I’m a solo dev making I Just Wanted to Fish, a calm fishing game on a small island.

For the main menu I didn’t want a static picture. It’s a tiny island of its own, and the player is really fishing there while you pick an option. Sometimes he lands a fish, the same way he would in the game.

A few things I’d love opinions on:

• Does it feel cozy, or just busy?

• Is the text easy to read over the sand and water?

• Does the music fit the mood?

• Would you change the camera angle or the time of day?

Any suggestion is welcome, even small ones. The demo is free on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5351000/I_Just_Wanted_to_Fish_Demo/

We updated our rendering system to create a better look on Konboys, our procedurally generated open-world game.

Hey guys! I've been working on GODSCAR, my dark fantasy 2.5D turn-based RPG, for a while now and wanted to share some more alpha footage!

This video shows off a few of the biomes, environments, and the battle system I've been working on.

The combat takes inspiration from games like Final Fantasy and Octopath Traveler, but I'm trying to add my own twist to it. There's a big emphasis on strategy, with different jobs, unique skills, Armor Break and Stagger mechanics, and powerful divine abilities granted by the gods. I want battles to feel challenging and make you think about your next move rather than just spamming your strongest attacks.

I'd really love to get some feedback on what you guys think or what you feel could be improved!

One of the biggest criticisms I've received so far is the visual difference between my 2D monster sprites and 3D models. Just to explain my reasoning a little, GODSCAR currently has over 100 monsters, with the majority being 2D sprites. The 3D models are primarily reserved for what I call Colossal Bosses. I wanted those encounters to feel much larger and more impactful, with more elaborate animations and attacks. I'm still experimenting with how well the two styles work together, though, so I'm definitely open to feedback on that.

There's still a ton of work to be done, and everything you're seeing is early alpha footage, but it's been exciting watching everything come together.

If you have any questions about the game or its development, feel free to ask!

Also, if you'd like to follow GODSCAR's development, share feedback, or eventually get involved in playtesting, feel free to join our Discord!

Discord: Join Here

Thanks again to everyone who's been following along. I really appreciate all the support and feedback so far!

My fuckups:

• My game's trailer never got picked up by GameTrailers or other outlets. I guess they didn't think it was good enough.

• I didn't do any marketing.

• Steam's release calendar was a complete flop and gave the game no visibility.

• Steam Next Fest was a flop too, bringing in just 600 wishlists.

• It took me five days to get my first 10 reviews.

You can see my wins on screen.

In our horror game, you play inside a mascot costume, seeing the world through its mouth. We're experimenting with how much that should limit your view.

Our original approach is A, and so far most of our playtesters (small sample!) have been fine with the restriction. Some even appreciated how much it added to the immersion.

Now we're wondering if we should open up the view just a little (B), without losing that claustrophobic feeling we're going for.

Should we stick with our original, more oppressive vision, or give players a little more breathing room?

For context I’m a full time software dev. I’ve done game dev on and off as a hobby for years, but this is the first time I’ve actually had the skills and the confidence to make a game start to finish.

It’s at a point where I’m proud of it. I play it myself and have fun, and my playtesters all said they lost a few hours without getting bored. So now I want to get some eyes on it, and I started browsing the indie dev subs.

Honestly the games I’m seeing here make me feel like mine isn’t good enough, or I’m not putting in enough effort, or I’m just bad at this. And then there’s the AI slop made in a week, which makes me feel like I’m putting in a ton of work just so some grifter can pump out 10 clones of whatever I make and profit off it.

I guess what I’m asking is, does anyone else struggle with the confidence to show what they’ve been working on? I hate blatant self promo as much as the next guy, and the one post I did kind of made me feel dirty, but I also don’t know how else to get people to see my game.

game dev page: https://www.reddit.com/r/WarmAndCozyGame/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoMJJvHS3iVwfjQ2fzp7p9g

Here it is, made in blender, this character is 3 meters tall and walking with 1.5m/s
what do you think?

I posted in comments his renders inside the game

I didn't realize it until a player set me straight.

On October 26 I released the demo of my game, Orbit Core, quietly, with the goal of getting player feedback and polishing the game along the way. Honestly, I've been surprised by how many things I took for granted that weren't communicating anything to the player, and were actually badly designed.

