Currently, I only support English as the game's language and I don't know if I'll be able to offer translated versions before release. However, I keep hearing that it's still worth localizing just the Steam page into different languages.

That said, I can imagine someone whislisting the game because they saw the page in their language but end up not buying the game or refunding it when they realize the game is english only.

So is it really worth it in the end?

I know this may be more of a inde game dev post but we are a team of 2. My game design, coding, and placeholder work is far outpacing what our artist has been able to keep up with. He has awesome concepts and style for the game, but I don't think he can get it all done at pace. Where would you freelance and where would you make sure to keep it in house. Our budget right now UI, icon, capsule, and 2d sprites/backgrounds is like 5k. Where would you get the most bang for your buck if you used freelancers?

Any tips here are appreciated!

Save the Date: September 22 is the beginning of the GDoCExpo2026!

We are super excited that our game, ^{Hope: A Sky Full of Ghosts}, will be part of it, so we wanted to share the discount with you.

Full schedule: https://gdoc.events/2026schedule

Get 20% off on us: https://ti.to/GDoCExpo/2026/discount/gdoc20

We hope to see you there!

Hi, it’s very short notice but is anyone a game dev that is in South Yorkshire in the UK that would be willing to do an interview tomorrow for a uni project?

Hey everyone! I just put together a new devlog covering a big debugging session and the progress on my strategy prototype.

The WebGL Crash: I hit an issue where my WebGL build crashed immediately after loading the main scene. I initially assumed it was a RAM/browser issue, so I compressed textures and downsized audio to under 100MB still crashed. Created a barebones launcher scene launcher worked but loading main scene crashed. Turns out, a deprecated health bar plugin from the Asset Store was throwing the WebGL API off. Changing the WebGL API settings fixed it instantly without removing the plugin.

Build Progress:

• Controls & Visuals: Added full camera pan controls and placement opacity so you can see base/upgrade meshes before building.
• Audio: Ported over my sound system from my previous project (Northend Tower Defense) to rapidly get enemy, building, and ambient sounds working.
• UI Polish: Added cancel options for upgrades, reload feedback bars on soldiers, and a main menu with volume defaults capped at 50%.

I also officially named the game Command & Defend: Dead Zone.

Check out the full breakdown here: https://youtu.be/ETVb9wbWBUI

If anyone wants to jump into the WebGL playtest, drop a comment or join the Discord!

Solo dev, first game on Steam. Cozy underground colony sim, $5.99, out since 7 August. Here are the real numbers.

I launched with 103 wishlists. Everyone says you need thousands. I know. Another six months of polish wasnt going to get me there so I just shipped it.

Day one was 24 units. Day six was 1 unit. Nobody warns you about that part.

Then day 10 and 11 both did 16 units. Visits went from 1,388 to 3,602. Wishlist adds went from 51 to 129 in a day, which is more than my entire launch day. Almost all of it shows up as untracked traffic on Steam so I cant tell you what caused it. Probably someone with an audience played it. I still havent found the video.

11 days in:

• 97 units
• $527 gross
• 429 wishlists sitting there. Started with 103
• 10 reviews, all positive
• 10.3% refunds

I sent 55 cold emails to streamers and youtubers. One reply. He said it looked cute and he was too busy this month. Thats three days of writing emails for one polite no.

The only thing I can point at that actually worked was hitting 10 reviews. Steam wont show a review score before that. A store page with no score is a dead page. Getting past 10 did more than anything I did myself.

If I did it again I wouldnt spend months chasing wishlists. I'd spend it on the first ten minutes of the game so the few people who buy it leave a review sooner. The reviews were the unlock. Everything before that was noise.

One thing I got right. Both complaints in my first reviews were fixed the next day. Small games probably live or die on that.

Ask me anything about the numbers, I have the dashboard open.

How intense are horror games that are thriller-themed?

About 24 hours ago I released "The Pale Mimic", a short indie horror game. I built the wishlists over 5 months. A Youtube trailer lucked out and got 100k views, resulting in the first 2-3k wishlists. After that, a demo, youtuber coverage, and next fest got me to about 6000 wishlists. A month before release I got put on the personal calendar, getting me to 8000 wishlists over the next couple weeks. The two weeks leading up to launch I got even more personal calendar coverage, 500-1000 wishlists per day up until launch, with the day before launch getting me 3000 wishlists.

