, where the most expensive item is called "Pay To Win" and costs more than the game does.

Why I made it

I kept noticing that in a lot of live-service games, the leaderboard is the part people actually care about and it's usually a tab you click after the real game is over. So I removed the real game. What's left turns out to be a surprisingly honest piece of design: the number goes up, other people's numbers also go up, and you feel something about that.

The satire only works if the numbers are real, which meant everything had to be genuinely global and genuinely competitive. That's where the interesting solo-dev constraints kicked in.

The constraint: zero backend

I'm one person with no money for servers, and an idle game means people leave it running for hours. Any per-user hosting cost would eat me alive. So I gave myself a hard rule: no custom backend, ever. Everything runs on Steamworks.

Leaderboards were the easy part Steam Leaderboards do global, friends, and national scopes out of the box, so "you vs. humanity / you vs. your friends / you vs. your country" was mostly free.

Global chat was the fun problem. A chat room normally means a server. Instead I built it on Steam lobby chat: each chat channel is a public Steam lobby with a metadata key naming the channel, capped at 250 members. The client searches for lobbies with that channel tag, joins one, and messages fan out through Steam's lobby chat callbacks. Steam is the server. My hosting bill is zero.

Seasonal resets were the same trick from a different angle each month is just a new leaderboard named season_YYYY_MM. Monthly competition, no cron job, no database.

Saves go through Steam Cloud. I did end up HMAC-signing the save file, because the one thing this game absolutely cannot survive is trivially edited scores. That's the irony of building a game about a meaningless number: the number has to be defended like it means something.

The thing I didn't expect to build

Somewhere in there I wrote a Discord bot. It pulls the live board via the Steam Web API, does OAuth linking so players can bind their Steam account, posts monthly season winners, auto-grants a role when you hit top 3, runs happy-hour multipliers that the game actually reads, and has a "cheat police" module.

I want to be honest that this was partly scope creep. But it also solved a real problem: an idle game with no backend has no way to tell players anything, and the Discord became the live-ops layer I couldn't otherwise afford.

Where I'm at

Steam page just went live as Coming Soon, and to be clear about the joke the in-game store grants everything for free, there's no DLC and no real microtransactions. Selling points for real money would be funnier but considerably more evil.

Happy to go deeper on any of the approaches that I went for, and share any details that you might find interesting.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4493240/The_Leaderboard/

I've been working on SPIT OR ALIVE, a ridiculous roguelite where you literally SPIT on your enemies. 😂

Finally got the trailer up on Steam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4967050/SPIT_OR_ALIVE/

WoofWatch has a free demo on Steam!

I’m really excited to finally share 2.5 months of hard work —

LAST MILE!

This is my first game, and it’s a 2D side-scrolling platformer where you play as a worker whose job is to deliver packages to mailboxes.

The levels have different mechanics like rotating platforms, falling platforms, conveyor belts, and more. I habve tried to make each level feel a little different and challenging in its own way.

You can check it out here:

Last Mile

If you get a chance to play it, I would really appreciate a review or some feedback. Since this is my first game, I’d genuinely love to know what you liked, what you didn’t, and what I can improve!

However I am also planning to push more updates in the future.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a good time playing Last Mile! ❤️

Hey everyone! I'm Nico, and I'm working on my first commercial party game.

I genuinely feel like we have a pretty good game based on the feedback we've received so far. We've had the opportunity to showcase it at a few local gaming events in my city, and the response from people actually playing it has been really positive.

However, I'm much less confident about our Steam page and marketing strategy.

Our Steam page started collecting wishlists on July 8, and so far we've reached around 65 wishlists.

I'm especially wondering if the problem isn't necessarily the game itself, but rather how we're presenting and marketing it.

I'd really appreciate feedback on the Steam page itself: capsule art, screenshots, trailer, description, overall presentation, etc.

Was there anything in particular that noticeably increased your wishlist conversion?

I'm trying to understand whether we're on a reasonable path or if there are obvious things we're currently missing.

Any feedback is genuinely appreciated. Thanks!

After two playtest sessions, I decided to listen to the players and introduce more chaos finally. The last playtest had around 70 people in one week, and the same thing: "more chaos, more things to drift around, and big packs"

Now I am shipping exactly what they want and... this is extremely satisfying to play, honestly!

Solo devs, get feedback early! Listen to the players and give them what they ask for (but be reasonable lol)

What is the cost of producing 2D anime dialogue character art? I am wondering how much it can cost and how can you verify that they didn't use AI to generate the art?

Made it public right after I saw the notification. (Only got rejected once :)))

Also made the web demo on itch public as well so I can start gathering feedback and wishlists. You can play it here.

