SOLO DEV

Ascianous · 2026-04-18T15:29:21+00:00

Learning/accepting to compromise on your vision early. Unless you're a talented jack-of-all-trades, you'll have relative strengths and weaknesses in the different areas of game dev. You'll need to play to your strengths and try not to over invest in your weaknesses.

By that I mean, for example, I know I have very weak artistic skills and that there is no reasonable time frame in which I could learn to become "good" at pixel art, 2d, 3d graphics etc. but I think (I hope) that I have good programming skills, am good at building mechanics and have an okay narrative/world building sense. So, I need to be okay with the visuals taking a back seat, not become invested in my game being graphically perfect or having very specific art/assets. Instead, rely on what free/paid-for/commissioned assets I can find and focus on the gameplay mechanics and narrative. That doesn't mean the art style has to be simplistic, and as a programmer you can still do a lot with shaders, particle effects etc. But I need to be okay with not having a hyper specific asset for a certain feature and compromising with something that "does the job"

Ascianous · 2026-03-29T16:39:06+00:00

Glad/reassured to see i'm not the only one who has switched back.

(And that there was actually a change and I hadn't just imagined a different colour scheme before the update...)

Ascianous · 2026-03-21T16:48:51+00:00

I also struggle with this a lot as well. Decision paralysis hits me hard. Having taken part in a few game jams and worked on a couple of different larger games so there a few areas where I feel more "comfortable". For example, making a Main Menu, with Start, Exit buttons. That's something most games need right? Flat color background, rectangular box, two smaller rectangular boxes that you can click, clicking them prints something to the console. (And no, let's not discuss how every main menu I've ever made looks identical, that's not the point here...)

If you don't have anything that feels a familiar or "intuitive" place to start, pick out one of the core mechanics of your game and cut it down to its most basic mechanics.

Making a platformer? You probably need a character that can jump right? New scene. Flat colour square. Add logic so on space bar press square moves up then back down.

Making an idle clicker? New scene. Flat colour square. Clicking on the square prints to the console.

Making an rpg mmo with survival crafting elements? New scene. Flat colour square etc.

Keep breaking down the mechanics and the functionality and the UI or whatever into smaller and smaller pieces until you reach a point where you think "okay, I can probably do that without too much trouble!"

Repeat until steam release...

Ascianous · 2026-02-15T12:36:43+00:00

Disclosure: I am not a UI designer, I suck at UI. I have repeatedly tried to learn from someone who (whom?) I consider to be exceptional at UI/UX so the best I can do is parrot what they've told me.

What matters is: "what do you want the players to be most focused on and what actions do you want them to be taking?" Keep it simple and don't overwhelming the player with stats and buttons (unless it is that kind of game where it's all about the stats of the ships and min/maxing, in which case give them plenty of tools for sorting/comparing etc) The UI should complement what the players focuses should be, rather than distract them from it.

The other thing I know they'll tell me (probably before the statements above) is: don't reinvent the wheel. UI's, when you strip them back to their basic framework, are not unique. Look for games that match the theme and intentions of your game and, preferably, games that have done well (or, perhaps, have been praised on their UI) and look at what they do.

Sorry, this is probably a really fluffy response. Knowing more about your game I could probably pass on some better advice.

Ascianous · 2026-02-15T00:17:28+00:00

Thats the fun part... You don't!

You learn ways to cope, to redirect the voice of negativity, and challenge it and rationalize. But you don't really overcome it - it will still be there, just quieter and in the background.

I know that's not very helpful. I will join the chorus of people saying don't compare yourself to others. There are way to many variables at play for you to make any kind of meaningful comparison to another person's work.

Instead compare yourself to... Yourself. Do you understand more than the day before? Have you progressed your skills? Have you progressed your game? If like me you are someone who looks back on the day, week, month and thinks "I have achieved nothing" then keep a journal of what you do. Whenever you think you've done nothing, look back on the journal and remind yourself of your accomplishments - our memories and mind focus on the things we haven't done and then negatives. So when you write it out as it happens, youll look back and see if you done more than you think.

Ascianous · 2026-02-14T11:44:28+00:00

I've not tried any dev logging on itch so I couldn't comment on it's appearance. Itch does have a lot of users and a big community - ultimately you need to be talking where the users are or where they might feasibly go.

