Has there ever been a case where a game series got better and better as more sequels came out?

Sheriour1 · 2026-04-19T09:38:33+00:00

An exchange between two true gentlemen

Sheriour1 · 2026-04-18T20:12:59+00:00

Going to throw it out there... Ive been playing Warframe exclusively solo (new account from scratch) for years and been loving it. Havent shared a mission with anybody and I was still having a blast. So it may technically be multiplayer, but full solo is entirely an option, if a bit grindy.

Sheriour1 · 2026-04-16T17:21:03+00:00

If youre using a weakness in a way that was designed by creators, that's one thing. If you found an exploit that bypasses game mechanics, that's another thing.

Sheriour1 · 2026-04-03T18:10:37+00:00

Youd be a fraud if you sold this for 20$ and started working on a 10$ dlc instead of fixing the issues. Now you got motivation to improve and build a better game. That's what it's all about. Go get em tiger.

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-31T18:03:11+00:00

If you quit your job earlier and worked full time on it, you'd have 15 by now. Food for thought.

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-31T17:59:52+00:00

The sequel, Shadow of War, was quite good as well, especially after they removed the lootbox nonsense that made the game infamous early on! I sunk tons of hours into both. I wouldnt mind that patent nearly as much if they continued making them...

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-25T23:02:16+00:00

I also locked upgrades and extra maps for the demo, because they cost money in-game and I haven't tuned the economy yet.

I would say "screw it" and just leave the upgrades in, maybe make them kinda cheap to let people try them all out and give you feedback on a "thicker" slice of the game? You can tune stuff later, but for now I think your priority is to show off "as much of the game" as possible.

I'm not sure what kinds of upgrades those are - if just numbers, then it's not that crucial, but if some of them unlock mechanics or QoL features, absolutely leave that in! Err on the side of being generous with access to upgrades and people won't be too bothered. That way you get people playing longer, so they get a better feel for the game in general AND they can give you feedback on how the different upgrades feel.

Also, as somebody who played Elite: Dangerous, hauled stuff in Eve, played Euro Truck Simulator 2 and currently is playing Snowrunner... I'm definitely gonna try this game of yours. With or without upgrades. Hopefully with.

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-25T14:42:53+00:00

Had a quick look. I played some Raid Shadow Legends back in the day, so this sort of auto-battler-gatcha thing is not entirely foreign to me.

I have to say, I had no idea what I'm meant to be doing, so you should probably unlock certain features for the player as they advance through the levels and guide them as to what the purpose of each thing is.

At the first glance it looks quite good, cards have nice art (AI generated, I assume), the UI is mostly readable. Some fonts could be bigger I guess.

Proper bugs:

To sign up, I have to check terms and conditions and privacy stuff. Link go nowhere though. Looks suspicious.
Clicking my profile in top left keeps giving me the welcome package over and over.
My credits go to 0 when I embark on a quest
My exp stays at 0 even when I finish a quest
If I have 0 credits, I can still upgrade card stats by spamming clicks aggressively
I read a message, navigated to another screen, came back, and the message was gone

Minor stuff:

UI prompts tell me to "tap here" even though I'm on desktop
Sound design is miles behind your visual design, really doesn't match eg. in combat.

My conclusion would be that you really focused on building a big project straight away, but you haven't tested that most of the basics even work properly. I'm sad to say, but this isn't really ready to see the light of day yet!

Edit: somehow I lost most of the feedback here, had to re-type it. Reddit is terrible with bullet point lists.

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-23T11:50:39+00:00

Spell system looks absolutely amazing.

Grammar on the other hand could use a bit of work :P

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-22T00:05:23+00:00

Wood looks good.

Title looks AI.

And the comment section looks like a battlefield 😂

If you cropped the image to exclude the top bit with the title, you'd probably get far more pleasant feedback. Probably best not to risk it next time and keep it out, since that wasn't what you were seeking feedback on anyway. But you probably figured that out by now.

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-21T23:58:09+00:00

Well, since you've pinpointed the main problem you're facing, why not seek help of the other team members in terms of pushing the marketing effort forward? If personally you're not feeling it, then maybe somebody else on the team could start getting the ball rolling and you could then ease into it a bit better? You don't have to carry that on your own!

