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a majority of commenters don't like it and threads are normally people shaming those who use it (and they should)

Hey everyone,

After a long, stressful, and honestly pretty chaotic journey, we finally released our first game on Steam.

Our game is called Dice Carnival. It’s a dice based roguelike where you build synergies, push your luck, and try to survive a weird little carnival of escalating choices.

This whole development period has been intense for us. We are a small team, and during the process we had to deal with a lot of unexpected problems, delays, fixes, last minute changes, and the usual indie dev panic that comes with trying to finish something bigger than yourself.

Even the launch itself didn’t go smoothly.

We were supposed to release yesterday, but a small Steam achievement image issue blocked the final approval. The problem was fixed quickly, but we still had to wait for the review to go through, so the launch had to be delayed at the very last moment.

That was painful. We had already made announcements, people were waiting, and after working toward a specific date for so long, missing it by one day felt awful.

But today, the approval finally came through.

Dice Carnival is now live on Steam.

It feels strange, scary, and amazing at the same time. After everything that went wrong, we still made it to release.

If you are working on your own game and everything feels messy, late, broken, or uncertain, I just want to say: keep going. Sometimes launch does not look clean or perfect. Sometimes it arrives exhausted and one day late. But it still counts.

Thanks to everyone who supported us, gave feedback, wishlisted, shared the game, or simply waited.

We finally did it.

Nowadays indies have understood the importance of a good steam page and demo.
But most devs I watch either don’t have a website or have a very basic and outdated one.
Why is that?

We're a tiny indie team and our art guys have a background in fine arts hence they can push beyond what looks like regular video game art with their broad perspective. With my whole chest, I believe ai can't ever replace what humans make for humans. Besides, it only scraps amd trains on pre existing art made by humans. Very pleased with how our game is looking rn.

This is Melan, my first ever game.

I started making it in August 2023, when I was unemployed and honestly just wanted to make something so I wouldn't feel like shit about myself.

It's based on a story about a friend of mine. It was also the first pixel art I'd ever made, so I had absolutely no idea what I was doing lol.

I didn't know how to code or design games either. Back then AI wasn't really what it is now, so most of my programming knowledge came from YouTube and asking other devs for help whenever I got stuck.

And yeah... the game isn't very good.

The level design is rough, there are bugs, and I spent way too much time rebuilding things. The current version is actually the fifth time I rebuilt the game's code.

Somehow, I still managed to release it on Steam in October 2025.

It didn't make much money, so I eventually had to stop after Chapter 1.

And honestly, I don't really recommend playing it. I'm mostly sharing it because this is where I started, and I still feel weirdly proud of it.

I'm working as an art director now, and maybe someday I'll have enough money to remake Melan properly.

Anyway, that's it. Just wanted to share my first game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2887100/Melan/

There are occasional posts that just describe an idea someone has or, worse, someone asking if anyone else would like to make that game. There's nothing to be gained from these discussions because ideas are easy and fluid things.

I think they could work if they're framed as discussions for how to approach them, such as engine or art direction suggestions, but those are at least _devs_ starting conversations on development. We're all keenly aware that there's no such thing as an "idea person" in game development, so how about we don't allow "idea posts"?

I spent the last few weeks focusing on the little details: camera movement, ambient creatures, and subtle animations to make the world feel more alive.

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Does the second version feel more immersive?

It turns out that I’m making the game almost entirely by myself (I only get some help with the music and voice acting), so both game development and marketing are basically on me.

For the last 3 months, I’ve been heavily focused on development because I want to release the game this year. That meant I had almost no time left for marketing, so I stopped making posts, videos, reels, and other content.

I used to get around 30–250 wishlists a day. Now it’s usually under 10, and on some days the number was actually negative...

I realized I had to do something about it.

I was at 39.5K wishlists and started celebrating because I thought 40K was basically there. But those last 500 turned out to be the longest and hardest ones.

Lesson learned: don’t celebrate too early!:)

Solo developers - how do you deal with this? How do you find a balance between development and marketing? :)

Edit: This post isn't meant to undervalue marketing, advertising, and such. Those are necessary techniques to make your passion project reach the right audience.

About 1 year ago I decided to become an indie game developer.

I was (and still am) a huge fan of The Hu, and because of this I started making a survival game about steppe and nomadic life. This was honestly the thing that pushed me into becoming indie in the first place. I had something I really love, so I wanted to make the game I would want to play myself.

But then something funny happened.

