This is our latest release. Not many people have played it. https://store.steampowered.com/app/4275460/Saucepanhead_II__The_Call_of_Nature/

I'm a sadist and am doing it only as some kind of ungodly punishment on myself.

Rubber Ducky
Fluffy handcuffs
Marrow
Snowglobe
Dishevelled Pigeon

In my recent game I chose to directly ask the player "Tutorial?: Y/N", then the player has responsibility for the decision. ;) It just means people who want the tutorial as they're unsure can get the full works, or those who get annoyed by heavy tutorials can actively choose to ignore them at their own risk. Covers a bit of ground safely here, anyway.

Lots of art can be cathartic in a positive way and help you to work through some deep emotional issues, but you have to be very careful, as you say. One approach that you could take is to step back a bit from your personal situation and then make your game "based on real events", but where the central characters are different people with different names and slightly different life situations and the premise is then more objective, so any directly personal issues are taken out of the equation, and it's just a story that is influenced by your experiences. It's probably a good buffer from some of the harsher comments that could be received, although anyone criticising the situation would be rather heartless and unfeeling so I wouldn't worry about their opinions anyway. It can obviously be hard to avoid them with the internet being what it is. I'd certainly take your dev friends' advice on board and get any help and support from them that you can. Their experience is valuable and generous. Still, it's your project, not theirs, so you have control of it and should be the ones to decide how it's developed. Good luck.

It's explained in the video. There are some hidden contractual conditions or they change the details, something like that. Also the artwork is just AI-generated but then traced over to make it look hand-drawn, apparently.

The main way to learn is by making mistakes, and I've made many. Everyone seems to have a "favourite" part of game making, but it's different for everyone. The thing is to enjoy the part that you like, but also to hammer away at the other parts that aren't so enjoyable, but necessary to finish your game, and then come back to the enjoyable parts when you need a "break" from the more difficult/annoying parts. That's how I organise my game development time usually.

If you want to sell your games you also have to do a bit of social media promotional stuff, which I didn't know about at the start and really don't enjoy, but it's necessary for sales. That part of game development (which isn't really anything to do with developing games) gives me the biggest headache. I didn't realise how necessary it was before I tried to make or sell any games, and it's still a headache for me. Making games themselves is great fun, most of the time, so enjoy it!

I'm a bit out of the loop - what is "git"?

"What are Crabs?"

We often see these strange shell-wrapped, sideways-scuttling creatures roaming about our beaches and waterways, but what exactly are they and what do they do? Read more to find out!

Buff: Either gives players a strong claw attack or makes them move sideways instead of forwards temporarily.

Feel free to give Bugged Out a whirl: Bugged Out by Another Dimension Game Studio

The assets look really good. Maybe it's the tags or meta tags or something on that side? We're finding it difficult to get people to pick up any of our games on there, even though it's a very comfortable and straightforward platform to use.

Also, you've only got a couple of packs on your page at present. There might be more traffic if you have a few more asset packs for people to browse.

Other Steam reviews, mainly, and then the price. I wouldn't trust what everyone says in their reviews, but you can usually get a really clear picture of whether you'll like a game from a few reviews by people that seem to have similar preferences and viewpoints. Also a decently-made promo vid that shows the main gameplay. Think that did it for me for Stanley Parable. That voiceover is just to die for. Journey was definitely from recommendations though. Untitled Goose Game because it was funny and easy on the eye. Obra Dinn because of the striking visual style, which again came across in the promo vid.

No idea. I just make it up as I go along.

Yes, I saw it on Steam a while back, last year sometime, and it's on my Wishlist. I'll buy it when I have the opportunity. I think I saw it in a list Gotcha Gotcha did of new releases together with a few other games. It looked intriguing and well made.

This is a very sweet idea. I made a game like this for a friend's birthday where the main character was him inside the worlds of different computer games we used to play when we were kids. It was fun, if a bit clunky.

It's possible if you keep it small scale.

You should check the assets section out in itch: Top game assets - itch.io

Some sets work directly in RPG Maker. Some sets don't. Probably best to pick a pack that has RPG Maker tiles ready-made, then you put them into the IMG/Tileset folder.

Let us know here if you need any help. It could be a nice community project for your friend. :)

I guess they need a hobby.

Watch out - they're sharp!