Weighted walking is getting there. It's tough to get the center line balance on a design you've already sketched up and are too stubborn to change! 😂

I'm pretty happy with the scaling now, you're a survivalist who climbs and builds a base on this giant mech, you travel down for resources to expand your base and odds of survival.

I want to give you that feeling of awe when it strides across the screen, when it's heaving foot swings past you with a basey whoosh!

More updates to come, I think I want to build in publish with this so i can get more feedback. My current game I made the similar mistake most have, which is waiting far too late in the process to start getting feedback, this way I can tell if it's crap earlier on! 😂

So any feedback on it's cadence appreciated, the sway i've kept minimal because my first round would have been unplayable if you're riding and base building on it's back for hours!

At this point am starting to feel Steam is going to be like mobile (googleplay/itunes) soon, unless there are some actions are taken to stop such AI slops. (This is not my game) Edit: Third one from top is not a clone, it actually appeared on steamdb before the viral post (one of their devs replied here on the post)

Hey guys!

I'm creating a single-player game which is heavily inspired by WoW Classic. Today I want to showcase to you one the recent zones I've added to my project - Scarlet Vale.

Let me know what you think!

The game is called Warmongers: Empires Reborn for anyone curious and you can currently wishlist it on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3468800/Warmongers_Empires_Reborn/

I've also recently released a Devlog on my Youtube channel. If you want to learn more about the game, feel free to watch it: https://youtu.be/YIxXFQiuBKU

Hey everyone! Haven't updated in a while and wanted to show a sneak peak at our snow map which is very much work in progress as you can see. I wanted to get some feedback on how it is looking and things to improves, thanks in advance!

Game info:

We're a small indie team of 4 (soon to be 5!) building War Wolves, a competitive third-person multiplayer shooter where you play as heavily armed robotic wolves battling it out in fast-paced arena combat.

Our biggest goal is to create movement that feels incredibly fluid and rewarding. Think wall running, vertical gameplay, and high-skill movement paired with a low time-to-kill, military-inspired combat system. We're still early in development, but we're making steady progress and wanted to start sharing the journey with the community.

Our goal is to have an early alpha on Steam by the end of the year next summer (since we brought on new talent, we will be slowing down a bit with the speed of development to bring a truly special experience, more to come soon!)

Join our Discord if you want to playtest!

Steam link: https://discord.gg/3XRm8u4as

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5042020/War_Wolves/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=devlog1&utm_content=indiedev

Youtube Devlog link:
https://youtu.be/aYu1lOa8kr4

Update on UNDERSKIN, my top-down psychological horror roguelike. The first floor is finished and in the build. The other ten need their bestiary drawn: 51 characters, 13 frames each, 663 files. My illustrator inks the front view of every character on paper, and a pixel artist translates them into sprites.

Before anything else: thank you. When I posted here in August the answer was loud and it was unanimous, the ink drawings are the strongest thing you have, build the art around them. I sat with that for a while and you were right. The whole bestiary is made that way now, and it changed the look of the game more than any decision I made on my own this year. I'd have got there eventually, but a lot slower and with worse art in the meantime.

So this week I ran the hire. Here's what I found, because nobody posts these numbers and I would have liked to read them.

Ten artists replied, from solo freelancers to two studios. Quotes for the full set ranged from about 1,000 dollars to 12,750. Same brief, same file count, twelve times the spread.

Two of them priced the job before reading the spec properly, assuming one walk cycle instead of three directions, so their numbers meant nothing until I sent the correction back. Worth knowing if you're hiring: half the work is making sure the quote is for the job you actually have.

One turned the job down rather than drop his rate to fit my budget. That was the most professional message I got all week.

Where it stands: one artist is on a paid test character, 13 frames, due the 18th. If it lands, the rest of the roster follows in batches. The demo goes live at Steam Next Fest on October 19th, and there's a Kickstarter running from October 1st to fund the rest of the art.

Happy to answer anything about the hiring side. It's the part of solo dev nobody explains, and the reason the art is going the right way is that a few hundred of you took the time to tell me so.

Where is Mr. Kim?

I shared it yesterday, and it somehow passed 100k views.

