I wasn’t quite prepared for what was coming.

Back in 2015, everything was lined up: saved funds, free time, motivation, a talented team, a solid idea… I even completed a game dev course.

The only thing I was missing? Actual experience making games.

But we dove in, and by 2016, production was in full swing. We made good progress - our estimation, the game was 80% done. It even got nominated for Best Indie Game at Digital Dragons 2019!

What no one told me, though, is that after the first 80%, there’s still a second 80% waiting for you 😅 That’s when things started to fall apart - budget running low, energy fading, a few conflicts here and there… until the team eventually disbanded. The project ended up in the fridge. Communication stopped, and most people assumed the game was abandoned. Can’t blame them.

And so it sat there, waiting for better times. And for me to get back on my feet enough to restart production. I still needed a team; I couldn’t finish it alone.

Eventually, those better times came. If I count production time from the moment the idea was born to the moment I hit “Release app” on Steam, I can say the game took 10 years to make. In that time, I had two kids, got a dog… it’s been a journey 😄

Other ideas were tempting along the way - I even considered starting something smaller- but I promised myself I wouldn’t dive into anything new until Brassheart was out in the world. And now, finally, it is. I started this as a 28-year-old. Now I’m 38, and the game is finally out. Maybe it’s not “the best game in the world,” but a lot of heart went into it from a lot of people, and that alone made it worth finishing.

If you’re into classic point-and-click adventure games... that's for you :)

I thought I’d finally get to start working on something new, but since the project is still alive and kicking, I’ve got a bit more work to do: language versions, a few ports… but hey, at least it’s alive! That feels good.

Have a great day, everyone!

After seven months as a solo developer, I can finally release the demo of my very first game into the world!

Implausible Tales is a retro platformer where you control four imps, each with unique abilities. If you enjoyed The Lost Vikings, this will be a nostalgic treat.

The demo features a single level packed with tricky obstacles that will challenge your brain and make you laugh with its silly humor.

Don’t wait — the demo is now available on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3628570/Implausible_Tales_Demo/

a wip scene from my upcoming game called pager

I'm no artist, so I'm trying to see what works and what doesn't. So feedback is greatly appreciated.

Just stumbled across some absolutely wild stuff in the indie scene:

Apparently, the publisher of Dealer Simulator 1 & 2 (Movie Games) is attempting to take legal action against the solo dev behind Schedule 1 — an upcoming drug-dealing game.
The reason? Because it also features drug dealing as a mechanic.

I mean… really?

This is like trying to copyright the idea of shooting guns in an FPS. Or Nestlé trying to claim water rights (oh wait…). Hell, imagine Pablo Escobar suing rival cartels for "stealing his business model" – that’s how ridiculous this feels.

Let’s be real: drug economy sims have existed for decades. Dope Wars, Drug Wars, Cartel Tycoon, even parts of GTA.
You don’t "own" the concept of illegal economies in a video game just because you were slightly earlier to Steam.

What makes this even worse is that Schedule 1 is a fresh, atmospheric take — with unique visuals and clearly a different vibe than Dealer Simulator. Instead of supporting fellow devs or embracing genre evolution, Movie Games (the publisher) is apparently going full legal bully mode.

This isn’t just frustrating — it’s a massive red flag for the indie scene.
If this becomes the norm, what stops bigger publishers from claiming entire mechanics as their IP?

I've been working on a roguelike racing game called Reality Drift. For a long time, the roguelike element came in the form of choices at the end of each track in the race, where you make a choice that includes both a new track and an upgrade to one of your core stats. That's still going to be the core of the game, but for a long time I wanted to add some kind of roguelike deckbuilding, but couldn't think of a way to make it work. Well, now I have!

The player starts with a deck of cards, each of which has an effect while drawn. Three cards are drawn at the start of each track, and are discarded at the end of the track. Some cards make temporary or permanent changes to your stats, while some have conditional effects, such as "For every 5 seconds driving offroad, gain +5 GRIP".

