I am making a game similar to something like HOI4 with the differentiating factor being that it is situated during the Cold War, with power dynamics of both the Americans and Soviets vying for dominance while the non-aligned movement tries to balance on the fence between the two superpowers.

Unlike HOI4, there will be turn-based battles (kind of like in Pokémon, but without the catching part) rather than manoeuvring troops around a front. This means that my game will be decently different from all the Cold War hoi4 mods, have okayish controller support, and will also be much easier to program.

Currently, I'm planning to add three different navigable tabs: a political tab (where you can complete focuses relating to your politics, get advisors, see all your subjects, etc.), an industry tab (production/factories, trade, economic advisors, etc.), and a military tab (researching weapons, head of the army, etc.). There will also be a clock (similar to something like HOI4).

I'm thinking the political tab should mainly just be the focuses (see focus trees in HOI4) and advisors that give you modifiers like stability buffs and ideology support.

My questions are, what should I add to this game? What modifiers/stats should I add (something akin to stability, war support, etc.)? How should focuses work? What colour should all the territories be? What about the releasables (see African colonies, post-Soviet states, etc.)? How should modifiers like stability and war support and things like how much equipment you have in stock affect the turn-based battles?

Note that this game isn't meant to be realistic whatsoever, and I've already planned out a few focus paths (many of which are very out there...) for some of the major countries (subject to change, of course):
- West and East Germany: Race to unify the country under their leadership
- unified Germany (western bloc): democracy vs Kaiser vs cars over politics (German car company coup)
- unified Germany (eastern bloc): align with the Soviets vs independent foreign policy vs NEW POLAND (due to proximity with old Poland. As you can see, not being very realistic. Like at all.)
- UK: Holding on to the empire vs independence
- United States: Democracy vs military dictatorship vs capitalism over politics (a company takes over the government in a coup)
- Soviet Union: Towards de-Stalinization vs supporting Stalin's ideas, possible anarchist path?
- Yugoslavia: formation of the non-aligned movement, communism vs democracy vs monarchism vs sports over politics (coup by sports team or something? Not sure)

What other paths should I add? What should I change about these paths? What kind of modifiers/boost/war goals/etc should the focuses give you?

It has:

chaos ✅

doodles ✅

monsters ✅

a random chicken in the corner ✅

Now the real question is… does it look like something you’d actually click on, or like a cave drawing made during a coffee overdose? 😂

Would love some feedback from you folks – roast it, praise it, or just tell me if the chicken deserves more spotlight. 🐔

👉 Game link (if you’re curious): danielgamedev14.itch.io/a-surv…

Hey everyone! I’m Daniel (14yo indie dev) and I’ve been working on my chaotic card-survival game A Survival Game.

I just released a big update and I’d love to see how people actually play it. If you enjoy trying out indie games, it would mean the world to me if you could:

Record a short video / gameplay session.

Share your first impressions, reactions, or even funny fails.

It doesn’t need to be professional – even a quick screen capture helps me understand how players interact with the chaos I built.

You can play it here: danielgamedev14.itch.io/a-surv…

Thanks a lot! Every video helps me improve the game and spread it to more players 🙏

A Survival Game by Daniel_Game_Dev

Manage your stickmen, fight monsters, run out of food, repeat. Welcome to survival... the dumb way.

^itch.io

Over the years, our server has been racking up costs, and the now-unsupported software it was running on finally gave out.

All online services have now been migrated into permanent offline features. We made sure nothing was lost.

• The Level Editor now saves levels directly to your disk […]
• All community-created levels […]
• All-time high scores have been immortalized […]
• New high scores are saved locally […]

The game Dual Snake on Steam is free and was released in 2018.

Dual Snake - The End of an Era! - Steam News

Dual Snake Today, with heavy hearts but immense gratitude, we announce the end of service for Dual Snake's online features. It has been 7 years and 7 months since our beloved two-headed snake was released on January 31st, 2018.

^{store.steampowered.com}

Hey folks,
I just pushed a new update for my little chaotic project A Survival Game (a survival card game with clueless stickmen). This time I focused on pacing and new systems:

Shorter Map → players were walking too long before hitting events. Now chaos kicks in faster.

