Solo indie marketing strategies that actually work?
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Developing and Testing all quick games took 2 years - a breakdown
I've been working on Educational Family Games, a 4-player local co-op for families. The 'quick games' mode has 80 mini-games, and honestly? They took two years from first prototype to final polish.
Not because any individual game is complex, but because:
- They need to work for kids (5+) AND adults
- No elimination mechanics (everyone plays every round)
- Has to hold up to 100+ plays without getting stale
- Controller-handling edge cases you wouldn't believe
Full list with descriptions: crazysoft.gr/all/educational_f…
Curious—how long do your 'small' features actually take to get right?
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The classic adage of "The first 90% of the work takes 90% of the time, and the last 10% takes the other 90% of the time" comes to mind.
Its always all those "little touches" that eat up so much time, because you know that your audience will expect them, and you yourself feel that they should be there; a smoothly-moving cursor for menu selections, playing little sounds when selecting or cancelling, a puff of dust that jumps up when the player character lands (but keeps animating in place rather than sticking to the player), text sliding or fading in and out instead of just appearing and disappearing... All the individual "little" things that add up to quite a lot of work.
I also sympathize with you on a lot of the points you raised about "family-friendly" games. I'm a teacher, and when I make activities and games for my students, I face a similar set of constraints (must be enjoyable for the weakest students but still engaging for the most advanced students, little to no player elimination, high replayability/reusability, has to actually reinforce the target knowledge/skill and not just be fun with the material tacked on as an afterthought).
What is The Hideout?
The Hideout is a browser-based place to hang out and play games together.
The Hideout is like House Party by Epic Games, but runs directly in the browser.
You can create public or private rooms and invite friends with a link. Inside a room, you can play games, chat, react with emojis or GIFs, or just hang out.
Right now, the Hideout includes social deduction games like Mafia and Chameleon, a casual Wordle game, and a watch together feature for synced YouTube videos.
There are no downloads and no setup. You just open the link and start playing.
The project is still evolving, and feedback is welcome.
link
Edit: Sorry but on my end it bring a Server Error
Sorry to hear that. People on the internet usually talk to others as if they were the same age, so they might not be so kind to teenagers like they might in real life.
For what is worth, I think it's very cool what you are trying to build. Good luck!
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Toyota Developing A Console-Grade, Open-Source Game Engine - Using Flutter & Dart
Well, here's an unexpected combination... Toyota's Toyota Connected North America unit is developing a console-grade open-source game engine. Making it even more unusual is their engineering choices of building around the Flutter toolkit and in turn the Dart programming language. This new game engine creation is called Fluorite.Toyota Connected North America is Toyota Motor Corporation's subsidiary founded in collaboration with Microsoft for working on in-vehicle software, AI, and related tech initiatives. Toyota Connected developers announced at FOSDEM 2026 their Fluorite game engine as a "console grade" engine built around Flutter and Dart. They were going with Flutter to leverage its rich UI toolkit and for "building stunning interactive experiences." Fluorite also makes use of Google's Filament 3D rendering engine.
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We couldn’t resist… Wordle is now on The Hideout 🟩🟨⬛
Quick update:
I added Wordle to The Hideout 🎉
You can play it alongside Mafia, Chameleon, and Watch Together, all in the same hangout.
It’s nice as a chill break between games or a warm-up before chaos 😅
Curious — what’s your longest Wordle streak? 👀
Small UX improvements to The Hideout (as recommended😁)
Quick update: I added some small but handy improvements to The Hideout:
- More accessible GIF & emoji console – now you can type while browsing emojis or GIFs at the same time
- Game browser console – see all available games in one place without leaving the room
These make hanging out, reacting, and switching games smoother than ever 😎
Thanks Guys for all the support and feedback it really helps💙
Check it out:
joinhideout.vercel.app/
Feedback welcome — curious what people like or want next! 💬
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Added a watch together feature to The Hideout 📺👀
I just added a watch together feature to The Hideout 🎉
You can sync YouTube videos in a room and watch together in real time ⏱️
It works alongside the games, so you can hang out, watch stuff, then jump into Mafia 🕵️ or Chameleon 🦎
Link:
joinhideout.vercel.app
Feedback welcome, this one’s fresh 🔧💬
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Testing something from this alt...
Pasting joinhideout.vercel.app:
joinhideout.vercel.app
Pasting https://joinhideout.vercel.app/:
joinhideout.vercel.app/
Edit: How curious. From the text body in the OP, the link to the current instance's link to the post itself, be it from The Brain Bin, Ani Social, Piefed Social or Lemmy Today. But if I paste without https://*/ on Ani Social, it comes as plain text, while with it, it comes as a proper link.
The Hideout is live (social games, browser-only)
Quick intro for anyone new 👋
The Hideout is a browser-based place to play social deduction games with friends or randoms.
What’s in right now:
🕵️ Mafia roles, night/day, voting, chaos
🦎 Chameleon fast bluffing, one player doesn’t know the word
🌐 Public & private rooms
🚫 No downloads, just click and play
It’s meant for quick games, late-night sessions, and arguing over who’s sus.
