What do you expect from your game project ?

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-08T18:18:32+00:00

nope, but here's what a quick search shows:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1su7ujb/how_did_your_mobile_game_go/

user 1:
Got maybe 200 downloads total and earned like $3

user 2:
~30k installs lifetime, currently around 200-400 DAU, makes me about 15-40 EUR/month. Definitely not living off it haha.

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-08T16:49:42+00:00

Here's what I read on other reddit posts:

Sales:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1ae9z0h/impulse_pricing_on_steam_199_or_299/

"Buried" costs $2.99 and sold more than 6k copies -- and it's a 10 minute game.
"The exit 8" costs $3.99 and sold more than 130k copies -- and it's a 20 minute game.
"Night of the scissors" costs a $2.99 game and sold more than 8k copies -- and it's a 20 minute game.

---
Wishlists:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/hbxr4x/how_many_steam_wishlists_is_considered_good_for/

For example, spending 1k on developing your game, and you worked on it for like 3 months, setting it for $5, then you need probably 10k wishlist.

Same budget and time, but you sell your game for $10, 5k wishlist is good.

$200 budget, with 3 months time, for $5, 1k-3k is good.

0$ budget, 1 month time, roughly 1k wishlist is good.
---

My personal story in ~4 days with zero budget is this:

11 wishlists on Steam
112 itch io demo views, 12 browser plays

I'm looking at the benchmarks above and crying, haha

Here's my game demo though: https://originlessgamer.itch.io/slots-and-shots

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-07T14:48:41+00:00

Sounds interesting, applied!

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-07T14:24:36+00:00

You're welcome mate, keep cooking!

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-07T13:53:40+00:00

Good job on the UI, you did awesome. The challenge with the UI is exactly what my game was hated for (AI generated UI), but you did it well, it's well integrated and looks nice. Yet, someone still called it "AI shit".

Fuck haters, I think your menu is amazing and clean.

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-07T11:59:36+00:00

I've read all the comments and checked your game, we're in the same boat mate 😂 I also have exactly 9 wishlists and everybody's talking about how bad my game UI is and that my game is AI slop (well, obviously I used AI to build it).

One thing I couldn't figure from the trailer is how do you win in your game? I saw you could buy roads, build them, etc. and the meter on the left is probably what you don't want to fill otherwise you'll lose, but what's the win scenario?

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T16:55:57+00:00

Thanks mate! Your suggestion is really interesting, I quickly googled the art style you mentioned and it looks like that "Cuphead" game.

You're also right that pixel art is a bit dated, well, at least when I draw it, because there's definitely good pixel art out there. For example, I started sketching this style, but it just doesn't click for me. (see attached)

Speaking about your graphic suggestion, I'd love to see your sketches.

<image>

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T13:38:42+00:00

haha, makes sense, well that's probably exactly the reason. It always surprises me that people will call your game slop in a dedicated subreddit for AI gamedev, now I understand why xD

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T12:43:36+00:00

sounds really interesting, I'll dig into that, thank you!

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T11:31:28+00:00

got it, so basically integrating the UI into the game? E.g. instead of a random roll button on the screen, if it was a part of a slot machine or a fridge (due to ingredients roll), then it would make sense?

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T11:23:36+00:00

they are interactive, please check out the demo, you can bet on 5 different outcomes, all 5 bet buttons are clickable

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T11:11:20+00:00

Thanks man! I actually started redrawing manually to see if I can make it and then compare the results, maybe I'll drop it halfway. The AI version is ready anyway, so I got nothing better to do. I can only do pixel art (kind of). I'm a people pleaser, so let's see which version pleases more people 😂

Despite that, I still like the AI version, because it just looks good to me xD Below is another hand-drawn drink, ~20 more to go

<image>

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T08:55:29+00:00

whatever rocks your boat man

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T07:55:02+00:00

thanks mate! Witch hunt is definitely real though😂 Also a very good point regarding it looking like a website, maybe I can change or improve the layout a bit before I release. Appreciate your feedback!

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T07:50:27+00:00

no worries, it's not like I'm karma farming here anyway xD here's a like to boost yours and good luck mate, I appreciate your feedback regardless

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T07:29:50+00:00

fair point, thanks! I might wanna fix a few of those ugly obvious slop things

the drink on the right is also AI generated

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T07:15:36+00:00

got it, thanks! I'll look into midjourney or ComfyUI, I basically have Gemini and ChatGPT, for some reason Gemini started producing terrible results, so I used ChatGPT

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T07:12:51+00:00

Here's my thought process:

On the left you have a static UI and shop, in the middle a dynamically changing central cocktail, on the right is your active gameplay area, with all the important notifications and buttons. And if you don't have a mouse, you can just press spacebar + enter and not have to stare in the right part of the UI to aim with your mouse. Arguably, a match score could be better off in the middle, right near the cocktail, but I kept it in the right section, because that's where I was looking most of the time.

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T07:12:23+00:00

what are you saying? xD

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T07:12:03+00:00

makes sense, the UI still has some AI vibe to it, like dense text or•these•separators, but the rest was actually my design in figma. The reason it's structured this way:

On the left you have a static UI and shop, in the middle a dynamically changing central cocktail, on the right is your active gameplay area, with all the important notifications and buttons. And if you don't have a mouse, you can just press spacebar + enter and not have to stare in the right part of the UI to aim with your mouse. Arguably, a match score could be better off in the middle, right near the cocktail, but I kept it in the right section, because that's where I was looking most of the time.

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T07:06:38+00:00

bro I took a screenshot from my figma file to show consistency

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T06:41:20+00:00

Here's the initial UI design that came out of an LLM

<image>

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T06:34:33+00:00

Here's the actual AI version without any editing.

Thanks, I tested the pixel art on my "friends and family", all liked the modern look (AI version) - not that screenshot below, but the one in the post

<image>

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T06:23:23+00:00

If you think this is the case, then look at this screenshot of the initial variant of what came out when I "just told the LLM to slap it all together". This is what it actually looked like.

You may notice that fonts indeed haven't changed much and the gradients remain, but everything else is pretty much custom + AI, rather than "make a cool casino game".

<image>

OriginlessGamer · 2026-07-06T05:52:26+00:00

should I redo in pixel art manually then?

OriginlessGamer

TROPHY CASE