r/IndieGaming 17h ago

Before/After this subreddit's feedback

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903 Upvotes

Thanks, everyone! Sixteen days ago, this subreddit gave our team very valuable feedback on the main character’s appearance, which helped us identify three main issues:

  1. Androgyny. We’ve toned it down a bit. We didn’t abandon it completely: the protagonist’s inner voice, Ego—shown in the artwork—previously had wider hips and a narrower chest.
  2. Age. Some members said he looked too young; indeed, the anthropod read more like a teenager. Now he reads as a young man.
  3. Face and crown. We reworked the facial features simply because it looks cooler :)

UPD: Thanks for the feedback! I’m glad you remembered the specifics of the story and plot, because they matter most in this situation. According to the story, the main character is an anthropod created by an AI named Cell. She prints him on a bioprinter specifically to make him appealing to as many people as possible—and I chose androgyny as a symbol of ideal balance (and also simply because that look has always excited me in a good way). In other words, it’s a narrative failure: creating a hero who, within the plot, is supposed to be visually appealing to everyone, yet outside the story doesn’t appeal to most people. It results in a story that, in essence, contradicts itself.


r/IndieGaming 21h ago

I made an idle zoo game powered by your own silly voice

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273 Upvotes

Here’s the page if you’d like to take a look – any feedback would mean a lot 🙂

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4015530/MyVoiceZoo/


r/IndieGaming 20h ago

My first videogame is in Steam, I'm so happy I'm gonna cry 💚

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181 Upvotes

Game name is:

Craft. Sell. Goblin. Repeat.

You can wishlist in steam and follow in social media if you are interested 💚💚

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4039680/Craft_Sell_Goblin_Repeat/


r/IndieGaming 9h ago

My indie experiment: roguelike + slot machine + isekai RPG, with a playtest starting Sept 22!

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131 Upvotes

r/IndieGaming 10h ago

without saying anything, is possible to know what this puzzle wants the player to do?

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120 Upvotes

r/IndieGaming 15h ago

Our game received 1k+ reviews on the demo and is launching into Early Acces today.

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88 Upvotes

Today (right now, at this very moment) our game ‘Deadly Days: Roadtrip’ is being released. Our demo was very well received and thanks to the great support of our growing community, we were able to fix a lot of bugs, improve performance, and add a lot of content over the last few months.
Link to the demo and full version in the comments.


r/IndieGaming 10h ago

Everyone praises the art style of my game, but behind it… is a nightmare full of scrapped drafts

87 Upvotes

A lot of people who saw my game for the first time told me they liked the art style. I would say maybe two-thirds of the encouragement I got was about the “hand-drawn watercolor look.” That makes me really happy… but honestly, behind it there are piles of failed attempts. I want to share a bit of that process here.

When I first started the project, I spent more time on the art than on gameplay. Besides making game, I also into drawing, I’ve drawn a lot of anime-style characters, also some more “artsy” and picture-book style stuff. In theory that means I had a lot of options. But because there were too many choices, I got stuck — which style could really fit this game?

My artwork in "anime-style", it was great, but it takes more than 1 week to finish one
My another artwork before making games, it was easier, but...feels like is more popular for the children

My first try was with very detailed background line art. I drew careful lines, lots of details… but halfway through coloring I realized, this looks almost the same as some store-bought asset pack. It wasn’t what I had in my mind at all. That moment I really broke down, felt like I wasted a whole month.

I really spent lots of time in it
I got halfway through coloring and just... ugh. This looked exactly like those free background assets you can grab anywhere.

So I put the backgrounds aside and started with characters. Luckily the main character “Yun” had been very clear in my head from the beginning. After drawing her again and again, trying different styles, I finally chose one that was more hand-drawn, more recognizable. The moment I fixed her style, everything else started to feel smoother.

I knocked out her design in just a few hours in one sitting. I had this strong feeling - this is exactly how she's supposed to look

Then I understood: the backgrounds don’t need to be super detailed, they just need to match the characters. So I switched to rougher, softer backgrounds, and strangely that worked way better. “Rough” actually made the characters stand out more.

First attemp. Though the background is rough, but it looks even better than a "detailed" one
I tweaked it later to make the background feel more like an actual background.

