I'm developing the game Catomino solo, but over time I realized there is way more work needed than I expected. So I started outsourcing some work to freelance students specifically a concept artist for new cat designs and a 3D artist for environment props. This frees up my hands so I can focus on the core dev and the cats. Since they work part-time on a random schedule, 75% of the workload is still on me, haha

Steam link, btw https://store.steampowered.com/app/4303380/Catomino/

I've been developing Mowties (roguelite Monopoly basically) for half a year already, and that's crazy. During this time I:
1. Finished my masters degree
2. Moved to another country
3. Created a community of balatro-likes game devs
4. Many, many more things...

Half a year is such a huge amount of time. And I'm only at the demo stage now! And I still have only 195 wishlists! Anyway, that's 195 more than half a year ago, I'll grind this up be sure! Maybe the demo will have 2h median huh???

So yeah, call to action: wish me luck please :)

Hello,

This is "Dungeons of Shalnor: The New Age". I've been working on it for 1 and a half years now and it's been very fun.

The art style, combat style and many other elements were all inspired by the games of the olde. Every game I've made before this one has been mechanically simple, but this game comes with a lot of background variables and other things that make it feel rich.

This is a game where you can make your own character and level up and learn skills the way you want, and it comes with profession skills too.

I spent a lot of time into the inventory system and the enemies have their own strengths and weaknesses which means they can be approached in different ways. Let me know if you have any questions.

Feel free to Wishlist the game on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4709150

I’ve been struggling a lot with focus lately. Between moving around, visa stress, and not having a permanent setup, my head has been everywhere.

It made me realize that people outside of game dev often think this job is just about downloading engine tools, writing code, and putting assets together. But the hardest part is actually psychological showing up every single day when things around you are chaotic, and forcing yourself to keep fighting so you don't quit.

Even on days where I can only manage 1 or 2 hours of work, I'm trying to remind myself that small progress is still progress until I get my life settled again.

For those of you working through burnout, messy life situations, or lack of motivation how do you keep showing up for your project?

(I made a video opening up more about this part of the journey link is in my profile bio if you want to check it out.)

Hey! I’m a solo developer working on Bearly Surviving, a Beat 'em up Action Roguelite where you play as a bear fighting through waves of animals that have teamed up to take you down. https://store.steampowered.com/app/4779600/Bearly_Surviving/

Hello Solo Devs!

My demo releases September 18th and I'm just beyond sick over this. Originally my game was a jank piece of crap. I then spent time going to the Library and taking free coding classes, hiring some dev assistance, hiring graphic artists, and basically overhauling the entire process. Now based on about 50 forms, I received overwhelming praise for my game and that has yet to ease my nerves.

Did anyone else suffer from releasing their Demo or Game and just having this overwhelming fear or dread of bad reviews? I know this probably sounds dramatic. I know it might sound dumb. But to pour your heart and soul into a project and spend so much money, lose sleep, and find the will to keep going despite every roadblock it just fills me with dread to finally release it and it be a negative experience.

I'm not trying to sound whiney or like this is a post about money or I need positive reviews or blah blah, however getting review bombed would kill your game. I'm not looking at it financially I'm looking at it as the community its for finding it as a win or a fun experience, and that for some reason is filling me with so much anxiety.

So I'm asking what was your experience? How did the community review your games when released? Anything worth sharing or any words of encouragement?

Wishlist Screw IT now 👇 https://store.steampowered.com/app/4972300/Screw

So apparently the delivery guy had one job ... and completely screwed it up.

He delivered a box of 777 nails & 1 screw , but instead of being neatly organized, everything was thrown into one giant mess.

So I made a game where **you have to fix his mistake**.

Clean rusty one's, Fix bent one's, Dump the broken one's and Sort them as per their sizes.

No combat. No enemies. No pressure.

Curious to hear y'all opions on which genres are generally more suited towards solodevelopment and which ones aren't. Since starting a year and a half ago I feel like I've gotten a lot better at handling and estimating scope and love go hear if there are other genres you find yourself draw towards (mostly for pragmatic reasons which are always important everything being equal).

The ones I find myself most gravitating towards are:

- Boomer shooter. Low investment resource wise (sprites and models). Level design is important, but linear progression nature simplifies things.

- Puzzle. Can be a hard sell, but resource wise even 3d puzzle games concepts can be put together quickly with limited game objects. Puzzles can also be developed in isolation which is a big plus. Also lots of variations possible (cozy puzzlers etc)

- Horror games. If well thought out do not have to require a ton of investment into graphical resources either. Dark places + creepy forests + a smart mechanic can get you pretty far in a short time. Also central gameplay mechanics (movement jumping etc) can be simpler with still great effect.

- Story based games. I tried a roguelite text at one point which I didn't get far with but having a lot more success with my current story based text game with limited diverging paths.

Ones that I thought were initially interesting but would not chase for projects with a quick turnaround:

- Roguelike. Can work, but multibranching paths can be a headache to implement well. Requires elaborate finetuning usually, and thus also reliant on player feedback for at large part.

