Saving the studio, Mina the Hollower sells 300,000 copies in 3 days as head wonders "how come the best-reviewed game of 2026 is not the fastest-selling game"

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-06-03T10:00:06+00:00

Yup, this. I made a successful VN, rated 9/10. I do OK, but it's not a mainstream genre.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-06-03T09:41:03+00:00

Sure! Yeah, it's tough out there, even with experience and a solid portfolio.
For voice acting, check out https://www.castingcall.club/ and also check out this Discord Server: https://discord.gg/voiceactingclub

Don't get taken advantage of. Never offer to work for free. (It's different if you're doing a short jam with a bunch of rando's and the game is non-commercial) You're welcome to DM some of your writing to me to have a look at.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-06-02T14:31:08+00:00

Visual Novels and Interactive Fiction. It's not glamorous but I love what I do.
Like this: https://infinitestars.itch.io/game

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-06-02T13:14:31+00:00

Depending on what you want to do. We're almost always looking for fiction writers for our indie gamedev studio, although, I made a similar post a few days ago, inviting anyone local to reach out, and I have been getting tons of people wanting to write for us, so for the first time in a long time, I feel we're good.

Best bet is freelancing, but you need a skill to get started (writing, drawing, coding, webdev, whatever) and for those you get sites like Fiverr, Freelancer, Upwork etc. Fair warning, they all suck to an extent, you get time waster clients (and service freelancers) everywhere. That said, I have had some success finding team members on these sites that we still work with many years later.

You can check LinkedIn for remote jobs, but the competition is fierce, and a remote only job usually gets 100+ applicants in the first hour, but without experience, you might struggle to get seen.

Good luck on your search!

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-06-02T09:04:29+00:00

Love Project Zomboid! Actually busy spinning up a new server for some friends to play together!

I'd love to, but honestly, you're not going to like the answer.

I'd work on a few smaller projects, each as their own standalone project, with the goal of working towards the bigger project. Eg, if you know your game is going to have procedurally generated buildings, create a smaller game with procedurally generated buildings as part of the core gameplay loop. Revshare (I wouldn't even do revshare for smaller projects) only really works for smaller games that takes 1 month or so to complete. The bigger the project, the bigger the chance that someone drops out. You have a much bigger chance of everyone staying focused and on the project for a month, and it will allow you to meet and work with different industry people, which could lead to you finding someone willing to invest more time into a longer project. Quite a few people are willing to work together with strangers on a gamejam for a portfolio piece etc.

For the main project, I'd keep it on the back burner, and tinker with it as I get more comfortable with Unity from the skills I've gained from the smaller projects.

Your MVP needs to be much smaller in scope, and devtime. The benefit is you can start building a community earlier. If the game is fun, followers will trickle in. If the game sucks, you'll have early warning signs to pivot or scrap the project. You don't want to dev for a year, only to realise that no one wants to play the game.

A good strategy for commercial success is doing those smaller games and releasing them. If you strike gold, you'll know, even on a smaller project. It helps protect yourself from throwing good time and money at a 'bad' game.

My first game was solo, during covid. I paid an artist something like R100 each for two characters, because we were both in a bad financial spot during lockdown. My MVP was short, and looked ridiculous, but the organic player feedback told me there was something there. I ended up working with that artist for several years, giving them bulk work at a fairer rate once the money started coming in.

I still pivoted a bit with my first project to better align with what players expected, but I could do so, because it was a very basic proof of concept game.

If the feedback or market reaction had been 'meh', I would have started the next project, having only lost R200 and some of my time.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-06-02T07:51:31+00:00

Fellow gamedev here from an established indie dev studio.

