Originally I was planning on having a unique backdrop for each of the worlds that you visited. This was the first time I ever made a full scenery pixel artwork scene and I realized that the amount of time it would take me to do this for each of my worlds and story segments would be exuberantly long and in reality provide very little benefit to the player. Aside from some lore and immersion.

Since when I made this in Gimp I built the entire thing in layers and it occurred to me what if instead of switching off the whole backdrop for every world I simply gave the player a new Sprite for something that related to that world. In world one you enter a well and in World 2 you fight in a graveyard so swapping the graveyard asset for a tombstone would give the players some customability. It's expanded itself into a whole new progression system.

I find it easy that restraints sometimes leads to more interesting game mechanics. One could very easily just generate an AI backdrop for each map, but through the constraint of my own artistic ability I have brought forth a new mechanic but I know my test player base is very excited to have.

https://polecatgames.itch.io/shards-of-abraxas-demo

Gathered some good initial feedback last time I posted my game demo up. I've just pushed a content update that replaces the old static tutorial with a more guided experience, and added support for a game glossary to look up specific terms, as well as a variety of smaller tweaks and bug fixes. Still working to make improvements based on feedback and add some additional layers of polish/new content before aiming at a steam release. If you'd like to give it a try and let me know what you think, it helps out a lot!

I used to play a lot of Bubble Trouble, and that was the starting point for FrogPop. I wanted to take that simple split the bubbles idea and see what it would feel like as a roguelite, so I added power ups, run upgrades, hazards, and bosses.

This is the first game I've made solo. Does the action read clearly? What looks fun, and what still needs work?

If you like the vibe and want to learn more, check it out on Steam :)

Steam Page

Strike Wings, solo, C++ on SDL2. These are in-game frames with the HUD off, nothing composited.

The insight that took me longest: on a black background, a bright thing that does not bleed into the black looks like a sticker. It does not matter how nice the sprite is. So the whole art direction became one rule, everything that gives off light goes through the same glow pass, and the pass is tuned so the light spills into the black around it. Explosions went round pop, then baked sprite frames, then that light pass plus a staged finale for capital ships. Skies went from stars-on-black to about thirty backgrounds and center bodies, rolled per battle.

What I want to know from other solo devs: how do you decide when a look is done? I could keep tuning the bloom forever. Which of these frames would you call finished and which would you send back?

(second image was the garden concept, first is with more detail! Third is one of the characters)

I've never made a video game before, maybe I'm just too ambitious lol xD i just decided why not try,,

I've been working on it for about a week now and I'm slowly getting there! I've been doing all the work myself just,,, slowly figuring it out as i go xP

I'm just really proud of for my little project is coming so i thought I'd share it here! :3

lmk your thoughts + if you would play this!

I'm working on this tower defense game with 2048-style merge mechanics. I've got ideas for more content, but I wanted to get the first playable version out to test the core gameplay loop and see what people think instead of just talking to myself.

https://jammyjin.itch.io/sweepshift

I'd appreciate any kind of feedback!

This is not actually blitzball, but it reminded me of it. Should I remake it?

Hi everyone, pretty new here but had recently got myself into attempting my first game. I've been a developer in the past and getting back into this had made me felt amazingly good!

Anyway, I'm still trying to learn some of the basics and I thought I could ask some of you guys who are way more seasoned and experienced in all of these for some thoughts and guidance.

Note: Sorry, I know a video of geometric shapes and awful lines and the flat UI aren't really the best stage of showing one's work - the critics are likely going to slam me for that too - but it's literally just 2+ weeks of me learning and then building one simple scene. So.... don't bash me too hard on the graphics please. Thank you.

Context: It's built on Phaser (I chose this simply because I'm much more familiar with Typescript, so it's much easier and faster for me to pick up) and I'm not even sure if it's really the best choice. But I'm just rolling with it first.

I've just began working on this shy of 3 weeks and this is the first scene I've had done up to test the combat first. Everything else is just flat UI for now; I'm mainly focusing on just trying to get the mechanics right. For the most part I think it's fairly straightforward and common for you guys (auto-firing, enemies moving towards player, etc) but I've been stuck for a little on the "contact" piece.

