Indie Devs Struggle with Performance & Ideas
12 posts across 3 communities in the last 30 days; 67% from r/IndieDev.
“I've been working on Goblin Problem , a tower defense + roguelike game where you're thrown into massive goblin waves and have to keep your castle standing. The tricky part is balancing your defenses while the battlefield gets more and more chaotic.”
“I’ll keep it short, i’m running into a bit of a brick wall and haven’t been able to find any one running into the exact same issue as me. My game does…a lot, as it’s a passion project I’ve been noodling with for about seven years now, and I’m building just for myself. It can be…”
“Played 3 or 4 levels on iPhone. Honest notes, since that is what you asked for. The core loop does click eventually. The color ordering is confusing for the first minute, but once it lands it feels good and I wanted to keep going. So the problem is not the idea, it is that the…”
Independent game developers are grappling with technical challenges like performance optimization (object pools, vector shapes) and concerns about idea theft when sharing early prototypes. There's a mix of excitement for new projects and anxiety around potential competition.
SOURCES (60)
“The game is in works since 2020. It's narrative sci-fi, puzzle predominant, platforming secondary. Main distinctive point should be my own software ray-traced engine, but honestly, not many players know what does it mean. Anyway, I hope that visual boost can spark some interest. Steam…”
“I was able to massively increase the performance of my foam generation recently, and wanted to show this little erosion effect I've added to it after. The scene runs quite well on mobile too, my friend tested on their Android device and got 120fps. If anyone is interested to test, you can find the link on my latest YouTube community post, would love if you could report back with the fps and device used :) Cheers! submitted by /u/emiljecreates [link] [comments]”
“I'm back again with a new dev log for Toast Engine and my game The Next Frontier. A bit shorter one this time where I focus on just one subject and what I have accomplished this past months. I have rebuilt my UI Renderer and added a lot of new features to improve the pipeline and working with my UI System Feel free to reach out to me with questions or take a look at my Github repo: https://github.com/Toastmastern87/Toast Next up is going to be some Renderer optimization and Audio Engine! ”
“Hello ! Tell me what you think about the updated art in Adversator. Before, it had a much more old-school look, with lower-resolution textures, simpler models and basic shaders. I decided to switch to a more modern look by improving everything I could without making it too heavy, as I still aim to support low-spec computers. Tell me what you think, and maybe what I should improve next too! You can play the game here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4072270/Adversator/ Thanks! Paradoks s”
“Hello, Tell me what you think about the updated art in my game, Adversator. Before, it had a much more old-school look, with lower-resolution textures, simpler models and basic shaders. I decided to switch to a more modern look by improving everything I could without making it too heavy, as I still aim to support low-spec computers (like mine BTW). The update only costs around 5-10% more processing time, mostly because of the improved textures and shaders. They now handle lighting, outlines, alp”
“I've been working on Goblin Problem , a tower defense + roguelike game where you're thrown into massive goblin waves and have to keep your castle standing. The tricky part is balancing your defenses while the battlefield gets more and more chaotic. submitted by /u/Zzpasta [link] [comments]”
“Hi, I made a video about a year ago about the NavMesh system I made for my game. People seemed to like it, so here’s an updated version. I’m making a strategy game from scratch, engine and all. One of the biggest systems was the pathfinder, which has many subsystems: Placing polygon shapes for terrain tiles and objects. Merging adjacent polygon shapes, reducing the work for the NavMesh generator later on. E.g. handling continuous terrain walls as one large polygon instead of one polygon per tile”
“I recently made some updates to my mobile game, Bounce Sphere. Based on my earlier experience and feedback, I made a few changes to improve the overall experience: • Reduced the frequency of ads • Changed the game's background and visual style • Improved the overall gameplay experience • Continued balancing the difficulty and progression The core gameplay is still the same: Tap to bounce, land on moving platforms, collect coins, avoid bombs, and try to survive as long as possible. The game c”
“Hey everyone! I’ve been working on a fast-paced vertical wall-runner game where you dodge hazards, collect coins, and use power-ups (Shield, Magnet). Pipeline: Modeled the ninja, katana, and modular wall assets in Blender. Used Mixamo for animations and Unity URP for performance. Features included so far: High score tracker, color customization shop, power-ups, and scaling difficulty. Since this is my MVP phase, I'd really appreciate your honest feedback: How does the UI and overall game loo”
