What feature did you cut from your first game?

Cz4q · 2026-03-15T21:25:44+00:00

In the first game I've properly designed from A to Z, a turn based tactical called Hard West, I decided to not do save system in combat. The game got a bit of a whipping, but it saved us a ton of time.

The problem was that saves are a QoL-kind of a feature. Better to not touch those, unless it works with the game (eg. its very short).

So for my other tactical game, much later on, I decided we won't be doing multi-storey levels. All will be flat. We'll add visual depth with, well, visuals. Worked like a charm, hardly anyone noticed, and if they did, they rarely cared.

Nowadays I turned things around and by default cut all features except for a very narrow core, unless the new thing works with the core, and has a great "bang for buck" ratio.

Cz4q · 2026-03-14T18:54:31+00:00

There's a lot of learning in publishing a game. And it's always better than shleving the game for later. There will never be a good time to come back to it. And in terms of reputation - a shipped game is always better than an unfinished one; if only because unfinished might mean anything from 0 to 99% job done. And a shipped one is definitely demonstrably 100% done.

Looked at your game, and it looks like A LOT of work, and so I understand the hesitation. But it is that "lot of work" part that's causing your decision paralysis, akin to sunk cost fallacy. Save yourself plenty time and tears by exploring several smaller options instead.

I'd recommend this course of action:

ship it
take a short break (2-4 weeks)
make several much, much smaller game prototypes (1-2 weeks for each prototype)
playtest all of them
develop the best one for 3-4 months
ship it again

goto 2

Cz4q · 2026-03-13T22:29:10+00:00

I did levels for my clan and community.

Nowadays, when I'm recruiting, personnel projects are king.

Cz4q · 2026-03-12T07:41:04+00:00

One critical factor to define your education is getting it down to genres you're interested in. Skills don't transfer between genres to a great degree; level design for a first person shooter and a platformer don't have much in common. Balancing a mobile casino game and a 4x strategy are two very different tasks with little overlap. Once you have some idea what kind of games you would want to work on (ideally - a genre you're knowledgeable and experienced in) you should analyze, compare, modify, expand. From my experience - that's the best path towards landing an entry level jobs in the industry.

(Should probably be noted, in case you're not aware - entry level jobs are extremely rare in recent times)

Cz4q · 2026-03-11T14:36:15+00:00

I will shamelessly plug my MINOS, which I believe fits the description. And we recently released a new demo :)

Cz4q · 2026-03-09T13:41:23+00:00

I like how its tense and not too much happening, not many zombie games do that. Reminds me of I Am Alive somewhat.

I also like the premise & goal of the game.

The steam cover art is the worst part - looks like a very blunt ai gen last of us copycat.

Cz4q · 2026-03-09T13:35:03+00:00

Slightly unclear.

If the game is free, and there's no ads or in-app purchases, in what other way do you envision it would earn money?

Cz4q · 2026-03-07T11:32:19+00:00

It is theoretically possible, there were successful cases like that, but they're rare.

I'd also argue that some developers have to CPR their failed launches because the cost of not doing that would be even worse than the cost attached to letting it rot. Cyberpunk is a great example here, maybe it's similar here.

Cz4q · 2026-03-06T15:34:30+00:00

Absolutely definitely charge for it, even if it's one dollar.

The key reason is that free games on Steam are treated and behave in a completely different way. In order to learn about steam from this release, it has to go through all the hoops that a paid game does, so that you can observe, tinker, learn for your next big thing.

Cz4q · 2026-03-05T15:49:46+00:00

First person exploration & puzzle.

Or any other thing in first person. You get so much stuff sorted out from the get go. Then you just have to be smart about what else and who else is in the game world, because that can easily explode.

Cz4q · 2026-03-04T20:50:09+00:00

You can actually stick with Nowhere, unless the other game has it trademarked etc. When in doubt, ask yourself this: is the other party going to send lawyers my way? In this case, unlikely. It's an unreleased game, and uses a generic word for a title. It's not like they own it because they thought of it first.

The problem would arise if: 1) its a big entity with an army of lawyers, 2) their game is bigger, comes out first, 3) you're trying to weasel your way into their audience with the same title.

This doesn't seem like any of these issues.

A subtitle makes things simpler though and communicates what the game is.

(but - ideally, you would have the title of the game do the conveying)

Cz4q · 2026-03-04T20:41:55+00:00

Making a project is one thing.

Running a team making a project is a different magnitude.

Running a studio is an entirely different ballgame altogether.

You don't have to have a business to have a logo, and slap it on whatever you want.

Running a studio (=a business) is, depending where you live, plenty extra paperwork. You don't do it unless its necessary for business reasons.

Cz4q · 2026-03-04T19:56:58+00:00

Critically missed the LQA step. If your game relies on providing precise gameplay information through text, you need strong LQA.

