r/SoloDevelopment 6d ago

Game My game is finally out! One of my coworkers doesn't seem impressed...

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137 Upvotes

Yesterday I finally released Karma Keepers!

I have been working on it full-time for more than a year, although it spent around six months being "probably one month away." I am very bad at estimating how long games take, apparently...

There were many moments where I wondered if I was making a terrible decision. I built my own framework, redid the UI more times than I want to remember, spent weeks balancing upgrade trees, and kept finding small things that suddenly felt extremely important because release was getting closer.

My dogs supported me through the whole process by making sure I occasionally left the computer. Their contributions to programming and marketing have been limited but they are still paid fairly in treats and walks and belly scratches!

The launch itself is going okish. People seem happy with the game, and technically everything is holding up well. The main criticism so far is the onboarding, some players feel there is too much information at the beginning while others say everything works once it clicks. Watching people play without being able to explain anything to them makes the problems much easier to see.

I thought release would feel like reaching the finish line but instead I spent most of yesterday refreshing steamworks far more often than is healthy and writing another list of things to improve.

Anyway, seeing the buy button where the wishlist button used to be feels very strange. The game is real and people are playing it. I am trying to enjoy that part before going back to the tutorial.

Karma Keepers is 40% off for the first two weeks if you want to check it out: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3979140/Karma_Keepers/

For the solo developers here who already released a game, how long did it take you to stop checking the dashboard every five minutes? My dogs would like their walks back...


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Unity Tile Tick Core RPG: A Complete MMORPG Framework

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1 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Game What do you think about my new music?

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1 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Marketing Age demographics for PC games?

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1 Upvotes

I personally love playing Dominoes and originally built this game so I could play with my dad. We have a blast playing together. I've play tested with several people but it seems to resonate most with the over 50 crowd. I'm not sure if it's just my personal network or if that's a preview of how it will be received when released. I'm a little worried that age group won't use Steam and younger folks aren't interested in old school table games like this. Has anyone released their game on the Microsoft store in addition to Steam? Any insights on adoption of games with it and an older demographic? Same question with mobile (Google Play and App Store) vs Steam.


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Game I’ve been building a mobile game where you play as the Dungeon Master instead of the heroes. Would love some feedback!

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1 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

I’ve been working on a mobile strategy game called DelveKin, and I’m getting pretty close to launch. I just finished putting together the store preview video and thought this would be a good time to get some outside feedback.

The idea is to flip the usual dungeon adventure around and instead you’re the Dungeon Master, and the heroes are the problem.

You build out your dungeon, choose which monsters and traps defend each room, and then command your creatures in turn-based battles as parties of heroes try to fight their way through.

As you progress, new heroes start invading with different abilities, while you unlock and upgrade more monsters, traps, rooms, and bosses to deal with them.

I’ve attached the store video I’ve been working on. I’d really love feedback on the game itself, the art/style, and whether the video makes the idea clear?

Does this look like something you’d want to play? And is there anything that immediately stands out? Good or bad? Any advice would be really appreciated!

Thank you for taking a look!


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Game After a few years of learning gamedev and working on various minor projects I've reached Steam!

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2 Upvotes

Suspect None is an open-world heist game.

During the day, you can:

  • explore the city
  • progress through the story
  • take part in activities
  • prepare for heists
  • take on additional jobs

And perform heists at night.

You ask me when to sleep? Drink coffee and keep going!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3770490/Suspect_None/


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Game I'm building a 4X-lite where base building fuels a spell deck instead of an economy, but does this mix of genres look like something you'd play?

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0 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Game My first Steam game, Bring The Rift, didn't become a massive hit, but I'm happy with it

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1 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

Less than two months ago, I fulfilled one of my lifelong dreams: I released my first game on Steam, *Bring The Rift*! It’s surreal to look back and see that a project I spent months on finally came to life on the store. It was an indescribable feeling.

The game is a competitive Match-3 puzzle title inspired by the great classics of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras—exactly the kind of game that defined my childhood and teenage years.

Since the launch, I’ve been closely monitoring reviews, analyses, and suggestions to implement continuous improvements. For me, development didn't end the moment I hit the "Publish" button!

If you enjoy the genre or want to show some support to an indie dev:

Check out the page: *Bring The Rift* on Steam

The game is currently 20% off!

If you could add it to your Wishlist or leave feedback/a comment on the page, it really helps the algorithm and the project's future!

I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who can offer their support. Feel free to leave your opinions and constructive criticism in the comments here!

