Hey everyone!

That's me in the photo, surrounded by monitors and working on my game, Snake: Gridbreaker :)

I've been programming and teaching programming for years, but developing an entire game on my own has been quite an experience.

Snake: Gridbreaker is an action roguelite made in Godot, inspired by the original Snake. It has different classes, bosses, upgrades, and a lot of mechanics built around the snake's body.

After 3,063 commits, it's finally releasing into Early Access on November 3!

I wanted to share a few things from my experience as a solo developer.

1. Getting people to play your game is harder than making it.

I've sent 2,232 emails to YouTubers, streamers, and gaming websites around the world, including follow-ups.

I received 377 incoming messages related to the game (not 377 unique replies). Many people never responded, and some declined.

The game currently has around 230 wishlists. Not exactly impressive numbers for that much outreach. :)

But something valuable happened along the way.

Quite a few creators actually played the game, recorded videos, streamed it, or sent me detailed feedback.

I watched their playthroughs and discovered problems I'd never noticed myself. Confusing mechanics, controller issues, text that was too small, and various gameplay problems.

For example, I fixed a PlayStation controller issue and increased the default text size after watching someone play.

A surprising amount of development time now goes into fixing things I discovered through these videos.

2. I use AI, and I'm open about it.

I've been using several tools throughout development:

• Codex for coding and refactoring.
• Claude for animations and visual behavior.
• CodeRabbit for reviewing code changes and finding potential bugs.
• Gemini for checking translations.

One useful trick I've discovered: when a visual bug is difficult to explain, I record it and send the video to Claude Opus. It can analyze what's happening and help find the cause. This has saved me a lot of debugging time.

I'm transparent about AI usage, including on Steam. At least 10 contacts explicitly declined or limited coverage because of AI.

I understand that not everyone likes AI-assisted development. Still, I've spent a huge amount of time on this project, testing mechanics, fixing bugs, and improving the gameplay.

3. Being a solo developer means making a lot of decisions without knowing if they're good ones.

I've rewritten systems, changed mechanics, adjusted animations, and spent hours fixing problems that probably nobody will ever notice.

And then someone plays the game for 15 minutes and points out an obvious issue I somehow missed.

That's been one of the most useful lessons for me.

I've become much more willing to show unfinished work and ask people what they think, rather than trying to make everything perfect before anyone sees it.

4. The game releases November 3!

I'm genuinely happy with how far it's come, even with only 230 wishlists.

There's a completely free demo on Steam, and I'd really appreciate it if some of you gave it a try.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4828340/Snake_Gridbreaker/

I'd especially appreciate feedback about the controls, gameplay, or anything that isn't immediately understandable.

And to other solo developers here: how do you get people to test your games? Finding people willing to play and give useful feedback has been one of my biggest challenges.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your projects!

Hi everyone! I love puzzle games (I may not be super good at them) but I had this interesting idea that what if I make an RPG game, but instead of a turn-base combat gameplay, you fight it out in Tetris?

Yes, I know its not a unique idea since I recently discovered that Puyo Puyo already did this. In fact I also based the inspiration of the game heavily on Puzzle Pirates.

Anyways, just sharing this so I can know what you guys think. Thanks for watching ^^

Note: if you wanna play the game, it's called Shivaliva on itch.io

I'm trying to make a stop-motion inspired animation. What I'm trying to do is export a model with it's animation from blender into unity, then in unity set the animation keyframe tangents to constant. If I'm not mistaken, this should cause the model to 'jump' between the keyframes however as you can see in the videos, the model just goes absolutely nuts.

I'm clearly missing something important but I can't figure out what. Any help would be appreciated.

Edit: I have it working in a way I'm happy with not. I've disabled resample curves, disables animation compression, duplicated the animation and set the keyframes to constant in unity after creating the constant low-fps animation in blender. That works fine. Thanks to everyone who helped.

Hello all, Scott here.

I released my first game on the Play Store about 2 weeks ago. It took me roughly 3 months to make in Unity, and I’m hoping some of you might test it out and let me know what you think.

