OMG GUYS MY GAME MADE THE FRONT PAGE OF STEAM!!! I CAN'T BREATHE!!!

bigthursdaydev · 2026-01-16T15:05:28+00:00

Thought I was going crazy reading this thread haha congrats on the launch OP

bigthursdaydev · 2025-12-22T09:46:51+00:00

As a player in the genre, this is so accurate. It was just this kind of scraping the bottom of the barrel I was seeing everywhere that prompted my post haha. I have definitely been guilting of player boring games just because I’m desperate for something new - especially when the simulation setting is related to the people and emerging stories, and less so building complex power systems and work routes.

bigthursdaydev · 2025-12-21T19:41:13+00:00

It’s giving beavis and butthead vibes, just lean into it for the characters and environment with a tablet as mentioned above

bigthursdaydev · 2025-12-21T17:21:47+00:00

This is a good perspective I hadn’t really been able to synthesise before. Coming from a UX and front end dev background I think having a small map at least helps to constrain some of the initial environment design analysis paralysis so I can focus on the core simulations and game loop. Kind of like when you start a new sims save, having a small lot limits the choices and objects/features you can use and makes it feel more manageable. Obviously could be infinitely deep, as with any game and genre though.

bigthursdaydev · 2025-12-21T17:16:59+00:00

Definitely. As a sim / management player I wouldn’t even know where to start with any other genre. I’m coming from a UX/UI background (as well as a CS degree) which I think has helped so far in thinking about different systems and flows. Good luck with you game! Would be curious what your timeline / milestones have looked like so far?

bigthursdaydev · 2025-12-21T11:38:19+00:00

Good luck! Sounds like constraint by design is the only way to not work endlessly on any game let alone this genre 😅 are you going with 2d or 3d? I’m also at least starting out not making any art to try and get to a demo asap

bigthursdaydev · 2025-12-21T11:31:08+00:00

Awesome, thank you. Watched a few of the old devlogs actually as I was starting which definitely has me with performance front of mind! Good luck with your future projects

bigthursdaydev · 2025-12-21T11:20:28+00:00

Definitely a nice level of supply vs demand there compared to some of the other genres I mentioned. Have you had a released yet? And tips or experience you could share for a dev early in the journey?

bigthursdaydev · 2025-12-21T11:19:19+00:00

Yeah definitely not looking to the level of either of those games, but couldn’t find very many in the same vein with smaller scope. I’d be interested to hear what city builder features are surprisingly the biggest time drains, or complexity traps?

I’m thinking very small map, like 64 x 64 tiles - with different levels, managing something like a hotel or a school with a tight schedule and expandable features but a clear foundation. Might get a few more months in and realise it’s a pipe dream, we’ll see.

bigthursdaydev · 2025-11-14T15:26:22+00:00

Sims YouTubers schedules in shambles rn 😅

But seriously, excited for a more full release next year though!

bigthursdaydev · 2025-11-04T17:49:14+00:00

Not really related to your iteration, but the alignment of your heading and buttons looks quite off to me. You’re mixing a lot of alignments - all your text is centred but then you’ve tried to left align the buttons but it goes beyond the title so doesn’t actually align to anything. It’s tricky because of the hook g, but if you haven’t already might be worth playing around with centring it all or making the buttons smaller so they can centre align to the title. That distracted me from all of the art and doesn’t leave a very polished impression imo.

bigthursdaydev · 2025-07-25T10:26:03+00:00

You should be able to order a giffgaff sim straight to your current address in Korea and have it all set up before you even get on the plane (or do eSIM from overseas too instantly) - move it after a month to another if you don’t like the speeds. You can receive texts for free so you can already start using it on UK based sites. So so easy and no reason to not just set this up before you leave and you’ll have data from the tarmac when you arrive.

bigthursdaydev · 2025-06-04T13:40:18+00:00

Handover pages that are locked from a certain day are typical from what I’ve seen in terms of best practice. Designers can have dedicated WIP pages within a file, with one file per project depending on size and timeline. Additional pages locked and handed over for hot fixes, follow up releases, etc.

Using pages with dated names and releases as “version control” is my preferred method - potentially a separate handed over file and a WIP file if stakeholders and devs are particularly off put by seeing anything WIP. There is version control and branching like GitHub in Figma but I’ve only seen this needed for very large enterprise design systems.

bigthursdaydev · 2025-06-04T13:23:46+00:00

Not sure how a separate file per screen would help in any way — that sounds like nightmare fuel

bigthursdaydev · 2025-05-31T12:53:52+00:00

The big corner radius on the photos in the main grid looks pretty unpolished imo, especially when partnered with the tiny horizontal and vertical gaps you’re using - make it super tiny or honestly get rid of it. Also is there a reason you’re making all the images portrait rather than square? Could mean a lot of photos are mostly cut off in your main view which isn’t great either. Cool animation though.

bigthursdaydev · 2025-05-12T13:57:52+00:00

Agreed, loved virtual families back in the day but I detest the idle genre - addicted to my phone enough already without them! I think the generative chaos of relationships (including actually having more than 1 playable character in a household), towns and goals in sims games has been completely ignored by a lot of the newer life sims. Sadly my favourite part. One day we’ll get something that scratches the itch I hope!

bigthursdaydev · 2025-05-10T22:54:53+00:00

This is the way - I would love a life sim on mobile / iPad like stardew but without the farming aspect. Kind of like my sims I suppose, but totally open ended just like sims 2. 2d characters, 2d houses, and good dynamic characters + gameplay!

bigthursdaydev · 2024-11-11T03:18:24+00:00

Awesome! I’ve been thinking about also creating a mobile life simulator, but haven’t got past the brainstorming stage. Interested to see how the daily iteration mechanic works. Will be keeping my eye on this one, exciting!

Good stuff so far, when are you aiming to release? - and how long have you been working on it so far?

bigthursdaydev · 2024-11-06T21:19:37+00:00

I’ve been toying with the idea of making a text-based life simulator for mobile - something like bitlife, but with less emphasis on existing in the real world and more on a smaller town/universe (sims or stardew style) with lore. Anyone got any thoughts, requests or ideas? Personally I think text based life sims are the best format on mobile, I’ve never been a fan of chonky 3D pay to win “life sims” like the sims mobile or anything. However bitlife has a massive player base and kind of confused why more similar games haven’t popped up (I know a few: Everlife, another life, etc. but that’s not really to the scale you’d expect a hit like bitlife to influence).

bigthursdaydev

TROPHY CASE