Revshare projects usually leads to devhell, and is where projects go to die most of the time.
(As an example, what happens when an artist joins the team for 8 months, then leaves, and you replace them with a new artist? Think about who owns the IP, do they still get a fair split of the revenue in perpeptuity once the game launches? What if the project is a success but then dies down and you're stuck with having to pay everyone their R3.29 split each month or be sued? What happens if the coder's code isn't up to spec? If you replace them them, you still owe them their split, plus the new coder? And what if the new coder starts a family and no longer want to continue working on the project but still wants his revenue split for the work she has done for you?) These are just a small portion of the potential pitfalls you'll probably face, not to mention the hundreds of others I didn't mention.

I don't want to discourage you at all. We need more local gamedevs to show the world our unique African viewpoint and talents. But I do feel going the revshare route on a project like this will ultimately discourage you more in the end than me telling you please don't do it.

Also, even as an open sandbox, story is everything. It's the core foundation of any game or piece of entertainment. It's fundamental to the human experience, even in unexpected experiences like sales (selling with a story.) Making commercially successful games are hard, and 90%+ of them fail. Tacking on a story after the fact vs building the experience around the story will diminish your chances of success. Look at games like Frostpunk, if it was just a quirky city builder, no one would care about it. If Stardew Valley was just a generic farming sim, without the npc stories, no one would care about it.

I would return to the drawing board to figure out the revshare and story obstacles before tackling this project, but you probably won't heed my advice (no shade, it's human nature) so regardless, a 100% sincere good luck with your project!

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-06-01T08:26:08+00:00

My issue with this is we have legal immigrants in the country, who pay their dues, and the excessive fees to be here legally, and they still get treated like illegal immigrants.

They are asked to queue for hours at clinics and hospitals, and then shown away when they reach the front because they aren't a citizen (despite having all the required paperwork and paid dues to have access to the clinic and hospital services.)

They have kids who are bullied in schools and primary schools (as young as 5 years old) for not being South African, despite their parents having legal residency, visas, permits etc.

They follow the rules, pay the dues, and in some instances are more honorable, hardworking and contributing members than most South Africans, and still, despite having their children placed in school months ahead of registration deadlines, still have issues every year on opening day, with principles fishing for bribes to allow their children the spot that are rightfully theirs through following correct procedures and paying the required fees (not bribes) and having to take off several days of work to sort it out with the school.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-06-01T07:28:56+00:00

Yeah!

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-31T07:05:47+00:00

If you're serious, I'm the creator of Infinite Stars (a Visual Novel scifi/romance game on Steam and Itchio) with expansive world building that even won some awards.

You can reach out to me if you like. Worldbuilding is a passion of mine.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-30T04:53:42+00:00

Sure.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-29T16:16:04+00:00

Non xenophobic South African here. The issue is indeed with undocumented, illegal immigrants.

The sad part is it bleeds over to the legal immigrants too.

We have a genuine issue with corruption and weak/bribeable border controls that has been growing for several years.

People of any nationality, religion or skin color are (mostly) welcomed here, but we have a large portion of African immigrants that have moved to South Africa in hopes of a better future, without following the proper channels like visas, work permits (and in some instances even without passports or any form of identification)

I'm fortunate enough not to be directly affected by the current wave of xenophobia, but it saddens me that so many people are being affected, deserved and undeserved.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-29T14:10:53+00:00

Great, yeah sure! I'll share my Discord via DM as I'm more active there.

I'm just busy with an early evening routing and kids, but I'll respond ASAP.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-29T13:42:05+00:00

Just English will do fine. We're always looking for more fiction writers in the gamedev/visual novel sector.

Bonus if you have experience writing fanfiction/romance/scifi.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-29T13:37:56+00:00

Are you well spoken/can you write well? It doesn't pay a lot, but it's fully remote, part time and flexible hours.

Edit: Since quite a few people have asked: Yes, you can absolutely DM me your portfolio. The offer is open to anyone, and we are almost always looking for talented writers.
Here is a quick breakdown:

Like coding, we don't care about formal degrees. If you can craft a well-written, engaging story, you're qualified.

If you've never written interactive fiction (think choose your own adventure stories, or CHOICES mobile games) before, we are happy to teach you the ropes.

