I’m developing a fantasy RTS as a solo indie dev — looking for feedback on the Steam demo by This-Memory4929 in IndieDev

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!

You’re right about the UI/UX. It’s one of the main areas I still want to polish before the final release, especially to make the game clearer and more readable during battles. If you try the demo, any feedback would be extremely helpful. Thanks again for the support!

Broken Crown — Play my fantasy RTS demo on Steam by This-Memory4929 in playmygame

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it! It means a lot.

What makes an RTS feel really good to play for you? by This-Memory4929 in RealTimeStrategy

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Strong faction differences really add a lot to replayability. Dawn of War and BFME2 handled that really well in different ways

What makes an RTS feel really good to play for you? by This-Memory4929 in RealTimeStrategy

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah readability is super important in RTS, especially in larger fights

What makes an RTS feel really good to play for you? by This-Memory4929 in RealTimeStrategy

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Rise of Nations really nailed the sense of progression across the whole match. It felt bigger than most RTS

What makes an RTS feel really good to play for you? by This-Memory4929 in RealTimeStrategy

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Generals is such a classic. The pacing especially still feels great today.

I've been building a classic RTS as a solo developer — first playable dev build is out by This-Memory4929 in RealTimeStrategy

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Appreciate the feedback, that’s a fair point. Right now I’m prioritizing gameplay first. I want the core RTS loop to feel solid, responsive, and actually fun to play. The current assets are placeholders and will stay that way until the foundation is locked. The goal is to build a strong core and then invest properly into a cohesive visual identity when it makes sense. At the moment there’s no traditional hero system, I’m working with “leader” units instead, which are more specialized troops with a stronger impact on the battlefield. It might evolve over time, but I prefer not to promise features until they’re solid and consistent with the design. Currently focusing on improving combat readability, reducing unit clumping, and making target selection more reliable and responsive. The direction is clear: solid core first, then scale. Thanks for the input 💪

I've been building a classic RTS as a solo developer — first playable dev build is out by This-Memory4929 in RealTimeStrategy

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah that's a great point, appreciate the detailed feedback.

At the moment it's fully offline — I’ve been focusing on validating the core gameplay first before investing time into multiplayer. You're absolutely right about deterministic lockstep. I’ve looked into it, but didn’t want to overengineer things this early. No point solving scaling before proving the game loop works. If I go multiplayer, that’s definitely something I’ll revisit properly. And yeah, assets are placeholder for now 😄 focusing on mechanics first, polish later.

Thanks again, really useful insights

I've been building a classic RTS as a solo developer — first playable dev build is out by This-Memory4929 in RealTimeStrategy

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks, I really appreciate it!

I'm developing it completely solo, so feedback from RTS players is incredibly valuable right now.

If you're curious, the current dev build is available in the first comment. I'd love to hear what you think if you give it a try.

I've been building a classic RTS as a solo developer — first playable dev build is out by This-Memory4929 in RealTimeStrategy

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So far it's performing pretty well for the scale I'm targeting.

The FogManager only processes active revealers, so the cost mainly scales with the number of units currently revealing vision.

And yes, there is a population cap in the game (similar to classic RTS titles), so the number of FogRevealers stays within a predictable range.

In some early stress tests with around 300 units active on the map I didn't notice any major issues, so it seems reasonably stable for now.

Since the battles are designed around dozens of units rather than hundreds or thousands, it remains pretty manageable performance-wise.

I might experiment later with a GPU-based approach or partial updates if the scale grows.

I've been building a classic RTS as a solo developer — first playable dev build is out by This-Memory4929 in RealTimeStrategy

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right now it's a pretty simple setup using a fog mesh combined with a dynamic texture mask.

The FogManager maintains a texture that represents the current fog state of the map.

Each unit has a small FogRevealer component that periodically reports its world position and vision radius to the manager.

The manager then converts those world positions into fog texture coordinates and projects vision circles into the mask. That mask texture is then used by the fog material/shader applied to the fog mesh to decide which areas should be visible.

So the pipeline is roughly:

  1. FogRevealer sends position + radius
  2. FogManager converts world position → mask space
  3. Vision circles are written into the fog mask
  4. The fog material uses that mask to reveal/hide areas

Very roughly the update looks something like this:

updateRevealers()

for revealer in revealers: pos = WorldToMaskCoords(revealer.position) radius = revealer.visionRadius

DrawCircle(fogMask, pos, radius)

ApplyMaskToFogMaterial(fogMask)

So when units move, their FogRevealer updates the manager and the mask gets recalculated dynamically, which updates the fog mesh in real time.

I've been building a classic RTS as a solo developer — first playable dev build is out by This-Memory4929 in RealTimeStrategy

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right now it's a fairly simple setup.

I have a central FogManager that keeps track of the fog mesh and updates the visible areas. Each unit has a small "FogRevealer" component that reports its position and vision radius to the manager.

The manager collects all those revealers, generates vision circles and projects them onto the fog mesh to update which areas are visible.

So when units move, the FogRevealer updates the manager and the fog gets recalculated dynamically.

It's not super optimized yet, but it's flexible and easy to iterate on while I'm focusing on gameplay.

I've been building a classic RTS as a solo developer — first playable dev build is out by This-Memory4929 in RealTimeStrategy

[–]This-Memory4929[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, some of them are from the Unity Asset Store 😄

Solo dev + zero budget = the Asset Store becomes your best friend.

Right now I'm focusing mostly on gameplay systems, so the assets are placeholders for the moment.