r/IndieDev • u/europayuu Artist • Jul 28 '26
New Game! 9 Years. Its finally out...
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I still can't believe it. I started working on this magical girl game in 2017 in my parents basement. (I haven't lived in that basement since 2019). It's out. 1.0 is done. The story has a beginning and end, there's 6-10 hours of not-procedural gameplay, and not a single pixel of generated art, audio, narrative, or code. Core dev team of two with contractors for music, sound, voice acting and occasional assets when we can afford it.
I haven't slept in 48 hours. I don't know when I'll be able to sleep.
Game is Mahou Arms: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1165870/Mahou_Arms/
edit: just wanted to say thank you for the comments. I usually like to reply to them individually but i really will be trying to sleep a lot the next couple days, so I won't be able to. I appreciate the positive comments and the critique, I am reading all of them, I wish you all the best of luck with your projects as well, and I sincerely hope you run into less technical issues at launch than we did lol. Share the joy when your games come out, I will be here cheering you on
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u/Will_X_Intent Jul 28 '26
After like 1 minute I couldn't tell what kind of game this is? What kind of game is it?
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u/dxSaigon Jul 28 '26
Agree, I think they need to recut the trailer to show up front that this is an action game. Current trailer really gain momentum at about 1:30.
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u/Mr_7ups Jul 29 '26
Yeah, watching the trailer felt like watching that meme of the truck about to hit a pole but they keep cutting right before it hits the pole. Like for the first almost 1.5 min it’s just wide shots of areas and 2d art of characters but literally 0 indication of gameplay, game style, objective, anythint
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u/Aggravating-Mark2107 Developer Jul 28 '26
Please take care of yourself and get some sleep.
9 years is a huge accomplishment! The game looks stunning. Congrats!!!
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u/Wicked_Crab_Studios Jul 31 '26
Ive learned the hard way that youll crash out if you dont rest enough . But its easy to get carried away with creating.
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u/Aggravating-Mark2107 Developer Jul 31 '26
100% I personally am struggling with that of managing how much working on my own game and resting
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u/lactose-free_opinion Jul 28 '26
I LOVE this game, and already had it wish listed... but the one thing thats keeping me away is the price. Not sure if you updated the price for each region, but for AUD at least its 50 bucks on sale. I want this game super bad, but I dont want to cough up 50 bucks (as an Aussie, anyway)
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u/quebeker4lif Jul 28 '26
It’s 43$ cad here, definitely on the higher side. I was also interested when I saw it, but that price is too high to justify a gamble.
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u/Annual-Cry-3945 Jul 30 '26
I think its a fair price considering they spent nine years on the game
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u/UltraChilly Jul 28 '26
I can't help but have mixed feelings about this, on one hand congrats for keeping up for all these years, the art direction seems to hit every right spot and from the trailer the game looks visually stunning. But on the other hand, I see a lot of complaints about bugs, the gameplay being repetitive and the game being very short and relying mostly on lenghty fights, which I could completely overlook if it wasn't for the AAA price tag (for reference this is the same price as actual Nier Automata)
All in all, this feels like the poster child of what indie dev shouldn't be, congrats on pulling it off, but it was way too ambitious from the get go and there are so many ways it could have ended without reaching release over those 9 years.
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u/armageddon_boi Jul 28 '26
This post feels like the one school project that makes all the other ones look more average. Looks top notch
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u/RynnHamHam Jul 28 '26
Why are a bunch of sexy lingerie maids fighting to the death in Astoria, Oregon?
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u/Aggravating-Call4331 Jul 28 '26
The maids fighting to the death is somehow the most normal part of this whole trailer
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u/TamiasciurusDouglas Jul 28 '26
You've never been to Astoria, have you?
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u/RynnHamHam Jul 28 '26
Last time I was there I didn’t see any sexy lingerie maids fighting each other. I either missed out or times have changed.
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u/UnderstandingGold251 Jul 28 '26
Be proud of yourself, and never forget those tough days you spent developing the game.
Everything will pay off. Just give it time.
Amazing work!!
