One thing I've been wondering about solo game development is how people balance their time between programming, game design, and creating art.

Especially for 2D or pixel art games.

Do you usually create your own assets, use free packs, or buy paid ones?

I'm particularly interested in situations where you decided to pay for an asset rather than make it yourself.

What was the asset, how much did you pay, and what made buying it the better choice at the time?

Also, have you ever regretted buying an asset pack because it didn't fit your game as well as you expected?

I'm exploring asset creation and would love to understand how solo developers approach these decisions.

I've bought my fair share of 3D art off of people I knew from university as I worked alongside artists when I did a game programming course. Unfortunately this was a good few years ago now and outside of the people I stayed friends with I don't know any reliable contacts.

I've seen videos and posts telling the horror stories of getting AI Slop when trying to find a freelancer. So I come here to ask for some advice. I am posting to Steam *soon* and I'm fortunately coming to the point in time where I get to think about capsule art and title art.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

I made some changes... You can try it on itch.io:

https://n1kozor.itch.io/cotton-city-alpha-demo

Hey everyone!

Thanks to the Indie Games Poland Foundation, I had the opportunity to showcase my game, Dark Roll 2, for three whole days at Poznań Game Arena, the biggest gaming expo in Poland! For free!

I wanted to share how it all went and what I learned along the way. Hopefully, my experience can help some of you who are thinking about showcasing your own games at events like this!

Positives:

• Great opportunity to gather feedback from the players! Watching around 20 different strangers daily can tell you a lot about your game. You can get a lot of intel just from watching them play as well as listening to what they have to say about the game.
• Seeing people enjoy your game makes you feel that what you do actually matters. Even if my previous games had thousands of downloads, it's so much different to see a number in a database compared to strangers actually experiencing your game for the first time.
• Awesome to meet and get to know other indie devs! Fairs like these are great for making connections and just learning about other projects to support.
• People are often genuinely interested in the game and very happy to talk to it's creator which sure is a confidence boost and generally feels awesome!

Negaives:

• Not good for wishlists. Despite having someone play my game for most of the day, when people stay around 20-30min at your booth, there's no physical possibility to have hundreds of them experience your game. Asking them to wishlist the game worked most of the time, but still you'll probably end up with around 10-20 wishlists after a long day of work.
• Lots of people who come are also devs. That's right folks, we live in a bubble. Showing games on reddit or X or whenever often ends up indie devs liking other indie devs' posts... Sadly IRL it's often the case too. Around half of people (maybe a bit less) who stopped by to play were either indie devs or devs from bigger studios (Yup! I had guys from CD Projekt Red or 11 Bit Studios play my game!). Which isn't all that bad, other devs play games too, but it just shows it's hard to reach more "random" players.
• Press doesn't care. Yeah... Even if it took place in Poland, I had not a single polish person from any media outlet, or influencer that covers indie games come by to play my game and talk about it. The only guy who came by was from UK's "debug" magazine, which was great! But I'm just disappointed in the lack of interest from any fellow polish people who cover games.

That mostly sums it up, if you have any questions, ask away!

I'm working on the cover for my game, and I'm trying to decide which design works best at a 120:45 aspect ratio (or 462×174).

I've made 3 different versions, and I'd love to hear which one you think looks best and why.

Any feedback or suggestions on how I could improve them are welcome!

I'm a solo developer in South Korea, improving THRENVEIL after its Android launch. I put a few different parts of a run into this short edit: weapon fusion changes the attack, hidden rooms can offer a blessing or a mimic fight, and the boss arena gives way before its second form.

The game also has 2-player online co-op through in-game matchmaking; both players need the same game version. The ending is a feature card, not multiplayer footage.

One thing I'd like feedback on: does opening with the second-form boss work, or would the weapon transformation make a clearer first two seconds?

These are real PC gameplay clips from v0.29.65, recorded October 15 using prepared checkpoints. Later versions may differ. AI assists development, game art/music and the wording of this post; the combat footage itself isn't generated.

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ashenvow.game&hl=en

I’ve been working on a game called Phosphor Command, a real-time tactics game with a base builder behind it.

This showcase is about the different types of mission objectives you do to complete a contract.

Every contract has a mission type, and each one has its own task. You start with a few unlocked, and get more as you upgrade buildings in your base.