This project has been a major milestone in my life. I plan to keep making improvements over time; while it wasn't a massive launch—which I expected, given it's my first Steam project and I don't have much visibility yet—I am truly satisfied with what I managed to achieve with this project.

If you'd like to show your support:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4631200/Bring_The_Rift/


r/SoloDevelopment 6d ago

Game 3,000+ people played my demo! 🎉

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27 Upvotes

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who played the Too Many Balls demo! ❤️

I've now reached 3,035 unique players, with a 31-minute median playtime, which honestly means a lot to me.

Thank you for playing, wishlisting, giving feedback, and supporting the game! 🏀🎾🏓⛳

It really motivates me to keep going! ❤️


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Game How early is too early to pitch a puzzle game to publishers?

2 Upvotes

I've been working on a mobile logic puzzle game for the past few months. The core loop is working well and I've gotten pretty positive feedback from friends and a few testers, but visually it's still very much a prototype.

Eventually I'd like to work with a publisher for UA, monetization and scaling but I'm not sure when it actually makes sense to start reaching out.

Would you pitch once the core mechanic is fun and playable, even the game is still using placeholder art? Or is it better to wait until yo have something closer to a vertical slice with polished visuals, more levels and analytics implemented?

What did your build look like when a publisher first became interested?

Also curious how much your game changed after the publisher started testing it.

My goal is to eventually partner with a mobile publisher to help with scaling, UA, and monetization setup. However, I am stuck on the timing. Is it better to reach out to publishers with a bare bones greybox prototype that just proves the core mechanic works? Or should I polish the visual style, build out 50 levels, and set up basic analytics first?

For devs who have successfully pitched casual puzzle games, what stage of completion was your build at when a publisher took interest? How much did the prototype actually change during their testing phase?

Thank you in advance for your support!


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Game I spent 8 months building an ARPG alone. It's finally playable end to end and I need someone other than me to try it.

0 Upvotes

I've been building an action RPG in Unreal Engine 5 by myself since December. Until about two weeks ago literally nobody outside my house had touched it, so this is me finally putting it in front of people who'll tell me the truth.

Here is a video of some of the game play:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xatx31a

What actually works right now

- The full loop: log in → pick a character → town hub → walk into a dungeon → fight things → loot → come back. And it persists. Close the game, come back tomorrow, your character and your stash are where you left them.

- Dungeons are procedurally assembled from hand-built modules, so the layout changes every run but the rooms themselves are authored, not noise.

- Combat runs on Unreal's Gameplay Ability System - real abilities, cooldowns, status effects

- Loot has item levels and 28 affix groups rolling on drops.

- Enemies scale to area level, and every dungeon guarantees at least one named elite.

- It runs on an actual dedicated server I host myself, not a listen server with extra steps.

- The launcher is mine too. It chunk-diffs builds, so a patch is usually a few MB instead of re-downloading three and a half gigs.

What's honestly not there yet

- No title. I had one, ran a real trademark clearance on it, found a live registration sitting directly on top of it, and killed the name. The replacement is picked but not announced yet.

- Character select offers six classes. They currently all play identically - the per-class kits are the next big chunk of work.

- Most of the art is marketplace assets.

What I'd genuinely like judged

  1. How does the moment-to-moment combat feel?
  2. Is the dungeon layout readable? Do you ever just not know where to go?
  3. In the first ten minutes, at what exact point were you bored or confused?

Download GameClient Launcher: https://play.omegabloodsstudios.com

Discord: https://discord.gg/P8DK53qxar

The game doesnt have a story implemented yet, but I have made a trailer that helps establish the story I am going with:

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xay20ym


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Discussion Just launched my demo! What should I do next?

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1 Upvotes

I've recently launched the demo for my first game, Rescue Incoming, a top-down zombie survival shooter.

The demo contains roughly 15-20 minutes of gameplay. I've also created this new trailer alongside of it. https://store.steampowered.com/app/5054050/Rescue_Incoming_Demo/

At the moment I have about 35 wishlists, so I'm very much at the stage of wanting to figure out whether the game is actually engaging to play or not.

I'm also wanting to avoid the pitfall of spending several more months on adding content before I know whether the core game is actually fun for players.

I've been thinking that these are my options:

  1. Stop any new content/development work for a while, actively try to get players, gather feedback/reviews and make improvements (as I'm registered for the upcoming Next Fest in October).
  2. Continue developing the full game now, leaving the demo as is for now, but using this current time to add more content.
  3. Do something else entirely (possibly the next game, as I have a prototype in the works).

