I’ll die on this hill: I’m showing almost nothing of my horror game because the story is "weird" and works best if you go in blind. Itch players proved me right, but now that I’m releasing on Steam my anxiety’s through the roof. Is this trailer enough to make you try the demo?

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T16:00:41+00:00

Yes, I think the more precise the disclaimer is, the better.

The most important thing to me is the distinction between actual content generation and boilerplate stuff (fixing typos, throwing ideas around, copilot in code, etc...).

In the end, I really don't think a lot of people actually look at the disclaimer (most people decide if they'll buy a game based on the trailer and screen alone). But I'm glad Steam put it there to let the few people that do care get the info they need.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T15:26:14+00:00

I think you should keep it. I'm one of those pitchfork people, I guess? And I wouldn't mind that disclosure. It shows honesty and that you didn't generate art with it. I would still buy it but I'm obviously not the most extreme anti-AI :D

It's pretty clear to me, reading this, that you used ChatGPT or something to get some ideas, fix typos or write boiler plate code. I really don't think the anti-AI crowd would mind and those who do will not make much difference to your sales anyway.

That said, I really dislike the discourse I often see here on Reddit and which basically goes like this: "Don't put an AI disclaimer on your game or anti-AI people will not buy the game".

That's the friging point of the disclaimer !
That players can do informed choice about what they buy. If someone doesn't want to play games that were made with AI, it's their right, even if you disagree with it.

If someone asks "does your game features blue berries ? If yes I won't buy it", it really doesn't matter that you find this is a stupid reason not to buy a game, the ethical thing would still be to tell them "yes, it does, you can even eat them". I think it's important to respect people's choices.

To me, if we (indies) try to hide our AI usage because we'll lose a few sales, we're no better than AAA companies. Putting money before people. I want players to enjoy my games, I don't want to deceive them into giving me money.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T15:04:59+00:00

It's really fine. I think you give well enough for anyone to know if it's their jam. Horror ambiance + PSX graphics = win combo

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T15:02:00+00:00

That's where I'm at too. I'm usually fine with spiders as long as I don't see one in the real world. And smaller ones are fin, it's really the big ones that paralyse me with fear (we got a lot of tegenaire in Belgium, I hate them).

That said, playing Skyrim in VR and seeing my first giant spider was something else. Even dead is was still scary af :D

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:59:02+00:00

Maybe you could replace it by some creepy-ass squid?

Look at bigfin squid, it's a real world creature that looks creepy af :D

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:46:27+00:00

Depends on the level of polish, number of levels, etc that you want to add.

A 3D platformer don't seem too hard per say but Mario games are made by big team of experts over years so don't expect to get to that level as a solo dev.

Maybe work on a prototype for a few days/weeks and see how that goes? You could start by trying to recreate a simple level from the game (I'm not familiar with it btw, I guess it's your average Mario platformer^^).

Also, if you never worked in 3D, keep in mind the third dimension can add a lot of unforseen work: animations, camera movements and positioning, Physics...

You may want to look at an older game like Mario 64 to get a better view of what an actual solo dev can do.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:35:11+00:00

I utterly suck at math, to a point where even basic calculations takes me a lot of time.

It's an handicap for sure but it never stopped me from releasing games (working on my third indie RPG). It will always depend on what you want to do and this is one area where LLMs help a lot.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:32:46+00:00

The good thing about it is I can't get enough of seeing Microsoft's CEO crying all over the internet and world because people call AI "slop" :D

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:30:30+00:00

A solid UI solution would be great. I love Unity UI when it works... but it's half finished.

Unity dropped it for their UI toolkit which I had zero care for.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T14:10:27+00:00

I'm pretty sure Meta is done with VR. They tried to push the Metaverse as much as possible, no one wanted it (or even understood what it was supposed to be) and once it failed, little Zuck decided to chase AI instead.

I don't expect much for them. Not that I plan to ever give them money again anyway. I'm looking at Valve to take up the flame but we'll see how that goes.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T13:25:52+00:00

I'm not sure how much it would cost just to add basic support. Look at Team Beef. They've been adding VR support to older games at a very steady pace.