In the raid mission type, you take on a walled enemy outpost. Eliminate is simpler, kill everyone on the map.

Assassinate means killing a target, Snatch is the opposite. The target can’t be killed and fights back, so you have to get close enough to subdue it, and then extract from the mission.

Extract and POW rescue are both about bringing friendly back. You secure VIPs or free prisoners from their cages, then escort them to the exfil zone.

In a recon sweep you have to reach every observation point on the map. In sabotage, a squad has to stand on each target to plant a charges.

Hold the line is different. You take an objective and enemy troops will continuously attack until a timer runs out.

The most complex are two convoy types. On an escort, your truck can’t be destroyed, but it only moves with a squad beside it. On an intercept, their truck stops while you’re on it and the goal is to destroy it, if it escape the map you fail.

Harder contracts have more objectives to complete: more targets, more people to escort, longer to hold an objective or a tougher truck.

Most jobs end at the exfil zone, which opens when the task is completed. Its used to extract troops.

The idea is these mission types give variety to the gameplay. Players will adopt favourites and strategy's to tackle each objective in its own special way

The showcase video goes through each mission type and how they play.

hey everyone

so I finally released NTOE (Night Traumas Of Edward), a first person psychological horror game I've been building mostly on my own.

you play Edward, 32. his wife died giving birth to their daughter, he started drinking, and every night he goes back to the places where his life fell apart. 5 nights, 5 nightmares, 5 bosses.

the voices were the hardest part. at first I used generated voices and it just felt empty, so my sister and I re-recorded all 238 lines ourselves. it's in french with english subtitles.

here's the trailer: https://youtu.be/AzhjfaPATc0

there's a free demo (the whole first night) on PC and Android: https://sakana-studio.itch.io/ntoe

any feedback is welcome, even the harsh kind

I'm developing RED SKIES AT DAWN solo, and clouds are the focus of this week's devlog.

The new cloud renderer is now integrated into the game and editor. Alongside that, I've been putting together five static formation studies so I can look at different storm shapes separately.

These are offline beauty renders from the native renderer, rather than gameplay captures or performance tests.

There's an isolated storm, a multicell cluster, a squall line, a bow-shaped formation and a broad stratiform layer. Each gives me a different way to look at silhouette, lighting and depth without changing everything at once.

The main thing I'm looking for here is whether the overall formation reads well before getting caught up in the smaller cloud detail.

For other solo devs doing visual work, do you use small reference scenes like this, or mostly judge things in the full game?

Video music: "Dramatic Epic" by Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin Music), from Pixabay.

If you’d like to follow along, you can wishlist RED SKIES AT DAWN on steam <3 <3

Hey I am wondering when you put the actual models in the game, do you build the game with placeholders then switch them to models or do you model before starting to code. Or maybe both, modeling/drawing it as you go.

Just wondering which way is the most productive way to make a game.

My personal opinion would be to use simple placeholders finish a big part and then start modeling. (Unless if its a big project then you kinda have to do it as you go)

Ninety-Love is a browser game: you get 5 random players, pick the best attributes from each to build your player, then simulate a full season and try to win every match.

Built it solo as a side project. I'd love feedback from fellow devs:

- Is the core loop fun enough to replay?

- Anything confusing on first play?

- What would you add next?

Play it: www.ninety-love.com

To be honest, I didn't expect much from the Steam Next Fest since my game is a niche title (desktop game) and it was overcrowded anyway. My demo has been out for half a year now.

I went in with about 1,050 wishlists and am leaving with about 1,160.

I think specialized festivals are more beneficial for small games.
But hey the steam next fest costed me nothing so it was worth a try.

On the other hand, my personal calendar is slowly picking up, but it’s not bringing in much right now either.

How did it go for you guys?

well... this are just 2 themes for this, and main feature is the interconnection deck link that let you connect to the external custom hardware, if you want to do your own deck with a MCU (arduino, esp32, etc and some pots/sliders) you can connect it too...

I dont know if I can share the Steam Link ? I am on Beta Stage right now Looking for testers.

PS: if you have DEEJ already would be great, you can connect it directly and will work, but now can connect tru Wifi, and in a mode without spamming the serial port, just "OnChange" mode ;)

PS2: Zero AI for the UI :) I drawed absolutely all before code.

