r/hobbygamedev May 20 '26

Article I just ported my game to android, then I learned Google is planning this...

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78 Upvotes

Thankfully my game still has good mobile controls when played in web, but this seems kinda baaad

I asked android developer friend, and he said it's not as dire as it seems, but of course google holds control of everything if this change happens, and it could become worse

This website does a good job of explaining the situation, and what you can do to help change it


r/hobbygamedev Aug 12 '25

Discussion Trying to finish a game besides a full-time job feels impossible

5 Upvotes

I had the wonderful privilege of mentoring a team budding first-time game devs of people who decided to make a game together.

Making a game besides a full-time job, even for a group of people, is a huge challenge. And the first thing I'll say is that you really need to extend your deadlines or realize that you will one way or another.

I think the biggest challenge is keeping a team together despite all of life's ups and downs during that journey of game development because any meaningful game that you want to actually release to the world is going to take longer than you imagine and life has its changes.

If the team can't get along, you know, they shouldn't be making games together. But if they can, it's not really the challenge of getting along, it's the challenge of making a game while having a life to deal with in the background. Job changes, overtime, overwork, burnout, relationships, all of it.

Besides this, during the development they had to watch the whole industry collapse and their potential job prospects disappear from before them. Regardless, they pulled through and they actually finished the game after more than a year.

All together, I'm ridiculously proud of the team for sticking it out and making it through and finishing the game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3597770/Kittenship_Care/

If you're going through a tough time right now and would like a cozy game to enjoy, since I know them I can ask them for some keys. Just throw in a comment asking for a key and I'll see what I can do.

If you'd like to support them on their journey, buying a copy and leaving an honest review could make them a huge difference.

I'm wishing you guys all luck on your journey. Feel free to ask any questions!


r/hobbygamedev 3h ago

Help Needed Which capsule opening mechanism looks better 1 or 2?

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3 Upvotes

We’re working on the capsule design for our co-op sci-fi horror game and can’t decide which opening/closing style feels better.

Which one would you choose: 1 or 2?

We’re mainly considering how readable and satisfying it will feel during the opening/closing animation.

Any feedback is appreciated!

If you’d like to support our small indie team, you can also wishlist The Infected Soul on Steam. It genuinely helps us a lot.


r/hobbygamedev 8h ago

Seeking Mentorship When you have a game idea… where do you start?

4 Upvotes

I’m incredibly new to game design, but I am quickly falling in love with it and I’m so excited by the idea of one day making a full game.

I’m currently working on making small games to learn the engine. I’m starting with unreal engine. But as I start to get excited about this new game ideas, I’m wondering where do you start when you have an idea for one? Like if you have the idea for a character in your head and some of the abilities that character will have… Do you try to build out a story that makes sense for that character to exist in first? Do you build a character with movement and abilities you like and build a world around that? Do you start with the game type and work backwards?

My mind is jumping around and I’m coming up with a lot of ideas, but they are just tiny pieces of what could be a full game and I’m wondering if there is any advice on how to start building from the ground up in a reliable way 😅


r/hobbygamedev 1h ago

Article Reaction – When Geometry Falls From the Sky

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Upvotes

Hey there, people! Years ago I made a game called Reaction and I've been annoying people to go try it out since. Now I've made a version which you can play online. 

What is exactly? Well, it's a physics-puzzler where geometry falls from the sky and you guide it with your paddle towards the evacuation shafts on each side before the play area inevitably spills and it's game over. There's single player and local multiplayer, so maybe give it a go! 🕹🎮

🌱 https://linktr.ee/mechanicalink


r/hobbygamedev 6h ago

Insperation Hello. Want to play some new game prototypes? 🎮 We’re currently working on 4 early game prototypes and we’re looking for players who would like to try them out and give us honest feedback.

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1 Upvotes

These are early builds, so a feedback can actually help us decide what works, what doesn’t, and which ideas are worth developing further!

🃏 Prison Card Game - A prison-themed card game inspired by games such as Slay the Spire and Vampire Survivors.

⛏️ Prison Escape - An incremental prison escape game where your goal is simple: Get out of prison!

🌱 Farm Game - A chill incremental farming game focused on growing and developing your own farm.

