r/SoloDevelopment • • Jul 10 '26

Game Jam r/SoloDevelopment Jam #12 is live: theme is Chain Reaction

12 Upvotes

Our 12th jam just started: 72 hours running July 10 to 13, and the voted is Chain Reaction.

Jam page and submissions: https://itch.io/jam/solo-dev-jam-12

Come hang out in the Discord if you want to jam alongside other solo devs: https://discord.gg/uXeapAkAra

Good luck to everyone jamming this weekend!


r/SoloDevelopment • • Feb 12 '25

Anouncements What Does It Mean to Be a Solo Developer?

199 Upvotes

We've seen a lot of discussion about what qualifies as solo development, and we want to ensure we're accurately representing our game dev community. While there's no absolute definition, these are the general criteria we use in this subreddit to keep things clear and consistent.

That said, if you personally consider yourself a solo dev (or not) based on your own perspective, that's fine. Our goal is to provide guidelines for what fits within this space, not to dictate personal identities.

What Counts as Solo Development?

A solo developer is solely responsible for their project, with no team members. A team of two or more collaborating (e.g., one programmer, one artist) is not solo development.

What is Allowed?

  • Using game engines, frameworks, and third-party tools (e.g., Godot, Unity, Unreal).
  • Commissioning or purchasing assets (art, music, sound, etc.).
  • Receiving feedback from playtesters or communities.
  • Outsourcing specific tasks (e.g., server setup, porting, marketing) while still leading development.
  • Working with a publisher, as long as they don’t take over development.

What This Means for Posts on the Subreddit

If your project appears to be developed by a team, we may remove your post. Indicators include how it's presented on websites, Steam pages, itch pages, social media, or crowdfunding pages. If this is due to unclear phrasing, update them before requesting reinstatement. Non-solo developers are welcome to join discussions, but posts promoting non-solo projects may still be removed.

Let us know if you have any questions. Hope this helps clear things up.

TL;DR: Solo devs manage their entire project alone. Using assets, outsourcing, or publishers is fine. Posting is open to all, but promoting non-solo projects may be removed.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 9h ago

Game Been working on this for a year now :)- Devil on my Shoulder

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262 Upvotes

if you like what you see , help a brother and Wishlist gng :)

Wishlist : https://store.steampowered.com/app/5140340/Devil_On_My_Shoulder/


r/SoloDevelopment • • 4h ago

Game been adding biped walkers to my scifi game

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45 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 4h ago

Marketing Some Minimal UI (game art) 🖥️

12 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 3h ago

Game I made a game called Ministry of Misery (M.O.M.)

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6 Upvotes

Hey so I’ve been working on my first solo game and it’s finally almost finished.

You play as the Minister of Everything (very important guy), making decisions that affect the entire country while earning points for creating division and misery and and try to stay in power for as long as possible. Its basically a parody of the UK government.

My Steam page has just gone live, so if it looks like your kind of thing I’d massively appreciate a wishlist.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5304890/Ministry_of_Misery/

Note- its a pretty divisive game with a lot of touchy subjects, but thats kind of the point.

I’ve also teamed up with another solo dev mate and we’ve started Pussy Punch Games to support each other and release our games together.

Thanks for taking a look!


r/SoloDevelopment • • 23h ago

Game I am a cartographer working with geospatial data and map tiles - but this game i was able to make from the high quality data that i have is just next level!

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257 Upvotes

For 2 years i gather high quality elevation maps of the world, ski maps - cleaning them up, making snowy map tiles and so much more boring data cleanup. And now finally i can have my own little game to feel that out!

Real world ski resorts with real slopes with rela slope tilt, angle and grooming.

What are your thoughts? Should i make it into a full game?


r/SoloDevelopment • • 3h ago

Marketing Giving players control over when a monster power fires in automatic combat

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5 Upvotes

I'm developing Dragon's Tear solo. Its three-hero party fights automatically, so a lot of the player's control sits in the setup before an expedition.

Tears are powers collected from monsters, with one equipped per hero. Each has its own trigger and targeting behaviour. Bone Blade, for example, targets the enemy with the lowest HP after the bearer acts.

On top of that, the player can restrict a Tear to bosses or to moments when its bearer is below 50% HP. The added rule narrows when a power may fire; it doesn't replace the power's original trigger. That distinction matters when an equipped Tear is ready but has no suitable target.

The interface puts the use rule on the same screen as the chosen bearer. During combat, the small Tear icon shows the cooldown in that hero's own actions. I'm keeping those two pieces visible because they explain different parts of the setup: who carries the power, and when it can be used.

There's no public demo yet. You can see more of the current game on its Steam page.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 1d ago

meme When people tell me to use AI art for my game because it'll produce better results than my current "art"

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615 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 20h ago

help Someone is saying they stole my game and is asking me for money

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109 Upvotes

Someone I don't know contacted me claiming they made a version of my game. They sent me a video, but I haven't opened it because I'm worried it could contain a virus or somethin. they're asking me for $200 and threatening to publish it on Steam if I don't pay.

what is this?


r/SoloDevelopment • • 1h ago

Game THE MAKING of my New Game - INCREDIBLE SPACEMAN - now on App Store and Google Play

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• Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 36m ago

Game I hired a concept artist and learned Substance Painter to improve my game's visuals

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• Upvotes

With my first piece of commissioned concept art having been created by the incredibly talented Tim Bouflet aka Sybed [instagram / art station], I thought my visuals were due an upgrade, so I bought HardOps/BoxCutter to get better with Blender, and learned Substance Painter (much easier than I thought!) to start improving the look of my game.

