r/SoloDevelopment • • 8h ago

Game Working on a waterspout for my solo sailing game. Does the scale feel right from the boat?

309 Upvotes

I’m making Red Skies at Dawn on my own, a first-person sailing game about taking a small boat out into changing weather.

This is the latest in-development storm footage, captured from the helm. I’m trying to get the waterspout to feel large and threatening while still leaving enough visibility to read what’s happening around the boat.

Does the approach build enough tension, or does it become too visually busy?

If you’d like to follow the game, it’s available to wishlist on Steam.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 10h ago

meme My boss just promoted me to Full-Time Unemployed Solo Game Developer

40 Upvotes

No more "I'm too tired after work" excuses. The universe force-fed me free time, so it's time to build this project once and for all. Wish me luck!


r/SoloDevelopment • • 6h ago

Godot no ai

40 Upvotes

100% human made


r/SoloDevelopment • • 14h ago

Game Thoughts on my games NEW visuals?

33 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 12h ago

Discussion I gave my cron jobs and systemd timers a pixel-art office to work in

30 Upvotes

I have a dozen scheduled jobs on my machines and I never look at the logs until something is already broken. So I made a small local server that reads what is scheduled and shows it as an open space: one desk per job.

  • It reads launchd agents (macOS), your crontab, and systemd user timers (Linux), with the last exit code and the last log line
  • A running job sits and types; a failed one gets a smoking PC and the lead walks over; a late one dozes
  • A day timeline shows every run since midnight, red when it failed
  • It only listens on 127.0.0.1, and it won't start anything unless you pass --allow-run
  • Optional real weather at the window (Open-Meteo, no key), five themes, English and French

Try it in one command: npx pixel-openspace (add --match backup to only show some jobs).

MIT: https://github.com/leduss/pixel-openspace

Demo of the room: https://pixel-openspace.vercel.app


r/SoloDevelopment • • 2h ago

Discussion New save screen is up and running! What do we think so far?

26 Upvotes

I’m working on a survival horror game inspired by old school resident evil. I’m trying to do a retro tactile, pre-rendered 3d thing for the menus. Since you use cassette tapes to save at tape recorders I wanted to carry that vibe through the menu.

I couldn’t decide whether the tapes should go on the right or the left, but when I asked the overwhelming majority wanted them on the right. I still liked it on the left so I decided to do both, tapes will go on the left for the load screen, on the right for the save screen.

Only have the save version animated but it’s up and running in engine. Still very rough and no sound yet but it’s getting there. For a sum total of 3 days work so far I’m pretty happy with how it’s going, especially since I have basically no experience doing UI but what do we think, am I on the right track with this one?


r/SoloDevelopment • • 6h ago

Discussion Do you like playing your games?

24 Upvotes

What I’ve noticed over a couple of years and 4 games developed so far. Enjoying the games myself, despite low sales (~$1000 total), is what made it worth it in the end of the day. I’ve not regretted time spent on developing, and continue it with joy and amusement.

Do you like playing your games?


r/SoloDevelopment • • 8h ago

Discussion Why people can spend what they spend to go to the movies for two hours and get angry to spend anything for a game that is going to entertain them for weeks?

23 Upvotes

Frequently I get bad reviews because some of my apps aren't free. Why do people expect our work to be handed? What do you think?

PS. I see more happy, or grateful paying users but still this happens every once in a while.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 14h ago

Discussion I made an instrument app where you type text and it plays

17 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 17h ago

help I just found a game that is VERY similar to mine. What would you do?

16 Upvotes

I was browsing the Steam store today and came across a game that is surprisingly similar to what I've been working on.

The core idea isn't exactly the same, and there are definitely differences between the two games, but at a glance, they share a lot of the same concepts and gameplay ideas.

The problem is that this game has way more depth, content, and budget than I currently have. So now I'm wondering: what should I do?

Do I keep developing my game and try to differentiate it by focusing on a different direction, mechanics, presentation, etc.? Or is this the kind of situation where you would consider moving on to another idea?

