Would you say this is a fair difficulty curve?

Hey everybody!

For the past five years, I’ve been building this retro roguelike exploration shooter called LETICULUS. On each adventure, you stumble upon different combinable ship parts (like wings, cockpit, engine, etc.).

Some interact well with each other; some don’t. This could result in a ship that’s basically a flamethrower, a ship that can build a wall of bubbles, or a UFO that shoots in a circular motion in all directions. So you could build something fun, something overpowered, or utter garbage. It’s up to you to explore which combinations work and which don’t.

The game is still in development, but you can already check out the Steam page

https://www.artstation.com/darkmoonarts

I love photography so I decided to try to stage shots for my steam page in game! Here is the unedited in game screen shot, and then the 2nd slide is after I added the logo and some more highlights on the character. But this is the first time I've ever edited anything like this. What do you guys think! Also just submitted my store page for review, pretty cool seeing my own game next to everything else:)

ok so if you make 2D games you know the drill. sprites in one folder. tilesets in a zip, music sfx in 20 different directories from who knows when. and that ONE aseprite file you definitely saved somewhere 🙃

so ive been building AssetHoard for the past 18 months. it’s a home for all your art, living on your own machine. aseprite + krita files just... show up, no exporting first. and you can peek inside godot / unity / gamemaker packs before importing anything.

made a lil 90 sec video showing it in a 2D workflow 👇

it’s free while we’re in open beta, so pls go break it and tell me what you think lol

https://assethoard.com

I've been building the Cellarer on my own: a medieval monastery builder with an automation vibe. Every stone, plank and loaf of bread travels by cart, along paths you lay yourself.

You found a small monastery and grow it through production chains: quarries and sawpits feed masons and carpenters, kilns, mills and bakehouses keep the brothers housed and fed, and every good travels by cart along paths you lay yourself from cartyards to workshops. As the monastery grows you adopt new customs, buy land to expand, and gather the stone and timber to finally raise ayour great Belfry, stage by stage.

In the newest update: a reworked opening that walks you through your first workshops, paths and carts.

The free demo is on Steam and part of Next Fest this week:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5054520

Would love to hear what you think!

Thanks for your time,
Charlie

A disclaimer first, because this might be a bit confusing. We're Fairy Mount Games, but we didn't make the game that we tested this on. It's an older, mostly solo-devved game made by our CEO that was just sort of... lying there. So as we were gearing up for the release of Flame, Forest & Flood, we decided to test the Steam Calendar to see what could be expected from it.

Entitled, the game we tested it on, is an RPG Maker title that got published on itch.io over a year ago and made a whopping 2 sales there since then. It was never moved to Steam, as the creator never had the time or resources to do any proper marketing and was afraid that it would just drown there without any support. But the initial reports from Reddit about the Steam Calendar were encouraging, so the dice were rolled... and mistakes were made :)

The game already had an unpublished Steam page ready, made like 2 years ago. It turned out mostly unusable, as asset size requirements changed, rating survey deprecated (which Steam informs you about with a soothing green badge that looks like everything is perfect, so it got overlooked until maybe a week after the game's release). As soon as the page got fixed up, we just checked how far the calendar was reaching and simply set the release date 50 days from then. October 7. Disregarding what's releasing then, before or after.

The page went live. At first, nothing of note was happening. Wishlists? 1-2 a day. At this pace, the game would release with maybe 75 wishlists and be a huge failure. But it was supposed to pick up closer to the release date. Except it didn't. Week after week, the needle was barely moving. 4 weeks in or so, it seemed like maybe it's getting closer to a 2-3 a day, but that was barely a change. Our theory was that the Steam page wasn't too attractive, that the capsule image was meh, that it was a pixel art weird-ass RPG Maker game that nobody really knew what to expect from. And all that was probably true.

Then, 2 weeks from the release, things literally exploded. A few hundred wishlists a day, out of nowhere. And it was growing exponentially. After just a few days, we were getting 500, then 600, then almost 700 wishlists a day. We climbed to 2000 in what felt like overnight. And then... STEAM SALE :D

The Autumn Steam Sale, that we didn't account for at all (because who cares, it's just a test) erased the calendar from the main page for the exact last week when things were supposed to get really good. On release, Entitled had 2200 wishlists. We're estimating that at that pace, if the Steam Sale didn't happen, it could have released with ~5000. Which seems like pretty solid for an obscure small, mostly solo-devved game with zero marketing support other than the Steam Calendar. So our assumption is that 5k wishlists just from the Calendar is a reasonable baseline expectation for any game that looks like some effort has been put in it.

How did that translate to sales? 70 or so units on the first day, converted from wishlists, with the Autumn Sale still going. On day 2, the sale went down, Calendar went back up and the sales got better, too. In the first week, the game made close to 500 sales. What's interesting, the wishlists didn't convert that great - only at maybe 5%, but the game got some direct sales from the Calendar showing it off as released last week.

On week 2, things slowed down, a lot. We believe that's could be because of the game dropping from 70% to 55% positive reviews (bugs + a good bunch of people completely misunderstood the premise) and the theory is that games with better reviews get better placement in the Calendar's "released last month" section. And the game never really recovered from that, even though it got back up to 70%. Or it could be because it didn't move enough copies for Steam to feature it properly in the "released last month" section.

