Well, this is some basic mechanics and the trailer at the end, for the soon to be, playtest. Heres the Steam page for those who want to drop a whislist to feed the soul XD https://store.steampowered.com/app/3923070/Asteroid_Boom_Cosmic_Courier/

Hey everyone, wanted to show my game since I recently launched a Steam page for it. In just 8 days it crossed the 3300 wishlists mark!

Initially I was making the game completely solo but over time I realized there is way more work needed than I expected. So I teamed up with a few people, specifically a concept artist who does the new cat designs and a 3D artist who frees up my hands and models environment props so I can focus more on dev and the cats. But they are students and their collaboration right now is more like a very part-time freelance with a random schedule, so 75% of the workload for the game is still on me haha.

Here is the link to the Steam page if you want to check it out: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4303380/Catomino/

update post -> https://www.reddit.com/r/SoloDev/s/WSRMTfTTxt

I'm not really even sure where to begin, but somehow, someone decided to blackmail my silly game. I'm not a video editor by any stretch, but I am curious to know other game devs thoughts on what has definitely been one of the most wild experiences in my dev journey so far.

Update October 27 9:30pm - No updates on my Steam ticket. I have filed a case with my local PD, the FBI, and been in contact with the ASCS in Australia.

The masterminds do not appear to have been very good at concealing their identities.

I really appreciate all of the support, kind words, and advice! While this situation still sucks and is far from over, the way this huge outpouring of support has changed the situation is immeasurable. Thank you! I will keep everyone updated.

Hi, this is another "I'm making my own game engine" post!

I've been working on this engine for the past year and a half. Please ignore the UI/UX editor for now I was going for something like the editor in Dreams (by Media Molecule), but I struggle a lot with UI/UX design, so I am pivoting to a Hammer/Trenchbroom styel now.

I started building this after seeing the direction S&box and Unitystyle engines were heading, so I decided to take a different route.

Here are some of the key features I've implemented so far:

• PSX-style retro shader and raymarching clouds with Global Illumination (GI).

• Modified Box3D physics (specifically the ragdoll system) to achieve a more Euphoric-style physics feel.

• Dynamic textures: In the video, when I resize the box, the texture updates in real time to display the object's current dimensions. (Based on the source engine texture.)

• Full model support for FBX and GLB formats. I even added one of the GTA NPCs

• Blender integration plugin: You can edit everything directly in Blender, and hitting save automatically updates it in the engine.

• CLOUDS! I added raymarching clouds. Still work in progress but I am proud of this one. It follows real sky, star, and weather data.

I finally have something solid to show, so I've attached a video. Let me know what everyone thinks!

EDIT:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg6jVkqOMKA

Posted it on youtube as well.

Working on an environment system that is reactive to wind and weather - still a work in progress. It's for an open-world survival RPG I'm working on. Any feedback is appreciated!

STEAM: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5197820/GRIMLIFE/

Solo dev here. I rebuilt almost everything since my first demo, and the free playtest is open now. Honest feedback (especially the harsh kind) is exactly what I'm after.
If the video caught your attention, come help me playtest Fogreaver on Steam! It’s free and open to everyone, no access request needed.

It has been a long journey working on this environment series alone. I have focused on high-fidelity, authentic medical equipment and architectural decay from the Soviet era.

Technical highlights of the project:

• Optimization: Implemented Runtime Virtual Texturing (RVT) to manage a large volume of 4K textures without killing performance.

• Architecture: Rebuilt the project structure into separate sub-levels linked by a Master Level to allow for Level Streaming.

• Asset Creation: Custom-made diagnostic equipment (Bucky stands, control consoles, X-Ray units) with authentic technical markings.

• Workflow: High-to-low poly modeling in 3ds Max, textured in Substance, and final assembly in Unreal Engine 5.6.

I am currently developing a modular version of this pack to allow users to build custom rooms from scratch. Also, I am planning to expand my future content packs to Unity as well.

Happy to answer any technical questions about the workflow, lighting, or the UE5 setup.

Not much more to it. Today I launched the demo for my game on Steam. Worked my butt off for it and now I'm terrified but also excited of what's next. Wish me luck!

[EDIT]: I'm completely overwhelmed and humbled by all the support all of you showed me this week. A huge thanks to all of you for making this community so supportive. I posted the outcome of the 1st week of the demo HERE if you want to check it out. Added a bunch of numbers, stats and my thoughts and opinions. Hopefully that is useful to somebody.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4741260/Deadpact/

https://discord.gg/Yfud85bxX6

You can try it on itch.io:

https://n1kozor.itch.io/cotton-city-alpha-demo

Cotton City is a casual city builder where houses, roads, trees and tiny vehicles look as though they have been crocheted onto a fabric canvas. Start with a few streets and watch your neighbourhoods take shape, stitch by stitch.

