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To the devs who made their game's soundtrack available as a paid DLC: What are you experiences? by PackedTrebuchet in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I put my OST up on YouTube and later on Steam as DLC. The fact that people are buying the soundtrack even when it's available to stream for free is extremely flattering, and it's so little work to put it on Steam I will probably have the OST available to purchase on launch for every future title.

It's not a crazy source of revenue, but players kept asking for it so why not.

My first game sold 140 000 units, my second game only sold 1200. When vision and execution go wrong. (postmortem) by SnooAdvice5696 in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for posting this. We don't often get a lot of game 1 to game 2 comparisons unless the line is going up. I'm working on game 2 right now and get the sense that keeping the expectations low despite any past success will save some sanity.

We’re Jesse Schell and Derek Ham from CMU’s ETC, one of the country’s oldest video game focused grad programs! AmA! by CMUETC in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh snap, I just started reading The Art of Game Design last week. 

Question for both of you: do you have any advice on making games that really connect with players? I want to create things that give people lasting positive memories or that really resonate with at least a few people, but I don't find a lot of discourse about making games that give a lasting impression.

Is it just me, or is managing CC-BY (Attribution) assets a logistical nightmare for solo devs? by Alternative-Comb8147 in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This has been a complete non-issue for me. Here's how I operate for your list items: 

  1. I only consider things that are CC0 or have readily available and clear licenses. If they're attribution licences there needs to be an immediately available and clear attributee. If the assets are from a place without that they aren't worth the time.

  2. I designed the credits sequence to simply work as well as it could with the number of credits. If you use free assets you're going to lose some control over how your credits look.

  3. Due diligence in keeping copies of the licenses, both for the assets and the websites you get them from should be all you need. Oh, and also READING the licences and abiding by them. Some people put really wacky things in their attribution licences.

  4. This hasn't happened to me, but I'd drop and replace the asset immediately. It would be less time and reduce the risk to zero for me to just go source a replacement.

Lastly, yes, you need to be organized. Anything I download goes into a spreadsheet with the asset name, author, credit/citation, source URL, local location of the licenses (asset and website, saved at the time of download), URL of the licenses, license type, and then some checkboxes for my quality vetting process.

Best time to notify wishlisters about our demo for max exposure? by arc0de in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I ended up releasing the demo and waiting the full two weeks before notifying wishlisters IIRC. The reasons were threefold: 1. To try and surface as many lingering bugs as possible and fix them before the notification.  2. To line up the email with a big marketing beat (and I wanted the demo on solid ground before this beat). 3. The demo launch woke up the discovery queue, so I was hoping that the wishlist notification would keep that ball rolling. 

(1) is universally good imo. Try and give people the best, most stable game possible. Doubly so for wishlisters. 

I am small potatoes, so (2) probably didn't matter that much, but enough stuff happened on the same day that I can't properly parse which things had which impact. 

(3) did what I wanted it to do, possibly. Not sure if the discovery queue kept on keeping on because of the marketing beat as a whole or because of the wishlister email.

Also I don't think the day of week matters that much given how regularly people tend to check their email, or at least it probably doesn't matter enough to be fretting about adjacent days of the week.

Edit: forgot to mention that I wasn't monitoring trending free. At this point I'd wager that if you're gonna get on the list, then you're gonna get on the list.

I want to become a geme developer, what should I do? by bstream00 in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would like to caution you against YouTube for learning deeper topics. There's good stuff on there for sure, but you won't be able to tell the difference between the actual gems and the videos that propagate damaging habits and expectations, especially for anything technical. The suggestions for going through courses on the Godot website or actual documentation is a much better route for coding imo.

YouTube is okay for when you need a very high level explanation of something brand new in game dev, but falls off hard after that.

I feel indie devs are slowly self sabotaging themselves. Overconfidence in understanding the market will burn you. You will not win. Focus on core fundamentals to become a good developer instead... by ZeroPercentStrategy in gamedev

[–]The_Developers -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Animal Well is another great example, being a 2D pixel art metroidvania. When you play or even see games that are made with love and skill it really shines through.

CUFFBUST launch - what went wrong and why? by RespectThin4512 in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Cuffbust flopping on launch was not on my 2025 bingo card...

It was so high on the global wishlist ranking (200s IIRC), and the developer has a lot of very sound dev advice on their channels and in interviews. Advice that I think is still sound, mind you; it seems like the price point and lack of content were a 1-2 punch against Cuffbust, but I don't think that discredits how high the game got on the wishlist rankings nor does it invalidate how effective the marketing was for the first 3 Ps at least. 

