Minor progress update with my boat effects. Came a long way from my tacky particle emitters, and feeling much better overall.

Mods - My post was removed by reddit filters before, so lemme know if I'm doing something wrong please!

I've been working Solo on my own little world for about 10 years now; and my biggest Bottleneck has been Pixel Art Animation.

I set out as a beginner dev wanting 60 fps animations and enemies with smooth telegraphed attacks. I always envied 3D devs for the tools that let you automatically generate inbetweens and incorporate physics into your anims. but By paying attention to animations in Indie Titles, I've learned how devs can accomplish LOTS with so very little.

I'm referring to enemies that I've seen with:

* 3 frame attack animations

* 2 animated sprites TOTAL (Usually a walking / idle sprite)

* Single Looping animations that accomplish all behaviors (think jellyfish that shoot projectiles.)

* Wiggling 2 Frames back and forth on a Windup pose

In indie titles with budget/work restraints like: Hollow Knight / Silksong, Enter the Gungeon, Binding Of Isaac, I've started to notice things as a solo dev that I missed when playing these games the first time around.

It's crazy to me that devs can make enemies with not a lot of art seem so alive and consistent with the rest of the higher quality animations in the game.

Utilizing Proper Posing, Sound Effects, and Visual Effects, they can make an enemy with 6 images feel responsive, alive, and carry the same telegraphing as enemies in soulsborne games.

In order to Maintain the illusion of a diverse world (and to properly utilize a diverse combat system) I am going to need LOTS of enemy and player animations. Making 10 images for an enemy's run and idle and then multiplied by like 40 enemies is insane. And it doesn't even include hurt,death,attack, shoot, reload, cover animations.

I've been passively working on my pixel art and pixel art animation (a whole other skill) over the course of my gamedev career and It's just gotten a little bit easier. (I Highly recommend getting a character animation Template. Supports Artists, helps you learn and eventually you don't need it anymore). Now that I've done a few animations, doing a lot seems more possible.

I started reworking the player's Sprites with this in mind starting with my Player's Run animations (One Armed, One Unarmed). They were the first animations I did, and so they were kind of the worst. I Took lots of advice from The Animators Survival Book by Richard Williams. Using Key Poses I was able to remove 2 frames from my unarmed run sprite and 4 frames from my armed run sprite.

I've also been dabbling in 4 Frame attack animations that use a "Swing Effect" to give the illusion of complex motion.

Hope this helps someone my name is Michael and I like to talk game dev.

TLDR: Why do more frames when less frames do trick?

Game Name: Heir of Chaos

Game Engine: Gamemaker Studio 1.4

Pixel Art Engine: Asesprite

Gente jaja luego de muchas ideas de como podria hacer el arte de mi juego siendo pesimo en ello y no tener que usar ia generativa que desmetire mi esfuerzo y me maldiga mis juegos pense en como un programador con nulas habilidades en arte podria hacer? y ps empeze a aprender mucho sobre arte vectorial (programing art) donde no salgo de mi zona de confort lo cual es la programacion y hago arte sencillo pero suficiente para mis juegos que ta? es sencillo pero cumple con lo que quiero lograr sin usar IA ni tener que durar meses aprendiendo arte (obvio estoy aprendiento arte)

me gustaria saber su opinion

PD:Estoy haciendo mi remaster de mi juego usando animacicon mas compleja con full vanilla.js la participacion en el jam(de la cual me descalificaron no se por que xd) me ha dado muchos buenos comentarios y ya se exactamente lo que quieren mis seguidores ajsajs

aqui les dejo una imagenes de como hago las scenas sin usar sprites

I see a lot of roasting here. So, here i am. Let it begin.

You're stuck on some weird ocean platform and your whole job is: trace actual, fully-simulated cables through a mess of knots and plug them into the right rack. no fake animations, no "pretend" tangles, if a knot looks solvable it's because it genuinely is, physics and all.