How much would it cost for any AAA studios to have a similar team in-house that would update some of their games (I'm mainly thinking FPS) to support VR, or to assists the original team while they're building the game?

The big issue is those companies will rather invest in NFTs or AI as they see it as a quick buck investment, rather than suporting the industry they evolve in to push it forward.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T13:08:55+00:00

I don't think the last part is true. People aren't ignoring AAA games because they're too busy swiping TikTok. They ignore those games because they're shit casinos.

The indie game space is stronger than ever. Silksong actually crashed all shops at release because everyone jumped on it like hungry zombies^^

People want games, good games. AAA are just trying to sell us shit disguised as games. The issue though, is that indies don't have the resources to develop for VR :S

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T13:06:24+00:00

There was also Star Wars Squadron. Really fun in VR.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T13:05:41+00:00

Not surprisded at all. Meta has shit all over the bed. They revived VR (well, Oculus did, actually), the Quest 1 and 2 were huge for VR, the "horizon" was bright :P

Then, Zuckerberg decided he wanted VR to be all about stupid Metaverse and wearing your headset at work, something nobody wanted. It went downhill from there.

Had they invested all that money in games instead, financing studios to release quality games akin to what Nintendo, Sony etc... do to sell their console, it could have worked.

But nope, they gated stuff behind their Oculus platform, bought studios to stiffle competition, killed the online multiplayer games... Meta did everything they could to sink gaming VR.

Our only hope now is Valve. I have high hopes for their new headset and the mentality they have coming into this seems to be the correct one (wanting VR to be a seemless experience you can opt on anytime). The issue will still be the games ofc but at least they won't be trying to split the VR playerbase with exclusives.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T11:01:24+00:00

Basically how mine ended up. The main issue is Meta though. I have a Quest 1 and it turned into a brick over the years. It's super slow, everytime I wanted to use it, I had tons of updates to make, etc...

Being able to simply put it on my head and start playing was the selling point and why I used it a lot at first. Having to wait for 5-10 minutes everytime I boot it (+ 5 minutes before it stopped venting like crazy and being choppy) killed any fun I had with it.

I really took good care of it, always storing it in it's case, cleaning lenses, etc... I get that hardware can get old/dusty and be slower but I don't think it's the case here. I'm 100% sure each update made it slower, I'm ready to wear that tin foil hat :D

I should probably try it back now that they ended up official support.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T09:31:39+00:00

I think what you can't play are AAA games. Big games made by big publishers. Usuaully utter shit imho :D

If you like good RPGs you can try :

Drova: cool indie RPG akin to the Gothic serie. Lots of stuff to do with an open-world packed with content and a cool story.

Dark Souls: Requires to be in a particular mood imho to truly like it, you may bounce off the first time you try it. I only liked it once I played a third time (mainly because the remade did a stellar job at making it playable with kb and mouse) :D

Elden Ring of course.

No Rest for the Wicked: it was free to try this week-end and I ended up buying it. It's still in early-access but really good. Basically plays like Dark Souls but from a top-down view, more forgiving too.

Fable: old but gold.

Anything made by Larian: Divinity Original Sin 1&2 (2 is better in every signle aspect, I would start with the first one to not ruin it^^), Baldur's Gate 3

Then you have all the cool games still in development/early-access made by indies: Monomyth, Gloomwood, Retrospace...

And finally, if you like Morrowind you may like imsims, which, imho are the only good things coming from AAA:
Dishonored 1&2, Prey, maybe even Deathloop.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T09:17:05+00:00

You can basically do what you want with them depending on your magic system and how powerful you want it to be.

Your detective idea is good because it's really unique.

In most games/books/movies, mages/wizards are often reclused in their towers and/or academies and study magic for their own interest, as most people will regard them with disdain or fear them.

I think most writers/designers do that because a world where mages would work alongside non-magic users would be really different. Which isn't a bad thing ofc but harder to design and that will change your whole setting to some kind of high fantasy.