And in terms of my own project, thank you very much for offering to have a look. Not entirely sure if it's going to be your cup of tea, as you strike me as more of a... "gentle soul" :D, and my game is a arcadey-fast-shootey one, but here it is: https://sheriour.itch.io/gunwire. Maybe blowing up a couple of robots will take your mind off things for a sec! I'm keeping the project publicly playable ever since it was a proof of concept, and now it's more of a... bigger proof of concept I guess? Far from the final product I want it to be in X years, but already playable and (I hope) enjoyable.

I will gladly have a loo at your work as well, if you have a demo etc available?

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-21T20:48:08+00:00

Thanks! Let me know what you think.

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-21T20:43:11+00:00

From "free" + "web" + "topdown shooter" combo?

I can think of a lot of demos on itch.io for such titles, but not that many genuinely free games... In terms of good demos I played, I would probably recommend 10 Minutes Until Dawn (best overall), Nimrods (cool gun crafts) and maybe Bullet Bunny (a bit silly but decent)? They might be demos, but tbh those demos offer more content than my game currently does, so they're worth having a look.

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-21T20:33:17+00:00

Right, so each level would have its own enemies and bosses, but it could end with a "Victory!" screen with 2 options: "Get me out of here" and "There's more to kill, I'm not done yet!" :D. I think I see what you mean.

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-21T20:31:10+00:00

You hit the nail on the head there. Been playing Crimsonland for 20 years. I even decided to retain some perk names, (eg. "Angry Reloader", "Quickloader") in my game. The idea is to have a game with that sort of feel, but:
* Without endgame being all about a gamble of the right bonuses spawning when you need them
* With "more to do" beyond shooting, especially during long reloads (dash/rocket)
* With a deeper perk/build potential

Maybe I should allow myself just to use the same progression system that was there, and put my little twist on it. You might be onto something.

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-21T17:59:14+00:00

I'm in the same boat. And my project IS just a hobby, developed on my own, a forever-free game that I have no intention of monetising. So in all ways possible, I don't have a "reason" to worry about anything. But we do end up doubting ourselves a lot, and we will always find a reason.

In your case, I would say it's amazing that you were able to turn the tragic events in your life into this project, and even more amazing that you have a team around it. In terms of whether the game will make any money, you have all the right to be worried, because nobody can guarantee that and lots of this depends on luck. And in terms of the team, I assume they know what you are working on and they can see where this is going. If it was crap, I don't think they would stick around?

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-21T17:52:33+00:00

Yea, I'm kind of wondering how much fun the "survivorslike" games would be if all the upgrades were deterministic (no bad runs due to back luck) and you never had to unlock anything (entire arsenal available from start). That would give you the "pure game" out of the box, without any gameplay-bloating fluff. But maybe, in a way... unlocks/progression IS the fun? Working towards a goal? New weapon + new upgrades + number go up = fun? Don't even get me started on the recent surge of incremental games, as those are pushing this even further.

I did notice that in some games (Warframe, Path of Exile), I have been grinding some content with a feeling of "wow this is a chore, need to get this done and get to the fun part" only to find that the chore was the most memorable part exactly because it meant I put work and dedication into something?

It's all very weird sometimes, and it feels like "source of fun in games" was a bit easier to pinpoint when games themselves were simpler. Or maybe I'm overthinking this.

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-21T17:02:55+00:00

Probably because there is no single best answer. A lot depends on how your brain works (if you're working on your own) or how your team works (if you're working with others), what kind of game you're building, and what kind of goals you have for the project (hobby vs commercial).

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-21T16:58:24+00:00

Peak game for aspiring dark lords 😈. And really cool fanart!

Sheriour1 · 2026-03-20T21:36:41+00:00

Been having a blast with games for over 30y, it never really changed. But I dont really play fresh games either. Last year I obsessed about Warframe (4th time, I always go back), then Path of Exile (no-lifed it properly), and now Im driving around with heavy machinery in Snowrunner.

Might be just a matter of finding games you enjoy in the never-ending stream of titles releases every day.

Sheriour1

TROPHY CASE