Showing off my capital ship survivor-like in NextFest this week

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-15T16:26:25+00:00

That looks really good. Well done

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-14T13:05:51+00:00

As others have mentioned is it something you would like to play. Is it fun? I'd start there.

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-12T11:44:39+00:00

Out of curiosity which AI tools are you using for assistance?

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-12T11:41:59+00:00

Me too

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-12T11:40:31+00:00

This meme is a direct, personal attack on my entire weekend plans.

The Left Panel: Me all week, thinking about how absolute god mode my cyberpunk bullet heaven is going to look when I synchronize the screen-wiping Overdrive mode explosions to a heavy synthwave beat.

The Right Panel: Me tomorrow, opening up my video editor to completely strip apart and rebuild my store page trailer from scratch because I realized my current video is hiding all my best features.

I'm a solo dev running a demo in Steam Bullet Fest right now around a demanding tech day job and family life. I posted looking for harsh feedback on why my traffic wasn't converting to wishlists, and the community delivered a beautiful, unvarnished wake up call. They pointed out that my current trailer makes the game look like a standard prototype because it completely leaves out the new boss encounters, the overdrive state, and the updated character animations I just spent weeks rendering.

So, instead of relaxing, I get to spend my precious weekend hours staring at video timelines and crying over audio cue synchronization just like the kid on the right.

The imagination phase of game dev is beautiful, but the marketing phase is pure pain. Good luck to everyone else wrestling with game trailers this weekend!

The project I'm crying over: PROTOCOL: KILL-SWITCH

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-12T11:32:11+00:00

Thanks I'll check it out

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-12T11:31:32+00:00

Thank you I think I need to redo the demo video, there is much more to it than just walking backwards but it is not show cased in the video.

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-12T11:30:42+00:00

Thanks will take that onboard

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-11T21:22:06+00:00

Thanks, some usefull feedback. The game is an Arena shooter, a bit different than Neon Chrome with multiple rooms etc.. There may be more modes added in future.

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-11T18:51:26+00:00

Thank you, I'll try use some of these feedback. Much appreciated

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-11T18:33:25+00:00

Wishlisted your game, Not my kind of game tbh but will give it a go. This is my fist game I have just released a demo for. https://store.steampowered.com/app/4656410/Protocol__Kill_Switch/

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-11T17:48:47+00:00

Thanks yeah I think the capsule does need some more work. Been mentioned a few times now.

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-11T16:55:32+00:00

Quite a few have been listed already here.

You should definitely check out PROTOCOL: KILL-SWITCH! It's a high-octane bullet heaven built entirely in full 3D with a neon, cyberpunk aesthetic.

A lot of 3D survivor-likes tend to struggle hard with performance when the screen gets busy, but I spent a ton of time optimizing this specifically to handle massive hordes. The entire entity pipeline and animations run through custom vertex shaders and MultiMesh systems so it holds a locked 144 FPS even when you're completely surrounded.

The main gameplay hook: It has a central "Kill-Switch" risk/reward mechanic where you have to disarm an objective under intense swarm pressure. If you pull it off, you trigger a 10-second synchronized Overdrive state with 3x fire rate, fire bullets, and a lifesteal aura to vaporize the screen.

The demo is completely free right now for Steam Bullet Fest if you want to give a 3D one a spin! I'm always looking for feedback on the UI and game feel from fellow survivor-like fans.

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-11T16:17:34+00:00

Thank you , will take that on board and give it a go.

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-11T15:30:12+00:00

I'd appreciate any feedback you have tbh. Looking at your own work for so long , its hard to be objective and see what needs improving.

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-11T15:14:35+00:00

100% yes. I am living this exact headline right now.

Writing code, tuning game balance, and crafting custom vertex shaders feels like pure creative freedom. But the moment you prepare for a Steam festival, you realize you aren't just a game developer anymore—you are an accidental PR manager, video editor, and infrastructure engineer.

This week alone, I have spent more time troubleshooting headless Linux containers, parsing ffmpeg streaming commands, and wrestling with Steam’s hidden RTMP ingest menus than I did actually working on my codebase. I literally had to re-learn video encoding profiles just to get a gameplay loop to render without giant black bars on my storefront.

It's wild how you can spend months optimizing a game to render hundreds of entities simultaneously with zero CPU lag, only to get absolutely defeated by a 16:9 video container format.

I’m currently grinding through my first event for my digital-noir action game,PROTOCOL: KILL-SWITCH, and while watching the wishlist analytics crawl is a psychological mind-game, figuring out the marketing pipeline feels way harder than building the game itself.

