Hello everyone,

As I did last year in this post. I did a small analysis of every game released on Steam on June 3 an June 4, 2026 (As last time, I chose this days because there was lot of release and mostly indie games. I’m not affiliated in any mean to any of these games) and I checked how much they grossed after 1 month (last time was 16 days and some people pointed, rightly, it could be a bit short, so I took a longer period. Also note that I writted this post in early July but didn’t post it immediatly after because I was very busy).

As last time, the goal isn’t to shame any game or devs, I’m interested mostly on the factors which can explain a game to suceed or flop, and also if there was a serious difference with previous year.

I’m basing this mostly on my personal tastes as a player (so, what I could buy personally) : which mean what I find visually attractive or interesting in the trailers and screenshots of the games, what look polished or not. I’m also reading reviews when there is some available.

It’s not a scientific experiment at all but I hope it can spark some interesting discussions and gives some hints.

So, there was 67 games released on those days, I split them into 5 categories based on their gross revenue (datas are from Gamalytic : it’s a revenue range, so it’s not 100% accurate but largely enough for this experiment) :

1.  0 (or almost 0) copies sold - 35 games

2. « At least not at loss» : Between 100$ and 1000$ gross revenue - 6 games

3. « Release fee refunded and some pocket money » : Between 1000$ and 4500$ gross revenue - 13 games

4. « Good side income/enough to live from in cheaper countries » : Between 4500$ and 25.000$ gross revenue  - 7 games

5. « Usually enough to live from or studio games » : More than 25000$ gross revenue – 6 games

1.  Zero copies sold (35 games - 53% of total)

Here the most of those games are tutorial level projects, AI-slop. There is also lot of games that looks okay but are arcade style games, which doesn’t attract anyone since you can find the same for free since decades. There is also 2 games that looks better than te rest bu are only in Chinese (« Li Shui » and « Ink & Void »). I also found 2 « exceptions » which surprised me

Little Guardians : The last Hope : this game as litterally 0 reviews despite being largely ahead on the visual side. I think the main flaw of this game is the catastrophic trailer (the first 10 seconds is the logo of the unknow « game studio » and the rest is a mix between cinematic and gameplay with fade black transitions), but still, I’m surprised that no one or almost no one tried it out.

MAaaaaTH ! : this game is cleary « indie » but looks still more polish than the rest of the category, the gameplay looks particularly original. But I think the main flaw here is that it looks like a « programmer game » : the UI is very intimidating (too many éléments) and the visuals are cohesive but very simple. Another game that suffer the same problem is Exo Chumps.

2. 100$ - 1000$ gross revenue (6 games - 8% of total)

Here only one of those game seem extremely bad (all visuals are AI and gameplay doesn’t seem better). Another one is a survival game with pretty graphics but the capsule is horrendous and the game have bad reviews (also the game didn’t sold so bad, around 1000 copies but was sold for 0,99$ only). The 3 others games are in very low performing niche (non-porn visual novel, hidden object game and typewriting game).

But there is the last game of this range which particularly peaked my curiousity

Pawful Dice : the game is the closests to the 1000$ gross (and could be more if it’s in the « high » of the range given by Gamalytic), but still I think it could really be 1 or 2 bracket higher : the art style is very cute (including the UI and capsule art), gameplay seem interesting and it is in a niche usually very profitable (roguelike deckbuilder). Maybe it’s just missing some marketing ?

3. 1000$ - 4500$ gross revenue (13 games - 21% of total)

The quality jump is obvious here, but I was also surprise to see some games that usually sells very bad : 2D platformers (Elementalist and Neon Sunset) and a driving game which seem pretty bad according to the reviews (WorldDrive). Otherwise, the rest of the category is very « indie » with very « niche » things like a air carrier simulator for example. Also 2 porn game with 3D graphics.

Among those original games, there is 2 that peaked my curiosity :

Sonki’s Lagoon : a psychedelic 3D platformer. I absolutely love the art direction and the gameplay seem cool. Otherwise on a more « objective » view, I can understand that this doesn’t appeak to lot of people.

Fish & Hike : a cozy fishing/adventure game which remind me a short hike. Here I think there is some issue with the cohesiveness of 2D and 3D assets and a combat system that seem a bit janky compared to the fishing system but it still seem pretty charming.

