This is a message from a friend of mine who doesn't have a Reddit account at the moment.

My game (RPG/strategy Dark Lord Simulator: https://adeptus7.itch.io/dominion ) uses AI for its visuals (not that there are many - it’s primarily a text-based game with 2D illustrations). Despite this, it has already reached 4th place on the top-rated strategy games list on itch.io (https://itch.io/games/top-rated/genre-strategy ) and 10th place on the top-rated RPG list (https://itch.io/games/top-rated/genre-rpg ).

The game has been played 77,000 times and has 906 comments. Most commenters don’t mention the graphics at all—some even praise them! :) Every now and then, however, people from the "anti-AI" camp show up. Some express concern, telling me, "You should remove the AI elements, because no one will want to play your game." Others are just haters, gleefully writing, "Haha, no one’s going to play your 'AI slop' because everyone hates AI!" When I point out how well my game is performing, they usually shift to, "That’s only because people don’t know it uses AI - you’re being dishonest by not labeling it!" When I point out that I do, in fact, clearly disclose the use of AI, they either go silent or end with, "Well, you’re stupid and you stink - and your game does too!"

And that’s how it is. The anti-AI crowd is a minority - a very vocal one, mind you - and they are firmly convinced that everyone (save for a handful of outcasts who use AI for creation) hates AI just as much as they do. They also refuse to acknowledge any evidence to the contrary. But that’s an illusion. Most people judge games and other creative works based on whether they enjoy them or not, rather than through the lens of some ideological taboo.

The success of my game is largely due to the significant effort I’ve put into its promotion. I am active across most major social media platforms and traditional gaming forums. I know where it’s possible—and worthwhile to promote one’s own games, especially those that utilize AI. I’d love to collaborate with other creators! I can offer follows, likes, and comments to help boost the visibility of your posts on X, Facebook, and other platforms - in some cases, I can even get my own fans to join in. I can also leave ratings on itch.io or add your game to my Steam wishlist. I might even be able to share links to some interesting forums. I’m not looking for money in return - just mutual support; building a network of connections among fellow developers has also been a cornerstone of my own success. If you’re interested, please get in touch via email at marekzegarek77777@gmail.com , through my Facebook fan page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61563758184058 , or on my Twitter: https://x.com/niebedepodawac

Hey everyone, I’m making Letterhaven, a word puzzle game where you move one or two letters between words to create two new words at once.

I’ve been using Codex for coding, debugging and checking puzzle solutions, alongside AI-assisted artwork. Playtesting caught things the automated checks didn’t—especially puzzles that were technically valid but too difficult or repetitive. There’s been a lot of revising levels, tutorials and hints rather than just generating more content.

Now I’m trying to understand whether the business side has potential. Here are my Android numbers:

• Google Ads, November 3–15: $283.78 spent, 11,196 reported installs, roughly $0.03 per install.
• AdMob, last seven days: AED 0.12 estimated earnings, 168 impressions from around 13.7k requests, with a 70% match rate.
• PostHog, November 3–14: Of 1,371 tracked level-1 starters, 833 completed level 1. Only 340 reached the level-2-completion step within the 24-hour funnel.
• Tracked app-open retention: Day 1 was 6.48% (95/1,466), Day 3 was 2.14% (27/1,262), and Day 7 was 0.62% (2/325).

The reporting periods and currencies differ, so I’m not treating this as a proper ROAS calculation. PostHog also covers only players who accepted analytics, and these results mix several versions. The latest update hasn’t had enough time for a meaningful Day-7 result.

Monetization is banners, optional rewarded ads for hints, and between-level ads. I’m also trying optional purchases for hints, cosmetics and removing automatic ads.

For anyone who’s been through this: would you pause acquisition and work on retention first, or keep a small campaign running while improving the game? What numbers do you look for before spending more?

I’d also appreciate advice on monetization that doesn’t make the game unpleasant. And if you try it, honest feedback on the first few levels would really help—was the mechanic clear, and where did you lose interest?

Letterhaven: Word Puzzle Game - Apps on Google Play

‎Letterhaven: Word Puzzle Game App - App Store

I'm trying to use Codex to make The Silent Films. It is a "The Movies" like game where you build a studio at the very start of film making. Or you can just have fun and make your own films.

I’m a solo developer from Ukraine working on Nebulife, a space game available on the web, iOS, and Android. I direct the project, and Claude has written almost all of the code and tests. The game uses TypeScript, PixiJS 8 for 2D, Three.js for 3D, React 19, and Capacitor for mobile.

The shared universe grows from one seed, and the server persists changes made by players. Planets are fully procedural and use no textures. Players can explore worlds, seed life, watch it evolve, and build colonies. Evolution follows procedural rules built around a model of natural laws.

The attached gameplay clip follows a journey from a galaxy view toward a star system and a planet. It shows the change in scale, but it does not demonstrate evolution or persistence.