🚑 Hospital Emergency Room - A 3D hospital management simulator with a humorous twist.

Want to try them out? Sign up here:

https://forms.gle/3kSDoBvAdCaEJ9sD9

Thanks! ❤️


r/hobbygamedev 13h ago

Help Needed I made a prototype and would love to see if people think it might be worth a full game

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1 Upvotes

In short it’s a hands off colony management ant sim. You don’t have direct control of ants but you can control how much ants are interested in things like food, work, and growing the colony. The ants don’t know there is work to do until they get close it. They use pheromones to communicate to other workers that there is something to do. There is currently

  1. Digging
  2. Foraging/ food storage
  3. The queen lays eggs and worker help hatch them
  4. A pheromone system that coordinates work effort
  5. Dirt storage and removal

The basic loop is there get food, feed queen, make more workers, dig, grow. I’m interested if anyone would find this fun. The balance needs some work and it’s a little tricky to get a long run but I’ve done about 15 minutes before collapse.

I made this in Processing and am considering bringing it into Godot and do a more 2.5d style.


r/hobbygamedev 1d ago

Seeking Mentorship Redditers Update Suggestions Added!

1 Upvotes

Changed the icon set for towers. Icons were grainy, and could not be properly harvested from an image file with multiple badges in it. Created all new Icons. We also changed the layout of the turrets listed by price from cheapest to highest costs.

A difficulty in upgrading existing towers was addressed. Basically the reources required for the 1st upgrade of even the cheapest tower required more harvesting of monsters that the levels would allow, meaning the 1st mini boss encounter was extremely difficult to beat.

The Mega Boss can spawn early if you drive the invaders morale down fast with perfect waves. Under the old resource table, you would encounter the Mega Boss so fast, that most players couldn't kill him before he reached the end of the map, resulting in losing lives, and re-boosting the morale up, but not enough to be above Zero. This prevents him from respawning until the end of the game at the level chosen.

HUGE improvement in tower placement: The acceptable placement color was too close to the unplaceable color, resulting in frustrating players. Changed the "good" placement circle to GREEN meaning it's a good spot without anything blocking it, and the circle is RED if it's too close to the path or, collides with another tower.

I wanted to credit the following redditers for the fix suggestions: KUDOS to Aglet_Green, and https://jakobvirgil.itch.io/ Jakobvirgil !


r/hobbygamedev 1d ago

Help Needed New game (Zolva)

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0 Upvotes

Hello i'm new to game development and this is my first android game kindly try it and give me your feedback thank you in advance play store link


r/hobbygamedev 1d ago

Help Needed I’m Making a Falling-Block Word Game — I’d Love Your Opinion

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1 Upvotes

**Word Fall** is a falling-block word game I'm developing, combining falling-block mechanics with word formation.

Letter tiles fall into the playfield, and you arrange them to form words while managing the space and planning your next moves.

One of the ideas I'm experimenting with is **Resonance Themes** — themes designed to give different gameplay experiences their own atmosphere and identity rather than simply being visual skins.

🎮 **Gameplay video:** \[paste your YouTube/Streamable video link here\]

I'd especially love feedback from people who already enjoy word games:

* Does the core concept look interesting?
* Does the gameplay look understandable?
* Would this make you want to play another round?
* What would make it more appealing to you?

I'm developing this as a solo indie project and I'm mainly interested in **player perspectives.**


r/hobbygamedev 2d ago

Seeking Mentorship I'm working on multi-platform web indie game. right now it's not even in alpha. It's 2d, multiplayer, somewhat RPG game.

4 Upvotes

I'm working on multi-platform web indie game. right now it's not even in alpha. It's 2d, multiplayer, somewhat RPG game (I'm not certain about it). Its centered about progression, technological advancement etc. and certainly it'll have some resemblance to factorio. I'll share some pics of how's right now. Anyhow i still have a lot to do for alpha 1.0 (aka first public release).

You can view a short 2 minute video of gameplay: https://streamable.com/xtskbk

Right now I'm just fixing bugs, fixing rendering issues. After that i would have to think the game progression itself, I'm think the character has to go mining and obtain resources from the ground, and use those resources to fabricate the early machines.