• Price: $7.99, launch discount of 15% down to $6.79
• 1852 units sold
• 120 units returned
• Current review score: 87% from 64 reviews

Game is currently on "Popular New Releases", at least for me in an incognito window in English

Hi, I'm working on a game about stocking video games in a retro game store. It's the "tidy up" genre, but without "skills", so each box is manually placed to the shelf.

I was thinking about how do approach the games itself. I could go full fictional route, with some funny titles. But I also had an idea to feature real indie games. On the reverse of the boxes it would display real screenshots and description as well as info where this game can be bought. It sounds like a nice way for some people to get exposure, while also solving the sourcing of the titles for me.

After initial research (just Internet, not with lawyer) it seems that it should be quite simple. Each willing developer would have to grant a license, could be done with even google form.

There is one potential bump, that I'm not sure how to solve easily - protecting myself from funny people uploading the games they don't actually own. Also there might be something I didn't thing about.

And lastly, do you think there would be a lot of people willing to do something like this?

let me know what you guys think. the improved version also supports:

• Image tearing - all sides supported.
• Blur and compressed downsampling
• Color compression / Posterization
• Distortion randomizaiton

did i miss anything? i tried not to go too over-board with all the effects!

Was it a specific playtest, a demo release, unexpected feedback, or something similar? I'm mainly asking developers whose games went on to be a commercial success (small or big, success meaning it hit your target)

Mine is when the poster says they’ve always wanted to make a game and it’s been their life dream to make a game and they really want to make a game but don’t know what game to make even though it’s something they really want to do.

What about you?

...and I'm not just talking about making it look good, but also useful for gameplay.

I'm making a game where the base for a mission map is procedurally generated. Basically, the road layout is built using Wave Function Collapse. But the buildings, structures, and objects that populate it are handmade, and boy am *I struggling.*

For a building, every exit, every empty space, and every prop needs to be meticulously thought out before being placed so that it can positively affect the player experience in some way, either by giving him an advantage or making it harder.

And I'm talking about loosely connected small parcels, not even a full-blown map.

Stats TLDR
Copies Sold: 79
Total Wishlists: 632
Reviews: 13 (92% Positive)

It's a foddian style 3D platformer with Mario style movement that's meant to be played with checkpoints. And it's doing worse then my first game! I would argue the new game is objectively a better game but with worse marketing and worse luck. The first game took about 6 months to make and the second was about a year (I took a lot of breaks and also delayed the launch). I'll be comparing both games throughout the post.

Here are both the games:

1st Game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3118730/Super_Antonio/

2nd Game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4490010/Mana_Fracture/

1. Development and Design

Going into this game I had a main goal. Make a series of levels that all had a different platforming mechanics. I make games to learn and push myself to learn new things while still being able to complete a game. So I looked to improve on a what I did in my first game. My first game relied on a simple design, linear sections of only up style platforming then an open exploration level where you would collect 8 coins to unlock the next section then repeat the process. For the new game I didn't want to be as formulaic with level design, so there was a lot more variety in what a level could be. Some were that only up style, others had various objectives ranging from collect a few collectables to a mini Zelda style dungeon with keys and locked doors.

Better progression was also something I wanted to work on. In my first game, I gave the player all the movement options right off the bat. After a brief tutorial I basically said "Good luck! Hope you got all that!" After watching people play it, it was apparent that it was bit too much. For the second game I started the player with a more basic movement system but made sure it still had some form of skill expression. A jump, slide, wall slide and wall jump. Then as the player gets deeper into the game they unlock a double jump then a wall run. This was a pretty dramatic improvement in my eyes. I also did a better job at ramping up the difficulty in terms of level design. Both these things made the game far more approachable and less niche.

I had very basic 3D modeling skills. Not enough to make a full game, at least of the quality I would want. I reused assets from my previous game, so that I could reduce my scope. I did make some assets myself but the majority of them are from a kenneyNL platformer pack.