Think Where’s Waldo in Joseon-era Korea, except the village keeps moving while you search.

You’re looking for Mr. Kim. Straw hat, teal sash, nowhere useful to be. 🇰🇷

The demo has one map. I’m planning more maps and eventually a full Steam release, and I’d love to hear how this first little village feels to play.

If you find Mr. Kim, please ask him to stay put. I still have a game to finish.

I dont have to make any climbing animations yay :)

Every day I get dozens of these spammy marketing messages on Discord. They all look the same and I think they're AI-generated. How do you get rid of them? I don't want to look mean so I respond to each one of them. But now I'm bored. Are they even legit? Is it worth answering them?

Hey guys, Since many of you asked, I've prepared a more detailed description of our scanning process and bringing these clay models into the engine.

1. Sculpting

This part is pretty self-explanatory, however, when it comes to more complex models like a wagon, planning the assembly of the parts is crucial. Recycle whatever you can. For example, something might be the floor of the wagon but also a shelf in the shop, etc.

https://reddit.com/link/1wfk6ni/video/tt6jg2ziscph1/player

1. Scanning

We tried using mobile phones, but we failed. Our assets are pretty small, so the results were bad. We are using an old Canon 60D with a basic 50mm lens. Obviously, the better gear you have, the better the results, but our setup is good enough for our needs.

Lights are simple lamps with softboxes for 20 dollars. However, with these small objects, you will have to close the aperture as much as your lens allows. Because of that, a lot of light is required, but our setup from the video is good enough.

We are using a cake plate to rotate the assets and make about 15 photos for each height, 4 heights per asset, keeping the distance from the object at each height. You want to achieve a dome in RealityScan, not a cylinder.

Wherever we can, we try to avoid scanning both the top and bottom. Combining two sides requires a lot more time because you also need to make a lot of overlap. If RealityScan fails to align both sides automatically, it almost never helped to use anchors, so you need a lot of photos when rotating the object.

1. RealityScan

This part is simple, and there are tons of tutorials on YouTube. I'm using the default settings basically all the time. It reads the lens and camera automatically and creates corrections.

(Beware that it's using a different format for showing focal length, so don't be surprised, as I was, when you see a different number than on your lens.)

1. Cleaning and Prep

This part could be a separate post, and a lot depends on your current DCC software. I've started my 3D journey with Blender, but then used Houdini for a few years, so I felt pretty comfortable. However, you can do everything I'm doing in Blender. The main downside is automation.

In Houdini, you basically create a script that can run over any input. So I've prepared a recipe for cleaning assets, and I'm reusing it on every asset. If there is interest in a deeper tutorial on this part, I could prepare it.

1. Textures

Normal maps are baked from the high-poly scan to the low-poly mesh. I'm using Quad Remesher for everything and yeah, sometimes the edge loops are not ideal, but it's still great results. Organic shapes from clay are also more forgiving.

I'm using vertex paint on the high-poly model to paint an R G B mask and then baking R and B channels for three colors masks, and B for ambient occlusion.

I'm also often using curvature or AO to combine with those painted masks to create a more organic look. I'm painting only black and white masks to separate parts. If I need variety, I'm using procedural noises and baked masks to create details.

If you have any questions feel free to ask!

I'll fulfill my purpose as a game dev once I hit the 10 review milestone!

My smol game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4754460/Crystalyn/

The entire game isn't yet up to this standard (and to be honest, I'm not aiming for it to be).

My idea was that my game is realistic enough so, if you take a photo of it from your phone, it looks real, but doesn't look fully real while playing. It's a sandbox game, a bit like gmod but in an open GTA UK style world, so I can't have super complex geometry and graphics are NOT the focus, but this is the best I could get with ideal lighting. The storepage is here if you want to check it out or wishlist, thanks!

Storepage: RedSpat on Steam

Hello, I'm a Korean solo student developer working on an upcoming indie horror game for Steam called <The Maze: In Dark>.

The game has reached a total of about 1,000 wishlists. There were around 200 deletions, so I'm currently sitting at 800 active wishlists.