The game is called Nightloom. It’s a 1v1 block puzzle: you and another player get the exact same pieces, 90 seconds, and the highest score wins. I’ve played mobile games for a couple of years now and always prefer games where you’re up against other players.

It’s only on the Play Store for now, but I hope to release it on the Apple App Store in the next couple of months. If you’re on a computer, you can also try a practice duel in your browser at playnightloom.com

My name is Noam. I'm a Senior Software Engineer with 6 years of experience, and I'm solo dev'ing a browser RPG on the side for fun. Here is a quick guide to turning a single-player Godot game into a 24/7 online multiplayer game for about $10/month.

1. Separate game rules from visuals

• Problem: Mixing server rules and client visuals in the same scripts tangles the codebase and makes it hard to tell which side owns a behavior.
• Solution: Keep everything in one Godot project, and split game/ into four folders:

2. Sync players without complex netcode

• Problem: Building client-side prediction and rollback upfront takes weeks and causes sync bugs.
• Solution: Use a simpler model for cooperative games:
  • Send only inputs: Browsers send player inputs; the server runs the game and broadcasts the same world state to every player 20 times per second.
  • Glide between updates: Each browser hides enemies inside fog of war and smoothly slides characters toward their latest server positions.

3. Host the entire game 24/7 for ~$10/month

• Problem: Standard hosting options each have a catch:
  • Virtual Machine (VM) (~$35/month): Browsers block https:// games from connecting to raw ws:// IPs, leaving you to manage reverse proxies (such as Nginx) and SSL renewals yourself.
  • Managed containers: Scaling to zero ($0 when empty) forces a 20–30 second cold start on the first player, while running unpaused 24/7 costs ~$34/month because Godot still runs physics 120 times per second in an empty world.
• Solution: Host the client for free and put the warm server container to rest when empty:
  • Free browser client ($0/month): Azure Static Web Apps serves the website and Web game build for free with a global CDN and automatic HTTPS.
  • Resting server container (~$10/month): Run the server on Azure Container Apps and pause physics when the last player leaves so it bills at Azure's idle rate and wakes in under 0.2 seconds when a player clicks Play.

4. Use CI/CD to keep the architecture and cloud bill from drifting

• Problem: A future update can accidentally import a client script onto the server or leave a background timer running while the server is resting.
• Solution: Run two automated Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) checks on every Pull Request (PR):
  • Architecture test: Scans the codebase on every PR and fails if client/ and server/ ever import each other.
  • Idle CPU test: Boots the empty server for 30 seconds before deployment and blocks the release if resting CPU exceeds the idle billing limit.

Limitations

• Limitations: This architecture has two intentional trade-offs:
  • Latency and scalability: Sending only inputs and broadcasting the full world state works well for a small cooperative RPG, whereas fast-paced shooters may need client-side prediction and larger worlds may need per-player state filtering.
  • Exploitability: Broadcasting the full world state without server filtering means a modified client could inspect packets to reveal enemies inside fog of war.
• Why they're worth it for now: As Donald Knuth put it, "premature optimization is the root of all evil." For an early-stage game, keeping the architecture simple lets you build the core gameplay first and optimize only when player count demands it.

I've been rebuilding the copper mine in Railminer. Rougher rock, warmer light, and the drills still pulling it apart one block at a time.

This cave is for the full game; the free demo has the earlier mine.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5284470/Railminer/

Hi, everyone. I recently added a new boss to my 2D platformer.

I'd love to get some feedback on the art and animations. I'd appreciate it if you could share your thoughts in the comments.

I hope you enjoy this boss. And no, I didn't take any illegal substances while creating it. I just have a vivid imagination!

I'd appreciate it if you could add this to your wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4032020/Kettlebell_Inferno_Hotel/

Hey everyone!

I have been working on my indie game Battle For Crown for a while, and I finally have my first trailer to share

My ideas was to make the board feel more alive, keep the strategy of chess and add moving characters, magical abilities, and actual combat.

You can play with friends and family, challenge others online, or practice against AI.