This one I noticed thanks to this comment from a player:

Original: "Зачем враги стреляют? Как уклоняться от выстрелов? Ну серьёзно?"

"Why are the enemies shooting? How do I dodge their shots? Seriously?"

So I looked into other similar games, and they were completely right. For months I fought these enemies with no warning at all, and it felt totally normal to me: you get so used to your own game that you stop seeing the obvious.

Now enemies mark on the ground where they're about to fire, in orange for a moment, and then attack, so you actually have time to react. Fighting them feels much more fun and fair, and it's all thanks to a stranger.

Has something like this ever happened to you with your own game?

Do you remember the Wicked Witch of the East from The Wizard of Oz?

In the original story, she is crushed beneath Dorothy’s house before we even get to show her face. Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West are remembered by everyone, but she is often forgotten.

So I wanted to bring her back and reimagine her as something much darker, more grotesque, and unsettling. I also wanted to give Dorothy a chance to confront her directly in battle.

In our version, she is a tragic witch who has hidden her own face out of self-loathing and trauma. I wanted her to feel like tragedy itself.

Hey Folks,

I've been working on the spiritual successor of the legendary 90s title Seven Kingoms I and II. It's called Seat of Power. It's finally about to be launched in February. Adding a quick video that shows in game footage playing as the Chinese. There are 4 factions in the game; the Chinese, the Olmecs, the Greeks and the Egyptians.

I've kept most of seven kingdoms' core features but greatly expanded gameplay by creating unique factions with faction specific traits and gameplay mechanics. I've drawn inspirations from many other RTS and 4x games as well. Art style wise, my inspiration was Settlers 3. It's cozy vibes were amazing back then and I wanted to bring it back to life in 3D.

The game supports multiplayer via Steam. Will have about a 10 hour long campaign. My brother and I have been developing lore for it for years now and it's all in the campaign.

Our aim for multiplayer game play is to create a fun and competitive environment without the APM requirements of starcraft , aoe etc.

What I'm most excited about is that I got to work with Bjorn Lynne; the legendary composer behind the Seven kingdoms soundtracks. He is semi retired but was kind enough to make time for me, thanks to the nature of my game. He composed all of the soundtracks of the game. I have a YouTube playlist for them if you want to take a listen; https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQsxaP0yzhUk&si=-gHFRLwJfXisVgd5 . They greatly remind of the sound tracks of seven kingdoms which were extremely memorable if you ask me. Take a listen and let me know what you think. Maybe I'm too biased haha.

I've also worked with/hired many folks from reddit which has been a fun experience. The SFX are almost entirely done by break-core. And many of the UI features as well as a few 3D assets.

Take a look and let me know what you think about the game. I'd love your feedback. Good or bad. Especially the seven kingdoms fans! I'd appreciate it if you wishlisted as well. I'm still in the process of polishing the game and balancing gameplay and replacing placeholder assets. Hoping to be done by February prior to launch. Will be available for playtesting and demo this upcoming week.

You can wishlist on Steam here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5545080/Seat_of_Power/

Thanks!

Hi everyone!

As the title says, we recently had the opportunity to showcase our game at both Paris Games Week (PGW) and Games Ground at Berlin, and the difference in wishlists between the two events was pretty surprising! It's also a good opportunity to show you what our booth looked like, so you can get an idea of what to expect in terms of booth setup!

A bit of context on both booths (quite a mouthful, isn't it?)

For Paris Games Week, we paid around €400 to share a booth with six other games. We tried our best to rotate the games throughout the event so everyone could get some visibility, although Pardon My French Toast (a really cute platformer you have to check out!) and our own game, West & Guns, ended up being the most played by far.

Whenever West & Guns was on screen, we regularly had people queuing up to play, which wasn't quite as common with most of the other games on the booth (and it was 4 players per game). So it was really encouraging to see that our game was attracting so much attention, even though we couldn't have it running all the time!

For Games Ground, we were invited by "Institut français Deutschland" and Women in Games to join a small pavilion showcasing French indie games. The booth itself was offered, although we still had to cover travel and accommodation costs, especially since we only found out we'd been selected about 2–3 weeks before the event! I think it would have cost 1 000€ if we were not invited for the booth we had? Not 100% sure.

