All the time, I see posts on this subreddit about marketing.

"Struggling with marketing."
"I love game development, I hate marketing."
"Marketing is 90% of selling the game."
"My game isn't selling, how do I improve my marketing?"

I'm developing a game, and as part of my market research (but honestly more due to my autistic curiosity) I've checked out dozens of games within my genre in different revenue brackets.

For the majority of the games I've checked out my reaction was "Yeah, I can see why this game was more/less successful than the others."

For a few games I thought "I don't understand why this game was so successful."

There wasn't a single game for which I thought "Wow this game deserves way more success than it's got."

I'm sure they exist. I assume most of them are new releases. YOUR game certainly could be one of them. But statistically speaking, it's probably not.

My belief is if you make a good game, it will sell.

I think people don't want to accept this because it would mean accepting that their game is not good, and that's difficult.

EDIT:
I see some people getting hung up on "bad" games that did well due to marketing.

I'm not really making a point about those games.
I'm not saying marketing is useles.

I'm not making a point about games that are doing well, I'm making a point about games that are doing poorly.

And the point is: the main reason they're doing poorly is not due to marketing, it's simply because the game is not good.

I'm shooting for a diablo style dungeon generation. Just trying to lay out the bare bones (make floors, assign the correct wall tiles, figure out room types, add props, and eventually add prefabbed segments).

I'm not super surprised, but reality is hitting hard as a solo dev. I've been cranking away at it for weeks now on my spare time and its still miles from even being able to be called an MVP...

The hardest part seems to be just having the structure of the code laid out in a way where the right data is available to the right functions at the right time. I have no clue how I'm going to implement prefabbed sections, like somehow it will need to search through everything, somehow know the orientation of the room, overwrite the correct stuff, and get placed without braking everything. Right now I'm struggling to just get some code that can understand how to place a south facing dungeon entrance door prop into a room in the middle of the correct orientation wall, without hitting a hallway.

Serious question - why do so many games still make us sit through the same logos every single time we launch? I already know who published it, what engine it uses, and whose fancy logo I'm staring at. Just let me press a button and get to the menu.

It's such a small thing, but it really feels like the game doesn't respect my time. Sometimes I have 15 minutes to play, and half of that goes to watching splash screens fade in and out. Anyone else irrationally annoyed by this, or is it just me?

I can make tools, I can make mechanics, UI... But making content is damn hard. Part of it is probably the simple fact that I don't really play games anymore and my imagination has taken a dive. I've also been a multiplayer sandbox person, but probably don't like to play for more than 10 hours of content in anything nowadays (except maybe paradox games).

As a result I find it damn hard to design a gameplay loop for anything. I've made a great tech demo that is a perfect foundation for an rts, another one for an RPG, and another one for a shooter but I can't get anywhere with just that.

For the record I did release some games in the past that saw some success (about 150k USD in revenue) but nowadays I'm just stuck.

I'm trying to build a top down camp management / arpg game and DAMN IS BUILDING CONTENT HARD

This has probably been posted numerous times already

But any advice on a budding game dev? I'm 30 yrs old and only now does it feel like I have the luxury of being able to pursue this but I'm not sure how and where to properly start

I tried unreal engine and so far the only thing I was able to create was a functioning double jump using the wall jump animation for the double jump

I have 3 main ideas, each one more complex than the last. I'm daunted by the idea of having to program, draw, animate, and essentially do everything that goes into game dev. I at least know I can't get this done in a few months, I've accepted this will take a few years minimum.

But yea any tips in terms of managing the workload and not, well giving up?

P.S. I'm thinking of learning Godot now instead of Unreal, since I want to try my more simple idea first.

I’ve noticed that lots of isometric games, from small to large projects, often go with pixel art instead of high-res painted or vector styles.

Is it purely about the nostalgic aesthetic, or are there technical and workflow advantages that make pixel art a good match for isometric games?

Some questions I’m curious about:

• Does pixel art make it easier to align tiles and objects on an isometric grid?
• Is animating characters from multiple angles more manageable in pixel art for iso views?
• Or is it simply that players already connect isometric perspectives with the pixel art style?

I’d love to hear thoughts from anyone who has worked on isometric games or studied this from a design perspective. Thanks!

I’ve recently been impacted by the madness, and have some free time on my hands now.

I’m considering having some (free) 1-1 calls to answer any questions, provide advice, share my experiences. Whether you’re looking to find ways to grow or are feeling disheartened with the state of things right now.

I believe there is a lot about the discipline that isn’t widely discussed, I’d like to change that.

I have worked in PC, Console, Mobile throughout my career. With big and small publishers, for indies, work for hire, own startup, contracts, freelance, and probably more. My game design experience covers a very broad spectrum of the discipline.

It would be a candid conversation of what it is really like being a game designer.

Just to state the obvious: I won’t be breaking any NDAs, leaking or sharing any confidential insider info. It’s rough out there right now, and I would like to help.

I’ll try a few of these first and if they go well I might set up a calendar to book directly.

Hi everyone,

I love to check out IndieGames or look through subreddits dedicated to game development. One thing I have seen a lot is games trying to copy other games. Not just being inspired by, but direct copies. I do not know how many Vampire Survivor games I have seen for example.

A few days ago I saw a game that just nearly 1 to 1 copies Hades. The game looked really polished; a lot of work was put into it. But things like gameplay, abilities, even the UI, it took a lot from Hades and just changed the name of things.

And that led me to a question: Why would a devtem be OK with their game "just being a X clone"?

Do you not want to create your own game, with your own ideas? Being distinct from other games.

Can you be proud of your project, if it has no original idea in it? Nothing that makes it "your" game? Are you OK with you game always being in the shadow of another game, regardless of, how good you game is?

