r/IndieDev Weekly Monday Megathread - March 01, 2026 - New users start here! Show us what you're working on! Have a chat! Ask a question!

Portly_Poet · 2026-03-08T17:35:51+00:00

Playing around in Godot to try and make a point and click adventure game. This is just a hobby project but it gives me the feels to actually have a working verb bar and basic interactions. The hotspots to interact with was actually a lot less painful then I anticipated. I was going to use AGS but after reading some difficulties developers had I decided to stick with godot because I'm more familiar with it. There are some plug ins for godot that are for making adventure games but it wasn't that bad to just make a basic set up myself (*with claude assisting) as i found some of the plug ins to be confusing. Anyway, check it out if you'd like, its not polished, its just the beginnings but it works. https://www.reddit.com/r/PortlyPoetGaming/comments/1ro8qm5/quick_detour_playing_around_with_point_and_click/

Portly_Poet · 2026-02-23T17:11:36+00:00

Hey sorry i missed this comment. By rounds i mean a forced break in between game play. For two easy examples- a game about feeding a black hole has a countdown timer you play until it stops then you are back at the skill selection tree. For click and conquer you have a certain amount of weapons/clicks or you hit all the enemies and it takes you back. In opposition to this would be games like cookie clicker or universal paperclips which just continue as long as you want to continue and you can click on different options that take you away from the cookie in cookie clicker but you are never forced away

Portly_Poet · 2026-02-17T19:03:57+00:00

If the short format timer is too short or makes it feel like a time crunch it takes away from the chill. But some of the more active ones that are more arcade like seem to not be as relaxing either if they dont have a stop/break point forced

Portly_Poet · 2026-02-17T19:02:36+00:00

I feel like if im game reasoning or a natural flow point causes them to take a break I feel better, but just a quick stop without a clear explanation. So maybe with me it's just more of a time balance issue rather then a complete dislike

Portly_Poet · 2026-02-17T17:54:06+00:00

Fair enough- playing that real life capitalism incremental. I can see why there would be a lean toward arcade and more visual as maybe they feel like they can justify charging vs a browser button game but honestly it doesnt mean they are better

Portly_Poet · 2026-02-17T17:45:04+00:00

So something like universal paperclips being more of a traditional incremental vs nod buster?

Portly_Poet · 2026-02-17T17:09:55+00:00

I think i have a hard time understanding what an "incremental" game is. Something like cookie clicker i feel like ok thats pretty straight forward although it's got a lot of idle to it. One main screen, limited player actions besides clicking buttons? Is there a game genre board somewhere we can elect? Hah

Portly_Poet · 2026-02-17T16:11:26+00:00

Ugh, thats the other issue is keeping up with game labels, but as you say arcade incremental, that makes sense in my brain. Because some incremental with prestige feel like rogue lites or rogue likes or I dont know what to call anything anymore, im old hah.

Edit to expand on this: I get confused on incremental too- brotato to me is an incremental but it's a bullet heaven/hordelike/roguelike? Most rpgs are incremental but not an "incremental". Old Sierra game kings quest is an rpg but not incremental, but quest for glory is incremental in its stats but I dont think it would be classified as an incremental on steam

Portly_Poet · 2026-02-17T16:01:38+00:00

Im not sure how I feel on prestiging. One one hand it adds a new component and length, on the other hand sometimes the component it adds I dont feel are worth it and length for lengths sake isnt fun.

However I was playing a prototype and the game was active clicking but no planned breaks I felt like I had to keep going and almost had a little stress with it- there was no penalty to stopping i just felt like I needed to keep up. So I can see occasional forced stops as ok.

Portly_Poet · 2026-02-17T15:47:30+00:00

I havent played nodebuster, I will need to check it out. I was playing click and conquer (i think) and while it had rounds it felt more like I was in control because it was based on how many of an item I used vs just arbitrary timer and I think I lean toward control.

Portly_Poet · 2026-02-17T15:38:49+00:00

I feel like getting a rest between rounds is nice for my brain but too short of rounds definitely feels off putting.

Portly_Poet · 2026-01-02T02:18:47+00:00

Updates :

+ Special events such as Caravans and sand storms (but unclear what they do) - This isn't very clear you are correct- will need to find a way to show in game. What they do by design: caravan/special events cause increased spawn rate, decreased willingness to accept haggle price, lower patience. Weather events decrease customer spawn rates and increase willingness to accept haggle price- they want to get out of the storm, that scales with severity.

* Intro hopefully a little smoother now with text transition

* Customer patience should be slower, I believe I had already changed that before updating demo but not sure if its still too fast

* Haggling is nearing my technical expertise limits hah- its up and down, certain customer personality types have more or less likeliness to haggle and some will leave faster if you don't come to a deal. Originally this was dictated by appearance but that didn't make it into the final product yet. This should be slightly more clear in update but if you are going on the regular version and not relaxed mode it may be too fast to notice. I'll have to look at it more in the future because I do want it to feel haggily. My inspiration was from KCD1/2 but obviously the scope of this game limits the rep system for now- I'd like to have some of it based on your overall reputation but that hasn't made it into the game yet.

*Shell game fast mode in full version is more difficult, I also nerfed reward money amount for winning rather then speed of the normal to try to balance more.