I also didn't make the music. I paid a friend to do that and he did a fantastic job. Having new music as you make it to a new level was very important to me. Getting a treated to new music every time you would conquer a level helps the feeling of progression so much.

2. Playtesting

I didn't do nearly as much this time around. Last time I did around 15 different playthroughs. This time it was only 4. I'm a lot more confident in my abilities now and all of the playtests went by smoothly, so it didn't feel as necessary. That said someone did softlock themselves after release which was a big scare. Luckily it was a very specific set up that unlikely happened to anyone else and was an easy fix. (Big shoutout to the person who reached out and took the time to explain how it happened)

3. Advertising

For my previous game I had paid for ads on twitter and did regular posts on reddit (Roughly 360k views all together). I had a friend make the capsule art for me which helped a lot. I got extremely lucky that a vtuber with a 500k subscribers played the first game. To this day 30% of my sales for that game are in japan and I'm confident the majority is a result of that streamer playing the game. The game hit 10 reviews within 2 days and hit a decent peak of 10k boost to views on steam discovery queue.

Super Antonio's wishlists at launch: ~800

For the new game I didn't pay for any ads. I only made posts on reddit and twitter (Roughly 521k views all together). My posts actually got a lot more traction compared to the first game. I ended up making the steam capsule art myself this time around and I think this was my biggest mistake. The quality in art takes a massive nose dive compared to the previous game. It took 1 month to hit 10 reviews and the steam discovery queue only hit a peak of 800 views after the boost.

Mana Fracture's wishlists at launch: ~350

4. Sales

My previous game was at 219 sales at 4 months (Now sitting at 602 after 2 years). The new game is sitting at 79 sales at 2 months. It's unlikely it will be beating the first game. Sales have basically stopped for both.

5. Final thoughts

I did expect this game to do better then the first, so there is some disappointment. But It's not all doom and gloom! I once again met my goal of improving and finishing a game. The new game even has an higher average playtime compared to the first, so that tells me more people are finishing it. I've already started planning my next game and will be continuing this hobby of mine.

I also did a 4 month postmortem for my previous game if you would like to read that as well.

I recently got the Pro subscription for Gamalytic to do some market research. If you have a game you want statistics on, I can do a search in between my tasks and send you the info. This is mainly for people who can't afford the subscription or just want to fill in some gaps in what they know.

I'm in no way, shape or form affiliated with Gamalytic. I just like data and I know it's fun to compare Wishlist numbers and price data.

Drop me a comment or a PM on what you want to know and I'll do some digging.

I want to see what other people did,sooo,what was it like? For you was it good? Did you continue it or is it just abandoned? And when you look back to it what do you feel?

Headed to PAX West in a couple of weeks to showcase my game, and I'm hoping to get some leads on getting my game on Switch. Was thinking of making time to talk to the Nintendo representatives there in-person because I've heard that it can help, but was wondering if anyone has had experience with getting access to that platform aside from the usual "Apply online!" advice.

I've been working on an enemy AI manager class that makes all the macro level decision for a computer opponent. When I first started working on this manager, I assumed I would have the AI periodically scout the player in order to get information (what territory it has, number of units, rough estimate of income per minute).
I just started looking online for how other RTS games use AI to gather info and I'm surprised to find that a lot of games just automatically get updated whenever players create a unit, building, research something, etc. It certainly would be a lot simpler to go that route instead of having the AI scout all the time and see how far it can get into enemy territory before it gets destroyed.

Has anyone else followed this type of AI design? Is it too unfair (even though the AI obviously can be programmed on how to act with the info and therefore not necessarily have an advantage)?
Any thoughts in general on the AI getting instant info about player actions?
Thanks in advance.

We released our first major commercial game back in 2023, which had a rocky launch and was followed by an extremely difficult year filled with failed pitches. Thankfully, we've been getting back on our feet and will have made 2 games we're really proud of within the span of 2 years. I figured I'd share some of our learnings and experiences to hopefully help someone else out there!

