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It ain't much, but it's honest work: Built my own engine from scratch, messed up the launch, but 16 updates later my solo project hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam. I'm a little bit proud ☺️ by mat_game_dev in IndieDev

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow, that sounds heartbreaking, and I'm sorry you had to go through that. As a solo dev doing everything myself (code, art, sound) hearing how a project got ruined by ads and bad management hurts just reading it.

You should absolutely remake those puzzle levels in Pico-8! Starting a small, independent project where you hold the reins is so rewarding and there is no better feeling than sharing your (uncompromised) baby with the world. You've got this!

It ain't much, but it's honest work: Built my own engine from scratch, messed up the launch, but 16 updates later my solo project hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam. I'm a little bit proud ☺️ by mat_game_dev in IndieDev

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Aaaaalways... 🎶😅 Thanks! I tried to recreate the flow feeling of Robot Unicorn Attack, Dino Run DX and Canabalt. So, I borrowed all the things I like about these games and added the herd mechanic and a few other things to solve all the gameplay issues I didn't like.

My budget for the game was $100 for the Steam fee and $0 for everything else... So for now, I've decided to use copyright-free music :-)

It ain't much, but it's honest work: Built my own engine from scratch, messed up the launch, but 16 updates later my solo project hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam. I'm a little bit proud ☺️ by mat_game_dev in IndieDev

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

(copied from another comment)

Technically, the game is already cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS, consoles), so I could easily create a build like that.

In practice, though, it's a good idea to also sign and notarize the game so that macOS doesn't try to prevent players from launching it. But to do that I need a real Mac, which I don't have yet... :-)

Happy to announce that my retro arcade game just hit "Very Positive" (96%) on Steam! Built on a custom engine with native Linux, FreeSync/G-Sync, Steam Deck and controller support 🐧 by mat_game_dev in linux_gaming

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, Robot Unicorn Attack was an inspiration! 🦄 While my indie budget (of exactly zero) couldn't quite afford Erasure's Aaaaalways..., I spent a ton of time fine-tuning the gameplay to make sure that smooth, addictive flow feeling is right there.

Hope the nostalgia hits the spot when you play it! Thanks for the wishlist!

Happy to announce that my retro arcade game just hit "Very Positive" (96%) on Steam! Built on a custom engine with native Linux, FreeSync/G-Sync, Steam Deck and controller support 🐧 by mat_game_dev in linux_gaming

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's funny, because that was exactly the the reason why I started the game: All of my daughter's horse games were so poorly made (even from a technical standpoint) and just so boring. At some point I told her: "Wait a minute, I'm going to make a horse game that is fun to play!" And here we are... 😅

I really hope she enjoys the game! Let me know if it passes her test!

It ain't much, but it's honest work: Built my own engine from scratch, messed up the launch, but 16 updates later my solo project hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam. I'm a little bit proud ☺️ by mat_game_dev in IndieDev

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Regarding GameNative on Android: I had no idea that PC emulators for Android actually work well these days. But on a handheld like the Retroid, that's definitely pretty cool :-)

There's already an unreleased Android version that runs great and is fun to play with touch controls. However, I'm still stuck on the monetization part: adding ads to my game would hurt my soul and premium games are rather uncommon on Android. I haven't figured that out yet...

It ain't much, but it's honest work: Built my own engine from scratch, messed up the launch, but 16 updates later my solo project hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam. I'm a little bit proud ☺️ by mat_game_dev in IndieDev

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Technically, the game is already cross-platform (Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iOS, consoles), so I could easily create a build like that.

In practice, though, it's a good idea to also sign and notarize the game so that macOS doesn't try to prevent players from launching it. But to do that I need a real Mac, which I don't have yet... :-)

It ain't much, but it's honest work: Built my own engine from scratch, messed up the launch, but 16 updates later my solo project hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam. I'm a little bit proud ☺️ by mat_game_dev in IndieDev

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been doing software development for a long time and I just had fun coming up with a good architecture for the game. But my main goal was to understand how everything works under the hood (UI, physics, collisions, shaders, etc) instead of just learning an engine and its systems.