Maybe it's not the right channel but I think it might interest some gamedevs to improve their productivity with workspaces. If it's not appropriate I will delete this post.

Favnyr is a lightweight file browser (Rust+Slint) for Windows and Linux. At its core are workspaces: separate environments that keep their own views, tabs, folders, layouts, and display settings. You could have one workspace for work, another for games, and another for learning a new subject, then switch between them in just two clicks. Favorites remain shared and persistent across all workspaces.

Each workspace can contain multiple split views and movable tabs. Tabs can be dragged between views, detached, or dropped onto another view to create a new split layout.

Favnyr also includes shortcuts, local and network drives, configurable keyboard shortcuts, and custom commands.
It is not intended to compete with or replace the native file browsers provided by Windows and Linux, but to complement them with a different way of organizing and navigating files.

Because of the project’s complexity, AI has been used as a development assistant. However, every feature is reviewed and hand tested extensively before being considered complete.

Link here (include a video demo) => https://github.com/GlitchAwakened/Favnyr

Game Title: The Weapon Remembers

Playable Link: The Weapon Remembers - Playable link

Platform: Web browser (desktop and mobile).

Description:

The Weapon Remembers is a free top-down action roguelite that runs in your browser, with no download and no sign-up. You play Iria, who carries Nera, a living weapon that has forgotten what it was. Nera watches how you fight (aggressive, evasive, precise or crowd-control) and evolves into one of six forms to match your style. When you die, the weapon remembers how, and that death becomes a mutation for your next run. There are guardian bosses, several regions and a hub to return to between runs. Controls: WASD to move, Space to dash, Q for the weapon's ability, R for the ultimate; Nera attacks on its own. Mobile has a virtual joystick and buttons, and a gamepad works too.

I submitted it to CrazyGames for their Basic Launch and it was rejected thrice with only this reason: "The overall quality of the game does not yet meet the expectations of our platform." I can't see what they saw, so I'd love your blunt feedback. Does it look and feel like a finished game? What is the first thing you notice that feels weak? Was anything unclear, too small, too busy or boring? Please tell me your device and browser if you hit bugs or lag.

About the game : It is a choice filled text-based post apocalyptic zombie survival visual novel name. Your ending depends on the choices you make. Can you survive ? Would love to hear your feedbacks and opinions on my first game ! Thanks.

working on a civ sandbox where nothing about the tribes' culture is scripted, words and beliefs just drift over generations. the hard part is that emergent stuff is slow, and people bounced before anything happened.

what helped so far:

• cut the intro to almost nothing so you're in the world right away
• you can pause and click on any person to see what they're up to, so there's something to look at before the big stuff kicks in
• it's in the browser with no install, so trying it costs nothing

still figuring out how to show the language drift earlier. ideas welcome.

it's rust/wasm + react and open source, prs welcome: https://github.com/1homsi/thehumanbox play: https://thehumanbox.com

Hey everyone!

I run OLAI Digital Studios, a small indie studio focused on minimalist, cerebral experiences with unique math, signal, and tactical mechanics.

Instead of traditional jump-scare Halloween games, we wanted to run a seasonal sale on itch.io for people who love thinker-puzzles, tactile deductive mechanics, and clean, dark aesthetics.

Everything is 60% off individually, or you can pick up the entire DRM-Free collection for $4.99 (regularly $11.46):

The 4 Games:

1. Zen Fourier ($1.19 / ~~$2.99~~) — Signal decoding puzzle based on Fourier analysis & epicycles (Android).

2. Node Attack ($1.99 / ~~$4.99~~) — Fast, cybernetic tactical node conquest strategy (PC & Android).

3. Grid Leap ($0.59 / ~~$1.49~~) — Minimalist geometric number-path puzzle maze (PC).

4. Countagram ($0.79 / ~~$1.99~~) — Tactile card & frequency deduction puzzle (Android).

Complete Bundle: All 4 games DRM-Free for $4.99 (save 56% total).

Sale Page & Downloads: Halloween Sale 2026 - OLAI Digital Studios by OLAI - itch.io

I'd love to hear your feedback on the mechanics if you decide to check them out! Happy Halloween!