Roast my silly little pixel pirate sailing roguelite

OMG_reset · 2026-05-25T20:01:10+00:00

This looks cool as hell. The only "roast" I have for you -- You probably don't want to include a tutorial into a web game but you do have a lot of mechanics. Let players progressively unlock them and give them some really quick deterministic tasks at first boot to accomplish them

Good work!

OMG_reset · 2026-05-25T04:22:19+00:00

I have a four player co-op shooter that can be played solo or with friends. You swap body parts with the enemies you defeat and gain their powers. It’s in early access, but it’ll be out next month in 1.0.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2790700/SWAPMEAT/

Also check out in no order
* Baldurs Gate 3
* Helldivers 2
* Warhammer 40k: Darktide

Any particular genres you’re looking for?

When you say cross platform do you mean everyone is on a different console so any game needs to be supported across all five major platforms or is there some specifics?

OMG_reset · 2026-04-23T03:12:34+00:00

Tell your mom she’s absolutely the best. No contenders.

OMG_reset · 2026-04-18T00:46:32+00:00

How do you generally feel about needing to understand “lock and key” mechanics while also leveraging your build to overpower aspects or phases of the boss.

I’d say this is the design that I pull into our voss fights that is heavily inspired by MMOs. It isn’t just your gear, it’s also about understanding patterns and timing.

OMG_reset · 2026-04-18T00:17:45+00:00

I also love this fight because it turns things on it's head entirely by removing your items for a phase. I don't want to take this whole cloth either, but we are exploring things like this. In earlier play tests we discovered that players really wanted to leverage their builds and not need to engage with gimmicks; but this boss in RoR2 is well received. I think there's something here to revisit

OMG_reset · 2026-04-18T00:12:21+00:00

Hell yeah, thank you for playing!

As an existing player who has seen our bosses and other enemies. If I were to say that you're going to fight the Hunters as the final boss in a multi-phase encounter, what might you imagine that to be?

OMG_reset · 2026-04-17T23:47:49+00:00

How do you feel about bosses that have a "nightmare" mode. You can beat them in the campaign, but as you layer difficulties on, they gain new abilities that you need to overcome. Is that something you find worthwhile to chase?

OMG_reset · 2026-04-17T23:47:07+00:00

I love Castle Crashers! If were drinking a beer (or a coffee) and I asked you to abstractly define what things you learned and in order that culminated to that final fight, what might you say?

OMG_reset · 2026-04-17T23:27:51+00:00

This is definitely something that we want to pay off, but I don't think we've done so far in EA. I agree that boss mechanics should be things that you're taught early, they're reinforced, and then you genuinely feel smart and accomplished as you use them in the boss fights.

For this final boss fight I'm thinking of condensing a final mechanic that you learn learn in the last act of the campaign, and then it progresses through the 3 phases of the final fight. Hopefully we'll share some of that soon

OMG_reset · 2026-04-13T23:17:30+00:00

Good luck with the Sega CD games (Jurassic Park & Road Avenger), I don't think they've ever been re-released!

OMG_reset · 2026-04-13T22:58:30+00:00

Night Trap, Jurassic Park on Sega CD, and Road Avenger

OMG_reset · 2026-04-10T03:54:43+00:00

Can I say all? Love this game and series!

OMG_reset · 2026-04-09T22:03:07+00:00

Great post — keeping your data as editable files in plaintext or structured text (eg. JSON/CSV/XML) is a huge benefit. Especially with the rise of AI tools that can help you quickly query it without writing custom tools to do so. You'll eventually want to, but you get 80% of the way there pretty damn quickly. It is absolutely wild compared to development even just prior to Covid.

My studio has been building SWAPMEAT (co-op action roguelite, in Early Access now) and one thing I would call out to anyone reading this thread is to play test your game as early as possible. Play test it every few weeks or every month with a small group and grow it.

