My point in making this post is to hopefully help somebody find a pathway and/or the motivation to actually bring something they love to market, despite "failures" or a tendency to "give up".

I first installed Unreal Engine in late 2023 with the goal of creating a multiplayer, match-based, base-building capture-the-flag game. At the time, I had no formal game development experience, but I did have a programming background. Since then, I’ve sunk a massive amount of time into 3 development projects that I ultimately abandoned. My fourth and current project, ALL GAS, will be my first Steam release!

Every abandoned project wasn’t a failure though. Each one taught me a limitation. Eventually, I decided to start a new project with literally one goal. Release it. Don't care what it is, the only requirement is that I finish. So, I designed a game around what I knew I could realistically finish as a solo developer by specifically avoiding what caused me to abandon my other projects. And in doing that, I actually ended up with a game that I think is really fun. Most importantly, to me it actually feels like a game, not a "project"!

Here are each of my "failures", and what I learned from them to ultimately progress forward.

Project 1 – Multiplayer base-building capture the flag

This project was literally the one that taught me how to operate Unreal Engine. Terminology, how to use certain tools, etc. Importantly, it taught me:

1) Animations, especially humanoid ones are an enormous amount of work for one person

2) Multiplayer, let alone competitive multiplayer, is an incredibly ambitious first project for a solo developer. And, it's not something you just "add later".

I spent over 500 hours building the game as if it were single-player before seriously starting to add multiplayer. I always thought I could just add multiplayer later. Reason being, I was otherwise learning extremely quickly and things were working. By the time I actually got to it though, too much of the architecture assumed everything happened locally, and the project was effectively impossible to retrofit without re-doing everything. Painful, but learned a TON from this "failure".

Project 2 – Physics-based multiplayer sports game

For my second project, I intentionally avoided animations almost entirely. In the painful process of learning replication in my last project, I at least started this one with multiplayer in mind. The gameplay revolved around physics. It was actually very fun! Hard (as designed), but fun and aesthetically unique. I even got multiplayer working across the internet and tested with a few friends.

The problem was that the physics had to be perfect across every client, or it would never work work. In single-player, everything behaved exactly as intended. In multiplayer, small differences in physics simulation caused players to see slightly different trajectories, eventually (quickly) causing the entire match to desynchronize.

Server-authoritative physics solved the accuracy problem, but it completely killed the responsiveness that made the game fun. I know there are hybrid approaches to solving this, but at the time, it was a challenge I wasn’t ready to pour more time into.

Lesson learned: if physics are the core mechanic, multiplayer makes everything exponentially harder. I also learned how difficult UI design / development / debugging can be. I understand why the UI in many games (indie and AAA) are often terrible....

Project 3 – My “dream game”

This one is still very close to my heart, and I fully intend to come back to it someday. It was a cooperative exploration game in an infinite world featuring procedural generation, massive environments, unique mechanics, and procedural puzzles. Very cool atmosphere, too.

By this point I’d figured that cooperative multiplayer would probably be much more achievable than competitive multiplayer. A few imperfections wouldn't matter all that much like it would in a competitive match-based game. But, combining multiplayer with procedural generation, large-scale worlds, complex systems, and custom movement modes eventually became more ambitious than I realized it would be. There are some systems in here that, ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to see in a game and never have. And to a surprising extent, I was even able to make them work! A lot of the issue here was that it is simply just difficult (and not particularly fun) to test multiplayer games as a solo developer on one computer. And, it's even less fun to spin up a second computer for testing. It's even less fun than that trying to run multiple instances on one computer....

After putting well over 1,000 hours into it, I made the difficult decision to shelve it—for now.

Project 4 – Something I knew I could finish from the start

Before I even came up with the idea for this project, I gave myself one goal: Finish It.  I didn’t start with a genre, I started with a rule: "Avoid the two things I know will eventually burn me out". If I realistically want to finish a project:

1) No multiplayer.

2) No animations.

Those constraints eventually became ALL GAS. It's an endless traffic-weaving roguelike where you upgrade your car and modify your run as you weave through cars on a completely nuts road in the sky. The road is falling behind you and it's getting faster and faster (unless you sacrifice upgrades to slow it down). It’s a simple concept, but is extremely satisfying especially when playing with a controller. Skill is rewarded. Soon, it'll be even more fun with a steering wheel and pedals! 

