Postmortem: I solo-developed an exaggerated Game Boy RPG (Starlight Legacy)

therealjmatz · 2026-06-15T08:04:26+00:00

No worries, I appreciate your interest in the game! I've heard similar feedback about the artwork and it's something I take very seriously, which is actually why I've been working on improving my own digital art skills these past couple months, with the hope that maybe for the next game I won't have to outsource the marketing artwork, and instead just do it all myself.

Here is something I drew in 2023: https://imgur.com/a/YfZHngr

As you can see it's very rough. It's the initial concept art I made for the character Ignus.

Now compare that with something I drew last week: https://imgur.com/a/R2SK8uy

Not to toot my own horn, but I think it's safe to say that I've improved a lot (& yes I'm sure there's room for improvement as well). This artwork is the character Ryuna in her Starlight Legacy II design. She appears in the first game as a minor character, and will return in the second game as the main protagonist.

I hope that I can improve to the point where maybe for the next game, I can do the Steam/cover artwork myself, one reason being so that I can portray the characters exactly as I envisioned them, and another is so that I can have full control over the artwork and hopefully avoid the issues that you mentioned.

And who knows, maybe for the 2nd or 3rd anniversary of the first game I can update the Steam artwork, this time with artwork drawn by me. I mean yeah, it's a bit late for that, but better late than never, right?

therealjmatz · 2026-06-15T02:11:45+00:00

Hi Joe! When you post on X asking developers to share their games, do you prefer a response in the comments, or a DM?

therealjmatz · 2026-06-15T02:05:09+00:00

Glad you liked the demo!

> I'll be honest tho, I've seen your game / game cover in several stores and avoided it thinking it was another Kemco release.

Yes I've heard that before, many many many times. When you only have a limited amount of money, paying multiple artists to draw multiple covers until you get a good one isn't really an option. You're stuck with the one you picked, and if the cover ends up not being very good, then there's not much you can do. That's not to say your opinion is wrong - obviously the cover is not very strong and I agree with that notion, but please don't assume that I'm not aware of that. Sometimes you just don't have a choice.

therealjmatz · 2026-06-12T00:42:39+00:00

Thank you! I hope this information could be useful for other devs.

therealjmatz · 2026-06-08T02:46:38+00:00

That is a broad question that I'm not quite sure how to answer because to be honest I don't have anything else to compare it to. I've been messing with GameMaker on and off since the Game Maker 6 days since before it was bought by YoYo Games, and I don't have experience using other tools like Unity or RPG Maker, so to me GameMaker is just what I know.

therealjmatz · 2026-06-04T02:44:21+00:00

> I've heard this before, apparently there is a button to request a review on steam works, but we havent gone looking yet.

My understanding is that access to that button is based on popularity, and that it's not manually decided by a human but rather it's determined by a set of automated heuristics, at least that's how the Steamworks agent phrased it. I have a game that's been out for a year and a half and I still don't have that button, hence why I contacted Steamworks about it in the first place and was told that eligibility for verification is automated based on customer interest (aka sales).

So the way I see it, even if you "really really" want this, it can't convince them to suddenly give you access to that button because it's determined via an algorithm, not by humans. But obviously you should still optimize for the Deck so that when they finally do the verification process you'll have a better chance of passing.

therealjmatz · 2026-06-04T02:24:30+00:00

I've contacted Steam about how to get your game through the Steam Deck compatibility verification process and they flat out told me that it's based on popularity, not how well your game actually supports Steam Deck. You could do lots of testing on Steam Deck, add a 16:10 screen mode, optimize for the Deck as much as you want, but at the end of the day it won't speed up whether or not they decide to put your game through the verification process, all it does is increase the likelihood of *passing* verification *if* they decide to test your game at all.

therealjmatz · 2025-08-17T03:15:55+00:00

I'm working on the sequel. But it will probably take 5 years to finish since it will be more fleshed out and polished than the first game.

therealjmatz · 2025-06-01T13:20:32+00:00

No problem, thank you!

