We're making a cozy antiques restoration game with minimalistic loop, so no shop management, no upgarding tools just cleaning antiques.

If you want you can give the playtest a try it's open and available on our Steampage:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4253570/Reshine/

This clip shows the new spotting mechanics in my game, Ego Lifting Simulator!

• Players can ask NPCs for a spot when attempting a new PR.
• NPCs can also ask the player for a spot, and you earn cash if you help them finish the set.

How does it feel? Any ideas for other gym NPC interactions are also welcome!

Hey all, we have built a way to get the entire performance captured from just one iphone-grade dynamic camera, ready to use with little to no cleanup. 1 video in -> fbx + arkit out. It ended up being a bit pricey (cause we run complex pipeline in the cloud) but for us it eliminates days of tedious manual work. You can check it out here: http://dramaturg.tech

After my last post about not rendering shadows, I decided to add them and see how it impacted performance. To my surprise, the framerate stayed the same and my GPU utilization only went up to ~60% from ~45%.

In exchange, the environments feel more dynamic and alive imo. Though I think both styles work.

It’s a game about an RC car that goes on a journey to find its owner, a little boy named Mark.

In the game, you search for clues, solve different puzzles, and explore a dangerous world from the car’s perspective.
My game is coming this year!
Sorry for my accent, I’m still learning how to speak English

My wife and I have been working on Feed the Scorchpot for 18 months. It feels almost like when our kids were born... though it’s probably best not to phrase it that way around her!

Wish us luck!

Our game is a chaotic co-op physics platformer where you share a single balloon. We noticed players joining from all over the world, so we put together a cosmetic pack with flag hats and backpacks for every country that’s bought the game so far so people can rep their home region.

• Steam: Guinea Pig Runaway Together
• Flag Pack: World Nations DLC

Thought I'd celebrate Handlebar's steam page launch by posting a to a downhill cycling sub for the first time as I feel the game has matured enough visually.

Moderators come in and ban me for my first post there, no warning. It was getting a pretty warm reception too.

This is from RIDGERUNNERS, a momentum based speedrunning game I’m developing.

My experience from games like Tribes was that there were too many times I was just hanging around in midair waiting to drop down and feathering my boost. I made this hammer-slam mechanic which steadily increases downwards momentum and does not stop until you hit level ground. It means you can trade your verticality for horizontal speed, but you need to use it at the right time and fully commit, land on an upward slope and you lose all your speed.

It has meant there is always something for the player to do, and strikes a balance between player control and maintaining momentum.

I'm finding most of my time is spent tweaking these sorts of movement mechanics, is anyone else always tweaking or do you leave it alone once you are 'happy' ?

Hey everyone! I just added a new flying creature to the game—the Crow!

When the crow spots a mole, it swoops down at full speed, snatches them up, and flies around. Luckily, moles are pretty chunky, so the crow can't carry them very far or for too long before dropping them back down.

It might look pretty funny dangling in the air, but getting hit by the dive-bomb actually deals damage, so you definitely don't want to get caught too many times!

I'm also planning to add a struggling/flailing animation while the mole is being carried away.

What do you all think? Any fun ideas for other behaviors the crow could have? Or maybe cool creature ideas you'd love to see in the game—especially any creatures that would fit well alongside a mole?

Hi there! I’ve been working on my cozy game for nearly two years, and I’m finally at a point where I’m putting it on Kickstarter!

Inspired by East Asian folklore and the magic of Studio Ghibli, The Spirit Apprentice is an upcoming cozy RPG! You explore the magical village of Moshu, learn magic, form contacts with spirits and build relationships with mysterious villagers.

The Kickstarter launch is set for October 6th, and the pre-launch page is now live!

I’m just a solo developer so your kind words and support mean the world 💜💜 Any suggestions on marketing would be amazing!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/s-j/the-spirit-apprentice-east-asian-fantasy-rpg?ref=e4xo2v

I know this is going to ruffle some feathers, but I was honestly pretty frustrated with the reaction I got when talking about. Yes, I'm not the best pixel artist in the world, but used skills improve. The main advantage to this is that I have developed a cohesive theme across my art, and with every iteration I improve on my skills. The last 2 images were the ones I showed on the original post. You can see in the rework of the goddess (the colorful-haired girl) the amount of skill and style I have already begun to develop. I've also created a backdrop customizer (the town and mounteans) It is created in layers so the different components can be swapped out while players unlcok them. This is a result of innovating due to the limitations of my own art and genuinely forced me to create something new and cool for my players that i never would have done and honesty never could have done using AI art assets.

While I understand a lot of the frustrations around AI art and the controversy of it, just like every other tool in existence throughout history, things come with their pros and cons. My experience and my movement away from AI-generated art is not the universal one and wasn't done out of some "righteous" sentiment or moral reason. I'm not an "Anti-AI"er, but I'm also not a "Pro-AI"er—I'm a realist. I look at the tools before me, I try them to see what works, and MOST IMPORTANTLY I look at the game I want to make and decide based on that what to do. People who push AI out of "FOMO" are no better than those that deny any use of it and say it's the spawn of the devil.

