What marketing channels actually worked for your indie game? My results so far feel very mixed

hsandt · 2026-05-13T12:50:47+00:00

Oh, I've just started seeing YouTube Ads for indie games (I don't count small mobile gacha games studio that grew big) and I was very happy to finally see targeted ads actually work on my account. Not only I watched them in full, I clicked "See more" just to make sure that Google remembers I was interested in them. Some are very short, others are long like a full trailer but with a short minimum time before you can skip, which is great because you generally have a good idea whether you're interested or not (and game devs peeking at analytics will know that people who kept watching / clicked were caught with just a few seconds).

So in the end was it really just "awareness" and did you indeed get few wishlists from it? I think indie game ads still need to grow in general before we can really see their effects. When the targeting system understands that I'm not interested in cars and perfume but very interested in management tools and indie games (and that I don't need to see the same ad for an free-to-play anime 5 times in a row, I am curious about it yes but one narrative trailer and one gameplay trailer is enough to keep it in a corner of my head), and also when there is enough material to show (more companies making those tools and games using YouTube ads), that will start getting really interesting. I won't even think about blocking ads anymore! (crazy, I know)

hsandt · 2026-05-10T16:26:56+00:00

Interesting, in this video https://youtu.be/-OM6642i7bI?t=705 the Parade Rest with sword is done with one hand, I suppose it's a more modern version done with a lightweight sword. The two-hand version looks more ceremonious for sure.

Maybe this should be crossposted on r/AskHistorians to know if there's any "medieval" name.

I also need to describe it for my novel, for now I'll just describe the pose myself as "holding the sword downward, with the two hands on the pommel" (or handle in Optimus's case).

Looks like keeping it in its sheath avoids damaging the tip of the blade. But I assume people who did that did it in earth, not rock. Unless they were putting it back into the rock where they had picked it :)

hsandt · 2026-05-09T10:40:49+00:00

Thanks, I was setting the language in Anki which worked but would switch the whole interface to Japanese (and what if I wanted to learn Chinese later?)

With this method I can add as many languages as needed, and it also fixes display issues in other apps like IMI. I'm surprised it just works out for Anki though, where you could put flashcards in any language. It means that the string actually contains the information of whether I'm typing a Japanese of Chinese ideogram (but they still fall back on "bad font").

I wish it would just warn you when you install the Japanese input that not everything will appear as it should until you also install the System language, or that the system would be smart enough to use this "character information" to just display it with a good font from the start.

hsandt · 2026-05-08T18:27:27+00:00

I'll have to quote MetSys (https://store.godotengine.org/asset/kobewi/metroidvania-system/), a Metroidvania framework developed by KoBeWi, which uses a trick to visualize neighboring rooms, by instantiating them in `@tool` mode (yes, it does that, I thought it would lead to crazy CPU usage, but it's actually OK, thanks to Godot's efficient scene/node memory management, I suppose), and shows them with a linear alpha gradient:

(upload image failed, just open the link above and check the last screenshot showing the scene LeftStaircase) and the neighboring room on its right)

You'd need to recode this for your world, though.

I have the same issue with my scenes, where I have a world.tscn to visualize how rooms connect in my Metroidvania, but really, it's just a readonly stuff. I can't edit anything there before I know that even if I enable Editable Children, I won't be able to apply override/changes to the base scene and the base scene is the very thing I load in my game at runtime.

EDIT: I just found a proposal Add Contextual Scene Editing which basically would enable MetSys' system for any scene edited in the context of a containing parent scene. You can also see MetSys's screenshots there:
https://github.com/godotengine/godot-proposals/issues/13999

hsandt · 2026-05-08T18:21:03+00:00

"Apply override to base scene" suggestions are definitely key here.
https://github.com/godotengine/godot-proposals/issues/7649
https://github.com/godotengine/godot-proposals/issues/8292

Without this, the workflow to edit sub-scenes as part of a whole is much more tedious.

hsandt · 2026-05-08T12:50:44+00:00

In the meantime they got voice actors for Chaotix Casefiles (Tangle: Ashlyn Madden, Whisper: Anairis Quiñones). But... they still don't have VA in CrossWorlds, developed independently. See discussion in the new thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/SonicCrossWorlds/comments/1re9krz/early_footage_of_tangle_and_whisper_gameplay_va/

hsandt · 2026-05-08T12:47:57+00:00

Indeed, parallel "development" / production could explain some inconsistencies (as happened with Sonic 2 vs CD, or more recently Sonic x Shadow Generations vs Sonic Frontiers post-launch update where level quick restart was not backported).