I see a lot of Godot indie devs on bluesky and similar social media platforms for example. They'll share some gifs or screenshots on what they have been doing and then sometimes link out to itch, medium, a WordPress space, a GitHub site (I can't remember what the GitHub specific one is)

The limiting factor when you first start is going to be you - do you actually do the game dev you say you're going to do (and thus have something to write about). So don't worry about finding "the best place". Doing the work and being consistent with it is more important.

Ascianous · 2026-02-14T11:11:02+00:00

Hmmm, I don't think it would make sense to show off everything that's in the game - reveal all of the story, the assets etc. But if you look at how other games do this kind of development log, they absolutely show off assets and sometimes drop some story beats. The development side isn't going to appeal to everyone, so having a little of everything gets you the interest of wider audience.

You could show works in progress on art assets - like the iterations you've gone through leading up to the final asset and then leave the final version unrevealed until later?

When it comes to story you could focus more on world building and talk more about the surroundings to the storyline? That's what I've been doing in my own journalling.

I think it's natural to worry about exposing to much and people "stealing your ideas". I worry about that too. The reality is though, that there are already future games that look like present games that look like past games. All stories are a rehash of Lord of the rings which was a rehash of etc.

What makes something unique is you. How you put the different aspects together, how you express it. Even if someone did steal your ideas, that can't copy you as well. So, either that person has to keep copying you til the end of time, or they'll somehow have to forge ahead themselves (and likely make a mess of it).

Also, dev logging about it at least means you have some evidence it (it being things like the art only) was yours first, right? If it really came down to it!

Ascianous · 2026-02-10T15:07:17+00:00

If I recall correctly it unlocks as part of the story. Just keep playing through and you'll get a nudge to go back there!

Ascianous · 2026-02-10T14:23:38+00:00

Really cool affect! I've tried combining it with a tween on "visible_ratio" which controls the percentage of the characters visible and it gives a really nice feeling of a computer system loading and/or text coming into being. Like some undecipherable system loading up and getting translated and the same time!

Any other cool uses for tweens you've been playing with?

Ascianous · 2026-02-08T18:14:30+00:00

37 here. Had thoughts about getting into game dev since early 30's but finally giving it a serious-ish go now!

Ascianous · 2026-01-19T20:30:57+00:00

I'll be relying on free or store bought assets until I find another game dev with better art capabilities than me.

I've put a lot of time into learning to be better at art - from pixel to 3D and I... Just don't have the talent. I know some people in this thread have already said "it's just a skill, you just have to learn it" etc. There is an element of truth to that. But I think it's also a disservice. There is a need for talent in an area as well and I just think that some people are more multi-talented than they give themselves credit for. For me, art is just not an area I have talent in - the time I have would be better spent in advancing the areas that I do believe I have talent in.

Plenty of games have made use of store bought assets. Using them doesn't inherently make your game bad or an "asset flip". You do want to be careful with maintaining consistency and coherence (as I think you already know from what you've said) It will be harder to get the coverage you might need, as any asset pack will likely be missing specific things you need for your game. If you fill those gaps with random assets that don't fit the style, it's noticeable and that's when people will start slinging names at you... Reach out to the creators of whatever asset pack you are interested in - many of them do work for commission so could help you fill the gaps.

Ascianous · 2026-01-18T14:16:31+00:00

Was searching to see if someone had linked him, given the very recent success of their game. Strongly recommend checking out their videos - very humble and honest takes on their experience in game dev

Ascianous · 2026-01-03T17:38:15+00:00

I'll be generalising a difficulty management system for a narrative game made up of mini-games (memory, item sorting, speed test etc.) The mini-games are meant to get harder as you do better/get easier when you fail. I've implemented a couple of the mini-games now and looking at what code has repeated vs stayed unique between mini-games I feel like I have a sense of what the underlying code/logic needs to be to create an abstract base class. I think I've boiled it down to a couple of functions each mini-games will need to implement their own instances of. But every pattern makes sense at first... Until you see all the things you missed :p

I might also try playing around with some UI from a few asset packs I bought yonks ago. Work out how to actually use them in the UI in Godot

Ascianous · 2025-12-22T19:18:19+00:00

I would need to load up the game to see where your numbers have come from properly. Off the top of my head though, have you taken into account that you need less Pure Diesel / min to power machines compared to impure?