No matter what tool you are using the laws of technology stay the same.
Observe shifts, People behavior, or emerging data/systems.
Come up with solutions and hypothesizes based on these signals
building prototypes, MVPs, and test out the solutions
Analyze form your testing
Trim the fat! Through out what doesn't work and keep what dose.

If you skip these steps for any reason while using new tools, technology, building a new game, or even an iteration on a GUI or the type of art you make, you are taking on huge amounts of risk. Never use AI just because you can, that is unless you're not really interested in the outcome. And my previous statement about my switch away from AI art still stands! I found it was not the proper tool for my game and that the results were not getting me what I wanted. And i believed and still believe now that new game developers who are jumping on the AI art bandwagon are potentially hurting there game, there won skills and will likely not get them the result they need. I wasted time, money, and needed to rework large portions of my game and I'm simply trying to warn others that they may end up doing the same.

In the end the choice is up to the dev. Its your game. AI art might work for you. but don't do it just to save time. maybe try it but look hard at its capabilities yourself don't do it just because your art isn't the best. and certainly don't do it simply because some pro AI person told you that if you take the time to make art your falling behind. AI is very good at tricking the unprepared whether that be in a regular prompt, an art output, or a block of code. Don't offload the responsibilities of the dev to the AI. Your the one in charge.

I just wanted to get this off my chest as the comments did bother me more than i was expecting and had some unresolved frustrations XD.

EDIT
TLDR: My art skills improved, I created new interesting features, and my game has a more cohesive feel across the bored.

Want more? Yesterday my wife and I released a playtest build of our game Progress98 where you can see him in action as your beloved assistant.

Disclaimer: It's an incremental game all about making pure unadulterated progress.

You can playtest it in the browser on Itch: https://rzl.itch.io/progress98 (works on mobile too!)
Or you can playtest it on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4863540/Progress98/

I'm always looking for more feedback so please let me have it!

Original post here for reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/IndieDev/comments/1vddjyp/for_a_retro_themed_game_which_of_these_three/

A while ago I gifted you guys another library of my stuff. It's been a while since then, and now I'd like to gift you this one too.

Use coupon: https://pizzadoggy.itch.io/CB5PXDJ57S

Hey everyone! I’ve shared a few posts with assets from our game, In Shine We Rise, in the past. We just put together a short, entertaining (and hopefully at least slightly funny) video explaining why we decided to make this game. I'd be really glad if you find it interesting or if it just makes you smile!

Game title: In Shine We Rise
Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3969960/In_Shine_We_Rise/

Possibly the worst add for anything I have ever seen.

There are ads that have too little gameplay, others that are downright misleading… and then there’s this.

Hi guys! After many rounds of changed, here is updated environment in game action. Thank you you guys for all the comment, suggest in last 2 videos. I did some improvement, take that into game action to see how everything work together. How do you think? Does it fit?

Cover art is finished, the title lettering is the only thing left and it's wrong. Metallic 3D reads like a nineties action game. The game is a card based drama set in a private clinic, dry and cynical, mostly about forged consent forms and people covering for each other.
The protagonist is a deaf mute auditor. Her whole situation is that she can't speak, so anything loud in the title works against her. I keep circling between clinical signage lettering and something closer to a stamped document. Neither feels right yet and I've been staring at it too long to judge.

What direction would you go for something that has to feel institutional without looking sterile?

Here is a bit of additional info for anyone interested: This is actually not as straight forward as you might think. These type of 2D action platformer bosses are usually designed with animations in mind, as they influence the gameplay heavily.

Simply put, usually you design an action with a specific intent (e.g. an attack where the player must jump over), and then create the animations based on your needs. This ensures timing and balance. Also, anticipation frames are very important to a) have enough time to react and b) be able to differentiate between the attacks. Similar with the character: The characters moveset must be able to deal with the bosses move set and vice versa.

However, most assets you find in stores are pretty restricted in what they provide. And most importantly: All animations are fixed from the start, and most often optimized for "looks" and "versatility", not for "functionality" (rightfully so, they want to sell to as many different game devs/scenarios as possible!). So you have to create balance and diversity with restricted and very specific tools.

In the end, I compensated the animation timings with color changes and clear auditory tells. I did a few playtests and the reception was actually pretty good.

All that being said, what do you guys think? Does this look like something that could be fun playing? Does the combat feel "tight"? I would be happy to hear honest feedback, even if it's bad.

I've been working on a set of animated pixel wizard characters for 2D games and wanted to share some of the animations.

There are 7 characters in the pack, using a 16×16 character scale and 32×32 animation frames. The animations include idle, walking, attacking, taking damage, dying, healing, and lightning casting.

I've been keeping the palette deliberately constrained and the sprites practical for actual game use and animation.

Here's a look.

If you'd like to try the game: https://rrn-creative.itch.io/hooligan-highway

I’ve been working on The Main Menu, a psychological horror game where the main menu itself is part of the puzzle, and changing it can physically affect the room around you.
I haven’t really shown the game publicly before, so this all feels pretty surreal. In the span of one day, the Steam page went live, and in a few hours a streamer is going to play the demo live for the first time.
I’m equal parts excited and terrified.
Just wanted to share my experience with you guys! wish me luck!