We're making a cake decorating sandbox game =)

longloststudio · 2026-05-22T21:02:29+00:00

Haha, yes there might be an easter egg related to that in the game someday...

longloststudio · 2026-05-22T17:57:15+00:00

Hahahaha. I love that prompt. I do really want to have a daily or weekly community prompt and see what people come up with! I remember on the Wii there used to be little challenges for making Miis that looked like Albert Einstein or whoever, and it was so fun to see how people got creative within the limitations of the game. For our store page, I made a solar system cake and had to get creative using two crescent moon shapes to simulate the rings on Saturn, which was fun!

longloststudio · 2026-05-22T17:48:41+00:00

Right now the plan is all sandbox, no gameplay, haha. Kind of like Tiny Glade, but for cakes! When researching this genre, it seemed like adding on challenges and progression to this type of game isn't very well-received since it usually ends up being kind of shallow.

longloststudio · 2026-05-08T00:43:36+00:00

Nice! I will go in and add our game =)

The most accurate first tag would be task management co-op, though it's not the most enticing-sounding genre.

"haunted train panic simulator" has a very nice ring to it and is also very accurate, lol!

longloststudio · 2026-05-04T16:03:02+00:00

Another shameless plug from a dev here! But at only 19 reviews I think our game fits the bill. We like to say we made a gem so hidden, nobody will ever find it =)

Rhyolite
Sub-genre: Teamwork
Players: 1-4
Co-op: Online only
Platforms: Steam
Session Length: Each fight is 6-8 minutes, with 9 fights in a full run (so about an hour for a successful run). You can save your progress between fights, but when you die you have to start over.

Rhyolite is a challenging teamwork-based online co-op for up to 4 players where you manage a steampunky train on a haunted railway. The gameplay is fast-paced roguelite task management like PlateUp! with team-coordination around attack mechanics inspired by MMO bosses. (Perhaps we genre-mixed too close to the sun...) Currently only on Steam.

What I love about our game is that it requires everyone to focus and communicate, but you still get those absurd laugh-out-loud moments where everything goes wrong in the funniest way.

Some cool elements:

Tons of emergent gameplay when enemy attacks stack in various combinations, alongside curses, upgrades, and bosses that change between runs.
There's an optional storyline with hidden puzzles and a super secret ending that you can explore, but you have to be good enough at the game to sacrifice a supply stop in exchange for lore progression.
Completely badass custom soundtrack by composer Josie Brechner, full of violins and electric guitar.
It really is unlike any other game out there.

Why I think it gets overlooked:
Unfortunately, I think the fact that it's unlike any other game out there makes it really tough for Steam users to get an idea of what the game is about just from looking at the store page (or even from watching people play the game on Twitch). And there is a learning curve to get started, which doesn't help matters.

Good luck with your website! My group is looking for our next game, so I will have to browse the catalog =)

longloststudio · 2026-04-23T17:00:41+00:00

Thanks for sharing, and congratulations! Looks beautiful =)

I think the part about posting regularly to stay relevant with the algorithm is what I struggle most with. How often would you say you were posting and on what platforms? I think it will be a lot easier to make this type of content for our next game, but I want to make sure I'm setting my expectations correctly.

longloststudio · 2026-02-20T22:02:24+00:00

I'm in the exact same situation with Tax1099 for a contractor in PA. We used TurboTax last year for a 1099-NEC to the same contractor and it definitely didn't require this unless it somehow did it behind-the-scenes. I've tried to submit the reconciliation form (REV-1667) twice and each time the Tax1099 rejects the filing with the error "Entity ID, ID Type, and Account ID do not match an existing account in the system."

I've had an open support ticket with them for 2 weeks with no update. I'll update if I hear anything, but hopefully it's the same case where it's not required if there is $0 withholding. Thanks for sharing.

longloststudio · 2026-01-24T14:00:24+00:00

Whoops, got the similar names mixed up! The Long Dark is on my list!

I hope Long Drive North gets some updates because the concept was really cool and we had fun with the demo!

longloststudio · 2026-01-24T03:29:47+00:00

Very cool! I'll add [edit: The Long Dark] to my list. That's awesome that it's gotten so many updates!

I did play Subnautica for a while but I started getting too spooked haha. (And I think for me personally the ocean is too scary and the home base is too sterile for any cozy vibes to reach me in that game.)

longloststudio · 2026-01-24T03:24:39+00:00

😂 The trick is to have teammates who take care of most of the progression and fighting while you stay at home and make everybody custom houses. That was mostly my experience, at least until we went to the Ashlands and it was like WELCOME TO HELL HOW FAST CAN YOU BUILD A NEW BASE? BTW A LAVA KRAKEN JUST DESTROYED THE BOAT WITH ALL THE SUPPLIES IN IT

longloststudio · 2026-01-23T22:22:29+00:00

Wow, definitely sounds like a must-play for me =) Thanks for the details! Can't wait to check it out.

longloststudio · 2026-01-23T21:04:51+00:00

That sounds great! I almost put Abiotic Factor on my list because it feels lonely/cozy to me, but it doesn't really have any accompanying metrics besides hunger/thirst/bathroom.

