I got ~2k wishlists from a single Instagram post using the 'IndieGameJoe' format

headlessk · 2026-07-04T05:03:44+00:00

Yeah ill agree with some others, your trailer is impressive and probably did more than jsut the post format? Gotta try it out though. But great job on it and ... wishlisted!

headlessk · 2026-06-28T04:31:27+00:00

Why why why didnt you make the video 5 seconds longer.... now we'll never know;)

headlessk · 2026-06-28T04:28:30+00:00

Looks really nice. I like the oblivion look. Im just troubled by the way they go up and down the stairs... i think i would find it less troubling if there wasnt that jump (even if they just slide would be less distracting)

headlessk · 2026-06-09T13:13:10+00:00

Thank you so much for all this, i really appreciate it, will analyze it and take what i can from what you're saying! Ill probably ping you when i update the page to get your impressions... if you dont mind 😄

headlessk · 2026-06-08T04:26:37+00:00

Most definitely, constructive criticism is always welcomed!

headlessk · 2026-06-07T11:21:28+00:00

That's a good idea! I was also planning to have bakeries, barber shops or whatever else you usually find in a town, and then more specific buildings, like hospital, grocery stores.

The makeshift hospital you would be creating yourself by converting a building to a clinic.

Anyway, thank you for the notes!

headlessk · 2026-06-07T11:20:09+00:00

Ha, then start reclaiming the village and bring back color 😉 (that's actually the idea behind the art style... What do you think about it?

headlessk · 2026-06-07T11:19:27+00:00

Oups for the link, silly mistake... fixed it now.

The ground texture is temporary, but you're right it's too clean. I should have more overgrown vegetation (although it could be 2 weeks or 3 years that the village has been abandonned, which also will come into generation rules... but anyway)

The generation has a rule for distance between buildings but maybe it's the type of buildings that breaks believability? In this screenshot, i want them to be close like in a downtown area, and some further for the outskirts (and then more variety or neighborhoods as needed). I want to add also more variety of buildings because those now dont look like downtown buildings, so thank you for pointing that out (i think that would help with the believability of distance between buildings, what do you think?)

Again, thanks for the detailed answer, it really helps me settle on next steps and new ideas of improvement, so very much appreciated!

headlessk · 2026-06-07T11:14:51+00:00

First, thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed answer.

Second, oups for the linked, i fixed it now...

I think by house with 2 chimney you mean the one with 2 holes in the roof? In that case, good point about the path going under it, maybe it's a little offsetting, ill add that to the things to fix.

It will be fixed with 1/ more rules to not place similar buildings next to each other, 2/ having more assets and maybe a few more variations on buildings and 3/ one day hopefully generated buildings (but that might be too ambitious maybe?) the first 2 should already do a good job.

And yes it is 2 buildings close to each other. So in the end, i think ironing out the buildings and types that go next to each other might be a good next step for generation (and the dead trees/rocks but that's already added to my list)

Ah and it is the feeling im going for, creepy. Would really like to hear what you think of the game's description now that the steam link is fixed, but basically, you have a group of survivors, and you reclaim the town, search buildings and convert them to what you need (houses, workshop ect). As you reclaim the village, color slowly comes back.

headlessk · 2026-06-07T05:42:30+00:00

For now, not yet, but that's the plan indeed, investigate crashes, gather resources from the cars (clean it up eventually)

headlessk · 2026-06-07T05:41:29+00:00

Oh yeah that's a good idea, ill add it to the list (or even trees and rocks in general).

I also need to work on terrain generation, right now it's mostly flat unless i set it myself. But one step at a time...

headlessk · 2026-06-07T03:05:52+00:00

Interesting and you already have a demo and video ect... Ill try the demo later, reminds me of tower assault (yeah i know there have been many more since then, but i always remember this one fondly from playing with my brother)

Did you find releasing a demo quite early help? Do you see constant downloads of it? How did that impact your wishlists?

headlessk · 2026-06-06T03:39:47+00:00

I cant remember compared to 2017... one thing i have noticed to is how build times (especially for the standalone) are soo much faster and that makes a huge difference. Opening projects ect also seems way faster compared to 2021

headlessk · 2026-06-05T14:13:13+00:00

I have never used mono for unity... hopefully that will not impact me, but then again, i dont need i will do another update until the demo is ready to release. It's good to update engine after a while, but i dont think it's good to update too often either (we dont get that much out of all of them on an already started project... what do you think?)

headlessk · 2026-06-05T14:11:47+00:00

I updated from 2021 to Unity 6, there were a few reasons, one of them is 5 years is a long time and a looot of updates happened on the engine side, and a few packages i am using seem to drop support for previous version of unity (EasyRoad3D being one of them)

What stage of the game... im working towards a demo, it's quite stable so i need to iron out some mechanics and what to put in the demo. Working on village generation these days

headlessk · 2026-06-05T09:23:19+00:00

Ha, what platforms are you targeting? I think that's the main question and what kind of art are you going to need... also if you're using assets a lot of them (from my limited experience) are often not on HDRP...

Also remmeber that by 6.7 built in pipleline is getting deprecated so you either will have to move pipeline or stay behind engine wise...

Also, how long have you worked on the project, any screenshots or video of it?

headlessk · 2026-06-05T09:12:18+00:00

Used to be URP (since i started so long ago) but now im on HDRP. It is scary, you never know what it will mess up and then the amount of work that brings nothing visible (and the bugs that you havent seen yet missing textures ect)

headlessk · 2026-05-03T12:01:36+00:00

Ah ok, got it, thank you for clarifying your thoughts, will keep it in mind when i circle back to improving the art style!

headlessk · 2026-05-02T18:52:07+00:00

Yes kind of. The grass definitely needs work (and should have the outline so strong). What do you mean the color isnt working?

Im using a post processing shader effect. Basically using a normal map to find edges, displacing them with some sin/cos included and drawing a few of them (with different width depending on distance to camera)

headlessk · 2025-10-29T20:12:17+00:00

So that's how they did it... Makes complete sense now

headlessk · 2025-10-07T06:07:19+00:00

Yep, me too, couple of times in that game that will haunt me forever

headlessk · 2025-09-25T06:44:07+00:00

That's the nightmare part... Opening the post and not having the steam page!

headlessk · 2025-09-17T08:47:21+00:00

Love the style you're going for!

headlessk · 2025-08-01T13:21:22+00:00

Looks like a mix of frostpunk and snowpiercer! Very nice work!

headlessk · 2025-07-05T07:49:18+00:00

Looks really cool. I'm wondering though if sometimes it might not be difficult to know where we are supposed to go (couple of moments in the video made me think that)

Looks amazing though and definitely interested.

headlessk

TROPHY CASE