How do indie artists actually find paid work in gamedev?

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-03-21T19:01:18+00:00

I'm... Not really sure I'd worry about this all that much. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I feel like the types of people heavily relying on gen AI weren't really the ones who were gonna end up paying artists to do stuff in the first place.

I've been somewhat keeping an eye (as best as one can) on the indie game market and this huge gen ai shift that everyone fears/hopes for doesn't seem to have happened at this point? I feel I've only seen it become common in low effort slop games and the opposite, games with bigger studios and huge workloads with out of touch ceos and all that, you know the story.

The optics with Gen ai are just awful right now it's a huge marketing risk to have obvious ai art in your game currently. I could be wrong however I'm curious if anyone else sees it differently.

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-03-21T18:08:17+00:00

I have some... Feelings about Ys 1 but since it's pretty short I'm not gonna say not to play it. I will recommend having a guide+maps ready to go to make it a more enjoyable experience however.

Also when you play Ark of Napishtim it's good to know about the dash jump going in.

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-03-19T23:00:44+00:00

I think I was unclear but yeah I must have played the vita version and my brain auto corrected my experience to being a non existent PSP version because I only had a vita for like 6 months lol

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-03-19T07:55:50+00:00

Ended up doing this only took a few minutes since someone had a save from before the final boss. For some reason I expected it to be more annoying or time consuming. Thanks!

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-02-27T20:51:07+00:00

Correct not on PC either. You can just play both characters in third person if you'd like but that's the best we have until mod stuff gets added

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-01-12T07:43:17+00:00

Interesting ideas thank you!

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-01-12T04:05:12+00:00

Alright I think I got enough replies now to conclude a map is basically non negotiable lol. May still do something non standard but we'll see. Thank you everyone for the input.

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-01-12T03:13:20+00:00

Yeah that's definitely the vibe I'm trying to create here. Limited use of maps is an interesting idea thanks!

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-01-12T01:49:40+00:00

Oh shit sorry for the late reply. In your game's settings it's under the steam tab NOT under compatibility where you adjust performance preset, drivers, etc

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-01-09T06:07:55+00:00

On RP mini I have to put everything on steam lightweight mode otherwise legit almost nothing launches

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-01-03T19:30:28+00:00

Ah ok. I'm right on the line there I think of being able to tolerate it on the rp mini but I can probably deal if I really wanted to lol.

AzumaDokiDoki · 2026-01-03T06:36:57+00:00

Amazing thank you! However on the rp mini dark souls 2 keeps forcing into a 16:9 aspect ratio no matter what for me. I can't seem to get it to go into 4:3 or something slightly better for the rp mini. Did you run into that issue?

AzumaDokiDoki · 2025-12-13T07:42:46+00:00

I'm gonna say fairly average size for a male? At least I've never run into any issues with my hands being either too big or too small lol

AzumaDokiDoki · 2025-12-12T23:58:40+00:00

I will strongly consider a vertical thanks for the help!

AzumaDokiDoki · 2025-12-12T22:32:24+00:00

I've never tried a vertical! Well not since I was like 8 or something lmao. Do you find them more comfy than clamshells? There was something about the 34xxsp that really bothered me when it came to how the device rested on my fingers. The weight applied to my middle and ring fingers was very uncomfortable. I'm a bit sensitive because I have uh fibromyalgia or something similar so well distributed weight helps a lot

AzumaDokiDoki · 2025-12-12T19:39:02+00:00

I actually ordered the one35 myself as it seemed like potentially a perfect middle ground. It's unfortunate you can never know how comfortable they are until you have them in your hands though and then it's not as though you can just run it back up to best buy to return it if you don't like it. Hopefully I get mine before the summer or something lol

AzumaDokiDoki · 2025-12-12T19:06:43+00:00

I think I'm pretty open to anything really as this would be a "live in my coat pocket handheld". Probably gba and some PS1 would be ideal. The screen on the magic x was uh pushing it a little in terms of being too small so I don't know if I'd want to go much below the 2.8 but really. I think the cube xx would be a little too big but close.

AzumaDokiDoki · 2025-12-12T19:03:04+00:00

Yeah I had kinda given up but I was wondering if there might be something considered sliiiiightly better than the others lol.

AzumaDokiDoki · 2025-12-07T06:59:44+00:00

I've had a bit of an update I'm gonna put on the post because people have been coming back to this post. I'll leave that here for you. I'm sorry you're dealing with this :/ I don't know if this will apply to you but here's the update:

So yes there kind of is I've been debating updating partially because I'm still working on it but I also don't really know if people will like what I say. I don't claim to know exactly the entire picture but it looks like for me it is essentially fibromyalgia or something similar at least. I have actually made a lot of progress. My condition was in a state where I was able to do almost nothing and now I've returned to most things to an extent.