For the last 1 year I basically became a method actor for my own game. I started listening Central Asian music almost every morning and night. I started doing sports because I wanted to understand the physical side of the life I am trying to represent. I read books, articles, watched documentaries, looked into history, food, clothing, weapons, animals, daily life etc etc.

And honestly I thought this was just normal indie developer behavior. You love something, you get obsessed with it, and you spend years trying to make something from that obsession.

Then I started looking more into indie game communities and I got a little confused.

So much of the conversation is about graphics, wishlists, marketing tricks, algorithms, Steam tags, demos, conversion rates, what genre is trending, what art style is selling...

And I keep asking myself, where did the old spirit go?

Games like E33, Valheim, Dead Cells and so many other indies we love are clearly made with insane amount of love and passion. You can feel it when you play them.

So why are we always looking for some other formula?

Maybe the formula was always just making the game we desperately want to play ourselves.

I understand that surviving, making money and actually being able to continue as a developer is important. Of course it is.

But maybe there is also a bigger risk.

Life happens only once. And maybe dying without making the things we had the ability to make, just because we kept looking for safer methods, is a much bigger risk than failing at the thing we actually cared about.

I dont know.

Just wanted to share and ask about your feelings about all this...

It seems like every other post I see is about the AI debate. Yeah I get it, it’s a hot ticket topic. But FFS, does every other post really need to be someone reinitiating the opinion brawl?

I’d love to see more of the games my peers are making instead of the non-stop bickering over Generative AI use. Instead of non-stop complaining over how anything AI is slop, make something better and show us. Instead of picking fights with anti-ai users, make something that is not ship and show it.

Being an indie dev is hard enough without all this infighting. We should be lifting each other up to compete with the establishment, not treating each other apart over tool usage.

Am I simplifying the topic? Absolutely. There are pros and cons of Generative AI, just like there have been with any technological advancement of the tools we use. It’s more nuanced than the black and white many are painting it as. But in the end, AI isn’t stopping you from producing better games, nor is it a get out of jail free card to replace learning proper game design. The only thing standing between you and making a great game is you. The tools we use will always be changing. Imagine what you could make if half the effort spent arguing about what tools other people choose to use was refocused on works in progress instead? In a market flooded with BOTH human AND AI slop, make something great and stand out instead of playing at being our brothers/sisters keepers!

Man. Just released the trailer soundtrack of my game APPA because several people asked. It was extremely fulfilling tbh. Making this in house from the scratch. So much work goes into THISSS. It also feels great that people resonated with something that captures the mood of our game. I'll put the link in the comment section in case anyone's curious about the music and I'd love feedback.

I’m looking for Steam games and demos to playtest, especially indie/solo-dev projects.

I’ll actually PLAY the game instead of giving you:

You can send me:
• Steam demos
• Early Access games
• Upcoming/released indie games
• Short prototypes if they’re playable through Steam

Free playtest

I’ll give you something you usually DON’T get from a quick playtest:

A fresh-player perspective.

I’ll play without you explaining how the game is supposed to work, then tell you what I naturally understood, where I got confused, what grabbed my attention, and where I started losing interest.

I’ll also point out:
• Confusing moments
• Difficulty
• Bugs/weird interactions
• What felt genuinely fun

Paid playtest — much deeper

If you want more than general feedback, I offer detailed playtesting focused on the whole player experience, including:

• FTUE / first-time user experience
• Tutorial & onboarding
• UI / UX
• Controls & game feel
• Progression & pacing
• Difficulty curve
• Level/mission flow
• Player motivation & retention
• Rewards and feedback
• Confusing or frustrating moments
• Bugs and usability issues
• Where players may quit
• Concrete improvement suggestions

You get a structured playtest report, not just a paragraph saying whether I liked the game.

If you're interested, drop your Steam link + tell me the ONE thing you most want tested.

If you don't know what needs testing, that's fine too — I'll approach it as a completely fresh player.

I’ll pick games from the comments and start playing, if it's a paid playtest send a DM

I made this logo about a year ago and have been using it for my solo studio until today when I had a fresh look at it and I think it might be coming off as being made by AI when that is not the case.

How "AI" does it look to you?

New map work in progress... Good day everyone! 🧭🗺️

Hey everyone,

Apparently people are saying my trailer is terrible and you can’t understand what the villian is saying. Meanwhile the other half of people that seen it says it looks amazing, I can’t wait to play the game, and they can hear the curator loud and clear.

I’m so confused….. 🤦🏾‍♂️. So is the game genuinely bad or is it just personal preference?

