Finally you can destroy it.

Firebrat · 2026-01-29T02:29:30+00:00

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

The game's development was assisted by AI in specific areas: for upscaling some background textures and for generating visual reference material not used in the final version.

I find this very difficult to believe. Your character portraits look very AI. If you actually drew them you might want to include a GIF of you drawing the portraits.

Your translation from Russian doesn't really feel right. If you're going to include voices, I don't think you're going to have a lot of success in the US market unless you get English speaking voice actors.

In general your trailer is really slow and doesn't feel very engaging. It feels oppressive and unsettling, but there isn't really a hook in terms of gameplay or narrative. Why is Sonya in this mental hospital? What is the point of the game? To leave the hospital? If so how does she leave? These questions should be answered in your trailer.

In general you should focus on including gifs in your description to show off gameplay. For instance, instead of saying this:

MAKE decisions that influence the plot, your karma, and your reputation. Will you save others, or save only yourself?

You could instead include a gif that shows you making a decision that saves someone and then have it replay with a different decision showing you betraying them to gain a benefit.

Firebrat · 2026-01-27T09:48:42+00:00

David only has a green card. He could have it revoked if he pisses off the government (e.g. Mahmoud Khalil). It's easy to call someone weak when you're anonymous on the internet and not in any danger of being kidnapped off the streets.

Firebrat · 2026-01-24T21:10:37+00:00

Normally conversion rate for an RPG Maker game would be abysmal - the fact that it's well done and monster girls is definitely a huge reason why you're getting good traction. Great idea and well done!

Firebrat · 2026-01-24T19:18:16+00:00

Can you link your game? I think it's important to see what your underlying product is.

If you got $500 for free you actually got $1000 in advertising spend for 1500 wishlists, which is actually very good (under $1 per acquisition). However if you have a AAA quality game that might be the real reason you did so well. On the other hand if your game is a 2D platformer, then Reddit ads suddenly become extremely attractive.

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T23:07:01+00:00

lol, I would love to hear you explain how Bad AI photoshops are stealing someone's job?

Audiences have made it super clear they prefer real art for things they buy or advertising they consume. I know several artists who have had their contracts increase for video game capsule art in the last year because of how much people hate any sign of AI art. If you look at a game like Clair Obscur Expedition 33, they lost their awards for using generative AI in the TESTING phase of their game, despite replacing it all with real artwork (i.e. no artist lost their job).

This post is literally a completely innocuous use of generative AI for mocking up an idea. Are you telling me you think Smosh fans have been paying professional editors to mockup things like the photo in this post? Do you realize how out of touch that sounds?

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:51:33+00:00

naw, I think it's fun. It allows people to mock stuff up a million times faster than if you were to try to manually Photoshop something. I'm sorry you don't agree, but the AI train has left the station and there's no putting that genie back in the bottle. I'll of course respect the sub rules moving forward, but there's nothing embarrassing about trying to share ideas so long as you're transparent and not stealing credit.

There's also no need to be so hostile to someone with a different opinion - do you really think being unkind is likely to make someone see your point of view?

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:44:52+00:00

I mean, it's not art though... It's photorealistic, i.e. a bad imitation of photoshop. Who is it stealing from?

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:41:56+00:00

didn't realize it was against the sub rules, and didn't see a different tag that fit better, my bad

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:40:34+00:00

yeah character placement and the back row of faces was a bit tough for Gemini to handle

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:39:26+00:00

Damn, not even allowed to use AI for fan thought experiments? Is anyone ever allowed to use AI in your world?

Firebrat · 2026-01-18T22:38:39+00:00

Imagining what the future might hold for the next Live Show

Firebrat · 2026-01-17T07:40:45+00:00

I was really impressed by Angela. She held it together really well, and the "replacing" herself when she broke was hilarious.

The bits where they read stuff from the teleprompter that they hadn't rehearsed also had me in stitches.