I will implement a basic stamina and health system, and also I'll add animal, etc., I want it to be realistic in the sense you're not immortal and have to eat, exhaust when building.

The game might have a chat in a future, but if i do so I'll have the added problem of moderation. I'll add chat at some point.

I have lots of hopes for this game even though I'm not that good of a game dev (im a web dev c:).

Apart from that, the game is open source just because I consider it a hobbie and want to play the game for myself too.

My only characters right now are testing characters, basicrobot and basicrobot2 and they look horrible, even worse, to draw a character I have to edit like 16 images (16x16 pixels).

PD: I'm doing all this by myself, if someone is interested in contributing, feel free to do so it open source. It's a pre-release so expect everything will change. The readme is still work in progress, and forever be :( behind-the-scenes logic is hard https://github.com/vnebx/technogenesis by now I'm still working on the core game itself, by that I mean I have to make it work nice and smooth on all platforms before adding actual content updates.


r/hobbygamedev 2d ago

Seeking Mentorship Had some great advice on game mechanics but...

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

My name is Clint, and I am developing a tower defense game. I had 1 person try it out, and he gave me some awesome feedback on a lot of the game mechanics. I implemented those changes, but haven't seen enough play on it yet. ( except me ) I would really like someone to help me grow stronger with my skills, and maybe even find a way to get much better graphics in to it. It's my 1st game so far, and for someone who had never done anything like this, the excitement I get has come from the build, and seeing it progress from amateurish.

I got a rude awakening when CrazyGames auto-rejected it, and their rejection letter didn't specify anything at all, as to what it would need, in order to pass the guielines. Anything I learn here will be greatly appreciated, and I won't have any problem sharing what I learned. I will post the link to the game, but it is on itch.io as a free game to play. Honest, friendly feedback is what I need. Constructive Criticism is warranted.

BV


r/hobbygamedev 2d ago

Insperation "Check It Out": A 2D deduction game about working as a cashier

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1 Upvotes

https://euhedral.itch.io/check-it-out

Take on the role of a cashier at the local S-mart, help regular customers while thwarting potential shoplifters and use all your means of gathering clues to stop the store from losing too much money and firing you! - You REALLY needed this job.

Keep an eye out for anyone acting suspiciously, hiding stuff in their pockets or cart, while still providing top-notch service to your regular customers and keeping the store stock in order to make those juicy paycheques (paychecks) at the end of the day!

Created in a week for Brackeys Game Jam 2026.2.

I was primarily the game designer and developer, although I want to say that everyone took on the design role and contributed to the game.


r/hobbygamedev 2d ago

Article Almightoronia

0 Upvotes

Try my new game guys. Give me ideas to improve it further also. https://almightoronia-b41d5.web.app/


r/hobbygamedev 3d ago

Seeking Mentorship My chess variant: every 3rd turn you can move a square of the board instead of a piece.

2 Upvotes

Game Title: Hollow Chess
Playable Link: https://hollowchess.com
Platform: Browser
Description: This is my game, Hollow Chess. It's normal chess with one twist: every 3rd turn, instead of moving a piece, you can pick up an empty square of the board and move it somewhere else. Squares leave holes behind and holes block rooks, bishops and queens. Knights can still jump them. You win by checkmate, same as always, but now the board you're fighting on keeps changing shape.There's a 60-second tutorial, bots to play against, and you can play a friend live by sending them one link.
Free to Play Status: FREEEE
Involvement: I've been working on it solo (with claude ofc) for a couple of months. Any feedback at all would be hugely appreciated whether it's about the game itself (do the rules feel fun? is it balanced? too chaotic?) or about the website (this is still a work in progress).


r/hobbygamedev 4d ago

Article 6 Months in - I just got Online Mode working (Mostly Solo)

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7 Upvotes

Hey All, long time lurker first time poster.

I've been working on this project since about 2024 that was the first time I started sketching on the idea and had a general idea of what kind of game it would be. The initial idea was a boss rush, hand drawn isometric 2.5D game with MMO combat. I didn't end up making anything with that exact definition. It was very boring to me.

