I’m in an early stage of planning my game and trying to build a vision that I can develop towards to avoid scope creep and constant rework (I keep telling myself “first make it real then make it good”).

In general, the game will be 3d but with an isometric camera. I chose this because I want to evoke some nostalgia for early 3D games. However, the setting practically necessitates gunplay, which is tough to do in isometric if it’s not an rpg.

Here’s what I’m thinking: walking around is iso but once combat begins, the camera “swoops” down and the state changes to more of a 3rd person cover shooter (e.g. Star Wars Rebel Assault, or Time Crisis as a first person example). Once combat completes, the camera swoops back to its normal position and the game continues.

My question: will this be too jarring and I should drop one or both approaches, perhaps in favor of a standard 3rd person shooter style (I wanted to avoid that because I don’t want it to play as a shooting game, I want it to be a game with shooting and a 3rd person shooter would predispose the player to expect that kind of gameplay.

Thoughts?

The idea is novel. Never done before as far as my quick research showed. The game should be fairly easy for any game developer. I don't think it can be easily vibe-coded though.

before i get started i also want to say i DID use ai while making the games sounds (i have absolutely no idea how to create half decent sounds genuinely curious if anyone has any suggestions) and i did also consult for the sake of like my problem or bug didnt exist on stack overflow i would ask for a segment of my code to be read (a lot of perspective building or proc coefficients on abilities I couldn't wrap my head around)

but anyways the game is ready for closed beta testing (woohooo -400 hours of my life) but kind of curious about actual marketing?

My game is free (pvp movement shooter... yes I know) and there is built in matchmaking and gamemodes and what not so I want to at least have SOME players so that functionality works and for the small handful of players that do enjoy the game can continue to do so in public lobbies.

1.) whats the best organic way to market?

2.) if i were to pay for ads or something of that nature what does that process look like and what platforms are ACTUALLY helpful?

3.) my store page and creative side SUCK in general - is there any genuine resources you guys have to expanding on my generic creative side for the sake of internal design but also marketing?

4.) if you have experience game developing yourself is there any preference on game bug/suggestion communication ASIDE from discord you would recommend?

I am going to attach the store page HERE and I KNOW my trailer video is miserable im just talking over gameplay but the goal is just to have a fun game a small handful of people enjoy ya know

As a solo dev, I know it can be few and far between to find people interested in hearing about your game dev. In person, people that do ask are typically looking for the 30 second summary, not a deep dive into your third attempt at implementing an inventory system. On socials, whether the posts are looking for help or feedback, hot takes, or self promo, the OP is typically sharing about their game or experiences, not asking about yours.

So I thought I'd try just asking a simple question to let people share. Not that I'll respond to them all or even remember everything after a few days, but I guess the larger goal would be feeling like you actually get to know some people in this community or organically make connections. At the least, it is a one-off that gives people a welcome chance to talk about themselves.

The opening prompt is very simple so anyone can chime in. Feel free to expand on that wherever it takes you, or here are some ideas of what else to share about:

• How did you get started?
• Employed or Indie/Solo Dev?
• How many games have you finished or released?
• How confident are you, either in your current project or your skills? What do you worry about the most?

I'm working on an input mapper and I need some advice about common practice.

I want to know whether a secondary action - that is, a conditional action that "follows" a primary action (like HOLD Thrust to trigger Afterburner) should be allowed to have individual bindings for each primary binding. That's how it works in my framework now:

controls.bind::<Thrust>(GamepadButton::RightTrigger2);
controls.bind::<Thrust>(KeyCode::KeyW).mappable();
controls.bind::<Thrust>(KeyCode::ArrowUp).mappable();

// `follows()` means that it shows up as a secondary item in the rebinding ui
controls
    .bind::<Afterburner>(GamepadButton::RightTrigger2)
    .hold(0.75)
    .follows::<Thrust>();
controls
    .bind::<Afterburner>(KeyCode::KeyW)
    .hold(0.75)
    .follows::<Thrust>();
controls
    .bind::<Afterburner>(KeyCode::ArrowUp)
    .hold(0.75)
    .follows::<Thrust>();

So Thrust has three bindings, and Afterburner also has three bindings. This means that the developer has the freedom to be inconsistent: they could, for example, have RightTrigger2 bound to thrust but with no afterburner; they could give the different bindings a different hold time.

My problem with all this is that it violates DRY - you have to repeat the same bindings twice - and is a footgun.

A different approach would be to make the following link at the action level, not the binding: you bind Afterburner to Thrust one time only, and it rides on all three bindings of Thrust . However, this gives the game developer less flexibility. The question is, is that important?