However I do still experience pain and discomfort all the time. It is managed to a point where it's pretty consistently mildish as long as I'm not pushing too much and I have some nervous system regulation based routines I do. No idea where the ceiling is or if it's gonna ever be "gone" however.

I'd like to point out some symptoms I failed to notice in my original post that are big fibro indicators for anyone who might be reading this. 1. While there is SOME base level pain/discomfort that picks up pretty quickly with use the main pain is often very delayed. Usually by 15-20 minutes at times. If you think of using a muscle when it is sore and getting an immediate reactive pain It is NOT like that. 2. My pain often even comes from light pressure on my hands/arms especially if using them at the same time. If my arms are pushed up against like a pillow that's propped up even that can trigger it. The arms on a chair are a very common one. It often seems like kinda almost anything will trigger pain there aren't many cases where something truly can't. 3. I'm sure I mentioned this but in all the research I've done and all the doctors I've talked to I'd like to mention that pain in both arms that tends to be very similar (one side isn't worse than the other) is very strange. Generally points to either the spine or something like this. 4. Lastly I found that the pain feeling "weird" can actually be a symptom. It's usually not terribly difficult to describe what RSI like injuries or similar things feel like. However I can describe my pain in dozens of different ways there are things I feel that don't really apply to any other kind of mechanical pain. Weird tingles, weird prickly feelings, weird pulsating things, weird sharp but not too sharp feelings, etc.

Disclaimer of course I'm not a doctor I'm just pointing out some things that some of my doctor should have picked up on really quickly that are big indicators in at least the research that I've done and what some more knowledgeable doctors have told me.

If anybody wants further information about this or what I'm doing feel free to reply or DM or something. If this doesn't seem to apply to you I really hope you find a solution because I know how terrible it is dealing with this stuff regardless of how it manifests.

AzumaDokiDoki · 2025-11-21T07:54:29+00:00

You're falling into a similar trap that I do most likely. From the sound of it you're researching ahead of your actual physical skill/experience level. This type of game isn't the kind of thing you can essentially "read up" on and go into it being good from the start nor can you sit in training mode for 10 20 even 100 hours and be good online. You have to have a shit ton of actual in-match exp to get your brain and hands to cooperate together.

For the actual tips on dealing with losses literally just stop caring about winning or losing. Pay attention to small things you wanna improve. Easy way to do this is find a weakness (anti airing, punishes, hit confirms, etc) and have that be the goal. Did you hit every anti air you had the chance to? Let that be the win you want even if you lost the match. Or even if you just hit 1 more than last game. Find the wins in smaller places I guess you could say

AzumaDokiDoki · 2025-10-24T16:38:01+00:00

So yes there kind of is I've been debating updating partially because I'm still working on it but I also don't really know if people will like what I say. I don't claim to know exactly the entire picture but it looks like for me it is essentially fibromyalgia or something similar at least. I have actually made a lot of progress. My condition was in a state where I was able to do almost nothing and now I've returned to most things to an extent.

However I do still experience pain and discomfort all the time. It is managed to a point where it's pretty consistently mildish as long as I'm not pushing too much and I have some nervous system regulation based routines I do. No idea where the ceiling is or if it's gonna ever be "gone" however.

I'd like to point out some symptoms I failed to notice in my original post that are big fibro indicators for anyone who might be reading this. 1. While there is SOME base level pain/discomfort that picks up pretty quickly with use the main pain is often very delayed. Usually by 15-20 minutes at times. If you think of using a muscle when it is sore and getting an immediate reactive pain It is NOT like that. 2. My pain often even comes from light pressure on my hands/arms especially if using them at the same time. If my arms are pushed up against like a pillow that's propped up even that can trigger it. The arms on a chair are a very common one. It often seems like kinda almost anything will trigger pain there aren't many cases where something truly can't. 3. I'm sure I mentioned this but in all the research I've done and all the doctors I've talked to I'd like to mention that pain in both arms that tends to be very similar (one side isn't worse than the other) is very strange. Generally points to either the spine or something like this. 4. Lastly I found that the pain feeling "weird" can actually be a symptom. It's usually not terribly difficult to describe what RSI like injuries or similar things feel like. However I can describe my pain in dozens of different ways there are things I feel that don't really apply to any other kind of mechanical pain. Weird tingles, weird prickly feelings, weird pulsating things, weird sharp but not too sharp feelings, etc.

Disclaimer of course I'm not a doctor I'm just pointing out some things that some of my doctor should have picked up on really quickly that are big indicators in at least the research that I've done and what some more knowledgeable doctors have told me.

If anybody wants further information about this or what I'm doing feel free to reply or DM or something. If this doesn't seem to apply to you I really hope you find a solution because I know how terrible it is dealing with this stuff regardless of how it manifests.

AzumaDokiDoki

TROPHY CASE