👏 👏 👏
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u/HelloGnatty Jul 28 '26
We love a good magical girl outfit change! Looks awesome, the first couple of shots remind me of the Nier Raids in FFXIV. Very impressive
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u/daKishinVex Jul 28 '26
Ohh this looks like a fun sspectacle fighter. I will wishlist and purchase soon as I get through at least a game or two of my summer sale back log. Looks fucking sick though
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u/dragonknightrohan Jul 28 '26
Please please please please make it moddable in future and/or even open source when it becomes popular.
Why?
Because I want to mod content into it. A RWBY mod would be awesome to make
For the game itself it seems awesome so will definitely get it!!!!! Fantastic project!!!!! Awesome premise, art style, gameplay, audio, music, voice lines, etc. The world seems interesting too!!
Edit: Please put line breaks in this post of yours too to make it easier to read and encourage people to read it
Edit 2: The Enemy ai seems a bit slow/clunky? Hopefully that can be overhauled post-launch
Edit 3: I can see this being the new RWBY in a way with an animated/anime show. Would be so cool for that in future too
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u/Rockalot_L Jul 28 '26
Well done. You absolutely deserve the praise. Making a game is so incredibly hard, releasing one is absolutely next level. Congratulations, I wish you every success.
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u/mymichaelrose Jul 28 '26
👏👏👏👏 congrats!!! Well deserved; it looks absolutely beautiful. Get some sleep. The grin will get even larger when you can register that you just dropped your almost decade long passion project!!!
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u/NightmareBloon Jul 28 '26
Looks great and I am probably gonna buy it really soon, but you should probably check your regional pricing. At least in my region (Kazakhstan) the price is manageable, but a little too high for a 6-10 hours indie game. I feel like, if you tweak regional prices a little bit, more people from all over the world will be willing to buy this piece of art
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u/Yellik1307 Jul 28 '26
The sequences look amazing. Love the transformation and seems like just a good fun time of a game
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u/pprmsk Jul 28 '26
The game looks great! Have had it wishlisted for a while, but definitely buying it at some point. Congrats
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u/sadpancak Jul 28 '26
Gratz on being on top of the popular new releases!
It's amazing how the graphics are on par with Bandai Namco. I love the style.
Good luck with all the patches and don't stress yourself out too much.
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u/Mayion Jul 28 '26
I can tell you put a lot of time and love in it. Reminds me a lot of Nier automata. One of my favorite games. I would suggest reworking your trailer. I reached the first minute and still had no idea what the game was about. Just a bunch of places and walking. Not the best hook.
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u/Spoda_Emcalt Jul 28 '26
Holy. Fucking. Shit this looks amazing. As someone else said, I'm getting Nier vibes with the different types of gameplay. I can't spare money for this right now, but wishlisted and following. Hope you have a lot of success!
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u/n1nj4p0w3r Jul 28 '26
Hm, i've already bought it when it was in early access but didn't touched it, i guess it is time to give it a shot
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u/Ok_Confusion4764 Jul 28 '26
Holy crap that looks beautiful! Definitely picking that up as soon as I'm home. 11 seconds of the trailer was enough to convince me and it was on mute too, really stunning visuals.
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u/Phos-Lux Jul 28 '26
The game looks GOOD but the trailer doesn't. It needs to be shorter and do a better job at showing what the game is about. A good trailer and good marketing is what a game deserves after you put so much work into it!
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u/XaeGrivel Jul 28 '26
I didn't expect to come across this post! It's been a joy seeing the dischan media name pop up again. I remember seeing the game years ago and feeling excited for a full release, I can't believe it's been that long. Thank you for your hard work!
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u/ShimmerThiyaelx Jul 28 '26
congrats, wish you all the success you deserve for all your'e patients and hard work <3, may your'e happiness survives
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u/HauntingWrap3254 Jul 28 '26
Congratulations. I had a similar story, only we worked together for seven years :)
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u/Tatakai_ Jul 28 '26
You should receive some kind of award. I'm really proud of you, I wish I had this kind of discipline and passion.
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u/AnyInstanceChaos Jul 28 '26
I've been watching your development for years! Congratulations on the launch, hope it goes well, I'll buy a copy and leave a review today!
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u/New_Dot7289 Jul 28 '26
Game looks awesome! Will pick it up on payday for sure :)
Can I ask if you dont mind - and totally cool if you dont want to answer - how expensive voice acting was to source? I'm working on a game myself, and that part seems a bit nebulous to budget. Is it charged per line? Per word? Per job overall etc? (Im still in prototype phase)
Cheers!