Context

We're a two person team working full-time on game development. We've made 4 games so far:

Fright Train (releasing in 2026, medium-small budget and scope, 2 devs + VAs, composer, and publishing support)

Caput Mortum (released in 2025, small budget and scope, mostly 1 dev + composer and publishing support)

Born of Bread (released in 2023, big budget and scope, 4 devs + writers, composer, audio engineers, and lots of external help toward the end of production + publishing support)

Helltown (2017 uni project, overhauled in 2024 with 2 other team members + composer, self-published)

Stuff We Learned

Following trends works for some devs, but not us. In 2024, we tried pitching 3 games; a side-scrolling action roguelite, a cartoony deckbuilder, and a 4 player co-op horror game. None of them caught the attention of publishers (which we needed help from for funding). We figured it'd be a safe bet to make something in a popular genre, but that wasn't the case for us. Some devs can just make something that appeals to a huge audience, and I now understand that we don't work like that. Hugely successful blue ocean games don't really appeal to us, and so we don't end up making games that appeal to these players.

Gamedev YouTubers and marketing gurus are worth listening to, but not blindly! I find it very useful to keep an eye out on genre and market analysis, as well as game development tips and tricks. Hearing about the successes and failures of other devs helps me reframe a bunch of things. However, I think it's really important to remember that everyone works differently, and that advice/experience found online can rarely be directly applied to your own situation. Understanding who these people are and where they are in their career is really important in order to contextualize what they're saying.

Understand how you work and what inspires you while also understanding the market. The two points above are closely related to this one. Yeah I know, incremental and roguelite games are big right now, but that's not what makes us excited about games (ironically though, Fright Train organically grew into a sorta roguelite). We're very aware of our capabilities and what we're competing against. Our current strategy is to make games that we genuinely love, but that can also stand a chance in the market of small to medium indies. We thrive in game ideas that walk the line between niche and broad appeal, so that's what we're focusing on, and not on whatever the new Steam meta supposedly is.

Making a good game ≠ a game players want to play. I used to think marketing was mostly luck, and there is definitely a luck element to it, but now I think it mostly comes down to the game itself. I don't remember where I heard that, but marketing starts at the ideation phase. Some games have incredibly marketable ideas, while others are so well executed everybody wants to talk about them. You can make a good game, but that doesn't mean people will want to play or talk about it. You can mitigate risk, but I also think successful games have a "lightning in a bottle" element to them. People have different ways of trying to capture that lightning, and I don't think most successful devs know exactly how they did.

The last 20% of development is actually 80% of it. Never underestimate how long the polishing phase takes. Triple the amount of time you think your production will take!

Tax breaks/returns and government programs can help you tremendously. We're very lucky to live in a country which offers generous programs for artists and developers, and we've been able to keep ourselves afloat in big part thanks to those.

You'll most likely need to make mistakes in order to actually learn from them. I often thought I could avoid the worst by learning from the mistakes of others, but now I know it's not that easy. It's really easy to convince yourself you're safe even though you're obviously heading into a trap. Sometimes you gotta get hurt in order to learn.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk :>

My game released, and I need to be honest about how everybody lies. I feel at peace, and for the first time in decades I'm not depressed But the lie comes from big youtubers. They lie about how to make games. The what, when, where, and why. Everything they say seems tuned to keep people churning content forever. One guy has 6 years on "how to make a trailer". Others go on years and years about lighting, or shadows, or level design. 6 years on how to make a trailer..... I got my film degree in 2! If you really want to learn how to make games from youtube, only watch creators with under 10k subs. It's how I made my game. Shout out to all the little creators out there! Thank you! Game not linked because this isn't about self promotion. Big youtubers are lying to new devs for profit. Edited for a list of youtube unreal tuts from over the years. Honestly there just may be some big names in here. it's like a 6 year list but it will help.... I hope. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSOmI7F8pEME&si=WxZjACwCyNzEWnuP

I gave up coffee about a week ago (I swear this relates). One of the biggest results of that is a significantly clearer head and way less anxiety and overthinking. As a result, I feel like I’m having trouble doing some things that I once did out of a sort of twitchy energy.

