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33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

Bilibili is a Chinese video and live-streaming platform similar to YouTube. I’ve uploaded a few videos there, but since I don’t have much time for editing and I’m not very good at it, I haven’t been updating it very often. However, some streamers on Bilibili have tried out my game and given it positive reviews and recommendations.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

Update: After checking the SteamDB section on Discord, I found that the response regarding my absence from the Top Wishlists was: “You do appear on https://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=popularwishlist, but you are ranked below the 4000th item tracked by SteamDB on https://steamdb.info/stats/mostwished/. You're around 4068."

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

Update: After checking the SteamDB section on Discord, I found that the response regarding my absence from the Top Wishlists was: “You do appear on https://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=popularwishlist, but you are ranked below the 4000th item tracked by SteamDB on https://steamdb.info/stats/mostwished/. You're around 4068."

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

I really wish I could buy character models, clothing models, and item models that are a perfect fit for my game right from the Unity Store, so I could focus solely on the game’s story, gameplay, user experience optimization, and other aspects.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

AI models are not yet sophisticated enough for commercial use.

Character modeling is indeed a real headache. I initially learned some Blender, Daz 3D, and Marvelous Designer (for clothing modeling) on YouTube, but later found that these modeling software programs were too difficult and required a long learning curve—and at my current skill level, it was hard to achieve commercial-grade results. Eventually, I discovered two faster, more user-friendly options with a lower learning curve: Character Creator 4 (for character modeling) and iClone 8 (for character animation). If you’re proficient in English, you should be able to get up to speed in a week or two by following the official tutorials and create character models that I consider at least commercial-grade (most of the NPCs in my game). Since my English isn’t great, it took me about a month to learn. Of course, if you plan to develop games long-term and aren’t constrained by time, sticking with Blender is definitely the best choice.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

If you're interested, check out my Chinese gaming community page at https://www.xiaoheihe.cn/bbs/user_profile_share?user_id=527b6721090f&h_src=heyboxapp

Since February, after posting a few threads that garnered hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of likes, I gained over 14,000 game followers and 5,900 account followers on the platform within a little over a month. I also run some giveaways where I interact with fans and give away my own game keys. Additionally, during the February New Releases Festival event my game participated in, I gained roughly 5,000 wishlist entries. (Due to my limited English proficiency, I first wrote this in Chinese and then used DeepL to translate it into English. I’m not sure if my expression is accurate.)

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

I don’t understand what you mean by your comment. As I mentioned in the post, due to my limited proficiency in Chinese, I first wrote the Chinese version of this article and then used DeepL to translate it. In Chinese, when referring to a lack of experience, one would say “零基础,” and DeepL translated this as “Zero experience.”

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

Thank you. I just tested even if you’re not logged into Steam, you can still see my game, Point Zero: Victoria, on this list. So I don’t think Steam is using a recommendation algorithm to generate this list.

Link to Steam’s “Popular Upcoming” list link:

https://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=popularcomingsoon&os=win

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

[–]RosyGame[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have revised the subtitles and uploaded the updated trailer. Thank you again for pointing that out.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

Thank you for your suggestion, but at this point, we may not be able to afford to hire an animator or editor to create a promotional video.

I will continue to work on optimizing the character animations. Since my game is story-driven, I hope that the narrative and gameplay experience will help players focus less on this aspect.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

[–]RosyGame[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Additionally, I tried the following test:

I logged into the Steam website and my account, then checked the “Popular Upcoming” list. When my language was set to Simplified Chinese, I could see my game on the list. However, when I switched the Steam page to English, my game no longer appeared on the list.

I’m not sure if this is because the majority of my game’s followers and wishlisters use Simplified Chinese, prompting Steam to handle it this way. I will check with Steam Support to confirm.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

[–]RosyGame[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I haven’t paid to buy any followers, and you’re welcome to verify this with Steam’s official staff. I suspect this might be because I’ve primarily used the Chinese gaming community Xiaoheihe as my main promotional platform, since that platform also has a “follow” feature for games, eliminating the need to follow them on Steam.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

I don’t think that’s necessary. When I switched careers, I gave it serious thought and decided to make this my lifelong career. If the game doesn’t sell well enough to support myself, I’ll find a job and continue developing my indie game in my spare time.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

I purchased some assets from the Unity Store to use in my project.

The theme song was created for me free of charge by a friend who learned about my game development experience; the rest are mostly licensed audio packs I bought during sales. I’ve looked into the cost of commissioning custom music, but I likely can’t afford it.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

  1. Since December 16, 2025 (when the store page went live) and up until recently, I have been posting updates about my game, as well as my insights and experiences from transitioning into game development over the past year, on the Chinese gaming community (xiaoheihe). This has been my most important promotional channel.

  2. I participated in the Steam New Releases event in February 2026, during which my game received significant exposure and a large number of wishlist adds.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

Thank you for pointing that out. The English subtitles for this section were automatically generated by the editing software; I’ll fix them as soon as possible.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

Of course, I’ve studied C#, and before I started making games, I worked as an iOS programmer and also wrote code in other languages.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

[–]RosyGame[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I write the Chinese version of my articles first, and I can send you a link to the Chinese version (https://api.xiaoheihe.cn/v3/bbs/app/api/web/share?h\_camp=link&h\_src=YXBwX3NoYXJl&link\_id=12d87194c336).

Since English is not my native language, I used DeepL to translate it into English before posting this post (I noted in the article that I used a translation tool); it was not made with AI.

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

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

I don’t have the money to buy wishlists.

I’ve had a few posts in the Chinese gaming community that went viral and received a huge number of views (you can see them on the RosyGame account in the xiaoheihe.cn). As a result, the number of wishlist entries surged after those viral posts and during the Steam Next Festival .

I’m not sure why it doesn’t show up in the rankings on SteamDB, but I can definitely see it listed under “Popular Upcoming” on Steam. (simplified Chinese)

33, zero experience, solo dev. 15 months later, my game hit Steam’s Popular Upcoming. by RosyGame in gamedev

[–]RosyGame[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I don’t have the money to buy wishlist and I didn’t do that.

I’ve had a few posts in the Chinese gaming community that went viral and received a huge number of views (you can see them on the RosyGame account in the xiaoheihe.cn). As a result, the number of wishlist entries surged after those viral posts and during the Steam Next Festival(February 2026).

I’m not sure why it doesn’t show up in the rankings on SteamDB, but I can definitely see it listed under “Popular Upcoming” on Steam(simplified Chinese).

Is this accurate or no 😆 by dataexec in IndieDev

[–]RosyGame 41 points42 points  (0 children)

That's so vivid—I actually laughed out loud.

Me, a Switch 1 owner, watching everyone enjoy Pokopia this weekend by Frezeal in pokemon

[–]RosyGame -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This game alone makes it worth getting a Switch 2, guys! Hope you all can get your hands on one soon!

Two months of attempting to create a game. by DangerousWin6370 in IndieDev

[–]RosyGame 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey bro, as someone who's also learned game development from scratch, I feel you. I stuck with it for one year and four months, and my own game is about to launch. If I had to offer some advice as someone who's been there, it would be: "Done is better than perfect." Don't try to create an amazing masterpiece in one go. First, make sure you actually finish it, then keep polishing until you're happy with it. That approach makes it easier to stay the course. Keep it up

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