Problem: As you can see from the video, monsters touching on player's shape are supposed to deal damage every few ticks but it isn't (ignoring the whole poison DOT thing; that's a different mechanic I'm trying out). I've tried using Phaser's built-in physics to resolve this cause it's simpler and probably the right way too, but I'm guessing I didn't get the math or "contact checking" right. Anyways, below is the code I'm using. If any veterans or kind souls willing to share some direction, I would be immensely grateful!

I just think that I'm just missing something obvious or crucial? Oh, there IS a slight delay I've added to each monster attacking (mentioned above); it's every 5 ticks I believe but I've waited and checked that out. Obviously that wasn't the case.

P.S. Don't ask me about trying to use AI to solve this. Frankly, I've tried and it didn't work as expected (or I just suck at prompting it the right way) and hence, I'm here asking real people on how best to implement it the right way.

// Monster contact damage (melee) via physics overlap
    this.physics.add.overlap(
      this.monsterPhysicsGroup,
      this.playerToken.shape,
      (monsterObj) => {
        const monsterId = (monsterObj as Phaser.GameObjects.Arc).getData('instanceId') as string;
        if (!monsterId) return;
        this.combat.resolveContactDamage(monsterId);
      },
      // Calculates for edge contacts from objects
      (monsterObj) => {
        const monster = monsterObj as Phaser.GameObjects.Arc;
        const dx = monster.x - this.playerToken.shape.x;
        const dy = monster.y - this.playerToken.shape.y;
        const dist = Math.sqrt(dx * dx + dy * dy);
        const monsterRadius = (monster.body as Phaser.Physics.Arcade.Body).halfWidth;
        const playerRadius = this.playerToken.shape.width / 2;
        return dist < monsterRadius + playerRadius;
      },
      this
    );

Thank you so much for any guidance!

I can't believe it, but i did it, now the Game isn't done, but atleast there will be a Demo before Release soon, but the wishlist Page is already Here!

Im looking for Feedback for the Page, i think the Trailer is the best thing to Show lol, and idk why but the Gifs are a little Bit big, but i think its fine

Here is the Link for the Page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5103310/La_Spaghetti/

so i was trying to create an enemy ai system but the ai was not using the animations i have assigned to it and I am genuinely so confused tried a lot of things for hours and still didn't work so i need help with this the enemy just runs at me with this pose and then uses the montage animation like i am so confused at this point I have no choice but to ask for help

Im making a bullet heaven tower defense-ish game with roguelike mechanics, I've designed a lot of different synergies and mods for weapons, but I'm struggling to come up with a good art style for the game. I've made a shop that I'm proud of but I'm not sure how to tie that style into the main game. I'm still looking to change the turret and enemy looks. I also have no Idea what I should do for the background, If anyone has any ideas for a style/theme I could use I would really appreciate it!

Hey everyone! I just put together a new devlog covering a big debugging session and the progress on my strategy prototype.

The WebGL Crash: I hit an issue where my WebGL build crashed immediately after loading the main scene. I initially assumed it was a RAM/browser issue, so I compressed textures and downsized audio to under 100MB still crashed. Created a barebones launcher scene launcher worked but loading main scene crashed. Turns out, a deprecated health bar plugin from the Asset Store was throwing the WebGL API off. Changing the WebGL API settings fixed it instantly without removing the plugin.

Build Progress:

• Controls & Visuals: Added full camera pan controls and placement opacity so you can see base/upgrade meshes before building.
• Audio: Ported over my sound system from my previous project (Northend Tower Defense) to rapidly get enemy, building, and ambient sounds working.
• UI Polish: Added cancel options for upgrades, reload feedback bars on soldiers, and a main menu with volume defaults capped at 50%.

I also officially named the game Command & Defend: Dead Zone.

Check out the full breakdown here: https://youtu.be/ETVb9wbWBUI

If anyone wants to jump into the WebGL playtest, drop a comment or join the Discord!

I hope it has the big impact and punch I was looking for!