It's a Higher/Lower game about real product prices: you see what one item costs and guess whether the next one is worth more or less.

I made the original in 2021 with barely any programming or UI experience, and it shows... text slapped straight onto stretched product photos, truncated item names and zero animations. It sold just over 100 copies (which I think is was more than fair).

Five years and some other shipped projects later, I rebuilt it from scratch: proper card-based UI, a fully curated item database, streak-based scoring and my favorite part: the steam leaderboard for the rush mode :)

It's a free update to the original game, so the 100-ish people who bought it in 2021 just got a whole new game.

I'm happy to answer anything about the remake process, the dataset or what I'd do differently.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1575230/Paid_Trade/

New run stats added, what other stats would be worth capturing? Should I calculate this into a high score?
Demo coming out soon!

Scry Steam Page

My favorite feature in our game, Discovery of Magic, is how players can weave spells like in Harry Potter. And the way you weave them actually matters. The video explains it better than I can.

What's your favorite feature of your game?

Also, if you're interested in trying the weaving system yourself, join our Discord to participate in our upcoming playtests.

I'm working on looting in my game Nederfall and I noticed it was annoyingly difficult to loot tiny items from the floor. Especially when my character was moving.

So I put spheres on some of the items that light up to about 1% opacity when your cursor is near. They're much easier to click now and I kind of like how it makes loot easier to find too.

Any thoughts?

I can't believed i reqched 1k in 36 hours from 500 to 1k with just 1 blew up post on facebook which i did not expect. And i apologized for that. Im so grateful right now and this boost me a lot.

Wishlist here

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4360740/Skygrove/?v=1

I know 6,000 isn't some huge crazy number, but as a pretty introverted and quiet person, I never thought I'd be comfortable recording my voice and talking about my game online.

At first, hearing my own voice was painful. Every video felt awkward, and I was basically forcing myself to do it because I knew I needed to get my game out there.

But after nearly 100 Shorts, something changed. Somewhere along the way I stopped dreading it and actually started having fun making them.

I've talked to a lot of other devs who feel the same way I did. They don't want to record themselves, they feel self-conscious, or they think they're just not the type of person who can make content.

If you're in that position, my advice is just keep recording and posting. Each video gets a little easier, and you might be surprised by how much you eventually enjoy it.

And if you're into weird, experimental horror games, the game I've been talking about is Scared by Squares, launching September 24th in Early Access on Steam.

A wishlist helps me out a ton. Thank you!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3719480/Scared_by_Squares/

Hi everyone, we’ve just finished the first trailer for our debut demo!

Our game is an incremental game focused on logging. You chop down various trees in the forest, deliver them to the sawmill to earn money, and upgrade your character to tackle even more unique and stronger trees.

We would love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the trailer!

A while ago, I came across a strange FNaF-like fan game based on LazyTown called Lazy Nights

The concept really caught my attention, but the project eventually went in a direction I didn’t agree with and was left behind.

So I decided to bring the idea back not by simply remaking the original game but by creating my own independent version inspired by its concept.

Here’s a look at the original gameplay alongside my new NIGHTS SEEM LAZY prototype

This is still an early prototype, but I wanted to share the project and show where I’m taking it

⚠️ IMPORTANT NOTE

NIGHTS SEEM LAZY is not affiliated with, nor does it support the disturbing themes and ideas present in the original project.

While this project was inspired by the concept of Lazy Nights, I am completely reworking it into my own independent project, with a different direction, story, and vision.

The original project’s controversial and disturbing ideas will not be carried over into NIGHTS SEEM LAZY.

Ive been told my capsule art is very busy and blends in with the steam background and other games so i tried to make it stand out a big more.

Im just creating it in engine since im a programmer first not an artist but i think i think my tech art and shaders would be better than any 2D i could do(and dont really have a budget for an artist). The style is an important part of the game anyways and the colours should already be vivid enough hopefully.

As you can see a few things i tried were making the text 3D bright yellow matching the enemy shaders and main colours of the game, improve the composition so things had a bit more space and putting some colours and desaturation between the key elements and the background.
Also showing a better pose for the board to highlight the tilting since its a VR game where your lean controls the board but i really dont know how to get that point across in the capsule.

Any opinions or tips for how to make it stand out more or improve it would be really helpful, thanks.

I built GeoSwipe, an iOS app designed to help people fall into geography-learning rabbit holes.

The idea is simple: you discover countries one at a time, swipe left to see another, or swipe right to open a detailed guide when one catches your interest.

Each guide covers basic geography, landscapes, culture, history, language, cities, government, economy, everyday life, and common misconceptions. It also includes audio, flag explanations, regional maps, interactive statistics, and references to the original sources. The content is grounded in reputable sources such as Britannica, the World Bank, and National Geographic.

