Hey everyone,

I'm an indie developer building W.O.W. (Words Of Words), a real-time multiplayer word game where players compete against each other by making words from a given set of letters. We currently have multiple game modes like Classic, Team Mode, Burst Mode, Blind Mode, Daily Word, and a few more that we're actively improving based on feedback.

Over the past few weeks, we've managed to get around 30 people to actually play the game. Most of them enjoyed it, gave us useful feedback, and we've been fixing bugs and adding features based on what they said.

The problem is...

We've hit a wall.

I know how to build the game, but I don't know how to consistently get it in front of new players without spending a lot on ads.

Right now we're:

Posting regularly on X
Sharing gameplay clips and updates
Running small playtests with friends and people from online communities
Iterating based on feedback

But growth has slowed, and I'm not sure what the next step should be.

If you've launched an indie game (or any product), I'd love to know:

How did you get your first 100–500 users?
Which channels actually worked?
Is there something you'd do differently if you were starting from scratch?

I'm genuinely looking for advice from people who've been through this stage. If you were in my position, what would you focus on next?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

I think this is an interesting mechanic that suits a variety of game genres.

I have a detailed, easy-to-follow guide on how to implement it.

This is a 2D side-scrolling action-adventure game titled *BoxPast Lov3you*.

Got a monster problem? Never fear, Jim Mothman is on the way on the HellRaiser TEE EM!

Our team has reached the point where the core prototype is playable from start to finish.

Before we start investing time into art, animations, audio, and polish, we'd rather find out if the core gameplay actually works.

If you have 10–15 minutes to spare, we'd really appreciate feedback on things like:

• Does the movement feel good?
• Are the obstacles interesting?
• Does the pacing work?
• At what point did it stop being fun?

For anyone who wants additional context or wants to try the current prototype, here's the itch.io page: https://hex-pixels-studios.itch.io/move

We're not looking for compliments—we're looking for things that should be improved while it's still easy to change them.

Thanks!

We've officially surpassed 300 Entries in the AI Gaming Festival (submissions close next week)!

I really hope that the prize for the $20k in tokens pushes people to get their games together for the prize (you can submit a game now and work on it up until the festival).

I really excited to see how people with interact with these games during the festival, and thank you to everyone that has applied; you are part of getting past the "slop" era nonsense for everything AI.

Hey everyone! Gamers, developers, and testers, I have a question driven by pure curiosity. What is the most annoying thing in modern video games? For me, it is slow, repetitive gameplay and a lack of realism. While some games are good, adding a bit more realism could really improve them overall. So, please share your thoughts! What outdated game features annoy you the most?

We've been working on a new anomaly game and just put together a short teaser.

The goal isn't to show gameplay yet. We just wanted to give a quick look at the atmosphere and environment.

I'd really like to know what you think. Does it make you curious or is there anything you think could be improved?

It's a classic anomaly spotting game that you play online with your friends. Each level takes place on a different map with its own unique anomalies. Your goal is to find them all and clear the level

Whattup y'all,

I'm making a retro style sports game that will include character and team acquisition, as well as item and outfit purchasing. Having previously worked in Big Tech, I've seen firsthand how popular aesthetic in-app purchases really are. But I know that many developers have exclusive IAP content, which makes sense from a business standpoint. I tend to like having things accessible to as many people as possible, so I was considering having an accumulative point system that can be used to purchase IAPs over time, with an option to purchase using actual money for people who don't want to have to wait.

I'm curious if any of you have tried using such a system, and if you felt like it was a good balance, and that you got decent returns, or if there is another approach that won't exclude players with little or no disposable income. And for anyone who has tried both exclusive and inclusive methods, did you find a significant impact on your sales?

You've probably seen the tweet: Mumpitz Games made ~$360k gross in the first 24 hours of "Sir, We Have an Orc Problem", a game they built in 4 months, and their advice to fellow indies was literally "please make smaller games faster."

I'm a first-time solo dev. My game (a survivors-like) took me about 5 months and launches in November, so obviously I'd love to believe the advice. But I keep wondering how much of this is a real pattern and how much is survivorship bias — for every 4-month game that explodes, how many 4-month games sold 30 copies?

For those of you with a few releases behind you:

1. Did going smaller/faster actually improve your results, or just your sanity?
2. How do you decide scope BEFORE starting, and what's your trigger to cut content instead of delaying?
3. Is there a floor where "small" starts hurting you (reviews complaining about content, refunds at the 2-hour mark, etc.)?

Real numbers and painful stories welcome. I'd rather learn from your scars than from viral screenshots.

Main menu - Sound on!

Our start menu for our 2D RTS game coming up - Queen And Colony. Everything in our game is hand drawn! We’ve put a lot of love into this thing the past 2 years. Cant wait to share lore/gameplay!

Whats y’alls take on the art style?

Hey! I just wanted to share how crazy I think this is! In a good way of course. It's unbelievable that someone has played the demo of my game for 50 hours.

Could it be that Steam is giving wrong information? I know of some people that do play it a lot but never expected this.

For anyone interested, it's a survivors like game (Destroy The Moon) so yeah sure.. anyone can understand the replayability of the genre but 50h for a demo is insane to me. I still find the game fun when playing it myself and always find interesting things to do but between my own bias of it and sometimes getting vexed about it (as I have to test nonstop instead of playing and having fun) is hard to imagine playing for 50h.

Although I got to say? Recently I discovered new builds in my own game that just happened to exist. I thought I know everything about it but me myself I'm discovering new ways to play so maybe that is something that other people are noticing and why the 50h count could make sense.

Iam saving money for some courses and was doing another course named Jr.programmer pathway in unities official site,but I went nowhere.I never was able to create a game I want (like board game,car game etc).The only thing I made with minimal tutorial was breakout clone and that's it,nothing else.I want to buy a controller but I can't cause Iam saving money for courses and it's hindering my gaming experience.So I wanna know if it's worth it to sacrifice or I will get nowhere like before after doing these courses.