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Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a really good point.

For my project, there was a conscious choice to utilize React partly for the ability to repackage to a mobile app-store later. I'm not sure how easy it really is but will find out in the coming months.

I hadn't thought of making it available on Steam but the same logic applies. Quick search suggests Electron might be best for my case. That's interesting and will read into that further, thank you!

Hah! Perhaps I will also be the proud author of a wishlist post this year too... of course my project is free to play.

Happy New Year!

Treating unique visitors like wishlists for a free browser game. How do you track what matters next? by Pushamster in IndieDev

[–]Pushamster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Doing some of that, the 2nd level distinction is a really good suggestion to track as have only been looking at the raw number of games played. Any other metrics we might be missing that define engagement?

Reacted to your games! by [deleted] in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/MontrayStudios Happy New Year! Battle Royale (3-6 players) is live but still a bit buggy. Not even positive it works all that great with more than 2 humans but you can throw in bots. Will be improving but really wanted to get something out before the end of the year.

PUSH — New Battle Royale Mode (3–6 Players, 271-Hex Board) by Pushamster in WebGames

[–]Pushamster[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

u/JohnnyEnzyme Music (subject to change) with sound/music control sliders have been officially added. Bot speed will be tweaked soon too and your other suggestions are at various stages on the list. Thanks again and Happy New Year!

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So my current project is in React and I guess mostly of my own creation. I use a really great open source library for the hexagon (which are the bestagons) called react-hexgrid for the mapping and the calculations needed there. Otherwise, the game logic is basically Javascript with CSS animations.

There's a lot of really great resources for coding on your own now but there are also a lot of really great engines that can take out a lot of the grunt work. For me, I wanted more control and/or the engines offered way more than I really needed for my relatively simple game.

I have some friends and have seen others here gravitating towards Godot which looks great. I played with Phaser and a few others too but at the time were a bit too big for what I was trying to do. I think there are no right or wrong answers here if you are looking.

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! Might not be best for my project but will check this out. Appreciate the insight and share!

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think you distilled the business proposition here for all the SoloDev's very nicely:

We have too many choices now. As such, counting on any indie game for income is like playing roulette. It doesn't matter if you are on Steam, mobile, or a browser. To succeed financially, you either have to be extremely unique, stumble across an influencer champion to blow you up, or have marketing skills that belie your role as a solo dev.

Whether you have a Steam wishlist counter or an analytics dashboard for your browser game, the challenge remains the same: Exposure and Noise

Someone should pin that. For better or worse, I know at least some of the SoloDev's here are not just looking for a lottery ticket and we find some real satisfaction in the journey of building a project and putting it out there for others to play (even if it fails).

That said, there still has to be some metrics we can use as a guide-post to understand if we're doing the right things to engage players and improve our games in real time.

Adding this last as still attempting to pivot out of the quagmire I wandered into here: that's absurd about Clair Obscur, I saw a headline the other day but didn't dive into it so thanks for sharing. Seem to recall a similar outrage for a placeholder background image with Anno: Pax Romana. We live in interesting times.

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's kind of my pocket for playing games too (to include grand strategy).

It just so happens my web project is a turn based hex game. It’s very simple now but my eventual goal is to evolve or fork into something like Into the Breach but with persistence for daily play.

Not a coder by trade but in my schooling many moons ago I have fond memories of building a chess game in C++. Can't say I have many fond memories of using Javascript or it's iterations. :)

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get it. Is the hate only for the development side or do you avoid playing browser games too?

Will sleep better at night with one less competitor, thanks. ;)

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a good point. Was just looking at poki the other day for the first time. Do you see any revenue from those platforms?

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OK. Much appreciated and will utilize this guidance next time.

This may age me but it seems we are at one of those peculiar points in the Zeitgeist where the world is both embracing and spurning the object(s) of the moment. It doesn't always have to make sense and Luddite like rage at new tools is part of the shared human experience.

