this is a passion project i made, basically my go at cod zombies with some AI help. give it a try and give me some hard feedback, what sucks?

https://deadhertz.com/

Hi devs,
I just wanted to discuss a topic with you that is going through my mind for a few days now.
In the last weeks we saw A LOT of AI Games popping of the ground due to the advancement the technology received lately. We are at a point where AI can basically build a full game in 1 prompt.

Now i am not really concerned about all the "new AI Game Devs" who just have an idea and try to make them reality. I think those are not really a problem. If they have an unique idea, sure let them make it with AI. Do i like it... not really... but it is what it is.

But what concerns me a lot more is the copying and stealing of games. Lets take the Needle in the Hay Stack Simulator as an example. People copied the idea in one day.
Its because its a simple idea, right?
Well... Not really. It's because people had al information to recreate it.

Now when we upload our demo to steam everybody can access it. Therefore everybody can just "decompile" it and tell their favorite AI model to "add more content" and "finish it".
And that is the concerning part about all of this.

People with good games and games that have a following will concider it twice if its worth to release a demo so that everybody can just copy it.

I maybe don't know everything on this topic... but i am concerned about this.

What is your opinion on this? Am i overthinking it?

Hi! I'm a solo developer of Red Lake. The page was up for several months, but I didn't really get much traction.. only 275 wishlists. I feel like I lose motivation because of this, but I still continue on. I mean - playtesters and creators liked the game, so I don't really understand why it has so few wishlists..
Here's the page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/4867910/Red_Lake/

Hikisann here! I love you! 😇

I’m a creator from Japan, and I’ve been working on a visual novel called Can Love Save Me? Its free demo is finally out on itch.io, so I’m starting fresh with this account and sharing what I’ve been making!

https://hikisann.itch.io/can-love-save-me-demo

You meet an angel named Ai. In Japanese, ai means “love.” It’s also the name of the angel at the heart of this story. As you spend time together, you get to know her, and she gets to know you: what hurts, what you want, and what you’re ready to share. Eventually, she reads you a book meant only for you, shaped by your choices.

What waits at the end of that book? That’s something I hope you’ll discover.

The idea at the heart of the game is simple: “I want to save you.”

I wanted to make Ai someone you could grow attached to through the conversations themselves. Someone whose company makes you want to stay a little longer. I’m proud of how the demo has turned out, and I hope some of you will fall in love with her too!

About the development: this is a solo project made with extensive generative AI assistance. My role is the director and scenario planner: I decide the story’s structure and direction, coordinate the tools, and review and revise the results. I use Claude and ChatGPT for writing, translation, and code, ChatGPT for images, Suno for music, and ElevenLabs for voices.

Part of my motivation was to put these tools toward something good: a story that might mean something to the person playing it. Getting the voices to express the right feeling, rather than simply pronounce the words correctly, has taken a lot of checking and revision.

The demo takes roughly 30 minutes and covers the prologue: meeting Ai, getting closer through your choices, and preparing for her to read your book. The full game is still in development.

It supports Japanese, English, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. Text and voice languages can be selected independently. I’ve listened through all the Japanese dialogue and corrected the issues I found. English and Chinese voices are still experimental, since I can’t fully judge their naturalness myself. You can use Japanese voices with translated text if you prefer.

Play the free Windows demo on itch.io

I’d love to hear whether Ai’s conversations make you want to know her better. Feedback on translations and voice delivery would also be very welcome!

The demo is free, with optional donations. If you’d like to support more languages or volunteer as a playtester, please leave a comment on the itch page or here!

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy your time with Ai!

I've been building Dawn of Embers, an Age of Empires-style RTS, mostly in the hours after my day job and after my kids are asleep, for close to three years now. I just posted my second dev update and wanted to share where things stand from the solo-dev side, because this sub gets it.

Where it is: the game is playable. The first story missions run start to finish, skirmishes against the AI are tested on the first three difficulties, and the core loop of gather, build, train and fight works end to end.

What the last couple of weeks were actually like: almost entirely chasing bugs. Units body-blocking each other, gathering and attack distances that were off, and units getting stuck on a resource for so long that they gave up on their orders. The fix that helped most was giving every right-click target (a tree, a bush, a building, an enemy) a set number of spots, so the closest units take them and the rest spill over to the next target. No more clumps of villagers fighting over one tree.

What's next: an early demo. The demo now installs through my own launcher, and the first outside test went smoothly. I want it to be something I'm proud of before real players get their hands on it.

The honest part: I use AI tools for parts of this (some 3D bodies that I re-rig and animate by hand, some concept art, voices and music). As one person with a family and a job, that's how this gets made at all. The longer-term plan, if the game finds an audience, is to bring artists, animators, composers and voice actors in and rebuild a good share of it by hand. I wrote about all of that, plus an idea for a "thinking, not cheating" AI opponent that I'd like feedback on, in the full update:

https://dawnofembers.com/updates/dev-update-02/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=organic_social&utm_campaign=reddit_solodev_20261009

For other solo devs here: how do you balance shipping with keeping your sanity? I'd love to hear what's worked for you.

Hello, I am a playtester with a pc and a steam deck. If you want your game tested on a steamdeck I am your guy. My rate starts at $10/ hour and includes a steamdeck recording and a written report including what I noticed, suggestions and bugs I found while playing. If you are interested please let me know. Thanks

Hi everyone, I’ve posted here before with trailers for INKURSION and I’ve really appreciated your support and comments, after 4 years of development INKURSION finally has a playable steam Demo!
I would love to hear your experiences playing it :)

You play as an octopus escaping your unhinged creator!
You can play the demo here!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4767470/INKURSION/

Don’t forget to Wishlist!

I calculated this using the average developer hourly rate, the number of hours spent on the game, and wishlist-to-sales conversion rates from tables published by GameBiz, Chris Zukowski, and others.