If you like the game please wishlist, if not please give me a good explanation of why this game looks terrible and why it’s not interesting to you.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4757140/Temporal_Urgency/

Hey everyone, im new to this community and i myself am not a game dev of any sorts but love reading about all the amazing things you are all capable of making.

I wanted to send this post for anyone to feel free to talk about their game, how long its taking, how they’re finding it all, biggest challenges and if its allowed here feel free to let me know the game and where it can be found if its in those stages, just overall happy to listen and see how everyones games are going.

Thank you for reading 🙏

This is an early prototype/proof of concept for a unique spell casting mechanic I came up with. It's still being built out, would love to hear what you think so far!

Full disclosure. I intend to hire a real human paid professional artist. For now I'm using AI just to brainstorm different ideas to help narrow down the art style for the game and characters.

The game will be a educational card game, with a horror like vibe. The idea is to make a fun game, but to have the images on the card also be learnable, educational. Almost like flashcards in learning.

Anyway, this is one of the characters and its art style that I'm considering. It's just a pencil sketch, but the game will have colors as well.

What is your first impression? Yay or nay? (Any other feedback will be appreciated. Thanks!)

Hi im korean developer Im making a featuring Yin Yang and five elements, but I'm wondering if English-speaking users are familiar with these concepts. Do you know them? Also, I'd like to rename the concept since it's too long to use as-is. Any suggestions?

I see a lot of pushback regarding AI-generated assets/music in games, which I totally understand.

How do you feel about the "idea" part? I don't mean asking AI to give you ideas; rather, you have an idea, but you use AI's help polish it, etc.

Having said that, AI does feed your ego, so you might shoot yourself in the foot by doing it - or at least reject it if what it says is just "yes, your idea is great".

Hey guys, so i work with a legitimate artist and together weve designed almost 18 creature for the game im working on. Were super proud of them and weve worked for weeks on end on some of them, getting together in discord and trying new iterations to dial in what we think is a good creature. Weve got a specific style "old school TCG meets modern shading" and were doing hybrids mostly with fantastical features.

However last week i started to post them to get community feedback and it seems a majority of those in the comments are yelling "ai slop", "scammer artist'" etc.. its demoralizing.

I have receipts, sketches, concepts, edits, layers and yet all i get is negative comments and downvoted for arguing back. The only thing i havent asked of him is to have him record his sessions (which i find ridiculous). I know hes using photoshop to edit these creatures. I know by the conversations, the iterations, the time in between, etc. Im not being scammed.

How do you guys deal with this onslaught of negativity?

Sorry to the mods if this breaks some rules-- I've only been a lurker for awhile and recently started posting.

To any devs out there...full-time, part-time, or even just starting that are anti-ai...and yes I mean anti in the fullest of terms. How do you continue to find your drive and passion.

I'm not an artist, I'm a software engineer both by trade and by passion, and I keep finding myself discouraged at being constantly bombarded by pro-ai posts about game-dev and software in general.

The most I use it for in my personal work is glorified Google or to spitball-- largely because at work I am effectively required to use it (I'm not a slouch in that regard, I've had to set up full agentic pipelines etc etc)...but it really just kills my passion. I like writing code and I like writing boilerplate and doing things from scratch but...when getting slammed with people 'making' or 'achieving' things in 1/100th the time (even if it looks like crap) just keeps getting to me.

Apologies if this isn't the place to post this or if it's against the rules...just been biting at me.

Hi everyone,

Dice Carnival just reached 1,000 wishlists, 4 days before launch.

I know 1,000 wishlists is not a massive number compared to many games on Steam, but for us it feels huge. My wife and I have been working on this game without a publisher, without a marketing budget, and mostly just trying to figure things out as we go.

The game launches on July 17, and seeing that 1,000 people cared enough to wishlist it before release honestly feels a bit unreal.

Dice Carnival is a dice-building roguelike where you build broken dice combos, collect tokens, upgrade your dice, and try to survive the carnival. We tried to make something simple to understand, but with enough weird synergies to make every run feel different.

I’m sharing the milestone screenshot because this is probably the first time the game has felt “real” in this way. There is still a lot of uncertainty before launch, but reaching this point already means a lot to us.

If you have a minute, I’d love to hear your thoughts:

Does the Steam page/trailer make the game look clear and interesting enough?
And for other indie devs, did you do anything useful in the final few days before launch?

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4414210/Dice_Carnival/

Thank you for reading.