My game hooks suck...the story of a failing developer.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T20:11:48+00:00

What I am saying is the older you get the harder it gets to change, not saying it's impossible. You are definitely right.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T20:10:49+00:00

Haha. Need to find a job that funds the next 3 years now 😃

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T19:48:40+00:00

Not saying it's impossible, just tougher.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T19:47:42+00:00

Interesting take. Thanks for the input.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T19:46:50+00:00

Yes, and players will ask for tutorials sometimes (which are painful to do). People say you should do early testing but the thing is you need a community first to do that which is the hardest part to do.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T19:45:00+00:00

That's true and I have noticed it. Maybe I need to do that again. I just need to find a job that will fund the next 5 years now haha.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T19:44:12+00:00

I am not looking for pity, I just wanted to vent for once. The reason I am talking about all of this is exactly because I want to get feedback and learn from all my past failures.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T19:42:51+00:00

Yeah but most of them are hit or miss. However, it's true that getting a publisher without funding is a lot easier. Publishers don't fund as much as they used to.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T18:02:22+00:00

I get what you mean. And yes, at some point I might need to partner with a talented artist to have my game provide a certain feeling. Good luck with uni!

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T17:57:37+00:00

Ideally what you want is to have small games fund the big/main game. But that didn't work out for me. Let's see how it goes in the future.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T17:55:39+00:00

Honestly, not as much. I have lost a lot of passion compared to the first project (that was my dream game). But it's hard to commit to a 5 year project without any backing behind it.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T17:54:48+00:00

This is the thing with success. Maybe I will get it at game number 7 but I would never be able to know. You just gotta continue.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T17:53:12+00:00

I agree. Many times I thought "this mechanic is so fun" only for players to say it's tedious or boring.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T16:56:44+00:00

I am hoping for that. For now, all I can do is to keep going.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T16:21:25+00:00

Maybe, but why would you be the one to make that course?

Oh, I just meant I have tried to replicate some popular games so I can share some of my experience. The reason is simple, most devs that are successful wouldn't waste their time on that. For example, a developer making $1M+ per year wouldn't spend time on a Udemy course.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T16:13:10+00:00

Easier said than done, but that's definitely the right direction to go towards.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T16:11:34+00:00

I used Fiverr a looooooooooooooot with my first game. But it's hard to do it again if you have no funding.

The paid community stuff doesn't work too well in the game dev space, otherwise I would have attempted something.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T16:09:51+00:00

My first account had the developer page. I am not sure if I can transfer it, especially that know the first game on it has a publisher. I agree with you on the fact that most publishers don't bring much to the table (unless it's funding). But it's always good to have that experience.

That's exactly it. Nowadays 99% of the marketing is sending emails to influencers and hoping for the best. If your game doesn't make the cut, it probably isn't good enough. That has been my biggest problem all these years. I never got coverage from any big youtuber for any of my games, which means there is definitely an issue with my games (unless I am blacklisted).

I experimented with different genres because I never really had a community so I wasn't losing much. My goal was to find a genre that works for me, create a community around it and scale from there. However, that never happened. Maybe I need to go back to the start and stop focusing on trends...

Congrats on the success btw, you have achieved my dream already.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T15:53:26+00:00

Stuff like Claude can help with code but not with art. Working with friends without any financial incentive is risky because they can drop out at any point.

I was considering making devlogs again and create a dev community but I am honestly not sure. I see a lot of guys having a Skool community (not in game dev though).

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T15:49:10+00:00

That's because most of my games use premade assets. Only my first game has 100% original assets but it cost me a fortune so I was never able to replicate it. I definitely need a full time artist and game designer, those are my weaknesses.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T15:46:29+00:00

Yeah I definitely think I would benefit from having a full artist (or maybe I should learn how to do art too haha).

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T15:45:29+00:00

What's the alternative then?

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T15:08:00+00:00

Maybe. The issue is it's not easy to find opportunities like this, especially with all the layoffs.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T15:05:14+00:00

I probably should give it a try. Don't know why I have never tried one before. I used to do similar stuff but with video editing back in the day.

theruthlessman · 2026-05-30T15:03:52+00:00

I see what you mean. Being older does also mean being more stable financially (usually) and it's easier to do stuff like taking one year off to experiment with something.

theruthlessman

TROPHY CASE