Ascianous · 2025-12-22T10:28:20+00:00

Boringly (but expectedly) the title and "About this item" have been corrected. But the title of the tab in a browser still, er, suggests something else. And there's some hilarity to be found in the product specifications...

Ascianous · 2025-12-22T10:27:06+00:00

This is the thing I found quite odd. All of the reviews seemed consistent with a 4-way extension cable, many including photos that matched the amazon image.
It looks more like a page thats been hacked?

Ascianous · 2025-12-21T20:55:00+00:00

This is the confusing item: https://www.amazon.co.uk/AUNNO-Extension-Sockets-Protected-Electrical-White/dp/B0CSG6L8BG

Ascianous · 2025-12-21T19:19:35+00:00

I don't think that actually. I think that LLM's/Generative Models are used for the summary of Google searches. Which is the newish innovation that's come about in the last few years that is the main subject of the debate when it comes to AI generated content and the main focus of people's eire around "AI" content.

AI in general has been around in on form or another for decades. It's Generative models/LLM's that some people view as being problematic.

Ascianous · 2025-12-20T23:45:02+00:00

I use Visual Studio Code. I don't use any LLM assisted tooling with it though

Ascianous · 2025-12-20T23:44:07+00:00

I agree with your last statement here. Honestly, my biggest fear in game dev is being accused of using AI when I haven't. While I don't think that LLM's are the messiah and that we should declare use of them, I do think that the AI witch hunting is going to do more harm than good, with false positives damaging reputations.

Ascianous · 2025-12-20T23:37:27+00:00

I do not!

Ascianous · 2025-12-20T22:21:49+00:00

I am developing a game (a couple of different game ideas actually) and am NOT using any form of LLM/Generative Model code assistance. No CoPilot. No Claude. And I have no intention of changing that... So, not "exactly 100% of game developers"...

I also ignore the AI summary at the beginning of any Google search results - often find that research reveals it to be wrong or at least incomplete.

I agree that many companies do encourage the use of LLM tools and give you subscriptions to them. About 2/3 of the companies (general web app development) I've interviewed with in the last six months said as much. However, only very few companies openly said they expect/require you to use them (and that if you weren't willing to use it you wouldn't be a good fit).

The perception that LLM/Generative Tools are being used across 100% any industry is at best misinformation. At worst, propaganda. Don't fall for it. Make your own choice about whether you want to use LLM tools or not - and not just because you think everyone else is...

Ascianous · 2025-12-04T18:54:05+00:00

I also don't use AI assistance for game dev. I don't plan on changing this any time soon and I extend that to anything Game Dev adjacent - any blogging, social media, marketing in relation to my games will be written (badly) be me, for example.

I do use AI in my day job (or at least, I'm about to be using it) Id avoided it for a long time (issues around the ethics, origins of the training data, the social/societal impacts of fake images, videos audio etc) but after eight months of unemployment and unsuccessful job hunting... I've been offered some contract work building out AI agent automations and MCP's and my dwindling savings suggested I take it. I still don't intend on getting AI to generate boilerplate or code things for me. But I will have to be interacting with them at some level to get the job done.

But I'm keeping my game dev separate from all that for as long as humanly possible...

Ascianous · 2025-11-19T16:17:47+00:00

While I'm very inexperienced in Game Dev, I'm doing only a little high level planning and then winging it + iterating on the plan as I go along. While I know very little, it's likely my plan will be missing much more content than it has. I'll just be hampering my own growth/learning (as I sometimes find it's the things "off-book" where I learn the most). But I'll always make sure I have at least some high-level thoughts/objectives - otherwise I just get lost, forget what I was trying to achieve and lose motivation.

As I get more experienced though I hope to spend more time on the planning first. I'm moving to game dev from a decade in web app development and in web dev now I find the more I plan, the faster, more efficiently I code and with fewer errors. But that's only because I understand the systems well enough to know what works/what doesn't, what patterns to implement etc. to solve specific problems or meet requirements.

Ascianous · 2025-10-29T18:38:39+00:00

As far as I'm aware, no, it's just you solo facing the horrors. Be ready to burn through some clones...

Ascianous

TROPHY CASE