So instead I pivoted to making it more of a "simulated P2P MMO", (fully 3D this time, hand drawing animations took forever for a single character, I have some basic animation skills but I'm not crazy) where you can scale an "infinite***" dungeon and fight bosses along the way, pick up temporary power ups, level up, etc etc. But as for actual development, somewhere around November last year I had a small group who decided to start working on it with me. Unfortunately about 4 months ago they decided to drop out of the project. So I started over from scratch in unity (we were using godot before, I was only focusing on blender skills up to that point)

I don't want to turn this into a huge wall of text post. So for the gameplay loop, it's basically my favorite game mode in FFXIV. (palace of the dead) With more of a continuous meta progression. (rogue-lite) And there will be a boss rush mode (rogue-like) once the rest of the game is in a better, more complete state.

Tech/Tool Stack

Unity (URP, Burst, DOTS (etc), Dx12)
Purrnet (P2P)
SpacetimeDB (Online mode - C# )
Blender (3d modelling, basic textures)
3dCoat (hand painted textures)
Unity Assets (tools, some textures, environment models, most of the character animations, SFX, VFX bases)
Booth .pm (tracks)

Performance

On steam deck currently (performance target platform) I'm getting around 150 - 215 FPS
my main ddr4 dev PC - 265-300 ish on DX11 (5080, i9)
and my buddies almost identical ddr5 pc - 500-600+
I put a lot of work and time into making sure that ECS was configured properly and that I'm not getting any major performance losses due to random issues with the ui trying to re-draw every single frame or THE FONT BEING WRONG (steam OS)

This obviously will change as post-processing, more detailed models/effects etc are introduced. But I'd prefer to keep things as performant as possible.

Rant on Optimization in SpacetimeDB

For now, online mode has all of the functions of the P2P and singleplayer modes, has light auth/verification of items, and (almost) has parity with playing P2P. There are still some outstanding issues with the online mode, mostly optimization of SpacetimeDB reducer calls, and some issues with errors happening on the mob and boss calls that just don't really need to be logged anymore IMO, we don't need to be sending the end user that there is an error with something they didn't even try to initiate, it just takes up unnecessary calls.

Game Design Inspirations ETC...

As for the game itself, the steam page is not up yet, so you wont be able to find it unfortunately, I do have the steam pipeline setup, and have issued test keys to about 25 people, but its still very early in development.

I could probably explain the design and systems in depth for about 10 hours, but in the interest of getting back to work. Here are the main design inspirations for the current features of the game

POE (armor, affixes, crafting gear)
Monster Hunter (style, gathering, crafting)
Atelier (crafting tiers (individual items), alchemist class)
FFXIV (combat, UI, controller usage)
FFXI (modelling style)
.hack// Fragment (Server structure)

If you are interested in talking about it I'll be around off and on the next few days to respond to comments. I have been a Software Engineer for about 10 years now, and this has been the most fun I've had with a project in my life. Though I have not slept much for the last 4 months while working on the "backend" of this project mostly solo.

Edit : I say 6 months in the title because for the 2 months preceding the last 4 months I was working on blender every day, before that since november I was mainly more casual with my time only spending about 1-3 hours on blender or in CSP designing per day.

Edit 2: Some grammar issues.

Edit 3: Text formatting, more grammar.


r/hobbygamedev 3d ago

Article Decompiling a Nintendo 64 Game in 84 Days

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1 Upvotes

r/hobbygamedev 4d ago

Article The Pirate King's Crew (One Piece solo online board game)

0 Upvotes

Link here: https://piratekingscrew.com/

Hi guys!

Few months ago I tried making my own OP solo Board game as you can see below but I failed at making the "enemy" worthy to play against.

early stage of https://piratekingscrew.com/

Few weeks ago I realized I could answer this pain point by making it a video game so I could code enemy's behavior!

So here is the link: https://piratekingscrew.com/

For game enjoyers (and SEO), it's a free fan made singleplayer turn-based roguelite tactical card game where you draft to build your One Piece characters squad to fight PvE in stance-based combat chaining combos with low randomness to climb pirate ranks on your browser ✌️😁

teaser of https://piratekingscrew.com/

If you have any question about the dev, I am all ears. The main challenge to me was the tutorial as I never know how much I should guide the player or how much I should show instead of letting the player discover on its own. It's an easy game at first (four stances only) but it gets more complex with effects and especially draft choices. I hope this version is good enough.