Expedition Boat 🚤 → new system to send stickmen away for loot (high risk, sometimes no return).

Radio 📡 → call for resources (or just static). Simple mechanic but adds a nice “desperate communication” flavor.

+4 Stickmen → bringing the total of new recruits to 8 since last updates.

Shop Upgrade 🛒 → cards finally have descriptions, because apparently stickmen can read.

Visual polish ✨ → more effects, outlined texts, flashy cards.

Better Save System 💾 → now more reliable across HTML5, mobile, and desktop builds.

On top of that, I experimented with monetization:

PRO Mode DLC ($2.50) → lets players customize runs (extra cash, days, stick levels). Basically legal cheating.

Mercy DLC ($1) → adds 4 cards including one that lets you roll back to your last save after a bad decision.

Dev thoughts

The biggest design call was shortening the map. Initially I wanted long runs for tension, but players got stuck in “walking simulator” mode. Compressing it made the game more chaotic and fun — curious to see if players miss the old pacing.

Also, adding the radio was fun because it’s a very simple UI change, but thematically it feels huge (players love pressing buttons that might do something).

Questions for you

Have you ever shortened a game/map for pacing reasons? Did it improve retention or just upset players?

Any tips on balancing optional DLC in a small indie project without making the base game feel lacking?

👉 If you want to check out the game: A Survival Game on Itch.io

A Survival Game by Daniel_Game_Dev

Manage your stickmen, fight monsters, run out of food, repeat. Welcome to survival... the dumb way.

^itch.io

cross-posted from: lemmy.world/post/35297209

I'm looking for an engine/framework to make a 2d "RPG" (no leveling, etc, akin to Link to the Past).

I actually went to University for games programming, so I understand how games work, how to code them, etc etc. I work as a Test Automation programmer for websites, and I am doing some development on JS as well on a music toy. I am experienced with C#, C++, Java and JS.

The problem I've had in the past is that the frameworks promise the world, but everything I want to start working on is hidden beneath folders and folders of stuff, and the entry point to customize the correct parts seems obscured. Or, working on OpenGL etc are too basic with basically nothing out of the box.

I just want something that will say : here's your main, here's your player character, we've taken care of the collision detection and inputs and rendering, there's no gravity. Paint the tiles on this screen, and get going.

Like the level of expertise, customisation and entry point needs to be clear (or at least there is a guide to get started that I don't have to spend hours and hours on) and the business side is cut and dry and won't cost me to start deveoping. (flat X% after $Y in sales)

I don't mind having to learn a new scripting language as long as it's not drastically different to the object oriented languages I know already. (ie : nothing in Lisp)

After my previous post on this community, i read all comments and found lots of useful materials on gamedev.

For the firts couple of weeks i was completely involved into gamedev, learning, reading documetation, making project for hours every day. Next week i started to get bored with it. I was still making progress, but i just wasnt involved in it enough. Next week i got completely bored with it, and just left it. I tried to get back on track a couple weeks later, but wasnt successful.

I just cant find myself doing some work, like learning something new, for longer than two weeks. When i was younger, i tried to self learn programming, but couldnt to continue to learn for long. Now i know how to program, not because i personally was interested in it, but because i was taught it. Even if i will somehow learn to develop games, i dont think i will be able to work on same project for months or even years, which is always required to make good games.

Earlier i mentioned that i was bored, which is not what it seems it is. Making games is fun, and i want to do it. I just have a weird feeling, which i cant really explain what it feels like, and it prevents me from just opening the editor and continuing to work on a project i was doing last day, for unkown to me reason. Every time i boot my pc, i just look at that icon on the taskbar for a solid two minutes, until i decide to do nothing. Same thing at the next day, and a day after that, and then i just forgot i was actully doing that. I dont know why, but two weeks seems like the maximum i can spend on any big project, even if i am interested in it, and i know i have enough skill and time to complete it in reasonable amount of time.

So, what can you recommend me to do, to get me involved into game development, to get interested in it enough to actully commit enough of my time to make great projects?