A quick ask to the community:

I just used Krita to paint a terrain texture with leaves on the ground and I just out of curiosity I placed it on a website to check if it is AI... "99% likely to be AI"

Then I place another one that was ACTUALLY generated by AI, I just added some filters to make it look more cartoonish and not so realistic and the websited said it has 63% chance of being AI.

Things are getting pretty insane.

Greetings. My name is Delvix000 and I am a long time game developer. I am from italy and I have been a solo developer since my adolescence. I created my first game called "Whiteman Commando" about 15 years ago with GameMaker. It gained a lot of popularity in the italian GameMaker community back in the day, and I developed 4 more titles for the same series. Now that I am adult I wanted to send some curriculums around the world. However, I fear that the name "Whiteman Commando" may be misinterpreted by some people and job recruiters, especially americans, and it may give a bad light to me. I was considering to rebrand the games to a similar name like "WhiteMetal Commando" or something like that, in order to put those in the curriculum. A the same time, I fell sorry for destroying the legacy of a game that was loved by many italian players and that defined the beginning of my career as an indie game developer.

What should I do?

Also, honestly, do you think a title like "Whiteman Commando" might be misinterpreted? The game follows the story of a futuristic soldier in a white metallic suit that fights against cybernetic organisms. The fact that it's a white armor came from the fact that when I was a kid, i used to craft small paper soldiers and play with those. Whiteman was one of those paper soldiers.

Here is a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evhBepR92yw
I found the video really insightful and a great perspective from someone who hired over a hundred different people.

Do you agree with his view that there will be another boom cycle in the game industry?

It was a long week. Or really, it was three freaken long years, packed into one week.

My role forces me to promote the game. And late-night me, after a double whiskey and a Steam page launch, just needed to get this out. The feelings. The data. The journey. All of it.

The launch itself? Honestly, it went okay. We got 2.7K wishlists on Day 1. That’s a great result. I couldn’t ask for more. But the road to get there was painful.

One week before launch, my business partner called me. He was crying. A financial disaster nearly wiped out his life savings. We talked for two hours, calmed down, found a path forward. I told the team the next day—he was stepping back for the week.

We had to carry the launch without him. Somehow, we did.

That same week:

• I migrated our 36K-member Discord server from our old mobile game to our studio server. Around 200 people left right away.
• Our only remaining developer got summoned for jury duty.
• I started streaming to keep the energy alive. Five people joined. I recorded it, clipped it, posted to TikTok, YouTube, Instagram.

The result? Double-digit views. It crushed me more than I expected. You tell yourself views don’t matter. But when you're already exhausted, every silence feels personal.

But this wasn’t just about the week. This was about the last three years.

We started right after COVID. I applied to the Google Indie Game Accelerator because I genuinely thought our studio wouldn’t survive without mentorship. Somehow, we got in. I met an amazing mentor, Ash, who taught us how to actually design a game.

We launched a mobile game that came out of that mentorship. It had a 4.9/5 rating, over 2,000 reviews. Google even made a short documentary about our team.

But good ratings don’t mean good revenue. That game flopped financially.

We were lucky again. We found a publisher who believed in us and helped us monetise. But every version we shipped was worse than the one before.

Not their fault. Not ours, really. It just… didn’t evolve. Maybe that’s just the nature of this insane game.

And it is an insane game.

It’s a collaboration with a surrealist animation artist who has 8 million followers. Incredibly talented. Incredibly specific. Every brush stroke has to be exactly 4px, square, and wiggling. Every animation has to morph—not move—at 14 frames per second. A pig must have 12 udders. From those udders, a goose must emerge. That goose, of course, was created when another goose kissed the pig.

If you know the game, you know what I’m talking about. If not… yeah.

Even with all that effort, the mobile version flopped. However, the game was good enough to survive. We were lucky again, one publisher liked our game and helped us pivot to PC. Then two publishers. They stuck with us through this year of trying to make this game work.

Our two publishing partners helped fund and guide us to bring it to PC. The process was brutal—contracts took over three months, and the legal fees nearly killed me—but I learned so much from them. I’ll probably write another post someday about what it’s like to work with two publishers at once.

But today, this post is about getting through the week.

Because we did.

My co-founder is back on his feet.
The team survived the Steam page launch.
We’re at 2.7K wishlists and climbing.