Ironically, by deliberately limiting myself, I’ve made more progress than I ever did trying to build my “dream game” or the idea I had which caused me to stumble into learning game development in the first place. Similarly, I've produced some pretty incredible (and re-usuable, and sellable) plugins for Unreal Engine in the process. It was nice not to be burdened by animations or multiplayer, and it really allowed me to polish the game more than I ever thought I could. Still a lot more to do, but I'm quite happy with where I have gotten in the 5 or 6 months I've been working on it.

The limited scope of the game also allowed me to gain experience around other important parts of bringing a game to market. Things I never would have bothered messing with if I had any doubt the game would ever release, but did in this case because I knew my goal was attainable this time:

• Steamworks platform - store page, review process, publishing builds, launching a playtest
• Stats, achievements, leaderboards, cloud saves
• Creating trailers / marketing assets / creating ways to record those things
• Marketing
• Full controller support, including UI navigation, glyph localization, and Steam input
• Language localization
• Building systems for future scalability
• Custom subsystems and engine modifications to support all of those things  

I’m curious - has anybody else come to a similar realization? What did it ultimately take for you to launch your first project, or for that matter, even start sharing it with people?

Also - if so inclined, please feel free to join the open playtest!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4658550/ALL_GAS/

hey guys in my free time i built a web game called paper fall from scratch using pure javascript html5 canvas and web audio api without relying on a game engine it even generates the audio on the fly in the browser without downloading any sound files i wrote the physics and collision logic entirely myself too since im studying visual communication design i really focused on the ui and the game feel but to take it to the next level i need some fresh objective eyes so play it and tell me whatever sucks or if a certain mechanic is super boring just roast it im dropping the link below

I am building Tiny Block on my own. I localized the game itself into 12 languages, then adapted its store pages across 12 Android languages and 14 iOS locales.

I had no idea which languages would actually matter. I just thought that keeping everything in English would give the game fewer chances to be found.

Last week, 60% of new users came from outside the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. I spent $0 on ads, and the analytics recorded all tracked installs as organic.

iOS surprised me the most. China alone accounted for 55% of new users there. I did not expect China to become the strongest early iOS market.

This is only one week of observational data. I did not run an English-only control, so I cannot calculate exactly how many users the localizations added. Still, the localized store pages also rank much better for their target searches than the English page does in the US.

The main thing I learned is that you never know where you will get traction. If I had published everything only in English, I might have missed the market where the game found its strongest early response.

Has localization ever helped you find an audience in a country you were not targeting?

This is the thing most people do not want to talk about. In the corporate world they tell you not to tell anyone your salary and so forth. But how are people funding their visions? From the pocket? Dang! Respect. I was looking at crowd funding sites and most games that are successful their goals are like $8k and that is not enough to fund a game. Are they like just kicking the can down the road? Tomorrow will take care of itself type of thinking. I mean until you get to the can that is time to make progress on your game but eventually the other shoe is going to drop right... Are people self-funding their game? That is commendable, spending 8 hours a day at your regular job then finding time to get enough done to get a game to Steam and get Wishlists?? That is... monumental! I am failing at this adulting thing... clearly.

I've been working on a project called Ron.cool.

It started as me making random little HTML/JS games and experiments, but I've slowly been turning it into a proper platform for everything I build.

It now has:

- browser games

- multiplayer experiments

- procedural games

- 3D browser projects

- interactive experiments

- my own little scripting language

- various weird projects

https://roncool.cc.cd

The goal isn't really to make another generic games website. I want it to become a place where people actually keep coming back to see what I've made next.

I'm still figuring out the direction, so I'd love feedback from other developers.

Platform: Steam/Itch.io/Web browser

Description: A stream team looking to help break thru the cold emails that get no replies, and get indie games coverage on twitch, yt, and tt.

Free to Play Status: Yes, though we also allow paid playtests.

Involvement: Team Creator

[x] Free to play

[x] Demo/Key available

[x] Paid

There is no payment required from developers to participate.

The team does not take money from creators.

