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I’m an Environment Artist, and for the past while I’ve been developing my first solo game, Locked In: The Ward, in Unreal Engine 5 alongside my full-time job.

I’m handling pretty much everything myself — environments, lighting, level design, gameplay systems, cinematics, UI, audio implementation, and the marketing side of the project.

A few days ago I finally reached the point where I felt comfortable revealing the game publicly.

One thing I decided to try was simply cold-pitching the reveal trailer to IGN. I had no PR agency, publisher, or existing contact there.

I kept the email short: a brief introduction, what the game is, the fact that I’m a solo developer from Ukraine and previously worked as an Environment Artist at Crytek Kyiv, plus links to the finished trailer, Steam page, and press kit.

They replied and were interested in featuring it. After everything was confirmed, it took roughly a week for the trailer to go live on their YouTube channel.

I launched the Steam page around the reveal as well, and the game has now passed roughly 200 wishlists. It’s obviously a small number compared with established indie launches, but for a first reveal with essentially no marketing budget, it gave me some useful early data.

A few things I learned from the process:

• Have the trailer, Steam page, screenshots, key art, and press kit ready before pitching.

• Keep the pitch short. The goal isn’t to explain the entire game — it’s to make someone interested enough to look at the materials.

• Being a solo developer can actually be part of the story, but the game still needs to look interesting on its own.

• One media feature doesn’t magically market the game for you. I still had to post on Reddit, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, contact creators and gaming sites, etc.

• Marketing has honestly been one of the strangest parts of solo development for me. My professional background is environment art, so suddenly learning outreach, press kits, Steam presentation, trailers, and community management has been a completely different discipline.

The biggest takeaway for me is probably just to send the pitch. I had no reason to expect IGN to answer mine, but they did.

I’m still very early in figuring all of this out, so I’d also be interested to hear from other solo/indie developers: what gave you the biggest wishlist bump after your first public reveal?

Trailer IGN: https://youtu.be/7Nr9YT6fqlQ
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5277740/Locked_In_The_Ward/

I severely underestimated how many art assets are needed for the Steam page, but my game Postal Bots is finally up!

My cat is pleased with this development

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5314520/Postal_Bots/

Have you ever wondered what it takes to build a meta progression system for a roguelite?

I hadn't, but I just found out the hard way, as I just finished adding one to my game.

Short summary of what it needed:

• Track all relevant statistics in the game (monsters destroyed, survive time per map, total survive time, arrow bounces...)
• Add the functions that increase the tracked stats to everywhere in the codebase
• Design somewhat fitting challenges for each unlock
• Logic to check if the unlock is still in challenge phase, available to buy phase, or owned
• 3 UI's (Unlock Menu, All Time Stats Menu, Game Over View) <- This was tedious
• Unlock cards to support mentioned 3 phases, Same for the buy/claim section
• Check what the player owns at start of round & hero/map selection
• Check what the player unlocked during a round to show them in Game Over View

The nodes Godot provides helped tremendously (MarginContainer, PanelContainer, FlowContainer, GridContainer, H/VBoxContainers for the win).

Last year I was still trying to write UI layout code by hand, imagine I implemented this like that!

Check the game out on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5066610/Villages_on_Wheels

I've been working in Godot for about 8 years now and I think it's finally time I release my first game. If anyone is interested the demo is out on itch. Would appreciate any kind of feedback. Still waiting on Steam to approve everything so I can open a store page and publish the demo there as well.

Just to be clear, I did not get fired because of using AI in my work, I was even encouraged to use it, I got fired because the company decided to allocate more resources into their own AI development which I was not a part of, also no hard feelings there, it's just business, what can you do

Yes, yes…it’s not a big deal…600 wishlists sounds like a joke but to us it was very important to go beyond 500 not to feel we failed.

This is our first game as Dad and Son games, after three years of starting different projects that led to nowhere. Now this game is about to be finished and we can’t be more proud of it.

We invite you to take a look at the visual mayhem that we offer you in the game. And this is just only one of 16 levels!

The free demo of Geometry Rift: Apocalypse is live on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/4701970

#GeometryRiftApocalypse #BulletHeaven #Roguelite #IndieGame #SteamDemo

Join our discord: https://discord.gg/FUPSpyk2KP

Hi hi! I'm the solo dev behind Moonlit Grid, my first game.

