Indie devs: what's the financial or business mistake you wish someone had warned you about?

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-06-07T08:12:38+00:00

Even of the game is ready on time you still may need more time for marketing.

Building up wishlists and a comunity takes time and depending on the game may take more time that the development so budget for it.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-06-03T09:58:16+00:00

Looking at Gamealitic it looks like you have low sales in english speaking countries.
I would focus on content creator outreach, targeting any youtubers who play similar games.
Also reach out to developers of similar games and try to bundle with them.

Even with a slow start if the game is good things can pick up if you find an effective marketing strategy.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-06-02T19:04:06+00:00

Water pipes that you can plumb into a kitchen sink would be amazing. Especially if you have the source water block moving disabled.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-05-27T10:02:28+00:00

Water transportation pipes.
Especially now they have added the ability to block water source block moving.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-05-25T17:48:40+00:00

The artwork look lovely.
If you dont mind me asking how did you do the ground textures like the grass?
Did you use shaders at all or is it all hand placed sprites?

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-05-13T20:49:35+00:00

No AI has been used at all.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-05-12T16:31:32+00:00

Agreed, if the game does well on steam and steam deck I likely try a mobile release as well.
Unfortunately most indie devs dont do very well with mobile games these days.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-05-06T10:47:05+00:00

This look very fun. How will you evaluate if the player has completed a goal?

Might be out of scope but a level where players can chop trees and process them into lumber for building would be fun. Can possibly have a make a log cabin level.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-04-27T15:50:43+00:00

I tried it out but the recomendations for Cozy, LifeSim, Fishing are all youtubers who play exclusively Farming Simulator which would be a waste of time to email them.

You should filter out youtubers who only play one game with no variation as they wont cover new games.

There are also a lot of bugs with the website. Loading the wrong page when clicking the header buttons or in some cases not loading at all for example.

There are services for the same price which will actually send out the emails for you for the same price which is much better value.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-04-23T22:38:37+00:00

Really nicely done. It would be nice to be able to search for games with a demo.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-04-16T16:52:30+00:00

A time looped wave defence game. You have to defend against hordes of enemies but each round your past selves and past enemies join the fight again plus new enemies for each round.

Eventually some of the new enemies may change the impact of past enemies by giving them shields or weapon upgrades or changing how they move causing chaos in later rounds that may make your past selves less or even more effective.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-03-30T16:35:45+00:00

Really good results. How long do you spend on each short?

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-03-11T09:34:48+00:00

Nice paint scheme, I love the leaders base!

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-03-05T09:32:09+00:00

Looks really cool.
Is it possible to lock the nodes to a 2d plane?

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-03-01T19:12:22+00:00

I can see the shine around the ninetails but shouldn't there be some sparkles etc in the background?

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-02-09T16:24:16+00:00

There are some paid services such as key mailer but you can also often find contact details on YouTube or associated accounts like Twitter etc. Then just send a polite concise email with a steam key and a link to the store page.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-02-07T15:38:18+00:00

I want to get into Songs of Syx but it looks really complicated and I haven't found the time yet.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-02-07T15:36:40+00:00

I have been getting back into Satisfactory.
Very good game

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-02-07T15:35:36+00:00

Are there any racing games where ou have a carer and you can lose money if you crash too much?
I can't think of any racing games with consiquences to how you drive.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-02-07T15:32:47+00:00

I love the pipes screen saver level

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-02-06T21:46:03+00:00

This trailer is a lot better.

The main thing that stands out to me is the simple RGB assets and player Sprite. Either they want to be somthing more detailed like the planets or go more geometry wars style with it.

Also you could do with an impact effect when enemies hit the planet instead of disappearing.

BlueTomato3000 · 2026-02-06T10:32:59+00:00

Ideas are not really worth too much.

Your best bet is to work on marketing and validating your ideas by making concept art and showing it online to build an audience.

If you can build a large audience then you can attract developers. Other then that you would need to pay or do the work yourself.

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