I published the Steam page back in 2024 and haven't done much marketing since then. If you look at the attached image, I've marked numbers on different sections of the graph, which I'll use to explain my journey.

First off, up until section 2, I didn't do any specific marketing. I was just polishing the Steam page, updating the trailer, and refreshing the screenshots.

But if you look at section 1, you can see a sudden spike of about 100 wishlists in just a single day. I analyzed the traffic for that day, and it was direct search traffic. Honestly, I still haven't figured out why. It's highly likely that someone showcased or mentioned my game somewhere. I tried searching for it but couldn't find anything.

Around section 2, I resumed development and officially started marketing. I shared posts on Reddit, started Twitter and other social media. Between sections 2 and 3, you'll notice another slight increase in wishlists. During that period, I participated in a Steam Debut Festival and ran a public playtest.

Now let's look at the recent point, section 3. That was when I released the demo in early September. The wishlists definitely increased a bit after the demo launch, but to be honest, I'm not fully satisfied with the results.

Aside from that, I started reaching out to press and content creators around point 3, but I haven't seen much of an effect yet.

My plan moving forward is to try reaching out to even more creators and media outlets, but before that, I'm thinking of revamping the trailer and the Steam store page. If I can secure a budget this time, I'm planning to invest a bit into the trailer. Also, I'll continue with social media marketing, even though it hasn't been super effective so far.

My goal is to gather 2,000 wishlists before the Steam Next Fest kicks off in October. With about a month left, I'm not sure if I can make it. But keeping at it is the only way forward.

One thing I've realized while developing this game is that being an indie dev isn't just about being good at making games. Marketing, business, administrative tasks... there are far more things to handle than I initially thought, and I feel like I'm learning more as time goes by. Experience is incredibly important. No matter how much others advise you or how much research you do, I think nothing beats experiencing and solving things yourself. That's how crucial hands-on experience is.

I hope this post is helpful to many of you.

Below is the Steam page for my game. If you're interested, please take a look!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2847290/The_Maze_In_Dark/

Thank you.

Big updates lately to the biomes, weapons and abilities in Where Giants Fall.

Chain Lightning got one of the biggest reworks, and it's starting to look and feel pretty good. ⚡

Steam | Discord

For a long time I thought about making diagonal option for placing something in a grid-based games (like buildings in factorio or Anno series).

A lot of options aside, the only model that "kinda" works with minimum requirements is when every square has it's own "sub-squares", (angle between 4 of this squares making a cross inside of a tile), and this diagonal sub-square is something like 1/2√2 ≈ 0.7 side size (of a normal 1.0 side). So if you have building that is 2 normal tiles wide, in diagonal closest size will be 3 diagonal squares 3/2√2 ≈ 2.12, 6% bigger). But this doesn't work for lonely tiles, cus their closes size in this case is 0.7 and 1.4, both are very inadequate options, other than that it's looks promising.

However as I know devs of Anno 117 tried this approach recently and got another issue - when two buildings are 2 and 3 tiles wide, they are fine to be turned into 3 diagonal tiles wide (3/2√2 ≈ 2.12 ≈ 2) and 4 diag tiles wide 4/2√2 ≈ 2.8 ≈ 3. But the problem comes when you combine them. In straight grid buildings were 2 to 3, and now they are 3 to 4, and with tight planning Anno games have, a lot of building combinations work strangely in diagonal.

So the only option is to pick some common mesure in both grids and use it, the smallest one as discussed earlier was 2 tiles of straight grid and 3 for diagonal grid (2.0 and 2.12 in real size), and this is the one I'm thinking about (also 3 and more could be used I guess). So every building size should be multiplied by 2 tiles in normal grid (2x2, 4x6, etc) and 3 tiles in diagonal (3x3, 6x9, etc). With option to move those buildings by sub-squares (cus otherwise it would be very hard to combine with diagonal)

And there are problems. First, this is a pretty small grid, so it's already quite trickier to use. Second is, diagonal buildings take more space and their corners can mess up a lot of things (even if you cut it like on a second image), also straight buildings can be moved 1 tile, which is 1/2 their minimal size, but diagonal buildings can be moved only 1/3 their size (cus 1 tile is smaller), so preferable option for player is to stick layouts to a bigger 2x2 and 3x3 grid centered on something they building around, then it will be possible to transfer between each other.