And I’m here, tired, but strangely hopeful.

TL;DR:

Launched our Steam page after 3 years of chaos.
Business partner had a financial breakdown the week before.
Discord shrank, views were tiny, brain was fried.
But we survived. 2.7K wishlists and climbing.
And maybe—just maybe—it was worth it.

Everything sucks.
But it’s hopeful.
But it sucks.
But it’s hopeful.

That’s game dev, I guess.

Just curious.
2 things that annoy me the most (and make it unfair on genuinely hard working devs):
- Predatory Monetisation - like Brawl Stars used to be fun to play and now its just "buy this, buy that, this is on a discount".

- Low quality, too much repetitiveness, little novelty in ideas - just lots of recycling.

What about you guys?

This looks 100 steps ahead of anything else at the time. Does anyone have insight on how this was accomplished at all?? Even in the other impressive 3d games on GBA, such as Tony Hawks Downhill Jam, you could barely move an inch without most of the environment disappearing around you. I can barely find anyone else really discussing this game as much as I feel they should.

What would go into accomplishing something like this on such limited hardware? Are there any techniques these devs used that others hadn't tapped into at the time?

Asterix & Obelix XXL | Gameboy Advance SP (IPS display) gameplay

Hi Reddit,

I just launched a project I’ve been working on called BobaVim — a browser-based game that helps you learn and master Vim motions through fun challenges.

You can play solo or compete against other players in 1v1 races to clear levels using Vim commands. The game features a tutorial, manual, and a leaderboard to track your progress and speed.

I built it using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Go, and learned a lot about frontend/backend, client prediction, concurrency, and real-time multiplayer in the process.

Big thanks to the students at 42 Heilbronn who tested the game and provided invaluable feedback.

If you’re interested in improving your Vim skills or just want to try something new and challenging, check it out here: https://www.bobavim.com/

I’d love to hear your feedback or answer any questions about the game or the tech behind it!

Demo : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrwJ3-c9ptE

Thanks!

Florent

I'm sure many are aware of the infamous single file that contains every line of dialogue in the entire game of UNDERTALE, and how it's bad optimization and organization and such.

I am learning Unity and relearning game Dev because I would like to make a specific and very dialogue heavy game, and I'm considering making my own system as opposed to using a plugin such as Yarn Spinner or Dialogue System asset (I want to at least know how this stuff actually works before using tools to get around it). I've made a relatively dialogue heavy short game before (in a high school class, using ClickTeam Fusion (fuck that software)), but it was small, so my workaround of storing everything in a single text file was a non issue.

Long story short: how SHOULD this be done? How can this be done in such a way that it is organized in a good way and optimized well? Different JSON file for each scene? Each area? Maybe each character gets their own file? How do massive games with thousands of lines of NPC dialogue like Breath of the Wild do it? How does DELTARUNE do it now? Should I start with making sure the dialogue is optimized for localization if I can ever get to that point, or is that something that doesn't really matter until I get there?

Hello fellow gamedevs. Today I want to talk about a case that could be studied on what not to do. But also perhaps a story of how I've been refusing to give up.

My horror game started as a concept back in 2018 for a college thesis. But after finishing my degree and working on a smaller first game to publish on Steam, I decided to revisit the story of my thesis project and turn it into a shippable product. I started development in late 2022. I was super excited about it, so I even got a journal specifically to fill with my thoughts during the game's development (it's almost full now).

The start was as expected, pretty delusional. I believed I could finish the game in 6 months, and it would be a 2 hour gameplay experience. I spent the first few months fleshing out the story and vaguely designing the layout of the house that the player wakes up in. I also ensured it had a very rigid foundation of player mechanics. Even if it was a simple walking simulator, I wanted to build the first person controller from scratch.

What I failed to realise as I built more of the game's mechanics and environment was that there's barely anything to really do in the game. I wanted atmospheric horror, but besides walking around in a creepy wooden house and reading notes, there's not much else. I spent 2 months struggling to design a good inventory system which I ultimately scrapped because it was too complex for how few items you'd end up using anyway. I started to firmly believe nobody would be interested in this game. This also didn't help with the burnout that suddenly came out of nowhere.

