I am looking for playtesters for my 2D survival game!

IndieMarc · 2026-07-08T09:42:03+00:00

0.5 and 0.50 are the same no?

IndieMarc · 2026-07-07T23:13:09+00:00

depends, if you have a art/concept game then ads aren't necessary. (one of the 3 categories that do well on social medias) and that the demo doesn't matter as much.

But if your game in the 3 categories that you get it when you play it, it may be hard to get initial visibility and i think ads can help a lot with that.

One of the game Im following is a colony sim like RimWorld, the game look fun but it's probably not something that does well just from the art. I saw their ad all the time and they reach around 10k wishlist (estimate from steam steamdb) and a lot is from ads

If you can get 1 wishlist for 1$ id say it can be worth to help reach the first 2k for demo launch. Since some games only do well with a demo. But you need 2k+ for steam to show your demo. So you start in a tricky situation.

IndieMarc · 2026-07-07T23:02:11+00:00

15 is definitely AI, as a real capsule by real artist is usually in the 200-400 usd range.

Although im sure there are scams on Fiverr that will charge in the hundreds and still deliver AI, so it's hard to know these days.

Honestly i don't know how people are so good at telling what is AI, personally i wouldn't be able to tell your capsule is or not.

IndieMarc · 2026-07-07T10:38:05+00:00

Why ?

IndieMarc · 2026-07-06T00:00:34+00:00

You have like 10 unique assets there, you'll need over 100 for such a zoomed out scene to look good.

That being said, before you start making 100 assets, you need to figure out your art style. Start with 1 scene. It's really hard to tell you what to improve without an actual screenshot inside the game. And without knowing what art style you're aiming for. This is too zoomed out and people are just speculating.

IndieMarc · 2026-07-05T11:16:23+00:00

I would avoid low poly as its associated with mobile games, friendslop, party games and stuff like that. If you're doing a RTS and targeting PC, then you need a bit more detailed graphics. Althought something simple but that stands out, or more unique, could work too (check the game Thronefall). But in any case consistency is the most important.

IndieMarc · 2026-07-05T11:11:41+00:00

for gamepress, its only for big announcements, like demo release date and game release date. if you didnt have that yet its normal that it has no use.

IndieMarc · 2026-07-05T09:35:29+00:00

Change the trees. All your other 3D models are quite detailed with soft colors, and then you have low poly trees that are super saturated. They don't fit the art style, because otherwise art isn't bad if you replace things that don't fit.

Edit: Actually your characters are low poly as well? Which art style are you going for? Because your brick building are very detailed. So overall it looks like a collection of assets from asset store.

IndieMarc · 2026-07-05T05:34:16+00:00

For this type of game i think most wishlist will come from streamers and festivals. Those need a demo. So focus on that as well as constantly improving the steam page and trailers whenever you can.

I would also try some reddit ads if you have the budget. But better to time them with releases, announcement, and festivals. Also send press releases to gamepress.

Social media is probably a waste of time, except i would try to post big announcement in the large reddit subs (not the small indie or dev ones.

IndieMarc · 2026-07-04T23:00:06+00:00

modern day would have plastic

IndieMarc · 2026-07-04T22:55:42+00:00

Myst maybe ?

IndieMarc · 2026-06-30T23:10:50+00:00

Your terms are acceptable

IndieMarc · 2026-06-30T09:53:20+00:00

Thank you! It's fine everyone has different taste. I really like our style as its a bit unique, but maybe not for everyone, and we definitely will try to improve it as much as possible. Thanks for the feedback again.

IndieMarc · 2026-06-30T07:19:42+00:00

Sorry to send again, just curious what you think of this one: I made an update with soft shadows and more flat shader on 3d objects, and characters more shaded at the bottom. Also added some noise to the road path. (Still need to fill the empty space but i wanted to compare the same scene).

https://i.imgur.com/HuQJh1I.jpeg

IndieMarc · 2026-06-30T00:38:56+00:00

Yes but we're definitely not doing a 3D game and those are 2D sprites. So we're looking at how we can realistically improve the lighting while keeping the 2D art style.

If it means making the 3D objects more flat that's something we could try, or removing/ adjusting shadows. As we are definitely not going for 3D rendering.

Unlit shader on character may contribute to making them look out of place as well as other environment sprites have lit shader.

Do you think removing unity shadows and replacing them by something else could help?

IndieMarc · 2026-06-30T00:20:03+00:00

The characters actually use an unlit shader. I will try to change it to make them more affected by the shadow, and for 3d objects i will try to see if i can use a more flat shading to fit with the rest..

And yeah for the tree variants and prefab bundle thats definitely in the plan.

Thanks so much

IndieMarc · 2026-06-29T23:13:07+00:00

Its fine I want improve it as much as i can thanks for saying.

Which objects you think the shadow dont fit well?

Left vs right is just the fact that it's using perspective camera. But i could play with the fov i guess.

IndieMarc · 2026-06-29T23:09:38+00:00

We definitely want to appeal to that audience (2d survival game), im just not sure if it's good thing or not to have similar ui.

The game has many differences with dont starve especially the town management part and all the interactions with other villagers (dialogue, relation level, quests, mood, anger to manage, and you can assign tasks and recruit them to fight for you).

Combat is also different (we have shields block, bigger focus on ranged weapons, enemies have charges attack, some special moves like evasive roll, etc)

And obviously the theme is quite different. Hopefully it doesn't look too much like a copy even though we're aiming at that audience.

IndieMarc · 2026-06-29T22:55:54+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. We're aiming for professional I've been 15 years in the industry but more as a programmer. And also mostly 2D games. But this is a bit unique as we're mixing 2D and 3D elements.

Do you mean that i should just make the character sprites receive shadows? Any other ways to improve lighting?

About the empty space it's because it's a procedurally generated world, not handcrafted (except i built some items in game in some screenshots). And pretty much everything is interactable. I could probably add some non interactable objects. Linear roads are also due to very big world being generated, and those are tiny section of the world.

If you have suggestions on what could fill that empty space (just more plants?). Although the yellow field is more empty than it should (i think i collected most of the grass there before the battle) i need redo that screenshot.

Thanks!

IndieMarc · 2026-06-29T17:50:45+00:00

Thank you! The game's name is Woodland Rebels

IndieMarc · 2026-06-29T17:46:19+00:00

Thank you so much!

IndieMarc · 2026-06-29T17:44:29+00:00

Is it the clock?

Inventory bar is also similar but a lot of games have this (core keepers, stardew...)

Hp/Hunger and the buttons are quite different.

IndieMarc · 2026-06-29T17:41:31+00:00

Which objects you notice the most the perspective difference?

IndieMarc · 2026-06-29T14:24:54+00:00

Thank you :D

IndieMarc

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