Hello Everyone! I'm creating a PS1 era style game where you control a tank against the AI apocalypse where machines turned on humanity.

For those who grew up with these type of games and are nostalgic, you can play the Demo on steam! (and everyone else ofc)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5152000/MAGNUM_Protocol

Hi,

The title may be confusing, so lemme explain.
I have… maybe 4-5 half finished design documents in my google drive. They’re all ideas I was passionate about in the heat of the moment, and very frequently think about, wishing to finish them and make them real. One of them is my personal pet project that includes a whole world with a cast of characters that when I think about them, wish to see act and be played the way I imagined them to be.

But I just… can’t get myself to start. I’ve done some unity before, and while I’m only an amateur programmer, I think I can learn quickly and understand some processes well enough to actually have a reasonable chance at making something semi-competent.
I don’t know if it’s the commitment that paralyses me, the lack of confidence, the fear of being mocked but I can’t get myself to actually just sit down and do it.

What’s the magic potion? The secret ingredient? How can you guys look at a task as daunting as making your own game, alone, alongside everything else going on in your personal life and say: “I can do this”?

I'm planning on learning godot and game development in general, but idk if I should learn python before godot (gdscript). I've heard that prior programming knowledge transfers over pretty easily from language to language and I've also heard that gdscript is very similar to python. I'm pretty bad at coding rn and I'm terrified that I'll get stuck in "tutorial hell" or that I'll never be able to make anything on my own without googling or asking ai for the solution or help with the code. What should I do and does anyone have any advice for a beginner?

Was in Steam Early Access for a few months, finally got it to a state that I am happy with (although I will still update it further).
What do you think?

As the title says do you think you succeeded or did you accomplish what you wanted? as a solo developer one of the most thought question for me and many others is am I going to succeed. We do see many solo devs that have succeeded but what we don’t see are the devs that did not succeed, if so why do you think you are at the position that you currently are, was it the marketing? The graphics, was is niche? how long did the game development took? Would love to hear your experiences as new solo developer

Reading why I’m is is for me and others get motivated and maybe learn from your expresiences

I just released the demo of Canary, a slow-burn gothic romance kinetic novel set in a Belle Époque–inspired city of sun mages, cabarets and oubliettes.

It's dark. It's snappy.

It's got a custom scrolling log, muffled-room audio, and art built from authentic 1900s photographs: scenes and portraits, all hand-restyled, halftoned and recoloured.

• About 1 hour (~12k words)
• Free, playable in your browser or downloadable
• 18+ for mature themes (no explicit sexual content)

https://cryptlark.itch.io/canary <- solodev (art/writing/dyingontheinside)

I hope you’ll show my game some support!

Here’s the download link:
https://ktie22studio.itch.io/ktie22

You can also support me on YouTube:
[https://youtu.be/T3v9YXoF3bY?si=WMeWQ-UL9dmgCDc5](https://youtu.be/T3v9YXoF3bY?si=WMeWQ-UL9dmgCDc5))

Clogwork is a factory builder where the pieces are real objects. A block needs as many parallel lanes as it is wide.

The game already had the whole simulation totally decoupled from the graphics. It would be impossible to run at a decent framerate otherwise, because you don't want to do any extra work for things that aren't on the screen.
Things off screen are still simulated, they're just not shown at all. And not being on the screen has no effect on the simulation.
So I did what everyone would do and tried it in 3D. It frankly looked really good even from the start.
Luckily this game doesn't have a lot of art to begin with, and because of the minimalistic style I can crank up the depth of field and shadow quality a lot. I think the 3D look it has now is pretty cool.
I also made it so you can switch at any time (V key), and I'm still deciding what I like best. I like to build in 2D, and then admire it in 3D.
And of course I had to remake the trailer and some Steam assets. The 4K 60fps version is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GMxMY07vSE

Clogwork comes out November 10. The free demo is on Steam now and has the 3D view:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3404030/Clogwork

I welcome feedback, so please don't be shy.

Hey guys, please roast me

When I was a teenager, I lived and breathed 3 things: Pokemon, runescape, and skateboarding. I always imagined a video game with mechanics from those games mixed with the real-life progression of skating. Simply put.. the more you skate, the better you get and personally unlock more things you can land.

