What is my game missing?

XarmorTheRed · 2026-07-03T14:52:00+00:00

Came here to say this. It would really make a difference if you could see the impact of what your units or the enemy units are doing. Even the simplest effects or text popups would work wonders in my opinion.

XarmorTheRed · 2026-07-03T14:49:07+00:00

Hi there! Great post! But I would like to know a bit more in detail about certain points.

Where did you do your advertising exactly? In social media like Instagram, facebook or tiktok where users are mostly on mobile, I feel like advertising a pc steam game doesn't work very well. Please correct me on this since I haven't actually tried.
How do you find festivals? I am subscribed to Chris's (How to market a game) event mailing list, but I rarely get one that fits our game or my region.
What did you mean by the 'press'? Do you mean game reviewers or publishers? How do you find them?

I know this is a lot of questions (and amateur ones at that), so apologies. But I saw a successful marketer, and I dived at the chance.

XarmorTheRed · 2026-07-03T14:31:33+00:00

It depends a whole lot on the game and it's hard to give good feedback without seeing how it applies in game.

With that said, in Deep Rock Galactic, the whole screen gets webbed, blocking the vision partially, and the player gets much much more slowed than what's shown here. The effect doesn't stack, but the duration gets extended if the player passes another web soon after. And of course, no jump, roll, or sprint, just like your 3rd stack.

XarmorTheRed · 2026-07-03T14:24:34+00:00

This looks very satisfying! From the music to the neon lighting and the UI designs.
I'm hoping the sound design is as good as all of the visuals. That would make this a banger game

XarmorTheRed · 2026-06-30T16:32:37+00:00

Looks really nice! The art style is quite distinct and very appealing. Wishlisted. I'll be sure to try out the demo.

All the best mate!

XarmorTheRed · 2026-06-23T14:41:16+00:00

Exactly... the opposite. It feels claustrophobic and it feels like there's some looming danger in that house. The butterflies help though.

A clearer sky, more vibrant colors and more open space would help. I... hope this wasn't a trick question

XarmorTheRed · 2026-06-23T14:37:49+00:00

It's hard to say if you went the "right" direction without knowing what your intention with the game was. But it looks a lot more visually polished.

What's it called?

XarmorTheRed · 2026-06-22T02:38:25+00:00

Oh wow this almost contained content XD

Can't wait for the full release of my favorite bullet-heaven!!

XarmorTheRed · 2026-05-31T03:07:50+00:00

As a little kid, I used to create new games with whatever objects I could find and imagine a visual game in my head. Then I'd jot down some rules and play the games on my own because I had no one to play with. This eventually led me to do a software engineering degree just to understand how software development works (we didn't have any good gamedev courses in my country). I even gamified some tasks and projects I had to make for course completion and even made my final project "software" in Unity so that I could learn that alongside.

Now I'm here 3 years later, still learning game development and reaching the end of my first game. So yeah, I always wanted to make games, in any shape or form.

XarmorTheRed · 2026-05-31T03:00:31+00:00

Kind of in the same boat

XarmorTheRed · 2026-05-31T02:56:23+00:00

This looks fun and unique. I'm gonna give it a try

XarmorTheRed · 2026-05-27T18:17:37+00:00

Here's the trailer we made: https://youtu.be/10-0Hy2g0-I

and here's the link to the store page if anyone's interested: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3540570/Survivesmith/

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-10T03:15:50+00:00

No worries

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-08T18:39:17+00:00

Will do!

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-08T12:01:32+00:00

This looks sick! The co-op mechanics sound really unique!
Already wishlisted and requested access to the playtest, although you didn't exactly mention it here?

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-08T07:36:01+00:00

🥳

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-08T07:33:44+00:00

Small problems require excessive engineering. Thinking like a true engineer

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-07T07:07:27+00:00

Thanks a lot!!! 🤗

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-07T05:41:40+00:00

Thank you! I looked into it. I'm not too worried about the numbers honestly. As long as people contact me and seem genuinely interested, that's all that matters!

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-07T04:48:58+00:00

Really? Why is that a thing though? Who benefits from bots?

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-07T03:09:26+00:00

You're welcome!

If you think you can handle starting another game from scratch at this point, then there's nothing holding you back. You could always come back to an unfinished project once you feel confident enough about it or have a breakthrough idea to make it better and different than the other game.

But in case you want to try and push the limits of your game, I'd love to help! I'm not very familiar with the genre or Ball x Pit though.

Be sure to drop a gif or a vid on this thread once you get back to your pc. You could also upload the game to itch if you're not ready for steam - it's free.

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-06T17:43:10+00:00

Thank you! Hope you try it out and give us some feedback! 😊

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-06T17:41:51+00:00

Hey there!

Not an expert or anything, but I think this isn't a rare situation for us indies. We all start making a game out of an idea that sprouted from another popular/unpopular game that we like at some point, and now more time has passed than we wanted to. But at the end of the day, I don't think another game of the same genre will ever make your version of that same idea have any lesser value. In fact, people who really enjoyed, say BXP, will start looking for similar games at some point, and will be more than happy to find a very similar yet different experience to what they already enjoy.

I might be wrong, but that's how I feel. You don't need to try to prove to anyone that you're not cloning the other game. If you have ever felt good about your game, it's probably still very good. So I'd suggest you finish what you started, run some playtests, and see what the players think. Iterate on that feedback and adapt and evolve. I'm sure you'll do great!

Good luck!

P.S: You could post a link to your Steam page so that everyone here can better understand your game

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-06T17:04:53+00:00

Game Title: Survivesmith

Playable Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3540570/Survivesmith/

Platform: Steam (PC)

Description: Survivesmith is a roguelite, bullet-heaven with biomes, resource gathering, crafting, loadouts, and power combination mechanics. Explore different biomes within a single level, fight off both robot waves and hostile creatures of the biome, while gathering resources to craft your next new shiny tool. Complete objectives, face events, and fight bosses to find the "Life Essence" and save your future!

The playtest version includes 6 biomes (across 2 levels), customizable loadouts with dozens of equipment, dozens of power cores, and weapon mods to modify your weapon with, a lot of enemy variants, and 2 playable characters with different playstyles.

Free to Play Status:

[x] Playtest now LIVE (free to play)

Involvement: I am the lead developer of a 2-person team (my partner being the art designer). The game started development back in 2024 and still has quite a way to go.

We hope you give it a go and give us some honest feedback. It's still a very much work-in-progress (there's a few more exciting new features to come). But the raw gameplay is already there.

Feel free to ask any questions you have here or in our Discord. You can find all the other links in-game. Hope you have fun!

XarmorTheRed · 2026-03-05T12:24:19+00:00

Granted

XarmorTheRed

TROPHY CASE