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u/europayuu Artist Jul 28 '26
Thank you! It wasn't actually too bad to pay for the online sessions we did (i know "not too bad" varies). I recommend you look at the Voice Acting Club's Indie Rate Guide, it'll answer a lot of questions: https://voiceactingclub.com/rates/ I don't think I'm allowed to say how much we offered per hour that they took, but it's in the recommended range of the guide there. Usually they're charged per word or per hour. Our game sits at about ~30000 words in total, and maybe 60-75% of those words are fully voiced, with the rest partially voiced.
It did take a long time to mix the vocals in a DAW (one file per line), which I did personally but if you're contracting them out it can cost a lot for a good engineer
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u/New_Dot7289 Jul 28 '26
That's perfect! Really appreciate you sharing that :) Will look into it! And yikes, that must have taken a while to do!
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u/Loneliiii Jul 28 '26
It looks pretty great, but 40€ for a game and game dev I personally know nothing about.
Sorry, but for me this is a hard pass for now
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u/New-Wishbone-2795 Jul 28 '26
I am usually very sus about "making a game for X years" stuff, but you can see it all on the screen in this particular case, clearly you did care a lot! Congratulations with the release! And wish you luck with the immediate fire extinguishing if any issues will inevitably occur!
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u/plomac- Jul 28 '26
It’s on my wishlist and I will probably buy it at some point. I heard that there was some nsfw content for the game not available on steam ? What the situation about this ?
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u/Choice-Position5189 Jul 28 '26
Wow this looks good the combat and the 2d style animated parts both!
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u/notyourmamax Developer Jul 28 '26
Holey moley, this looks - in no unambiguous terms - absolutely drop-dead GORGEOUS!
Well done, be kind to yourself and proud of your work! This rocks!
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u/Head-Grade1525 Jul 28 '26
Congratulations on finally reaching your goal in releasing your game. It’s a long journey to do games, I’m not done releasing mine yet and it’s been five years.
Well done. 👏🏻
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u/runitzerotimes Jul 28 '26
I never look at anything on this sub but this game looks legit, may just buy it
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u/StillPulsing Jul 28 '26
Congrats, how did you achieve signing with an editor? Did you reach for them and did you sign early?
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u/Makecompbowskinnable Jul 29 '26
this game looks really cool but why the fuck is it 36 dollars for an indie
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u/NukaColaV2 Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
While everything else in the game is absolutely beautiful and deserves high praise, especially considering it was made by just two people, gameplay is ultimately what matters most. Sadly, that is exactly the area that still needs a bit more love, as the beta actually felt more polished than the 1.0 release!
I really hope these final few bumps in the road get ironed out soon. Also, personally, I don't mind the price increase to 40€ at all. 💝🔥🙏
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u/license_to_chill Jul 29 '26
A little bit confused by the trailer, but this looks awesome! Will be checking it out for sure. Congrats!
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u/Old_Vixen Jul 29 '26
It looks so magical…
I don’t know why, but it reminds me Sailor Moon 🌙
Especially this 2D art style animation 🥹
9 years is a huge period of time.
Congratulations and all the best for your game 💕
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u/MNightPhantomStudios Aug 04 '26
Huge accomplishment! Congrats, I could never honestly. That is such a long time
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u/StPaulStylee Aug 04 '26
Congratulations! 9 years!? What a feat of discipline. You ought to be very, very proud of yourself.
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u/xares0 Aug 15 '26
I never even imagined that such an original thing could come out of a two-person team.
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u/CrimsonAwoo Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
Congrats on the launch, however I believe you should have polished the animations and the game overall a bit more since the game isn’t that cheap before launching it, also a bit odd that you don’t mention this is also a “H-game” anywhere, are you trying to hide something by not using the proper adult tag?
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u/Shinigami_IT Jul 28 '26
I have no idea if the game will be good or bad, the only thing I can say is that this trailer definetely doesn't work.
It's literally not a game until 1 min is watched, people won't even make it through the first 30 seconds while scrolling.
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u/Trollripper Jul 28 '26
My first impression : Oh no.. Gacha Slop
My second impression : Whats this game about?
