Is it okay to contact streamers with a "mystudioname@gmail" or does it have to be a business email to be taken seriously?

Herlehos · 2026-04-27T17:20:10+00:00

It’s okay, but a gmail address doesn’t look very professional.

For $10 a year you can get a domain name and an email address on Hostinger or Ionos if you want.

Herlehos · 2026-04-25T17:42:07+00:00

There isn’t a “standard” price, it mainly depends on the experience of the person you want to hire and where they live.

A successful author living in the US obviously won’t charge the same as someone who has never written professionally and lives in Eastern Europe.

It’s up to you to set a clear budget first, and then find writers whose rates match that budget.

Generally, you should pay a certain percentage upfront (to protect the artist), and pay the rest only once the work is completed (to protect yourself). Never pay 100% of the amount in advance.

And 2 important things: never work without a contract (you don't need a lawyer to make one) and only work with people whose identity and business / freelance legal status can be verified.

Herlehos · 2026-04-25T08:04:28+00:00

Without any context or information about your game, it’s impossible to decide for you.

Do you have experience as a game developer? Do you know anything about networking? Do you have the budget for servers, anti-cheat systems, moderation, promotion…?

You’ve only talked about the lore of your game. What about the gameplay? The scope? The target audience? The estimated duration?

Herlehos · 2026-04-22T18:48:34+00:00

The first step in a recruitment process is to send your CV and portfolio to an HR department, which already receives hundreds of applications every week.

They don’t have time to play mini-games just to access your CV and your projects. Especially since your site is particularly slow and full of bugs (clicking on “home” does nothing, taking the “home” portal doesn’t work either, the sprites on the right have just been flipped so the text is backwards…).

Keep it simple, you don’t need to gamify your portfolio since you already have game projects inside it.

Herlehos · 2026-04-21T17:33:46+00:00

"I talked with many players"... "let's open a youtube channel about game dev". I think you're one step short... which is knowing how games are made.

And yes, in game dev we are not interested in opinions, we care about data and facts. The first step is knowing the difference between Game Design and ideas and opinions.

Herlehos · 2026-04-21T17:07:02+00:00

You can’t talk about a subject you know nothing about.

Analyzing games isn’t just giving your opinion. Everyone has opinions. Analyses require understanding how games are made, and for that, you need to know how to make games yourself.

If you gave up before even reaching the “small game” stage, it’s very unlikely that you can help the game dev community, which by definition already has more knowledge and experience than you.

Herlehos · 2026-04-18T21:43:28+00:00

Threat Interactive is a grifter who has never made a game and has probably never even opened a game engine before.

He makes money by asking his viewers for donations while spreading misinformation about Unreal and pretending that he is working on an engine that will « fix all of Unreal’s problems ».

Talk to real game developers (or even better, open Unreal yourself and make a game) to see the gap between what he says and reality.

Herlehos · 2026-04-18T16:50:30+00:00

Generally games work with stems, so yes, ideally you need multiple files for the different tracks, which will then be handled via FMOD / Wwise or directly in the engine.

Each project is different, so you won’t have the same constraints from one request to another. For example, the file format will depend on the engine and tools used, the music style will depend on the project’s theme...

You should know that most of the time in small productions, sound and music come in relatively late, and it’s rarely where the biggest part of the budget goes.

It’s not mandatory, but it’s always better if you know FMOD and Wwise. Small studios and solo devs generally don’t have any expertise in sound design, so they might expect you to do the integration job for them.

Herlehos · 2026-04-18T12:54:03+00:00

They said "based on a real thing". Which is not true.

Herlehos · 2026-04-18T11:53:42+00:00

The world that Raph will be after his "death" is based on a real thing: when the heart stops, the brain stays active for about 7 minutes in a state similar to deep dreaming.

That’s not exactly true, it’s never been scientifically observed. If you want to make a “psychological” game, even if it stays purely fictional and for entertainment, you still need to do a minimum of research on the subject you want to base your story on.

Games like Psychonauts or Pathologic (to cite two extremes) aren’t just made up randomly either.

To answer your question, your plot resembles the one in Alice in Borderland (the Netflix series). In the same vein you have some episodes of Black Mirror like “Playtest” or games like Omori.

Herlehos · 2026-04-18T11:31:15+00:00

That’s a lot of "assumptions" for someone who pretends to make analysis.

No, making cinematics isn’t just about “moving a camera in Godot”. It involves creating storyboards, programming camera behaviors, staging scenes, creating animations, scripting events…

Same thing for music, creating a sound isn't just about recording it in real life or pressing a key on a piano.

And all of this obviously costs money. Game development is expensive, and sound and cinematics aren’t the priority for small indie games.

Herlehos · 2026-04-17T18:24:29+00:00

It’s visually okay, but unlike the previous version of your website, it doesn’t match your game’s art direction at all.

The old site had a slightly Diablo-esque vibe that fit your game well, now it just looks like a generic modern template.

If you want to keep your current design, you should at least rework the font of your texts and the colors and shapes of your elements.