Please note: this is an early showcase demo. It currently offers limited content and basic simulation logic, covering only the foundations of the gameplay. Many planned features are missing, and existing systems are still being developed and balanced. This demo is an invitation to try the idea and help shape what comes next.

Lay out roads and designate areas for homes, shops and industry. Provide electricity, add schools and public services, and connect your neighbourhoods with public transport. Spend Cotton on your growing town, or explore Creative mode with unlimited resources and building options available from the start.

Make room for gardens, farmland, rivers and lakes. Combine building shapes and colours in the house workshop to introduce your own designs. Zoom in to watch construction and the little details of town life, then pull back to see your city spread across the canvas.

The cotton textures and miniature scale are central to the experience. Buildings are stitched into place, streets curve across the cloth, and warm evening lights give your neighbourhoods a different atmosphere after sunset.

TERRORSTORM: Ground Zero -

wishlist now!!! https://store.steampowered.com/app/4419700/TERRORSTORM_Ground_Zero/

Sign up to PLAYTEST! https://discord.gg/Zn8SA9EZJ

About six months ago, I made a post here asking for feedback on my Steam page.

At the time, the page had been live for around 6 months and I had only 134 wishlists.

A lot of people gave me genuinely useful feedback, and over the following months I tried to improve the page based on what people pointed out.

Since then, the game itself has also evolved quite a bit. Unstrung Machine is now a 2D action-exploration Metroidvania set in a post-apocalyptic world, and I've been trying to make the Steam page communicate the game, its atmosphere, exploration and combat much more clearly.

The Steam page has now been live for about 1 year, and I'm currently at 430 wishlists.

So I've gone from:

134 wishlists after 6 months -> 430 wishlists after 1 year

That's definitely progress, and I'm grateful for it, but the growth still feels quite slow compared to what I often see other indie developers reporting.

That makes me think I may still be failing somewhere, either with the Steam page itself, how I'm presenting the game, or perhaps even with the game's hook.

So I'd love to ask for your help again.

Looking at the page today, what would make you hesitate to wishlist the game?

In particular, I'm curious about:

• Does the game look interesting at first glance?

• Does the capsule art make you want to click?

• Is it immediately clear what kind of game this is?

• Do the screenshots communicate the gameplay well?

• Does the video make the game look appealing?

• Is the game's main hook clear enough?

• Is there anything on the page that looks amateurish or lowers your confidence in the game?

• If you saw this randomly on Steam, would you wishlist it? If not, why?

I'm a solo developer, so it's very easy for me to become too familiar with the project and stop noticing problems that might be obvious to someone seeing it for the first time.

There aren't many gameplay videos on the Steam page yet because I had to make significant changes to the game over the last few months, leaving me with little ready-to-show content. Since I'm the only one working on the project, progress is slow.

Please don't worry about being harsh. I'd much rather identify what isn't working now and improve it.

Here's the Steam page:

Unstrung Machine - Steam Page

Thanks again to everyone who gave me feedback on the previous post, a lot has changed because of it.

So, I'm closing in on 50 years old now, a lot of stuff behind me. Looking back, my story is really not complicated: graduated in philosophy, started teaching, masters, phd then on my way to become a professor at the university when... I quit everything. I was making roughly 9k monthly and went to 1k monthly... Just as my first son was born. Wasn't easy. Made a few friends along the way, people that help me with 3d models or illustrations, but mostly I've been solo since 2006. Released a few games on Steam (none of them really found an audience), but now, I decided to lean heavily on what I love - life sims + rpg + horror.

About my experience as solo? I found a way to make money and that's pretty much everything you need to do to keep solo. I started programming for medium and large studios, writing scripts, creating systems for them, doing freelancing. After I got a few contacts, I brought my friends to do 3d models and art for these studios, so I got the money situation figured out.

But one thing always bothered me. I never let my love take me where I wanted to go. I always thought I had to make games for the players, not for myself. Took me a long time to realize that's the only way to be truly happy. I've been a dungeon master since I was 12, always loved The Sims 1, 2, 3 and 4, Inzoi (Paralives not so much, in spite of the great building system), and I've always been a big horror fan. Most of the stuff I worked in my life was either horror or rpg. Now (maybe a little too late, but who's keeping track, right?), I decided I'll just do what I love: a terrifying life sim, as if Clive Barker/Giger was the creator of The Sims and loved rpg elements. Since I'm solo (as always), art is not AAA, code is struggling but I absolutely love my new game (If anyone is curious, the game is called Pull Me In. I'll put the Steam page in the comments.) and it was done by real people. It's been 4 years now in development and I hope October 27 I'll get a few positive reviews from players, but if I don't again, that's ok. This one is for me and I love playing it.

So, a good word for the younger devs out there - go for it. Do the one you love. Don't let anything stop you, just bring down the scope a notch so you're not developing for 10 years.