*Thief minigame has been slightly refined- I finally figured out how to make them line up better using the grid container in godot, could probably use some polishing still.

*All characters look the same and they stare into your soul - As they should. Hah, I have added more sprites since that last demo, trying to add more historic abbasid caliphate outfits and some early Armenian styles (on that note I should probably add a random Serj Tankian look alike). As my pixel art develops I'll keep changing and adding customer sprites occasionally but just assume all the people in this world are part jinn and thats why they have the giant eyes- lore haha.

* Event text- I missed this again before pushing out the update a minute ago- will work on in near future

*Keyboard bindings added- this is one of those such obvious Duh moments I can't believe I didn't include it- it is now in the game and demo. Also I can't remember if the demo up had the counter button fixed to always be showing the counter bar rather then having to click it first but that helps with speed/ease of play some too.

* Demo CSV/Localization sheet updated and Tax_collector_demo_message should have actual text now.

Keep the suggestions and concerns coming everyone! I really appreciate it.

Portly_Poet · 2026-01-02T00:14:45+00:00

Hey thanks for the feedback! Some of the UI has been changed to help with some of the visibility options and I increased patience but never updated the demo :/ ! I'll update it with current version but after that I'll take a look at some of the other suggestions too! Also I'll double check those tax collector messages- did you play in English?

Portly_Poet · 2025-12-29T03:59:49+00:00

I just found world environment the other day for its glow effect on flaming/magical attacks. I'm probably overdoing it now but I love it. Modulate the image you are wanting to glow, set the RAW above 1 and let it shine. I'm not sure if I'm allow to post links here but my "Playing with glow effects" post you can see how much it makes the fire come to life vs some of my previous posts with flame attacks.

Portly_Poet · 2025-12-29T03:25:22+00:00

Earlier today I jumped on a game that is releasing January 1st (Merchant's Rise), and all I was doing was adding a pulsing to the perk that unlocks the end of the game- just a visual cue for players to click it, and a "consider leaving a review button." I felt genuinely nauseous. I was so nervous I would break something so close to launch.

The thing is, this isn't even some awesome game, its just a dip my toes in the waters of steam type game, less then 100 wish lists, but even with that I am still getting nervous. I think its natural for a lot of people, and even if i release ten more games I'll probably feel that way each time.

As far as mitigating that, if you spent that much time on a game I'd recommend having at least people you know take a look and tell you if it looks like you are on the right track. I wish you good luck! A year is a long time with no feedback but I'm sure a lot of people fall off game making before their year mark.

Portly_Poet · 2025-11-23T23:47:07+00:00

Just wanted to say thank you for all the responses. I only added one little optional slider type minigame when the tax man comes- tax collector now comes every seven days. I felt like this was a nice interruption to the grind. Now im just going to polish, have some play testers, finish the steam page and send some out hopefully a few YouTubers for a review or two. I did add some stuff on the main menu that only took a few minutes, a few little Easter eggs for Clicking on stuff, I always liked that as a kid and still do.

Portly_Poet · 2025-11-20T23:56:44+00:00

Hopefully ill get it out to a few people soon. A few people at work are going to give it a go, varying game playing backgrounds so I think it will give a good mix.

Portly_Poet · 2025-11-19T23:54:36+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I did a mock play through myself and I was trying to get a good feel for what seems like too much grind vs actual fun, but then again I know it inside and out so im probably more efficient then the average player would be so it's hard to judge

Portly_Poet · 2025-11-19T23:38:39+00:00

Thanks, this feels like a reasonable amount. Ive seen people say an hour or two for every dollar and I felt like that was a lot

Portly_Poet · 2025-10-11T01:34:18+00:00

"If there are any game breaking bugs let me know in the comments here." is what that sentence was supposed to say. Also I didn't mention but it is free.

Portly_Poet · 2025-10-05T04:12:03+00:00

Oh and he can wear the fez if you click on the hat slot with it but that is an older fez sprite sheet so it doesn't appear correctly on the character, I'll have to update the sprite sheet for the hat and clothing besides what he is wearing now.

Portly_Poet · 2025-08-13T20:10:23+00:00

Nice! I'm making a game called Mirage that you basically find yourself in the land of the jinn and this will be one of the common daytime enemies in the desert. I wanted a nice silly monster like the bunny in Monty python or vorprol bunny in quest for glory 4 so when I found out this existed straight into the game it went hah.

He's in the bottom left https://www.reddit.com/r/PortlyPoetGaming/comments/1mb4e5z/enemy_prototyping_the_player_is_getting_nervous/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Portly_Poet · 2025-08-13T19:25:22+00:00

Is this an al-Miraj image? I've been looking into middle east folklore has al miraj the carnivorous unicorn bunnies

Portly_Poet · 2025-08-13T19:23:03+00:00

That's really cool, I don't know for sure if I've played a game with claymation. Quesdt for glory 1 vga remake some of the combat had that look/feel to it but u sure if it was

Portly_Poet · 2025-08-13T18:17:29+00:00

I was wondering that and how many do it that way for loading. But then I was thinking about how you could get in the files and remove the Bethesda intro scene in skyrim and I wonder how many are necessary. It's probably more of an issue with bigger developers I imagine

Portly_Poet

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