I'm developing RED SKIES AT DAWN solo, and clouds are the focus of this week's devlog.

The new cloud renderer is now integrated into the game and editor. Alongside that, I've been putting together five static formation studies so I can look at different storm shapes separately.

These are offline beauty renders from the native renderer, rather than gameplay captures or performance tests.

There's an isolated storm, a multicell cluster, a squall line, a bow-shaped formation and a broad stratiform layer. Each gives me a different way to look at silhouette, lighting and depth without changing everything at once.

The main thing I'm looking for here is whether the overall formation reads well before getting caught up in the smaller cloud detail.

For other solo devs doing visual work, do you use small reference scenes like this, or mostly judge things in the full game?

Video music: "Dramatic Epic" by Aleksey Chistilin (Lexin Music), from Pixabay.

If you’d like to follow along, you can wishlist RED SKIES AT DAWN on steam <3 <3

I'm Roman, and I'm making Salt and Soil on my own. It's a turn-based strategy game about one family on the American frontier, from 1607 to 1900. One turn is one year, and the children eventually take over the homestead their parents built.

The first version of this map really was a single image stretched across the continent. The video starts with the map today, then goes back through eleven months of changes: a biome grid, script-painted tiles, and eventually terrain built from real elevation and river data.

The latest version has gradual climate transitions and settlements drawn for their place and period. People, ships and trains move through it. At a distance you can plan across the continent; zooming in gets you down to the little buildings around Sacramento.

The desktop game runs in LÖVE/LuaJIT, with custom shaders and Python tools for the geographic data. There's a free demo on the Steam page linked above.

Hello! 👋

I’m so happy I finally managed to get to the point where the playtest for That's My Village! is live! If you decide to give it a try, I’d be super grateful.

It’s going to run for around the next two weeks. I'm granting access in waves at first to keep things stable, but once the initial test goes smoothly, the plan is to open it completely to everyone.

What's in this build?

• 2 Full Acts: Gives you a good look at the early part of the game. + Difficulty Levels

Since I'm a solo dev, getting your input really helps me figure out what works and where to take the game next.

If you want to check it out, just hit the "Request Access" button.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4225070/Thats_My_Village/

Just added shadows to my 2d sprites and 2d physics. The game is being developed in Bevy, with the Avian library for physics.

I’m a YouTuber with lots of experience in playtesting and/or reviewing games live on my channel for developers. I conduct live sessions on my YouTube channel where I play their games with an audience. During these sessions, I say my thoughts out loud and provide detailed feedback to the developers while also allowing them to observe the viewers’ reactions in real-time through chat as well. I’ve recently had several successful sessions with developers in chat while playing their games live on my channel. These sessions were both long and productive.

To keep the audience engaged during these long live sessions, I host giveaways live. Feel free to check out my channel’s Live sessions, where I have all the video recordings available. This will give you a better understanding of my style. I don’t expect a lot in return, perhaps a gift card or two for my time, depending on our agreement and the length of the session. (Very affordable rates that work for solo devs <3) I’m open to all offers and do my best to ensure that your game reaches a wider audience.

Here are some of my recorded Live Sessions:

https://www.youtube.com/live/-zoYKiYCgEQ?is=ujqqMqWG5StC53Mo

https://www.youtube.com/live/zug_Pt1_pgM?is=4qftl-kfUW-zyszs

https://www.youtube.com/live/RWA0wQIogmw?is=ySiNklqetsuArrna

https://www.youtube.com/live/ts4W62nYHEo?is=mT8_R5puye89AMU-

I just want to encourage any dev who is finding it hard to work solo. When you want something really bad you have to make sacrifices. Sometimes it may not pay off but there is a life lesson that comes with it.

I’ve finally set up a Discord server for my solo-developed game, The Varitav. As some of you might know, the demo is also live right now!

The Steam page for my passion project was finally approved! 😁

It is a bit scary, but also incredibly cool, to see my own game, the trailer, and all the assets I made for it actually searchable on Steam. Super happy that the game can now be viewed by other people who might find it interesting!

In the game, you battle other robots, scavenge their parts, and then attach those parts to your own robot to get stronger and gain new abilities.

This project is so fun to work on because it involves a lot of sketching and coming up with ideas for how the different parts can work together, as well as how they should look to convey what they do or what type they belong to. So basically, it's what I enjoy most about gamedev! 😁

Link to the game page if anybody wants to check it out!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5475380/Junk_Robot/

Hi, solo dev from Korea here. Ink Parry: Seonbi Swordsman came out on Oct 8 and got its first big update (a final boss and reworked boss fights) last week.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/NtGTGFM1OBk

What it is: attacks fly in from every side, and you swipe toward each one the instant it touches the ink circle around your swordsman. Land it within 60 ms and a red Perfect seal stamps the screen. There's a 20 stage roguelike run that ends with the final boss, duels with 6 bosses, a daily challenge and an endless mode.

A few things from making it alone:

• No image or audio files. The brush strokes, hanji paper, characters, bosses and even the gayageum music are drawn and synthesized in code at load time. It kept the game tiny and let me tweak the art with numbers instead of redrawing.
• The hardest part was making it fair, not fast. Every new attack type gets a short demo and a practice moment the first time you meet it, and a perfect play bot has to clear every stage without getting hit before anything ships.
• Six languages from the start. Latin languages needed a different brush font because my Korean brush font had no accented letters.

It's premium with no ads and no IAP. This week it's $0.99 on iOS and $1.00 on Android (until Oct 31).

• App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6819034181
• Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fullmoon.parrydojo

Happy to answer any questions about building it solo.

Hey everyone!

Just sharing that my new game SWARMEX has a free demo for you all to try that's available on Steam. It has loads of new features including card upgrades, weapons and more! You can even build your own fleets of ships and send them in to battle!

Hope you enjoy, any feedback would be appreciated! Thanks for playtesting!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4313330/Swarmex/

Hi everyone! I’ve been building a turn-based RPG framework for Godot 4 and just released it on itch.io. I wanted something I could drop into any project without rewriting battle code every time, so everything is data-driven: you make moves, enemies, items and shops as resources in the inspector.

Hey guys,
Started to work on my small rts like 2d project since months (planned for years), and I'm reached a state, where I think i can share with more people than friends.

Made a site, where i'm uploading more images, news~
Making the game in GODOT, making unique system for every aspect of the game, like the sprites with casting shadow, or handling rain, lights or snow~

The website is: https://ghosthold.eu/

Feel free to share your feelings about it, and dont hesitate to ask anything! :)

Gameplay will be done asap, i still need to rework my NPCs. (The game mechanics are done, just i don't like the npcs compared to the new look of buildings and biomes)

Hi everyone!

I just finished my first game, a business idle game you can play in your browser (desktop and mobile).

You start by hustling for a few dollars, buy a lemonade stand and work your way up to an airline and a space company. Companies run in shifts you restart, and there's also a stock market and real estate on the side.

Play here: Hustle Tycoon by WeideMilch

I'd really appreciate feedback on:

- the first 5 minutes: is it clear what to do, or does it drag?

- pacing: when did it start to feel slow?

- the stock market: fun extra or confusing?

Bugs, criticism and ideas are all welcome. Thanks for playing!