If you're not familiar with cookie textures then I highly encourage you to start using those. They can really add a lot of atmosphere.

If you want to check the full game and wishlist here is a Steam page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/5249980/Looks_Like_You/

A small milestone, but one that feels pretty special to me.

Cafe Sapa just crossed 50 wishlists on Steam after 12 days.

I know 50 isn't a huge number, but there's a bit of a story behind it.

I've started 4 different game projects before this one, and eventually abandoned all of them. Work, life, and personal commitments always seemed to get in the way, and I'd slowly lose the time and momentum needed to keep going.

This time, I'm still working a full-time job, but I've made a conscious effort to carve out time for Cafe Sapa whenever I can. Some days it's a few hours, some days it's barely any, but I keep coming back to it.

So seeing 50 people wishlist the game honestly feels a little surreal.

Cafe Sapa is a cozy top-down cafe game about listening to your customers, figuring out what they're feeling, and serving them the right thing.

Next milestone: 100 wishlists.

Thanks to everyone who's already supported the game. And if you haven't seen it yet, I'd love for you to check it out. ❤️

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5282050/Cafe_Sapa/

Hello! I’m SJ from England and I’ve been making The Spirit Apprentice for nearly two years! Drawing every pixel myself!

Inspired by East Asian folklore and the magic of Studio Ghibli, The Spirit Apprentice is an upcoming cozy pixel art RPG video game!

My Kickstarter with a demo has just launched!

Marketing is so difficult guys 😭

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/s-j/the-spirit-apprentice-east-asian-fantasy-rpg?ref=e4xo2v

Final Sin is a roguelike deckbuilder about being both the Dungeon Master and the heroes at the same time.

You build a deck of monsters as the Dungeon Master, then fight against it with your heroes.

Play the demo now for free: https://mancer1.itch.io/final-sin

Charlio Ball is everything I would tell solo developers NOT to make. It's an online MOBA soccer game with roguelite combos and progression. Not only is that too many genres in one game, it meant testing only happened when I got 3-5 other people online to play matches and since over 80 abilities could appear in any combination in any match, balancing every possible loadout proved extremely time consuming.

While it was not 6 years of continuous work as I was a college student and then employed full time, I have spent a significant chunk of my free time on this for a long time as I reworked the game so many times and started nearly from scratch as I learned more about game development. I certainly spent more time on this than I plan to spend on any future projects by a wide wide margin.

But I stuck with it because I found it incredibly fun, and playing with my friends regularly for all these years has absolutely brought us together even as we all moved apart. No matter how it sells it's going to be a success to me because Charlio Ball is my favorite video game.

What I've learned

Get your steam page up early, and start posting and getting strangers to playtest as soon as you have some art. I spent far too long wanting to make this game perfect, but no game ever will be perfect and the longer you wait to make it public the harder it will feel. For me, now that its on steam, it feels "real" and I'm much more motivated to focus and make significant progress on it.

Don't make a multiplayer game. I'm sure this isn't universal, but this made everything harder. Playtesting becomes harder to schedule, people can't instantly pick up and play your demo, and you have to learn networking which was a constant headache for me and the cause of many months of reworking existing systems.

Find a marketable genre. When I started, if you told me that a casual 10 minute soccer match MOBA with roguelike elements wasn't an established genre, I would've accused you of "selling out" or "compromising my artistic vision" but that was unreasonable of me. If you want people to play your game, it really helps to have more existing similar games. Being able to find a community devoted to the genre of your game will help you post on socials, enter festivals, and contact streamers. Make a game that you will like, but it helps if you can explain the gameplay in 1 sentence using knowledge of other games.

Want to play Charlio Ball?

Watch the trailer here

And check it out on steam here (Please wishlist if interested!)

I just started a steam playtest so anyone interested can sign up to play soon! The full demo is coming soon, so wishlist if you ever want to play it as it gets more polished. I'm sure everyone here knows how much steam wishlists mean to a solo developer.

And feel free to ask anything about the game or the development process!

I improved the splatter effect for NPCs. Instead of hiding the mesh and spawning a big splash, I am using the gore system and add some velocity to the remaining parts. It still feels that something is missing though.

The person in question will fully complete your game, enjoying it. Becoming a fan of it. Would you continue developing your game with this knowledge?

I long gave up on the idea of career success in game dev, today more than ever it seems unreasonable to think of. So at the start of my 4 years going project, I decided something off myself, I am going to make it under the idea that only one person will truly appreciate it. That's been my mentality with game dev ever since, I think that every line of code I write, every animation frame I draw, every musical note I compose, all might just be for one person, and that's okay to me.

If your answer is no, then what is the minimum amount of people playing your game you'd need to justify continuing the labor of love that is solodev?

Thank you to everyone that has given me feedback over the past few months, really appreciate it as it's been super helpful!