Thanks for reading, feel free to test and give feedback and please don't forget that the link is https://piratekingscrew.com/ 🫶


r/hobbygamedev 4d ago

Article Let's make a game! 491: Keeping track of the stages of a turn (Twine Sugarcube)

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1 Upvotes

r/hobbygamedev 4d ago

Article Not a game - but a board game app!

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0 Upvotes

Hey all,

I know this isnt a game, but im after some genuine feedback on my first ever app i made.

So at an older age i am reliving my youth and getting back into DnD, Warhammer and general board game playing.

 

however, i thought i would bring the skills i have learned since being a teenage to the hobby and i have made an Ipad app!

 

Simply, my app is called TrueRoll, and its a Dice rolling app using real physics! You can roll up to 20 dice of all types, from d4 to d20. (oh and its TOTALLY FREE!).

 

I built it for two people sharing one iPad flat on a table — controls mirrored so each player reads their own side right-side-up, roll from d4 to d20, adjustable gravity/bounciness/dice colour per player if you want to fine-tune the feel.

Any and all feedback greatly appreciated!

 

You can download it here:

 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/trueroll/id6801894386


r/hobbygamedev 5d ago

Help Needed Just released my 2nd game: Try to Survive — looking for your feedback

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5 Upvotes

Hey all, just released my 2nd game, Try to Survive. It is a fast arcade dodger where hazards speed up the longer you stay alive.

My biggest challenge was keeping game challenging and fun at same time. What do you feel about it?

Demo: https://dmi3ich.itch.io/try-to-survive

Trailer: https://youtu.be/OW1n8nLnVEw


r/hobbygamedev 5d ago

Article Looking for a Custom VRChat Avatar or World? I Can Build It

1 Upvotes

Hey everyone! 👋

I’ve been spending a lot of time working on 3D modeling for VRChat, specifically focusing on avatar creation and environment design. Lately, I've been tackling the technical hurdles of keeping performance green while maintaining visual detail.

The Main Challenge My biggest obstacle on a recent world build was handling dynamic lighting and batching without killing frame rates. When multiple custom avatars with heavy material setups enter a room, performance drops fast due to draw call spikes.

What I Learned & Worked On

  • Texture Atlasing & Merging: I combined multiple sub-meshes into unified textures to drastically cut down draw calls across scene props.
  • Custom Shader Tweaks: Replaced complex standard shaders with lightweight toon/lit variants optimized for VR performance ranks (Very Poor → Medium).
  • Occlusion Culling & Baked Lightmaps: Tuned light probes so environmental objects blend seamlessly without requiring extra real-time lights.

It’s been a tough learning curve, but optimizing scenes so everyone stays at smooth frame rates makes the process really rewarding.

I love chatting about 3D pipelines, so if you have tips on Unity lighting or want to discuss avatar optimization, let me know! I also take on custom commissions on the side—feel free to send a DM if you'd like to collaborate on an avatar or environment


r/hobbygamedev 5d ago

Help Needed I’m a solo developer and I just released Flags Ink, a casual geography game for Android.

0 Upvotes

Hey guys, solo dev here.

I just released my first Android game, **Flags Ink**. It’s a simple casual game where you color country flags using their exact palettes and guess the countries.

I made it mostly because I wanted something quick to play on the bus without bloated menus or annoying popups.

It's completely free on Google:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.inktalelearning.flagsink
Since it's brand new, I'd really appreciate any quick feedback on the gameplay or bugs if you spot any. Thanks!


r/hobbygamedev 5d ago

Help Needed Drop your motivational quotes for beginner game devs

9 Upvotes

Title 👆


r/hobbygamedev 5d ago

Seeking Team Small-team horror game + a live ARG — update ahh

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone! this is a short and quick update with my project OKAY ahh right now the concept art has become our single biggest bottleneck right now. Our concept artist is still on the team but they've just had to step back briefly for some personal stuff and the whole 3D/texture pipeline is waiting on well the visual direction. So right now I'm specifically looking to bring on a 2nd concept artist to keep things moving. So if anyone is up for a Hobby / unpaid, fully credited, chill active team with a following already watching along. send a Portfolio/WIPs OH yea lol Plz comment or DM too!