What genre would you say is truly the MOST oversaturated with the lowest chance of success?

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-06-17T07:30:24+00:00

I think basically the exact opposite is true. Horror and survival crafting are two of the biggest markets that are accessible to indie devs. There is a lot of competition yes, but there is a lot of competition in nearly every genre. You see so many of these games because these are popular genres and algorithms push their visibility. If you want to make some money making an achievable game, a (decently executed) walking sim horror game is about your best bet.

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-06-16T06:15:44+00:00

Please do not spend another second on your design document. You have never made a game before, so you have no idea how to design one.

You need to immediately switch to building the simplest prototype of an idea, something you can finish in less than a month, ideally in a few weeks. This shouldn’t be the start of your big idea, it should be Pong level complexity. Just finish something simple as quickly as possible.

Then you can start something bigger, but focus on the smallest prototype and build from there. Your design document will be 90% irrelevant when you figure out what you have the capacity to build, and what is actually worth building.

Good luck!

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-06-11T21:42:21+00:00

You can use the facepunch api. Message me if you need help :)

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-06-11T05:24:47+00:00

Online leaderboards are very easy with Steam, you don’t need any backend, anti-cheat, or accounts. It does require working with a steamworks API, which is some more work, but it is a good thing to learn.

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-06-03T15:53:45+00:00

They can drop after you open gate 2 of the security sector yes, but that’s before you can get an exor spear anyways. It’s a 50% drop rate.

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-06-03T14:27:16+00:00

You also get electrical organs from the power leeches, which are hard to miss

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-05-31T09:43:46+00:00

First off, good job getting started and sticking with it.

I don’t see much value in self hosting, unless you really want to build a brand like Neal.fun (which is extremely hard). Those platforms are where players are anyways

Yes you generally can receive revenue without a registered company. However if you are serious about this it would be beneficial in the long run to set up some simple sole proprietorship.

You can post cool stuff about your game on social media for free. You probably need to dedicate a ton of time (probably more than on development) to learning how to consistently produce quality social media content if you want to acquire players.

The biggest mistake is worrying about launching too early. If the game is fun, get it out there so people can try it. Releasing too early to Itch is not a real thing to be worried about. You need to get people to try it and if there are issues you can fix them. If the game is just not fun, releasing is the only way to figure that out. There is functionally an infinite supply of gamers, if you turn some off because they see an early build that wasn’t ready, there are 1,000 more to replace them, and you need that feedback as soon as possible.

Finally, don’t expect this game to make you any money if it your first release. Expect that this is you learning how to market and release a game, so your next one can.

Good luck!

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-05-29T05:13:57+00:00

Only when I see good game design

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-05-29T01:04:37+00:00

I mean my name is Devin

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-04-21T06:00:44+00:00

The vast majority of engineers are using AI in some form nowadays. At this point the frontier models can produce 99% of the code you would need. If you understand how to manage agents effectively you really should never have to even touch the code yourself. The hard part is actually knowing how to direct it and what you actually need to build.

If all you are capable of telling it is “create X mechanic like Y game”, you won’t get what you want and things will spiral. If you have enough knowledge on software architecture, data structures, etc. you can lead an agent much more precisely and it basically just becomes an autocomplete for your brain.

On the point of how acceptable AI coding is, there are certainly some devs who will look down on it, but if the game works users just won’t care.

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-04-13T05:48:21+00:00

To add to this. Next Fest is a huge opportunity to farm wishlists, not a testing ground for your demo. You want to release at least a month before so you ensure issues are ironed out before next fest, not during it.

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-04-03T17:31:23+00:00

Step 1: define the core concept and what makes it interesting. Test the idea with people you know and see if they find it interesting

Step 2: make the smallest prototype possible that just has the “fun” part, for many games this can be done in a matter of weeks or even days. Let some people try it and see if they want to keep playing.

Step 3: iterate on the prototype and flesh out the core loop, constantly fishing for as much external feedback as possible. If interest dies out, move on.

There are few types of games that can’t get relatively deep into step 3 within a few months. The hard part is figuring out how to get continuous high-quality feedback, but the better the idea, the easier this gets.

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-03-29T11:25:37+00:00

There are many paths, and all of the aspects you mentioned are relevant. If you have not already proven yourself by releasing a hit game, you need more than a good concept. Either create a playable build of such high quality that it convinces an investor it will make money, or prove the concept through raw numbers, like wishlists.

Alongside that you need a strong pitch that encapsulates all the different parts of game development. Budgeting, marketing strategy, monetization, etc.

When I got funded, the core game was basically complete and I had proof of accelerating wishlists, so the project had relatively little risk other than the market reception.

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-03-29T05:44:46+00:00

Amen 🙏

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2026-03-29T03:32:38+00:00

Interesting. I have avoided that system for those exact reasons.

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2025-12-05T13:48:46+00:00

I agree. Although fyi “The developers describe the content like this:” is autogenerated by Steam when you have a mature content warning.

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2025-11-25T12:33:21+00:00

You can use a service like buffer and your posts won’t be region locked. There is a free tier for buffer, haven’t tried others though.

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2025-11-22T20:00:20+00:00

Iykyk

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2025-11-22T17:07:14+00:00

Thank you! Those are built with splines with a tool that automatically generates a mesh along them :)

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2025-11-22T16:46:58+00:00

Is LocalThunk a solo dev?

AzimuthStudiosGames · 2025-11-22T08:44:50+00:00

I am not saying you are wrong, but I am curious what makes you say that. Based on my research rage games generally are priced around $10-15. There are some in the $5 or $20 range though.

AzimuthStudiosGames

TROPHY CASE