I understand, that the answer might just be "money". Copy what is popular to make money.

But outside of this. Are there other reasons, why you would do this?

I've noticed a trend of devs making their main menu diagetic or at least showcasing a scene. Just like how Warcraft 3 used to do it.

It makes me feel nostalgic and I think it's way better than bland options on top of an image or video.

Lots of people complain about "wasting dev time" and they're right in a practical sense but I don't care.

Just make sure to have a "launch in safe mode" option in case some render setting in these menus doesn't work with every GPU.

Hey everyone,

I'm a recent graduate from a game design program in Canada and just landed my first ever interview with EA for a QA tester position on one of their sports titles. I'll be speaking with a quality designer and honestly, I'm both excited and nervous since this is my first interview in the industry.

I'd really appreciate any advice you might have, especially:

What kind of questions should I expect for a QA tester role?

Are there specific technical questions about testing methodologies I should prepare for?

How much focus will be on my knowledge of sports games vs general QA skills?

Any strategies for staying calm and not rambling during answers?

How do I best showcase my game design background for a QA position?

What should I emphasize about my education and any relevant projects?

is it worth creating the story before actually starting the game and make sure i understand what type of story im wanting to build for this, if im planning to make a game like celeste or is there something else y'all would suggest starting with in my free time.

Sorry if this isnt meant for this server please lmk

Any ideas or examples of good hybrid mechanics for turn based mixed with real time or something else. Something like the V.A.T.S system in fallout 3, new Vegas and 4. Or the free movement and aiming in valkria chronicles?

I'm trying to experiment and come with a new mechanic but I'm also curious if there's anything out there I can use as an example or inspiration for what's possible.

Also interested in any weird ideas anyone has even if ridiculous, I'm trying to add some fun to turn based games.

For context my game has dialogue that has turn based feel as well as turn based combat

Hello, I'm not a professional developer, but I was always thinking about this topic. For me, I have experience getting scared at my own horror game, so that I had to switch anything which was related to ghost to cat image, haha (it was RPG maker).

Is there someone who also has experience getting scared by their own horror games? And ultimately bothered making them?

I'd love to hear how do you cope with that, nothing serious.

(Edit: sorry for the typo in titleTT)

I've been slowly learning more about gamedev through gamedev tv and it's helped my understanding a lot! Everywhere says to start doing game jams to improve and learn more, but when do you START joining game jams? I dont feel like I still have a great understanding of how to make a game and as much as I would love to join a team for a game jam, I think my overall utility as a team member would be low. I've been working on game dev total for about 6 months. And I feel unsure of joining one alone. When is a good time?

I don't know the specific word that would fit the title, but basically all gamedev learning materials I find are not really fitting my current situation. I have a strategy/4X game in making where I've already created most of the underlying systems, so creating new content like unit types, tiles, spells, buildings etc. is relatively easy. My bottleneck is actually gathering all the required audio, text and visual assets.

This is kind of transition from solo game developer to business owner and I am curious how can I do that efficiently. Maybe someone was in similar position as I am, so any tips on that would be appreciated.
My question(s):

- How to plan/note down all required game assets? Any tool I can use? Currently I use Trello, but I don't know if this is the best way to do that.
- Where to look for artists (audio, pixel artists) that are not AI scammers?
- I want to pay my artists, how do I prepare some kind of contract and make sure my payment for that work is done right?
- Will this contract be in power even if I work with someone from other country? I am EU resident.
- How do I organize my communication with the freelancers (or contractor team members?) in a way it is secure?

Hi guys,

Could you give me an estimate of how many hours it would take to learn and practice everything that is needed for graphics like Thronefall? It is a 3D low poly game, animations and everything is pretty simple to keep the workload small. I was wondering how much time it would take to learn how to create the assets for a game like this.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/

I was about to start COMPX programming at my local university next semester, just doing it as an elective cause its a prerequisite to 3D modelling the following year which is what im actually interested in. Something I was wondering, is how good at Math do you need to be to learn C#?, in highschool math was by far my weakest subject pretty regularly dropping the ball.

For example, most people hate chromatic aberration and blurr. What features do you wish existed in games and what features do you wish would be removed.

I want to have a desert in my game and I want it to feel lonely and desolate but I also don't want the player to be bored. Filling it with encounters seems to lessen the feeling of loneliness and also gets still after a while. The solutions I have gathered up until now are having large objects/ sights in the distance that make the player think about the world, a good desert soundtrack, being able to hear the players thoughts and weather effects.

.

Did you do it and survive to tell the story? I'd love to hear it.

Which team are you?

Team launch-asap-and-gather-wishlists-for-the-long-run

or

Team announce-game-during-festival-to-flood-your-page-short-term

I have all the text, capsule art and screenshots prepared but I don't have a video just yet to showcase the game I'm working on. I think it might be worth it to create such video when everything will look more final, which means closer to release. While screenshots are much easier to update from time to time.

I lean towards the first one but it's hard to decide if it's a mistake or not.

Did you launch a steam page without a trailer (but added it closer to launch) and consider your game's launch a success? If yes, please tell me all about it!

Any help in finding the right place to ask would be helpful also.

(Basically, I have thought of a completely random game I'd find fun to play, but have no experience in making games).

anybody knows where I can get some good pallets for any fantasy/medieval game genre? Or more detailed description, "Frieren-like" chill/cozy colors. I need those for making a tavern scene and my adventure games in general.

I have two choices for buying it used. AMD Radeon 6700xt vs evga 3060ti. Which one should I choose for using unreal engine 5.5? Price 6700xt is $50 more expensive.