Entitled now sits on 640 sales and nearly 5k wishlists (they grew post-release when the Calendar went back up) after close to 2 weeks after release. It made back 65% of what the dev spent on the art for the game. Meanwile, Flame, Forest & Flood got on the Calendar and we are seeing a similar trajectory, just with higher numbers - very likely due to better capsule art and generally clearer target group of the game. So far, it seems to confirm the findings from Entitled.

So, learnings, TL;DR:

- 5k is a reasonable amount to expect from the Steam Calendar, even for a game that doesn't look like a banger of the week

- don't release the game during Steam Sales ;)

- check your rating survey and all store settings before you click "release", even if they seem done.

- you can expect a significant chunk of your sales to come directly from the Calendar, not through wishlists conversions (in case of Entitled, wishlists conversions accounted for only 40-45% of sales)

- your reviews might be a major driver of the visibility in the Calendar post-release; especially after the initial week. What bracket you are in (Mostly Positive, Very Positive, etc.) might determine how much the Calendar promotes you

Hope this helps you guys out in forming your release strategies!

I’ve been working on this project part time for such a huge amount of time. Engine and game combined adds up to like 21 years or something which is ridiculous.

I started the engine primarily as a way of learning, I hoped I would one day get it to the point of releasing a game, but I had no idea just how long that journey would be.

6 years ago I started this game project on my engine as a way to push myself to the limit of what I thought I might be able to achieve as a solo dev. Looking back, I was naïve, and I really needed that.

Working as a solo is great, but it’s a lot. One of the best experiences I had during development was running the public playtest, it was so great to see people play the game and finally get to chat to others about about design etc.

Now the game is in NextFest and I’m holding onto this ride, feeling equal part excited and overwhelmed.

I’m not one for giving advice, I feel everyone is on their own journey, but if your deep into yours and release feels far, keep at it, there are some rewarding experiences towards the end.

One day my dream will become my job but not today.

Hello.

I'm making a roguelike monster catcher where the player proceeds through rooms that include battles, events, shops, etc.. to complete a run. I think I'm getting close to completing a playable demo. The UI is very simple designed but fully functional, battles work, capturing creatures and using items works and you can technically play an entire run even though the difficulty needs some fine tuning.

What I'm missing:

- shops and events are prepared but not playable yet. Rooms show "nothing here yet"

- sprites and animations: I made one sprite and a few placeholders, no animations yet)

- audio: audio streams are implemented but I dont have any audio files yet

- weather works mechanically but there is no visual for it

I'm wondering how far I should go for a demo on itch.io?

Should I create sprites for everything first or are placeholders OK?

Should I add some random, free sound effects and music even if they don't exactly fit?

Should I start making animations for it?

What would you expect and like to see from a first demo?

I'm building Astraya solo. The tricky part is making a spoken request useful without letting it bypass the combat rules. In this clip I ask for a lightning hammer, equip it, and still have to land the hit.

I'm opening the free closed alpha to more testers. If you have about 15 minutes, try the first boss and forge one ability. Tell me where the controls or the result didn't make sense. Feedback here is welcome.

Apply: https://astrayagame.com/?utm_source=reddit-p05-solodevelopment

Desktop browser, 18+, mic optional. Confirm your email after applying. I approve testers in small batches and email selected players a personal link, so access isn't instant or guaranteed.

AI powers the forge, and I use AI tools for art and voices too. This is gameplay edited for length, with a replacement player voice.

I’ve added sticky notes that you can draw on and place anywhere. They work smoothly with both controllers and Steam Deck.

I've been considering getting back into game development recently and not doing anything for over a decade. I've always wanted to try making an open world game so I'm curious what premade engine would be best for this type of game.

I have a tiny bit of experience with Unity, but from what I've seen, Unreal is currently the most popular engine to use. Even if it is more complex.

Anyone able to offer any advice on how to get started? I'd like to at least try to make a simple test project, maybe a fan game like the Ben 10 one on itch.io.

My demo is finally out, I’m really happy to finally have people playing it :)

DIEATHLON is a horror FPS where you ski downhill while creatures will try to kill you.

I’m excited to hear how it feels for players and if you’re having fun. Any feedback you want to tell me is really welcome.

La atención se la está llevando Bobby, una escena en la que el jugador lo puede saludar jaja

Es mi perro real añadido al juego como homenaje por pasar su enfermedad.

El juego se llama YAMI MURA es un horror.

Check out more stuff about my game on r/geographypro_games

Game releasing soon for free on gx.games

Hey everybody!

Just wanted to share my new trailer that I made for my horror game that I am working on which is mostly inspired by a real life location in Mexico, Mexican Folklore, Resident Evil, Silent Hill and a little bit of outlast mixed into it.

Do let me know what you think of the new trailer. Mostly in this trailer it is showing off the environment and ambiance dread that I am going for in the game alongside with the mexican culture. I am currently focusing on ambiance horror rather then jumpscares too.

It would mean the world to me as a solo developer if you can wishlist and let me know what you think of it :)

Steam Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4581370/Where_Dolls_Hang

Thank you all so much and do let me know what you think, appreciate you!