👉 joinhideout.vercel.app
Feedback welcome. I’m actively building this.
The link is missing again in the parentheses in this comment, too. Do any of the two below work on your client?
Hyperlink with URL both in label and target-URL:
joinhideout.vercel.app
No hyperlink formatting at all:
joinhideout.vercel.app
Ah nevermind, just saw your comment on your other post xD
Reverse Engineering Star Wars: Yoda Stories
arcade-like game weekend project
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We added Mafia and Chameleon to The Hideout 🕵️🦎
Quick update:
We just added two social deduction games to The Hideout:
Mafia – full roles, night/day cycle, voting, and chaos
Chameleon – fast bluffing game where one player doesn’t know the word
Chameleon is great for quick rounds or warming up a room, Mafia is for longer sessions and big groups.
Both are live now.
Jump in, break things, and tell me what sucks or what should be added next 👀
joinhideout.vercel.app
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Ubisoft Gamedev unions in France call for international strike
'We are shutting it down:' Ubisoft unions call for international strike
Five unions in France have proposed a mass walkout in February in response to widespread cost-cutting and a return-to-office mandate.Chris Kerr (Game Developer)
Spent more time looking for a game than actually playing one? Help me test Gamescovery, a recommendation engine built for your actual taste.
Hey everyone,
Like many of you, I've spent more time hunting for my next game than actually playing. I'm frustrated with recommenders that just push popular titles, ignoring what makes my taste unique.
That's why I've been building Gamescovery (games discovery!).
What is it?
Gamescovery is a new recommendation system designed specifically for games. The goal is simple: use your ratings from the games you've played to find hidden gems and perfect matches you'd otherwise miss.
Why it's different:
- It's not a generic engine. It's being built from the ground up to understand what you love about games.
- Future updates will let you fine-tune recommendations based on what matters most to you (genre, mood, developer, etc.).
- We start by focusing on the incredible world of itch.io indie games to help you uncover amazing projects that big algorithms overlook.
This is where you come in.
The alpha is now live, and it's very much an early build. I'm not a big company, I'm a solo developer who wants to build something the community actually finds useful. That's why your feedback is crucial.
As an alpha tester, you'll get:
- Early access to a tool designed to beat the "recommendation paradox."
- A direct line to the developer to shape project's future.
- The chance to help build a non-biased, community-driven platform.
Ready to try it out?
👉 Sign up for the alpha and start getting recommendations here: gamescovery.com/
Want to chat, suggest features, or report bugs?
🎮 Join our Discord community: discord.gg/brr7aYezMc
This project has and will always have a free tier. The dream is to support all major platforms, but we're starting with itch.io to prove the concept.
Thanks for your time, and I'm excited to hear what you think!
Download the latest indie games
itch.io is a simple way to find, download and distribute indie games online. Whether you're a developer looking to upload your game or just someone looking for something new to play itch.io has you covered.itch.io
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Made a 3d model -> voxel SDF translator
Getting some acceptable performances, 6minutes for 300³ voxels and 16k triangle.
Had to put an end to this project for uni but the end goal is to make each model a single fourier series which can be quickly evaluayed in an SDF renderer.
Everything was coded in C with raylib for rendering
How to avoid losing your Minecraft server due to dangerous mods
How to avoid losing your Minecraft server due to dangerous mods
I′m sure many Minecraft server owners have experienced players trying to hack into their server and give themselves administrator privileges. Of course, such behavior isn′t limited to gaming, so I...PVS-Studio
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They replicated the CVE themselves with pictures, so it's not total slop, but I think most articles now are AI-assisted.
Regardless, it's a thinly-veiled ad for PVS-Studio. I'm also questioning the relevance to gamedev.
CtrlAssist v0.4.0: Controller Assist for gaming on Linux 🎮🤝
CtrlAssist v0.4.0 introduces demultiplexing functionality along with enhancements to the system tray and rumble targeting. The updated README now features FAQ and Cookbook sections with practical examples, such as the "Double Agent Tag Team" scenario, where a single assist controller uses a demux to help multiple primary players across separate mux instances, and the "Couch Co-Op Swap" scenario, in which two players take turns assisting each other using toggle mode, with force feedback following the currently active controller by default.
While controller demultiplexing was a requested feature from a prior release, I didn't have a concrete use case until I found myself helping a pair of youngsters play couch co-op multiplayer games with each other. Instead of needing separate assist controllers for each player, otherwise charging/pairing four controllers in total, being able to unicast between mux instances with a single assist controller made juggling both inputs much simpler. Then after being roped into the "It Takes Two" session myself, I found being able to swap primary and assist players outright much simpler when both helping and playing, allowing the Helpee to also aid the Helper when it really does take two.
New Features
Demux Operation Mode
CtrlAssist now supports demultiplexing (demux), allowing a single physical controller to be split into multiple virtual gamepads. This complements the existing multiplexing (mux) functionality and enables more advanced input routing scenarios.