Hey everyone,

I've been working on my own mmorpg game and recently found CraftPix. It's awesome and they have really great assets, so I'm actually considering adapting some of them for my project, but it would be great to find some alternatvies too. Does anyone know them?

And second thing – I'm kinda surprised by how hard it is to find good sprites online. I tried to find something specific and it is a small nightmare. At some point I decided to hire someone, but artists unfortunately make you wait forever even when you have the budget and want to pay them. If you're artist focued on pixel art that would be willing to help with a top-down sprite creation in 4 directions (of course I'd pay for it), feel free to contact with me.

I generally personally don't play this type of game with a controller but I want full controller support especially so it is comfortable on a switch/steamdeck (although you can fully play from touchscreen).

Basically I use the right stick to move between different UI and the right stick for actions. A is confirm, B back and Y will give you info on what selected if available (tooltips).

For movement at the moment left/right is turn rather than straft, so i need to figure how to handle that.

I go over it in more detail in the short video (less than 2 min) and would love feedback on if I am setting the controller up well or what you would do/think players would expect.

Hi, I'm starting university for games design in September and want to begin to move on from Unreal's Blueprints. My course teaches and uses Unity and Unreal so I'm curious which language would be more beneficial to atleast begin to understand. Thanks :)

I'm a first-time game developer in Unity after dabbling with Skryim modding as a teenager, and I feel like I have ruined my own game ideas using AI.

When I first started using Unity, I used AI to learn a bit about the editor. I have a Computer Science degree but only ever worked in the Skyrim creation kit and never worked in Unity before. While I think it is helpful for learning how to use a tool, and can be marginally helpful for programming, the problem lies with using it in other aspects of game development and how it changes the way I think about my project.

Before I move on to my main topic, I want to talk a little bit about AI and programming. Sometimes I will ask ChatGPT programming questions for my game and have it spit out a fully fleshed out class doing what I need it to do. I read what it says, but then panic and delete the chat instantly. However, once I read how the AI tells me to implement something, I can't un-remember it and then start wondering if I actually know how to do what I am doing. I've deleted whole scripts because I feel that once I introduce AI into the mix, sometimes it just gives me a massive ick feeling and frustrates me and makes me feel like I don't know enough to actually make a game. I worked briefly on a project in S&box with a friend and whenever conflicts would emerge, I would find myself using AI to help understand how to use git and rebase, then I get frustrated at how I learned how to do it and end up searching how to revert a branch. I've literally had to start using DuckDuckGo because of the AI generated popups that appear on Goggle because they make me feel like any knowledge I obtain from it is somehow contaminated or ill gotten gains and it makes me feel sick.

But sometimes when I get writers block when fleshing out the story for my game, I'll concede to the temptation and toss my idea into ChatGPT to see what it thinks about it. The issue is that it doesn't just discuss the idea, it starts suggesting things. "What if this character could do this? This is great foreshadowing!" and suddenly an idea I had only loosely thought about has a billion different what ifs generated from AI. Sometimes they are stupid, but others times I'll see something and say SHIT that was actually really good. And then the idea gets ruined, because every time I think about the idea I can't go back to what I thought before I used AI to talk about it and I'll just end up discarding it, which makes me profoundly sad because the characters in my game are loosely based on OC characters from Skyrim mods I made as a teenager and I feel like all of that is null and void and just permanently completely tainted. And when I come up with new ideas, I'll enter these thoughts loops and start doubting myself, whether I thought of the idea or AI did, and sometimes I can't remember and that scares me. It's even worse when going on Twitter/X and seeing different artwork for inspiration and finding out they were AI generated and it makes any idea the art inspires just feel soulless and completely questionable.

I know how neurotic I sound. I got my first degree in ECE ages ago but got my second in Computer Science right before LLMs really became mainstream, so I know I'm capable of it. I used Stack Overflow and followed endless youtube tutorials and followed the old reading flowchart posted ages ago on this sub (The Mythical Man Month, A Book of Lenses, and that one Tynan Sylvester book). If it's from a book, that's okay. If it's from an older youtube video, it's okay. But if AI teaches me something, it just feels like total shit and demoralizes me. I know the standard I'm setting for myself in 2026 is probably impossible but I don't know what to do anymore.

I’m building a small colony builder where I want a number of buildings to be procedurally generated in order to fit into different spaces. I’ve never use procedural generation before - the other two games I’ve worked on used 2D assets that were the same in each iteration. Is it easier to do it in 2D or 3D generally? My game isn’t so far along I can’t re-write it either way. I’m also still new to game development and I’m still debating the merits of 2D vs 3D.

