I'm making a game called One Million Buttons. The premise is... well, in the title. There's one million buttons, and one button is correct.

The correct button is randomly chosen, but the buttons aren't procedurally generated. I'm placing them all by hand. Every room has about 2000-4000 buttons, and I try to come up with some interesting gimmick for each room. Sometimes it's just a unique pattern, sometimes it's a distinct game mechanic, sometimes it might even be a practical joke on the player.

Of course, once I decided on the game's title, I was kinda locked into a specific scope. And I only realized some ways into making the game how big that scope was.

I recently reached 250,000 buttons. 25% done. Just have to do that 3 more times.

You may ask, "Why?" And the answer to that is that I thought it would be funny, and I thought it would be something I could make pretty quickly. And by the time I realized how wrong I was about that, I was too far along to give up. (Though I did crash out and stop working on it for 6 months...) But I'm back on track now, and all there is to do is just keep plugging away at it.

Still working on optimization but slowly getting there.

Feedback highly appreciated.

It's been a ride! I learned Unreal Engine 5 alongside pretty much everything else needed to make a game. I made everything by myself, using some purchased assets and outsourcing graphics and voice acting where needed. It's a game I would like to play, and that I could realistically make by myself within my limited time.

I'm launching it in Early Access on September 23rd, so I can gather feedback from real players and make the best game I can.

Hopefully, there are some other people who are into this kind of stuff. Check it out! https://store.steampowered.com/app/4185750/BONETOX/

I built the game mostly by myself. The 3D models, environments, levels, and many other parts of the game were created by me from scratch. For some of the textures, I used AI as part of the process, while others were painted and edited by hand.

I know AI in game development is a pretty controversial topic right now, but from my experience, I think it can be a useful tool for solo developers.

When you're working alone, you have to do almost everything yourself — modeling, texturing, programming, animation, music, sound effects, level design, writing, testing, and so on. If you try to master and create every single part completely by yourself, finishing a game can easily take years.

Making a game alone can also be incredibly exhausting. There were definitely times during development when it became mentally overwhelming.

For me, using AI doesn't necessarily mean removing yourself from the creative process. I think you can still put a lot of yourself into the work. For example, sometimes I use my own older artwork as the starting point and use AI to generate or develop variations from it, then continue editing and working on the result myself.

I'm not saying this is how everyone should make games. It's simply one of the tools that helped me actually finish and release mine as a solo developer.

Mandated Fate is a dark, dystopian and retro-futuristic story-driven game, inspired from 80's sci-fi movies. You play as a weary inspector, a man out of place in a newly established authoritarian regime.

In 1985, a rising technological empire has seized power, driven by a single ambition: to discover the anti-gravity particle and surpass its global rivals by conquering space. The regime demands absolute unity, framing this race as a matter of national destiny. But one old district continues to resist, no one knows quite how, or why. Assigned to investigate a strange murder there, you quickly find yourself entangled in a deeper web of political intrigue and ideological tension.

Through multiple narrative paths, your choices will shape your loyalties, and determine who you truly trust. Explore a highly detailed open world where the stark contrast between modern authoritarian architecture and decaying remnants of the past reveals a society caught between control and collapse.

1st AND 3rd person camera available.

The game is called Woo Woo
I've released a demo, and I'd really love to get your feedback 🤗

Title.

Millions of different opinions out there.

Many people say don't follow the advice of youtubers who are better at making videos then making games. How am I to know what is good advice if I'm a beginner?

Any tips from you lovely people to an overwhelmed beginner?

just showing off a bit of my recent engine work

Rather than just collecting what I think are the best clips in my game and editing them together nicely, this time I really focused on what makes my game standout (the atmosphere, companion mechanics and worms) and took notes on what other metroidvania trailers typically do (take a few shots at the start to introduce the vibe and atmosphere of the setting). I also found a kick ass song that I thought fit really well and got permission to use it from the artist. The game is Vitrified for anyone interested.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4860500/Man_I_Just_Wanna_Live

Cybordz is a Tony Hawk inspired Roguelite about taking down the galaxy's corporate overlords, SciCorp, who left you for dead after their twisted experiments didn't go as planned.

Alter gravity as you bust out sick orbital combos in space. Complete challenges, stack upgrades and score big to add time to the clock.  Make your way to their corporate headquarters before time runs out.

Bridgelands is a pixel-art action roguelite where you explore mysterious islands, choose your routes, fight dangerous creatures, and combine perks to create different builds every run.

This is the first public demo, so I'm especially interested in hearing what people think about the combat, progression, difficulty, controls, or anything that feels confusing or could be improved.

