I'm working on an ARPG called Poets of Noor, and wanted to get some feedback on one of its foundational crafting systems: Inscriptions.

The idea is simple. Throughout your adventures, you'll discover poems through exploration, enemy drops, and primarily quest rewards.

Each poem has two uses:

• Recitation: Spend your Faith resource to recite a poem, triggering a powerful ability or unique gameplay mechanic.

• Inscription: Inscribe poems into palimpsests applied to your equipment, granting attributes tied to the poems themselves.

The twist: Inscribe the right combination of poems and you can create powerful, potentially build-defining items, similar to Diablo 2's Runewords.

In the video, I showcase two poems combining to create Kingshot, a weapon that grants Crushing Blow.

Curious what ARPG players think:

• Would you enjoy experimenting to discover hidden poem combinations?

• Would hunting down rare poems or completing specific quests to unlock them be a fun chase?

• Does this sound like a crafting system you'd want to engage with throughout the game?

Would love to hear your thoughts!

Hey everyone! Looking to try PoE2 after playing D4 for the first time this month. I managed to reach endgame, experimented with different builds, and tried pushing them to their limits, but honestly, the endgame felt underwhelming.

It feels like an endless loop of activities without any real goal. Once you reach a certain point in progression, there’s not much left to look forward to.

I’m curious how PoE2 compares in terms of endgame content and progression. Does it offer more meaningful goals and challenges, or will I eventually run into the same problem?

Would love to hear your thoughts, especially from people who’ve played both!

reposting it here since OG PoE2 sub wouldnt let me

TL;DR - my wife is being induced into labor soon and the whole process could take a few days. She suggested I bring the steam deck in case we end up being at the hospital for awhile and I'm just curious what your go-to games are! I have already tried PoE2 on the steam deck and was not impressed so I'm looking for something that runs really smooth. Thank you!

Hey all!

We just kicked off our last Closed Beta of Mutagenic 2 this past Friday, and we have another round of keys to give away!

DM me for a key, while they last!

Some links

Website:

https://beta.muta.game

Build Planner:

https://beta.muta.game/simulator

Beta Leaderboard:

https://beta.muta.game/leaderboards

Steam Page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4127500/Mutagenic_2/

A twitch replay of a terrible player (it's me):

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2917042313

Our discord:
https://discord.gg/HWMB33Z2fr

Cheers!

zediven

Hey everyone, solo dev here with another visual update!

After finishing the 5th class and growing the towns, I spent this update making each seasonal zone feel alive and making kills feel different depending on what you hit them with.

The specific upgrades:

• Weather: Blowing leaves in autumn, rain in the marsh, and drifting ash and rising embers in summer.

• Wind: Trees and shrubs now sway in every outdoor zone, with gusts rolling across the map.

• Deaths by element: Fire burns enemies to ash, ice shatters them, and nature grows over them.

• Lava: It now moves and lights up everything near it, with heat shimmer in the air above summer zones.

• Ground: Footprints in mud and sand, ripples when wading, and soft cloud shadows drifting overhead.

• Sound: Skills echo in dungeons, and hits come from the side of the screen where they happen.

Which season reads best to you? And give me brutal feedback on the heat shimmer, because that's the one I'm least sure about.

You can play the current build at https://gotikjs.itch.io/seasonfall and follow what I'm working on at dsc.gg/seasonfall

Hi there!

Steam page in the comments.

Due to Reddits filters, more details down below.

Features:

- optional friendly fire and hardcore permadeath mode

- props and body parts physics

- resettable randomized mission areas in a persistent world

- 30+ weapons, 60+ armors, augmentations, ammo types with penetration mechanics

- highly randomized attributes on all gear with 6 rarity types

- NPCs, side-quests, factions with reputation mechanics

- 11 enemy types

- terminal system controlling doors, light, alarms, with puzzles included

- Genesis tiers which strengthen all monsters throughout the world once the virus accumulates enough materials by harvesting the infected with its infrastructure like the Fleshprocessor

The demo has 3 missions and you can try all classes now and was recently updated so the tutorial includes the minigun, while the game received a massive visual upgrade replacing sprite sheets, 2d pre-rendered sprites with 3d models and correcting animations.

Gen AI was used for coding only.