“I started working on my game like 9 years ago and have updated the unity version once. Is it worthwhile updating it to the latest version before release? The game itself is 2D pixel art based. submitted by /u/Game-Dev-Bruno [link] [comments]”
“IM BACK So yesterday i started working on the saving, HP for the player, and the firsr enemy. i also started working more on the story again, and also the map for the demo atleast. Well, thats it for now… i guess ill see yall.. submitted by /u/Flat_Ground_3151 [link] [comments]”
“I haven't made the music for the gameplay yet. That's what I'm about to work on. And yeah I know the framerate is really bad, that's because I used Windows' built-in whatever recording thing instead of OBS. The actual framerate of the game is better than this. YEAH MR. WHITE! Yeah, work it! Work it! submitted by /u/Quickog7 [link] [comments]”
“Hi there, everyone! I’m currently developing a pixel art tower defense game in * *Unity 6*\ * and I’ve hit a technical wall with the visual style I’m trying to achieve. Basically, my aim is a classic pixel-perfect look, rendered at a lower resolution then upscaled, resulting in: \ * \ pixel-perfect rotations*\ ** and \ * \ ESPECIALLY*\ ** _* *pixel-perfect particle systems**_. I love games with particle effects that are perfectly pixelated. I feel it gives such a nice aesthetic to the scenes! Bu”
“So, first of all, I am programmer and my art vision mostly sucks. That's why I chose 1-bit pixel artstyle. My first iterations looked like some command line apps from Linux, so I decided to add as much animations as possible. I also experimented with using more colors by adopting the PICO-8 palette. It started looking much better to me, so I showed it to my friends... Well, their feedback wasn’t complimentary at all. They said the game looks noticeably less appealing than popular titles in t”
“It's still early development everything may change and the small lag will be removed hopefully submitted by /u/Cannedhearts_studios [link] [comments]”
“Been seeing a lot of people on X lately bringing old games back in the browser, so I figured I’d give it a shot. This is Archetype , an old multiplayer shooter I used to play all the time on my iPod Touch. I gave Astra a shot at rebuilding it, and somehow it basically one shotted the whole thing on the first go 💀 Completely mind blown rn. submitted by /u/FlawlessArc [link] [comments]”
“Hi everyone! I’m creating a platformer using GDevelop where you have 10 seconds (which can be skipped) to memorize the level map; after that, the scene goes dark, and you have to try to beat the level. Over time, I’ve made improvements—like showing traps and making obstacles or moving platforms flash—so that if the player forgets the layout, they have some new visual cues to go by. What do you think? Do you have any ideas on how to improve it? submitted by /u/FutureSwimmer7308 [link]”
“Hello everyone! I've been trying to create a precision platformer rage game, hehe. So, here is the beta version of A Totally Safe Tower. I'd like your opinions! Any negative or positive feedback is enforced https://rejected-patentz.itch.io/atotallysafetower submitted by /u/Head_Gene1139 [link] [comments]”
“Hiyaa everyone! For the past year-ish I've been working on my game "The Endless Harvest". an incremental farming idle tower defense game (too many descriptors... gotta work on that). today I had my build accepted by Steam, so I am finally able to share it, and was hoping you guys guys had some insight into what works and what doesn't currently. I'm planning to join in the Steam NextFest in ~5 weeks, so I wanted to make the demo and trailer are as indicitive as possible. Doe”
“I've finally put some effort into the main menu. What do you guys think? (Don't mind low FPS, this is a screen capture artifact) Of course I'll make some adjustments but the idea of the text being barely visible w/o the UV scanner seems to me somewhat fun. submitted by /u/myproject5 [link] [comments]”
“i drew the sprites for the first two enemies, both are fully animated. Im not really happy with how the one on the left turned out, it looks kinda weird, probably needs some details The one on the right (rolls, *not actual name) is looking pretty good for me Its supposed to be a enemy that constantly rolls from left to right that the player can pogo off. It wont die if you hit it. The first boss is also supposed to be a giant Roll, basicly the mother of them all but im not going into too much de”
“Hi there! I've been working on this very early protype, doing all art and development solo. The goal of the game is to defend from a swarm of self-learning drones (thousands of them learning from each other, discovering and adapting to evolving defences). I'm getting mixed feedback on the art style. Would really appreciate to hear more opinions (and maybe specific advice?). Thank you! Music: Critical Data by Andyrobot (andyrobot800.tumblr.com/gamemusic) submitted by /u/oshev”
“Hi guys! After your previous feedback, I've spent some time reworking the look and feel of the game. I changed the lighting and post-processing, added fog and missing visual details, improved the VFX and game feel, feedback, and redesigned parts of the UI (still WIP though) What do you think of the game now? Any feedback is appreciated! Previous visuals state for the reference you can see in this reddit post submitted by /u/devtainer [link] [comments]”
