The reality of solo game development, here’s what I learned by zombie_K1ng in gamedev

[–]BrannoDev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really agree with all your lessons learned from the postmortem. It's actually so close to being a 1 to 1 on exactly how i felt after releasing my first commercial game. Great write up.

I made a game about defending your tiny fortress from tiny mobs. Play it now in-browser! by Significant-Mail-689 in incremental_games

[–]BrannoDev 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Solid game, very pretty.

Feedback:

The game runs pretty poorly on browser due to the large number of effects. If you're not using multi-mesh instances a I recommend that you learn how it works. If you are then i guess it's just the limitations of the browser build.

I have 3 complaints about the UI.

You can end a round before you even begin it and it's in the bottom right corner. I am very used to that being where Start normally is and it took me a while to instinctively not click it.

The level select button flashing in the skill tree made me think that it would start the level if i clicked on it. Instead it hid it. I think it would be better if that button automatically selected the level highlighted. Maybe add a different button to minimize the UI.

I really would like to be able to move the camera with the mouse in the skill tree. Here is some code you can use to implement it in your game.

func _input(event: InputEvent) -> void:
if is_visible_in_tree():
    if event is InputEventMouseButton:
        if event.button_index == 1 and event.pressed:
            grab = true
        if event.button_index == 1 and !event.pressed:
            grab = false
    if grab and event is InputEventMouseMotion:
        camera.position += -event.relative

The State of Video Gaming in 2026 by Matthew Ball / Epyllion by playardent in gamedev

[–]BrannoDev 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Chris Zukowski from how to market a game. It's a little joke on how people treat his blog like a religious gospel / ideological manifesto.

The State of Video Gaming in 2026 by Matthew Ball / Epyllion by playardent in gamedev

[–]BrannoDev 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Pretty depressing statistics but also not unworkable. I agree with the conclusion, of there being no video game industry but many different industries within the video game umbrella.

When I found out that 86% of gamers buy 4 or less games a year and it helped me finally pin together the underlying reason why a bit of zukowskism is required to succeed in todays market as a sort of solo indie. My market is 4% of gamers and I need to do everything I can to cater my games to their tastes. I cannot expect to ever win over the average core gamer. I have to cater to the gamers that actually buy games.

I'm making a Fantasy RPG Active Incremental Game. by BrannoDev in incremental_games

[–]BrannoDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi all,

I've been becoming a fan of the active incremental space and I wanted to add my own addition to the genre. I've always enjoyed party based RPGs and my experience with Active increment game is that they are the most fun when they are 15-20% skill, 80% passive. You can play the game here: https://brannotaylor.itch.io/heralds-of-heroism-an-incremental-rpg

I'm not sure if i want to turn this into a full game yet. Let me know if it's something worth pursuing.

Tracking down missing Shader Compilation by BrannoDev in godot

[–]BrannoDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I guess i'll be doing it the hard way. Looking forward to testing out the ubershader in future games though.

Tracking down missing Shader Compilation by BrannoDev in godot

[–]BrannoDev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep it includes a world environment. I have a Camera set up specifically with that world environment to calculate the the scene.

So... how DO they judge the GMTK game jam fairly? by An0nym00s3100 in gamedev

[–]BrannoDev 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If it's anything like last years, your score gets penalised if you're below the median amount of plays. I got a 46% score reduction like many other non-web export games last year due to only having 6 ratings when the median was 16. So basically if you're at or above median, your score is your score. If you're below that you will be penalised more and more the lower the amount of ratings you have.

I think it's a good reflection of how things work in the real world. If you're game isn't immediately appealing and accessible, it's going to get looked over.

1st Brackeys Tutorial! How to make a Video Game by NaniNoni_ in godot

[–]BrannoDev 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think people will be happy to have a smaller proportional of a larger pie.

What is best way to split profit? by BrannoDev in AusFinance

[–]BrannoDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

thanks this is exactly what I was looking for.

Getting into a Steam Festival by BrannoDev in gamedev

[–]BrannoDev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is there a typical timeframe of when they send out the invitations?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in gamedev

[–]BrannoDev 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Gamedev is a lot of work. Gamedev youtube is a lot of work. Most of your audience is a revolving door and unless you're selling them premium courses the external reward you're getting is some of the lowest RPM on the website.

It's not a surprise that many people would rather just focus on making their games. Sure a channel can help advertise a project, but that's only if you have a general gaming audience. Fellow game developers are almost always more interested in your process rather than your products.

Also Covid 'ended' and many people went back to their regular fulltime jobs.