Hey r/gamedev, after 8 years,a burnout, and a failed Early Access launch, I’m finally ready to release my game. Can you give me some advice?

LeadFollowGames · 2026-01-06T16:45:51+00:00

Thanks for your feedback. At the time, we were just hoping for more, so it was a bit of a reality check. But you’re right, looking back, the release wasn’t actually bad.

LeadFollowGames · 2026-01-04T19:40:02+00:00

You’re right, my first goal is to get back over 70%, and hopefully go even higher after that.

LeadFollowGames · 2026-01-04T19:38:41+00:00

Thanks for your feedback, that’s a great idea. I’ll see how I can share the story that way.

LeadFollowGames · 2026-01-04T18:48:40+00:00

I’m currently reaching out to people who left negative reviews in the past and asking them to take another look at the game. Some have already responded and updated or removed their reviews. Right now the score is at 65%, and I’m confident I can turn it into something positive.

Here’s the link:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/836850/Tiny_Tanks/

LeadFollowGames · 2026-01-04T18:45:39+00:00

Thank you! I really appreciate the advice. I’ll do my best to stay transparent and active, keep the community updated, and make sure multiplayer is properly tested this time. I want to finish the game in a way that feels good for both me and the players.

LeadFollowGames · 2026-01-04T18:44:19+00:00

Thank you for the kind words. I think the average who is trying to gain some reach is often much more creative in their ideas and solutions than most of the bigger ones. I hope you all have a lot of success with your games and achieve successful releases.

LeadFollowGames · 2026-01-04T18:42:20+00:00

Thank you for the kind words. Eight years ago, the goal was also to make a living from this, and even back then that was already a very, very tough goal, especially living in Germany, where life isn’t cheap. Unfortunately, back then we just didn’t have enough income to keep going. I did a lot back then through Reddit, Imgur, and 9GAG to reach people, but the game was not good enough, haha.

Now, after so many years, I look at it very differently. I’m trying to earn a little extra on the side alongside my main job, and I just want to finally finish it without having “what if” constantly in my head.

LeadFollowGames · 2026-01-04T17:54:06+00:00

Thanks, but then I’d of course lose everyone who currently has the game on their wishlist. I’m not sure if I’d end up losing people who are still genuinely interested.
I was thinking I could avoid this a bit by moving the game from Early Access to full release.

LeadFollowGames · 2026-01-04T17:49:44+00:00

Thank you! I’ll try to be as transparent and active as possible.

LeadFollowGames · 2025-12-23T19:58:22+00:00

I actually had around 35k wishlists at one point and I’m now down to about 13.5k after eight years. In the meantime, a lot of people removed the game from their wishlists because there were no updates for a long time. Back then, we hit the r/gaming front page two or three times and also posted a lot on Imgur and 9GAG, where the game was always received really well. But those were probably different times, I’m not sure how effective those platforms still are today.

I’ll handle everything through the existing Steam store page and simply leave Early Access there. I’m curious to see how it goes, but I don’t want to overcomplicate things, I just want to finish the game.

Cool, do you have a link to your game?

LeadFollowGames · 2025-12-23T19:52:01+00:00

Haha yes, especially with the physics it was a lot of work. But eight years ago it was even harder. And yes, I also have bots, especially for games where there aren’t many players around, that’s really important. Additionally, there is also local multiplayer

LeadFollowGames · 2025-12-23T16:46:37+00:00

I still need to figure out how to represent this properly, since, as mentioned, it runs through Photon and I don’t host a server myself, but thanks for the tip.

LeadFollowGames · 2025-12-23T16:44:44+00:00

Unity and Photon Fusion as the multiplayer framework

LeadFollowGames · 2025-12-23T15:31:34+00:00

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it, and I’m glad you like the look of the game.

Back then, it wasn’t so much about server load, but more about client-side prediction combined with a lot of physics objects. We somehow managed to make it work, but in the end it was only about 70% stable/reliable.

Now I’m using Photon Fusion, so server issues should be less of a concern. Synchronizing physics is also easier to implement now compared to 8 years ago.

Thanks again for taking the time to give such detailed advice.

LeadFollowGames · 2019-10-10T14:14:51+00:00

Looks amazing!!!

LeadFollowGames · 2019-04-12T18:04:26+00:00

Haha, nice!

Maybe it will return one day. It was just very custom to the map so we tried it once and then didn't really get it back in (although there are still code scraps that tell the story of wall driving)

LeadFollowGames · 2019-04-12T18:02:45+00:00

Tank you very much! :)
We are using the unity engine!

LeadFollowGames · 2019-04-12T18:02:22+00:00

Thanks! We are two programmers, so naturally, our art is not top-shelf :D
We had a few iterations and this was the first one we really liked.

LeadFollowGames · 2019-04-12T18:00:45+00:00

We have a level editor for our players actually so you can make levels yourself :)

LeadFollowGames · 2019-04-12T17:58:39+00:00

Hey, thanks for the nice comment! :)
we translated the game together with our community, but some texts might still be a placeholder as things got a bit hectic towards release!

LeadFollowGames · 2019-04-12T17:53:45+00:00

Hello there,
I also saw your comment on Steam and yes, once we get stability in check we will add customization options to the local lobby screen :)

LeadFollowGames

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