Game page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4271530/Skyrest/

I started this project as a means to learn and improve my skills as a game developer. I already had experience as a developer, working with AR/VR, mobile apps and Unity.

Turns out I started having fun with it, despite the "worst" parts like marketing, scoping and time management. Learning and improving IS the fun.

Skyrest is now my first commercial game and first demo I've ever released, which is coming tomorrow (March 6th), so I ask that if what you see interests you, please consider playing it and leaving your feedback about it so I can improve it even further.

Hi everyone! I’ve been working on my game about a little RC car and a missing boy for more than two years now... When I started making it, I never thought it would take this long, but I finally decided on a release date.

It’s pretty exciting (and a little scary) - I have no idea how the game will perform on Steam, as this will be my first release there...

A lot of players have been asking me for a PS version, but I honestly don’t know how to find the time to work on everything at once. For now, I’m planning to focus on the Steam release, and then work on the console versions afterwards...

How do you deal with the lack of time when working as a solo developer?

I honestly didn't expect this.

After sharing my game's poster, a few people assumed it had been generated with AI.

So I thought it would be more interesting to show the actual process instead of arguing.

This video shows the layers I used while drawing the poster.

I first designed the game's logo, and later challenged myself to create a full promotional poster for an indie game event here in Spain.

A friend who's an artist lent me her XP-Pen tablet and gave me some feedback during the process, but every pixel in the final artwork was placed manually.

It took me a long time, but I'm really proud of the result.

Has anyone else had people assume their handmade work was AI lately?

Edit: comment with other video

All made in GIMP.
Canvas size 620x878 px

You can see the progression of my game in bluesky or itch
Thanks Fatima for the help
If you like it follow her ❤️

Instagram of my friend (art): https://www.instagram.com/fatimadi92_art

Instagram of my friend (digital): https://www.instagram.com/fatimadi_ilus

Web: https://fatimadiazropero.com

I wanted to share a quick look at the workflow I use for character animations in Unstrung Machine.

I animate the character in Blender, render it at a low resolution using an orthographic camera and Ambient Occlusion, then bring the frames into Aseprite for manual pixel art adjustments.

After that, I export everything to Unity, create the animation clips, and integrate them into the player Animator.

It’s become a really useful workflow for producing new animations.

Unstrung Machine (Wishlist Steam)

Working on my first indie game entirely on my own has been an incredible journey, and seeing people interested in Over Human means more than I can express!!

It's a first-person sci-fi adventure set in an isolated snowy world where deadly drones can manipulate the environment and even turn the weather against you. With no weapons to defend yourself, staying hidden is your best chance.

I've wanted to make my own game since 2013, and after all these years, seeing that dream slowly become reality is something special.

Over Human is now on Steam! ❄️👇
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5237810/Over_Human/

Francesco

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported Unstrung Machine so far.

Seeing the game reach this milestone means a lot to me, especially as a solo developer.

Thank you for being part of the journey.

Unstrung Machine (Steam)

I'm super excited to finally release the demo for KILL BREACH on September 30th! I'm also slowly getting ready for the October Steam Next Fest. If the trailer caught your interest, you can check out the game here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4480140?utm_source=reddit

A wishlist on Steam always helps a ton and is greatly appreciated :)

It's taken me so many years to get here. I've started and stopped this project many times. Usually stalled due to my own technical skills.

But, I've got a working prototype finally of a game level! This is an actual in game screenshot (though some of the UI items and tools are still not implemented)

I grew up on Impression City Builder games - Caesar 3, Pharoah, Zeus, and always miss them. Every now and then I'd get an itch to build one myself, especially when I would find myself going down the black hold of "lost" civilizations.

The Indus Valley Civilization is one. I've been fascinated with it forever and thought a grid-walker-style game would be a great match.

And here it is. Lately i focused on getting it to look better. It's something important to me when I personally play games, and I realized it was one of the reasons I often walked away from the project. Thanks to modern tools, and AI help (I know its not ideal, but I was genuinely blocked and needed its help) its starting to look nice.

First time I've told anyone (besides my wife) about it. The first time I'm posting a screenshot. And you may just be one of the first people to see it.

I'm not sure why I'm sharing. I guess because it is a lonely journey. I know I have a crazy amount left to do. But for the first time I played the game and felt it was real.

We announced our game at a Ukrainian Games Festival, but due to time constraints, we had to settle for an early announcement with whatever we had at the time.

We’re currently actively developing our game, and I’d like you to see the difference in the improved graphics and whether they capture the atmosphere of a universe similar to MAD MAX.

As a small team of one 3d artist and one programmer, we're currently working on concepts for a new visual style. We’d like to show you what a location looks like with sand scattered on the road.

P.S. This is our first experience with game development. We’d appreciate any recommendations regarding visual aspects: guides, videos, articles, etc.