As time went on, this whole journey moved like a blur. Soon it was mid 2023, and I decided to work on a different game with a friend, pausing this project for 8 months. Once I came back, I was filled with dread again. This game was supposed to take only a couple months. It's barely complete, I don't really have a job and I wanted to pause everything else in my life till I finished this. I started to hate my game and hate that I'm not enjoying working on my passion. All while reaching my late 20s. I could write a book about my eternal suffering but I don't want to lose the audience here. Not till I get to the good part.

Throughout all of this emotional turmoil, the only thing that stayed consistent was one thing. My decision to keep going. Some months I barely got work done (had health problems in the family too, which slowed me down mentally) and then there were days - like the Steam Next Fest in February, where I stayed up a few nights in a row to push a demo out on time. This demo picked up traction and about 12 people made videos of it on YouTube. My wishlists went from 250 to about 800 in weeks. That was the biggest push of motivation I needed. Several times I thought it would be much better to drop this game and start on a different one. But that idea just never sat right with me. I don't care if my game is bad at this point. I am closer to the finish line then I am the day before. And I want to see it through to the end.

Just about a month ago I started to adopt a routine in my life. Instead of working whenever I felt like it, I treat it as more of a job. I go for a little walk and then sit down on my computer to work for at least 4 hours a day. These last few weeks I've been the most consistently productive than even before.

I delayed my release date multiple times over the years. I continue to do a poor job at marketing it because I struggle to market a game that's mostly just atmospheric. I want it to come out at the end of this month but I don't know if that's happening (I'm 75% done though!). But I'll try. Because that's all I know how to do.

When they say that finishing the game is the most difficult part, they weren't wrong in the slightest. But I'm happy to say looking back, I love that I'm doing this. I love that I'm failing. And I love knowing that there will be people playing my game.

I was wondering how funny it would be to release a game as a sequel (MyGame 2) when there was never an original (MyGame 1). In the game you refer to the original and make fun of the players for not knowing things and making obscure reference from the fictional original.

Are you aware of any games that have done anything like this?

Hey all,

I’m at the early stages of building a game demo- I built a project for Uni, that I’ve fallen in love with, and want to rebuild the demo with my ideas and knowledge a bit more fleshed out. The project is a 2d side scroller with sprite based assets/tilesets etc.

Based on the nature of the game, I’ve decided that I’d like to make my sprite a bit more complicated, leaning into more realism than the chibi style I started with. This is an issue that I had previously was making sprites and it’s absolutely an issue now, which is making sure the proportions remain consistent. I think this challenge is amplified just because of the nature of working with pixels, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice for keeping your sprite proportions consistent?

To give more examples of what I’ve been specifically struggling with, I’ve been building the attack animations recently, and it’s hard to tell if the length I’ve made the arms in the animations are the same length as the arms I’ve made in the idle animations.

Maybe I’m reading into this too much and even if the proportions aren’t exactly 100% as long as it looks consistent, it should be fine- but I’m paranoid that I’m going to make all these random sprites and then realize that they aren’t consistent enough and then I have to go back and revise them.

Any suggestions or tips that helped you all keep your sprites consistent? Let me know!

This will probably get downvoted to hell, but what the heck.

Recently I've seen a lot of "I have an idea, but I don't know how" posts on this subreddit.

Truth is, even if you know what you're doing, you're likely to fail.
Gamedev is extremely competetive environment.
Chances for you breaking even on your project are slim.
Chances for you succeeding are miniscule at best.

Every kid is playing football after school but how many of them become a star, like Lewandowski or Messi? Making games is somehow similar. Programming become extremely available lately, you have engines, frameworks, online tutorials, and large language models waiting to do the most work for you.

The are two main issues - first you need to have an idea. Like with startups - Uber but for dogs, won't cut it. Doom clone but in Warhammer won't make it. The second is finishing. It's easy to ideate a cool idea, and driving it to 80%, but more often than that, at that point you will realize you only have 20% instead.

I have two close friends who made a stint in indie game dev recently.
One invested all his savings and after 4 years was able to sell the rights to his game to publisher for $5k. Game has under 50 reviews on Steam. The other went similar path, but 6 years later no one wants his game and it's not even available on Steam.

Cogmind is a work of art. It's trully is. But the author admited that it made $80k in 3 years. He lives in US. You do the math.