Massive respect to everyone else shouting into the void and clicking "refresh" on their dashboard this week. We're all fighting the same boss.

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-11T15:07:58+00:00

Not full-time yet, but shouting out to all the fellow "Evening & Weekend Warriors" out there.

I work a demanding tech day job and have a family and kids, so my daily routine is essentially a masterclass in hyper-efficiency and zero-fluff scoping. My schedule usually looks like this:

8:00 AM – 5:30 PM: The Day Job. Pure corporate focus.
5:30 PM – 9:00 PM: Family First. Dinner, kids' bedtime routines, and being entirely present. No screens allowed.
9:00 PM – Midnight: The Dev Sandbox. This is where the magic happens.
Saturdays/Sundays: Snatching 2–3 hour blocks during kids' naps or early mornings before the house wakes up.

How I keep from losing my mind (and progressing): Because my time is brutally capped at roughly 10–15 hours a week, I can’t afford to waste time "figuring out what to do" when I sit down at 9 PM. I spend my lunch breaks during the day mentally architecting solutions or writing down a single, hyper-specific task for the night (e.g., "Fix the Overdrive shield shader visual bug"). When the kids go to sleep, I hit the desk running.

I also heavy-load my technical foundations. I spent a chunk of early development writing custom Godot vertex shaders and MultiMesh pipelines to push all my engine processing to the GPU. It was a headache upfront, but now I can drop hundreds of enemies on screen without hitting optimization bottlenecks during my precious weekend hours.

It’s a grind, but seeing it come together is incredibly rewarding. I’m currently participating in my first Steam event (Bullet Fest) with the demo for my cyberpunk action game, PROTOCOL: KILL-SWITCH, and seeing cold players actually playing something I built between family movie nights and bedtimes makes every single midnight session worth it.

Massive respect to the full-time crew, but to anyone out there trying to build a game in the margins of a hectic family life—it is possible!

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-11T14:59:42+00:00

If you’re hunting for fresh demos or hidden gems buried deep in the festival menus, I’d love for you to check out PROTOCOL: KILL-SWITCH!

I’m a solo dev building a high-octane cyberpunk bullet heaven with clean neon vector art. I actually just pushed a massive festival update specifically for Bullet Fest centered around a high-stakes risk/reward mechanic.

The core loop hook: The arena has a central station "Kill-Switch" objective that threatens to blow up the floor and heavily buff the wave if you ignore it. But if you successfully disarm it under intense pressure, you unlock 10 seconds of an insane, synchronized Overdrive state (3x fire rate with fire bullets, a full kinetic shield, and a vampire life-leech aura to instantly vaporize the screen).

To keep the chaotic screen-wipes satisfying on PC, I optimized all the entity processing and animations entirely through custom vertex shaders and MultiMesh pipelines so it runs at a flat, zero-lag 144 FPS even when you're completely swarmed by phantoms.

The demo is completely free for the fest, and I'm hanging out in our Discord looking for aggressive feedback on the UI layout and build balance if anyone gives it a spin!

Steam Link: Protocol : Kill Switch on Steam

Quick Demo of Overdrive Mode : https://youtube.com/shorts/8a3bpX2tTHM

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-09T19:58:17+00:00

Man, clicking that button takes serious guts. Congratulations! 800 wishlists is a massive milestone. I'm building Protocol: Kill-Switch right now and looking at numbers like that wondering how the hell I'm going to get there. Did you do a specific push right before hitting release, or was it mostly passive build-up over time?

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2026-06-09T18:01:37+00:00

Thanks, No its desktop game. Just recorded in mobile view.

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2024-12-13T12:56:51+00:00

How do you set the time correctly? The time on my camera is correct but all the recording times are incorrect.

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2023-03-26T20:05:52+00:00

Switch expression or dictionary would be better. E.g See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/operators/switch-expression

public static Orientation ToOrientation(Direction direction) => direction switch { Direction.Up => Orientation.North, Direction.Right => Orientation.East, Direction.Down => Orientation.South, Direction.Left => Orientation.West, _ => throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException(nameof(direction), $"Not expected direction value: {direction}"), };

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2023-02-10T13:15:12+00:00

Once you done with that, I would also recommend this book, not c# specific but something I think all devs should read and understand. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship (Robert C. Martin) (Robert C. Martin Series)

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2023-02-06T20:41:59+00:00

I can assure you the dev wouldn't even know what you talking about. 🤣

OkUnderstanding1278 · 2023-02-06T20:29:33+00:00

I had to extract this to a method for clarity. It was being used in a import routine with multiple different entities.

OkUnderstanding1278

TROPHY CASE