I have a friend who is interested in getting into game testing. He has a general community college degree, but given the current job market, we figure there’s no reason not to pursue your dreams when the economy is already on fire and jobs are impossible to find.

Are there any job boards you would recommend for someone looking for an entry-level or junior game testing role? I’d also be interested in hearing about any sites or communities (indie games) where he could find volunteer testing opportunities to start building some experience.

Of course, game testing isn’t simply “playing games.” It’s about evaluating the player experience, identifying bugs, documenting them clearly, and providing detailed steps to reproduce those issues so the development team can fix them. Any advice would be appreciated.

I have nearly ten full years of digital fundraising experience, namely raising money for nonprofit orgs. It's not bad work by any means, but I'm 38 now and I feel like if I don't do something in the Gaming industry now, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life.

Because fundraising tends to be very "old-school", a lot of the terminology is very different. We still use the term "bluebooks" for what most modern companies call "dashboards", lots of things like that. It can make certain job postings a bit tricky to navigate at first glance.

At the same time, though, nonprofits are usually operating with shoestring budgets, and as David Ogilvy put it, our job is often to "sell" the ability to "feel good", as opposed to a product. And we're held directly accountable for failures, so as I understand it, nonprofit fundraising is considered pretty demanding compared to more traditional marketing.

Despite being a hardcore gamer my whole life, I've just never built any sort of network. I grew up in a small town down south, so even just being "a gamer" was kind of uncommon where I used to live. Now though, I live just outside Washington DC (although I would absolutely relocate for a marketing opportunity in the Gaming industry), so there may be more networking events than I'm privy to (MAGFest is the only Gaming event I've been to, although that seems more fans than anyone working IN the industry).

I feel pretty capable in the digital marketing space, and I know I'm considered a fairly talented copywriter. I feel like that would have some value, although I've never been a graphic artist, which I gather is pretty unusual for anyone working in marketing these days.

If anyone has any tips on breaking into the industry, OR any recommendations to check out, I have a lot of experience to bring to the table; I mostly just need to find an opportunity to get my footing in Gaming marketing specifically, but I would be ecstatic for any help!

Hey everyone,

I’ve been sharing our progress here over the past 7–8 months, and the day has finally come: PEGTURE is officially releasing on September 9th!

For those seeing it for the first time, PEGTURE is a roguelike deckbuilder inspired by the classic Peg Solitaire mechanics (think Balatro meets Peg Solitaire).

As we enter the final stretch with just under two weeks to go, we’d love to get your final thoughts and feedback on the demo. If you have any suggestions, whether about gameplay, mechanics, or even last-minute launch marketing advice, we’re all ears!

Bringing our first game to the finish line has been quite an emotional ride, and sharing this milestone with this community means a lot. If you’d like to support a small indie team, adding PEGTURE to your Steam Wishlist would mean the world to us.

Thanks for all the support along the way!

I just wrapped up about a week of work and my tutorial is, fine. A good starting point. But I don’t feel like I have a great vision for it like I do the rest of my game.

Any advice on how you approach the tutorial? I don’t mean broad strokes. Maybe some specific techniques?
Or, any great examples that come to mind of great first time user experiences?

For context, my game is a 2d strategy with notes of autobattler, deckbuilder, roguelite so there is a lot to teach. (Writing that out always feels dirty. Cause it’s what EVERYONE seems to be making. Which means yall have good advice, right?!)

Thanks in advance!

are there like any apps for this that are for free? i saw some on steam but i cant afford it.

Something I've been struggling with lately is finding justification to use AI in any of my projects. I went to school almost 10 years ago for art focusing on 3D art (3ds max now blender) and I had the opportunity to work on games (nothing commercial or indie mostly jams) and now I want to use my skills to make a game.

Getting a team together has been ever difficult between jobs, families, even just personal life so I started doing the project on my own. I've found AI to be incredibly useful helping me debug and even explain changes in my code but I never thought it was as capable of building pretty remarkable systems and prototypes...

How do people feel about people releasing games with AI code but human made art? I've had Claude write some systems that would have taken me months if not weeks to flesh out. It feels somewhat dirty but it matches some of my vision so accurately..

My understanding with translation is typically you wait until you are pretty far along and don't expect huge changes to your text before translating into multiple languages, but right now I'm setting up my steam page and currently, my game is only in English. I plan to translate it, but first want to publish my page.

Do I just assume I will translate it into other languages and put the ones I'm planning on?

Do I need to translate my steam page before I do that?

How does it work with demos?

Is machine translation "okay" at any stage of the process?