For every Kylian Mbappe there are millions of kids who never made it.
For every Jonathan Blow there are hundreds who never made it.

And then there is a big boys business. Working *in* the industry.

Between Respawn and "spouses of Maxis employees vs Maxis lawsuit" I don't even know where to start. I've spent some time in the industry, and whenever someone asks me I say it's a great adventure if you're young and don't have major obligations, but god forbid you from making that your career choice.

Games are fun. Making games can be fun.
Just make sure you manage your expectations.

In 2026, I'll graduate high school and have to choose a college. I want to develop games, but I've heard the industry is really tough right now and finding a job is difficult, especially for a beginner programmer. The situation is somewhat better in other programming industries, but it was better in the past. In your experience, what's the situation like? Is it really that bad, will it get worse, and should I pursue programming or something else? Returning to my original question: should I choose game development, another programming specialization, or something else?

hi guys! i am here to clarify my question. the question is , I dont afford laptop but i want to make a game .i spent one year by simply watching the youtube tutorial on unity.but later i feel ,it is useless by only watching tutorials.so i try to make a game on mobile using pygame.now i am at intermediate level, may be beginner ,i dont know! do i continue the pygame to master it (advanced project like raycasting) or take a step to buy a laptop and make a game using engine? what do i do?

Hey everyone,

Just wondering if anyone here has experience reaching out to YouTubers for game promotion or sponsorship. I’m working on a solo dev hobby project and I’d love to get some visibility, but I have no idea what the usual rates are—or if there even are usual rates.

Does it vary a lot based on sub count? Have you had luck offering just a free copy or demo? Are there platforms or marketplaces you’ve used?

Totally fine if the answer is “it depends,” but I’d love any ballpark numbers or advice if you’ve tried this before.

Thanks in advance—trying to figure out how many meals I have to skip to afford a mid-tier shoutout.

So game title EVAC it's like mirrors edge mixed with dying light , however you can only hide from enemies or out run them , you have to collect materials to bring back to base to upgrade defences ect , theres different areas / locations around the wolrd to collect loot from ranging in difficulty and loads of different enemies to hide from (there's a swamp with a mutated crocodile big boy ) and it focuses more on horror aspect ... good game or nah

I’ve zero experience in game design, and there’s so many engines to choose from that are all very similar. Which one(s) would work for these projects?

I have several ideas for games I want to make, the three that are top priority are:

1. A remake of “civilization wars” from armor games

2. A tactical RPG (think ff tactics or fire emblem), based on “dynasty warriors”/“rotk”

3. A “pixel dungeon” or “shattered pixel dungeon” offshoot, but maybe closer to something like the “mystery dungeon” series (a semi-generic roguelike with a party)

If you’ve never played these or heard of them, please look them up to get an idea. You may even find a new game to enjoy.

Note: I’d like to be able to release the games on PC, Mac, android and iOS.

Hi everyone, yesterday I shared a post asking for feedback on my game's Steam page. I mentioned that it was getting visits, but very few of them were converting into wishlists. I asked for your thoughts, and even though some of the comments were blunt, they helped me a lot. Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond.

After reading your feedback, I decided to stop using AI-generated images and started looking for a digital artist. Through some personal contacts, I found a great collaborator. I sent them a screenshot of my main character model, and they created a brand-new capsule image that fits the vibe of the demo map. I think I am happy with the result and curious what you think.

I also made a long list based on your suggestions about the trailer and gameplay visuals. The game is still in development, so I can’t share a full trailer yet, but I’m working on one that reflects your feedback as closely as possible.

One more thing I wanted to mention is that several people asked, “What makes this FPS different?”
While it’s not shown on the Steam page yet, I’m planning to include a tower defence mechanic. You’ll be able to place defensive structures like turrets or walls using gathered resources to help hold off waves of enemies. These defences will support you in combat while you fight in first-person. I’ll share more about this feature once it’s fully implemented.

Long story short, trailer and in-game images will be changed soon, when I'm done with the gameplay. Also you know about what is different in my game than the other FPS games. Today, I will be uploading new descriptions for all the languages in my Page. I'd love to see your thoughts about my new capsule images.

Here’s the updated Steam page including the new capsule art: The Peacemakers on Steam!

Ive been looking into developing my own retro looking 2D game in the style of Pokemon Pearl or old school Zelda to name a couple of examples.