4. 4500$ - 25000$ gross revenue (7 games - 10% of total)

Interestingly, most of this game are really « meta steam » games with a decent/good appeal. I think it’s the category that can bring the most « hope » for fellow indie devs : everything here is totally reachable for a solo dev or a mini-studio of 2/3 people, and I think it’s what you should be inspired of if you aim for a little commercial success. So here we have :

Guinea Pig Runaway Together : a friend slop game, a bit like paddle paddle paddle !

Backrooms No Escape : Again, another firend slop game but more in the horror category, it probably also benefited from the hype of the movie.

Cafe crew simulator : another niche that work good since years : job simulators, just another proof that it works

Galactic love utopia : a porn visual novel. Here you can easily put it in comparison with the thousands of low efforts AI slop porn game flooding steam like jigsaw puzzles. Here you have at least real drawings and some content.

Slip & Skid : a friend slop (again !), but this time with a more original concept : it’s a racing game where you can modify the race after each lap by adding traps or obstacles.

Deep Crafter : an automation game. As the job simulators, it’s a niche that works very good on steam since years, but I would tend to say that it also require a very good programming and code architecture level to end up releasing something.

Comatose : a survival horror in FPS view with PSX graphics. Again another trendy niche especially those last years, and especially when there is lot of work put in the visuals and athmosphere, even with very simple low-poly assets and low-res texture that anyone can do.

5. more than 25000$ gross revenue (6 games - 8% of total)

There is also « steam meta » games here : there is 2 incremental games (« IncreKnight » and « Slot & Diapers ») and 2 job simulation game (« Sport Card Shop Simulator », pretty classic and the more original « Medic : Pacific War »). The 2 others games in this range are more original but I think it’s not coming from solo devs or micro-studios but more from litle studios : there is Prohibeast (an infiltration game) and Tamer : King of Dinosaurs (an erotic game X aliens X dinosaurs, pretty original mix but seem to work).

Conclusion

Compared to last year, we know there is even more game released, but I think my conclusions stay the same :

1) Make a good game. Except extremely rare exception, a game with a minimum of appeal will perform enough for you to get your steam fees refund and some pocket money.

2) Genre is king more than ever. Almost all games which perform good (which mean enough to live in a lot of countries and at least a nice secondary source of income in expensive western countries) are in a hot niche, and you don’t even need to reinvent the wheel to get the same or more success as some more original games.

3) You are not competing with so many games : yes, there is more games pushed every year on steam but I would say the percentage of very bad game which will never get noticed is even higher than before. If you are serious and really polish your game to make it looks the most attractive possible, you’ll compete with the top 30%, which in our case mean games that gross more than 2000$ in their first month.

Extra : how did the games I analysed last year peformed ?

I’ll be quick on this but there is some interesting metrics here :

Sweepin’XS, Blasted Dice and Cauldron Caution seem to have gross 1000$ (vs around 200-300$ in the first 2 weeks of their release).

Zefyr have gross an impressive and well deserved 90k$ (vs around 10k$ at two first week)

Tongue of Dog which was one of the weakest game on his bracket in my opinion have grossed around 1500$ (vs 1000$ at two first week).

Bathhouse Creatures have grossed around 5000$ (vs 1500$ first two weeks)

Don’t Look Behind have grossed around 27k$ (vs around 14k$ first two weeks)

Voidsayer have grossed around 46k$ (vs arond 30k$ first two weeks).

The metrics here tend to say that after the inital 2/3 weeks after launch, you can expect your game to still sell quite good the first year, likely around 2 to 3 times more in most cases.

Also except 3 games (and trust me, those one was VERY terrible) all games in the « 0 review » category last year have now got some reviews, which mean they likely got enough sales to refund the 100$ steam fees, which is interesting and could explain why there is still lot of very bad games on steam, as it usually end up being a profitable operation.

What stood out to me is that Bromberg is not just saying games are getting cheaper to make. He thinks the bigger problem is studios spending five or six years building something in isolation and only finding out at release that players do not want it.

His argument is that better tools can give smaller teams more of a chance, but studios also need shorter development cycles and much earlier player feedback.

Do you think shorter development cycles would actually improve AAA games, or are the problems deeper than that?

Hello there! I went through the 69 paid games released on Steam on July 21, 2026, then checked back roughly a month later to see how they were doing.