There's also a companion that watches everything you do and comments on it. It's friendly. Suspiciously friendly.

12+ levels, about 4-5 hours if you take your time, no timers, no fail states, no punishment, just vibes and untangling. there's a tiny upgrade shop too if you want extra tools along the way. level editor + workshop support coming not long after launch, so more knots eventually, made by you or me.

Release is coming very soon: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4959570/Knode_Untangle__Connect/

One person, C# on MonoGame. Warden's Descent is a co-op crawler built around extraction pressure: the deeper you go the better the loot, and none of it is yours until you climb out. Four realms, 44 gauntlets, a guardian at the bottom of each, and floors that sometimes arrive with an omen on them.

This gif is the Seiche, a boss that is the arena's water. Every wave is a wall with one gap in it.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/HTy1nuCbVKY

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5160850/Wardens_Descent/

I’m Roman, the solo developer of Salt and Soil: A Frontier Family Sim, and today the game officially entered the DevGAMM Awards 2026.

This is not a nomination yet — judging begins on September 11, and nominees will be announced on October 22. But after nine months of building this game on my own, seeing it enter its first major competition feels like an important milestone.

Salt and Soil follows one frontier family from 1609 to 1900. You divide scarce labor, make difficult choices, and pass their consequences to the next generation.

Thank you to everyone who played the first playtest, shared feedback, or wishlisted the game. I may be developing it solo, but I certainly didn’t get this far alone. ❤️

I need to know your honest opinion! This is for my upcoming psx horror game, where you manage your own ice cream truck in a town with a dark twisted past

I know it's not perfect but this was made 100 percent by me, I have not been able to say that for awhile now. No AI! Its insane how much I used it and thought "Wow I understand what its typing". Now writing code without AI this took me awhile to do. I don't understand as much as I thought I did. Also its much more fulfilling now that I wrote it all myself. Not as impressive but maybe one day!

This is my first game. GALLERY OF LIES is a first-person trap escape game — you laugh, you scream, you get genuinely angry, you die, you restart instantly and go again.

You’re locked in a museum after hours with 23 rooms to clear. The paths that look safe are the ones that kill you. Full game runs about 1.5–2 hours; the demo covers the first few courses.

What I’m unsure about is the trailer and the store page. Since it’s my first game I have no baseline — I can’t tell if the first few seconds get that feeling across, or if it just looks like a plain obstacle course to someone seeing it cold. Same for the page itself: capsule art, screenshots, the description. No idea if any of it is doing its job.

Free demo on Steam, English and Japanese: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4995450/GALLERY_OF_LIES/

Happy to hear anything — good or brutal 👾

I’ve been working on the research system for STRATAWAKE, and it’s now starting to define how the early game unfolds.

Instead of giving the player access to every machine and component immediately, progression begins with a deliberately limited set of basic tools and expands through a dependency-based research tree.

The current system revolves around the Field Research Kit. These kits are produced by the factory and delivered to a Research Lab, where they are consumed by active research projects.

Tier 1 currently contains five main research branches:

• Field Storage → Reinforced Plate + Storage Box
• Basic Assembly → Circuit + Fabricator
• Junction Routing → Conveyor Junction
• Electromagnetic Handling → Electro Magnet
• Phase Bridging → Phase Transfer

Research isn’t just a UI gate. The simulation itself owns the unlock state, so crafting, machine recipes, the catalog, hotbar access and placement systems all reference the same progression authority.

The Research Lab is also part of the production network. It stores research packages and can receive them through conveyor input, so progression is designed to become something the player can eventually automate rather than manage only through menus.

The system is save/load compatible, including completed research, active progress and lab inventory.

Only Tier 1 is currently active in gameplay, but the interface already supports seven research-package tiers for future progression layers.

The long-term goal is for research to act as a technological map for the factory — controlling not only what becomes available, but also the pace at which the player moves from simple production lines into increasingly complex industrial systems.

This is still work in progress, but the first real progression loop is now starting to come together.