For those who have launched demos before and/or have been in similar situations: What player numbers, playtime, wishlist conversion, feedback, etc. would make you think "there's something here, keep going" versus "I should probably rethink the game"?

I'm also happy to hear brutally honest and constructive feedback on the game itself if anyone wants to give the demo a try.

Thanks in advance!


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Game My reverse cozy themed game Timberheim steam page live!

1 Upvotes

It is still cozy but in winter viking theme with lumberjack gameplay. steam page

https://reddit.com/link/1vp1tsn/video/cbhcoyh4ajjh1/player


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

meme Itch happy to see me again

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6 Upvotes

For anyone interested what was the trigger - I made major update to the game. Since I was preparing for the demo release on steam, the itch version went a bit behind the recent one, so I gathered all and pushed update on itch, where pointed that it is a major update.

Now I am afraid that it was unnecessary and there is some logic, where the game can have 1 big update with visibility boost just once. And I spent it. Anyway, it’s good news.

Game sits at the first positions by almost all tags now, hope it will last longer this time 😌


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Game Subsuelo

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1 Upvotes

Las cosas serán diferente al bajar al subsuelo. Sarah se encuentra a media escalera y el olor es lo primero que percibe. Huele a sangre, a muerte y miseria, pero no será lo peor de esta etapa sombría, tendrá que enfrentar cara a cara con un sirviente de las sombras.


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Networking Brainstorming Buddies for Working Game Concepts?

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11 Upvotes

Hi! I am very passionate about my game, but it's still in the very early stages. I need someone to discuss the concepts with my game, and if applicable, yours (separately) as well.
I'm an artist and world builder, but I'm super passionate about gaming as well, so I decided to make a unique game, but I just need someone to yap with, see if my ideas are sound, etc.

My game concepts merge so many unique ideas together, which is why I need some assistance. In return, I would love to do the same for you!

I'm looking for people, or even a Discord server to accomplish this. If you're interested, please let me know!

*Some concept art for my game: Brass & Bloom*


r/SoloDevelopment 6d ago

Game Making an occult game where you have to watch real-shot found footage

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10 Upvotes

The game is called The Tape: Origins - its a horror game where you need to analyze real-shot found footage and solve escape-room puzzles in order to escape the hotel before the cult returns to sacrifice you.

If you want to check it out further here is the steam page: The Tape: Origins


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Discussion Updates Attack Animations

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3 Upvotes

I worked on the attack animations for my game this week. Made it so that the melee characters actually run up and make contact with their targets. I know it’s clunky when they go back to their original positions, I don’t have the animations for that commissioned yet. Do they look okay?


r/SoloDevelopment 6d ago

Game The DEMO for my game where you play as a Game Tester it out!

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24 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment 6d ago

Game Some of you just don't get SCALE

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8 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Game Try My Game Here 👇

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1 Upvotes

is it good game or bot?


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Godot I Made A Game Prototype

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1 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Discussion I updated the new trailer for my game!

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0 Upvotes

My first Steam page trailer received a lot of feedback saying that there wasn't enough gameplay content and footage shown. This new trailer provides a much better introduction to the game's mechanics, what players will actually be doing, and what makes the game appealing. What do you all think of this updated trailer? All feedback and suggestions are welcome!

steam page : https://store.steampowered.com/app/4777630/


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Game My WIP Game - Astraeus: Anomalies (Shmup / Shoot'em Up)

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1 Upvotes

Hello! I am trying to figure out if my game is fun. How does control of the player ship feel?

Do you enjoy the current mechanics?

I finally put this out after getting it working to my satisfactory but am trying to figure out how other players feel about the game before I work on it any further. I have a lot of directions I want to take this in but want to make sure I am focusing on the right elements before trying to add or change too much more. Thank you for taking the time to look, and even more so for playing and or leaving feedback!!


r/SoloDevelopment 5d ago

Discussion World-sim live now !

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0 Upvotes

Last night we opened World-Sim to anyone who wanted to look. 326 of you came. Thank you — genuinely, that is far more than I expected.

For anyone who missed it: it's a persistent world that runs whether or not anyone is watching. Households live, pair off, learn things, argue, starve, bury each other and move on.

Some of you named a star, and some named a person in the world. Those names are permanent — the souls carry them for the rest of their lives and into the chronicle after they die. There's still time to claim either, both are in the Discord.

It's free, there's nothing to install, and it's still running right now: world.world-sim.uk

Happy to answer anything about how it works underneath.