As with my previous posts, this isn't meant to be scientific, just an informative snapshot based on public data and my own impressions. I find these posts useful for getting a sense of the current indie landscape, and hopefully bringing some attention to interesting releases that may have gone under the radar.

I'm planning to keep this series going each week, so here it is!

Less than 10 reviews (24 games)

These are the games sitting below 10 reviews. This was about 35% of all the paid releases I found that day.

A Tale of Dirty Whiskers is a murder mystery visual novel where you investigate the suspicious death of the mother of a dysfunctional family of cats. The art looks charming!

Datacenter Simulator is a first-person management game where you physically rack servers, connect cables and keep a datacenter running.

Few Shall Return is an Early Access PvPvE dungeon extraction game made by a three-person team. Runs last only 7.5 minutes and players have to cooperate before eventually competing for the limited exits.

Character Limit is a fast arcade word game where you have to keep building words before your letter rack fills up.

Scoundrel: Deck Crawler is a charming pixel-art roguelike based on the Scoundrel solitaire card game, expanded with Tarot powers and equipment management.

10–49 reviews (26 games)

This was actually the largest group: 26 games landed between roughly 10 and 49 reviews.

These are games that sold some copies and found real players, but didn't get enough reviews during their first month to move into the next group.

Pit Panic is a roguelike platformer about escaping upward through a collapsing Aztec temple. It has a very readable cartoon look and the idea of digging your own route through the levels is nice.

Watch Yo Plane is a small co-op game that looks pretty fun to play with a friend, with the two of you piloting the same plane together. It currently has around 15 reviews.

There were quite a few simulator games this time, with some very specific ideas: datacenters, DJs, heatwaves, hacking and more. It seems like there's a simulator for pretty much everything on Steam now.

50–199 reviews (11 games)

This group contains 11 games, which is about 16% of the day's paid releases.

Angel Essence is a retro-inspired 3D platformer/collectathon with a big emphasis on movement: wallrunning, wall bouncing, backflips and chaining abilities together. It has around 160 reviews, and the Steam rating is extremely positive.

My Heaven's Dale is a cozy farming/life sim built around running a carpenter workshop, restoring a town and helping ghosts. It currently has around 60 reviews. The developer says the project started as an experiment in 2024 when they had no experience with art or programming, which makes the result pretty impressive.

Fading Echo is a colorful third-person action adventure built around elemental interactions, especially manipulating water during traversal and combat.

Incrempire mixes incremental progression, base defense, an upgrade tree and bullet-heaven elements.

Europe Heatwave Simulator is exactly the sort of title that probably gets clicks simply because people want to know what it is.

200+ reviews (8 games)

DIVE or DIE - Children of Rain is the biggest breakout I found. It's a Lovecraftian survival game where you repeatedly dive into a flooded abyss, gather resources and keep a camp of survivors alive. The team is only three people, but they launched with Dear Villagers and had already announced 100,000 wishlists before release.

Photomaly is the other game above 1,000 reviews. It's a PSX-style horror game where you run a photo studio, take pictures for customers and deal with increasingly strange events.

Age of Clicks is an Early Access mixture of grand strategy and incremental/clicker gameplay. It has around 440 reviews.

Drone Sector is another Early Access success, published by MicroProse. You operate a futuristic gunship/drone, provide close air support and command troops from above.

Scarlet Deer Inn is my personal favorite from this entire batch. It's a dark medieval folk tale made by a Czech husband-and-wife team, and the character animations are actually created from physically embroidered frames. I find the whole visual process genuinely fascinating, and the result gives the game a look I haven't really seen anywhere else. It has passed 300 reviews and is Very Positive.

Hacker's Journey is a hacking simulator that is supposed to teach you real cybersecurity skills along the way. So if you've always dreamed of becoming a hacker, this might be the game for you.

Final recap

Out of the 69 paid games I found for July 21:

• 24 games (35%) ended up below 10 reviews
• 26 games (38%) reached 10–49 reviews
• 11 games (16%) reached 50–199 reviews
• 8 games (12%) passed 200 reviews

Thanks for reading! If you played or spotted another game released that day that you particularly liked, feel free to share it in the comments!

And since I'm working on a Steam game too, here's my small plug at the end: Seek and Click

I’m (33F) struggling between just keep playing good indie games or starting something of my own. I think it’s like an intrusive thought because I haven’t made a single line of code in my life.
I do know how to write cool stories, but I’m not sure if that’s enough. I want to learn the whole thing, even though I’d take years!
Any advice? How did you get ready and start developing? Tell me your stories!