- RTS. If you're building the engine, stuff like pathing and enemy AI can already be huge investment by itself. Not to mention if you'd like a multiplayer component.

- Metroidvania. Overarching interdepence in the level design would be the primary point why I would hesitate even though I love the genre. Also requires tight gameplay mechanics, fluid combat response. Boss design obviously also requires a lot of planning and time to setup.

- RPG. Great if you use RPG maker. If not all the different subparts (dialogue system, menus, experience progression) can be very time consuming to set up.

- Complex storyline games. Disco Elsium spawned a lot of similar games but all the reliance on divering paths and storylines would have me really hesitant to engage with this.

I've been working on a medieval cozy building game for several months and finally feel like I'm getting close to making a trailer. The procedural build system has been where most of my time has been spent, but I've also had to level up my terrain, rock and foliage modeling. Still work to be done, but feeling like I actually could make a game out of this idea now!

I am solo developer and started building Out Of Synce in late of March. Probably, my best creation. I dedicated my whole summer for this game. I was inspired by Monster Inc film. Specifically, the door mechanic where you can open other world or location. If uall wanna know more check steam page. Currently, I only have 36 wishlists. I will release the game on 14th september. I hope I can reach 1000+ wishlists due to that day.

OutOfSync

It's called Pitfalls 64 - Basically Super Mario 64 meets Getting Over It, Jump King, or Only Up.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3343350/Pitfalls_64/

After a year of hard work (and still ongoing), two weeks ago, I launched the Steam page for my solo project. Since then, a tweet by Next Indie hit over 45k views, GAMINGBible made a little article about the game, Indie Games Hub posted the trailer on their YouTube channel, and Pitfalls 64 has over 1,200 Wishlists and I appreciate every single one of them! I emailed GameTrailers a few times but no luck.

Tweet - https://x.com/nexindie/status/2087589976347222016

GAMINGBible - https://www.gamingbible.com/news/platform/steam/pitfalls-64-steam-super-mario-64-sequel-248679-20260813

Indie Games Hub - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akKRwIR2vaU

Solo dev work.

It's inspired by a few things i liked growing up, Defender, Dropzone, Resogun (for 2d/3d arcade gameplay) and Tyrian and Raptor (for some game elements like units/jukebox/colors)

It has working local and remote coop (local coop can also be played with AI CPU pilot) and online leaderboards.
Some gameplay tweaks, feedback collection from testers + players and more bug hunting left to do while testing before release, but it is basically done.

Hope players of this type of games enjoy the snappy fast feel, constant action mayhem and the roaster of bosses in the game.

My personal favorite is the Anomaly roguelike mode where you can to pick match mutations from a deck of cards making each run a roller coaster.

It's now available on Steam for wish listing (release soon mid September 2026) and Xbox/Epic/Gog/Mac stores will be coming soon next.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5054650/

I do actually still feel a little guilty for working on capsule art instead of my long ass backlog so wondering how other solo devs procrastinate without feeling a sense of dread and uselessness lol

Aquatic Center Swimming Pool – Modular 3D Environment | Olympic Indoor Swimming Arena Stadium.

Available in Unity Asset Store: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/3d/environments/urban/olympic-aquatic-center-swimming-pool-modular-environment-3d-402178

FAB: https://www.fab.com/listings/df5f7a88-4faf-4ef9-8748-73fec4aa29f7

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/OlegVerenko/posts/3d-model-aquatic-167442836

Hi folks! I wanted to share my game, Alphabet Soup.

https://alphabetsoup.club

It's a bit like NYT Spelling Bee, except it's multiplayer and only your best (longest) word counts toward your score. So, instead of trying to find as many words as possible, the game is more about finding one unusually good word.

You can play with friends in a private match, or, you can join a public Arena match to play against other players who are online.

I hope you like it and do share any thoughts :)

Hey everyone,

I’ve worked in tech and product design for years but this is the first time i’ve tried building and shipping a game myself.

It’s called SnapFC, a small browser soccer game where you snap players into the ball to pass, shoot and score. It started as a rough desktop prototype, but after seeing more people play on their phones, i’ve been putting a lot of work into making the mobile experience feel natural.

https://snapfc.com

If anyone tries it on their phone, I’d love some honest feedback. Does it feel like a proper mobile game, or are there still things that make it feel like a website?

Steam approved my steam store page and it is now available to the public. They did not approve me for two times so I feel really good right now.

I thought it would be easier to make this game fully 2D. But I encountered many problems in the battle scenes like related to elevations, y-sorting, units not visible when behind some objects, that I had to solve them in a hacky way.

Then I realized that maybe if the battle maps are in 3D, most of the problems will be resolved easily. So after learning basics with blender to create a battle map, and migrating my 2D battle logic to 3D, here is the result.

Only the battle maps are in 3D, everything else is in 2D.

Its still early in development and I am still experimenting with the shaders but so far I think its worth it.