In terms of attendance, PGW this year reportedly welcomed over 160,000 visitors, while Games Ground had around 7,500. Both were spread accross 4 days, from thursday to sunday, except for Games Ground, where the first two days were reserved for industry professionals, including publishers, developers, students, etc... But after that, it was full open!

Now, it's worth mentioning that our main goal at both events wasn't necessarily to collect wishlists. We mostly wanted to get as much player feedback as possible, understand what people expected from our game, and see whether the core gameplay was actually fun.
Getting a few extra wishlists along the way would obviously be a nice bonus!

The numbers

Paris Games Week: around 50 wishlists, i guess the wishlist results were a bit disappointing? Idk

Sure, we were sharing a booth with six other games, but based on the playtime recorded in the Steam library on the provided PC, West & Guns accounted for roughly a third of the total playtime on the booth. So we definitely had people playing! But despite that, we ended up with few wishlists during the event. 

After our experience at PGW, we didn't even bother checking our wishlist numbers right after Games Ground... Thinking that an event with not even half as many visitors would probably bring us fewer wishlists... Boy oh boy, when we finally checked yesterday, what a big surprise! We were dumb:

Games Ground Berlin: around 200 wishlists!

Around four times what we got at PGW, despite the event being considerably smaller! (once again, 160,000 VS 7,500 visitors)

We genuinely weren't expecting that! And there's a bit more context worth mentioning. Our booth was located in a corner of the event, and during the public days (saturday and sunday), we actually had to turn our screen away from the walkway because our game was labeled 18+.

What's funny is that we have an option to disable blood entirely, which allowed plenty of kids to play the game at PGW. At Games Ground, quite a few parents came over to ask why the game was rated 18+. After showing them some gameplay footage and explaining the game, many of them immediately came back to play with their kids! From what we understood, age restriction on video game are wayyyyy more strict in Germany than in France.

And as if that wasn't enough, we were also nominated for the Games Ground Community Award! Which was a huuuuge surprise! Out of roughly a hundred games at the event, West & Guns managed to make it into the top 3 most-voted games by the public! We didn't end up taking home the award, but honestly, just knowing that so many people enjoyed our game enough to vote for it was incredibly rewarding.

To conclude because this is getting pretty long

If I had to guess why there was such a big difference between the two events, I think i would say that PGW attracts a much broader, more mainstream audience, while Games Ground is much more focused on indie games. But one thing I really want to emphasize is that the reception from players was overwhelmingly positive at BOTH events!

At PGW, we actually had quite a few people asking us where they could buy the game right away, whether it was already available on Switch, or if they could get it on other consoles. Many visitors seemed to assume that if a game was playable at the event, it was probably already released and available to purchase… Everywhere! And while that's obviously a really encouraging sign of interest, it also meant that a lot of those players weren't necessarily familiar with Steam wishlists or the idea of wishlisting a game that hadn't been released yet.

At Games Ground, on the other hand, i got the impression that visitors were much more familiar with the indie game ecosystem. People seemed to already know how Steam wishlists worked and why they mattered to developers. Some would even ask us where they could wishlist the game without us bringing it up first! So we don't think the difference in wishlist numbers necessarily reflects how much people enjoyed the game. It might simply reflect how differently the two audiences approach discovering and supporting upcoming games.

There's also another important factor we shouldn't overlook: our booth setup was very different between the two events.

At PGW, we were sharing a booth with six other games, meaning West & Guns wasn't always on screen or available to play. Even though we regularly had people queuing up whenever our game was being played, we were still sharing our visibility and playtime with the other studios.

At Games Ground, we had our own dedicated space within the small French indie pavilion, so visitors could discover and play our game throughout the event. So while we got over four times as many wishlists at Games Ground, we definitely can't attribute that difference to the audience alone. Having a dedicated space probably made a difference too!

Of course, these are just our observations, and it's impossible to know exactly how much each factor contributed. But if there's one thing these two events taught us, it's that getting people excited about your game and converting that excitement into Steam wishlists are two very different things and we thought this might be interesting to share with other indie developers considering attending similar events!

But once again, wishlists weren't the most important part for us

I really want to emphasize this because, for us, the biggest value of both events was the feedback we received. We learned SO much about our own game just by watching people play, like we discovered that kids loved to play against their parents (with the blood toggled off of course lol) And we're talking about kids as young as 6/7 (hehe) years old! We genuinely didn't expect our game to appeal so much to family.