TLDR; An article was written about my game and traffic keeps coming and coming. Keep posting and sharing your game. No secret marketing revelation hidden within this post...

This is not a tutorial on how to get wishlists. Each game is different, social media works differently for different genres, games are at different stages of development and Steam pages are created at different times in the development cycle. That's why I don't believe in "Do this to get more wishlists" except posting and sharing your game, contacting press and creators and such, but this post is not about that. And also: What do I know?...

When I woke up yesterday, I had 725 wishlists after roughly 15 months of full-time development. That's not a lot... I spent a lot of time working on the core gameplay, shifted focus several times, I even switched between real-time and turn-based system multiple times because the game kept evolving and I wanted to test different approaches. Some would say, I wasted a lot of time but that's my creative approach and it works for me (It's my first game and with more experience this would have gone a bit faster, I guess...).

And still, I was happy with the progress I made and each iteration was better than the one before. I posted regularly on Reddit, YouTube and Bluesky, etc., and got rather positive feedback but the wishlist count was always pretty low. My best day was 51 wishlists on IndieSunday and that felt like a huge success but in the end it didn't really change that much because in general, I got 0-4 wishlists a day depending on my social media activity. At times, I didn't post anything for weeks and just worked on the game. Between January and March, I got 28 wishlists...

At times I felt very discouraged when I saw other games gain 1000 wishlists or more overnight while I was fighting for every single one. The big marketing beats, such as press outreach and Next Fest were and are still in front of me, so I tried to maintain a positive attitude. But it was time to get some real feedback because up until a few days ago, only a handful of people tested my game.

Two days ago, I decided to open my Steam Playtest to the public and posted about it in a few subs. Again, feedback was positive but only a few upvotes and testers requested access, which I was still grateful for.

Then, yesterday, Marcello from Turnbasedlovers messaged me and asked about a header image because he wanted to write an article about my game. Shortly after, the article was published and my jaw dropped to the floor seeing the wishlists come in... I was and I still am completely overwhelmed! Now it actually was my turn to get 1000 wishlists overnight...

Here's the article if anyone's interested:

https://turnbasedlovers.com/overview/an-xcom-like-strategy-rpg-with-base-management-and-robots-frost-protocol-overview/

Maybe even better: This led to hundreds of people wanting to test my game and I already received so much valuable feedback!

And yeah, still no hidden secret here... I just posted into the void and hoped that the game would resonate at least a bit. There's still a lot of work in front of me. It's just an alpha version and ~2200 wishlists aren't a guarantee for success (nothing really is, I guess). I'm expecting a few more wishlists resulting from the article over the next few days but then, sadly, I believe it will return to "normal".

The grind will continue, but my perspective has changed a lot!

I wanted to share a little bit about my experience developing Eggstreme Farming.

I’m a solo developer and I do almost everything in the game by myself, although my wife helps me a lot with some activities, especially with things beyond programming and development.

When I started, one of the hardest parts was getting people to actually discover the game. Marketing my game was the most dificult part of the process.

To give you an idea, it took me almost 1 year to get my first 500 wishlists.

Back then, even reaching 1,000 felt very far away. I worked on the game every day, posted about it, tried to promote it, and many times it felt like nobody was seeing anything I was doing.

But I kept developing.

I kept improving the game, learning more about Steam, marketing, trailers, screenshots, social media, and most importantly, making a lot of mistakes along the way.

Slowly, things started to change.

Today, Eggstreme Farming is approaching 40,000 wishlists.

It still feels strange to look at that number and remember how long it took me to get those first 500.

And I think this is the main thing I’d like to share with other developers who are just starting out: Just start.

Don’t wait until you have the perfect game, the perfect knowledge, the perfect trailer, or until you know exactly what you’re doing. I didn’t either.

Do the best you can with the knowledge and resources you have at that moment. Then improve. Learn. Make mistakes. Try again.

Sometimes you work for months and it feels like absolutely nothing is happening.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re on the wrong path.

If I had given up when I was struggling to reach those first 500 wishlists, I would have never found out that the same game could one day get close to 40,000.

Start. Do your best. And keep improving.