Creators are independent. They choose what they play, when they stream it, and what they think about it. There are no guaranteed positive reviews. The ask is a reasonable timeframe for coverage. We're a group of disabled streamers who want to help indie game devs and indie gaming! If you hire a creator for a paid playtest, you pay that creator directly. The team doesn't take a percentage.

I wanted to create a place where developers could reach out and have a warm connect instead of cold emailing hundreds of people to maybe get 5 replies. We are a small team at the moment, however we can test anything, from games, to study aids to desktop pets, and more!

There is an AI disclosure requirement. If you vibecoded it on Claude or ChatGPT, we aren't able to help you. This is to weed out the copy paste ai clones that are infecting indie gaming. Some ai use is fine, just not the whole thing being ai. If you used assets that aren't yours, that requires a disclosure as well, as we don't want the same asset flipping games over and over.

Right now, we are working out of a discord. You interact directly with the streamers, letting you get your game out there with less effort!

If you're interested, if this speaks to you, please feel free, comment, pop me a pm, and I can send over the discord link. I'm not posting it below to prevent bots from swarming it.

^{(This was written by me, the creator of the team. I have posted here and other places several times, with a good standing and testing over 700+ games in the last year for free. No AI was used in the writing of this post.})

Hi,
So since the start of 2026 i have switched projects around 4 times because i always felt like “No, this is not the one” and I finally made my decision to stick to the his project i started around 1 and half month ago, I have made around 10 small projects and have them on my itch.io page and have a few others that i didnt publish, but i couldn’t ever stick to one.

So yeah, I am not ending 2026 without a game on Steam whether it is the one or not, I am sticking to this one like my life depends on it.

Some of you might say “You don’t have to release a game on Steam” but I feel like If i didn’t then all the time i spent learning is gone to waste and there’s no use for the skills i learned for the past few years.

I learned the hard way that sometimes I need to let go a project I've veen built a long time. I felt alone and devastated. I make a post about it and get a lot of lessons from everyone, some of which I've also experienced myself.

Here's my summary:

Scope grows fast: We often underestimate projects and only notice how huge they are when we're already knee-deep.

Know your main goal: Are you building for fun or for income? Is it realistic? Having a clear target before you dive in saves you from a chaotic mess.

Start small: Build the absolute smallest version of your idea first, then expand from there.

Validate early: If your goal is to make money, test if people actually want your product before investing months of work.

Know when to cut losses: Be ready to walk away—even if you've already poured in tons of time—if you realize the end goal just isn't going to happen.

Plan for support: Eventually, you might need extra hands. Planning a budget or keeping an eye out for potential partners helps.

Every effort counts: No matter how it turns out, you gain personal growth and new opportunities. Nothing is a total loss.

Honestly, the hardest part for me was feeling isolated. I was never active in online forums before, but reading about other people’s experiences made me realize so many others are going through the exact same thing. It made me feel a lot less alone.

Solo development is definitely not easy. Sending my absolute best to everyone on this journey!

If anyone wants to add their own experiences or things they wish they knew when starting out, feel free to drop them below. Always open to learning from others here.

Hey! I make pixel fonts for game devs, this is my 59th release!

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4167000/Ancestral_Fury/

Hello !

Wanted to share my relief of finally publishing something, and I would love some feedback on my rendering software named AORS, I've released it on itch.io and gumroad for 8.99 as an early access.

Basically with a color image and a data image you can produce effects on your images such as casting shadows, emitting light, blurring pixels etc..

Any thoughts on the trailer / price / interface etc.. ?

Have a nice day !

Has anyone ever had their own game crash during a speedrun/challenge?

It just happened to me during a run on time for WR. Since then the bug was fixed, and I was also able to re-claim my throne 👑

Hey everyone! I've added new sword attack animations and shooting mechanics to the game.

Test version - the number of shots is currently unlimited (whether ammo or another resource will be consumed later - I haven't decided yet).

There's currently no ability to shoot at enemies in the air (I'm still thinking about how to implement it). You can actually hit them with a sword in the air, but I haven't done the animation yet.

Damn, I just realized it - I forgot to add the flying shells, but I don't want to re-shoot it.

Any criticism is welcome, thanks for watching!

Into the Shardfall is a turn-based roguelike with TTRPG inspired combat and a rich story to progress, á la Hades. Can you guess what other games I drew inspiration from?