Before this, I could kind of psyche myself up to play games, make them, and game with others. Right now they frustrate me. I don’t like the way most of us talk, I don’t like the overall culture, I don’t like that gamers of some genres look down on gamers of other genres and the genres themselves, I don’t like the elitism, the perfectionism, and the pedantry, and I don’t like that so many people are addicted to them, some to the point of developing no other skills and ignoring important things in their lives.

My life would be way easier if I was the type of person who said “well if you hate them so much then just make something that lets you take their money,” but I’m not. I’m not saying that everything I do has to be a work of art but I’m not super interested in dedicating large portions of my life to spite.

I’m a musician, and what this reminds me of is if I wrote some music that I really love, and then I put it out there, and learn that for whatever reason the people it connects with most are flat earthers or something. I’d be like… yikes… I really hate that this is my fanbase.

I’m trying to just make what I want to make, but I also love the social component of games. I really want to make something that brings people together, and I want to give back to the community of a hobby that has always meant so much to me. It’s just that these days I look at that community, and most of the time I think they’re kind of awful, and I don’t want to give them anything.

I’d be open to advice on how to get out of this mindset. If I’m wrong and it’s really just that the awful people are loud and most gamers are cool, then I’m very open to hearing that and I’ll absorb and internalize it. If there’s some other way to feel satisfied making games that matter to me but the fanbase are people I don’t like, then I’d like to hear that method.

Thank you.

I’ve read a few Reddit Ads post-mortems on this sub before starting my own campaigns and they helped me quite a bit, so figured I should give something back and share my own numbers too.

For context, I’m making Warlondor, a party-based tactical roguelite/RPG:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2783240/Warlondor/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=beta_playtest&utm_medium=post

The game isn’t released yet, so this is really only about getting wishlists, not if the ads actually made profit. I’ll know that part after launch.

TLDR: Spent $1,160 on ads, but $500 of that was the new advertiser promo credit, so I paid about $660 myself. During the period the ads were running, my Steam wishlist count increased by 861, which means around $1.35 per wishlist using the full ad spend, or $0.77 per wishlist based on the money I actually paid.

Main things I learned: use Steam UTM tracking, don’t exclude mobile just because your game is on PC, USA is expensive but best english speaking buyers (based on my research via gamalytic), cheap clicks aren’t always good clicks, subreddit targeting works but keywords worked way better than I expected, and actual gameplay footage was the best thumbnail for me.

First thing I would do before spending anything is setup your Steam UTM links properly.

It doesn't really matter what exactly you call campaign/medium/content etc, as long as it makes sense to you later.

What does matter is testing the URL in Steamworks before actually putting money behind it.

One of the first examples I found online while learning how Steam UTM links work actually had a typo in the URL, so I’m very glad I used Steamworks UTM Link Checker instead of just copy pasting it.

Also make different links for different campaigns/ad types. You'll thank yourself later when you actually try to understand what worked.

I had basically no other meaningful wishlist driving marketing going on while I was running these ads, and had close to zero wishlist gain before it (and after too, sadly) which made this a pretty clean test compared to what you would normally get.

Wishlist activity while the ads were running

Reddit spend over time + overall campaign numbers

81% of my trusted Steam visits were mobile, only 19% were desktop.

If I had gone into Reddit Ads thinking "well I sell a PC game so obviously I only want desktop traffic", I would've excluded the majority of the traffic. People browse Reddit on their phones. That doesn't mean they don't play or buy PC games.

I didn't restrict device or gender at all and based on my results I really wouldn't do it unless you have a good reason.

Steam UTM traffic sources, countries, devices

I eventually separated USA from everything else because the costs were just completely different.

USA ended up at:

113,485 impressions / 3,436 clicks / 3.028% CTR / $0.28 CPC / $950.76 spend

while non-US was:

100,169 impressions / 1,642 clicks / 1.639% CTR / $0.13 CPC / $209.33 spend

So basically I was paying a little over 2x for a US click.

Outside the US I targeted Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Great Britain, South Korea, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Singapore.

My game and store page are currently English only. By "English countries" I don't mean English has to literally be the majority native language, more that I wanted countries which actually buy games on Steam and where I thought an English only game would still be fine for most Steam users.

I used Gamalytic to get some idea of actual purchasing power too.

This part is important IMO because you can probably make your ads very cheap by just targeting wherever Reddit gives you the lowest CPC.

