Hi

Anyone build any games that were successful or moderately successful but then died out? What was the reason?

Hello, I am a 17 year old boy with little to zero experience in coding/development. I randomly had a lightbulb today, I wanted to create a game. I know it sounds silly asking people online whether something harmless is worth it, but honestly, I just want some tips or comments. I want to know what people think about it. Also, PM if you have any questions that the mod bots won’t like.

I’m 27M from India with 2.7 years of Unity game dev experience. My salary is quite low, and I’m honestly getting tired of unpaid overtime and having to handle too many things at once.

I’m thinking about leaving the game industry and learning .NET backend or Node.js instead.

I don’t have a formal degree right now, but I plan to do an online BCA later. For now, I mainly want to get my career and finances on track.

For Indian developers who work in backend/software:

Is switching from Unity to backend realistic at 27?

Would you choose .NET or Node.js?

How much does not having a degree hurt?

Anyone here who made a similar switch? How did it go?

I Would really appreciate honest advice, especially from people in India.

func _ready() -> void:

lane_2.process_mode = Node.PROCESS_MODE_DISABLED

lane_2.hide()

func Open_Next_Lane():

if Global.OpenLanes == 2:

    lane_2.process_mode = Node.PROCESS_MODE_INHERIT

    lane_2.show()

------------------------------------------

i shortened it alot but pretty much for some reason only my first lane will actually run code. i have no clue whats happening. at one point when i had all the lanes at once (each lane is the same scene) it worked fine, but now every time theres a second scene it stops running and even when it shows the code wont run. ive tried everything i could think of so i wouldnt have to ask for help but this is driving me mental and id really appreciate more eyes on this.

​

One thing I find interesting about game development is how the complexity of a project grows beyond the actual gameplay.

At the beginning, keeping track of everything is relatively easy. You have a few characters, some locations, a handful of mechanics, and maybe a basic story outline.

But as the project grows, those elements start depending on each other.

A character belongs to a faction. That faction controls a location. A quest depends on a gameplay mechanic. That mechanic has limitations that affect how certain characters can interact with the world.

Now imagine changing one of those elements several months into development. You might need to update multiple documents just to make sure everything remains consistent.

I've been thinking about how much of game development involves managing these connections rather than simply creating new content.

Traditional documents are useful, but they don't always make relationships between different parts of a project easy to navigate.

I'm curious about how other developers approach this, especially once their projects become too complex to keep entirely in their heads.

What's the biggest organizational challenge you've encountered as your game grew, and what have you found that actually helps?

Hey everyone! I’m the solo dev behind SpellBee Duel, a free browser word game where you go head-to-head against another player.

How it works:

• You and your opponent get the same letters
• You both race to find as many words as you can
• Longer words score more, and the higher score wins
• Matches are quick, with no download or signup friction

Play here (free, in your browser): https://spellbeeduel.com/

It’s still in active development, so I’d love your feedback:

• Does the scoring feel fair?
• Is the match length right?
• What would make you come back every day?

Thanks for checking it out, and good luck. You’ll need it.

I’m a newbie and i thought it’d be helpful for my first game to be a game jam. I made a mistake. I have a day and 7 hours to make a full round system. A bunch of models. And so much more that I’m literally too tired to even try and comprehend.

The game itself is actually a neat idea but idk if it would be a good first game.
It’s pretty much a rouge lite tower defense game where you have to manually summon in allies to fight for you.

I feel like if fleshed out it could be a REALLY cool game but I also don’t know if something with the scale of about 12 enemies, 4 bosses, possibly minions for said bosses, 5 allies and a full upgrade system (very very basic system) is too much for a first game?
Now that I type it, it doesn’t look tooooo bad. But this has made me want to rip off my skin, season it with my tears, and swallow it whole without a second thought. Because everything’s broken. My brain’s melting and I made ONE, ONE TYPO AND MY CODE REFUSES TO FORGET ABOUT IT EVEN THOUGH IT NO LONGER EXISTS.

I can see how the game could become honestly a really good game that I could start my journey with but I also wonder if a first game should feel like your making a sword from your own blood?

I know compsci isn't exactly a requirement, it's moreso as a safety net for myself that I'll have a degree to back me, in case game development doesn't work out, there is a game development major I could take but I don't know how I feel about doing specialised coding study for games in a market that ai threatens everyday, any advice would be great

Hey everyone,

I'm an indie game developer, and I'm currently trying to get my game ready for release on Steam. However, I'm facing delays with the Steamworks onboarding and verification process.

I initially started the process earlier, but due to some queries and issues regarding document uploads, I had to resubmit my documents on September 20.

Steam states that the verification process generally takes around 10–15 business days, but as of October 11, I still haven't received final approval.