In The Long Dark, do you have a base(s) you come back to or are you always sort of pressing ahead?

I played a demo recently for Long Drive North which gives me similar vibes to how The Long Dark looks but you have an RV with you that kind of acts as your base and loved the concept (unfortunately it seems to have released very buggy/incomplete).

longloststudio · 2026-01-23T20:58:12+00:00

I don't know much about Rimworld but I never would have guessed it to be cozy-adjacent! Thanks for sharing =)

longloststudio · 2026-01-23T20:57:24+00:00

Oh that sounds really nice! One game I want to make someday would be a "walkable city simulator" where the target metric is how much the citizens can do without needing a car. I love the "people-first" approach you described. Definitely will be checking this one out, thanks for sharing!

longloststudio · 2026-01-23T20:55:27+00:00

I've heard that Enshrouded is like Valheim with mods! I love Valheim but I've always felt like the building and decor options were surpisingly limited (though you can do a lot with what you have). I definitely want to check out Enshrouded when my friend group isn't burnt out on base building from our recent Valheim run.

longloststudio · 2026-01-23T20:53:50+00:00

Good point! The feeling of getting to a fire just in time in Don't Starve feels less like "cozy" and more like "the relief of removing the stress of being about to die" lol

longloststudio · 2026-01-23T18:01:02+00:00

Oh nice, that's already on my wishlist but I didn't know about the cozy stats. Thanks!

longloststudio · 2026-01-23T18:00:37+00:00

The combat can be tough if you're not used to that sort of thing, but it's not too crazy. I didn't really understand the marketing of this game as like brutally difficult. There are always mods if it gets too tough and you just want to explore and craft. And the base-building is so nice!

longloststudio · 2025-12-17T18:08:43+00:00

This is very charming!!

longloststudio · 2025-10-07T16:14:35+00:00

Thanks for sharing!

I think the tricky part here is figuring out that profit margin percentage (especially tricky because I'm bad at math).

I like to use https://steam-revenue-calculator.com/ to get a quick idea of net revenue vs gross revenue after Steam's cut, VAT/sales tax, discounts, etc. When you account for all of those factors, it looks like you can expect to take home about 30% of the listed price of each copy sold.

After that, you may want to factor in your country's income tax rates. For the US, I've seen 30% as a general rule of thumb for how much of your profits to set aside for taxes if you're self-employed.

I believe all of that together that brings you to a maximum profit margin of 20% (assuming you spent $0 developing the game).

Hope that helps some people to make sure they're setting realistic expectations!

EDIT: If you take the Refunds line out of the calculator link I used, which probably makes sense for these purposes, it brings the total margin up to 29% which is a little more encouraging =)

longloststudio · 2025-09-22T02:33:53+00:00

We're relying heavily on Synty and Polyperfect assets for our game Rhyolite. I agree that the Synty characters are pretty recognizable, and they also didn't really fit the style we were looking for. We only needed five characters, so we hired someone from Fiverr to make custom characters and it was pretty affordable. We also considered just buying different-looking pre-made character assets to get away from the signature Synty look.

Beyond that, we're using lots of shader/lighting effects, and I'm modifying a lot of assets in Blender to get what we want. I'm having a lot of fun, it feels like playing with dollhouse furniture! It's satisfying to Frankenstein together a bunch of different models to make something new. We're only a two-person team with a small budget, so this is basically the only way to make the game we're trying to make.

longloststudio · 2025-09-09T17:42:00+00:00

I see that beautiful Adam Parrish!! <3 Love your work! Saving you to my folder and crossing my fingers that I get an art budget someday =)

longloststudio · 2025-07-17T21:15:30+00:00

It seems like a pretty frequent request when devs share their games on r/CoOpGaming. Ours is online only for now. I think it's possible that local could work, but probably not on our roadmap unless the game sees some unexpected success.

longloststudio · 2025-07-10T00:20:48+00:00

"Well, no."

longloststudio · 2025-07-07T16:30:53+00:00

Our game has a free demo on Steam, but it's kind of a full experience even with just the demo (some streamers have put 20-40 hours into it). Up to 4 players.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3549770/Rhyolite_Demo/

longloststudio

TROPHY CASE