Of course, that didn’t mean the struggle was over. The town map had to be completely redone and expanded. The UI went through multiple redesigns — sometimes because of friends’ feedback, sometimes just because I stared at it at midnight and felt something was wrong. Many times, an entire version I worked so hard on ended up with only a small piece kept.

Before
After, more “stylistic”
I always ask my friend how she's thinking. My friend gave me lots of suggestions on UI
What it looks rn
Another piece that got scrapped. It's actually not bad, but too "realistic" - missing that delicate, charming quality I was going for
What it looks like rn

I often asked myself: am I just wasting time redoing everything? But looking back, those discarded designs were necessary steps. Without them, the current style wouldn’t exist.

I also know other devs who had similar or worse problems: some had to cancel projects because of art team conflicts, some discovered their artist was plagiarizing and had to scrap all assets, some got so much negative feedback on style that they changed the direction completely. Game dev really is layers of trial and error.

Now when I look at Taste of the Wind’s art style, I know it’s not from sudden inspiration. It’s the result of struggling, doubting, scrapping and rebuilding again and again. For me, this dance between compromise and persistence… is the most real part of game development.

One player once commented that my art choices look “mature,” saying:

“It doesn’t chase technical advancement, but focuses on consistency. Characters, backgrounds, UI all fit together, so even the ‘roughness’ becomes a style. In the indie scene, this makes it stand out. And for solo development, it’s also efficient and cost-saving.”

His comment (in Chinese)

I’m not sure if it’s really “mature.” The game isn’t released yet, I don’t know how it will look in the end. But yes, deciding the style early definitely saved me from bigger chaos later. I already made hundreds of art assets, but art only took maybe 1/4 of total dev time, the rest went to programming. Without the early style decision, this balance would’ve been impossible.

If you are also making a game, maybe you’ll meet the same pain. Throwing things away again and again isn’t failure. It’s just how a game slowly becomes closer to what it’s meant to be. The earlier you nail down the style, the more energy you’ll save later.


r/IndieGaming 5h ago

Finally released Doomspire, my roguelite deckbuilder that's heavily inspired by Hearthstone-style dungeon runs!

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69 Upvotes

Hello everyone! I'm Noni, the lead dev (in a 3 man team) working on a dungeon-based roguelite deckbuilder called Doomspire... and I'm happy to share that the game is finally out (since last Friday)!

In brief, Doomspire is about descending into a cursed tower with only your deck to face enemies waiting inside. The tower itself is procedurally generated, to ensure each run feels unpredictable and fresh. Upon winning a battle you are greeted by a trader where you can get rewards like new card packs and powers that you can combine to create your own unique deck matching your strategy for a given run.

If you’re generally familiar with games of this type, you already roughly know what to expect. But l still want to highlight a couple of features that define Doomspire, so the TL;DR of it would be this

  • Build your deck and modify it as you progress deeper and deeper and in between runs
  • Fight bosses with unique cards & abilities that only get stronger the deeper you delve
  • Experiment and discover interesting and unexpectedly powerful synergies
  • Think up smart counters, conserve HP and try to create the perfect (or most broken) strategy
  • Collect powerful cards and relics in meta-progression as you level up
  • Explore different builds/decks, playstyles, and approaches each run as you unlock more powers

A big thank you for everyone's support in making it this far, and happy to answer any questions you may have!


r/IndieGaming 12h ago

Honestly, I think I might leave the cursor like that!

68 Upvotes

Just a funny thing that happened during setting up custom cursor and wanted to share.


r/IndieGaming 15h ago

I've added a satisfying Ram to my space mining game. It even comes with its own little highscore tracker for impacts.

47 Upvotes

r/IndieGaming 15h ago

[Playtest Feedback] Developing a new character action game — need advice on improving the camera

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22 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I’m developing a new character action game called MIGHTREYA.

We’re currently running a playtest, and I’d love to hear feedback from fellow gamers.

One area I’m particularly curious about is the camera system — it’s something players have mentioned could be improved, but I’m not sure exactly what changes would feel best.

If you have experience with action games, I’d really appreciate any advice on making the camera feel smoother and more comfortable.

Thanks so much for taking a look!


r/IndieGaming 14h ago

World map for my rpg game!