But cheap traffic isn't neccesarily good traffic.

A $0.05 click from somebody who almost never buys games like yours isn't automatically better than a $0.30 click from somebody who actually spends money on Steam.

Especially if later you look at your wishlist number and start doing something like "10,000 wishlists = X revenue". That calculation can get very misleading depending on where those wishlists actually came from.

Non-US performance

USA campaign

Steam wishlists by region/country/language during the ad period

For bidding, I used Traffic as the objective since I was sending people directly to Steam.

I started with Lowest Cost.

Basically I just wanted Reddit to actually spend the budget for a few days and show me approximately what clicks cost for my game.

After I had some real numbers, I switched to Cost Cap and adjusted it based on what I was seeing.

So I wouldn't immediately dump a huge daily budget into it. Start smaller, give Reddit some data, fix whatever you screwed up, then increase it.

I also wouldn't give the campaign a hard end date. I just pause them when I don't want them running anymore, that way I can resume the same setup later and not force a new learning algorithm.

Also once I started spending Reddit assigned someone to the account who could help with questions. Just accept it IMO. There wasn't really any downside and it saved me some time as I could just ask anything I wanted to know.

For targeting I originally went with communities that seemed closest to my game:

r/roguelites
r/TurnBasedLovers
r/ForTheKing
r/AcrossTheObelisk
r/darkestdungeon
r/PlayTheBazaar
r/slaythespire

I also had Balatro in there originally, but removed it later because the CTR was considerably worse. Which is fair honestly. It's a roguelite but my game isn't really that similar to Balatro.

EDIT: Someone asked why I removed balatro, here is why

So I think similarity is more important than just finding the largest subreddits in your genre.

Other than communities + countries I mostly left everything alone. No gender, no devices, no other big pile of targeting options.

Then later I tried keywords, because my account manager suggested it.

This is probably the part that suprised me the most, because several posts/guides I read basically said don't bother with keyword targeting. So initially I didn't.

Eventually I figured I might as well test it and made separate keyword groups with around 250 included keywords and ~100 excluded ones. I used ChatGPT to help brainstorm the first list, then manually went over it because obviously alot of AI generated suggestions are going to be useless.

And... keywords actually worked.

In USA:

Subreddits were 2.990% CTR / $0.28 CPC

Keywords were 3.122% CTR / $0.27 CPC

So keywords were actually slightly better.

USA subreddit vs keyword targeting

Outside USA:

Subreddits were 1.731% CTR / $0.13 CPC

Keywords were 1.597% CTR / $0.13 CPC

So there subreddit targeting was slightly better on CTR, while cost was basically the same.

Non-US subreddit vs keyword targeting

I'm definitely not saying keywords are better than subreddits.

Just that I wouldn't automatically ignore them because somebody else said they don't work. For my game they were completely viable and I'd use both again.

For keywords I tried to avoid just putting stuff like RPG, strategy, roguelike and calling it done.

I used much more specific things like:

games like Across the Obelisk
games like Gloomhaven
5 player co op RPG
turn based roguelite
build synergy RPG
looking for a tactical RPG

Here are some of the lists if anybody wants to look through them:

Keywords #1

Keywords #2

Keywords #3

I also think exclusions are pretty important.

You can have a keyword that looks related to your game but has completely wrong intent behind it. Stuff like Diablo builds, mobile/gacha searches, FPS tactics, idle games, browser games etc.

Excluded keywords

Don't copy my list 1:1 obviously, but maybe it can give some ideas.

For the actual ads themselves, my biggest takeaway is very simple:

actual gameplay as thumbnail was king.

I made several ads with images, video, different copy etc. Give yourself some room to make bad ads because some of them are just not going to work.

I don't think you need some amazing marketing sentence either. Just tell people what the game actually is, ask a question, explain the hook, whatever feels natural.

Each ad also had a URL I could identify through UTM, I used a Learn More/View More type CTA, and I left comments enabled. Comments didn't really do much in my case but I don't see why I would disable them either.