Demux Modes:
- Unicast (default): Routes primary controller input to the currently active virtual gamepad. Cycle between virtual gamepads using the reserved Mode button.
- Assist multiple players across separate mux instances
- Multicast: Broadcasts primary controller input to all virtual gamepads simultaneously.
- Replicate controller input for advanced input multiplexing pipelines
Active Rumble Targeting
A new "Active" rumble target has been added as the default option for mux operations. This routes force feedback to whichever controllers are currently active according to the selected mode:
- Toggle Mode: Rumble follows the currently active controller
- Priority/Average Modes: Rumble sent to both controllers, same as before
Expanded Documentation
The README has been significantly expanded with:
- FAQ Section: Addresses common questions about who CtrlAssist is for, why it was developed, game compatibility, supported controllers, and running multiple instances
- Cookbook Section: Provides practical examples demonstrating complex multi-instance setups:
- Couch Co-Op Swap: Two players alternating assistance
- Double Agent Tag Team: One assist controller helping multiple primary players
Breaking Changes
- The rumble target enum options now defaults to "Active" instead of "Both"
- Configuration file format has been extended to accommodate separate mux and demux settings
Installation
CtrlAssist v0.4.0 can be installed via:
- Cargo:
cargo install ctrlassist --force - Flatpak: Download the bundle from the releases page and install with
flatpak install
Release v0.4.0 · ruffsl/CtrlAssist
CtrlAssist v0.4.0 introduces demultiplexing functionality along with enhancements to the system tray and rumble targeting. The updated README now features FAQ and Cookbook sections with practical e...GitHub
What′s C++ like in gamedev?
What′s C++ like in gamedev?
We invite you to read an article on how C++ is used in modern game development and why the industry is still not ready to move away from it. The author explores how C++ works at different levels of...PVS-Studio
Making a game revolves around doing the hackiest shit and making something cool work. Every function has side effects and variables will need to be modified in multiple places in the same frame.
Don't get me wrong I like Rust but I need a language I can abuse, not the other way around, when I am making a game.
RwLock<T> and RefCell<T> for example. I'm not saying everyone should drop whatever they prefer to instead use rust. It's ok to stick with what you know or enjoy. Good games are agnostic to the tools used to make them. I just don’t think Rust deserves to be dismissed the way your statement does.
Every function has side effects and variables will need to be modified in multiple places in the same frame
We try to avoid exactly that, because it is what caused us man-years of bug-hunting and bug-fixing over our past projects. Our end-goal (that is still very far away...) would be to have the state from the previous frame and the user inputs, do only pure computations based on this data, and write out a new state before rendering the current frame.
We do use C++ though (because Unreal, and console platforms), what makes this extra hard, because C++ is a language for writing bugs, not for writing software.
As said, we try to. Not that we managed to reach this ideal in any existing project yet. We did manage to get Auto-Save implemented without affecting the "purity" of computations, but as you said, achievements and analytics are a PITA. I think those are possible with pure computations too, but we did not yet manage to build the game architecture in a way that makes that work. Yet.
I'm currently on a research project to investigate how much of a game we can move into pure Embedded Domain Specific Languages. So, basically a set of gameplay scripting languages that enforce the "everything that happens during the frame is pure" constraint. Buuut, again, this project is still at its early stages, and under very strict budget constraints, so I cannot say yet if the outcome will be a feasible architecture or not...
Ghost of Yotei, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 lead 2026 DICE Awards
Ghost of Yotei and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 headline 2026 DICE Awards nominations
The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced the nominees for the 29th annual DICE Awards, with Clair Obscur and Ghost of Yotei at the helm.Diego Argüello (Game Developer)
Steam adds official support for game version-specific Workshop mods
A single subscribed mod can now provide multiple builds targeting different game versions. This is tied to the existing branch system originally used for betas. Subscribers will be automatically given the mod build that matches their installed game version.
This means that when a player downgrades their game to an old version, they'll automatically be switched to the last version of all subscribed mods that supported that version of the game.
This should save developers, mod authors, and players a huge headache due to not needing to worry about updates breaking everything (provided the developer has enabled and set up the relevant feature sets, which TBH looks a little fiddly).
Steamworks Development - New! Version Control For Steam Workshop Mods - Steam News
New Steam APIs and Workshop item options work together for better control as games and mods get updatedstore.steampowered.com
[Video] Chris Wilson | Protecting Your Online RPG’s Economic Integrity
Economic integrity is what makes progression in online RPGs mean something: a level playing field where items and advancement are earned through gameplay and skill, not purchased, botted, exploited, or obtained by socially engineering a studio's customer support department.
References:
pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs…
Protecting Your Online RPG’s Economic Integrity
Economic integrity is what makes progression in online RPGs mean something: a level playing field where items and advancement are earned through gameplay and...YouTube
Elder Scrolls 6
What do you think is most likely to be taking them so long?
Hardware/software/other technical aspects:
* keeping their software in sync with new hardware - obviously (?) it's going to be a 64-bit game, but maybe there are other aspects to it, for instance, adapting the maximum quality of textures, meshes, shaders, animations and what have you to be appropriate for today's computing power (CPU, GPU, new PCIe standards, etc), considering how long ago the game's development began.
