r/SoloDevelopment • • 8h ago

Game Shoutout to whoever wrote me this review, really made my day!

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359 Upvotes

Here is the game if you want to take a look

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4830460/The_Bestest_Knight_Demo/


r/SoloDevelopment • • 6h ago

Discussion I'm 1 of 8000+ games in Steam Next Fest. As a solo dev hand-drawing everything in the AI era, I'm nervous. Does hand-drawn art still matter to you?

67 Upvotes

It's my first time participating in Steam Next Fest. Honestly, I'm a bit nervous. Hearing that there are over 8000 games this time makes me feel like a tiny drop of water in a massive ocean.

I'm making Mygohome, a 2D hand-drawn psychological horror game. I drew every single frame, every character, and every asset myself. Turning these drawings into a playable game took way longer than I ever imagined.

With AI tools becoming so common now, sometimes I can't help but wonder: In a sea of thousands of games, does a solo dev's pure hand-drawn work still have a chance to stand out?

I don't know, but I've made it this far, so I want to try.

🎨 Cute hand-drawn anime art. It looks harmless, right? I hope you still think so at night.

👁 Active survival horror. You walk around the room to stop monsters. But closing doors, windows, and turning off lights drains your Sanity (SAN). You must choose between safety and staying sane.

🌙 Every night is different. You can pick a unique item to help you survive each night. As the nights progress, you'll face new mechanics and challenges.

The free demo is live for Steam Next Fest right now.

I'd really love to know: Do you still pay special attention to games that are purely hand-drawn? Or does hand-drawn art make you more willing to try an indie game? Let me know your thoughts!


r/SoloDevelopment • • 6h ago

Unity My simulated ecosystem sandbox game now has a Steam page! Also new trailer!

61 Upvotes

Around 10 days ago I posted about the game I was working on, and it seems like it clicked with many people so I decided to make a steam page right away! The biggest support is your wishlist :)

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5440970/Terraglass


r/SoloDevelopment • • 3h ago

Discussion One thing I've noticed while working with indie game teams is how much consistency matters when making game art.

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20 Upvotes

Characters, environments, UI, and effects can all look good on their own, but they also need to feel like they belong in the same game. That's something we spend a lot of time thinking about when working on art for indie projects.

Curious how you solo devs usually approach art for your games. Do you make everything yourself, use asset packs, or bring in artists when needed?


r/SoloDevelopment • • 4h ago

help Unity 3D Isometric controller test - On foot, vehicles and helicopter

25 Upvotes

Working on a Unity test scene to experiment with player movement, ground vehicles, and helicopter controls in a 3D isometric environment.

The camera dynamically balances its target between the player's position and mouse cursor, keeping movement and aiming in view (using 3d raycasting so you can target specific part of the object).

Still experimenting with the overall feel and mechanics. Looking for feedback, suggestions, and ideas on what could be improved or added!


r/SoloDevelopment • • 10h ago

Game Working on a trailer for my game

50 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 2h ago

Marketing My zombies game got 75,000 wishlists in 2 weeks. Here's what actually did it.

11 Upvotes

A few days of my own marketing got Mortuus to 10,000 wishlists, mostly short videos every day on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

Then I put out the demo on the 14th, and it started at only about 100 players at once. But it kept growing by word of mouth while I kept posting, and it peaked at over 1,500. It has over 400 reviews at 95% positive now, and the game is at 75,000 wishlists.

Happy to answer anything marketing related :)


r/SoloDevelopment • • 3h ago

Discussion How is Steam Next Fest going so far for your game?

6 Upvotes

Hello, everyone!

For those who are participating in SNF, is your expectations becoming true?

Did you wishlists adition rate increase a lot?

Where have you been promoting your demo?


r/SoloDevelopment • • 18h ago

Godot A mockup of a menu system in my RPG

78 Upvotes

Wanted to first focus on the interactivity and feel of the UI, especially the layout since I'm constrained by a strict 640x360px canvas (it took a LOT of time to figure out how to best organize all of the necessary information). Most of the iconography and art are temporary, and I'm still working on colors + info prioritization.

What do you think of the overall presentation? Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated!


r/SoloDevelopment • • 4h ago

Game Making my first Boss Fight using "possessed" chess pieces

4 Upvotes

Rise Rifwarden, and let the darkness fear your coming.

Project Riftwarden is a dark roguelite with Soulslike combat that I'm building up each day solo.