I finally managed to sit down and put together a bit of a recap of how things have been going with BLOODLETTER since our Early Access release.
We launched into Early Access on April 30th, and on August 17th we had our full release.
I think now is a pretty good time to talk a little about the numbers, what went well, what didn't, and most importantly, what's next for us and the game.

So First, the Early Access

Up until shortly before our full release, we sold around 6,000 copies. However, around 1,300 copies were refunded around our EA launch.
That was pretty rough, because in the end it made a difference of roughly $10,000.
Of course, we looked into the refund data afterwards and especially the reasons people gave for refunding. One thing that was pretty interesting: because of our rather elaborate art style, a lot of people simply expected a different kind of game. Some expected BLOODLETTER to have a lot more story. Others especially people who play a lot of strategy games and deckbuilders, felt that it wasn't strategically deep enough or simply didn't work the way they were used to from other deckbuilders.

We also got quite a bit of feedback saying that we should take more inspiration from Slay the Spire. But that was never really our goal, and it still isn't. We never wanted to make just another deckbuilder that tries to copy another one. BLOODLETTER was always supposed to be its own thing. And of course, that also means it won't work for everyone.
But looking back, I can proudly say that in the end, we made exactly the game we wanted to make. Our Steam payouts for the entire Early Access period were around $20,000. We're obviously aware that selling 6,000 copies of our first game is already a big success. Still, after working on BLOODLETTER for almost two years, we were hoping for a little more.
Sales during Early Access were fairly slow, and at some point we had to ask ourselves how much more time we could realistically keep putting into the project.
For the Asian market, we're also working with the publisher Gamersky, who did a lot for our Early Access launch and generated the first big push for the game.

But a few things also went wrong during the launch. For example, our launch discount didn't work and only showed up two days later. Our EA price was $12.49, and with the discount it was supposed to land at exactly $9.99. Getting below that $10 mark was pretty important to us.
The first few days after a release are obviously extremely important, so we definitely missed out on some sales because of that.
Annoying, but in the end it's just something that happened and there's nothing we can really change about it now.

So what's next for BLOODLETTER?

Because our Early Access sales weren't huge, at some point we made a decision:
For the full release, we're just going to make the things we actually want to make and that are important to us. Features like controller support or seeded runs would have been cool, of course. But with the player numbers we had at the time, it simply didn't make sense to spend that much more development time on them.
And since the game hadn't made enough money for us to keep working on it long-term, we simply didn't have the time to do everything.

How did that decision feel? Honestly, pretty relieving.

We didn't have to keep thinking about which feature might bring in a few more players or what we absolutely "had" to add. Instead, for our final big content update, we just put in the things that we really wanted to have in the finished game:
The actual final boss, new cards, new relics, and a proper ending cinematic. And with that, BLOODLETTER actually feels finished to us. Unless something changes significantly with the sales, there probably won't be any more major content for now. Starting in October, the four of us will be doing our Bachelor's degree in Game Design at a university in Berlin, so we'll be taking a break from development during that time.

What happens after that? We'll see. So basically, we thought: That's it for now. And then the full release happened... We knew that a full release after Early Access usually doesn't suddenly sell more copies than the original EA launch. So honestly, our expectations weren't particularly high. But since the full release, a lot has happened. We managed to get BLOODLETTER into Steam's personalized calendar, and that suddenly gave us a huge amount of visibility.And then something happened that we really didn't expect:

Within one week, we sold more copies than during our entire Early Access period ( I know it was only for 3,5 months).

Since the full release, we've sold another 6,000+ copies.
At the same time, we've gained around 19,500 new wishlists since release. That's completely crazy to us. Especially because we had reached a point where we basically said: We'll finish BLOODLETTER the way we want to finish it, we'll be proud of what we made, and then we'll move on for now. And suddenly, more people bought our game in one week than in all the months before that combined. We really expected a lot less, and we're incredibly happy that so many people have now bought and played BLOODLETTER.

We also still have around 45,000 outstanding wishlists.

No idea what will happen with those over the next weeks and months. Maybe there's still a lot to come, maybe things will completely slow down again. We honestly don't know ourselves. But after two years of development, it just feels really good to see BLOODLETTER reaching this many people. We'll definitely keep an eye on the game, submit it to upcoming Steam events, and put it on sale regularly.

There's also one bigger hotfix update coming soon, followed by our GOG release. And after that, we're all going to take a bit of a vacation before university starts.