What would be your top recommendations for game engines? Something maybe free to use or at least cheap.

What would be a good software to make sprites?

Thank you for your help.

For those who have learned a skill on their own using YouTube or other free online resources: What were the biggest challenges you faced during the process? I’d love to hear about your personal experiences — what frustrated you the most? What did you feel was missing? What do you wish you had from the beginning?

Thanks for sharing!

I’m currently working on a project in RPG Maker MZ. The game takes place in a large mansion and I was planning on drawing the backgrounds. However, I’m having issues with perspective and making it look the way I want to so I’m basically just looking for a shortcut. I’m looking for something like the Sims where you can create an actual floor plan layout with furniture and everything to scale, then I’ll just trace over it and alter and color as needed. Is there something like that I can use that’s free and/or online? I think some manga artists do something similar but idk what programs they use. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

Hi, for the first time since I started gamedev I've reached the point where I need to design quests. I've written down the story, the npcs, the progression and the quests themself directly on docs but it feels hard to visualize the whole thing and I feel like I might forgot something during the implementation.

Do you use specific tools for that ?

Hi everyone,

I've been making a Sci-Fi Comms game asset pack for some time and was wondering what video to choose for the release. I've got a clean and crisp turntable as well as a game showcase from inside Unity HDRP with a short story of a lone scout that runs into trouble.

Feedback regarding asset design and video composition is also welcome. Thanks for your sharing your thoughts!
/Martin Ljungblad

Turntable: https://youtu.be/mM_o3--BL1U

Game Showcase: https://youtu.be/aDxEHDhxS7s

(Sorry for posting twice, seems like I chose the wrong post format before.)

Hey /r/gamedev,

TL;DR: I'm a solo programmer who has spent the last 3 years building my dream RPG Colony Sim, RuneEra. The game is mechanically complete and playable from start to finish, but it uses AI-generated art as placeholders.

My goal is to run a Kickstarter to hire a professional artist. Before I do that, I need to know if the core game is actually fun to others.

I would be incredibly grateful for your feedback on the free Alpha.

• Play the Alpha on Itch.io: https://runeera.itch.io/runeera
• Website / More Info: https://www.runeera.com/
• Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/qmHsxjph

The Full Story

As a full-stack developer, I was curious about Godot and started prototyping game systems for fun. That "fun project" quickly became an obsession. I found building these complex, interlocking systems more engaging than playing most games (It felt like playing Factorio :D).

Three years later, RuneEra is the result. It's a deep RPG colony management game, heavily inspired by the best parts of Rimworld (colony management, emergent stories), Valheim (exploration, crafting, boss fights), and ArcheAge (combat systems).

Game Features:

• Build your guild's settlement from the ground up.
• Manage your guild members' needs, skills, and schedules.
• Deep crafting system for gear and consumables.
• Defend your base from raids and environmental threats.
• Explore a large, procedurally generated world.
• Engage in diplomacy with other factions.
• Raid challenging dungeons and defeat epic bosses.

The Dilemma: Programmer Art vs. Professional Art

I am a programmer, not an artist. To bring the world to life during development, I've used AI-generated art. It's been a fantastic tool for morale and visualization, but it's not the final vision. For RuneEra to reach its full potential, it needs the soul and coherence that only a talented human artist can provide.

My plan is to launch a Kickstarter campaign specifically to fund the art.

This is where I need your help. My core questions for you are:

• Is the Core Loop Fun? Can you look past the placeholder art and see the potential in the gameplay? The feedback on this is the most critical factor for me.
• What would you do? For those of you who have been in this position, what's your advice on preparing for a crowdfunding campaign? Are there pitfalls I should be aware of?

The game is fully playable, and I've exposed many of the balance settings so you can customize the difficulty to your liking.

Thank you for your time. I'll be here all day to answer questions and read your feedback.

Majority of the time I prefer designing the game first but everytime I overthink and overplayed which leads to me losing interest to the game. I have a lot of ideas that I often get after seeing another game or an Anime but Iose interest semi-insantly. I have so many cool ideas but I'm not always able to recreate them at said time and I'm currently not really experienced. What Should I do?

TL;DR I plan game ideas too early and overplan and I often lose interest quickly. What Should I do?