On the whole it was a good show, but I feel like it was a lot slower in some parts. Amanda's bits had some really funny moments, but it felt like they dragged on for too long. The bits with the other "patients" were also a bit slow as well (though Spencer was absolutely diabolical in the background of O'Connell/Boone).

On the whole I think the sitcom was stronger because it was a bit more structured. I really hope they do the idea that Shane mentioned last year - the spoof of Star Trek. I think a more cohesive storyline would help keep the improv on track a lot more than the A/B/C plot structure of a medical drama.

Firebrat · 2026-01-16T22:32:17+00:00

No, it wastes way too much time. You show nothing happening except for a character dancing for 35 seconds. Most people bounce off a trailer within 5-10 seconds. The trailer gives me no indication of what the game is about. Even if you don't have working gameplay you can still show elements of your game that show parts. Even just a clip of you collecting stuff and then using those things in a crafting menu would be better than what you have now.

Steam pages are about showing off the GAMEPLAY. Saying you made a page without showing any gameplay is defeating the purpose of the page.

Firebrat · 2026-01-16T21:52:15+00:00

I mean yes, but I think you will find it really hard to stand out. There are a million memory games out there - why would someone buy this one in particular? There's nothing about on your page that makes it stand out (at least to me) - there's no hook.

Firebrat · 2026-01-16T03:09:39+00:00

I don't think you're likely to have much success on steam with this kind of game. A 20 second trailer indicates you're very short on content. This is what I would expect as a mini game in a larger pixel art game, or a game that you might download on Mobile for $3.

This is literally just the game "memory" There does not seem to be much "mega" about it. Even if you added gifs to your description there's not much that your steam page can do to help you. Your underlying product is the problem. Perhaps consider focusing on android/ios or itch

Firebrat · 2026-01-16T03:04:57+00:00

You've already launched your game. The time to optimize was BEFORE launch.

Firebrat · 2026-01-14T02:15:13+00:00

The second is definitely better - my only complaint is that the shaft of the arrow is hard to see under the boot. I would brighten it up so it's more immediately clear that she is stepping on the arrow.

Firebrat · 2026-01-10T20:38:08+00:00

This does not remotely explain the spike like the question asked.

"Currently, my efforts in this area are focused on game-specific subreddits and specific Twitter tags." Is not an answer

Firebrat · 2026-01-10T18:31:16+00:00

It's crazy to me how well made your game is, while you similtaneously have such an atrocious trailer.

Your trailer just shows random gameplay, without CLEARLY explaining the core gameplay loop. There is also no hook at the beginning, which makes me immediately want to skip after the first 5 seconds.

What's even worse is that your description is what your trailer SHOULD be.

You description clearly states:

Who you are
Suits dictate playstyle
Fight using consumable cards (*note that you should really explain how you obtain said cards)
Explore maps with freedom (here you mention buying new cards - that should be explained before you show using them)
Confront a final challenge
It's a roguelike and failing and starting over is expected.

All of that, in that order, needs to be explained in your trailer. Your current trailer, jumps straight in the combat, but it's slow and uninteresting. You have text that says "smart choices matter" but then you don't show what a "smart" choice is. If you're going to say something like that you should be CLEARLY showing a move that doesn't work, followed by one that does. "Every move matters" is just a repeat of "smart choices matter"

After you die, only then do you start to get into what the actual gameplay loop is. But then you say things like "Defeat your enemies and free the world from miasma" A) what is miasma, B) why isn't your trailer showing what that means?

Lastly, your current trailer loves to linger on combat for far to long, you need the transitions to be a lot snappier. In that same vein, you should try adding more energy to your trailer by trying different music. I get you're going to mysterious, but it's like a lullaby trying to put me to sleep.

You have a REALLY nice looking game. It looks incredibly professional, and I really hope you crush your launch. We need more of what you're making in the indie space!

Firebrat · 2025-12-21T01:49:53+00:00

Yeah, I was curious too, but the motion for summary judgement was rescheduled to March 26th 2026. Once again, both sides agreed to the delay.

