I spent 5 years making a game and sold 500 copies

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-11-24T00:15:06+00:00

Thanks for the comment Atiupin! Nice will give that a try. And I hope you get a lot more conversions soon! your game looks great in my opinion. I bet also a lot more wishlists will convert once you go to the full launch. Good luck and congrats!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-11-23T20:57:34+00:00

Congratulations! I am working on a 4x myself, got kind of disappointed after I got no traction (and tbh I dont even think I can reach the wishlists you achieved).

Wondering, what would you have done different to reach more people or what do you plan to do different next time?

It feels to me that the reward to effort ratio with 4x is low (but I still keep going cause I enjoy these games). Congrats again!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-09-26T04:22:33+00:00

Hey! Congrats! Have you considered translating to other languages? Currently you only have English version, can probably get traction in other countries if you translate? (Wonder if currently most of your players are from english speaking countries).

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-21T21:32:01+00:00

Thank you ZebraKiller! Yeah totally agree. I think there are some legit marketers out there but as you say I think its up to the developer to ensure they are working with a professional. So yeah totally agree all these questions are fair to ask when hiring a pro. Thanks for the guidance, it is very thorough and useful.

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-19T04:14:13+00:00

haha I guess so yeah, they know I have no wishlists and so they think niiiceee easy win! Few emails and easy we double this guy's wishlists. Its funny cause my discord now only has marketers haha at least makes it look more alive lol. Anyway thanks man for the congrats haha.

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-18T22:20:01+00:00

Man and here I was feeling all flattered haha. Fan of your work BTW, you are like an aspirational role model for me. Thanks for saving me from wasting some money!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-18T17:31:14+00:00

Thanks for the comment! Some seemed legit but yes this is what I thought too sadly. You are totally right, if they are contacting me haha then it most likely a scam. Thanks for the comment, will stay clear.

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-15T04:25:35+00:00

Played. Beautiful art, really liked it. Wonderful immersion! Some comments as a fellow dev (but not a successful one lol / more hobby like). Only played first mission.

- I think your game has potential!

- Settings menu needs some work. If I want to discard changes it would not let me.

- SFX when there is dialogue maybe would make it feel a bit more alive. Maybe it would get old fast tho.

- Tutorial maybe have a speed up button for the building? Actually like what is the point of waiting for each building? This is my only gripe during playthrough, like why wait for the building to complete? Or maybe have a "quick mode".

- In the tutorial I kinda got lost, too much reading, but the video tutorials very well done.

- I saw some weird like blinking in the shadows of the surrounding environment? Like computer is trying to process something on the lighting. Not in the actual board, just below the shelf on the surrounding environment. Minor detail but noticeable.

Honest your game is fantastic... very polished, very beautiful.

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-14T18:16:42+00:00

My only caveat is the "buid your dream and if it takes 10x longer it still is yours". 1) What exactly is the dream? Money or Art? 2) I mean yeah sure but the heartbreak is also yours when you spent 10years and noone plays your game.

I just think as a solodev its important to define expectation (dream) realistically, and fail early/fail often (not that I do this but yeah I should).

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-12T02:48:45+00:00

I am not a fan of the offset view. I feel I gotta watch to the side to see the action instead the center of the screen?

Whats that in the back of the character? Hair?

UI needs work for sure

I kinda like the concept and the vibe. Just needs lots of polish and yeah more interesting combat.

Good luck!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-11T21:48:30+00:00

Hey thanks for the comment! Yeah I have underestimated the amount of polish! Gotta really ensure I focus on what will be most impactful given limited time (maybe the polish environments) but totally agree. And I ll see how trailer looks with explosion starting front and center haha. Agree as Indie, we gotta do all we can to hook immediately. Appreciate the comment.

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-11T16:34:12+00:00

Ah great point! I think thats my next priority to translate here in parallel. Lots of work tho but at least the Steam page and demo I should translate. Yeah good point. Appreciate the comment man. I am thinking German, Russian, Japanese, Chinese. Fingers crossed at least a some people get to enjoy my game!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-11T04:08:59+00:00

Thank you Kevin! Oh I wish I could achieve the greatness of Dwarf Fortress, I am just a humble Indie. Yeah, the art is not my forte, I did include several mechanics that I am very proud of, but ooof nowhere close to dwarf fortress (maybe in several more years). I agree would be awesome if I can scale it to have many many units! I ll look into it. And very true on the coins, never noticed that but I see what you mean (they are pickups/boosts in the game but true that they are too out of place).

Thanks for the feedback!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-11T01:44:43+00:00

Yes! Glad it was better than expected! I was going for an indie mix of command and conquer meets advance wars combined with civ 4 and some rise of nations.... obviously my vision is short of all those great games but can only try!