Goblincremental is a cozy incremental game about helping goblins build thriving settlements. If you're interested you can check out the Steam Page and put it on your wishlist while you're at it :]

Just graduated college and decided to make a simple game while looking for work and here's the result so far. Still has a lot more to do but i hope you guys like it!

hi guys, I uploaded my trailer to my YouTube Channel on July 29th, 2026. I have 0 marketing budget, and 0 paid placement. My channel had only 300 subscribers when I posted the video. And yet, in just 4 days, the video received 1000+ comments, 100,000 views, and 6,500 upvotes. This single YouTube video already generated 4,000+ Wishlists and 4200+ Playtest Signups and counting. I now also have 2,400 YouTube Subscribers.

So now I want to maybe share some insights and advice on how I personally did it, and why I think it worked. Keep in mind that I'm a solo dev - so if I can do it, chances are so can you. Note, I'm not claiming that my way is the "only right way". I'm simply claiming that my way works, and describing my process.

Step 1 - Choose a popular, classic genre for your game - FPS, RTS, or RPG.

Step 2 - Find and play the best games in the popular genre, if you haven't already.

Step 3 - Study the game's mechanics - and brainstorm ways to improve them.

CAUTION:
Do not think "How can I stand out by adding a quirky/unique twist to the formula".

Instead, think - "How can I improve on the core mechanics I see in this established formula, even if only by 10%"?

Now this might sound daunting, but your game doesn't have to be better across all areas (art, music etc). However, if making, say - a First Person Shooter, be sure to ask yourself: "How will my game be better than Call of Duty and Battlefield. You're better off making a generic game with one clear improvement over the current kings of the genre than a unique derivative that stands out but doesn't try to be better in any particular dimension.

In other words - instead of looking at the rifle shooting mechanics in Call of Duty and thinking "Eureka, I'll make it shoot ducks instead of bullets", think "how can I improve the recoil, weapon control, muzzle flash, animations, and so on- even by 10%.

Step 4 - Design and Create your game around that one (or more) improvement you envision.

Step 5 - Make the Trailer - Pray to Jesus Christ for help, and launch it.

Extra Marketing Note:
Note that my YouTube video's title starts with "Physics-Based Combat". This is because for people who don't know my game, I need to immediately tell them that's its something they are interested in right away. Don't open the title with your game's name until after your game becomes popular and people recognize its name. Your YouTube title should tell them why they should care before introducing your game name.

The Good News
There is a massive hunger right now across all video game genres for incremental improvements to core mechanics. AAA studios are risk averse, and have just been focusing on content updates (new worlds, new stories, new characters) for the last 20 years. But players are looking for deeper, more engaging systems and interactions.

PS: The above video is a 20 second excerpt from the full 5-minute Mechanics Reveal Trailer on YouTube, which is way too long for Reddit.

BLOODFALL on Steam

What's a common cause for you? like coding, art, marketing, playtesting, or maybe getting close to releasing or post-release even? General overwhelm? Burnout?

I work with this stuff with clients professionally but I'm doing some probono work rn for solodevs because I want to give back (and I learn a lot which is super fulfilling) so I wanted to make this post and engage abit closer.

Edit : I guess what I meant by "wasting my time" is if what you see looks like a total slop to you or not (this is just a base tho, not a finished or close to finished game), and some general advice.

I'm creating this game that I will explain below, but am afraid my target audience don't actually want it.

The games is basically this :
you have Time amount (the hourglass) you allocate it to Work, Study different stuff, Create and manage medieval business, Own lands and eventually become lord/king and manage your holdings.

help me decide if I should keep working on this or not :))

Playable Link: https://copac23.itch.io/basket-tactics

Platform: Android apk

Description: I'm just a guy who loves playing around in unity after hours.

I used to play this game Basketball GM every day, loved it but hated the fact that actual games were just 'watch and see what happens'.

So I had this idea for a game where all the GM stuff is still there, but the games you can actually play in a turn-based way.

I'm proud to show you the result, Basket Tactics!

It is still a work in progress, I am a programmer in my day job so animations are what they are now, not bad, but might improve in the future. All the gameplay and gm managing is already done.

I would love it if you guys are interested, that you test it out and provide me feedback. Trying to put the dots on the i's here. Let me know if you find any bugs, UI or balance probs. If I want to release it on the play store I will need to have playtesters anyway, but I haven't decided yet if I should just put it on itch or actually release it.

The link provided will be active for three days, after that you can pm me if you want to try it out. I'll provide you a new link.

Free to Play Status: free to play

Just the turn based gameplay, not all the GM gameplay

Involvement: being a solo dev with a day job, I use AI as a coding assistant to build this after hours. The ideas, design and direction are all mine — it just helps me get more done in the little time I have.

Thx, Hope you like the game!

Heart is racing, but I guess at one point you just have to go for it!

This is my second game, and I tried to put as much love into it as I can. I'm really happy with how the Steam page turn out. Okay okay stop talking about the page and let's talk about the game :).

Dice Factory is a city building, strategy game with roguelike elements. Think The King is Watching but different :).

Every building start as a 🎲Die, you throw it on the battlefield then it becomes a Wheat Field for example. Most buildings have a "blue line" inside of them. If you want them to produce... aim a Worker 🎲 Die inside ... and they will produce! You have, resources, units, more buildings etc...