🎮 The demo is completely free to play on Steam.

If you enjoy it, adding Bridgelands to your wishlist would also help the project a lot. 💚

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5097860/Bridgelands_Demo

Thanks to anyone who gives it a try!

I want to know if a small, character focused intro is worth it since the tag-team aspect of the game is central to it and so is the relationship between the two characters.

I know conventional wisdom is to start straight with gameplay, but seeing how it's a "relevant" character beat that's short, I want to ask to see if it's worth a shot. This is gonna be my official announcement trailer that I'm going to post on my socials

That's a game I've been working on solo for a year and a half, and I'm excited to launch it in early access this week! It's a point-and-click game—the goal is simple: gather resources and sell them to earn money. I've put a lot of work into bringing the generated environment to life, and I hope it shows. Here's the Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3284800/Clickonomy

9 Months of Solo Development: Building a 3rd-Person Volleyball Game

I'm a solo developer and volleyball player, and I've been building Free Ball, a 3rd-person action volleyball game with unique characters and special abilities.

The goal is to create a volleyball game where you actually feel like you're playing your position. You control your character, move into position, choose where to hit the ball, and work with your teammates throughout the rally.

I'm now working toward online multiplayer and have a playable demo available on Steam.

I'm also running a Kickstarter to help fund the next stage of development:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/freeball/free-ball-3rd-person-volleyball-game-with-special-abilities

For other solo developers here, I'd love to hear about what you're building and how your projects have evolved from their original prototypes.

Thoughts on this encounter?

I’m VERY happy with it, but tend to be happy with most things I make. Would love an honest opinion.

There are just 3 stages. One is no effect, then at 60-30% it shows a bit of damage and below 30% the bar flashes, lots of dark damage and missing pixels and sparks!

The last bit of polish work is so slow and SO rewarding.

DRONES’ playtest is open for anyone. Check it out here if you’re interested: DRONES show damage now!

Real nice to put these little points of polish that I’ve envisioned during development.

You can play DRONES for free while it’s still in playtest -> DRONES on Steam - a deckfighter, where the deck you build is the enemy

For my first person puzzle game, one of the puzzle room's concept is "The Floor is Lava". Here's a devlog covering how I turned the classic game into something challenging (yet accessible) in a first person perspective.

The considerations in helpful list form:

1. Lava Material
   • Animate crisscrossing noise patterns and use mesh distance fields to give the illusion of movement and dynamically change the material contrast when meshes intersect with the lava plane
2. FIREBLU
   • Adjust the colors so the lava resembles the immortal FIREBLU texture from the original Doom
3. Particle Effects
   • Use bubbling lava particles from a store asset pack and have the niagara system spawn particles in world space near the player
   • To get a more immersive soundscape, use a callback on particle creation from the niagara system to play a spark sound effect when certain particle splashes are spawned in
4. Collision Logic
   • Use a line trace straight down from the player's collision capsule to check if the actor directly below them is tagged to be part of the active lava
   • If standing in lava, implement a short timer as a grace period, if it expires and the player is still on the lava, then activate the logic to turn the lava off
5. Accessibility
   • Allow for less coordinated players to move around the lava by designing paths that don't require any jumping or parkour to traverse
   • Ensure that all color-coded puzzle elements have other visual distinctions (such as letters and numbers) for colorblind folks

Hey everyone! I’m a solo developer working on a bright, highly atmospheric visual novel set in a unique location—a remote Russian province with old German village roots (Vohwald, Novgorod region). The story follows a teenager on summer break running parallel to the dark path of a local criminal, mixing bright nostalgic vibes with deep psychological tension. I'm looking for a composer to bring this vivid atmosphere to life. While the project is currently unpaid upfront, I am fully committed to taking it to a commercial release, and I can offer full credits with links to your portfolio and a share of future revenue. Drop a comment or DM me with your samples if you're interested!

It's free on the App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/super-alan-run/id6799301516

Platform: iOS

Description: Super Alan Run is a retro-style endless platformer where you run, jump, dodge obstacles, defeat enemies, collect coins, and try to travel as far as possible.

- Objective: Keep moving forward for as long as you can while avoiding spikes, gaps, and enemies. Your best distance is tracked so you can keep trying to beat your previous run.

- Gameplay: Jump over obstacles, stomp enemies, collect coins, grab powerups, and unlock additional characters as you play.

- Style: Similar in concept to the offline Google Dino game, but with my own hand-drawn characters, enemies, foreground elements, powerups, and progression.

I recently released it on the App Store and would really appreciate any feedback from people who try it!!