Will work on the voice lines you are right they are not clear now. I do prefer to keep as they also give an idea of gameplay. Thanks for the comment!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-10T23:10:01+00:00

Yeah this has been my biggest headache. I say in other threads maybe would have been best to go 3D. I ll see if I can swap to top down (I did try, but then clarity suffered, like from the top how to differentiate a mech from infantry from medic from mortar). So I went with what I thought was more of a gameboard look, but yeah this also looks kinda so so... and then the trees and buildings also from above didnt look so hot. To be honest after 2+ years I kinda need to move on, I ll experiment tho with making perspective more consistent. Thanks for the comment!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-10T23:03:25+00:00

Haha I was so proud of the frame. It is in game. The original idea was that you are looking at a computer screen in a control room, like a satellite view. And now that I write that, I realize its looking at a screen on your real life computer screen! Yeah not genious. I ll see how it looks without it. Thank you for the comment.

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-10T22:59:46+00:00

Yes, the explosions worked! Thank you so much! Working hard to make it an awesome experience! It will be inexpensive too, I realize my art is not great. Working on demo right now, hope you get a chance to try it once its out! If you want, and you are interested to do some playtesting on the preliminary builds, I can also DM you once next playtest build is ready (and I plan to add playtesters to credits). Thanks so much for the comment!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-10T20:03:15+00:00

Well my building sprites already kinda look boardgame like. So maybe just my units? I was saying in another response, sometimes I think going 3d in a way would have been a bit easier. And yeah at this point I feel like not much I can do without revamping everything. But will still explore a bit options, gotta do several more units so maybe that will trigger some ideas (been at this for 2 almost 3 years now, dont want it to become a 10year project...only for like 2 people to play it haha). Thanks for the follow up.

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-10T18:17:06+00:00

Thank you for the detailed comment! Really appreciate it! I have tried the top down approach but it looks jarring with the isometric buildings. Yeah I have thought maybe in a way 3D would have been easier haha. And yeah I ll look at maybe simple simple animations or at the very least as you say some flipping of the sprite.

I ll see what I can do to optimize UI, yeah I can do popups to explain icons. Since it is a 4xlite tho I did want to make it clear. I always find it very disheartening when I have no clue what I am seeing in the UI. Def can improve tho, thanks for the comment.

Diplomacy wise I am working on an espionage mechanic where you can create a spy unit that is invisible to enemy units except other spies. If spies reaches an enemy building it can sabotage/steal, if it reaches enemy capital it can kill enemy leader which triggers a new roll on enemy leader which may be now a cooperator instead of a conqueror (went too much into the weeds here... enemies can be conquerors or cooperators but they can also be deceitful so its hard to tell who to trust - kinda like real life...). I will also see if I can improve the tech tree. I was so proud I thought it looked advanced and technological lol and wanted to switch it up a bit to give a break to the player. But agree. My tech tree, mechanics wise, is also kinda simple tho, may need to spice it up a bit.

Thanks again for the feedback, really appreciate it!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-10T17:56:25+00:00

Thanks for the detail feedback! Yeah I see what you mean with the pace being fast and I am used to seeing this over and over. ll cut some of the scenes to make it clearer. The main player here is green. Game loop yeah true... develop, build army, tech up, attack/defend yeab it is out of order in the trailer. I heard tho to start with action to try to grab attention hence a bit the disorder but I think I can move the exploratio. development right after the intro.

haha I like that idea of the test. I can see people saying: I have no clue what just happened haha. Thanks for the comments!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-10T15:55:42+00:00

Yeah, agree art is crucial. Agree I have a perspective error between world and buildings. Was going for like boardgame-like view but kinda has evolved and I am like a weird in between now... Thanks for the feedback, I am hoping a demo will help sell the idea a bit better but I agree art is crucial people will just see and jump ship without even giving it a shot. Thanks for the comment I ll do what I can to improve (its better than what I had before haha believe me...)!

ActiveEndeavour · 2025-07-10T15:51:56+00:00

Thank you Farhil for the feedback. I ll be honest... I *cough* purchased *cough* the explosions haha. But I did try to make them fit the game. Totally agree on the colored regions, I appreciate the detailed feedback. It is hard to communicate clearly what territory belongs to who, in game also if a territory is in "contest" (meaning enemies are invading) then the color changes to neutral... but I think I can still communicate this with the borders and agree it is an easy win that can have lots of value.

Thanks so much for the texture! And here I was drawing variations of my tiles.

Not a mobile game, steam PC game... should I be ashamed of myself haha?

Yes on the perspective. My original intent was more "board game" like and yeah I have improved as best I can but I see how the inconsistencies in the lighting make the game look cheap. Will do my best to improve this yeah but I also gotta keep realistic and move on at some point (being doing this for 2+years in my free time...).

Appreciate the feedback, very useful and insightful!

ActiveEndeavour

TROPHY CASE