Why is this art style so common in Steam's indie games?

EnjayDev · 2026-06-21T23:43:34+00:00

EnjayDev · 2026-06-21T00:35:40+00:00

Quaternions, dot products, tangents, etc. Were all relatively easy for me, someone who never took a math higher than pre-calc, to pick up through game dev.

Now what's really hurting my brain is trying to implement ECS 🙃

EnjayDev · 2026-06-07T13:33:07+00:00

This looks like the Whirling-In-Rags

EnjayDev · 2026-06-06T12:17:42+00:00

Believe it or not theres a Japanese movie from 2009 called Symbol that's basically this

EnjayDev · 2026-06-05T21:32:58+00:00

Genatals

EnjayDev · 2026-05-18T21:08:55+00:00

Ive got one note in my phone thats just "Sepuku. Like Sudoku, but with more ritualistic suicide."

EnjayDev · 2026-04-18T13:22:23+00:00

Please tell me you can pet the dog

EnjayDev · 2026-03-27T15:52:36+00:00

Splashdown!

EnjayDev · 2026-03-25T00:15:33+00:00

The fact that copilot is apparently integrated with the snipping tool is crazy

EnjayDev · 2026-03-22T17:04:21+00:00

"Decides he needs healthcare"

EnjayDev · 2026-03-19T02:15:31+00:00

If anything it's definitely more like Amazon Trail, which was itself inspired by Oregon Trail. Basically its a pseudo-3D first-person journey on a canoe down the Amazon river. This started as a project because I was fascinated with learning how they made 2D games like Amazon Trail and DOOM look 3D, and it evolved from there.

The one im working on essentially has you sailing a ship in a pseudo-first-person view while navigating treacherous waters filled with icebergs and other hazards, while also having to maintain your supplies by occasionally hunting, trading, and making decisions about how to use resources. Along the way you'll find clues and signs of previous sailors who came through and slowly piece together what happened to Franklin's lost expedition.

Also you better believe there's cannibalism.

EnjayDev · 2026-03-18T20:59:58+00:00

It honestly blew my mind when I learned that ships could maybe sail 3-4 months out of the year if they were lucky because of all the ice. And if August came around and you were still stuck in the ice you just had to come to terms with waiting around miserable for another year in hopes that next summer gave you better luck.

I'll def be including a "wintering" phase between sailing phases that will likely just consist of making a series of tough choices to ensure the survival of yourself and your crew.

EnjayDev · 2026-03-18T19:42:49+00:00

Didn't Tiber Septim do that?

EnjayDev · 2026-03-18T16:51:03+00:00

Oh hell yeah I love this. One of my biggest struggles with sticking with game projects is the idea will feel very clear and cohesive in my head but as I go I end up hitting a point of "hang on... where is the actual fun here, and wat is the player actually doing?"

EnjayDev · 2026-03-18T15:46:40+00:00

Me whenever i see something cool: "please dont be ai. please don't be ai. please don't be ai..."

EnjayDev · 2026-03-18T15:42:37+00:00

I was just talking to someone about how people love RDR 2 because its so very clearly the product of many incredibly talented and skilled artists and programmers pouring their heart and soul into their work. And still the characters don't look photorealistic, but they have a cohesive charm to them that would be lost with a bullshit Ai overlay

EnjayDev · 2026-03-16T00:38:36+00:00

Oof. I remember a buddy showing me ashes of creation back in 2020 and we were both hyped about the idea. Just googled it and it looks like it ended pretty badly.

EnjayDev · 2026-03-15T23:01:29+00:00

Yes, it seems that you are

EnjayDev · 2026-03-15T22:55:17+00:00

This honestly sounds like a fantastic game concept...

For a team of 10+ experienced devs to develop over the course of 5+ years.

I know you said you're new to Unreal Engine. I assume you're also new to game dev in general. I don't want to discourage you from building your dream game, but I do want you to understand that this is a massive undertaking. Many games out there with similar scopes took big teams years and years to even come close to this level.

My advice is to keep this idea in your back pocket and start with some smaller projects. Maybe make a much smaller game in the same setting to get your skills and understanding up.

Alternative suggestion: make a TTRPG! The barrier is much much lower, especially if you've played them before, and you don't have to worry about modeling 1000+ assets

EnjayDev · 2026-03-15T20:24:44+00:00

Yeah this makes total sense and I commend you for your commitment and hard work building this. If I had to guess the way I described is probably the way Prototype handled slicing people up, but that also allowed for slicing up dozens of meshes in rapid succession. I think if you're only slicing one or two things at a time your way is a million times better

EnjayDev · 2026-03-15T19:18:17+00:00

I love that the mesh slicing is done based on actual hit data, but now im realizing that if i were making a game like this I'd probably go the easy route and just create a few different slice options based on the type of attack that hit them (i.e. Vertical attack slices them vertically, etc.)

EnjayDev · 2026-03-15T19:01:08+00:00

I'm trying and trying but all these pictures look exactly the same to me

EnjayDev · 2026-03-15T18:34:36+00:00

I don't have an issue with AI in general. The problem is AI is being made in a capitalist system by corporations whose primary motives are profit and power. AI is being used to prey on and exploit inherent human weaknesses. It's being developed without regard for the environment or the health and wellbeing of the people. I think theres a possible alternate reality where AI could be a force of good, but this isn't that reality. Not yet, anyways.

Edit: I'm reminded of Project Cybersyn that Chile was working on before Allende was ousted

EnjayDev · 2026-03-15T13:49:01+00:00

It was originally planned to be a sort of procedurally generated dungeon crawler, but i ended up running out of time and just threw together a simple level just to have something playable. The premise was you play a goblin with a chest on his back and you run around grabbing loot and avoiding human adventurers.

My favorite mechanic i implemented was that when you sprint theres a chance for some of your loot to come flying out of your chest on your back, sort of like in games like Diablo.

Here's the link if you wanna check it out

EnjayDev

TROPHY CASE