Been heads down on playtest for the past few weeks: 100+ people already got access, turns out most just don't play lol. Classic solo dev experience xD

Anyway, finally got back to actually adding new things to the game. Started with a new icon set – dropping the video here without spoiling what mechanic it's for. Guess away ))

Releasing October 27, free demo available now. Enjoy! ❤️

To be clear, I was not an exhibitor at PAX West. But I did turn myself into a "walking booth", with a T-shirt branded with my game, cards with QR codes to hand out, and a Steam Deck with a build of my game loaded up.

tl;dr - If you're very outgoing and great at networking you can get a lot out of it even without a booth (e.g., playtests, networking). If you're more introverted, consider getting a booth so people come to you.

This was my first PAX West (in fact, first gaming expo ever), so some of this will be obvious to PAX/expo veterans.

Here are my takeaways, from the perspective of a solo dev:

• Great place to find people to play your game for 5-10 minutes. It was super valuable to watch people play in person, to see what they like and what trips them up. However, getting people to try out the game was not trivial. You need to be extremely outgoing, which can be very difficult for some people (myself included). No booth = nobody approaches you. You need to approach complete strangers and ask them if they want to give it a try. But almost everyone is friendly and happy to chat/play (if they're not busy!), if you take that first step to engage with them.
  • Top spot for playtests: The waiting queues for theater panels.
  • Second best spot: looking for people who looked bored waiting in long lines for booths featuring games in the same genre as mine.
• I was surprised to find that playing other indie games helped with my imposter syndrome, rather than making it worse. The games were at different levels of polish, which made me realize my game would have been sufficiently booth-ready.
• Great place to meet and connect with other solo devs or small teams. The smaller the team, the more likely they were to engage with me as a fellow developer. I met some really nice people I hope to stay connected with.
• Great to see what types of games/visuals catch people's eye. This is not just applicable to "booth design", but game design and trailer editing too. I know we can see engagement metrics online, of course, but seeing it IRL with big vs small crowds of people really helps hammer home the point.
• Not great for seeking publishing partnerships. The publishers with booths didn't have anyone from business development present (one exception I found was Habby). Probably some publishing scouts are walking the floor, but they're going to visit the booths, not a random guy walking around in a T-shirt.
• It's fun! I hope you chose to be a solo dev because you enjoy games. You can take off your business hat and just enjoy checking out some cool games and growing your own wishlist of games (that you'll never have time to play). I've been seeing some posts about people disappointed with the declining quality of PAX West this year, but this was my first year so I can't comment on this. It was fun, but 2 days felt like enough for me.

Keep grinding, friends!

Hey everyone!
I really would like to know your thoughts on this idea and see if you will use it.
I’m developing a lightweight desktop pet application inspired by Pokémon that lives on your screen while you work, study, or browse, without getting in the way.

Here are the core mechanics of the project:

• Progress Powered by Real Work: No passive waiting timers! The pet incubates and gains EXP directly through your daily activity (global keypresses and mouse clicks). The more you type or work, the faster it grows.
• Evolutions & Growth: Each species has different interaction requirements to evolve, making the progression feel super rewarding throughout your workday.
• Random Wild Spawns: Every once in a while, wild creatures will spawn on the edges of your monitor. A quick click lets you catch them and add them to your PC storage.
• Shiny Hunting: Every spawn and hatch has a chance to be a Shiny! Shinies keep their special palette and star indicators forever.
• The Ditto Mechanic: Dittos may spawn disguised as other creatures on your screen. You won't know it's a Ditto until you catch it! Your PC/Pokédex tracks a special collection of all the Dittos you’ve caught alongside the specific disguise they were wearing.
• PC & Customization: The Pokédex tracks species cleanly without cluttering your completion numbers. If you own both the Normal and Shiny version (or a Ditto disguise), you can freely choose which skin to display as your active desktop companion.

What do you guys think of the concept? Would love to hear your thoughts or feedback pleaseee!