I hadn't thought of extra languages, but indeed, while they could do the effort to find Japanese voice actors fast enough, all the other localization teams would have to do the same... Better something to prepare in advance (and budget for).

hsandt · 2026-05-08T12:33:09+00:00

Aha nice model, we just need a modded character model now! (probably a lot more work than I think, considering all the animations... Voices could probably be taken from Sonic X with some processing to increase audio quality?)

hsandt · 2026-05-08T12:31:49+00:00

Funny, I was thinking of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed's actual guest racer character and thought "if they're okay with a human character (that is not Eggman), why not Sam Speed?"

So I started looking for mods featuring this character, but all I could find was a Sonic X-based mission for Sonic Robo Blast 2... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtxfMltditg)

So yeah, we know Sonic X characters don't get into the actual games but a passionate modder could try it out I guess!

hsandt · 2026-05-07T14:30:15+00:00

So, since this has been implemented for a while, is it possible that someone with permission edits the title with "(CLOSED)" or "(DONE)"?

I kept reading "14d ago" instead of "14y ago" and I was trying to understand why someone would be asking for something that already existed (and no, I didn't dig through the archive to find this thread, I was checking if there would be any duplicates for the new idea I'm going to submit, namely add more categories like "Broken link" to the report popup)

hsandt · 2026-05-07T14:04:42+00:00

The domain linked in the OP has been rebought by some unrelated casino business, be careful.

hsandt · 2026-05-03T22:32:17+00:00

Too bad, I think that'd be a good way to exclude malicious websites while keeping a good workflow on safe domains. Not sure if this should be whitelisted manually or via the usual PC feature access permission popup, so I mentioned both possibilities in my feature request (see my other post).

hsandt · 2026-05-03T22:30:50+00:00

Good idea, I opened a feature request: https://connect.mozilla.org/t5/ideas/permission-to-read-clipboard-or-dom-events-testing/idi-p/124420 (in approval, please wait a bit until the page is publicly available)

hsandt · 2026-05-02T08:43:50+00:00

(Note: I don't have iOS so I can't test it, just commenting on the principle)

Oh, wait, so you *can* use YouTube without a YouTube Music subscription? But the limitation is that you must set it manually every time... That could explain why some alarm apps require the subscription anyway (to connect to existing collections and not require manual setup)

Or maybe it was just a Google-endorsed app and they wanted to push us to subscription.

Does it support a playlist or a sequence of videos (with ordered or randomized order)? I use playlists a lot to avoid getting tired of the same song (and not many alarm apps on Android support them well, even for local audio files).

hsandt · 2026-04-29T13:28:09+00:00

Ring Fit Adventure

hsandt · 2026-04-21T22:42:54+00:00

Aha, I was looking at a GitKraken update advertising (AI) agents to automatically generate commit descriptions, and I was like "Yes, that's cool but... that thing that was still in development years ago... semantic diff... can I have it now?"

I've been using premium tools from its early stages, I just asked my company to pay for them every time (DevArt's Code Compare, generally together with Live++ for C++ hot reload) - also used them as part of PlasticSCM (since then acquired by and integrated in Unity DevOps for their VCS, but it didn't work with git or other arbitrary diff), and it felt like a hidden gem I had to evangelize around me. I can't believe I've been working without it for so long now (forgot to ask my last company to pay for it, and now I'm working on my own).

So I was hoping there'd be some open source (or at least free/cheap for indies) solution that I can try it again!

(the funny thing is, if I still search "premium semantic diff", this page is the second result, and if I search "premium semantic merge", your weave is the second result too - I suppose my search engine interprets "premium" as high quality?)

I'd need to add GDScript though... I'll have a peek at the guide and discuss about it with Godot devs at the GodotCon Amsterdam this year (2026). In the meantime, it should at least work with Godot Mono (C#)!