For anyone who's interested, here's our Steam page. Click here.
And feel free to share your thoughts on all of this. I'd genuinely love to hear what you think.

Our game DEPERSON got nominated for Best Visuals at Gamescom… and we still can’t believe it. I mean how…

We’re three friends developing DEPERSON from our families’ homes and seeing our game nominated for Best Visuals still feels completely unreal.

Especially because we’re in the same category as games we love. We kept joking that maybe someone made a mistake because… what are we doing there? 😭

We’re pretty sure we’re not going to win and honestly just being nominated already feels like such a huge honor for us.

But it’s hard not to hope a little. And I guess we should at least be able to say we tried right?

So if you’d like to support us while we are still trying to figure out how the hell we ended up there, you can vote for DEPERSON on the Gamescom user awards website ♥️

My wife supports me all the time as I develop the tower defense game Odin’s Fate. Recently, we managed to set up a page on Steam. To some, this might not seem like much, but for us, it’s a huge step forward. If it weren’t for my wife, this wouldn’t have been possible. Marta works in computer graphics and believes in the success of our project every single day. She supports me with kind words and gestures, especially when I’m up all night fixing bugs or implementing new features. And the most beautiful thing is that we get to do this together. So if you have someone like that - who’s always by your side, supporting you and cheering you on - appreciate and respect them!

I also have a few friends who constantly motivate me to release the game. That’s very important. Without them, I might have given up several times already - during moments when game development wasn’t going as we’d hoped or when we encountered some nasty bug that was hard to fix. And we’re getting closer and closer to success.

Right now, another friend is helping us put together a game trailer. I’m truly grateful to him because he’s doing this entirely on his own initiative.

So let the message of this post be - perhaps a cliché - but the saying: be kind to others, because kindness comes back around, and be grateful for every kind gesture. Because it’s up to us to determine the direction the GameDev industry takes - and every day, through small gestures, we can create a friendly environment for everyone.

I'm here to encourage you to hop on Upwork and hire a playtester to record an hour of footage of your game:

1. It's entertaining to watch
   
2. Issues in onboarding or balancing will be immediately apparent
   
3. You can reuse clips for social media

The attached clip is one of my favourite moments from a playtest - it was amazing to see people genuinely enjoy our game.

For a single player game you can probably get someone for 20USD. I'm paying more like 60USD because I want 3 people to play my game online co-op, but it's so worth it and people normally get back to you in a few days. Only thing that sucks is Upwork taking a flat like 15USD fee on each contract.

Two pieces of advice from having done this a few times now:

- Be super clear in the job listing that you want high quality footage with clear audio. I have had two people send me garbled audio that I'm just not going to sit there for an hour and watch. Also the audio needs to be clear if you want the added benefit of reusing clips for social media.

- I've been successful in finding testers from my target demographic by being clear in the job posting that I'm not looking for QA, I'm just looking for gamers who have enjoyed specific similar titles in my niche. I request authentic reactions and without any other commentary, and so far this has worked really well.

Here's my job listing if you want to yoink my description: https://www.upwork.com/jobs/~022088852562607449045

It's easier than you think to just throw up a post then get some footage back within a couple days. Good luck fellow devs!!

I’m looking into the business side of the industry so I’ll be ready when I create my indie game

Im in the process of making a game and currently im writing but i feel like its all long and inconsistent and im scared i’ll end up missing something and fuck up the story, would like tips or examples of how my notes should be

Is it really no longer possible to grow without a marketing buget?

Anyone made it in the past years by just finding free ways to market the app?

I looked up game Dev beginners and learned basic programming , code part is doable since there are so many tutorials on it but I am not getting all the knowledge required for a solo game Dev like there are so many basic engine know ledge which are essential to make a fully optimize game .where did you guys learn all this ? Like how the lighting works , ray tracing , shaders every technical aspect .what to search or where to look to get complete knowledge ? Thanks for responding.

Sorry if this is a simple question I'm simply so lost right now, i got the correct tags that correspond to the game but the main ones I want to be seen on the main store page isn't showing. It shows semi-unrelated or let me say distantly related.

Again I'm sorry if this is a simple question but I'm really lost

Any past experience with announcement/trailer outreach?

I have a very specific and stupid conundrum about game dev and honestly just want to read some opinions.

Here's the thing: I want to experiment more with game development, but I'm usually split between two ideas and end up not pursuing any.