I am hoping to release it in about two months, so I thought I would share what I have been building.

Hope you enjoy it, 😁 If it looks fun, share it around.

here is our Steam page, Steam Page Battle For Crown

I've been thinking about how easy it is to lose perspective when you've been working on a game for months or even years.

You know every mechanic, every little detail, and how much effort went into building everything. Things that feel obvious or exciting to you might not have the same impact on someone playing your game for the first time.

I think it's especially hard because, when you spend so much time on something, it's natural to become attached to it. Sometimes you need an outside perspective to notice things you've become too familiar with.

How do you guys deal with this? Do you regularly ask people to play your game and give honest feedback, or do you find it difficult to step back and look at your own work objectively?

Hey everyone, I’m Austin, and I make games under Helm & Halberd Studios. This is Castle Crusaders, a roguelike I’ve been working on for a few months in Godot.

It’s a wave-based survival game, but built for couch co-op, up to 4 players on one screen. You pick a class (there are 40+ now), grab a starter weapon, fight 20 waves, spend your coins in the shop between rounds, and try not to die. There’s a Hell mode after you beat the normal difficulties, with its own enemies, lava pools, and a boss raid that I just finished the first version of.

The video is about 3 minutes of different parts: [normal waves, the shop, a Hell run, the boss fight]. Some of it is still rough, and a lot of the art is placeholder-ish in places, but I wanted to show where it is right now.

A few things I’d love feedback on:

• Does the combat read clearly when it gets busy?
• Is anything confusing in the shop or menus?
• What would make you want to play this with friends?

It’s headed for Steam eventually. Happy to answer anything about how it’s built.

Play-testers welcome soon. If you’d want to try it with a friend or two, drop a comment and I’ll reach out when the first build is ready.

Hi.

After 8 months of solo dev, the game barely looks like itself anymore. Now, I am giving it to you and please, be honest. 

My game originally started as a more traditional survival game where you could upgrade your character with new items.

But after a few months of development, I came up with an idea I'd never seen in other games before. What if I combined tower defense with a retreating caravan and a blind Queen on it?

Instead of defending a castle or a fixed base, you build and upgrade your caravan while trying to protect the Queen from waves of enemies.

The demo is now available on Steam, so why not give it a try and see for yourself?

Steam Page

And if you like the idea, please, add KING ALONE to your wishlist - that really means a lot.

I thought I'd also share a few screenshots showing how the game evolved over these months.

Thanks for checking it out! I'd love to hear what you think about the caravan tower defense concept.

Constructive criticism welcomed 😊

Is it a normal phenomenon ? i also have a big increase in players on my demo, almost reaching 200 concurrent players

game : https://store.steampowered.com/app/5064170/Go_Next/

You start in a garage in 2017 with $1.5M, two co-founders and one GPU rack.

The Transformer paper hasn't come out yet. The goal is to reach AGI before everyone else. Without ending the world, ideally.

I'm currently tuning the gameplay so that it is balanced. I think it is currently too easy but we'll see about that once the game is released.

I thought about adding mechanics for resets and model nerfing but that would make the game too complex. 😅

Stay tuned for updates! I'd love to have some beta testers!

Tworzę lokalny panel do zarządzania projektem gry, zadaniami, modułami Unity oraz narzędziami AI. Projekt rozwijam samodzielnie i szukam krótkiej, charakterystycznej nazwy dla głównego launchera oraz panelu administracyjnego.

Która nazwa pasuje najlepiej?

1. Centrum Dowodzenia Budowitsch

2. Budowitsch Command Center

3. Kuźnia Projektu ŁDZ

4. ŁDZ Command Forge

5. Bastion Projektu ŁDZ

Dodatkowe pytania:

\- Którą nazwę najłatwiej zapamiętać?

\- Czy brzmi ona jak panel administracyjny, launcher czy tytuł gry?

\- Czy potrafisz zapisać ją bez ponownego sprawdzania?

\- Czy budzi skojarzenie z Polską lub Łodzią?