The other thing is that people had fun even when they weren't particularly good at the game. I think the fact that something happens every time you shoot seemed to make the experience enjoyable regardless of skill level. Like even if you miss your target, you will damage a crate behind, or even trigger a trap or an event, the bullet might bounce of a cauldron or something…

And honestly, seeing how excited people were to play our game gave us a little bit of hope for what's coming next. As you can probably imagine, with fewer than 500 wishlists and a team of 7 people working full-time on the game since february, we're not exactly in a comfortable position x)

But that's also why we're putting a lot of hope into the demo we're planning to release before the end of the year, especially after all the positive feedback we've received at these events. We're obviously still working on marketing and trying to get the word out there, but part of us can't help thinking that maybe our game's biggest strength is simply how fun it feels once you actually get your hands on it. Maybe getting people to actually play it is what will make the difference? At least, that's what we're hoping!

And honestly, beyond all the numbers, feedback, and marketing stuff...
Seeing complete strangers burst out laughing while playing our game was probably the best part of the entire experience. It was the first time we'd experienced that outside of friends and family, and it's exactly the kind of moment that reminds me why I work in video games in the first place, while I could have made more money elsewhere maybe? idk...

Personally, I'm sticking with video games

Anyway, this turned into a much longer post than expected, sorry about that! If you've made it this far, i hope you found something useful in our experience and it would help you decide whether or not you attend such event! Feel free to ask questions of course, would love to help!

Also, sorry if there are quite a few spelling mistakes in this post, english isn't my first language, but i tried my best!

Thank you for your time!

I's a Total War-inspired mobile game about asymmetric warfare against Romans.

Based on your suggestions, I've improved unit movement, frontline animations, combat feedback, readability, UI and unit concealment.

I've experimented with filming the actual phone for this trailer. I think it shows how simple the controls are, and makes it clear that this is real gameplay and not one of those fake mobile game ads. Would love to know what you think!

Hey fellow indie devs! 👻

I'm a developer working on **Ghostly Late Night Show**, a cartoon comedy game playable in both VR and non-VR.

The concept is simple: you're a mischievous ghost on a supernatural TV show, and your job is to explore a house, investigate objects, and figure out how to set up funny situations that trigger hilarious reactions from the human character.

Rather than following obvious quest markers, players are encouraged to experiment with objects and discover how different interactions lead to successful gags.

For example, in this clip, you find a music box, discover where it belongs, and wind it up to play a lullaby that makes the character fall asleep.

I've also experimented with using VR controllers as motion-capture tools to record hand interactions for keyboard-and-mouse gameplay. So even in non-VR mode, the interactions retain that physical VR feeling.

**What I'm really trying to figure out is whether this gameplay concept is something people would genuinely enjoy playing.**

Would investigating the house and discovering how to set up gags keep you entertained, or do you think the gameplay needs something more?

I'm especially interested in whether you'd personally want to play something like this, rather than just whether it looks interesting.

Any thoughts or criticism are welcome!

**Game links (if you'd like to see more):**

🎮 **Steam (VR & Non-VR):**
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5090440/Ghostly_Late_Night_Show/

🥽 **Meta Quest:**
https://www.meta.com/experiences/ghostly-late-night-show/1823446819037017/

Hey! Everbond is a dark roguelike made in Godot. You draw your own creatures, a cursed book brings them to life, and they fight in turn-based battles while you look for your missing son.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5340430/Everbond/

I'd love feedback on the page: what would make you wishlist (or not)?

I'll share the concrete facts first, and if you're interested in my story you can read further down.

This is my game's total wishlist count. For me as a "perfectionist" it was very difficult to be open about my game when i didn't feel like it was perfect. There were so many things i wanted to polish and work out before i showed it. In retrospect i have a feeling people might have enjoyed it anyway. I think people are happy to support something that looks a bit rough when they know a real person is behind it.

My release.