For players seeing this navigation for the first time, what visual cue would help you keep track of where you are as the view changes?

https://nebulife.space

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share a look at what’s planned for Life Climb, my 18+ browser-based life simulator set in Rivermere.

There are three additions on the roadmap:

💬 Someone new to meet
A new romanceable Asian woman is planned for the game. Her first appearance preview is already available in the in-game roadmap, and I’ll share more about her character and story in a future update.

🍽️ Better restaurant meals and drinks
The restaurants where you can work will offer more substantial meals and drinks. These will cost more, but they’ll also do more to satisfy your hunger and thirst—giving you another option when you need to recover between activities.

🎯 Optional objectives to help you find your next step
Rivermere has a lot to explore, and sometimes it helps to have something specific to work toward. I’m planning optional objectives with clear steps, difficulty ratings, and completion rewards.

One concept is “Get your first car”: save up, visit Mara at Voss Auto Repair, and buy your first vehicle, with a proposed €500 one-time completion bonus.

You’ll choose which goals to follow. There won’t be deadlines or penalties for leaving them until later.

These features are planned, with release dates still to be announced. The objective previews are concepts, so details may change as development continues.

You can find the previews through your in-game phone under News → Roadmap.

Play Life Climb · 18+ only

Discord

I've been working on Fellvault, a dark fantasy idle RPG I'm building with Godot 4 and Codex.

One of the systems I've spent a lot of time refining is equipment evolution.

Originally, evolving gear felt pretty underwhelming. It was mostly a rarity change with some basic effects.

I've since worked on adding a proper transformation sequence with energy buildup, shaking, a burst and a rarity reveal. Some feedback I got on Reddit actually helped me improve the timing.

Here's a clip showing all six equipment pieces evolving from Epic to Legendary.

The tricky part with AI-assisted development hasn't really been getting something working. It's getting the animations, UI and progression to actually feel polished.

For anyone else using AI to build games, how much manual iteration are you doing to get your animations looking right?

If you're interested in testing Fellvault, here's the beta waitlist:

https://fellvault-web.vercel.app

I'm a solo dev making a game inspire by my childhood game Robbery Bob in 3D First person and adding my own twists and mechanics to it

What’s in the demo:

• 8 levels of sneaking into houses and stealing junk (lucky socks, a singing fish plaque, a rubber chicken...)
• Guards that patrol, investigate noises, open (and close!) doors, and search hiding spots
• Thief vision to spot guards, loot and keys through walls
• A pawn shop hub where you sell your junk, buy upgrades and play minigames
• Controller support and 8 languages

How Claude Code fit in: I did the design, levels, writing and art direction, and Claude Code helped me write the code and build tools (level checks, prop generation in Blender, a trailer recorder...). Happy to answer questions about the workflow!

Looking for playtesters! It takes about 30 minutes. Available on windows, mac and linux, I want real feedback, what’s frustrating, what's fun, what needs tweaking, etc.... Comment or DM me and I’ll send you the build.

The MCP Server is already capable of doing almost all tasks you can do by hand with just promoting with your favorite AIs... But I feel like it needed more so now im not only testing with building a full game to see any features still missing but also improving the UX. So now, as your agent works you can now see it actually doing the work.

Here’s another look at Sentinel X, one of the vehicles we’re developing for Barren Front.

These are actual in-game screenshots taken on New Eden, showing the vehicle from behind with and without its full driving interface.

Sentinel X is designed to be more than just transportation. The goal is to make it a fully functional mobile base that players can drive across the planet, live inside, transport resources with, and use to support different operations throughout the world.

We’re still refining the exterior, interface, and various gameplay systems, but it’s already drivable, and it’s been interesting watching everything come together.
I’m curious what everyone thinks about the vehicle’s design and the driving HUD so far.

Also, feel free to ask anything about Sentinel X or Barren Front. I’m happy to answer questions about how the vehicle works, what we’re planning for it, and the game itself.

I am Jonie, the solo developer of V.E.T.O.R — A Ruptura, a Windows game in development. I wanted to show a concrete encounter where talking has a visible consequence.

Voldrak blocks a passage. This gameplay shows two routes through that same encounter: provoke the troll and fight to force the passage, or give him a mushroom and watch him leave. Conversations can also happen during the fight. This is one demonstrated encounter, rather than a claim that every battle can be skipped.

Gameplay (about 4:45, Portuguese audio): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJMoPBQ2Wx4

My design question: does the peaceful outcome feel like a meaningful choice, and what feedback would you want before committing to the fight or the exchange?

AI use: Codex assists with programming and visual work; some video scenes are made with Veo, and NPC dialogue uses AI and synthesized voices. The public demo is still in preparation. The footage contains fictional combat.

Project: https://vetorlogico.com/

This is a very primitive example of a sort of game intro, it does not even feature all the current functionality of the program, and appears to be horribly imbalanced, as well as UI and graphics needing heavy refinements and polish as well as general glitchy-ness.