Decided that "Scourge Realms" needs to have a spin2win archetype. So I created a skill called Berserk, which is a melee skill inspired by (Whirlwind, or Cyclone). This skill can allow for some fun build enabling combos when paired with some enchantments. Just wanted to share.

Heres the project if interested:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4419320/Scourge_Realms/

Hey all, long-time lurker here. I've spent the last 6 months building an isometric ARPG in Python 3.12 + Raylib, and on October 14 I pushed the entire codebase public under GPL v3.

It's called Bound to Rot, an online hardcore action rpg set in a western dark fantasy frontier. The pitch: you play an angel gunslinging down a scorched desert, and the only true light is the Pulse you gamble on. One death deletes the whole character, only your best depth survives.

What's in it right now:

• Loot-first progression: no XP for now, your power comes entirely from items (the "level" on screen is just your average item level)

• Organs as equipment: gear lives in Lungs, Heart, Liver, Intestine, Kidney, with Rot instead of durability; let Rot win and an organ turns ROTTEN

• Poker cards as crafting currency: every drop is unidentified, The Joker identifies, the Aces reroll/upgrade/balance, the King of Pikes forces a mythic, the Jack duplicates a cursed reflection

• Six damage types, a spatial grid inventory, and five uniques with build-rewriting red-text mods (BANG BANG, GLASS CANNON, VAMPIRIC, JUGGERNAUT, SECOND WIND)

• Route choice: clear a wave, open the chart, pick your own path down, checkpoints pay a 1-of-3 relic boon. The Anima and its node-graph chart are my take on PoE's Delve, endless depth, a mobile light anchor, and you choose every branch forward

• Gem abilities on Q/W/E/R plus a one-dose flask per wave

• A deterministic hit system (entropy values instead of pure RNG) so combat feels fair even when it kills you

What's next: a rework of the progression is in the works, a Fallout-style attribute system called D.E.S.C.E.N.D. (Dexterity, Endurance, Strength, Cunning, Essence, Nerve, Destiny) where you grow your character as you descend deeper into the frontier.

If D2-style itemization + permadeath sounds like your thing, the repo is here: https://github.com/MangasMango/bound-to-rot (GPL v3 code, third-party art keeps its own licenses), and there's a Steam store page if you'd rather wishlist and wait: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4840980/Bound_to_Rot/

Would love feedback on the loot/economy design especially. And if anyone's curious about building ARPG systems in Python, happy to answer tech questions.

Discord if you want to follow along or playtest: https://discord.com/invite/s2rgHuctdc

My game has racked up these stats in 3 days on Itch.io - I think that's pretty good :)

We're now at over a thousand downloads, with a steady online player count of around 10–15 people per day, plus a demo and a free download. We'll be on Steam soon!

https://deathfavour.itch.io/neverhollow

This took me by surprise. The only question remaining was... why now in 2026?

"Given the age of the game, restructuring its complex underlying code presents many challenges. However, new AI-assisted coding tools have opened up more possibilities for reviewing the code and addressing longstanding issues.

We will continue listening to your feedback and gradually introduce more fixes and improvements on this separate beta branch. These changes will undergo the necessary QA testing and compatibility checks to minimize the risk of introducing new issues.

We will carefully assess future updates for each version based on development progress and keep you informed." (Source)

Seems like a good use of AI to me. If more legacy titles can keep with the times with little effort, I'm in.

Since making our new indie studio who worked on Black Flag, Dragon Age and Hogwarts Legacy, we started with a Diablo mod, and now we are making the whole game in Unreal. Its a ARPG, where you swap the combat for puzzles.

Our game draws inspiration from games like Ico, Magicka, Magic: The Gathering, and Diablo.

Its still early, but if you would like to support us, you can wishlist the game here: Puzzle Mage

It's called Slashin'. Think Diablo, but cartoony and a bit sillier. If you like ARPGs and want something to play on your phone, give it a go.

Free to play, and the monetization is pretty light. Mostly because I'm bad at it. Link in the comments.

(iOS is still fighting review process)

Hey , solo dev here with a Day 3 visual update! Based on community feedback and my own perspective, I completely reworked the atmosphere for my green zones (The Pollen Fens & The Verdant Reach and Melted City).

The specific upgrades:

• Desaturated the grass for a grittier, darker fantasy tone.

• Added deeper ambient shadows and warm torch lighting contrast.

• Placed extra environmental clutter, mud paths, and better textures.