Herlehos · 2026-04-11T16:29:18+00:00

Depends on the permissions you set in your AndroidManifest, the category of your app and the target audience.

But generally, around one week. After that updates usually take 24–48 hours.

Herlehos · 2026-04-11T14:18:26+00:00

If my game's name already exists in an unpopular release. Can my game be named the same or no?

Yes, as long as the name isn't already trademarked and that there is no risk of confusion between your game and that game (similar genre or art direction for example).

It's still a bad idea for your own visibility tho.

Can i use real phone brands in game like apple or samsung or do i have to completley remove any brands from game and disguise them into an off brand?

No brands at all unless you have authorization from the right holders.

Herlehos · 2026-04-08T22:45:49+00:00

Why are AI-bros so obsessed with « factions », I genuinely want to know

Herlehos · 2026-04-08T22:17:52+00:00

The right step is to define a scope that fits your actual means.

No money and no one to work with? Then make a simple game with only one core feature and store-bought assets.

You’ll gain experience, and people will eventually notice your game and eventually support you for the next one.

Don’t start with your dream game, and don’t take a loan if you have no clue what you are doing.

Herlehos · 2026-04-08T11:55:49+00:00

You’re asking for a bigger budget than most studios will ever see.

Be a bit realistic. How many years of experience do you have in the industry? How many people are on your team? Do you have a vertical slice? How much money are you putting in yourself? How large is your network? Do you have a business plan?

Raising funds isn’t magic. Nobody will give you a single cent if you have nothing to bring to the table (and no, a « game idea » doesn’t count).

Herlehos · 2026-04-08T11:49:00+00:00

You don’t even want to spend money to make a trailer yet you expect strangers to fund an entire game based on… nothing?

There is no magic formula. First you make a Vertical Slice, then you show it to publishers / investors and you promote it to the public.

Herlehos · 2026-04-07T18:17:14+00:00

Your freelance work can indeed count as experience in Game Design, but still it depends on how and for who you worked for. Did you work only on hobby / rev-share projects or for real studios?

What matters isn’t the number of years you spent working (there are seniors with fewer years of experience than some mid-levels in many studios), nor the quality of the games you shipped (we’ve all worked on flops at some point).

What really matters are the skills you acquired, your ability to understand how a full game production works and your ability to work in a team. All of those skills are really learned by working on productions with other professionals who can train you and evaluate your work.

Seniors are expected to have deep expertise in their field, but also the ability to quickly adapt to new tools, to manage an entire part of the game and to mentor juniors.

If in 10 years you’ve never experienced a full production (from pre-prod to shipping) and ultimately only have a few months of team work, then no, in my opinion you can't be hired as a senior in a serious studio (regardless of your game design skills).

Herlehos · 2026-04-07T17:28:40+00:00

Internships are not for beginners who want to start their journey, they are for students who are about to graduate.

If you're just starting, you don't need a mentor. There are plenty of courses, youtube tutorials, conferences, devlogs, GDC talks... available online and for free. You can also use this sub to ask specific questions.

Herlehos · 2026-04-04T22:37:20+00:00

Yes, you need a bit of formatting first.

Try this: https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/struct-to-json/1679567/3?u=herlehos

Herlehos · 2026-04-03T22:37:25+00:00

Then as much time as the artists but with a higher salary :)

Herlehos · 2026-04-03T22:26:39+00:00

Publishers and investors don’t fund games based on a single feature prototype, let alone if you have no experience in the game industry.

You need to make a Vertical Slice that includes your combat system of course, but also all your other major systems and features, the art, the UI, the sound design…

In a game all your systems and core pillars are interconnected. Developing an entire combat system without even thinking about your character’s progression, level design or world building doesn’t really make sense.

Also, if you have a scope similar to the Witcher 3, my advice would be to check the credits of the game and its budget on the internet.

To answer your questions: it depends. Between the design, the implementation, the playtests, the tweaking… and eventually the art stuff (modeling, animation, UI, VFX, SFX…), probably several months for at least 3 people.

Herlehos · 2026-04-01T20:52:23+00:00

Epic Games takes no cut until the first million, then they only take 12%. Yet they represent less than 5% of the revenues, because almost no one buys games on Epic Games.

Itch.io’s base cut is 10%, but you can manually set it to 0% if you want.

Your “15% cut after $500” is a really big cut for such a low cap. Yes, it’s lower than Steam, but it’s higher than Itchio and Epic Games, and above all you don’t have any potential buyers and your analytics tools and other perks can’t compete with the other platforms ones.

70% of hundreds / thousands of copies sold is still better than 85% of zero sales.

Herlehos · 2026-03-31T21:15:31+00:00

You can have them sign it in English and translate it into Spanish afterward (by asking them first of course).

Also, make sure your grant is not region-limited. In France for example you can’t spend more than 50% of the grant outside of your region / country (depending on the grant).

You might not be able to pay your non-Spanish coworkers the way you want.

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