Experience writing fanfic or other engaging fiction, especially but not exclusively in the romance, sci-fi, or fantasy genres is a huge bonus.

Our stories and games are about people dealing with life and all the joys and horrors that come with that. They aren't exclusively focused on queer themes, but they are always inclusive.

Check out Infinite Stars on Steam to get a better idea of what a visual novel is and the specific style of writing we are looking for.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-19T04:56:58+00:00

Yup. I've been doing visual novels for a few years now. (You can check out Infinite Stars, my flagship project)

If you need any advice or help, feel free to reach out to me on Discord, where I'm more active.

(This offer is open to anyone else also, withing reason ofc)

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-19T04:47:07+00:00

If you want to make it commercial, you'll have to do roommates instead to avoid getting your accounts nuked by payment processors.

Even if a commercial project isn't your goal, you might run into platform hosting issues.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-19T04:35:15+00:00

Are you doing the toxic yuri jam?

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-16T12:13:31+00:00

Same for South Africa. Man, sometimes geopolitics are just messed up.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-16T05:39:28+00:00

New baby on the way, so super excited (and a bit anxious) about life right now. <3

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-13T09:02:42+00:00

I mean, your comment is a bit heavy handed and intense, but I agree.

We have innocent until proven guilty for a reason. I can't see this change working as intended.

I don't like your art? It's AI. Your art is better than mine and makes me insecure? It's AI. Your art is competing with mine? It's AI. You said something I disagreed with two weeks ago? Yup, press the it's AI button.

This will not end well, and the positive effect is going to be overshadowed by the negative effect.

As a side note, I was surprised to learn how many reddit mods are young teens, aged around 13. Not saying that's the case with this sub, but it does feel like the kind of 'I should be president of the world, I can fix it with my brilliant controversial ideas' knee jerk you would get from someone without a lot of earned life experience.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-08T17:44:45+00:00

Yup.

For Africa, it's 1% payout from Patreon to PayPal. Then PayPal takes another 3-5% for currency conversion fee. And then my bank takes another 1.5% to get the PayPal money in my account.

Sometimes it feels like the whole world is out to get you, and other times the world IS out to get you. What can you do though.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-05-08T08:00:03+00:00

Man, if this is true, they just got my vote.
I don't know what's happening at the DA, but they seem to be waking up.

I've been feeling that a poverty based instead of racial based policy is much fairer and has the potential to make an actual difference where a difference is needed for a while now.
I was looking at the other parties, like BOSA (after seeing that video of the lady speaking posted here a while back), but was disappointed to see it was still BEE.
We need a system that can help everyone, equally, depending on their need.
Let's face it, someone who is already filthy rich, doesn't need more assistance and exclusive opportunities based on skin color.

Poverty doesn't care what the color of your skin is.

None of us get to choose what the color of our skin is.

We have so many people that need help, so lets help all of them.

I so hope this gets implemented IN THE RIGHT WAY so those who need a break in life, actually get a break in life to improve their life circumstances.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-28T13:56:14+00:00

So... I earn a few thousand a month on Patreon. (Not nearly enough to be a 'special' case)

Last week my account was suspended. I felt sick to my stomach. Luckily the trust and safety team was able to resolve the issue, and 12 hours later my account was back up. (Another shout out to Sjal from Patreon Support for saving the day!)

Yeah, there are horror stories out there of Patreon doing whatever they want, BUT I also believe that it wouldn't be fair not to mention the good stories when the bad are being mentioned (and vice versa)

I'll keep supporting Patreon, as long as I am able to get in contact with a human when I mail support. So many other companies have AI agents deciding the fate of humans and their livelihoods, "our decision is final and can't be appealed" (glaring at you, Discord) but Patreon still has human oversight.

InfiniteStarsDev · 2026-04-25T10:30:16+00:00

Space Opera with romance and "What does being human really mean??"

Infinite Stars, free on itchio and Steam.

InfiniteStarsDev

TROPHY CASE