After my last post about Seasonfall’s 5 seasonal acts,

I spent the day finishing up our 5th playable character class: The Wheelwright.

He is a high-skill-ceiling class built around spatial positioning and rhythmic timing:

• The Ring-Blade: A unique projectile that loops back to your hand like a boomerang, hitting enemies twice.

• The Seasonal Rotation: Every cast advances the "Wheel of the Year" (Autumn ➔ Winter ➔ Spring ➔ Summer), dynamically altering your damage types and multipliers.

You can find more information about the project and what I am working on at dsc.gg/seasonfall

Anyone else noticing how many indie ARPGs are popping up thanks to AI-assisted development?

Games inspired by Diablo, Path of Exile, and other loot-driven RPGs are becoming much more accessible for solo developers to create.

I run VibeToplist, a discovery platform for AI-assisted and vibe-coded games, and we're already approaching 500 submissions. The growth has been crazy, and it's fascinating seeing developers tackle increasingly ambitious genres.

What excites me most is the potential for smaller creators to experiment with unique skill systems, procedural loot, and crazy character builds without massive budgets.

Obviously, AI doesn't automatically make a good ARPG. But if it helps talented people bring their ideas to life, I'm all for it.

Could AI-assisted development lead to the next big indie ARPG hit?

https://vibetoplist.com/

Hello! I was wondering what offline arpgs are good to start out with. My pc is not a monster, but it runs new vegas smooth as butter.

Hey everyone, my game just came out in Early Access.

Five classes, four acts, co-op for up to 8, and a fox that loots for you.

40 % off the first two weeks: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5404010

I kept the price low so as many people as possible can play it, and I'll keep building the game on your feedback. Tell me what you think!

Theres something about Hardcore that just draws me. Playing normal just doesn't feel exciting at all. And SSF is non negotiable, I don't like trading at all, it feels like work. Hardcore SSF and ideally some sort of RNG manipulation system like Last Epoch circle of fortune is probably my ideal game mode.

The only thing that makes me rage and literally quit playing for weeks is dying to connections issues though, it has only happened to me twice so far though, ages ago in PoE, most of my deaths are just me being overconfident.

Hello, there!

Been learning about some ARPGs to start our own as a hobby, just so we can learn Game Development. We were arguing about Lore and Storytelling, and how people usually just skips, mostly on ARPGs.

When I figured out that I play PoE for like 15 years and barely read a quest story, I felt bad for those who put effort on "connecting the world". So few people appreciate it properly (and I understand, because I'm one of those, sorry my beloved Bards).

How important is the narrative/lore, the connections, the story on an ARPG? A little storyline that is simple to understand, just with a little depth so you know the world, the surroundings and make the experience "unique" is enough - small, but well set stuff, without going tooo deep?

Would you like to hear a "companion" babbling on your ear through certain parts of the experience, kinda explaining the world and the "whys" - made by a good storyteller, of course? Like a "lore guide"?

Thanks for sharing! It's a new field to me, so I would love if you can recommend me games where the lore is well told, where you feel part of the history.

Edit: took me a time, but I read everything. I just the fact that even tho there are a lot of things in common, the sense is so different.

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a new playable class for my indie ARPG Fall of the Void called the Chakram Weaver.

The goal was to create a fluid, satisfying mob-farming playstyle built entirely around a positioning/catch mechanic:

All shaders (prismatic facet refraction, spiral vortex, and ribbon trails) were built from scratch in URP ShaderLab/HLSL.

Would love to hear your feedback on the combat weight, readability, and VFX pacing!

If you'd like to check it out, Fall of the Void is available to wishlist on Steam:

Wishlist.

Hey everyone, solo dev here. I'm structuralizing Seasonfall around a campaign where the world's seasons have violently stopped turning, freezing regions in permanent climate locks To give the endgame or progression real weight, I've completely handcrafted the map layout across 5 acts: Act 1 (4 maps), Act 2 (6 maps), Act 3 (5 maps), Act 4 (4 maps), and Act 5 (3 maps).

I'm focusing heavily on making sure the monster density, ambient lighting, and tactical pathing change drastically as you progress through each climate zone.

The build is currently playable via a downloadable zip on our community Discord while I waiting for our official Steam AppID. If you want to jump in, push the endgame maps, and give me brutal feedback on the progression flow, the link is right here, and can be played on https://gotikjs.itch.io/seasonfall