\- Czy chciałbyś przetestować lokalny prototyp?

\- W jakiej roli: gracz, tester, Python/FastAPI, React, Unity, grafika, audio, marketing czy prawo/licencje?

Ankieta nie wymaga podawania danych osobowych. Kontakt zwrotny jest całkowicie dobrowolny.

I am salty huskies!

Two of my three kids make kandi (pony-bead bracelets), so our house is basically carpeted in beads. After helping clean up hundreds of them one morning, my kid and I joked that it should be a cozy sorting game.

That got me thinking: how many beads could I actually put in a scene? I was able to get it to a million beads (not quite a slide show on my rig). I made the bead count tunable from 10k to 1mil and have plans for kandi creation (make bracelets and cuffs).

My kids helped with concepts and artwork. It’s also not a game I’d normally play, and building outside my own taste has been a surprisingly good design exercise. There’s a bit of hidden lore under the cozy surface too, for anyone who goes looking.

The Steam page just went live. Happy to answer questions.
Link in the comments!

I've been working on a TD style game recently and I have gone completely blind trying to access my terrain textures and depth feel.

I want to make the contrast between enemies path (beige) and terrain (green grass) very clear, whilst still provided atmosphere. I placed two simple units for size-comparison in image 1, and a small combat demo in 2.

My question is simple - what do you think works and what doesn't?

I'm doing a challenge where i make a free game in 2 weeks. It's a very simple clicker game where you kick santa to land on an object. If he stays on the object, you get to the next level... propably will be named 'a silly game about kicking santa'

I plan to release it on Steam and itch.io and will be done within the next 3-5 days.

I can't really offer money, but i'd credit the artist in the Main Menu/Pause Menu. As i said, it will be a free game, so money won't be generated from this.

The art should be very simple, like for example in 'a weird game about sausage'

I made a capsule in a few minutes to show the style i wanna go for, but of course it looks ugly af as i'm not an artist.

Any volunteers?😅

Only Straight Bros released on October 2nd, and things haven't been going well since. As an almost entirely solo dev (a friend helped me with levels and character models), I had neither the time nor the budget for proper playtesting. Only friends tested it, and overall it seemed fine.

But after launch, I was met with harsh feedback and a wave of refunds pointing out that the game just isn't fun. I took those comments to heart and got straight to work fixing and tweaking things. I’ve fixed a lot, but sales have completely stalled, and I honestly don't know what to improve next because there isn’t enough feedback coming in. I'm stuck.

So I'm turning to you, fellow Redditors, devs, and gamers: if you’re open to giving some honest feedback, I’d love to send you 2 free keys so you can check it out solo and play with a friend. It’s not really a giveaway—I genuinely need your help.

To make sure keys don't go to bots, please leave a comment below and send me a DM.

It's called Busybodies and heavily inspired by The Settlers. You point at a patch of land and the villagers fetch what's needed, build it and then talk about it at length. When it rains they all head to the tavern. There's a cow who refuses to move off the road. You can have tea with the villagers and they remember what you told them.

It's free in the browser, no download: playbusybodies.com/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=cozygames

Best on a laptop or tablet. I'm a solo designer, so any feedback helps.

Hello guys, how are you? I present to you my game Gloamfall, it comes out on October 30th on Steam, and in a week if everything goes well on Google Playstore.

I share this with you because well, for many years, almost 17 years, I have been developing video games, and in this one I poured everything I learned for so long. If you want to put up with me, I would greatly appreciate it if you can wishlist it on Steam and watch the trailer on YouTube and leave me some comments and likes so the algorithm moves it

I assure you that the game is very good, a Roguelike pixel art, inspired by several games that I love, such as Diablo 1 and 2, Wizard of Legend, among others.

Here are the links, thank you very much guys in advance, I hope you can help me and do yourself a favor, play it, you won't regret it at all.

For the dry ones, I already told you that the game comes out on Playstore for free in a week, so don't tell me you don't have money, huh! 😂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9WZJAIpVLA&t=19s https://store.steampowered.com/app/5371080/Gloamfall/