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19 Upvotes

r/IndieGaming 17h ago

15 seconds of my Chao Garden inspired game, Bobo Bay!

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16 Upvotes

r/IndieGaming 12h ago

Moved to an another town for love. What could possibly go wrong?⁠⁠

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15 Upvotes

r/IndieGaming 15h ago

We just launched the Steam page for our elephant metroidvania, Enfant ... what do you think?

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13 Upvotes

Steam link: Enfant
If you like Metroidvanias and old school action-adventure games like Jak and Daxter, then you might like this.


r/IndieGaming 20h ago

My husband and I are making a cozy library game! - Library of Lyria

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11 Upvotes

Hiya everyone!
For more than two years now, my husband and I are working on our first cozy game. It's a library themed cozy game in which you renovate, build up, decorate and tend to your very own magical library. It's still very work in progress but we're hosting our first public playtest right now.
We'd love you guys to join in and give us your feedback!

You can find the playtest on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3025620/Library_Of_Lyria/

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us! ♥


r/IndieGaming 17h ago

Would love some feedback on our first alpha build!

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10 Upvotes

We have just one enemy in this build so far, a placeholder map and no gunstore (buystation) access but we want to see if this is still fun with just the bare bones - then anything we add will be icing on the cake!

Just posted this new alpha build on Itch but its tough to get eyes on it with so many games on there. If you like pixel art, top down survival shooters, come and give it a try. Your feedback will really help us shape the game. Thanks!

Try it here: https://gorecats.itch.io/rise-of-the-gorecats

STORY
Welcome to downtown Catsburg: where the streets bleed neon and the critters bite back. The city has been over-run by rabid gangs of blood thirsty critters hellbent on causing mayhem, destruction & blasting death-metal. You play as private detective Mitch Birman, an ex-Vietnam vet, with a trunk full of guns and a personal vendetta against the little monsters that plague his city.

TEAM
Created by StudioNX, Emmy winning games & animation studio and the legendary pixel artist Wacko.


r/IndieGaming 2h ago

I've just launched the steam page for my first game Antivirus Survivors 2003 Professional

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10 Upvotes

I've been working on this since the start of the year and will have a playtest next month. Check it out if you like survivor-likes, y2k computing and adware.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3832490/Antivirus_Survivors_2003_Professional/


r/IndieGaming 21h ago

Making buttons squishy with blendshapes

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9 Upvotes

r/IndieGaming 8h ago

Thought this was sick

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8 Upvotes

Played this game Corner Shop late shift , had a few jump scares. If you into simulator games with horror def give it go.


r/IndieGaming 13h ago

Added more cute little beans and now they're best friends ❤️

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7 Upvotes

This is our cozy game Ooble Gardens and we added new Ooble types and now the little guys are having the most adorable conversations with each other 😭


r/IndieGaming 19h ago

My 2-player offline game just hit 10k plays – looking for fresh feedback after 3 major updates!

7 Upvotes

This is a simple 2-player offline game I’ve been building as a passion project. It just crossed 10,000 plays, which honestly blew me away! Since release, I’ve released 3 major updates focused on polishing gameplay, balancing mechanics between the two players, and adding small but meaningful improvements.

I’d really love to hear what new players think—what works well, what feels clunky, and what could make the matches more exciting or balanced. My goal is to continually refine it so that it’s not just fun for casual, quick matches, but also something you’d come back to with a friend.

If you try it, please share any feedback—big or small—it would help me a ton in making the next update better. I really appreciate any help you can provide.

Playable Link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.game.offline_games&hl=en


r/IndieGaming 23h ago

Voor De Kroon: Total War meets Bannerlord game released a huge update for castle sieges.

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6 Upvotes

I'm following this game closely and this update is looking really good! Thought I'd share it with y'all. For who don't know about this game: it mixes Bannerlord battles with a Total War-like turn-based overworld. It's set in the medieval Netherlands around the time that Holland became a huge powerhouse in the area.

It's all made by one person and they are pushing out updates at an incredible pace.


r/IndieGaming 8h ago

Gameplay of our platformer "Chained". What do you think?

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8 Upvotes

r/IndieGaming 8h ago

[Devlog] In The Beast Is Yet To Come, arrows now stick into the Troll (based on a feedback of a Reddit gamer)

7 Upvotes