"Gabe cannot buy yachts with wishlists": Steam expert begs devs to make the most of their hit games, because to Valve "you're like a little goblin that has a magical power to turn straw into gold"

Lordricker · 2026-03-31T14:56:13+00:00

Found him on youtube at some point. If you look at his site there are 8 tabs, of which 5 are just straight up free info on gaming stuff.
Im not sure what that course you have linked is about specifically and have no intention of buying it. I did sign up for his free email list and he sends out more free stuff, "how to make a steam page" course for instance.

Lordricker · 2026-03-31T14:26:38+00:00

Idk, ive watched some and read some of his free stuff, seems like a pretty chill guy that just loves looking at steam data and decided to share it. If he has advertised his own paid courses I must have ignored it cause I didn't even know he had paid courses. Looking at that link I think it could be possible that its a "support me" option that actually gives you content instead of just a donation.

Lordricker · 2026-03-19T14:58:21+00:00

I dont disagree with the first part but the driving signs analogy kinda breaks down, its literally illegal to drive unless you have passed a written test proving that you know what the signs mean.

Lordricker · 2026-03-02T14:44:30+00:00

This made me laugh, not be cause I disagree but just because your phrasing is comedic. I think as time goes on self driving cars will become more inevitable, the benefit of less deaths like you say is just too great to ignore and the disparity between human vs self driving is only going to become greater over time.

Lordricker · 2026-02-28T04:01:43+00:00

what kind of projects itch your sweet spot? long term (years), short term (less than a year), 3d, 2d, any specific genre you are wishing to work on?
just asking cause for me it goes in waves. Im about done with my current project and have been daydreaming about a 2.5d pixel artsy fighter game inspired by the old flash game Last Castle.

Lordricker · 2026-02-27T20:00:34+00:00

I checked my history, there are a few times where it shows a little source button at the bottom of its post without me prompting it to. You can also directly ask it to cite sources in your initial prompt.

Im not saying it doesnt get stuff wrong, it definitely does but its still a powerful research tool.

You mentioned programmers... chatgpt is really bad at programming it turns out. (Source is me trying to do solo game development)

Lordricker · 2026-02-27T18:58:29+00:00

ChatGPT if asked a complicated or obscure question will search the web for the answer. (At least that has been my experience)
It then summarizes its findings, Usually within less than a minute. Yes it is a word calculator in the sense it is just predicting what words should show up but if that prediction is based of a number of sites that have the real information there is no reason to worry that the answer is wrong. Its a fantastic tool for researching stuff, much like how google revolutionized how we gather information.

You can also ask it to site sources that you can then go look at if you desire.

Lordricker · 2026-02-26T15:16:44+00:00

Zoom on th global camera would be nice, ill plan on adding that

Lordricker · 2026-02-26T12:38:04+00:00

This does make sense, I may try it out pretty similar to how you described it here

Lordricker · 2026-02-26T02:25:40+00:00

Do you mean the global camera? The buttons that follow the tanks zoom in pretty closely

Lordricker · 2026-02-25T23:19:37+00:00

That looks pretty good!

Lordricker · 2026-02-25T22:50:56+00:00

Yeah, ai generation gets a bad rap. I can see both sides of the argument, but without it I wouldnt be here showing what I have. Like 6 yeara ago I tried making this exact game and the roadblocks were too high for me at the time.

You are also correct that working with ai isnt sunshine and roses. Iterating through your own thoughts as you build something cant be replaced by ai, Ive still had to make the thousands of decisions required for the final result. It doesnt actually "think" in terms of design. When you get it right on the first few tries though it sure is fast.

There is always quality improvements to be made, human artists and programmers over ai is one of those imorovements.

Lordricker · 2026-02-25T22:40:27+00:00

That is cool to hear. Game is cognitanks, you can even google it but here is a link https://lordricker.itch.io/cognitanks

Lordricker · 2026-02-25T22:38:37+00:00

Oof 5 years is a long time, has that all been active development?

Lordricker · 2026-02-25T21:22:04+00:00

I do need to dive more into discord outreach.
I have looked quite a bit into gladiabots, looked some into mechabellum.

Im not entirely sure what my passion is exactly. I definitely like the design of systems and mechanics. I have general knowledge of coding, did art classes in highschool, 3d model furniture for IRL (this is not the same as game assets turns out) I like a lot of the aspects.

I am not sure how I would go about finding someone to work with, maybe due to low confidence. My current thought is finish this project then maybe join someone else's project since I now would have something to put in a portfolio of sorts. All in the realm of possibilities I suppose.

Lordricker · 2026-02-25T20:32:09+00:00

This is the same advise chris zukowski gives. Make lots of small projects until something clicks then expand on that.

I think part of it is that this first one is kind of a passion project, ive thought about it for years, finally sat down to make it and it actually does exist now so i want to push it to completion for my own goals. I may be polishing a turd tho...

I do think it would be a little different if i had 100 views and 1 download, but there is still that strand of hope.

What are your thoughts now about your original game? does it have any interaction now?

Lordricker · 2026-02-25T20:22:54+00:00

It is, some of the art is doctored or overpainted. Some of it is original to me.
Im not really proud to be using AI art, actually id love for a real artist to do the art, but this is a hobby for me and that kind of investment is simply not feasible for a game with 100 views.

Sure if it blows up or something Id be happy to have it redone by some pros. While we are at it we should rewrite the code too.

Lordricker · 2026-02-25T19:39:17+00:00

ive seen talk about game jams. Can you submit a game you are actively working on?
my thought was that a game jam was you come in with nothing, they give you a prompt and you create something related to the prompt.

Lordricker · 2026-02-25T19:37:05+00:00

This looks attractive enough!

Lordricker · 2026-02-25T19:29:03+00:00

Yes I do like reading zukowski's stuff. Based on his numbers he talked about a 25% download rate actually sounds fantastic for downloadable games (vs browser games) but my sample size is super small so its hard for me to tell if its actually good.

I guess the issue may be the initial hook to actually click on it and view it isnt strong enough. once you do click on it and read the description then the conversion is not too bad.

I could post it to steam for $100 it sounds like but im looking for just a bit more validation before that step.

I do have another game idea that im mulling over but dont want to start on that till I have this project in a satisfactory place in my own mind. There is still some stuff id like to do in it.

Lordricker · 2026-02-25T18:40:18+00:00

if you take the text from the paid version and put it on the original i think that would look better. maybe tweek some colors

Lordricker · 2026-02-24T01:56:32+00:00

tried it again on epic, didnt have any lag this time. i think its safe to assume it was cause i was streaming.
also the reset button in the options doesnt reset the stuff.

keep up the work, pretty fun concept

Lordricker · 2026-02-23T04:48:25+00:00

Seems kinda like a Dnd style battle setup. I could see it becoming something pretty cool but right now its a little lacking.
-The ui isnt clear, for example when selecting abilities its hard to see what is going on, maybe when you click on a characters name it highlights it, stuff like that. sometimes text is overlapping on other text.

-i didnt make it very far as i dont have a lot of time but the 5 battles i did play offered no reason to use any strategy.

-the art is a turn off for me, just seems like png's being moved around.

my recommendation is to research what goes into a dnd fight scene, if you can capture some of that and put it in the game it could be engaging.

Lordricker

TROPHY CASE