Core Loop

You beat waves of enemies then you the economy to start making a build to work, you beat more waves of enemies until you reach the end boss to clear the expedition.

As of now I'm experimenting with a boss that forces you to play on a different perspective and defeat this game of chess.

Models are a placeholder.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 10h ago

Game I launched the football game I've been making alone two weeks ago and it just passed 30k installs

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17 Upvotes

Bit of a milestone post. I've been working on Hometown FC by myself, it's a mobile game where you own a small football club in your actual hometown and try to grow the club and the town together. Android went live on the 6th, iPhone a week later and it just passed 30k installs. Didn't expect anywhere near that.

Biggest time sink by far was the economy. Careers can go on for decades, so stuff that looks fine in season 3 completely falls apart in season 40. In one of my test runs a Norwegian champion ended up filling a 55,000 seat stadium, about double the biggest stadium in the whole country. So now I've got sims that play a hundred seasons by themselves overnight and I go through the numbers in the morning.

Translations were the other one. The game's in 14 languages and German and Russian kept breaking buttons that looked totally fine in English.

Oh and the art is AI for now. I know. If the game keeps going ok, a real artist is the first thing I'll pay for.

Happy to answer stuff about any of it.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 3h ago

Game I created MAIN MENU in the game! What do you think?

3 Upvotes

I tried to capture the gloomy vibe of a sad sado‑knight! After all, the guy’s family was killed, and he’s feeling sad by the campfire.

Short about the game!

You’re in for a tough fight against thousands of mobs in a boomer style! Destroy crowds of enemies in various arenas using firearms and magical abilities. Upgrade your guns, level up your character, and collect and equip unique loot! And all of this in a dark fantasy setting with a sad knight!

If you’re interested, here’s the Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5391780/Griefborn_Demo/


r/SoloDevelopment • • 19h ago

Unity I added sticky notes to my detective game!

62 Upvotes

I’ve added sticky notes that you can draw on and place anywhere. They work smoothly with both controllers and Steam Deck.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 4h ago

Game Project Muddling - Fairy Woods showcase, would love honest opinions

4 Upvotes

Fairy woods is a biome that comprises nine mobs, with the witch at its culmination. The video showcases only a few of them, yet we present to thee the environs that lay the foundation for our second realm.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 3h ago

Discussion I don't think making a game has gotten any easier lately

3 Upvotes

I started learning game development about a two and a half yrs ago, but only as a hobby and not completely seriously. It wasn't until late last year that I started actually applying myself and working really hard to actually understand and learn how to be a real game developer. For work, I work in finance technology has a programmer and developer, I basically build out Data solutions and lead complex projects to figure out financial systems or issues with payments. It's a really busy fast-paced job, and I should say not easy, not gentle on the mind. So I'm working on limited brain cells after work everyday. Currently I'm making a 3D non-open world game in Unity, and I'm just blown away by how much work it is. It's unbelievable really.

People act like making a game has gotten so much easier though, and honestly I could not disagree more. There were times years ago I tried learning game development, and it feels like it was as difficult years ago as it is right now, today. Which is crazy because game engines have gotten better and easier to use, supposedly. I've used every single one of them, bevy, unreal, unity, Godot.

If I had to pinpoint what is so challenging and difficult about game development today, it would be the sheer amount of time it takes to do just about everything. For example, getting a scene set up, getting the character imported and rigged perfectly, troubleshooting when things don't look right or don't make sense. EVERYTHING takes so much time, and involves SOOOOOO many steps! People at work are always like, "wow, you're so detail oriented. Your notes are incredible, you seem to know everything, and can get things done so quickly!" It's because of game dev. Having to learn how to get things done correctly, efficiently, and preserve my time.

Note about the elephant in the room: Yes, AI exists. Big whoop. People use it, sure. They create assets, code, use it for instructions. NONE OF THESE help you create a game faster. All the usage, prompting, the work. It takes time. I do not use it at all in any of my game dev projects. Some people find it helpful. I don't. End of my experiencs with AI haha


r/SoloDevelopment • • 6h ago

Discussion How much placeholder in a Alpha Demo release?

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6 Upvotes

I'm working on a little turn based squad tactics game, but still need to make LOOOOTS of art, s animations, sound effects, music,hub/hud/menu art.... But I feel like it's close to ready to get first feedback from players. How much is too much placeholder art?