Last year I finally picked up learning Unity front to back, and of course, got right to work on my dream game. It’s in its final stages of completion now, and i was comfortable to make a playable demo for the masses to see for the first time before launch. This is Skatebound!

While the demo only includes the skateboarding mode, the full game is an entire RPG with an open world map with spots and parks to discover, challengers to skate against, boards to collect and hundreds of things to do. You have 6 essential skills like grinds, speed, and gaps that you level up xp with (just like OSRS!)

It’s crazy to see it come to life as fast as it did, and I’m over the moon. It still needs some polishing and fixes, and I didn’t want this post to come off as marketing, I’m just proud of it. If you felt like checking it out on Steam, grab a controller first and thank you!!

A while ago I posted a clip of my 3D top-down metroidvania on r/metroidvania https://www.reddit.com/r/metroidvania/s/vMLb2gc1Fn, and the feedback was way better than I expected. I've now finished the first region, and I've hit the "okay, what now" wall.

Quick context:
Solo dev, Unity, no AI-generated art in the game
3D top-down, focused on puzzles and exploration over combat.

Current plan: 7–8 regions and about 12 abilities
Three questions I'd love your experience on:
Scope. Is 7–8 regions with 12 abilities realistic for one person, or am I setting myself up for a six-year project? If you've shipped a solo metroidvania, how did you decide what to cut? I'm considering designing for 8 but structuring development so the game is complete and shippable at 4–5 core regions. Does that make sense?

Publisher vs. self-publishing. When did you start pitching: after a vertical slice, or after a Steam page had built up some wishlists? Any publishers you'd recommend (or avoid) for a first-time dev with no shipped title?

The AI flood. This month's Next Fest had over 7,000 demos, and a big share of them disclosed AI use. Honestly, it's been making me anxious. For those who launched recently: did it actually hurt your visibility, or is it mostly noise below the algorithm's waterline?

My game page is up for more then 6 months, I am usually working on small games and release them in a short cycles, for the current game I decided to wait on a strategy to wait for 6 months before the release.

But now I am not doing anything much of promotion, even if I do it does not get much traction as my game is very niche, but I have a huge uptick of Wishlist in last month coming from Steam itself, and looking at the source I have a lot of visitors coming in from Personal Calendar, so it is good new feature that at least helps for my games discovery.

Just remember it works only if you have Exact Date set, so be sure to use Personal Calendar also to your advantages.

Anyone interested of how my game looks - Lost Media Agency

Hey r/SoloDevelopment!

I've been lurking for a while here while, but now I've finally got a demo for you guys to try out! It's a cult simulator game that plays ENTIRELY out of your terminal/command prompt with ASCII art! It's a very strange and funny game, and I hope you enjoy it!

You can try the Alpha Demo on Steam today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2345980/CultGame/

Bringing it to both PC and mobile. Constructive feedback welcomed 🤗.

I'm trying to save up for my studies, so this year I started making small mobile games on my own. Three of them are finally out on iPhone, and the process taught me more than the coding did. A few things I didn't expect:

- Apple's first review isn't really about your app. All three got "Guideline 2.1 – Information Needed" on the first try. New developer accounts get asked for a screen recording from a real iPhone plus a written explanation of the app, its services and its purchases. Once I sent that, it moved on.

- Google Play is slower for new accounts. New personal developer accounts must run a closed test with testers for 14 days before going public, so my Android versions are still waiting.

- Kids' privacy is real work. I added a birth-month question at the start. Under-13s get child-safe ads, no tracking prompt and a grown-up check before any purchase.

- Translating into 20 languages was the cheapest growth trick I found. It also meant fixing a lot of buttons that broke with long German words.

The games, if you're curious: a crowd-math runner (Gorilla Rush), a tile-rotating puzzle (Twistbloom) and a train runner where a chef throws knives at you (Wagon Run). All free.

Happy to answer anything about the process. And if you try one, honest feedback (or an honest review) helps a lot.

Gorilla Rush: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6821695387

Twistbloom: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6821695681

Wagon Run: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6821695909

Tiny Runs is a cozy marble-run building sandbox. Shape islands and gentle hills, grow gardens, and build winding tracks filled with loops, stairs, spinners, and little surprises.

The idea stemmed from my kids love of making and watching marble runs and machines.

If you're interested you can wishlist the game here! https://store.steampowered.com/app/5346610/Tiny_Runs/