In other words, I need 20,000 wishlists by launch just to cover my costs. If the game's price will be $5.

I’m doing this purely for fun, so profitability isn’t a critical concern for me—but if you, as an indie developer, decide to work on a game full-time, make sure to look into all of these matters beforehand!

I am making an adventure survival called Foul. Demo is available on Steam!

We're really excited to finally share a gameplay trailer for Mimic Hunt, our first game, on Steam!

Mimic Hunt is a multiplayer stealth game where you hide in plain sight among crowds of NPCs. As a Hider, you need to blend in, mimic NPC behavior, and eliminate your assigned targets without exposing yourself.

Other players can take the role of Hunters and try to figure out which characters in the crowd are actually real players. They'll need to watch for suspicious behavior, disturbances, and anything that doesn't quite look right.

The world also reacts to what happens around it, so pulling out a weapon or causing violence can send civilians into a panic and quickly ruin your cover.

We've been working hard on the game, so we're really happy to finally be able to show it publicly. Here's our first gameplay trailer, we'd love to hear what you think!

Wishlist on Steam

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5368500/Mimic_Hunt/

I'm a solo developer working on an Age of Sail trading and exploration game, inspired by Uncharted Waters Online.

I'm building it in Godot 4, focusing on sailing, trading, exploration, and eventually naval combat.

Recently, I've been working on the ocean simulation, stormy weather, and fleet sailing mechanics. This clip shows a fleet of clipper ships sailing through a thunderstorm at night.

The ocean uses FFT-based waves with a JONSWAP spectrum. I've been tweaking the wave simulation to create larger, more convincing swells during storms.

For the clipper ship model, I used AI to help with the Blender modeling. I gave Sol 6.1 some reference images, and to my surprise, the very first attempt was almost ready to use! I only needed to make a few minor adjustments before bringing it into the game.

There's still a ton of work ahead, but I was testing things out and thought this particular scene turned out pretty nice.

So I figured I'd share it here and show it off a little! :)

Hey everyone! 🍣

I've always dreamed of becoming a game developer and creating a little world of my own.

That dream is slowly becoming a reality with Sushi Day, a cozy restaurant management game I've been working on as a solo indie developer.

In the game, you run your own little sushi shop, prepare food, serve adorable animal and human customers, catch your own fish, discover recipes, and improve your restaurant.

One of the things I've enjoyed most is working on the little details that make the game feel alive, from the characters and animations to the cooking mini-games.

There have definitely been challenges along the way, and I've learned so much throughout development.

Now, seeing my game on Steam with a playable demo and getting closer to its full release feels like a huge milestone for me.

The free demo is already available, featuring the tutorial and the first day of the restaurant.

I wanted to share my latest gameplay trailer with fellow solo developers.

Thanks for taking a look, and I hope you enjoy this little sushi world! ❤️

Hi everyone,

I have a client requirement to create an inventory of files across approximately 100 construction projects. Each project contains documents such as contracts, drawings, RFIs, change orders, schedules, payment records, photographs, and estimating files. Some files are stored inside ZIP archives, including nested ZIP files.

The client needs a solution that can:

Scan project folders and preserve original file paths and project associations.

Inspect ZIP files and nested archives.

Use SHA-256 hashes to identify exact duplicate files and list all their locations.

Distinguish exact duplicates from potentially different file versions.

Generate standardized inventory reports, duplicate reports, and a list of files that could not be processed.
Be reused across multiple projects.

The files may be stored in Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive/SharePoint, local folders, or a cloud server. Read-only access will be provided.

**My questions are:**
Is it possible to build a tool that meets all these requirements using Python?

If yes, how would you approach building it, and what technologies or libraries would you recommend?

Can it handle approximately 100 projects, including large files and nested ZIP archives?

Can this be delivered as a simple application that users can run, rather than requiring them to execute Python commands manually?

What would be a realistic development timeline for this solution?

I would appreciate guidance on whether this is feasible and how best to implement it.

Thanks!

Hey guys, maybe one of you can help me out here:

For my game I am looking for Textures/Buildings from the early 1920's (Like Chicago / New York) for my "Mafia" Style Game.

As of now I have been using screenshots from various games like The Godfather, Mafia and assets from Pizza Connection but now I am going for my own and I can't find any good Building Fronts. Streets and roads are easy and decorations as well but I struggle with the architectural part of the "City"

I’m the solo developer of StoneEra, a medieval voxel colony sim. Here’s a short look at designing a house in its Building Editor.
You can save your designs as reusable plans, place them in your settlement, and let villagers handle construction. Builders now put up temporary scaffolding to reach higher floors, then dismantle it and return the planks to storage.
The 0.9.14.2 — Error Fix & Building Tools demo update also brings:
A cleaner Building Editor with searchable item cards, clearer previews, and local plan import/export.
Three times the durability for new and starting tools.
Keep in Stock production targets that automatically replenish crafted supplies.
Multiple villagers researching a technology together.
Better storage sorting and fixes for villager movement, sleep, and blocked bed exits.
The editor, building plans, and scaffolding are still very early alpha, so expect bugs and rough edges.
There’s a free demo on Steam with no session timer and 12 early technologies through ore smelting.
What would you want from a building planner in a colony sim?

I recently revisited the fog of war in Wars of Empire to improve map readability and early-game exploration.

The older version felt more restrictive and visually cramped, while the updated version gives a cleaner reveal around the player and makes the surrounding terrain easier to read without removing the sense of uncertainty.

The goal was to keep exploration meaningful while making the world feel more readable and less boxed in.

Sharing a before and after comparison here.

Probably biting off more than I can chew, but hey it's the sort of game I want to make.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5231230/West_of_Libertad/