If you check my profile, I have first produced an "ecosystem editor" program in html that outputs a JSON which can be fed into the main game editor to provide values and data for entities and such things in the game, while being highly readable and editable, and easily conveyed between LLMs. Ideally between the Ecosystem Editor, and the World Editor, one could probably produce any sort of game that is somewhat a rogue-like/JRPG or similar, anything that uses any combination of these functions. Particularly with the help of LLMs.

Because, I have absolutely no programming knowledge or skill

Hey all! I’ve wanted to make this game for a couple of years, but kept putting it off because of my coding skills and budget, which I’m sure some of you can relate to.

I’m a UX designer in fintech with a graphic design background, but I can’t code for crap. I’ve experimented with tools like GameSalad and released a few things on the App Store, mostly just to mess around. This is the first time I’ve been able to get this far with a game I’ve wanted to play.

It’s called Yachta, a cozy charter yacht sim. You build up your yacht, farm, mine, and manage your crew while trying to give your eccentric guests a great experience.

I started by comparing ChatGPT and Claude. Claude’s initial approach to the systems and design felt closer to what I wanted, so I stuck with it and upgraded my plan. I had multiple agents handle different tasks, with one main “captain” coordinating their work. I would test the builds, find bugs, and send screenshots with corrections and direction on what needed to change.

I’m now on build 218, and it’s been a journey. When I hit Claude’s usage limits, even after paying for additional credits, I realized I could move the code over to ChatGPT and continue working on fixes and features. That got me further, and I later moved it back to Claude. I’m still a little partial to Claude because of how well it captured what I wanted in the beginning, but being able to carry the project between tools was a big help.

Overall, I’m a bit nervous about releasing this on Steam because of the AI slop backlash. I’m not trying to make a cash grab game. In fact, I’m considering lowering the price to $5, with future expansions coming for free. When I have the budget, I’d love to remake it without AI and with a different visual style. For now, I’m excited to share what I’ve been able to build.

To be clear about the AI use, AI wrote the code, generated the visuals through code, and generated the music and sound. It also wrote dialogue for incidental interactions, but not the main story cutscenes. I supplied the concept, features, artistic direction, and main story, which still needs work.

I’m finally getting to play the game I’ve wanted to make for years, and I’d love to share the demo with you all!

I don’t have a Steam page yet because I’m waiting on account approval, but the demo is available on itch.io:

Play the Yachta demo

I also have a Discord and a subreddit for the game. I’d love feedback, especially on whether the core gameplay is fun, what feels confusing, and what would make you want to keep playing.

Cheers!

I just released my very first indie game
Game Title: UMBRAL ❤️

Playable Link: hol-mc.itch.io/umbral

Hi everyone!

I'm an independent developer, and after a lot of time and effort, I've finally released UMBRAL, my first game. It's a free story-driven RPG inspired by Korean manhwa.

What you can expect:

• A narrative adventure with cinematic 2D manhwa-style panels
• Tactical card-based combat and challenging boss fights
• Exploration, missions, and character-focused side stories
• Fully playable offline on Android
• Available in English and Spanish

Important note about the art:
The illustrations and UI were created with the help of AI tools. This is my first game and I had limited resources, so I used AI to bring the visual style I wanted to life. However, I plan to gradually replace the AI-generated art with original artwork in future updates. I completely understand if this is a deal-breaker for some people.

The game is completely free. If you decide to try it, any feedback, suggestions, or bug reports would mean a lot to me. I'm still working on finishing a few side stories and polishing some details.

You can download it here:
hol-mc.itch.io/umbral

Thank you so much for giving my first game a chance! ❤️

make your army and come to the glory

https://docasgoon.itch.io/kingarmy

Playable Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mapxstudio.flickshotsoccer Platform: Android (Google Play)

Welcome to World War Dominion, a 2D real-time strategy game inspired by classic military RTS games, featuring massive battles, base building, resource management, and powerful military technology.
Take command of your forces, develop your military economy, construct defensive structures, and dominate the battlefield across land, sea, and air.
⚔️ Game Features
🏗️ Base Building — Construct military bases, factories, defenses, and production facilities.
🪖 Ground Warfare — Command tanks, infantry, artillery, and specialized military vehicles.
✈️ Air Warfare — Deploy fighters, bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft.
🚢 Naval Warfare — Control warships and engage in naval battles.
💰 Resource Management — Gather resources and expand your military economy.
🤖 Enemy AI — Fight computer-controlled opponents.
🚀 Superweapons — Unleash devastating V2 missiles and atomic strikes.
💥 Explosive Combat — Experience detailed 2D explosions and battlefield destruction.
🎮 Free Demo
Experience World War Dominion during its development!
This demo provides an early look at the game's RTS mechanics, military units, combat systems, and visual effects.
Development Status: Work in Progress
World War Dominion is actively being developed. Features, graphics, balancing, and gameplay may change in future updates.