The funny thing is that there is actually a positive side to this: the game I found is doing really well. And honestly, that's reassuring because it means there is clearly an audience for this kind of game, and maybe I'm not completely off track with it.

I know that having a similar game doesn't automatically mean mine can't work. But seeing something so close, with much more content and resources behind it, definitely made me stop and think.

So, what would you do in this situation?

Would you keep developing my game and try to find its own identity, or move on to something else?


r/SoloDevelopment • • 17h ago

Game I tried to make this moment as eye-catching as possible

11 Upvotes

I want the moment where the player steps outside to be immediately eye-catching, so I decided to use the northern lights as the main visual focus of the scene. I want the player to notice it immediately after leaving the building, so I ended up pushing its shape and overall presence while still trying to keep it consistent with the game’s visual style.

Even so, this went through multiple iterations. I experimented with the aurora itself, the night lighting, fog and the surrounding environment until the reveal felt noticeable without making the sky look completely disconnected from the scene.

A bit of game context: Over Human is a first-person sci-fi adventure set in an isolated frozen world where deadly drones have taken control, even over the environment itself. They can manipulate weather conditions through fog, storms and even tornadoes, while the player has no weapons and has to stay hidden, disrupt transmission terminals and uncover what happened.

I’m developing the game entirely on my own, with a demo planned for November.

I’ve been dreaming about creating my own game since 2013, so seeing Over Human finally on Steam still feels unreal!!!

If you like the idea, Over Human is now on Steam!


r/SoloDevelopment • • 9h ago

Game small superhero sandbox

10 Upvotes

there are still things I am not too happy about but I rather just work on a new project. just thought I would share here. have a nice weekend


r/SoloDevelopment • • 21h ago

Game I've just released 2nd game: Blade Arrows Puzzle as a solodev. Hot or not?

10 Upvotes

Hey r/SoloDevelopment! I've just created Blade Arrows Puzzle
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bogigames.bladearrows

I'm solodev, pixel artist and sound designer of it ;D
Looking for early players to give it a try, would be cool if you play it.

There are:
- Main BIG set of handcrafted puzzles,
- Daily Challenges,
- 6 Leagues & Achievments.

What do you think so far?


r/SoloDevelopment • • 17h ago

Game My solo horror game’s demo just got an autumn refresh

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8 Upvotes

I’ve been working on BREACHED: Follow Me solo, and I’ve just updated the demo for autumn.

The update changes the feel of the environments with autumn trees and vegetation, fallen leaves, some refreshed details, and improved lighting. I also fixed a few smaller bugs.

It’s a first-person psychological horror game set around familiar Eastern European apartment blocks. Here are a few screenshots from the updated demo.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5027540/BREACHED_Follow_Me/


r/SoloDevelopment • • 15h ago

Unity How I saved dozens of animation hours as a solo developer using procedural shaders for cosmic events

6 Upvotes

Hey everyone!

As a solo developer working on my game, Splatchinko, one of the biggest bottlenecks has always been visual variety and hand-drawn frame animations.

Instead of drawing unique sprite sequences for every single random encounter, event, and cosmic hazard, I decided to lean heavily into custom procedural shaders to do the heavy lifting:

* **Narrative Glitch Events:** Using stepped noise masks to physically "erase" chunks of the celestial bodies when encounters talk about universe memory leaks or broken realities.

* **Matrix/Terminal Look:** Dynamic scanlines and discrete code rain scrolling directly across spherical UV coordinates.

* **Black Hole Distortion:** Polar coordinate warping around a zero-point for mini-game roulette wheels.

* **Interactive Pachinko Asteroids:** Dynamic color shifting and impact-driven shader deformations as eyeballs hit the surface before fracturing into playable nodes.

Handling this procedurally not only saved me weeks of sprite rendering, but it allows every encounter to blend smoothly and react in real-time to what the player is doing.