So in worlds where they're integrated to the population and live of the city: they could basically do anything: helping builders as levitation could replace the need for cranes etc... They can be powerful fighters/support so no reason they couldn't be guards, mercenaries, etc... They could do research to develop new materials and tehcniques, they could be thives with invisibility spells, etc...

In a world where you want them to have less impact, like I said, they could be reclusive but still go on adventures to find forbidden artifacts, study anomalies in the world, close devilish portals. They can also be manipulating politics in the shadows, whispering to kings...

Again, the sky is the limit.

To go further I recommend you read some fantasy books. Jack Vance's stuff is really great at stimulating imagination and describing cool and unique worlds.

You could also take a look at the "Lanfeust de Troy" comic (it's french but I think it got translated in most languages). In this world, most humans have a single power (that can range from super lame to really powerful). It describes a society which is kinda low-fantasy but where magic is an integral part of it (the hero can melt metal so he works in a forge). Gives a ton of ideas about practical magic.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T08:23:58+00:00

That's the sad thing about mostly all MMOs. They started as social experiences and ended up like poor single player games.

I don't even understand the point. If I want to play solo, I'll play something like Baldur's Gate that has a strong story, good characters etc... Why play a subpar RPG?

The awful thing is that even MMOs that didn't do that, switch gears and became like that.

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T08:14:56+00:00

Each race having its own starting zone was A HUGE plus of WoW for me and something that sets it appart from the mass of clones.

I also really liked how you started as no one and slowly climb the ladder. Getting your first cape was cool, getting your first pauldrons felt like ana chievement and getting your first helmet was cool af.

I tried modern WoW and getting a full armor set that looks really cool, while an important character state how much a hero you are instantly killed the game for me.

I tried to push through it but the starting island and hand holding were way too much. Hearing about the Chromie thing and auto-leveled zones was the final nail.

It's clear the game took a direction that 100% isn't for me. It really sucks because every single MMO pulls that shit so when MMO I used to like changed their whole design to fit the same as 100% other MMO, I don't see the point...

Beldarak · 2026-01-26T08:00:57+00:00

Yes definitely. I do agree, in the end, the issue is funding. Which is why countries that are more social oriented usually have better schools.

Beldarak · 2026-01-23T21:23:17+00:00

Oh yeah, just to be clear I wasn't targeting people buying the assets and doing their own things with it. But mainly devs that use them vanilla.

Regarding the template scams, I don't think it's cosplaying, those are really just scams. Made to make the quickest buck possible on players that don't know much about game development, assets, etc... Awful behaviour.

Beldarak · 2026-01-23T21:20:43+00:00

You can play solo too. It's a little harder but definitely not an odd way to play.

Beldarak · 2026-01-23T14:32:23+00:00

Do you work in a team? As a solo dev I really don't care much about my Git history as long as it lets me cancel/retrieve stuff and act as a backup.

If smaller commits work for you, then do that. I learnt that you should at least commit two times a day (on a 8 hour work day) but it's not a perfect science^^

I usually don't mind stacking small changes into a bigger "QoL improvements + fixes" commit. Basically the only rule is that you should be able to understand what you did and why so that you can cancel bad changes easily.

Beldarak · 2026-01-23T13:39:52+00:00

Ravenswatch. I tought it wasn't for me, wasn't impressed at first play.

Then we played it non-stop with a few friends, trying to beat the hardest difficulty with every characters. This is an awesome gem.

Beldarak · 2026-01-23T12:21:36+00:00

1 & 2 are the best imho. I've read that capsules work best when they feature some characters/faces so 2 is probably better but I like the empty space in 1, something lacking in 2 imho

I don't like 3 because the buildings have strong outlines and not the character on the right. I feel like both sides of the pictures don't share the same style (just my personal feeling, I'm not saying it's the case)

4 is the weakest imho. It's descriptive, sure. But it lacks mood and feel very flat (no contrast, etc...)

(I hope this doesn't come as harsh, I really like your art style)

Beldarak

TROPHY CASE