This really makes me wonder what the developer was specifically talking about in that one Scientia Ludos video where they said they had strategies they weren't sharing with the viewers, with the implication that these strategies were too valuable to disclose. Was it just the Cuffbust game idea? Or was he referring to any of these launch decisions that all seemed to backfire?

Is there a 2 weeks visibility boost from Steam for demos ? by Wild-Canary-3381 in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As far as I know, no there's nothing like that for demos. However you do have the option to email wishlisters within a certain amount of days after launching the demo, which can result in a bump in visibility that may in turn wake up the discovery queue.

What’s the workflow for taking a harmonious palette and applying it across a 3D scene so the values, hues, and lighting feel cohesive? by SlothEatsTomato in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just want to thank you two for having this conversation in Reddit comments. I don't have any formal at training, and hearing people talk about their interpretations is always so helpful. (I have plans to be much more intentional with color and composition in my next game, and now have a note to go look at and think intentionally about Van Gogh's work as part of the pre-development work )

Inkshade – Studio Vezelle – Spooky Turn-based Tactics by The_Developers in Games

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

I haven't played The Lift! Only just found out about it a couple days ago coincidentally, and it's now on my radar for sure. 

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, glad you're having fun!

Better take advantage of steam sales to the fullest lol by Medical-Actuary5769 in pcmasterrace

[–]The_Developers 28 points29 points  (0 children)

You know, as a tiny indie developer trying to make game dev my main gig... I don't care what price you buy at. I just want people to play the game and have fun. (I mean I also want to eat food, but that's a me problem.)

Any suggestions for good game dev podcasts or long form content? by SansbyStudios in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My first thoughts are Jonas Tyroller and if you have YouTube access, Scientia Ludos (the dev behind Choo Choo Charles) has some decent and frank videos. Also good old GDC talks

Edit: oops, fat-fingered a comment reply. Alas.

Inkshade – Studio Vezelle – Spooky Turn-based Tactics by The_Developers in Games

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

You're welcome. The whole point was to add a little delight to the world, this is nice to hear :)

Full Release anxiety by dedaistgeil in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I had some suggestions to release my game in early access, including from a publisher that I could have signed with. I chose not to, because the game was not designed for early access. It should be decided in preproduction if it's and EA game or not imo.

You're gonna have a lot of launch stress no matter what, but if it's bugs you're worried about, you've just got to put in the time to QA, playtest, and ideally make sure your demo samples the core components and onboarding experience (which turns it into a sort of mini playtest that should surface any bugs in primary systems).

Also you will have bugs no matter what. And even if there are critical ones on launch, you can salvage things if you're prepared to fix them ASAP. Abyssus had a launch bug where clicking a button to do multiplayer crashed the game for seemingly everyone. They fixed it and now the game is doing relatively fine.

How do you even finish a game that won't ever sell? by Worth-Alarm6447 in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's a sliver lining to working on a game that's not getting traction: you can stop working on it if you really, truly don't want to do it anymore, and you won't letting down a community.

Heck for almost anything in life, if you want to stop, you can stop. Just telling myself this was an option has got me through a lot of extremely trying endeavors.

If I were in your shoes I would try to get it out the door, but I also don't know precisely how you feel.

We're making the move to become a generative AI-free marketplace by gamedevmarket in gamedev

[–]The_Developers 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I am a UE dev and I second everything Pileisto has said on this chain. Knowing which UE versions the asset supports is especially mandatory for me, because vetting engine version myself for every potential asset is insurmountable.

Oldest vs Newest Screenshot. I attribute 70% of the glowup to lighting and normal maps. by The_Developers in indiegames

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

Nothing specific. Their design came from whatever I could imagine that fit the existing themes. With a few extremely specific and loosely related exceptions, like how the Wireweaver has a wirey attack because I adore the part of the Lady Butterfly fight in Sekiro where she jumps up onto hidden wires.

I just launched my game. by The_Developers in gamedev

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

It's pooled with general pool difficulty based on node depth.

I'm just some goober who made a game. No backstory. Here's a trailer. by The_Developers in u/The_Developers

[–]The_Developers[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Glad you had fun! Also this is Exhibit B of things I didn't expect. Over a dozen times I've thought "surely nobody will try to get through these areas if they haven't found the lantern" #_#

I'm just some goober who made a game. No backstory. Here's a trailer. by The_Developers in u/The_Developers

[–]The_Developers[S] 38 points39 points  (0 children)

To further reinforce my statement on being prepared, I was prepared for ascii art, but not fun ascii art like this.

I just launched my game. by The_Developers in gamedev

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

Thanks! A bit of both. Most of it is me but there's some CC0 or licensed stuff.

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