* game engine - are they making something from scratch, reusing older assets or "borrow" for instance UE5?
* other?
World building aspects:
* there are tons of loose ends to tie up or to build upon from previous games - did they not have plans for a sixth game when Skyrim released and thus were left clueless on how to develope the story? Most unlikely...
* are they taking time trying to incorporate fan theories and stories?
* resolving contradictions from previous games?
* other?
Political aspects:
* the acquisition by Microsoft?
* internal strife?
* budget?
* other?
Other aspects:
* "simply" fine tuning to achieve perfection?
* all of the above?
* none of the above?
Context: I have never ever participated in game development ✌️
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The fact that they're still making money off of Elder Scrolls online.
It's the same reason we don't have gta6 and why we'll probably never get another KotOR. Why would they make a new game when they're still making money off subscriptions?
CtrlAssist v0.3.0: Controller Assist for gaming on Linux
Announcing the release of CtrlAssist v0.3.0, which introduces significant new features and usability improvements. CtrlAssist brings "controller assist" functionality to Linux gaming by allowing multiple physical controllers to operate as a single virtual input device. This enables collaborative play and customizable gamepad setups, making it easier for players of all ages and abilities to enjoy games together.
Major Features
System Tray Interface
This release introduces a graphical system tray application that provides desktop integration for managing controller multiplexing. Users can now:
- Configure primary and assist controller assignments via dropdown menus
- Start and stop the mux without using the command line
- Adjust settings through a context menu interface
- Receive desktop notifications for status changes
- Persist configuration across sessions
The tray interface supports live reconfiguration of device-invariant settings (mux mode and rumble target) while the mux is running.
Multiple Hiding Strategies
Controller hiding now supports three distinct strategies:
- None: No hiding, manual configuration required
- Steam: Automatically manages Steam's controller blacklist via config.vdf modification
- System: Restricts device permissions system-wide (requires root access)
The Steam hiding strategy enables proper functionality in sandboxed environments without requiring elevated privileges, addressing a key limitation for Flatpak users.
Live Runtime Updates
The mux runtime now supports dynamic reconfiguration without restart for:
- Mux mode changes (Priority, Average, Toggle)
- Rumble target adjustments (Primary, Assist, Both, None)
This functionality is available through both the system tray and programmatic (D-BUS) interfaces, allowing users to adapt behavior during gameplay sessions.
Flatpak Distribution
CtrlAssist is now packaged as a Flatpak application with:
- Automated GitHub Actions workflow for release builds
- Desktop entry and metainfo for application catalogs
- Proper sandbox permissions for device access
- Support for Steam configuration modifications within the sandbox
Flatpak bundles are automatically built and attached to GitHub releases.
Additional Improvements
- Configuration persistence to
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/ctrlassist/config.toml - Controller selection by name with best-effort matching across sessions
- Enhanced documentation with installation instructions for both Cargo and Flatpak
- New pixel art banner and application icon (via Aseprite)
- Improved force feedback device recovery after disconnection
- Better error handling and user feedback throughout the application
Installation
CtrlAssist v0.3.0 can be installed via:
- Cargo:
cargo install ctrlassist --force - Flatpak: Download the bundle from the releases page and install with
flatpak install
Full installation instructions are available in the README.
Breaking Changes
The --hide flag now requires an enum value (none, steam, system) instead of being a boolean flag. Users upgrading from v0.2.x should update their scripts accordingly:
- Previous:
ctrlassist mux --hide - Current:
ctrlassist mux --hide system
Release v0.3.0 · ruffsl/CtrlAssist
Announcing the release of CtrlAssist v0.3.0, which introduces significant new features and usability improvements. Major Features System Tray Interface This release introduces a graphical system tr...GitHub
Tidewrath - Roguelike MMORPG
Solo dev here, over the calm holidays I built myself a small roguelike MMORP cozy (but permadeath) free to play browser game (mvp) called Tidewrath.
Every 5 minutes a tsunami wipes the surface. Get underground or lose everything. World regenerates, you start fresh.
Isometric pixel art, click-to-move combat, fishing, building stuff, player shops.
This is the first early access version. It should also work on iphone (fullscreen if you add to home screen and sound if you unmute phone).
No accounts yet, so if you want, you can just hop in and see how long you survive.
Would love some feedback if anyone gives it a try.
Tidewrath - Roguelike MMORPG
Survive the tide in this isometric roguelike MMORPG. Explore an alien tidal planet, fight creatures, and escape the tsunami.Tidewrath
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Great feedback!
Anyone want to help make a game with me?
Hi all, I'm currently working on a hobby project currently titled "Prometheus and the Gods" (but will be changed at a later date to reference the duck), where you are tasked by Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods, to infiltrate in the worlds of the twelve (Greek) Olympian gods and steal their power for the humans (e.g. mastery of the seas from Poseidon). In addition, the player is a duck, which is kind of fun.