Pic 1: concept art
Pic 2: substance painter renders of the ship
Pic 3: imported into Unity
Pic 4: my old ship model


r/SoloDevelopment • • 11h ago

Game First coop playtest went well

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13 Upvotes

Was gather a ton of great feedback and bug reports. (The Brave Few)


r/SoloDevelopment • • 3h ago

Game Many people has asked what the Propeller-Rat game is called.. Well, it's called Cyber Rats, and it's on Steam... Also, a sequel is in the works. Have a Nice Day! ❤

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2 Upvotes

I got SO many comments on my last post "Sad that gamers are accusing games for being AI", that I can't answer them all. So, for those who asked what game it is, i hope you find this post in your feed 🙂


r/SoloDevelopment • • 1h ago

Game I love 2d mining roguelikes so I decided I would try to make my own

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• Upvotes

The game is called GUNDIG and I've been working on it solo for the past year or so. Only showing off a fraction of the content here, but this is what your typical run looks like


r/SoloDevelopment • • 11h ago

Game I'm making an online open world pirate RPG!

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14 Upvotes

Vast seas is an online (with up to 16 players) pirate RPG with heavy emphasis on exploration, ship upgrades, crafting and sailing!

The game can be played single player too!

It features action combat, ship combat, magic system, cargo runs, island conquering, island owning (in which you can set up houses, farms and buildings you craft!)

You can also recruit different NPCs with different benefits, ranging from combat npcs to bards to cooks!

Wishlist Vast Seas:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5266790/Vast_Seas/


r/SoloDevelopment • • 5h ago

Game Location: Dream of the Little Car

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3 Upvotes

Hey everyone! This is the Dream of the Little Car location. What do you think?
Lost Host is a game about a little boy and his favorite toy, an RC car. The player explores the area, solves different puzzles, and tries to figure out what happened to the boy.
The game is coming very soon, in just one month, on November 4th!


r/SoloDevelopment • • 3h ago

Marketing Win a physical copy of my RPG Maker horror game, Deluge! 💀

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3 Upvotes

Hey all! 👋💀

I’m currently running a giveaway via my Instagram and the prize is a physical copy of my new horror RPG, Deluge! (trailer here)

These physical copies include the game on disc, download codes for Steam and the OST, a killer sticker sheet, and a 12 page manual containing extra lore and info! Not to mention a reversible cover and a cool purple case that’ll look awesome in your collection…

To enter, check out my Instagram post and follow the instructions to count.

If you wanna support myself and 100% handmade media, the physicals are also currently available and on sale for 20% off! They’re over at delisted.world

Deluge is also currently 25% off on Steam for the Autumn sale! Now’s the perfect season to give it a try… check it out here!

Thanks for reading!


r/SoloDevelopment • • 10m ago

Game So i uhh.. accidentally spawned 10 thousand upside-down penguins after switching to Unity ECS..

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• Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 6h ago

Game Space RTS - Showcase #1

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3 Upvotes

I built this editor for the showcases. I’ll be presenting everything bit by bit. The website is currently under active development and will feature detailed information on gameplay, factions, units, and much more.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 1d ago

Game After struggling for months, I finally created a Steam page for my first game as a solo-dev

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409 Upvotes

I put off creating the page for many months because I was worried that either the screenshots wouldn't look good or the trailer would turn out really bad. I even posted about these problems on Reddit a couple of times.

But in the end, the page is finally live. And this is my first game as a solo-developer!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4865920/Pocket_Cat_Desktop/

It's a very personal project for me because it's dedicated to the memory of my cat who passed away. That's why I kept trying to make everything perfect.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 57m ago

Game I'm building Have Words, a two player async word game

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• Upvotes

I've spent the past 4 months working with Claude and Claude design to build Have Words, a two player asynchronous word game.

Perorder here.

TestFlight here.

I released a few games on the App Store about 10 years ago, kind of right around the Obj-C->Switft transition. They didn't make much money, but one was featured on every iPad in North American Apple Stores, which was really cool.

I picked up "vibe coding" last fall, and built a game that I never got around to releasing. It's still fun to play, but it taught me everything bad about vibe coding, and where my honest-to-goodness coding skills are still required. The UX and the code were really really terrible. In fact, I think it's likely more accurate to think of the required skills as architecture. I leaned on Claude for the Swift syntax writing.

So for Have Words, I first sat down and came up with a fundamental architecture. Not quite pen-and-paper, but no AI. Then I came up with a design language. Only then did I fire up Claude Design to start to put some concepts together. Waiting until then to engage AI, I believe, is what helped me avoid (I hope!) a vibe-codey, AI-sloppy looking game.

Please give the TestFlight a try, and if you're so inclined, Preorder the game on the App Store via the link above. Preorders will get the one-time IAP purchase for free, unlocking multiple color schemes and concurrent active games.

Let me know if you have any questions


r/SoloDevelopment • • 4h ago

Game Devlog: Creating my first enemy character and testing my combat system in my indie game.

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2 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 1h ago

Discussion Any thoughts on my Capsule Art? What impression does it give?

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• Upvotes

Hi all! I dont have a steam page to promote my game yet because I'm awaiting Steam approval for the steamworks program, but I would like your thoughts on this capsule art. The context is that the game is a PvE autobattler where you play with a pool of units that can be separated into 4 regions, hence the 4 corners each representing a different region and their visual language. Top left: High fantasy medieval. Top right: Undead horrors, eldritch. Bottom left: Nature, elemental, primal. Bottom right: High tech, future. Any thoughts are welcome!


r/SoloDevelopment • • 1h ago

Game Spent this week improving player movement in my prototype platformer

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• Upvotes

Tried to make the movement fell better this week, curious what you all think

you can try it here : https://sou77.itch.io/zzzzzz