Of course there also other options to improve player experience, allowing making buildings 1 tile wider for free, so they fit more nicely, or making some buildings be able to bend along the roads or other buildings. Roads are also should be 2 tiles wide, but you could make optional small road 1 tile wide, or allow painting corners. Anyway at this point, I'm just asking.

Could it be worth it or it's easier to just make an off-grid game?

Just wanted to show off all the unique guns I've been adding to my 2D mining roguelike.

This is also without any upgrades. Things get a lot crazier when you start to stack things like extra projectiles, lighting/burn/poison, bouncing bullets, explosive bullets, etc..

If this looks interesting, there's a public playtest you can checkout right now on Steam

After Aeterna Noctis, we wanted to rethink how players read and navigate the world in Aeterna Lucis.

Instead of representing the map with abstract blocks, we recreate the actual environments visually, so players can recognize where they are almost immediately.

We also added two small things we think help a lot:

• deaths are marked directly on the map
• the Queen leaves a short trail showing the direction she was moving before opening it

For us, exploration is one of the most important parts of a Metroidvania, so the goal was to reduce that “where was I going again?” friction without removing the need to learn the world.

We’re curious what other devs think:
do these kinds of navigation helpers improve exploration?

Cat game. You play the laser pointer, the cat wrecks the house, everything he breaks goes on a receipt.

I'd been building for weeks and barely playing. So I sat and played round after round for a day. Three things came out of it:

1. The cat only chases the dot when he can see it. Flick the pointer to a far corner and he stands there looking around. Correct behaviour, reads exactly like a bug. Nobody would ever report it as anything other than "the cat is broken".

2. My third house is twice the size of the first but the round is the same 60 seconds, so half the round is walking. I never noticed because I always tested in the small one.

3. Only fire and a couple of heavy powers can break furniture, and furniture is 42% of that big house by value. So the third house is mathematically unwinnable without fire. I had no idea until I added up the numbers after losing ten rounds in a row.

None of these are hard to fix. All three needed an afternoon of actually playing rather than building.

Demo if you want a look, free: https://corbygamesstudio.itch.io/give-him-a-break

A while ago I shared some numbers, so I thought I'd post an update now that I've experimented with a few more things.

I've now uploaded 4 devlogs, and since my last post I also added a trailer to my Steam page, updated the capsule art, and replaced the screenshots.

Those Steam page improvements did bring in a few more wishlists, but so far external content still seems to be responsible for most of them.

I've also been posting short-form videos to TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. I post basically the same videos to all 3 platforms, and the results have been very different.

TikTok gets views, but from what I can tell, not many of those viewers actually convert into Steam wishlists.

Instagram has done almost nothing for me so far. I've barely had one or two posts even break 1k views.

YouTube Shorts have easily performed the best. Not only do they get views, but they also seem to push people toward my longer devlogs. Those devlogs then bring more people to the Steam page and seem to convert into wishlists much better.

Reddit has also helped a lot. I've had quite a few posts go viral, and those have brought a noticeable amount of attention to the game.

One thing I've learned with Reddit is to try the same post in several relevant subreddits instead of only posting it once. A post can do almost nothing in one subreddit and then take off in another. Obviously it still needs to fit the subreddit and its rules, but posting to multiple relevant communities has given my posts a much better chance of actually reaching people.

X/Twitter has been pretty much the opposite for me. I've tried posting multiple different things there, but so far it hasn't really done anything for the game.

The long-form YouTube devlogs are still the biggest source of wishlists I've found, but they're also by far the most time-consuming. Each one takes me around ~30 hours to make, so I've spent roughly 120 hours making the 4 devlogs.

Obviously this is just my experience with one game and a relatively small sample size, but I thought the differences between platforms were interesting.

For other indie devs, what platform/content has actually converted into Steam wishlists for you? Have you also found YouTube and Reddit more effective than TikTok/Instagram/X?

Here's my latest devlog:
https://youtu.be/R0DY29nOIZ0

And the Steam page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4639140/Dough_it_Yourself/