The game will mostly be about solving puzzles and going through obstacle courses, rather than real-time combat. The player can interact with "totems" to use the powers of what Wikipedia calls "nature deities": Helios, the all-seeing Sun god, Achelous, the river god of the largest river in Athens I think, and the four Anemoi, the winds (N/S/E/W)
I've got the basic movement down, and I think I have done a decent job at making pixel art for the player, character sprites, and the world. However, I'm not very good at level design at all, and the levels that I have added (tutorial + meeting the four winds) aren't all that fun to play, they all are either a) too easy b) way too difficult or c) just boring/uninteresting.
I am looking for someone who has any skill in level design, and ideally some experience with Godot as well. (two programmers are better than one!) This is a hobby project that won't be making any money though, so this isn't a job or anything, just a bit of fun. No set schedule or anything.
the project's repo if you want to look at what I have so far: codeberg.org/sbird/prometheus-…
Previous posts on the game for reference:
lemmyverse.link/sopuli.xyz/pos…
lemmyverse.link/sopuli.xyz/pos… (older post, player is not a duck)
~~Note: there does appear to be a "find a team" community, but there's only four posts, and it looks like it died a year or so ago...~~ cross-posted in the "I Need a Team" community
How to flesh out a idea in a simple manner?
I tend to overthink alot and im not sure if my ideas are good enough for a game, most of them are incomplete ideas with plot holes and such in them.
I just want to know how to get a idea and expand upon it in a simple stress-free manner?
Mind Mapping Books — Mind Map Nation
What if you could approach life’s chaos confidently, knowing that you have the tools necessary to face any challenge, break down any complexity, and craft a clear plan towards your dreams?Mind Map Nation
A Quick way to test ideas to see if they would be fun is by making a pen and paper prototype or making a MVP (minimum viable product) prototype in a game engine.
If you use a game engine to build your prototype - make it very simple, only basic shapes and focus on implementing your gameplay. (DO NOT fall into the pit of polishing it or ADDING NEW features).
Either way write a throughline/goal for your project (what you want to tell or achieve with your project) and prototype(draw it on paper first) a core gameplay loop that you think is fun and one that validates your goals. (Choose from an idea that excites you)
Then test it (however you can) and iterate based on your own input or others input.
And importantly DO IT, make whatever little shitty prototype you think of and share it with people! Get their feedback!! Your prototype will suck so hard in the beginning! (Mostly) But the feedback you get will help you make it awesome!
I can't help with making it stress free, I myself struggle with that. Just do it for fun, I suppose. If you start thinking about how to make money off of it or how it will revolutionize the world, then you'll never get to making the damn thing.
Hope this helps.
Edit:
Okay, so it just struck me. I think you have to focus on what excites you, because if the idea doesn't excite you, you are going to have a lot of trouble expanding upon it. It will also make it less stressful. So keep that in mind.
Edit 2:
A good way to build ideas is to copy others. See what you liked about someone else's game and think about how you would improve upon it in a way that would interest YOU. This way you have some boilerplate and an example to help guide you.
CtrlAssist v0.2.0: Controller Assist for gaming on Linux 🎮🤝
Excited to announce release v0.2.0 for CtrlAssist, adding rumble pass-through support and significant improvements to controller multiplexing! CtrlAssist brings "controller assist" functionality to Linux gaming by allowing multiple physical controllers to operate as a single virtual input device. This enables collaborative play and customizable gamepad setups, making it easier for players of all ages and abilities to enjoy games together.
🎯 What's New
Rumble Pass-Through
Force feedback can now be forwarded to paired physical controllers! Configure which controller(s) receive rumble effects—route them to Primary, Assist, both, or neither. Share every haptic encounter from turbulence, engine failure, and hard landings with your co-pilot. Even better: if a controller disconnects mid-game (swapping batteries, USB cords, etc.), CtrlAssist automatically recovers and restores all force feedback effects when it reconnects.
Smoother Input Transitions
All assist modes now feature improved synchronization for more natural gameplay:
- Joysticks snap cleanly: When assistance begins or ends, both X and Y axes update together—no more jarring diagonal-to-cardinal transitions
- Toggle mode syncs instantly: Switching between Primary and Assist now mirrors the active controller's complete current state, eliminating phantom inputs from buttons or sticks that were held during the switch
Better Device Discovery
Controllers device trees are now discovered more reliably, preventing edge cases where multiple similar devices could cause conflicts. This also improves device hiding and rumble pass-through selection.
🛠️ Under the Hood
- Refactored input handling for consistency across all three modes
- Fixed button mapping quirks across physical and virtual device boundaries
- Improved error handling and logging for edge cases and issue reporting
- More graceful shutdown on Ctrl+C with robust cleanup
📦 Install and Upgrade
cargo install ctrlassist --forceFull changelog available at the GitHub release page.