Stupidly enough, i dont have much experience but my curiosity took over and here we are!

This is basically, a calm city-building game. You can create cities, customize and share it

There's an endless mode too and you can glide over your city as a bird

I am just mostly looking for feedback / first impressions and would love to hear from you:)

__

I released it on itch a few hours back here- https://hxlfed.itch.io/moonlit-grid

Wanted to spice up my game and add some more crazy platformer combos. There's already Jump, Double Jump, Dash, Super Jump, Spin, Spin Combo, Wall Skip, Wall Climb, Roll (and other moves)... Now I'm just going crazy with it. State Machine helps make this EXTREMELY organized and makes scaling crazy ideas and combos relatively smooth.

Demo is out for Go! Super Awesome Monkey! on Steam! Doesn't include these moves just yet, but once I smooth out some bugs, will push them to the demo build in the near future.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4837550/Go_Super_Awesome_Monkey/

And yes, the parasol is a reference to Charles the Monkey's Parasol from Tomba! combined with Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey.

Thank you to HawkZombie for playing Lab Rats demo, I had so many funny moments watching this stream. Link below if you would like to enjoy it too✨

Video: https://t.co/EGmm5qJsyu

#indiedev #HorrorGame #VisualNovel #LabRats #PsychologicalHorror https://t.co/3GDdEKDrUv

Hey everyone,

I’m a solo developer currently working on a vertical slice for Overflow, a slow-paced atmospheric exploration game about delving into an elaborate and unusual stormwater system beneath a derelict industrial complex. You can view the Steam page here.

I’m looking for a small number of playtesters to play through the current build and complete a short Google Forms questionnaire. I’m particularly interested in feedback on the game’s atmosphere, visual presentation, and pacing, as well as whether the experience leaves you intrigued and wanting to continue.

Requirements

• A Windows PC
• Comfortable providing written feedback in English
• An interest in slower-paced, atmosphere-focused games

The playtest should take approximately 20 minutes, followed by a 10-minute questionnaire. Compensation is $5 USD, paid after the questionnaire is completed via your choice of cash payment or cryptocurrency.

Please note that this is an unfinished development build, so some rough edges are expected.

If you’re interested, please comment below or send me a DM.

Thanks!

Farax vs Defender in WARGUL. Level 4, regular combat values, original game audio. A development test from my Godot arena prototype; behaviour and balance are still being refined.

https://t.co/wiflWRJq2B

#WARGUL #Godot #GameDev

Motion Warping makes melee combat terrifying.

Testing Hard Mode enemy attacks in EvilTrap. By using motion warping, the attack animation now adjusts to catch the player. You either run, hide, or take the hit.

#gamedev #gameplay #indiedev https://t.co/hqLgmdSToH

Hey, I'm the solo dev of Whispers of the Forest a cozy idle defense game. This is my first gameplay trailer.

You farm souls, draw cards, and stack up to six legendary affixes to build around the effects you enjoy. Collect and upgrade equipment, spells, and pets, then combine them to suit your playstyle. Upgrades, prestige, and other longterm progression systems help you push further into the waves. I'm continuing to add content and improve the game on a regular basis.

Available on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Draw5.WhispersoftheForest

Enjoy!

v0.14 is live: same Retro PC Workshop demo, much better workshop simulation underneath. Better hardware removal/installing, case interaction, POST logic and finally a working MHz display.

https://t.co/JueImaJZJw

#DemoMonday #IndieDev #RetroComputing #PCGaming https://t.co/xUK9XHbId5

LOOK AT MY GAME!

please :) https://t.co/XgvJIlvN9C

Not much of a Demo Monday for this one, no demo and no page yet. Here it is anyway: I typed a sentence about the game and the coop under the window counted every key, 2,142 up to 2,337, hatching as it went.

Type 'n Hatch, in progress.

#indiedev #gamedev #cozygames https://t.co/9GbOaXJS0G

Finally! Introducing the prologue of Any World - The World Of Dreams! This location is styled in Wacky Pomo - you might recognize the aesthetic from The Amazing Digital Circus!