I knew my timing was not the best. I released on the 12th of November, right between a lot of big games. But anyway, i did it, and this is how it went:

The other 87 are keys I gave to streamers and curators

I have had many streamers and youtubers (20+) play the game, and i have watched all of them with joy. Some played for 30 minutes and others played for 3 hours. The vast majority had a lot of positive things to say about my game, and it made me so happy to hear. After almost 2 years with my head down and many times doubting myself, it was really nice to see people enjoy what i had made. That feeling i will take with me no matter what.

For launch i of course hoped for more, but it's a hard market out there. And it is what it is.

A few positives i want to take away from my launch:

- 0 refunds so far

- My wishlists peaked at launch! :))

- At one point I had 5 people playing my game at the same time!

Lessons (with the power of hindsight)

When it comes to Steam and my launch, i made many "bad" mistakes in my opinion (I’m sure you can all think of way more, please share them in the comments for the next one i guess). Before i started my game i read a lot of advice online: when to publish your Steam page, when to upload a trailer, when to join a Steam Next Fest etc. Most of it said to do it as soon as possible. That might be true in general, i won't argue that. But in my specific situation, with hindsight, i think i would have been better off waiting.

- Showing off early only makes sense if you keep showing it off: posting on social media, making developer updates, actively engaging with people and building a following. That will not happen by itself unless you are very special. So if you are committed to it, do it of course.

- In my case, since i didn't do any of that, it would have been much better to use Steam's free boosts when i was actually ready to get the most out of them. Instead i burned them on a version that looked nothing like the quality it is today.

After all, you can make a great game, but if no one sees it, it doesn't matter. I know people say if the game is good it will find its audience eventually. Some do, some don't. If you're wondering how my game could have so few wishlists, i think the biggest reason is simply that no one knew it existed when it was good.

My story

I want to share my experience making a game. I was not a game developer and had never worked in the industry before i started this project. My background is in front end development, with a big focus on UI and UX. Not very much backend or systems.

My background in gaming is very wide. When i was young i would play StarCraft 1, Age of Empires 1 and 2, Age of Mythology, Midtown Madness, Re-Volt, GTA 1 (the top-down version), Warcraft 3, Skyrim, Oblivion, Fable, and then my variety stopped when World of Warcraft came out. In later years i played a lot of Path of Exile, Hearthstone, Balatro, Slay the Spire, Factorio, Satisfactory, Divinity: Original Sin 2, The Bazaar and many others. Of course all of these have been an inspiration for what i made.

Back in March 2025 I got the idea to make a game. I installed Unity and was so confused. I still remember opening it for the first time and struggling to make a circle and get the camera to show it.

But since then i have worked so hard and learned so much. Since March 2025 i've worked on it 10+ hours a day, almost every day. I don't have the specific number, but it's at least extremely close 6000 hours, if not more.

One thing that was a real struggle for me was getting a good art direction. I wanted the game to feel special and to feel like it could stand on its own legs. What i ended up doing was something very simple. I came up with a system where all my art is white vector lines, and then i used materials to help the plain white vectors come to life. It's very simple, but it was a system i could manage, and it gave my game personality. So i went with it.

All of the Companions have personality traits that get added as you rank them up, like this spider that got an eye on its back. All of this was done by hand and took weeks. I really enjoyed it though.

The journey in screenshots

Here is how my game looked and evolved during the process.

This was my first idea in Figma back in March 2025:

First build, June 2025

July 2025

Late July 2025

September 2025, the first Companions

November 2025

January 2026

February 2026

June 2026: This was how my demo looked for Steam Next Fest

And this is how it looks now, at launch on November 12th 2026

Where i am now

I am very grateful for the experience of making this game. I have grown in so many ways i never could have done without it. I would love to be in a situation where i can continue to develop games full time. But no matter what happens, it will be a valuable experience in whatever my professional life will be. I'm happy that i finished it, even though at times it was difficult as a single dad to stay up until 3 in the morning and then wake up at 7 to get the kids to school, to chase my dream. No one made me do it. It was my choice to chase my dream. I would do it again.

Life is too short not to try!

I want to keep on going. I feel like nothing good in life comes for free, and i want to continue updating and trying. What would you do if you were in my situation?

Thanks for reading!

If you’re curious: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3856990/

It's my game which is based around a witch who runs an apothecary on a train. Travels around the world, collects plants, herbs and mob drops to research and brew potions for deseases.

( NO AI IS USED ANYWHERE IN THE GAME )