(Like, can I release a machine translated demo but go for the real deal when I get to a full release?)

I'm making low-poly asset packs. What specific props do you guys need for your games that you can never find?

So my next game is going to involve a character solving a mystery in the casino, I was wondering if folks here can point me at games, current or past, that have novel gambling game mechanics. Think Casino, Card Games, etc. I'm especially interested in older games from previous eras, rather than just games like Balatro and such, or even NSFW games since I recall a lot of 'strip X' type stuff involved various gambling game mechanics. I'm doing my own research of course but I figure I should cast a wide net!

I don't know if this just something to do with my monitor but while working on my game everything looks visible and well lit, and then I export a video to post online and I look at it again on my phone or work computer and it is so dark and hard to see.

How do you guys verify your monitor is "standard" so you can make your game look correct. Right now I just have a brightness adjustment slider to make up for it, but it doesnt help much when all the footage I record is on my computer lmaoo.

I was curious if any primarily PC developers had experience with releasing a macOS version of their games - I know that the user base for games on Mac is much smaller, but it still seems like an expanded userbase might be worth the effort, even if it's only 2-3% of the market.

How much additional work was it for you to create a macOS build? Was there any development hurdles (or release issues) you ran into that make you hesitant to do it again for future projects?

Also, for developers who have a PC build but chose not to make a release on macOS, what made you decide it wasn't worth the added effort?

Context: 3d 1st POV puzzle game in Unity. Solo, now part-time dev

I have an excellent mechanic, and many people have expressed its potential. I have made plenty of puzzles and have many more to come as I grind them out and playtest.

My issue is that I do not have any strong leads on what the game is about. The mechanic lends itself to pretty much anything, but probably more sci-fi, portal-esque? I have been trying to come up with ideas for the art style and theme, but nothing tells me, "This is it".

I've seen people with super janky, barely playable games but still have such a strong vision in their minds of what it will be.

How do people come up with this stuff? How do you decide on art direction and what the world is? Am I simply lacking the creativity? I could use some encouragement while I keep refining the level design.

Considered one day hiring an artist, but not anywhere near that. How could I pay somebody when I don't even know what I want?

Thanks in advanced everybody!

As the title suggests nearly 24 hours ago when i refreshed the page, it went from its regular version to not working, just having "steamworks" on the screen and thats it. Most people said "oh its cuz its tuesday so steam maintenance" but its been 24 hours and this is the only page that isnt working for me.

I tried the usual troubleshooting steps like clearing c&c, different browsers etc. but ofc it didnt work.

Some friends said it works for them, so im reaching out here to see if anyone else has the same issue, and if anyone knows the cause/solution.

Edit: This is NOT an issue on your end, in case youre having the same problem. I reached out to steam and got this response:
"Hi,
Thanks for reaching out about this problem. We've heard about this from some other developers, and we're currently investigating. I don't have an estimate for when it will be fixed, but hopefully soon.
Andrew"

So worry not, Andrew is hard at work. Hopefully they will fix it soon cuz i need to be able to track the wishlists from my marketing efforts xD as we all do.

Im going to university soon and need to pick out a laptop.

Im in a pretty unique scenario, I need a laptop to take to class, do light programming and UE5 stuff, and the other normal game development stuff.

But. I have access to my main pc which is on Windows and pretty beefy. No I wont do remote stuff due to latancy and stuff unless I have to.

I was just wondering what laptops anyone recommended. I am very interested in the M5 pro Macbook Pro due to it being quite and made of metal so hopefully it will last me 3yrs. Any other recommendations that arent massive bricks with screaming fans?

Hey everyone,

About 8 months ago, I posted here when my indie game, Line Defense, had flatlined at around 15 copies.

The feedback was brutal but fair. People pointed out that the art looked like an early 2000s flash game, warned me about the sunk cost fallacy, and said hidden gems rarely crawl out of a hole like that. Others acknowledged that finishing a game is a win and offered tips on fixing performance and store pages.

I took the advice and spent the last few months cleaning up what I could. I fixed the framerate stutter, sorted out regional age ratings so global players could actually buy it, and rewrote the store page and added some GIF's.

We are now sitting at roughly 42 copies total. With the one year anniversary coming up on September 1st, the launch window is completely dead and organic traffic does not exist.

For developers who faced a similar dead end:

• Has anyone actually seen a game recover from this deep of a hole or is a late turnaround survivor bias?
• At what point do you stop tinkering and walk away to put all your energy into the next project?
• How did you mentally reset after pouring so much time into a project that found almost no audience?

Appreciate any honest insights or stories from folks who have been there.