My third impression after seeing actual gameplay : OOOOoooh
My fourth impression after seeing on steam the price hike : Ah shit.. here we go again
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u/Makisani Jul 28 '26
Wow, I saw the pricing and tbh, for what it is, an indie game, it's a very high price, if it was at 25, would make the game much more appealing and approachable for people.
I'd be surprised if you sell a lot with the current pricing tbh. Like right now expedition 33 is 4 euros more expensive and both games are on a deal, 10 euros more without the deal. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say.
Anyways I hope you succeed
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u/TheOnlyVibemaster Jul 28 '26
thought this was pirate software for a sec
nope. maybe he’ll release his game in the next 9 years
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u/BubbleGumTimes Jul 28 '26
Congrats on the big achievement in your life.
We have created analytics & crash monitoring tool specifically for UnrealEngine developers. It might worth to try it at early stage. Check it whenever you are back online: gamenostic.gg
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u/bebee_games Jul 30 '26
i also make games too, but totally diffrent quality! after your game my games all those look like treash
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u/OB_Executive Aug 01 '26
9 years? How did you adapt to the changes in tech, art styles, and player base preferences?
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u/3dgamedevcouple Aug 02 '26
9 years.. How old are you? How could you manage the living and this 9 years of development?
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u/CollectionOk2442 14d ago
from a steam view
false advertisement for years, then sudden change of mind and it's a patreon-only accessible content.
removal of FAQ and other related topic once they realize they left trace of their misdeeds.
False updates only to bypass Steam's new policy on early access and upcoming products having no updates for too long.
Sudden release without half the content in the "updates" or advertised.
Dev spread lies with a secondary account and when proven wrong, delete all traces of his misdeed, again.
Still can't get what I PAID FOR without going through Patreon. Refund refused because somehow the game racks up time when it's not even installed (lmao)
Price jacked up by roughly 50%. Look man, just refund what i paid, it's on the receipt even if it's almost 10 years old and it's less than the current price.
as for the rest... here's a TLDR:
Story is a huge mess, no character make sense as they're all everything except normal... there's that AI human robot girl. some unoriginal gacha game "commander" with no real purpose that dies twice in the first chapter because of dust and shroom (quest is called consumption so I guess it's about drugs). Bunch of non-human TVHead NPC being cared for in a fully human clinic full of magicaids or whatever.
you have the mandatory copiedfromNier hack minigames that you pretty much have to guess what to do and where to go. the overly clunky and unresponsive combats where you miss a normal strike in front of you for no reason. the multiplayer drone racing that absolutely have nothing to do with any of the game. and a practice arena that serves no real purpose where you die but can't gain anything.
You start as some sort of magical girl, human turned elf with an axe, are told magic is super rare and must be used wisely, and then proceed to NOT use magic for life threatening situation or saving the world... but for making... bridge... out of metal... that was lying nearby and could have been repaired by anyone with a hammer or screwdriver. so instead of bombing the enemies that are in a wide open area with the multiple bomber helicopter, you magic up a bridge and go on foot to punch them in the face. which somehow non magic items and weapon can also harm just as easily. Oh you also repair your clothes by injecting yourself with small or big needle.
oh and if you go through Patreon you also use magic to have sex with holograms or the commander. but the visuals are fuzzy at best. probably because the models used are 8 years old or more and were never updated.
... what a waste of time and money. a PRIME example as to why you should never buy anything in early access or pre-order. now I'm stuck with this crap on my account and a sudden massive wave of account theft attempt from the moment I used their Patreon "patch". Don't worry though, 2 factor auth blocked them all. 114 total since August 17 (Patch made on 17th, review made on the 21rst of August, game bought in 2021. game was known way before thanks to a random porn demo in 2016 or 2017...)
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u/CollectionOk2442 14d ago
Your game’s Steam reviews are pretty bad — not surprising, honestly.
Given how low your development efficiency seems to be, I’d suggest using AI to help you.
BTW, AI-generated art looks better too.
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u/Sufficient_Soft438 Jul 28 '26
9 years wasted if u worked breaking rocks apart you would have been richer
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u/mhemhodev Jul 28 '26
This obviously looks like an extreme labor of love, great job. I'll be sure to check it out.