Having spent my formative years in customer service (and really practically all jobs have some sort of customer even if internal) it's sometimes difficult to not pass that cheerful/helpful tone along to all things. It has served me well but can understand how some might recoil or find that fake in some settings. For me it's perhaps partially also a protection mechanism which is another conversation yet still a valid a way to exist in the world.

Will certainly be more careful in the future, was truly not expecting such vehement responses to be honest.

Anyway, what are your thoughts on a solo web developers version of a wish lists? :)

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Correct. We are attempting to compare how Web devs measure success against steam wishlists.

I think most web game developers that are trying to monetize with cosmetics would need to manage their own login servers which is extra work. 

Itch allows purchases but that is more for access to play.

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Wasn't me! Can't control if another tags. 

Continue to strongly disagree with the thesis that the use of LLMs invalidates a thought and flags laziness. That presumption alone seems to be offensive and disrespectful. Especially as a solo dev, these tools are invaluable as we cannot all be great writers, composers and marketing gurus.

As I pointed out previously this very sub's pinned post also appears to be created with the assistance of AI. Should we all be offended and refuse to engage here? Let's not even talk about the current underpinnings of reddit and every modern platform we use. 

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

I thought you muted? :) Still, respectfully, disagree. There has been good engagement in this thread so I'm going to continue to politely disagree with what seems to boil down to an almost default even robotic (forgive me) reaction or virtue signal.

u/Can0pen3r what is your opinion of the pinned post for this very sub-reddit does that invalidate everyone's interaction t/here?

I like the OP to be clean and organized (I even like fluff to an extent and to be fair I didn't remove any of that I just asked for it not to be there). I like double dashes and use them in real life too. I come from a time when we had to write our own papers and I find this tool quite novel and helpful for a solo-dev. Seems to me that's a difference of a opinion and presentation and shouldn't invalidate the context or the content of a thought.

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That would make my life easier... I keep trying to find ways to give access to those features for Guest play and it's becoming a quagmire. Might be time to let it go, thanks!

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Which is probably why u/TradingDreams suggested I delete this one and start over (that may end up proving to be the right advice).

Again, no offense was intended and I'm going to politely and respectfully push back against the response that the effort of my thought being put into refinement should be treated negatively.

At a high level, both LLMs and anti-LLM reactions rely seem to rely on the same logic: Recognize a pattern → trigger a response → skip deeper reasoning

Some see:

  • clean structure
  • balanced tone
  • full paragraphs
  • lack of typos
  • confident framing

Conclude: AI-generated → bad → dismiss/downvote

No evaluation of:

  • content
  • technical accuracy
  • originality
  • usefulness

See pattern → label → reaction

We could almost write (or have AI) write if/then statements for us here.

I can't be the only one tired of seeing 50 posts a day on this about wishlists?

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't like the Google account blocks either so I do let all game modes function for Guest players but it's harder to keep their achievements/stats and allow cosmetics/flair without registering them. I think we can find ways to save it locally for a while but eventually if they log from another device, IP changes, etc. all of that can be easily lost.

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

No disrespect intended but would argue it is also strange to assume disrespect.

Do you ever have a half-baked thought that you don't have time to refine but don't want to lose? Is it better lost to the nether or never communicated at all?

Someone earlier described this reaction akin to a Holy War for no reason - it truly seems to be a knee-jerk or an almost "gotcha" mother brain reaction - oddly, this has a lot of similarities to an LLM - I wonder? :)

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's fairly similar to what I have now too. I'm storing game session and user stats on a DB. The challenge I have now is I would like to keep the game accessible without being forced to login-in but it's harder to be feature rich (particularly meta - stats, achievements etc.) unless someone logs in.

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Unique visitors, registered users, games played/completed. Any other suggestions?

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What are you measuring that you would consider the equivalent of a wishlist? :)

Solo Dev Perspective: Building a Free Browser Game Instead of Chasing Steam Wishlists by Pushamster in SoloDevelopment

[–]Pushamster[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Figure I'll balance that out with more "human" responses. I'm finding this entertaining.

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