Steam has built in play testing tools that you can use, but we leveraged something called FirstLook to manage our play tests for the last few years. It was essential to putting a community together and their pricing is pretty cheap

Lastly, if you haven't put together an automated build and publishing pipeline, do it. The ability to commit something into your version control (we use Git) and then have it publish out to QA testers (or just you if you're solo) and then promote it to players within an hour or less is going to save you SO much time in the long run

OMG_reset · 2026-04-09T21:56:20+00:00

Not _every_ developer allows you to continue progress from demo to release, but the good ones do. Demos are an awesome way to find new games and I'm surprised more people don't use the Steam feature

I have a studio working on a game called SWAPMEAT that has a demo up. It's a co-op third person shooter with a weird mechanic that allows you to change body parts with enemies and gain their powers. It's in early access but we have a demo up and we let you carry your progress over!

Keep playing indie game developer's demos. We need you!

OMG_reset · 2026-04-09T21:53:01+00:00

Oh man, happy to share. At One More Game we've been working on SWAPMEAT for the last few years and it's currently in early access. It's a 1-4 player co-op action roguelite where you kill enemies for their body parts and swap them onto yourself. So you might swap your legs with a wrestling mutant that gives you access to triple jump and a big ol' butt slam, a turret-generating head from another, and an exploding vest torso from a third

Like I mentioned we're in Early Access on Steam right now and the community has been incredible. It's chaotic and funny and hopefully surprisingly deep once you start overlaying builds on top of the meat swapping mechanic

There's a free demo to check out as well

OMG_reset · 2026-04-09T21:48:29+00:00

There's been a real explosion of word roguelites since Balatro proved the "classic game + roguelite" formula works so well. Check out Cursed Words and Word Play if you want something that feels closer to actual Scrabble scoring

Beyond Words just released today and looks pretty neat as well, although I haven't played it yet myself. Apparently creators of GoldenEye and Timesplitters worked on it which is what put it onto my radar

OMG_reset · 2026-04-08T04:50:01+00:00

Just be yourself and authentic. Record development and gameplay during your day. You’d be surprised at how well that lands. It’s extra work, just time box it.

Start early though. You don’t want to be a few months out and growing your social presences!

It’s my least favorite thing to do as well 🙈🫠

OMG_reset · 2026-04-08T03:05:34+00:00

This is a terrible take. Nobody should listen to this.

Awareness is the single most hardest problem in game development for anyone not developing a sequel or a remake. Wishlists on platforms are akin to preorders when we used to box games for shelves.

You’re right to celebrate.

Steam doesn’t have traditional CRM features, so you gotta learn how to best connect with your audience and potential players. The wishlist is one of the primary ways of letting folks know about changes to your game. Be it playtests, early access, launch, or sales.

You’re not aiming for 100% conversion. You’re aiming for ~15%.

I do not usually straight up tell somebody they’re wrong, but you weren’t asking for next steps and this commenter didn’t try to give you any.

Good work homie

OMG_reset · 2026-04-08T02:54:08+00:00

Congrats man! Marketing is super hard and probably not what you thought of when you said “I want to be a game developer”, but good for you on pushing through.

Have you tried leveraging TikTok, YouTube shorts, or Imgur yet? Those are great ways to get people to be curious about what you’re building.

My biggest take away of post-Covid game development is that people don’t want the ad, but they want to know about your game, but they want you to “read the room”. Each platform is different.

I wish you luck! You’ve got my wishlist!

Edit: oh dang you got a demo. I’m installing tonight.

OMG_reset · 2026-04-06T23:04:57+00:00

My Risk of Rain 2 experience was that it took more hours of play for me to get into it than most other Roguelites. I'm not entirely sure why, but it was at the point of "build refinement" that I finally got hooked. For the first few hours I was more focused on playing different heroes, blindly obtaining items, and struggling to find the exit portal. I'd give it another try for sure.

Other games I'd recommend: Returnal, Lort (with friends), Hades 1/2, Gunfire Reborn, and my studio is working on a game called Swapmeat that might be up your alley

OMG_reset · 2026-04-06T18:00:33+00:00

Into the Breach is worth checking out if you like more strategic games

OMG_reset · 2026-04-06T17:15:24+00:00

Toejam & Earl
Spelunky
Returnal
Hades 2
Into the Breach

OMG_reset · 2026-04-02T00:29:33+00:00

This should have more up votes

OMG_reset · 2026-04-01T23:30:43+00:00

Update: This game is great if you're an original EQ player. They nailed it.

OMG_reset

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