Note: If you have experience with Arch or modding SteamOS, I could use also some help in fixing/documenting SteamDeck support, as I've not the hardware on hand and most of my Linux development has been on NixOS and Ubuntu thus far:
- Investigate and Support SteamDeck / SteamOS Compatibility #13
- Investigate Dynamic Device Permissions for Virtual Devices (udev, ACLs) #19
Investigate Dynamic Device Permissions for Virtual Devices (udev, ACLs)
Summary: Modern Linux systems use udev and systemd-logind to dynamically manage device permissions (ACLs) for input devices, granting access to the active user. However, virtual devices created by ...ruffsl (GitHub)
What are the most simple free engines and tools for a beginner?
I belive i would like to try making games but my laptop isint that powerful. Its a thinkpad from like 10 years ago, i upgraded it to a 250gb ssd, and 16gb of low voltage ddr3, i also put linux on it to screeze out as much as possible. So i need something that will run but im struggling on choosing expecially sense i want to start for free. I want to start with something dead simple and work my way up.
What would you suggest and why so?
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since you haven't said anything about type of game, if you want to start at the dead simple side and visual novels sound interesting maybe look at Ren'py?
visual novels have less going on than a big 3d game, so if you want an easy start from 0 it should be as close as you can get. python is straightforward if you don't have programming experience, but otherwise is really commonly used so gives a nice basis for whatever else you want to do.
ren'py also has gotten plenty of commercial use if you wanted to go further in that direction. most big name vn games use it.
More about: Beyond the Iron Cycle
check the release post:
release-post
Beyond the Iron Cycle BTIC is fully independent project by one entity.
It is very hard to work and publish such a project as a single entity. Allthough the programming itself - on its own - is already hard, but the harder challenge is to publish the game as independent as possible - and when you know the project, you will know why this has to be as independently published as possible.
After trying several options (github, gibtlab, bitbucket, Savannah, http-hosters, ... - those are more/less: centralized/offering a lot of not needed features/unnecessarily complicated/hosted by toxic-entities like Microsoft/payed services) i think that lemmy is best platform and community to publish the project.
The code i wrote is really easy to check, if in doubt test this on some old laptop or raspberry pi - no strings attached.
Also i choose not to host this (very special) project continually, but until some (yet unknown) point in the future as limited downloads.
Until then, you will find the "release fountain"-post in the according community: lemmy.ml/c/btic
for some time i will answer some questions about the game here in the comment-section of this post.
thx, good luck and have fun!
Many things occur as a chance, but some chances may drift away in time and space and they will never come back.
[edit: typos, name hosting-options]
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I'm gonna be honest, OP. The way you're doing this is going to be a VERY tough sell to basically everyone.
It's already difficult to understand what your game even is, and then when you add the fact that it's only available from time-limited download links embedded in obscure Lemmy threads... let's just say I'd feel more comfortable downloading software from a URL I found scrawled on the wall of a gas station bathroom than whatever it is you're doing.
You say that the code you wrote is "really easy to check", but where? It's not hosted on a public repo, so the only way for people to audit your code is by downloading your "game", which, again, is a tough sell when it could be literally anything.
If it walks like malware and it talks like malware...
as a lemmy.ml admin the only way i can remove this post on !indiegaming@lemmy.world is to ban the user with "remove content" checked, which i am for now refraining from doing because i think they might actually be sincere.
however i strongly advise against running this, and therefore i removed links to it from lemmy.ml communities... while preserving one in their modlog (along with advice to OP) in case someone wants to audit it.
reWinWar 0.0.5 release. Computer opponent starts actually playing the game
The computer has taken its first steps toward actually playing the game.
At the moment, its logic is limited to land units (tanks and infantry). Aviation and naval forces are not fully implemented for the player yet either.
The AI can construct buildings and units (within its budget), move them through friendly territories, and attack weak neighboring zones when an opportunity arises.
For now, I’m postponing further AI improvements and shifting focus to the user interface. The goal is to complete the overall game structure and architecture. This includes the main menu, options menu, save/load system, and a basic sound system.
reWinWar by reWinWar
A simple wargame heavily influenced by Silicon Commander Games' WinWar IIitch.io
release fountain : Beyond the Iron Cycle
#linux #gaming #indiegaming #cyberpunk #decentralization #free-and-libre #terminal #unix #network
release fountain : Beyond the Iron Cycle
check out the release post:
release-post
download:
limewire.com/d/LUrxA#ZfERLUVwx… (limited downloads)
sha256sum:
9cfb455a5ce72fd9fa9c9929cbb6ca6de6c120074da9921e5d656dbb7330e3bc hc-25-12-17.tar.bz2
game start:
POS: Pos: r=1.1 SNU; dlt=32.11; phi=45.06 - relay pod
. . . This is an automated beacon signal . . .
You managed to reach the relay-pod, right on the edge
of the estimated maximum extend of the Iron Cycle.
You need an operational hypercore to jump away from here.