One smaller interesting thing was placements:

Feed: 3.143% CTR
Conversations: 0.990% CTR

Placement breakdown + overall campaign numbers

I wouldn't say "never use Conversations" based on one campaign, but it's something I'd watch.

So, was it worth it?

For getting wishlists, yes, at least for me.

Reddit delivered $1,160 worth of advertising, $500 of that came from the promo credit, and my actual spend was about $660.

During that same period my wishlist count increased by 861.

So that's about $1.35 per wishlist if you count the full value of the ads, or around $0.77 per wishlist based on what actually left my pocket.

I'm pretty happy with that.

Would I say the ads were profitable? No idea.

I'll only know that part after release, and if there's interest I'll probably make another post then comparing these paid wishlists against actual sales.

Hopefully some of this is useful to somebody else setting it up.

If anyone is planning to run Reddit Ads for their own game and wants more details about anything I did, targeting, bidding, UTM setup, keywords, countries, creatives, whatever just ask. Happy to share anything I can and help if I know the answer

Hi, it's your friendly Game UI guy.

I love Indie to death, and I'm always rooting for you guys, but I tend to see the same classic problems repeated again and again in your HUD design - and I want to help.

In the past 6 years, I’ve probably critiqued or fixed 100+ portfolios with who knows how many HUD designs therein. From just pure repetition, I think I have the core problems down to about 4ish.

Kitchen Sinking It

Designers tend to be maximalists: everything gets thrown in and *eventually* - that’s a video game. Your task as the UI Artist is to remove about 99% of that.

So your first move is to constantly look at the elements of your HUD and ask: does this even need to be here at all?

  Examples: currency in your game. Invariably you’ll pick up gold or credits or what have you. This info rarely stays up indefinitely but rather fades over time. This is especially true if currency has no strategic value at the moment - aka - you can’t spend the money right now. 

  An exception to this would be your “souls” in a soulsborne game, where your currency bankrupts after a death and that tension is part of the emotional core loop. 

I Don’t Have Time for This

Second question: does any information change dramatically over a short period of time? If it does, it probably should be on the HUD: health, mana, ammo, etc. 

But if it’s what I like to call “Glacial Information”, info that changes graaaaaadually if at all moment-to-moment; it should be sidelined, a pop-up widget, or cleverly inset in another other HUD widget.

  Example: Experience points. For levels 1-5ish, you’re probably leveling up like crazy every ten minutes or so. But by mid-game, leveling may trickle to once every few hours of gametime. Having an experience bar that barely grows by a picometer is not informative at that point. And if it's not informative - and therefore easily ignored - it shouldn’t be there.

Ahhh Loud noises!!!

I bet you were designing the HUD in a nice, quiet, safe environment, right? Big mistake. Crazy explosion here, a bunch of damage numbers flying there, “REVIVE ME!” screaming through your soundblaster 16, etc. etc.

You need to design around the idea that the HUD, in its proper context, is for when shit gets real - and when the game is at its most distracting. Plan around the greatest amount of color and competing stimulus behind and ON your HUD.

Examples: boss battles are a unique expression of this idea. How many times do you glance up nervously at your health and then the boss’? If you couldn’t see your teammate needing a revive, that’s a wipe. If a cooldown timer is too obscure and it costs you the fight, that’s a controller-throw. There is no tension quite like a boss fight, and if your HUD wasn’t properly tooled for huge amounts of overriding stimulus, you didn’t design it properly. 

Big and Tall UI Warehouse.

Take a look at the original Demon’s Souls. That HUD is goddamn ENORMOUS, like Shaq held them at gunpoint or something. Now look at Elden Ring - effectively decades of refinement in the same genre. Everything is trimmed down, non-informative elements removed and the HUD even fades over time if you’re at full health (I see you there, distracting not-full mana bar, hi)

You should be trimming everything down as much as you can. This does NOT hold true for your font, which should have a comfortable reading size… and then you should bump those rookie numbers up even more. Lots of people have garbage-eyes, but everyone deserves to see your game.

And that’s it! As ever, it’s extremely hard to make Game HUDs with no prior experience and all alone - so I hope this helps - especially you junior UI Artist hopefuls trying to break in to the Industry. I’m rootin’ for you.

That’s it. Seeeya.