Explore it yourself in the Any World demo! #indiegame #wishlist #gamedev #platformer #devlog #3Dart https://t.co/sRZolsKRUc

New major update for my game! Here’s the list of additions! I listened to the players! 🌟

See the additions here:

https://t.co/5P7gANCaWS

#IndieGame #IndieDev #Steam #GameDev #IndieGames #Gaming https://t.co/c40yLHyCAW

After 41 minuts on ultra code it now have a game demo for me,

Gonna upload video of result a bit later.

#Opus5 #Claude #Gamedev https://t.co/zxPNfUmK5Q

Day 22 of posting everyday until my game is released!

Air Elemental against the slimes 🪽⚔️🟢

#indiegame #roguelite #indiedev #pixelart #deckbuildingroguelite #gamedev https://t.co/ifv2NMzliP

No one can convince me that making trailers isn’t harder than making the actual game.

Anyway, here’s something I put together to announce that the JUST PRESS SPACE demo is dropping October 8th!

Wishlist JUST PRESS SPACE on Steam

#IndieDev #IndieGame #GameDev #SteamNextFest https://t.co/o3E1s0LaYw

Would anyone be interested in a chill no-FOMO no-grind gardening game for PC?

It's called Bloom Above: Wanderisles and it's up for wishlists on Steam

Demo coming reaaaal soon btw 😶‍🌫️

#indiedev #indiegaming #gamedev https://t.co/Y0NolRB3cS

LOOK AT MY GAME! ⚔️⛩️

please :) https://t.co/5IQo4F1Ho3

So i made a post a while back revealing the alpha build of my game, you could basically hear the crickets, and I know the AI gen placeholder graphics makes people just skip over things so no one really gave it a chance, but im really trying to make my game not some AI generated slop. Its definitely still not final, but I have just got all my systems I had working with the 2d prototype in 3d with some extra flare thrown in. Still got a ton of work to do on the game, I am getting some friends that work in the 3d animation industry to help me out with modeling and animations soon, so hopefully it will really start coming together 🙏

Let me know what you think of the new paint! (Its my first game, be gentle)

I've had flames as particles in my game for a while, but they didn't really do anything. So, I decided to properly incorporate them. They now increase temperature, let surface water evaporate and spread to neighboring terrain hexes under the correct circumstances, creating natural fire frontiers as they spread. they also burn the terrain and foliage, which slowly recovers over time, back to its former glory.

Made in Godot 4. A short incremental about crushing junk into scrap cubes with a hydraulic press. Free demo available.

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5187330/Compression_Quota

Hey everybody!

I wanted to share some new screenshots from the next area I'm building for my horror game, The Seventh Seal.

This part goes deeper into Violet's personal version of Hell and what she thinks happens to the dead once they get there. I'm trying to make things get weirder and less grounded the further you go.

For this area I've been playing around with a lot more industrial stuff, blood, machinery and just strange imagery. Basically trying to make it feel like you're getting further away from reality and into something much worse.

I'm still building out the full game, so I'd love to hear what you guys think of how this area is looking so far.

There is a demo out right now too. You can find it on Steam or itch.io by searching The Seventh Seal.

Also, if you're a horror streamer looking for something to play this October, give it a shot! I love watching people play through the demo and seeing what scares them, what they notice and what completely doesn't work the way I thought it would lol.

Thanks for checking it out!

Hi everyone!

I'm a longtime gamer who recently started exploring game development, and I'm having a lot of fun with it.

I've always been a big fan of puzzle games such as The Witness, but also of fast-paced minimalist games like N++. Inspired by those experiences, I decided to create a small minimalist puzzle game of my own.

I'd love to share a short gameplay clip with fellow enthusiasts and get some feedback on it.

Please feel free to be honest. I think it's incredibly difficult to evaluate your own project objectively, so any thoughts, suggestions, or criticism are more than welcome.

Thanks for taking the time to check it out, and happy gaming!

@StuartYeah Hi, my game will be in this Next Fest

It is similar to Faster Than Light

It is called Survive The Apocalypse https://t.co/WAcWV3RlXT

Go play my game! Delete the World on Steam! https://t.co/8RIU73oYVs