Intermediate tasks:
- get&start the hypercore (hc-YY-MM-DD.tar.bz2)
- start a tor daemon
- contact the outpost pod [Sun, UTC 18-20]
- configure a tor-service (check MY_README)
- set up an url1 ([r][h])
- send a peer request to user1
[edit: title,link-target]
CtrlAssist: Controller Assist for gaming on Linux 🎮🤝
CtrlAssist – an open source project to bring more accessible, collaborative gaming to Linux! Inspired by PC gaming sessions with my own family, where both young and old relish exploring rich stories with immersive worlds (like Witcher 3, RDR3, Hogwarts Legacy, etc) but find coordinated combat or movement control too challenging to play solo, CtrlAssist lets you combine multiple controllers into one virtual gamepad, much like assist features on dedicated game consoles.
Whether your helping grandparents through tough boss fights, or co-oping with nieces and nephews to level age gaps, CtrlAssist aims to make PC gaming on Linux fun and accessible for everyone. While I’m certain similar utilities exist, I also just wanted a holiday hobby project to practice Rust development while scratching a personal itch.
Please give it a try, share your feedback in the relevant discussion categories, or check out the open issues if you’d like to contribute, help is always welcome!
- Developer Feedback and Rust Community Discussion
- User Feedback and Accessibility Community Discussion
#RustLang #LinuxGaming #Accessibility #OpenSource #CtrlAssist
GitHub - ruffsl/CtrlAssist: Controller Assist for gaming on Linux
Controller Assist for gaming on Linux. Contribute to ruffsl/CtrlAssist development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHub
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Indeed it's just a placeholder logo until a real human artist would like to contribute, as I'm no talented graphics designer myself. I still think it serves a purpose to quickly and visually illustrate what the project does, as all of the key words and terminology used by similar efforts never reached a consensus or becoming a household names.
Xbox initially called this Copilot (lol, on brand), Apple calls this buddy mode, PlayStation just filled it under Access™, so something to link words to an intuition is better than nothing at the moment. If you have any suggested SEO for folks to find this is that's what their looking for, let me know. I've been in the trench for too long to know less technical jargon folks would use.
I'm also already transparent in using AI for rubber duck sessions in the public pull requests, so anyone agents AI would already probably object to its origins.
I'm finally releasing my indie game demo. Here's the trailer if you're interested!
I posted here a couple years ago about my indie game, now it's finally releasing! Please check it out and wishlist on steam if it looks like your kind of game.
store.steampowered.com/app/399…
No More Mages Demo Trailer
The trailer for the years-in-the-making demo for No More Mages, coming in December 2025. Climb the Tower. Fight the Magic. Slay the Mage.Wishlist now on Stea...YouTube
SwipeFury – The Swipe-and-Combo Game You Can’t Put Down!
Hey everyone! 👋
Check out my new indie game SwipeFury — swipe combos, fight waves of enemies, and see how high you can score! ⚡🗡️
Play it here: lly-boob.github.io/
Here’s a quick screenshot/GIF: [upload image or GIF here]
Would love your feedback and thoughts! Thanks! 🙏
Block Blaster — Free 3D Swipe & Burst Arcade Game
Fast-paced 3D WebGL block blasting game. Swipe to burst blocks, survive the speed, and avoid instant game over. Play free — no download needed.lly-boob.github.io
Block Blaster — Free 3D Swipe & Burst Arcade Game
Fast-paced 3D WebGL block blasting game. Swipe to burst blocks, survive the speed, and avoid instant game over. Play free — no download needed.lly-boob.github.io
What game engine is the best for my laptop? and good for a total beginner?
Not sure if this goes her because im new to lemmy, but i have a snapdragon plus laptop, 16 ram, no gpu, i got this laptop recently when it was on sale for portability and because chromebooks are bad.
I want to get into gamedev and explore both 2d and 3d but im unsure what to try with my laptop as a newcomer not knowing much?
What would you suggest and why so? i need the simplest of the simple.
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)
You mention Raylib in another comment. I can definitely see that for anyone who wants a tilemap/pixel project or small-scope 3D... but even then it's likely to involve making boilerplate stuff, unless you can lean on libraries (which makes more sense if you know exactly what you're trying to make).
I've really only tinkered with Godot TBH, but lots of things are easy to do in the editor that would be something manual in Raylib. Considering both have bindings capability, Godot makes a lot of sense for the systems it has.
Even with my difficulty I'm not sure what's "complex" about Godot, I would agree some systems need more work (nobody stepping up, some requests rejected for being 'too niche') but that is something else entirely. Is the "complex" part that you want a framework rather than an engine?
Also "competing" is odd when one is free (and easy to run) while the other is trying to screw over its users. I would say it competes as much as it needs to. Any sane game developer probably isn't attempting to make a questionably-large-scope game. Especially if they can't even run the questionably-big engine on their hardware.
Indie Studio Released 10,000 Game Assets To Help Devs Avoid AI
cross-posted from: piefed.social/c/Bside/p/154047…
Two-person indie studio Chequered Ink launched a pack of 10,000 game assets to "give budding developers an alternative to AI", which includes over 9,000 graphics for platformers, RPGs, puzzle games, board games, and more, as well as over 700 sound effects.
Indie Dev Released 10,000 Game Assets In Response To Generative AI Boom
"Stories will always be better told when they're crafted with human hands."Amber Rutherford (80lv)
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No. I'll name three.