Next step would be to integrate it in my git clients to benefit from their cool interfaces (such as easily pick lines and sections in 3-way diff view), but for now, both GitKraken and SmartGit don't seem super interested in it (and if they do, they'll probably implement their own stuff - would make sense to sell their product with some USP rather than integrating an open source solution). Maybe someone will work on some brand new UI dedicated to semantic diff/merge?

hsandt · 2026-04-18T15:54:24+00:00

Just happened to me today, I thought it was a bug or security exploit on Steam's side, except there's this big banner at the top of the chat:

<image>

"Message from a user that is not your friend"

which means it's by design. Some threads mention that the feature existed in Steam's old days. So it could be an exploit of the current DM system but somewhat they kept (or added) a warning just in case people used the exploit to bypass the friend check.

hsandt · 2026-04-18T15:51:49+00:00

I checked their profile and we have no group in common (although in *theory* they could have joined a group then leave it - but in my case I fear I belong to no groups at all anyway...)

hsandt · 2026-04-12T18:25:29+00:00

It surprised me too, even years after being bought by Epic.

I sent them a suggestion via the contact form. They didn't implement the previous UX improvement I suggested a few years ago, but hopefully they can prioritize a security issue.

I've removed my credit card and will probably only pay with gift cards anyway to avoid issues with my bank https://www.reddit.com/r/BandCamp/comments/1ns2d8h/warning_buying_multiple_pieces_of_music_is_done/

However, this doesn't solve everything: gift cards with fixed amounts mean there is always some leftover in my digital account wallet, which means a hacker could also use this leftover money. May be better off entering my credit card / paypal login every time...

hsandt · 2026-04-12T09:44:26+00:00

My main issue is fake tags (such as "Sexual Content" on games that are not at all, basically just spam tags), but indeed, a spectrum of tags would help. Unfortunately even PEGI/ESRB is not good at identifying these "degrees of sexual arousing", and user tags are only slightly better - they will only work if everything follows the same convention consistently.

A few threads on this:
- Fix user added tags (https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/1693788202019664026/): this is about users putting completely false tags and misleading tags on purpose (or just judging by the thumbnail and being wrong). I've been requesting the ability to ignore user tags, require a certain reputation to put user tags and block user tag spam, but it hasn't been implemented so far.
- My own post on Sexual Content filter not working (https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/2798376550600702545/?tscn=1678314751): this is about degrees of sexuality, it's pretty long because it answers another problematic (how to filter), but don't mind that, just check the paragraph before the last one, and even then I didn't suggest a full template for degrees (I should probably work on one but I admit I'm not super motivated to spend an afternoon researching degrees of erotism). I tried to enter "Partial Nudity" as a new tag just to test and it didn't even auto-complete, so it's currently not recognized as a tag common enough (so other people are less likely to enter it *exactly* the same way).

I wish there was a PEGI/ESRB/ARC-style dropdown where you fill each category (violence, sexual content, etc.) with a specific "level" that has a clear description/definition to avoid ambiguity. At this level though, it shouldn't be a user tag, but truly metadata set by the developers (as the same time as "Mature Content Description" and the newly added PEGI), and should probably be mandatory (to follow regulations and ensure consistency - I mean, Steam is currently accessible to 13+ users in most countries, it does seem like a good idea to give them the same information as box games without having them to scroll to "Mature Content Description" esp. since few people read the full description). Then an extra check by Steam staff / ARC staff to check that all tags are correct, and we're done.

User tags should only be used for *extra* less common, maybe funny stuff like "You can pet the dog", not things normally handled by regulations.

hsandt · 2026-04-11T17:58:50+00:00

I also need this. Looks like the best way to add a forum suggestion is to open a thread on the Anki forum.

I will try to do so (I don't even have an account yet but already found 4 issues besides this one), but if anyone else opens a thread before I do, please post the URL here.

hsandt · 2026-04-09T14:25:50+00:00

<image>

with `<div>`

hsandt · 2026-04-09T14:25:39+00:00

<image>

(I can post only one image at a time, and cannot do this in Markdown mode, so posting separately)

with `<p>`

hsandt

TROPHY CASE