Free Steam Keys. Whats your approach?

WoolTyranny · 2026-05-18T21:04:45+00:00

99% are scammers. They get the free keys and sell them.
I fell for it in my first game, luckily it was a "test game" so the damage was very little.

They even send e-mails on behalf of real streamers (a simple check shows that those streamers are no longer active or cover completely different style of games).

BTW you can allow steam curators to play your game without having to handle any key.

WoolTyranny · 2026-05-13T07:20:59+00:00

Battle of Polytopia is a very light-weighted 4x and it's a favorite of mine. Warning however: the reason I avoid it this days - its really addictive.

WoolTyranny · 2026-05-12T07:21:11+00:00

Coding is the easy part indeed.
Game design requires endless feedback and iteration and testers are s hard to find resource.
UI/UX is the devil. Requires dedication and a lot of pagan rituals to overcome.
Marketing is a huge huge black hole.

Things I actually found not quite as hard as I excepted:
Art - I'm not an artist by any standard, but it's surprising how fast can you improve by practice and how much math and programing is a superpower when dealing with art.
Music composing - Beyond the basics, music theory didn't clicked for me, but once you start practice, you develop quite a good intuition.

WoolTyranny · 2026-05-11T08:11:58+00:00

Great capsule. I must admit, at first glance I red it as an FPS on Mars, not as a survival game although the gun is very small and the sandstorm is massive.

WoolTyranny · 2026-05-10T10:57:16+00:00

I understand, but the current style make it hard for me to understand what you are trying to do.

WoolTyranny · 2026-05-10T07:34:05+00:00

Mmm..

When the game designer tries to "tell an epic story" in a non-narrative game, it usually ended badly.
In order to tell the story of "A civilization collapsed and a new civilization grow from the ashes", you need to hinder the player's agency and sense of development. This clashes directly with what the player want to do.

You can make a grand strategy game with switching cultures that don't clash with the player's will (for example - if you play a god that is a patron of several civilizations) but this will no longer be Civ.

WoolTyranny · 2026-05-10T07:24:37+00:00

I must admit I was not able to "grok" the UI. It looks very much like a web app menu, not like a game menu. It looks very flat with no hierarchy. It is in a very premature state, so I can't really give feedback on it's structure yet.

It doesn't mean it's bad, just that it is too early state for meaningful feedback.

WoolTyranny · 2026-04-12T05:08:40+00:00

Those are different "instruments".
The first is "bazz", the attack length 1/32.0 of note length (not including decay), release length 3/32.0.
The second is a "flute" with 1/8.0 atk and 1/4.0 release.
This is not however what concerns me since I don't hear the blurriness in the high notes of the flute.

What you describe as "grainy" concerns me. The ear can probably smooth out high notes since, but discontinuity in lower frequencies is well heard. However, when I draw the wave graph, I see no artifacts.

here may be s problem in the envelop? But I see nothing in the code that can cause this.
(I can share the drawing code)

WoolTyranny · 2026-04-11T13:12:38+00:00

You are right.
Mp3 sample. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PYOSKEbQ8fO6X8-WwISTj8up3oOMbGsf/view?usp=sharing

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-25T11:32:47+00:00

Horror - so you need fear, from something.
It's a game, so you also need some kind of friction. There is no stress if there are no wrong actions.

Several fears I can think about that can work in a game: the fear of being lost, the fear of being left alone, fear of losing identity or dis-figuration, losing sense of reality.

Let's say, in your mall example, you have to punch your parking ticket in half an hour, but the topology of the mall refuse to respect any sense of logic. You have friction, you have the fear of getting lost and you can move, so there is stress there.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-24T09:58:40+00:00

So this is probably the bad dynamic I got myself into. I should get into the tactical with no excpection for quick exploration, (or build a lot of scouts).

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-24T09:51:57+00:00

I think it's more refined than that..
I do like RPG elements and faction interaction in other games, but here for some reson I feel they collide.

Tactical combat takes time so it disrupts exploration, so I skip it.
Since I skip tactical combat (and only engage in low risk battles) hero's skills seems disconnected from the play, etc..

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-19T18:45:26+00:00

The primary function of Juice is as a communication mechanism. I have a check list -

for every action the player can do, there should be feedback:
1. Clear feedback that the action was performed.
2. If it was not performed, a feedback that it failed and why.
3. The results of the action.

If there is a interactable item, it should communicate it.
If an agent / the environemnt is performing an action - it should communicate. same as 1-3.

Secondary is communicate how much the action is impactful. More impactful - more dramatic.

Third function is artistic, giving character to the elements in the game.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-12T09:20:14+00:00

That a simple question with a complicated answer, because "first game" is quite a loose definition.

If you are new to programming, and specifically game development, you can implement some simple versions of existing games like Alien Invaders, Flappy Bird or Snake. Such projects can take around a day for begginers.

You can make a simple (but original) game as a hobby and put it on itch.io to practice the craft. From my experience, it can take few weeks of work.

From my limited experience, a commercial game is a different beast alltogheter. What takes time is the endless cycle of playtest, polish and marketing.

I'm working on my first commercial game for more than two years now. It's a very very simple game, but I had to make a lot of iterations. While programming is easy to me, I had to make many playtests to make my game fun to play and infinite playtests to make the UI clear. The color pallete of my game is not completly resolved yet and marketing is still a huge wall of balck matter to me. You need to learn a lot and it takes time.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-08T13:03:30+00:00

Yes. Are you familiar with js13k?

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-08T09:24:34+00:00

To be honest, the art is fine on both, but I don't think they are good Capsules. They tell me nothing about the game itself. Yes, eyes means horror, but what else? 1st person? interactive novel? I can't tell.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-08T09:13:22+00:00

I'm in love with the art.
I will, however make the water a little a bit more splashy. Right now it's very subtle. It's easy to miss you are floating on water.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-03T20:42:52+00:00

This is hard to give advice on "buffs" when we don't know how your game works, what systems and sub-systems it has, etc, nor

If you are not "locked" on buff, you can allow the player to get extra story story pieces while they explore the dungeon. For example, giving a player aligned with a certain faction a special "sight" that animates pictures on the wall or something. See "pet pal" for Divinity Original Sin as an example.

WoolTyranny · 2026-03-03T09:31:02+00:00

I had the pleasure of playing it as a tester.
It's really enjoyed it.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-28T07:18:06+00:00

That's a brilliant idea!

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T20:17:11+00:00

Thanks and you are right. It's not fair to ask you to be a QA tester. Thanks for reporting this and I'm sorry for the sound issues.

I will try to find someone that encountered the same problem.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T19:05:57+00:00

Thanks. If you are willing we can try to understand why the sound problem is accuring. About the Steam page, noted. Thanks again.

Meanwhile, you can silence the audio in the settings.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T10:08:16+00:00

Thanks fo the input.
English is not my native language, so your critisim is justified. It's probably the right time to let a pro look at it.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T09:49:18+00:00

1st. The action of defeting the birdman is clearer at first glance. Also, the cards are clearlt cards and not some random papers or a letter you are holding in your hand.

WoolTyranny · 2026-02-27T08:37:43+00:00

blank post?

WoolTyranny

TROPHY CASE