Pleias, an LLM family of models that train on the common corpus, compliant with EU copyright and fair use law. They filtered a public domain dataset for racism and other bias's, and released the results.
common canvas is a (suite) of text-to-image models trained on a data they know is well sourced.
Apertus, public ai is a chat-gpt style bot made in collaboration with the swiss government, with a commitment to using only training data that complies with swiss fair use. They've chosen a model design that let's them remove training data which is improperly labeled, or becomes no longer accessible (ie, by changing robots.txt).
Not to mention the hundreds of models academics in ML have trained using things like open diffusion and public datasets (see also these hobbyists).
They don't have advertising budgets (generally). But you see a steady stream of open models on arXiv.
Common Models - a PleIAs Collection
The first generation of models pretrained on Common Corpus.huggingface.co
Have I ever talked to a struggling artist?
Because if I had, then I would know they are sad and worried because ai took their booming business of creating textures and now it's difficult to pay the bills? 😀
Artists have always struggled. Whole of human history. I met many artists and I don't think any of them had much money.
But that's beside the point. There is a world of textures ai can be trained on without stealing anything. It's textures.
The Making of Disco Elysium - Part One: Foundations | Noclip [38:49]
The Making of Disco Elysium - Part One: Foundations
Support our work via Patreon (get perks!) ► https://www.patreon.com/noclipor Join Noclip on YouTube ► https://bit.ly/3nH3FUfSUBSCRIBE for More Free Game Docs...YouTube
I guess just the color tag on the character is enough, though will likely need to manually enter the color-code each time (I have my own palette, even worse if I even need to change* it). Also neat that the outline can be change this way too (not shadow?), though seems a bit messy to stack these in BBCode.
I'm guessing custom effects might be the thing that would allow me to make my own color map. Not sure if that would always apply or if I'd have to wrap any icon in custom BBCode for that to apply, and either way still not textmesh (or label3d).
Also for my complaint on the node itself, I guess it's the same as a normal label with font scaling, just throws me off with the small default font size looking blurry in the editor (and existing fonts probably make more sense for smaller text, or even 2D text in general)
* shader globals don't seem to work here (unless I'm missing something), though also my palette is ordered (7x5) so a vertical list isn't great anyway. OTOH I did use 3-digit hex codes, so it's not difficult to type in (remembering/interpreting, not so much)
What’s your game about? 👀
No game yet (and maybe never), currently have mainly messed around with models+vertex colors (Blender, not good with that either), not quite happy with the gridmap node.
With my world so far I guess it has sort of a low-poly dream-core aesthetic, but without a pixel filter (nor textures mostly). Tile floors, purple sky and glowing moon, random stuff everywhere, and it's all on a floating island.
You could use the custom tag! You can do some crazy things with it, but a set color for a keyword wouldn’t be too bad: docs.godotengine.org/en/stable…
Interesting game, nothing wrong with some style exploration! Modeling stuff is still a bit magic to me
BBCode in RichTextLabel
Introduction: Label nodes are great for displaying basic text, but they have limitations. If you want to change the color of the text, or its alignment, you can only do that to the entire label. Yo...Godot Engine documentation
Preserving code that shaped generations: Zork I, II, and III go Open Source
When Zork arrived, it didn’t just ask players to win; it asked them to imagine. There were no graphics, no joystick, and no soundtrack, only words on a screen and the player’s curiosity. Yet those words built worlds more vivid than most games of their time. What made that possible wasn’t just clever writing, it was clever engineering.Beneath that world of words was something quietly revolutionary: the Z-Machine, a custom-built engine. Z-Machine is a specification of a virtual machine, and now there are many Z-Machine interpreters that we used today that are software implementations of that VM. …
Preserving code that shaped generations: Zork I, II, and III go Open Source
Microsoft’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO), Team Xbox, and Activision are making Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III available under the MIT License.opensource.microsoft.com
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Electric_Druid
Als Antwort auf Nick • • •I can't tell you what's worked because I'm still in the process, but here's what I'm doing or plan to do soon:
-Demo released on steam and itch
-youtube channel with soundtrack uploads and video essays
-eye catching, engaging trailer
-promotion on personal YouTube channel
-Outreach to content creators (specifically, ones that seem like a good fit for you kind of game)
-Steam next fest/ other online game expo events
-Word of mouth/flyer adverts if you live in or near a decently sized city
If there was a silver bullet marketing strat, everyone would be doing it. I'm hoping that consistent, boots on the ground effort, diversification of marketing, and persistence will pay off.
jaaake
Als Antwort auf Nick • • •gdcvault.com/play/1034535/Inde…
This is a joint talk with Dana Trebella and Derek Lieu about this exact subject from their professional perspectives (indie marketing and trailer editor, respectively). They both have multiple talks over the years where they explain different aspects of their day to day work. Taken as a whole, it's a solid crash course on DIY marketing.
Another talk more focused on finding your messaging:
gdcvault.com/play/1025673/More…
If written articles are more your jam:
gamedeveloper.com/marketing/ho…
How to market a game: an introduction to game marketing
Game Developer