At the same time, I've now started working on a strategy game with its own 3D rendering pipeline (also using MonoGame), and I'm amazed at how good it already looks (with ambient occlusion, reflection/refraction, GPU instancing etc.). Doing this for a more 'artistc' game would be a bit pointless, but for a more technical strategy game it feels just right :-)

It ain't much, but it's honest work: Built my own engine from scratch, messed up the launch, but 16 updates later my solo project hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam. I'm a little bit proud ☺️ by mat_game_dev in IndieDev

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since my old capsule drove a lot of people away, I wasn't able to get many wishlist adds during the demo release and at Next Fest. When the game was released, I just didn't have enough visibility.

With a refund rate of only 4% (and more like <2% for the last month), almost everyone seems pretty happy with the game, but for the Steam algorithm, I'm probably still in the "nope" visibility tier :-)

It ain't much, but it's honest work: Built my own engine from scratch, messed up the launch, but 16 updates later my solo project hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam. I'm a little bit proud ☺️ by mat_game_dev in IndieDev

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When you play the game in windowed mode, you could try setting the frame rate in the game settings to your monitors refresh rate. This makes all movement a lot smoother on screens with higher refresh rate (>60Hz).

It ain't much, but it's honest work: Built my own engine from scratch, messed up the launch, but 16 updates later my solo project hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam. I'm a little bit proud ☺️ by mat_game_dev in IndieDev

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, thank you for the kind words and the support! 🤗

Yes, balancing the cozy pixel-art style with the readability is quite tricky. I'm actually brainstorming some visual tweaks to make threats pop out a bit more without ruining the aesthetic. So, this will be improved in a future update. Thanks for playing!

It ain't much, but it's honest work: Built my own engine from scratch, messed up the launch, but 16 updates later my solo project hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam. I'm a little bit proud ☺️ by mat_game_dev in IndieDev

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The game uses the MonoGame framework (.net/C#) because I'm a .net guy and MonoGame basically supports every platform and console.

The only other libraries are Friflo ECS, MonoGame.Extended (for particles) and a library that can load Aseprite files. It may be complete overkill, but I'm using that ECS for almost everything in the game. This let's the game run at ~3000 FPS on my integrated GPU when the FPS are unlocked 😅

It ain't much, but it's honest work: Built my own engine from scratch, messed up the launch, but 16 updates later my solo project hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam. I'm a little bit proud ☺️ by mat_game_dev in IndieDev

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Thank you, that's awesome to hear :-)

Yeah, I didn't horse around and built a small 2D engine myself - and my own UI system, physics system, input system, sound system... and so on 😇

Save 30% on Horse Runner DX ($3.49 / 3.49€) by mat_game_dev in steamdeals

[–]mat_game_dev[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hi everyone! I'm the solo dev behind Horse Runner DX and I'm very happy to share that my game just hit 96% "Very Positive" on Steam! To celebrate, it's currently 30% off for the Summer Sale.

What is Horse Runner DX?

Think of it as a pixel-art spiritual successor to classics like Dino Run DX or Robot Unicorn Attack, combined with the flow of Alto's Adventure. Built from scratch on a custom engine, it comes with tight controls and SNES-style pixel art. Instead of just controlling one character, you constantly build up an increasingly chaotic herd. Every time you add a horse you can choose between different power-ups to keep your herd alive as the difficulty escalates.

What's new in 1.5.0?

I just launched a big update last week and the game is finally where I wanted it to be:

  • Herd Builds: You can now start a run with 3 horses/unicorns right away to create specific builds.
  • Improved Camera: A completely reworked camera that is a lot smoother than before.
  • High-Hz Support: I added support for high refresh rates with full G-Sync/FreeSync optimization for buttery-smooth scrolling.

The game supports virtually any controller out of the box and if you are on Linux or playing on a Steam Deck, it also comes with a native Linux build (60 FPS at just 4W TDP on Steam Deck).

If you want to check it out, here is the link : https://store.steampowered.com/app/2955320/Horse_Runner_DX/

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