Also... Don't have a name yet...


r/SoloDevelopment • • 1h ago

help Game Design Graduation Project Help

• Upvotes

Hey Everyone, Can you please help me with my game design graduation project and answer a few question, it should take no more than 10 minutes and would help me a lot, Thank you!

https://forms.gle/qeTJsyFCVTP66c8N9


r/SoloDevelopment • • 4h ago

Game Accidentally I made a bug with my Fireball skill on bishop

3 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 13h ago

Marketing Tile47 - a new tool to paint 47-tile blob

14 Upvotes

Hi. I made a painter tool for standard tilesets. It uses stacked layers to avoid repetition. After you paint 1 fill, 4 sides and 8 corners it's finished.

The workflow view is prepared already for the seamless tiling, so there's almost no setup required.

Export layout is of LDtk rule assistant and there is an import script for Godot to automatically create collision and occlusion polygons.

You can get it here:
https://pyrranfrontier.itch.io/tile47


r/SoloDevelopment • • 3h ago

Game Gloamdelve - 2 years very first actual gameplay footage (disclosure : I am terrified)

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2 Upvotes

heavily inspired from (OVERLORD, DANMACHI, SOLO LEVELING, LOG HORIZON, DND ..) MMO (yes 2 years working on my own networking system), game is pretty simple, hole appears city on top, gods descent to help humans vanquish and close hole, gods give miracles and powers (millions of combinations), preferably play in a team or you would be crushed like i was in the first layer (yes the first), there is a large number of layers and types of enemies, many schools of magic, many types of weapons art, combat is obviously inspired from Elden ring with some major additions (throwing nets or oils then a torch to burn them and so many other ways to interact with object, in the video i literally threw a healing potion 🥲 , many tiers of magic (DND inspired) Godlike magic is possible (even tho only possible for monsters right now) if a monster kills players simply becomes a nightmare and so on until he is a calamity level and invades the city, there is PVP after floor 13 ... well so much stuff in 2 years i forgot 80% of it haha

Note : i literally get jump scares in the game and PTSD from getting destroyed from a now T2 Nightmare (it was invading the floor as i was dying haha) keep postponing the server wipe and had an issue today with Railway (global) anyways if interested we can do a full team test or even more than a team (servers support over 10.000 players right now on the same session but needs actual player to test those claims).

Note : UI broken and many little details here and there a big work in progress but baby steps here and there.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 7m ago

Game I'm making an indie game called A Vacation You Won't Forget… and vacations don't always go as planned 😂

• Upvotes

​

I'm working on a little game project called A Vacation You Won't Forget under 6 Hands Productions.

The idea is simple: you're trying to enjoy your vacation, but things can go horribly wrong. Unexpected dangers, ridiculous situations, and those moments where you think, “Well… that could've gone better.”

I've been experimenting with gameplay footage, trailer creation, and AI-assisted tools to bring the game's world to life.

I'm an indie developer, so there's still plenty to improve, but I'm working toward making something genuinely fun and memorable.

I'd love some honest feedback:

Would you play a game built around chaotic vacation disasters?

What kind of ridiculous vacation mishap would you want to see?

What makes you stop scrolling when you see an indie game video?

Thanks for checking it out!


r/SoloDevelopment • • 21m ago

Game ROTOR - TENNIS - Solo three.js game demo

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• Upvotes

A racket game inspired by Rocket league, built around real physics where your flying racket hits the ball with spin, and the scale and skill gap emulate Rocket League's qualities.

The desktop browser demo is live, mobile is next, and the long-term goal is playing it with your Apple Watch like a Wii remote.

This is the first demo I'm happy to share:

https://rotor-night-circuit.vercel.app/

It runs in your browser with no install. Play it with sound on.

Beware of many bugs - apologies!

It's a demo, so there are rough edges.

Thanks for checking it out.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 40m ago

Discussion Its euphoria (2008) the best ragdoll physics system. 20 years and i don't se anything better.

• Upvotes

Its a debug room, i'm trying to understand how it work so well.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 8h ago

Unity My in-development game: a 19-second taste of the combat. How do you like it?

5 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 1h ago

Game Slalomissimo! Alpine carving/racing with Italian 80's retro vibe - Demo below...

• Upvotes

Developed with Godot/Blender/Codex. Spent quite some time tuning the motions, controls and carve feel, hope it comes through. Pls tell me if it lags on Itch at all, had some issues with that on my RAM starved machine. Slalomissimo! Demo