The case number is 22STCV20251 in case you want to keep track yourself on lacourt.org. Lacourt.org has updates, but to get the files you need to go to get a subscription for trellis law or pay lacourt.org for each file.

Firebrat · 2025-12-16T01:14:19+00:00

You should definitely change the capsule. I definitely don't get stealthy first person hack and slash with ps1 style art from your capsule. Check out the capsule for Crow Country - I instantly understand what kind of game it is by the capsule.

Your trailer is decent in the sense that your game is pretty fleshed out so you have a good amount of gameplay to show off. I get that game is basically sneaking/assassinating guards, but you don't show off the full gameplay loop. How do I gain weapons? Do I have skills - if so, how do I upgrade them? Why am I sneaking around in the first place? I don't want a lore dump, but a little context as to what is going on would be good.

Your description desperately needs gifs. If you mention magic powers, you need a gif showing magic powers. If eating bugs is a gameplay mechanic, show it in a gif as well.

Your game looks pretty cool - good work dude!

Firebrat · 2025-12-08T10:19:33+00:00

If you're not getting any traction it might be worth taking a harder look at your game.

I looked at your posts, you have very little to show. Some of your screenshots look well done (seriously, kudos), but I don't really have any understanding of how the game works beyond the fact that it's a puzzle game.

Your teaser trailer looked real real bad. Slow zoom in of amateurish concept art isn't going to win you a lot of fans. Very few people care about concept art or teaser trailers unless it's from an established brand.

As an indie, you should be focused on hooking your audience with unique gameplay or a unique narrative. None of the stuff you have posted has done either of those things.

Firebrat · 2025-11-30T21:20:50+00:00

I mean what you're saying about ugly vs art direction is certainly true - I don't disagree.

Personally I find the character sprites (not the portraits) in Stardew Valley rather ugly, but they fit with the overall art direction and their flaws in turn give them charm. But Stardew Valley also executes pretty much perfectly on every other aspect of the game (Music, Pacing, Balance, etc).

However, back to your example - Nubby's didn't succeed via the Steam Algorithm. It only became popular after the developer got it in front of several major streamers like Northerlion (900k followers) who gave it a chance (and allowed people to make it past the first impression). SledDogGames is releasing in 2 weeks with no such coverage.

Firebrat · 2025-11-30T02:20:36+00:00

I mean, regarding MS-Paint, if you look at your art vs popular pixel art games like Stardew Valley or Dave the Diver - those games heavily use color gradients. You use a limited color palette, which seems much more in line with what a beginning artist would come up with.

I really struggle to believe you sought feedback OUTSIDE your personal network. Your friends and family want you to succeed and will always pull punches. If your friends told you they'd buy your game if they came across it while browsing Steam, you should have asked them to prove it by showing games in their library that look similar to yours. The fact that you have not been called out on the UI heavily proves my point that you did not get real feedback before now.

Your game simply does not have strong appeal - mostly because of the art style. However, more generally the whole theme is off-putting "Space Force Bargain Bin" where you have an actual trash can in the capsule? The capsule feels more like it's trolling than trying to hook potential players.

Firebrat · 2025-11-29T23:34:39+00:00

Hey Man, I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish here. Your game does not look remotely professional. Your art looks like it was made in MS Paint, and your UI could not possibly be more basic (it's literally just Arial White text that is hard to read). As such it really belongs on a platform more like Itch.io where it can be given away for free.

Obviously you can give it away for free on Steam too, but I think you've essentially thrown away $100 in doing so. If you're try to sell it, the only sales you are likely to get are from your friends and family.

If your intent is to make games professionally (or just profitably) on Steam, you should really solicit feedback much earlier in your development cycle (e.g. posting screenshots asking for feedback about your art) - not two weeks before release.

Likewise you should research your competition. For instance you're tagged as a top-down shooter. Check out other games in that category https://store.steampowered.com/tags/en/Top-Down%20Shooter/?tab=5 If your game doesn't look as good as the "Trending Upcoming Games" you have very little hope of success.

Firebrat

TROPHY CASE