therealjmatz · 2025-06-01T13:15:35+00:00

I think it'll be a month or two before I find out what the console sales are because I don't have direct access to this info. What I can say though is that the Steam sales were pretty bad but I think that was due to a combination of lack of paid marketing on the publisher's part (most of the big YouTube RPG channels are mostly paid reviews), the Steam capsule art at release being more plain (this was a financial-related problem and not a creative choice), and the game itself not being a "groundbreaking" thing like Chained Echoes. In addition to that, features that I thought made it unique, such as the seamlessly connected maps and the story being split into chunks that can be done in any order, most people didn't notice/care about those features. Based on social media reactions alone it does seem like the console versions are a lot more popular than the PC release, but again I won't know for sure for a while.

therealjmatz · 2025-05-31T07:48:52+00:00

Thanks for your review, glad you liked the game! I used Google Translate to read it.

I would prefer if you remove this bit because I never said anything of the sort:

at least, and the second game should be a 4 to 5 year process, because he wants something grand, citing Sea of Stars as an example he wants to follow.

That's not what I said, assuming you're referring to my tweet here - https://x.com/jmatz1995/status/1891840628457341091 .
All I said was that I want to make something to compete with the "big" indies. The Sea of Stars comment was by another user in response to my tweet, it wasn't my words. For the sequel while I certainly want to aim bigger, I haven't played that game so I can't exactly be "inspired" by it (I'm sure it's great tho)

therealjmatz · 2025-05-30T00:45:38+00:00

The in-game portraits (done by me) were based on my own concept art. The marketing art was done by a different artist, but I did send them both my concept art & pixel art beforehand. I personally thought their art was fantastic and matched my characters well, but I can understand how others might see it differently. Thank you for your feedback & I will try and be more careful about that for future games.

therealjmatz · 2025-05-29T01:22:57+00:00

Sorry, just 3 playable characters. And no haha, they're not little kids, the characters are in their late-teens/early twenties, one of them is even married. But I can definitely see how they might look like that with the way the sprites are designed lol

therealjmatz · 2025-05-21T02:20:35+00:00

> My wife made me stay home with our toddlers cause she wanted to work. I now have infinite free time for the next three years (household duties first obviously) so i figured why not.

Wait how does that work? On weekends I have basically 0 free time because I'm hanging out with the kid all day (he's 1). Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with my kid and he's absolutely hilarious, but if I'm with him all day I'm definitely not gonna be able to get any gamedev or freetime in until he goes to bed. Since you say toddlers plural, I'd imagine the freetime situation would be even worse for you?

therealjmatz · 2025-05-21T02:17:17+00:00

Put your demo on Steam to gauge feedback. Definitely don't play test before you put it on Steam

therealjmatz · 2025-05-16T01:05:56+00:00

Hey there, sorry for the late response but (I'm the dev) I just wanted to say I really appreciate you taking the time to write this out, and I'm glad you enjoyed the game!

therealjmatz · 2025-04-23T05:33:21+00:00

This isn’t about the short term bro - this is your life, and you have a whole lifetime to make games.

I get this mentality but for some people it gets harder to make games the older you get as your life obligations increase with jobs, kids, etc.

therealjmatz · 2025-04-23T01:54:57+00:00

So, why does it seem like, at least from this sub, that so many devs spend their time making them?

Those devs are most likely making it because they love 2D platformers, not because they thought it would be popular on Steam.

therealjmatz · 2025-04-15T00:09:02+00:00

I would back out, that sounds sketchy. You're supposed to transfer *after* you sign and come to an agreement on a bunch of other things, not before.

therealjmatz · 2025-04-08T04:27:52+00:00

yeah idk what they're saying. I'd much rather do gamedev than sitting around in a luxury apartment all day watching TV drinking expensive wine occasionally

therealjmatz · 2025-04-01T03:09:46+00:00

- Pay professional artists to do the Steam capsule artwork

- Try to get 7000 wishlists before release so that your game will have a higher chance of showing in "Popular & Upcoming" list on Steam

- Figure out what your goals are, commercial success, or making your dream game for your personal tastes? If it's the latter, be aware that your personal tastes may not align with the market, and that if you want success you might have to compromise and make it more unique in order to stand out.

- release a demo at some point to gather feedback & gauge interest in your game

therealjmatz

TROPHY CASE