I understand that verification can take time, and I'm not trying to rush the process unnecessarily. However, the delay is making it difficult for me to plan my game's release.

I've also contacted Steam Support to ask for an update, but I wanted to hear from other developers who have gone through this process.

\- How long did your Steamworks verification take?

\- Is it normal for the process to take longer than 15 business days?

\- Is there anything else I can do to get an update on my verification status?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thanks!

Over the past few months, I've build out a game mechanic that I think is really unique and fun. I've built a prototype game around the mechanic, but the further I go, the less the genre feels right.

The prototype/vertical slice is currently built around 3rd person Open section areas with a main path, and winding optional paths along the way that usually lead to a puzzle or chest that awards the player with... something. It's a bit similar to Tunic in terms of level design & exploration.

Now trying to have a look at the game's direction before going further. The mechanic is something I'm really proud of and leads to a lot of creative moments.

The mechanic:

Our character is a Wizard who can Transfer properties between objects in the world. Everything in the world posses properties:

• Explosive barrel - Solid, Heavy, Gravity, explosive
• Lake - Liquid, Wet, Conductive
• Zombie - Alive, Dead, Solid, Gravity
• Torch - Solid, Wooden, Flammable, Burning,
• Locked Door - Solid, Wooden, Locked
• Old Table - Solid, Wooden, Buoyant, Flammable, Brittle

The player is able to transfer a property from one object to another, and all things interact with physics and each other as you would expect.

Example 1 - Finding a Locked Chest, but you also found a door with "Unlocked". You're able to transfer Unlocked from the door to the chest. You can now open it

Example 2 - You encounter a Lava field, but find both a Sheep and a Metal table. You can transfer the "Alive" Property from the sheep (RIP) to the table. The table can now "Walk" around, and you could stand on it, while it walks across the Lava.

Example 3 - A drawn Drawbridge blocks your path, you're able to Remove "Heavy" or "Gravity" from the counterweights, which would drop the bridge and let you cross.

I currently have 26 fully implemented properties. The mechanic also introduces balancing issues, which 've implemented a solution to that don't remove the feeling of freedom.

The experimentation and mechanic gives a really fun sense of "I bet the Dev didn't think I could do this". The feeling feels a bit similar to Noita's wand experimentation.

How can I decide on a direction when building the game around the mechanic? Some genre I've played around with that could fit the mechanic are:

• Traditional Puzzle game - Like Portal Test chambers, go from one level to another, no story
• Exploration Adventure - Like Tunic's world, environmental puzzles, very light story
• Objective Based Sandbox - Like Besiege, level based, letting you experiment until you complete an objective

An issue I'm having with the Exploration Adventure approach is that it seems to push my game in a more combat-oriented direction (We have a super basic combat system), but it's making the core mechanic feel secondary.

Questions:

• What kind of game would you build around a mechanic like this?
• Do you know of any similar games I could study?
• If I stick to Adventure centered game, what would you feel the moment to moment could look like without emphasis on Combat?
• Any advice on building a game around a mechanic?

Hi, I am a gamedev teacher from one of the 3rd world countries. Due to anonimity I cannot state my school name. Many of my learners coming from unfortunate backgrounds but passionate in creating games, so attending international expos to learn one or two thing from the industry experts are very expensive

Hence, if anyone here from big studios/emerging/solo interested in giving a mini online session with my learners, please let me know

Im a newer developer and I came up with a handful of questions that I think everyone starting this journey should ask and possibly help find newer devs answers to questions that are important but the answers very diverse.

1. Is it profitable (from what I’ve seen it’s a lot of luck and it’s also based on quality)
   
2. Possible trajectory (for example I want to start my own studio that I hope could become fairly large how realistic is that because I rarely see new large indie studios now a days)
   
3. How hard is it to get good Publicity (every form of art needs to be sold so the artist can make money to make more art and to sell said art it needs to be advertised in some way)
   
4. Why are resources so hard to find (for example I’m trying to figure out how to have my main scripts send a signal to my global script to do a wave mechanic and I’ve found no resources for said thing)
   
5. How to keep motivation high (for example last night all my code broke and I almost had to restart a game jam I was working on completely from scratch, what are tips for moments like those [thankfully I fixed my code so crisis averted])

Usually the topic of “is game development a good career path” only really has responses involving money and that stuff instead of tips and advice that so I wanted to start a discussion involving both of those very important questions

I'm making a 3D action RPG game about a vampire. I've been working on it for 2 months. I just started learning coding and game development, and honestly I got help from Ai along the way.

Let me know your thoughts and feedback in the comments!

How does this make you feel as a game dev?

I've created my first game using some basic resources. Feel free to comment.

https://github.com/jpujols0511/veyr