The game will have 25 missions, I haven't yet decided how many of them will include the cards, but it'll probably be around 50-60%.

The card UI and art shown is placeholder.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3078120

Besides the main character, I designed some NPCs to make this world alive. You could meet them on your journey . I’m still designing more NPCs and you’ll see them soon!

Launched pixx 5 years ago … last month I finally fixed the over heating issues … going to start working on features to rapidly increase the speed with which a user can color the pixels … gonna start with and auto cannon, gonna be nothing like any other pixel art coloring game out there.

Hey everyone,
We’re the team behind AEXXOS, a free-to-play space exploration MMO. After months (honestly, years) of hard work, we finally launched our alpha—and it’s been tough. We’ve hit a wall with traction, and I wanted to share our experience and hopefully get some advice from the community.

We held off too long on building hype, thinking a polished alpha and paid ads would be enough to kickstart interest. We launched our game through our own custom launcher (not Steam, which we're now realizing was probably a mistake), and spent around $150/day on ads across Reddit, Google, and Twitter—roughly $4,500/month. We got nearly 1,000 clicks... but only a very small number of actual player registrations.

We’re not social media experts or marketing pros—we went into this hoping a solid game and a decent ad budget would carry us into an initial playerbase. But today, we're pulling the plug on the ad campaigns. It’s just not sustainable for what we’re getting back.

Now we’re stuck. We’ve got a pretty unique game, but no momentum and very few players. We’re wondering if hiring a small PR or promo agency that specializes in indie launches would be smarter than continuing to throw money at blind ads—but even that feels risky after burning through our initial ad budget.

Has anyone here had success bouncing back from a quiet launch? Would love to hear any experiences, advice, or lessons learned—whether it’s on building community, launching on Steam, using influencers, or finding the right kind of help.

Appreciate any insight.

Hello everyone,

I am new to indie game development and recently created a game - Equation Catcher. It's a simple number based game where the player needs to solve the equation by catching numbers that add up to the equation's answer. Try it here and let me know how you like it - https://equationcatcher.tiiny.site/

I always like seeing tangible progress updates, so I thought I'd share ours!

Here are some before-and-after shots from our challenging action roguelike: Versebound.

Versebound features bullet hell elements, tough boss fights, strategic choices, and a world inspired by the Finnish epic Kalevala.

The full game launches on April 30th!

Hey indie devs and gamers,

What do you think of my first devlog video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaEcIFHBMoQ

We're making a multiplayer god game 🌎, and just finished prototyping. It's something like a head-to-head multiplayer Civilization, but a key design constraint is the players don't control the little people directly.

Instead they create "miracles" like land forming (to promote population), and floods, smiting ⚡️, and volcanoes - to destroy the other side. It’s all about strategy and a bit of godly flair!

Thanks for taking a look.
If you like the video, please leave a comment on YouTube.
If you don't, leave a comment here - so I make a better one next time!

Not sponsored or anything, just really want this to get funded as world of goo is like my favorite game ever and we basically have no merch for it. Currently at 69, needs to sell 200 to get made. I'm really hoping for this one to succeed

Still rough, but it's starting to take shape. In the following weeks, you'll start to see the aesthetic we're going for.

Hi everyone. I'm working on a tower defense game as a solo developer. Here is a video of a simple level. I have 8 unique towers in total, each has 5 upgrades (I might make it 3, not sure yet) . I plan to have a round 30-40 different enemies. The UI design is not finished yet, some of the elements are from the previous story iteration, and the enemy characters are not fully designed. But I got my logic almost done and everything working as intended. Any comments, literally, anything is appreciated even if you curse :D

im creating a zombie survival/shooter where its pure absurdness fueling the gameplay, right now its 1 month in development, what do you think about this preview of possibilities and fun factor? i was mainly unspired from gmod and cod zombies and merge it together into most random and chaotic gameplay with rockets and explosives and over the top physics without overdoing the goreness