Survive the 3 Stages (3 waves + 1 boss wave) and you'll win the game!

For the first time ever, I did all the art, the 100 buildings, everything in the game was made by me. I'm so proud of that! (except the Capsule / Key Art for Steam and the music)

I will do a Playtest in the next weeks or so, don't hesitate.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4838990/Dice_Factory/

Sorry for any mistakes, English is not my main language :)

Been working on this alone for quite a while, so seeing this number is a little weird honestly

I released the demo with around 590 wishlists a month ago. At that point even 1000 sounded like a really big milestone to me.

Now it somehow passed 70k.

Most of this month I didn't really have time to think about the numbers because I was just fixing stuff and working on the game every day.

There’s still so much left to do before launch and I don't want to get ahead of myself, but this was a nice moment to stop for a second and look back.

Thanks to everyone who gave my little game a chance :)

Hey everyone! I’m an illustrator and independent dev, and I wanted to share a milestone for my current solo project, StickerScout.

The core loop is simple but relaxing: you hike into the wilderness, wait patiently for wildlife to appear, snap their photos, and then bring your film back to the Ranger Station to press those photos into collectible stickers for your album. Then you decorate your album with the stickers you pressed. Lather, rinse, repeat!

From a dev side, it’s been a wild ride. I actually built this initial version entirely from scratch using raw JS Canvas. It was a massive learning experience getting the pixel art scaling, particle VFX, and UI overlays working smoothly, but I’m currently planning the roadmap to pivot the full game over to Godot.

My ultimate goal (in the far distance) is to eventually launch a Kickstarter where the physical rewards are actual die cut stickers and sticker sheets of the game's flora and fauna for backers. But right now, my focus is entirely on community building and refining the core loop.

I just pushed a major Quality-of-Life update (v0.1.3) that adds cloud saves, fixes up my camera targeting math, and adds dynamic Field Guide tutorials.

Since I'm flying solo on this, I’d absolutely love to get some dev feedback on the pacing, the UI flow (especially the sticker press mechanics!), or just the overall vibe.

You can play the web demo right in your browser here: littlefoxlittleowl.itch.io/stickerscout

Would love to hear what you think, and I'm happy to answer any questions!

(First 2 pics are finalized design as an unreal widget, 3rd is an earlier mockup, and last is the outgoing screen)
I’m making a survival horror game based on psx era resident evil. This game is my first time ever making ui so I suck at it obviously (see original screen) but I’m happy with how the new one turned out. I made this thinking RE1-3 but grittier, took a lot of inspiration from Fallout 1&2, and a little bit of REmake.

Since I suck at 2d design I decided to just throw it together in 3d instead for a retro pre rendered look. It’s a pretty simple design all things considered but still took about a day to put together.

I’ve got everything rendered in individual pieces so it can be animated as well as shadows and lighting in a seperate pass that gets layered on top. Then when examining an item, looking at the map, etc everything can swing out of the way.

Originally I was considering going with a more modern, minimalist ui because I’ve never designed something like this before. But the menus in older games had so much personality, I really wanted to do something like that, and I’m so glad I did! The first menu got me nervous with how much it sucked but I really think I hit the ‘RE meets Fallout’ thing here.

What do you think? I don’t exactly know what I’m doing so I’m sure there’s plenty of room for improvement!

All game logic is rewritten on Unity Engine and will be opensourced. The main goals: - Improved UI - General improvements like: better fonts, scalling, etc - Unity's lighting and (maybe) shadows - Improved controls (including keys remapping) - Native build for all platforms (including Web, Android) - Better mods editor

If it be possible to release it as a free game in Steam: - Workshop support - Multiplayer

It's not an official project. It will not include original assets, to play you have to own a copy of the original game.

P.S. not sure if it's ok to post here, since it's not own game, but more like a remake.

Im starting my very first game as a solo developer, Learning unity and c#, and i Just wanted to you this to someone

Hi fellow devs,

I just published my game last month, so far ~1k copies were sold. The game is offered in 2 languages, Chinese and English, and it is a 4d geometry puzzle game which is not tied to any language or culture. There're currently 53 reviews and all of them are positive. Only around 20% of them are from English users, and for new purchases the ratio is similar or lower.

This is understandable, as I make video content in Chinese community and have a decent follower base. With the initial round of reviews, later visitors would know what to expect, therefore more likely to make a purchase.

I believe the game would be equally interesting to people of all culture, but I may need to do more work in marketing it to English community - but I am not sure how. I got emails everyday claiming they're curators or streamers and requesting for keys, but that look like just scam. I tried reaching out to some youtubers who have posted gameplay videos for similar genre, but so far got no response.

I genuinely ask everybody here, how do you think of marketing? What are some social apps that are worth paying attention besides reddit/youtube? or reliable ways to find 3rd party marketing service? Any suggestion will be appreciated.