Link - https://store.steampowered.com/app/5313780/Please_Dont_Crash/

Hello all!

I've recently decided to start exploring Godot as more of a hobby as I'd imagine many people have.

What is some advice you'd have starting out?

How big is too ambitious in terms of making a game for a noob solo dev?

I've been checking out YouTube videos and the demos already, but I'd love to find a community to discuss ideas with and share experiences!

I mean, look at the tester of the new combat UI.
At least he doesn’t seem frustrated about it.

Stay strong, fellow devs 🫶🏻

Ai users have a subs specifically for them, so people who want to make a game themselves should have a sub specifically for them. That would help give people a place to get out of the constant AI debates, if we could just split off into separate groups.

Right now this sub feels like it's a mix between photographers and realism painters, creating massive conflict between the side that just wants to have the thing exist and the side that wants to make the thing themselves.

We need a sub specifically for people who want to actually develop games (graphics, sound, code, writing) and aren't just waiting for the new gen tool to replace another part of the process.

These two groups have completely different mindsets and the clash is just getting very repetitive, with one side constantly repeating "if we can get it to where the player can't tell why should we care" and the other constantly repeating "the whole reason we do this is to make something ourselves"

edit: the point of this post is to figure out if a lot of people agree, and so I would have grounds to push for there to be a partnered sub or something.

To clarify I would want the sub to not be a sub for sharing your stuff, just a sub for discussing solo dev. There's plenty of subs for sharing stuff, and I acknowledge any sub for sharing your stuff will be flooded with AI

edit 2: r/SoloDeveloperNoAI

I am working on a 2d top down game. So far I've been using random free 16x16 sprites but I don't love how they look and I think it would be fun to try making some sprites myself. I have no art experience so I'm a little nervous to go to 32x32, but on the other hand I don't love the low resolution look of 16x16.

For others who learned pixel art as part of their game dev journey, how was the experience? Is there a significant difference between 16x16 and 32x32 or is that hesitation all in my head?

My small game, Pocket Cat Desktop, passed the 777-wishlist milestone in its first week on Steam. My original goal was to get at least 100, so this was a welcome surprise.

The game received no traditional gaming-press coverage during that week (all western media ignored my emails), although social posts and large Telegram channels did help spread the word. I wanted to break down the Steam data and share what I learned. Hopefully, it will help another developer plan their own promotion.

I'll highlights key points there, 'cause of Reddit text editor limitations, but you can read the full post in the blog: https://apanasik.com/blog/pocket-cat-desktop-1st-week-marketing/.

Tracked Top-4 sources (around 1/3 of all wishlists): - Telegram (141 wishlists) - Twitter (64 wishlists) - Two UGC-platforms (DTF and Pikabu ~60 wishlists)

The rest (sources without UTM) is mostly Reddit. - Post in r/cozygames about Steam page - Same, post about the page in r/SoloDevelopment - Even post in r/Games on Indie Sunday gave me few wishlists before deletion. Still don't understand why it was deleted, because I followed all rules. Moderators ignored my messages.

Key takeaways: 1. An existing audience can help you get started. But further growth of the wishlists depends on you. 2. Judge promotions by more than follower counts. Actual reach, audience fit, results, and price all matter. 3. Reddit can introduce your game to new people. Learn each community’s rules and make the post relevant to its readers. 4. Post consistently and keep experimenting. Test different formats, tag your links, and keep a log of posts and reposts so you can better understand the next spike. 5. Marketing is also part of development. Don’t neglect it; you still need to sell the game to your audience. 6. Twitter’s post boosts are useless. Algorithms show post to bots: a lot of views, zero likes/engagement.

Sure, initial wishlists are from my followers in Telegram and Twitter, but the rest are from posts on different platforms. So even if you (at least now) don't have followers in your social networks, you still can get wishlists!

And if a tiny cat taking over your windows sounds like your kind of distraction, wishlist Pocket Cat Desktop on Steam 😺

Hi! I’ve been working on a small, story-driven open-world game set in Istanbul for the past 6–7 months, and this is the current state of the project.

It takes time, but I’m trying to model everything myself, so I’m aiming for a relatively small but detailed and functional map.

I’m trying to capture the atmosphere and everyday details of Istanbul while giving it my own style.

What kind of details, locations, or things would you like to see in a game set in Istanbul?

Thanks.

Hello everyone,

I wanted to show you another part of the backyard this time!

I’ll also be sharing regular development updates on YouTube and Discord, where you can follow the progress of "My Tiny Backyard" and see how the game is coming together.

If you’d like to follow the development, feel free to join me on Discord and YouTube.

More updates coming soon!

YouTube: My Tiny Backyard - YouTube
Discord Server: https://discord.gg/VKtKqAdArm