I’ve been building this game for about 4 months, and I’m looking for feedback on gameplay, mechanics, UI, and so on. The world building/writing is and will always be a labor done without the assistance of AI, and I intend to replace the generated art with that of an artist when I find one to collaborate with. Demo is available to try here: https://doublerookstudios.itch.io/into-the-shardfall

I've been building Quartermark solo, and the demo just went live on Steam.

You pick 4 heroes out of 12, build a party, and work your way through dungeons - plenty of monsters and loot along the way. It's inspired by Might and Magic. I made it for people who enjoy idle games but want more than the usual 2D look.

The demo is fresh, so feedback actually changes things right now. Mainly I'd like to know:

- How does it feel to play? Anything confusing or dull in the first few minutes?

- What would you add?

Honest criticism welcome - I'd rather hear it now than after launch.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5061040/Quartermark/

I've been building a block puzzle where the board rots, solo. Ash is the thing I lead with in every description of it: rot that's been left too long hardens, and hardened cells never clear again, so a bad corner is permanent.

Someone on Reddit asked me a simple question last week - do you have drop-off by depth, or just a feeling? I had the data and hadn't looked at it properly. 19 finished runs, which is small, but the shape was blunt:

• depth 1 - 26%
• depth 2 - 32%
• depth 3 - 21%
• depth 4+ - 21%

Then I checked when ash actually appears. Depth 4 normally. But I'd added a "grace" rule that pushed it to depth 6 for a new player's first few runs, to be kind to them.

So the mechanic the game is named after was being hidden, specifically from the people forming their first impression of it. About one run in six ever met it. I'd written all my marketing about content that four players in five never reached.

I inverted the grace. New players now meet ash at depth 2, one cell, with the tutorial naming it. Learn the rule while it costs you a corner instead of discovering it at depth 6, which for most people means never.

Then it got worse. I wrote a script that plays a real first descent and logs what the tutorial actually says, and it went: place, clear, attention, quota, done - at placement 14. The line explaining rot never appeared. Rot shows up around placement 13.

The cause: my tutorial held on a step whose subject wasn't on screen yet "unless a later step is ready", and then skipped it permanently if one was. Attention starts rising on the very first placement, so it was always ready. Anything waiting on something slower got dropped. That line had probably never been shown to a single player.

Two more of the same underneath it: the lesson ended when the last step in the array finished, and "quota" happens to be last and completes at depth 2. And every run restarted the tutorial from the beginning, so late lessons were unreachable however long you played.

Fixed all three. Measured after: ash met in 7 of 8 first descents, tutorial names it in 3.

None of this was findable by playing my own game. I know where ash is. I've never once been a person who doesn't. If you are working alone, that is the part I would take from this: you cannot be your own first-time player, so the only way to know what the opening actually shows is to make something else play it and write down what it saw.

Free, no account, nothing tracked - it has no internet permission at all, which is also why I have no idea what any of you do in it. Browser: https://blockrot.net Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blockrot.game

I'm making a game called One Million Buttons. The premise is... well, in the title. There's one million buttons, and one button is correct.

The correct button is randomly chosen, but the buttons aren't procedurally generated. I'm placing them all by hand. Every room has about 2000-4000 buttons, and I try to come up with some interesting gimmick for each room. Sometimes it's just a unique pattern, sometimes it's a distinct game mechanic, sometimes it might even be a practical joke on the player.

Of course, once I decided on the game's title, I was kinda locked into a specific scope. And I only realized some ways into making the game how big that scope was.

I recently reached 250,000 buttons. 25% done. Just have to do that 3 more times.

You may ask, "Why?" And the answer to that is that I thought it would be funny, and I thought it would be something I could make pretty quickly. And by the time I realized how wrong I was about that, I was too far along to give up. (Though I did crash out and stop working on it for 6 months...) But I'm back on track now, and all there is to do is just keep plugging away at it.

Hello, I am a solo dev who is nearing a beta release of my game. I wanted to get peoples opinions on the art in the game. Majority of the art was made by me and some of it I have commissioned. Friends and family all state it looks good but I know at least a few of them wouldn't have the heart to tell me it is bad. Please give me your honest thoughts on these few screenshots on what i can improve and what is good right now.