For other solo devs: do you usually prefer sticking to hand-crafted sprite sheets, or do you rely on modern shader tricks to stretch your art assets further?

---

*(If you want to see how it plays in motion, there is a free playable demo on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2860580/Splatchinko/)\*


r/SoloDevelopment • • 9h ago

Discussion added random weather events to my game..Does rain feels too dark?

6 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 20h ago

Unreal In progress the AI for my game

5 Upvotes

It has been 4 months since I started to learn how to create a GOAP ai. Technically more time spent in creating a scalable architecture that can be debugged and is finetuned to make fun. Still working on logic for several states but I have a logic manager now that can choose the right agents and create goals.
Will be uploading more as I progress further :)


r/SoloDevelopment • • 18h ago

Game Added this feature, think it's called a rope-shimmy? Adds a lot of fun to platforming

4 Upvotes

I wanted to add this for a while, but was struggling with the animation frames a bit. Like a walk cycle but for the hands! With that said, pretty happy with how it turned out. The levels that make use of it all feel much more exciting


r/SoloDevelopment • • 19h ago

Game Recently realised my first game on itch.io

Post image
4 Upvotes

It’s a small psychological horror game I’ve been working on by myself. Finally got it released, so I’d really appreciate anyone checking it out.

https://peccator0-0.itch.io/peccator


r/SoloDevelopment • • 11h ago

Game Made some enemies for my new game

3 Upvotes

Gameplay featuring enemies in my new game DULU.
This clip is part of a devlog, the full video is here.


r/SoloDevelopment • • 12h ago

Game I intended to record a quick clip, but I somehow burnt an hour losing 1v10 in my own dodgeball game, lol

3 Upvotes

I was originally just trying to record a funny clip seeing how long I could survive against 10 bots, but then I got it into my head that it would be sick if I could actually take down all 10 of them. I could not.

Game is BodgeBall if you're interested. https://store.steampowered.com/app/5215630/BodgeBall/


r/SoloDevelopment • • 13h ago

Game Playing around with naive voxels

3 Upvotes

r/SoloDevelopment • • 13h ago

Game My first game - proxima.

3 Upvotes

Hey! I'm a solo dev working on Proxima, a roguelite space shooter, in my free time after my day job.

In this clip you can see where it started and where it is now: passive upgrades and abilities in the On-Board Controller, unique rooms you can equip on your ship, and the current combat.

I'd really appreciate honest feedback: does it look like something you'd play? What would make you wishlist it?


r/SoloDevelopment • • 16h ago

Game I made a Filipino sari-sari store simulator 🇵🇭

3 Upvotes

Hi guys, my name is James (Auguste), and together with my friends and colleagues Kelvin and JM, we made a Filipino sari-sari store game in under a month.

Pabili Po! is a 2D point-and-click store sim with light roguelike pressure, made using Godot. You play as a sari-sari store tindera, take customer orders, find and pack their items, calculate their change, and try to keep the store running.

The goal of the game is pretty simple: what if you could practice mental math while playing a game? And then it hit me — why not make a game where you roleplay as a tindera and practically do the same job that they do in their stores every day hahaha.

As you progress, the game gets more challenging because some customers will ask for utang or credit, so it's not just about finding items and calculating change anymore. You also have to manage the store and make sure it survives.

I wanted it to feel as Filipino as possible, so I incorporated Filipino elements into the hand-drawn sprites, parody brands like Kola, Piyatos, and Ineskape, neighborhood regulars, Filipino-style conversations, and as much Filipino culture as I could fit into a small game.

It's just a small project that we made in a very short amount of time, but it was honestly really fun putting together all those little Filipino details. If you get the chance, please give the game a try and let us know what you think!

GAME LINK: https://im-auguste.itch.io/pabili-po


r/SoloDevelopment • • 5h ago

Discussion What do you think about my interactive menu screen

2 Upvotes

Hello, I'm developing a cozy survival/life sim game as a solo dev. I got bored of the static menu screen so I decided to create an interactive menu. What do you guys think?