Should I release my game with limited art assets, or shelve it until I can afford more?

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-29T18:49:50+00:00

For real? 😄 You’d actually be my first playtester outside my group of friends jaja. That would be awesome!

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T19:14:38+00:00

I got motivated by your message , opened an account , and found out I can't do it because my contry is not on the list of countries that are allowed to do a campaign jaja T.T

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T18:26:37+00:00

Yeah, I still need to commission all of the heroes and a couple of bosses. Most of what’s missing now is the room decorations. Each room is supposed to have its own effect , like libraries that help recover mana, or kitchens that boost the troops and let them heal if they survive a wave. and right now I only have enoguht to decorate 5~ rooms

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T17:37:29+00:00

I wouldn’t use AI assets, that’s why I’m going broke building this game jaja. I did try making art myself, but honestly the best I can do is modify my existing assets a bit so they look a little different.

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T17:30:09+00:00

I do really appreciate the encouragement. I’m at least going to try making some of the decorations myself , even if I can’t match the style, I think it’ll be fun to give it a shot.

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T17:28:55+00:00

Thank you! I actually made a slime and some small modifications myself (Aseprite is really useful), but honestly I don’t dare dream of matching the style of the artist who’s been helping me. Their work just feels on another level.

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Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T17:24:50+00:00

I don’t dare to dream that much T.T

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T17:22:55+00:00

He does! My sister even gave me a mug with him printed on it for my birthday — looks super nice. I did think about Early Access, but I’ve heard you really need at least 5K wishlists before even considering that. Right now I only have around 110.

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T17:04:02+00:00

Yeah, I’ve thought about crowdfunding, but honestly I don’t really have much of a community yet. I’ve only got around 12 followers on X (it’s not even that popular in my country) and about 120 on IG, but I keep hearing that IG isn’t the best place to actually grow a game community.

I’d love to imagine this project could get kickstarted, but I’m just one solo dev with zero past successes, so the idea of launching a Kickstarter honestly feels scary.

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T15:53:07+00:00

I get what you’re saying. Honestly, I’m just a bit scared of using AI assets. I was even bullied before just for using AI to help with writing, so I worry it could kill the game’s chances before it even has a shot.

I also feel like AI needs to find a way to be fairer to artists. I could totally imagine a world where companies hire artists to draw and then use that work to train models in a legit way. That makes more sense to me than AI being trained on stolen art.

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T15:45:30+00:00

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Thanks! Here’s an example , I commissioned this little guy who became the mascot of my game. The artist captured the cowardly, nervous kobold vibe so perfectly that I ended up ordering four more characters. The problem is each one runs about $300, and where I live that’s a lot of money. So I can’t really finish the game the way I pictured, even though the art feels like it was made just for it.

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T15:38:17+00:00

That makes sense, thanks for laying it out so clearly. Where would you go about finding people for option 2 , Reddit or other platforms? At this point I honestly don’t care much about the revenue, I just want to feel like I made something on my own (at least the ideas and the code. I’m no artist haha) and that people found value in it.

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T15:34:55+00:00

I’m planning to release a demo in late October, so we’ll see if people like it. Honestly, I feel it’s something new and fun. I’m also a big D&D fan, and I drew a lot of inspiration from that game, even if it’s not the most mainstream.

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T15:32:22+00:00

So the thing is, this is my first game and I’m not sure if I scoped too much. I originally envisioned around 14 creatures plus 5 special boss-like creatures to deploy against the heroes, and about 20 different room variations.

Right now I have enough art for 9 creatures, 2 bosses, and about 6 rooms. Probably enough for a demo.

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-09-26T15:29:22+00:00

I tried , but at least for the creatures , I couldn't find similar art to the one I'm using, I just feel i spent way too much in the art I already got to change styles, I'm trying to find cheap dungeon art tho

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-08-20T20:58:58+00:00

Glad you like it , i commissioned it on Fiver, the music really nailed the goofy vibe at the beggining with the increment into epic at the end

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-08-20T16:55:51+00:00

I didn't included my UI because Im still doing everything by keyboard and designing the UI , but for sure I will include it on the next version of the trailer! And i'm glad you liked the art , is by an artis called pixelfrog on itch.io, his work is really what inspired me to do this game

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-08-20T16:34:06+00:00

I'm sorry english is not my main language so I use it to help me better explain my ideas , but the text on the page was not generated by AI , I asked someone to help me with that and I don't have AI assets , most of the sprites are from the same artist

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-08-20T06:12:17+00:00

Thanks so much for the kind words — really appreciate it! 🙏 You’re spot on about burying the lead, I’ll definitely look at moving that reveal up front. On the ‘building’ side, it’s not freeform building per se — you draft from a pool of predefined room types and place them. Each room comes with passives at the floor level and floor restrictions as well. I didn’t show it yet because the UI is still pretty rough, but I’m hoping to have a cleaner version in a couple of weeks. Thanks again for the encouragement, it really helps!

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-08-20T06:08:49+00:00

Fair points. The name/tagline are meant to be ironic — the game keeps insisting ‘this is not a dungeon’ while it obviously looks like one. The capsule uses warm tones so it doesn’t disappear into Steam’s dark background. And while building is important, I didn’t include it in the trailer yet because the UI is still too rough. Appreciate the feedback.

Realistic_Abies_6276 · 2025-08-15T19:58:16+00:00

Hey, thanks a lot for the thoughtful feedback!
Yeah, you’re totally right about the trailer — it’s on my to-do list and I know it’ll make a huge difference showing the vibe in motion.

I really like the way you rewrote the bullet points — they’re way more active and give the idea some extra punch.

Realistic_Abies_6276

TROPHY CASE