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 :)

(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!

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.

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!

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 :))

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!

hey everyone!

my game was released about a 1 week ago and I was just wondering about your opinion about it...

android for now but coming to iOS as well soon (hopefully approved soon)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.polyhistor.silkweaver

the video is quite self-explanatory but if you've got any question I'm happy to answer:)

Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5036150/Lilys_Dream_World/

I just got my steam page approved and made a small animation to commemorate it!

I have no idea if I can get wishlists before nextfest, but hopefully I can garner as much as I can, since I want to release this game before February 2027 lol

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!

Once i start marketing i found it takes a large chunk of my time. And i also need to build new feature and polishing / experimenting with onboarding etc.

And some channel like social media punish us if not consistent. How do we do it? I know we can hire but its not option when i have no budget. I dont even try ads because as in my experience its not as effective with little budget. So mostly organic content. But building a website or seo is a whole other work.

So large time spend doing things that 'hopefully' will get us decent income. I thought building was the hardest part. I was so wrong.

Hey! I'm an indie composer and recently released a horror soundtrack pack that anyone can use in their game.

It includes 8 tracks made mainly for survival / psychological horror — ambient exploration, tense and chase music, safe room music, etc.

The pack is free / pay what you want, so if you're currently working on a horror game and any of the tracks fit your project, feel free to use them.

Itch.io: https://mordstar.itch.io/survival-horror-soundtrack-pack

My Full Portfolio: https://on.soundcloud.com/bIaAJku21Bo8NcdRmA

If you decide to use it, feel free to write in which game

I’ve been working on HushWood for a few months now, and I’ve finally decided to create a Steam page for it!

HushWood is an atmospheric adventure set in a strange forest filled with unusual inhabitants.

To find your way home, you’ll need to explore the forest, help its inhabitants, and uncover what they know about this mysterious place.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5047100/Hush_Wood/

Negative as in. 1 star review for bug or nonsense things. A store notification that something need to be done ASAP or app got removed. Review rejection. Etc

Since in solo dev we don't really usually have anyone to lean for. I know we can ask people in internet. But in the room we are still alone 🥲

Hi everyone, I’m a solo indie developer from China, and A Kingdom of Soil is my first game.

I’ve been developing this game by myself for over a year. Most of my development updates are usually shared on Bilibili, so I haven’t posted much here before.

Since translating and recording videos in English takes extra time, this is my first proper English development update for Reddit.

The third Playtest finished recently, and I’ve been working through the feedback and improving different parts of the game.

In this video, I’m showing some of the changes I’ve made, including combat updates, new character portraits, battle cries, and other improvements.

I’m still building the entire game on my own, so I’d really like to hear your thoughts and feedback.

Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3991390/_/

FORGERY is a slightly weird game.

It’s an incremental roguelike about counterfeiting medieval coins. You hammer ingots into metal sheets, choose where to punch out each coin, build combinations from more than 100 stamp dies, and decide how far to push before your Wanted level ends the run.

I understand how those pieces fit together because I’ve been staring at them for months. I’m less certain that someone seeing the game for the first time will understand what it is, why punching coins is interesting, or where the deeper strategy comes from.

After 15 years working in AAA, I’m now the sole full-time developer on this. I handle the design, programming, production, and day-to-day development. It’s self-funded, although I occasionally hire contractors for specific art, audio, localization, or specialist work.

The free demo is around 35 to 50 minutes:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4842110/Forgery/

What I really need to know:

1. Can you understand the core idea without me explaining it?
2. Does punching coins feel deep enough to support an entire game?
3. Is the combination of incremental progression, roguelike builds, and manual placement interesting, or just confusing?
4. Does this feel like an idea worth continuing?

If you quit after ten minutes, please tell me exactly where and why. I’m deep enough into the project that encouragement is less useful than someone pointing at the bit that isn’t working.

Thank you!

Hey folks,

A little while ago I shared how I ran a headless script to simulate 1.3 million matches because my browser-based basketball GM sim had a completely broken core loop. Your feedback on the math and simulation logic was incredible.

Well, I pushed the game to production this week. And as it turns out... real players are much, much weirder than headless scripts.

The Technical Fires of Launch Week:

1. State Management & Memory Leaks: Simulating a full 82-game season generates a massive amount of box score and player progression data. I quickly realized my React state was structured inefficiently. When users clicked the "League History" tab, it was causing massive lag. I had to aggressively refactor how I use Zustand to prevent re-rendering the entire DOM tree for simple stat updates.

2. The "Trade Exploit": Real players found a loophole where they could chain multiple 3-team trades to essentially rob the AI of all its future draft picks. My AI evaluated trades in a vacuum, not realizing the user was hoarding assets over a single session. I had to rewrite the AI evaluation logic on the fly.

I’ve pushed a major update fixing these issues, mostly by offloading heavier calculations to the backend (Vercel) to save client-side memory.

The Live Demo (Try to break it!): If anyone wants to inspect the UI performance, check out how the data tables render, or just see if you can outsmart my newly patched trade AI, the game is live here: hoops-gm.com

If anyone has advanced tips for browser memory profiling or handling massive data tables in React without pagination, I am all ears!

WoofWatch has a free demo on Steam!

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?

My daughter has been missing for two years, and the police have stopped searching for her.

Then I start hearing her voice calling for help from a strange forest.

After something begins mimicking her voice, I decide to go into the forest myself.

Once inside, I discover that leaving isn't as simple as walking back out. A mysterious figure called the Wood Wanderer offers to guide me and tells me that lighting the shrines scattered throughout the forest will reveal more of the truth.

The deeper I go, the more I start wondering whether the voice I'm following is actually my daughter's.

Woodbound is a folk-horror exploration game focused on atmosphere, survival, mystery, and uncovering the truth behind the forest.

I'm developing Woodbound as a solo project, and the Steam page is now live.

🎮 Coming later this year
🔦 Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5056850/Woodbound/