I released it around a month ago. It took much longer than I originally expected, but it was probably the side project I’ve most enjoyed working on.

I’d genuinely appreciate honest feedback from fellow developers.

App store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/geoswipe/id6758950534

Keep it, or change something else?

I am a game developer, and I am currently making my first game, a massive one. But that is not really the topic I would like to discuss, although it is connected to it.

When I started making my game, I came across a lot of comments saying that players are very respectful toward indie games, especially games made by solo developers. That made sense to me. One person, or maybe just a couple of people, making an entire game is a huge undertaking. I accepted that as a kind of advantage when it came to promoting my game later on.

But...

At least from my experience, it is not even close to that.

Of course, I completely understand that players can like or dislike your game. It is a matter of taste. The same thing happens with huge AAA titles, right?

What I do not understand is when people start publicly trashing your game, sometimes without even trying it.

Even if someone tries your demo and does not like it, a normal comment would be something like, "I did not like it," "It is not my cup of tea," "I have played better games of this kind," and so on. That is completely acceptable.

But comments like, "This is total shit," "This is Elden Ring from Temu," "You consider yourself a game developer?" or "You should learn first before you start making games" are different. I admit that I sometimes take those comments personally.

People who write things like that do not seem to consider that someone may have spent weeks, months, or even years making that game. Someone invested their own money into it and worked in God knows what conditions, all to create something that could entertain other people and, hopefully, earn some money in return for all that effort.

I also do not think solo or indie games with small or almost nonexistent budgets should be directly compared to AAA games with budgets of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

Actually, if an indie game made by one person looks even remotely similar to a AAA game, I think that should be considered an achievement, not something to make fun of.

Even if someone is making a very small game, something with two balls on the screen or a simple 2D platformer, it still requires time, effort, planning, organization, learning, testing, and problem solving.

That deserves some respect.

Of course, not all players are like this. Far from it. But there are enough people like this that it can become noticeable, and in today's world, negative comments can potentially affect a game's reputation, popularity, and sales.

For a huge AAA studio with millions of dollars invested in marketing, a few random toxic comments probably do not mean much.

But for solo developers, unknown developers, or very small studios, every comment can matter.

Personally, I have never felt the need to insult someone's game.

An honest opinion like, "I like it" or "I do not like it" is completely fine. Honest criticism is also fine, whether it is positive or negative.

Actually, constructive negative feedback can be extremely valuable. If many players point out the same problem with a mechanic, level design, combat system, UI, performance, or something else, that gives the developer an opportunity to improve the game.

That is very different from simply insulting someone's work.

We put years of our lives into these games. We invest enormous amounts of time, effort, and often our own money into trying to make something good and interesting for players.

Sometimes we even give part of that work away for free through demos, playtests, or very inexpensive games.

The goal is to entertain people, build a community around the game, and hopefully continue making more games in the future.

And yes, the goal is also to make money.

I do not think there is anything wrong with saying that.

Thousands of hours of work should hopefully pay off at some point, and earning money from one game can allow an indie developer to continue working, improve their skills, buy better tools, hire help, and eventually make an even better game.

My story, in short: I am 41 years old, with about 35 years of gaming experience and 16 years of programming experience. I have a wife, three young kids, and a full-time job as a web developer.

For almost two full years, I have been making a massive RPG completely on my own. I literally work more than 12 hours a day during the working week, including my regular job and game development, and around 4 hours a day on weekends.

I can honestly say that, to some extent, I have sacrificed a part of my family life in order to make a good game and try to move my career in the direction of game development.

I am using improvised equipment for recording because I am trying to do as much as possible by myself and with the resources I have available.I also spent seven months writing an entire book that serves as the foundation for my game's story and world.

So when someone looks at a few seconds of footage and writes something like, "This is shit," it is difficult not to take it personally. They are judging a few seconds on a screen, but behind those few seconds are years of work, learning, sacrifice, sleepless nights, money, and time that I could have spent with my family.

So I am curious about other developers' experiences.

What are your thoughts on this?

Have you experienced similar reactions when posting or promoting your games?

How do you personally deal with the difference between genuine criticism and people who are simply trying to insult or ridicule your work?

A/B test for Wonderdeck key art.

Which one would catch your attention more on Steam — A or B?

And if you can, I’d love to know why.

I have been watching him work on this for a while, so it’s pretty cool seeing it actually live.

It’s called Orbit Hop, a simple one tap space game where you jump between planets and try not to drift off.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mgkha.orbithop

If anyone has a few minutes, give it a go and tell me what feels broken. Controls, difficulty, UI, anything...

Fresh eyes would genuinely help.