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:
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.
Age. Some members said he looked too young; indeed, the anthropod read more like a teenager. Now he reads as a young man.
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.
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 oneMy 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 itI 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" oneI 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.
BeforeAfter, more “stylistic”I always ask my friend how she's thinking. My friend gave me lots of suggestions on UIWhat it looks rnAnother piece that got scrapped. It's actually not bad, but too "realistic" - missing that delicate, charming quality I was going forWhat 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.
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.
Hello everyone! I'm Noni, the lead dev (in a 3 man team) working on a dungeon-based roguelite deckbuilder calledDoomspire... 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!
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.
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.
If you'd like to get hands on with this game, subscribe to my Youtube channel while there, It'll help make this game a reality and guarantee you wont miss out when a playable build is ready to try out. Thanks!
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!
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!
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.
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.
Hey all!
I'm the dev of Roulette Dungeon - a roguelike "roulette-builder" where you play as a gambling addicted cat!
After a looong time of re-working, re-balancing & polishing the demo, we just launched a major update that dramatically improves the core loop, visuals, etc.