“Working on the core movement mechanics for my mobile 2D top-down ARPG. Added a floating cooldown bar and a few extra details. Looking for honest feedback on how the movement looks and feels! submitted by /u/KrexzGames [link] [comments]”
“Hey everyone, After a long stretch of solo development, Battle of Folks is finally out on iOS and Android! It's a medieval isometric pixel-art wave-defense RTS — if you've played They Are Billions, Age of Darkness, that's the closest comparison. You build up defenses, manage resources, and hold off increasingly brutal waves of attackers. A few things I focused on: - No account or login required — just download and play - Free to try with limited waves, one-time unlock for the full ga”
“this day 1 version represents my vision for my game. itch.io/day-1-kingdom-contracts day 100 is the finalized version and is on Steam. 38mb size for browser play, so it may load in 15 seconds if slow wifi but it will load. submitted by /u/Independent_Race4384 [link] [comments]”
“I've been working on Grounds For Termination for quite some time and late in the process I got some great brutal feedback... the pixel art turned too many people away from the visuals but the gameplay was fun. "Lucky" me I had to have surgery about a month ago so I took the art I was working on and pushed! I think I used my recovery time well, but I'd really love some feedback. Working on the impacts and effects is next on my list after getting some feedback. I'm a big fan”
“Brief gameplay video of my WIP FPS Black screen on death, I like the stark abrupt death Weapons kick like a mule and are very hard to control on purpose Art pass is all placeholder free Unity assets as I want to make sure the game is fun at its core before I go wild on the visuals -made this mistake in my main game and now progress is really slow because I’m focused on visuals instead of core game loop Game has a ticket system similar to battlefield but getting kills earns you tickets so there i”
“I’ll keep it short, i’m running into a bit of a brick wall and haven’t been able to find any one running into the exact same issue as me. My game does…a lot, as it’s a passion project I’ve been noodling with for about seven years now, and I’m building just for myself. It can be played in multiple styles, with one primary mode being a GSG map experience like a paradox game, and then the other being moving around a 3D planet. To achieve this, I take six height maps of earth, put them on a cube, an”
“In unity so far ive found our that for any animations sprite sheets are better than single pictures. Cutahuge chunk of memory down. What other things do yall look for/do? submitted by /u/animatedeez [link] [comments]”
“Hey there, I've been working hard one a roguelike Tower Defense game over the last year or so called Lone Tower and have a hard time telling if it is any good or "fun" anymore. Would love some fresh eyes on the Steam page to give honest feedback and first impressions of it that I can use to make real improvements. https://store.steampowered.com/app/4238180/Lone_Tower/ submitted by /u/NotFamous307 [link] [comments]”
“Devlog 001 is about how I went from nebulous concept to concrete idea, which you can read here submitted by /u/minifigmaster125 [link] [comments]”
“I have read all the feedbacks, thank you so much for helping me improving my game!🫶 What’s new: New anomalies!😉 Collisions fixed ☑️ Text bug fixed ☑️ Music bug fixed ☑️ It’s just a normal anomaly game, isn’t it?.. Link for the game: https://evekehat.itch.io/tea-party-for-4 Link to the demo: https://evekehat.itch.io/tea-party-for-4-demo Thank you for any kind of support 🫶 submitted by /u/EveKehat [link] [comments]”
“Played 3 or 4 levels on iPhone. Honest notes, since that is what you asked for. The core loop does click eventually. The color ordering is confusing for the first minute, but once it lands it feels good and I wanted to keep going. So the problem is not the idea, it is that the game never explains a mechanic the first time it shows up. Where it broke down for me, in order: The opening is not just slow, it is slow enough that I nearly closed the game before the loop clicked. Colors come out at a p”
“Greetings fellow IndieDevs! This is the updated trailer for my first game Cubic Color Confusion. It's core gameplay mechanic has you pick up all colored artefacts within a level with a cube of identical color. The twist: Cubes may only travel on neutral tiles and tiles of their own color, and when they do so, they change the tile's color according to their Neon Strips - red creates green tiles, green creates blue tiles and blue creates red tiles. The key to success is planning ahead care”
“Just gave it a spin and feels very rough / unpolished. - Why is the default scroll wheel action panning vertically and not zooming in and out (the main interaction)? - Why is the app size 1GB? - Everything feels clunky / not native - these are not my real apps.This would need a lot of work to feel frictionless but I like the concept.”