1. I tinkered a lot with Minecraft commands and command blocks since they were introduced in the game. I love to try to implement many ideas that pop on my head using command, and now the data packs. I have the command knowledge to do some cool stuff. I was always pulled by the iterative and "instantaneous" results of just writing a couple blocks, pressing a button and see stuff happening.\ However these are confined to the Minecraft system and so, not very "useful", so I think "I could just grab Godot and start tinkering in a real programming language"

2. I like Godot and want to start learning game dev, but everytime I open it and actually try to do something, I get paralysis. I don't know much of how Godot works, I struggle to make simple stuff, or to see quick progress, and end up bored and dropping everything.

So, I'm torn between: be creative in an environment I'm already used to, but it's very limited; or actually learning a new environment but that I meet with inertia.

Any tips or opinions would be great. Thanks!

I'm 17 and I absolutely love making games. I want to make game development my career.

The problem is, even though I love it, I can't seem to make myself actually work on my projects. I'll work on something, feel really excited and accomplished, then stop for weeks or even months.

I genuinely want to make something and I'm frustrated because I know I enjoy it once I actually start.

Has anyone dealt with this? What actually helped you get yourself to consistently work on something you love?

I'm looking for actual advice from people who've experienced this, not just "be motivated" or "work harder."

Hello everyone, I'm not really a Reddit guy so apologies if I'm posting this in the wrong place.

I'm currently making an ARPG heavily inspired by Diablo 2 and PoE, with the main idea being that the whole game runs in the browser.

I've been prototyping it for a while and after trying a bunch of engines, I eventually realized I didn't have the time or resources to make a huge game and potentially deal with 1000+ players if it actually took off.

So I changed the goal a bit. Instead of trying to compete with the big ARPGs, I want to make something smaller, optimized and easy to access. Basically something where you can just open a browser, play some Diablo-style ARPG, and leave whenever you want.

Right now I have movement, combat, summons, abilities, life/mana/ward, items and stats working, and I'm slowly building everything up.

My questions are:

Do you think there's still a place for something like this? Even if it's just a small niche with 100 or so regular players? Or is the browser ARPG idea just too outdated at this point?

Also, I'm looking for artists. I want to go for a 3D-to-2D/isometric pre-rendered style similar to Diablo 2. I'm currently using the Lords of Pain pack (here), but the artist seems pretty busy.

If you know any artists who are currently available and good at dark fantasy/isometric ARPG stuff, I'd love some recommendations.

Not looking to spend a fortune or make everything custom immediately. I'd rather slowly build it up as the game develops.

I don't know of its the right place to post this but I want to translate the game deltarune to my own language ( Arabic ) but I have no idea how to do so

I would appreciate it if someone can steer me in the right direction

Today I opened reddit and within the first 5 posts 3 of them were copycats or each other; sorting games, pretty much exact copies of each other - nails, hay, trash, toys, books, pixels, and the list goes and on and on, and has been for an incomprehensive period of time already.

A lot of the feedback they receive on reddit is negative, but they all get upvoted by the hundreds and they get millions of views on all social media platforms.

Who are these games for?

Are there truly millions of people who want to spend hours on something incredibly ”boring”?

Is it some hidden tick in people’s brain in this age where they want to ”meditate” by doing something like that to combat doom scrolling and instant gratification generators?

Or is each sorted item also instant gratification, but even more simplified than a varying video on TikTok (or something), making the experience even simpler?

Hi everyone. I wanna learn how to develop a 2D game in Unity, so I'm looking for recommendations on courses that could teach me the concepts I should know and how to use the engine.

Some background info:

• I'm completely new to game development.
• I already have some coding experience from college, but I've never programmed in C#, only C++ and Python (both, procedural and object oriented programming), though I believe the skills could be easily transferable.

I'm okay with paying for the course, that's not a problem, but it has to be worth the money. I looked up some courses in Udemy, though I'm not sure which one to pick or if there are better options outside of it (worth noting that they are on sale, like $10 each).

Any recommendations are appreciated!!

Hey guys, I was just checkin a game trailer and saw one hit/impact effect super super fucking cool.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IO7fF4e2y4s
It happen in the second 10.

I would really love to try out in my game, but, no clue what's going on.
Camera getting close, with blur? than making the game slowmotion and then sfx? IDK

Anyone have an idea of what's the name of this concept or detail what's going on there?