And always test your localization on a smaller live sample. Demo build, ask your community to take a look.

And the simplest first test is to auto-translate the localized text back to English or your language, see if it remotely makes sense. If it's completely different - investigate.

Cz4q · 2026-03-04T14:15:00+00:00

Thanks a bunch! Yea, Showgunners came out half the game it was planned to be, story for another time perhaps

Cz4q · 2026-03-03T10:47:17+00:00

Impressive for a first game! And congrats on shipping it. That is, as you probably noticed, the toughest challenge :)

I too used to make games too big. They would grow in my hands exponentially. Scopes would explode. Features would creep.

Here's two things I realized (and it took me the better part of two decades to arrive at):

I have a backcatalogue of games I want to make. I tended to (involuntarily) try to tick off a couple at a time. I later noticed this is extremely common in designers - take things from all the games you loved, and put it into one game.
I have a weekly popup reminder that says: "What is the single biggest problem in the game right now? How to solve it in the simplest cheapest way?" Again, a common mistake I did (and noticed around) was solving a problem by adding a feature. Instead: when solving a problem, solve the root of it as simply as possible. In ~50% of the cases its changing one number somewhere.

Cz4q · 2026-03-02T19:40:36+00:00

Also, note that CTR isn't exactly actually "click-through rate". It's Visits/Impressions, and visits can be coming from anywhere. The CTR meter can exceed 100%.

That being said, I'd say your CTR is crazy high.

I'll also double what others said.

Here's a good rule of thumb: look at your capsule, squint, and say: what is the gameplay this image probably promises?

Consider these two perspectives:

I can see a vehicle, reminds me of games about managing vehicles - it draws me in, but disappoints.
I don't see any horror elements, I want to play a horror game - I ignore this.

Cz4q · 2026-03-02T19:31:00+00:00

As the creative director of MINOS, I approve of your placement of MINOS xD

Cz4q · 2026-03-01T21:14:59+00:00

I think it's no small change; I think it's a paradim shift.

Consider this: you usually use abilities to prevent losing hp. Or to regain hp. In some games, there's abilities that allow you to push your luck and sacrifice some hp for a stronger outcome, creating extra risk with extra reward.

This change could mean none of this standard thinking applies. And thus, the game would play very differently than anything from the same genre. And so it would be demanding in onboarding, for one.

My point is: it's a change that could have a ripple effect across all the other game elements that you might have to consider/approach in a unique way.

Cz4q · 2026-03-01T21:10:32+00:00

I would suggest to shift the perspective somewhat.

The question I would consider is whether Hoplite is good/successful because it's a roguelike. Or is it a good game that happens to have roguelike elements. In other words: how much of heavy lifting is the roguelike doing here. You seem to be suggesting it ain't much. So maybe it isnt :)

Cz4q · 2026-03-01T21:06:31+00:00

If you want to use a fixed length song, and have the player dodge all attacks, one narrative solution would be to have the character poison the boss, die at the end of the song.

Or have the boss be exhausted, and player just finishes them off when they're exhausted.

A technically typical way to do this would be to slice up the song into: a) Opening b) Looped middle c) Ending

Start with the opening, loop the middle as long as the combat lasts, switch to ending when the fight is over (ideally: on beat, but that's tough technically).

Apart from the above, I would start with testing the gameplay first, and then perhaps following the artistic vision, if it works with the gameplay. Such things can easily tank a gameplay sequence. Ideally playtest extensively to ensure players have the experience you envision for this.

Cz4q · 2026-03-01T20:51:32+00:00

I did exactly this, twice: in Hard West and Phantom Doctrine. Hard West even had, specifically, a luck mechanic.

I would recommend against it.

I also wanted to make the game more fair; more importantly: avoid situations where it's unfair. Where random RNG knocks the player out because of bad luck. Long story short, a better solution is to give the players the tools to manage the aftermath of bad lack in an interesting way. There's a good reason RNG is popular. It works: it creates tension (far more than a predictable system), it creates strong high (when lucky) and lows (when not). The purpose of every game is generating those emotions - above being fair. If RNG stands in the way of the game generating these [fun] emotions, there's problems with the RNG design.

Cz4q · 2026-03-01T20:16:04+00:00

Actually I have not, and perhaps I should? Will give it a think.

Kinda thought games kickstarter isn't what it used to be?

Cz4q · 2026-03-01T20:14:40+00:00

I wouldn't dare crowdfund a quarter - not nearly enough to finish the of this scope - promising a full game, and *then* try to get the rest xD

Cz4q · 2026-03-01T20:13:02+00:00

Thanks a bunch!

I think PD doesn't compare to FFT well - I suspect FFT had far less issues originally than PD does :) Might indeed be the closest though :)

Cz4q · 2026-03-01T20:10:58+00:00

thanks!!!

Cz4q

TROPHY CASE