“I'm a solo dev, and a few weeks ago I released my first real mobile game — CORNERED, an arcade survivor made entirely out of glowing shapes. No art. I genuinely can't draw, so the whole thing is procedural geometry in Unity, built in code. It launched... quietly. A handful of downloads, almost nobody stuck around. And when I actually looked at why, the reason was simple and kind of embarrassing: there was no reason to come back. Upgrades were dirt cheap, there was nothing to chase, so pe”
“On the combat side there's polish and various tweaks. I also worked on getting the SFX right for enemies. I spent some time on skill acquisition and added new perks. There are also a bunch of bug fixes, including a fix to the character's gravity during falls. Open to feedback, would love to hear what you think. If you'd like to add it to your wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4680830/Sylvaris_Black_Reign/ submitted by /u/FrameBound [link] [comments]”
Pushed a new update to Broken Kingdom, my solo iOS RPG/strategy game. Bug fixes, iPad UI improvements, and lower end devices now hold a steady 30fps. (tested on iPhone XS ) I…
“This is a WIP and I want to add an auto scroll part of a level. My question here is, what do you like from these auto moving levels (of other games) or what NOT? And if you don't like it, what would you like to add or remove to make you like it? Some tips would really come in handy! submitted by /u/SirdotR [link] [comments]”
“We’ve reached a point where we’ve been staring at the UI for so long that it’s getting hard to judge it objectively. While the current assets are functional, we feel there’s still a lot of room for improvement before we’re happy with the overall look and feel. We’re aiming for a clean, immersive UI that fits the game’s art style, but we’re not sure if we’re heading in the right direction yet. We’d really appreciate any feedback, whether it’s about: * The overall visual style * Layout and readabi”
“Hey all, Week 4 of my first solo game — a 3D rage-platformer based on the myth of Sisyphus. I am using a decent laptop for development and sometimes with areas of low-foliage, I see ~55fps (as per Unity Profiler). My goal is to reach ~100fps (yes it is capable) . The foliage density is ~350 per one ramp (18*75)m² area. I have already implemented GPU instancing and LODs. This is my primary objective for now, so I would like some help on how to optimise further, especially regarding post-processin”
Hey all — I just launched my first iOS game. It's a fast neon bullet-hell shooter: 20 hand-crafted worlds, a unique boss warship in each, ship upgrades, power-ups, and a global leaderboard.…
“I remembered something that happened a few months ago that just came to my mind. a few months ago the game Haste by landfall studios got ported to the nintendo switch 2. The port wasn’t perfect, it had some performance issues, the main one being whenever there was a drop below 60fps the game would straight up just drop to 30fps which normally isn’t a big issue but the game would do this a lot. So, Pretty obvious double buffer v-sync right? Well according to the porting dev, no. So I went into th”
“These are the same screen of my iOS tower defense game, 13 days apart. The first version was a list. Cards, tiers, stars. It worked, but it always felt more like a settings menu than a game. There was no sense of progression, just a collection of levels. So I rebuilt it into one continuous campaign map. The path starts at Boot Camp and winds all the way up to the final boss. Instead of showing progress with numbers, the path itself becomes the progress bar. Completed sections glow, future sectio”
“Hi everyone! I've been working on Dyeversion for quite a while, and I've finally released a playable demo. Before I explain the game, I'd love to hear your first impression of the teaser. Is it clear enough? Does it communicate what's unique about the game? Dyeversion is an incremental roguelite tower defense built around a mechanic I haven't seen much before. Instead of upgrading towers directly, you connect them to colored resource sources. Different source combinations cre”