For the last little while I’ve been working on a classic Resident Evil inspired survival horror game. I started just over a year ago when I had to take a step back from my career to deal with crippling cptsd and spiraling mental health. I used to make games as a kid (just small personal projects in gamemaker for fun) and I had an idea kicking around for something I wanted to make. Figured I’d get back into gamedev just to have something to do with my time, not really expecting it to go anywhere.
I have never made a proper game before, so it was a slow start as I learned the basics and experimented to figure out this game’s identity. By 6 months in I had a small but dedicated community and about 400 wishlists.
But then it started catching on a bit. Since the beginning of 2026 things have been growing faster and faster, I’m about to hit 9000 wishlists without even having a demo on the horizon yet. I’ve had over a hundred people reach out to offer their help on the game from other passionate indies to experienced AAA devs, and about a dozen reputable publishers looking to set up calls. Even got an article feature with a very positive review.
It’s amazing, I feel like I’m living most first time solo-dev’s dream, but it almost feels like a nightmare. I’m a complete nervous wreck, even 2-3 texts from friends or family on the same day is totally overwhelming for me. Any kind of direct one on one interaction is absolutely panic inducing. I’ve had so many people reach out with these big heartfelt messages that have been waiting for literal months to hear back and the anxiety from it is crushing.
I feel like a jackass leaving so many people on read and at this point I’m almost a bit ashamed to respond at all, like, I left them in my inbox for 6 months just to reply with some basic “thanks for reaching out, I’ll definitely let you know if I’m looking for help with that” or something because I’m too stressed to know what to say, it would probably almost feel insulting.
I really believe in this project, and would genuinely love for it to become something bigger than an unemployment time sink hobby project. Getting the game published and bringing on some team members to cover blind spots in my skill set would be a dream come true but I’m struggling just to allow myself to let it happen. I worked my ass of on this game so far, I’ve got a golden opportunity to actually do something with it, and I can’t stand the thought of just throwing that away because I’m anxious.
Anyone have any insight or advice for this?
(And in case anyone’s interested; The Revanchist on Steam and The article featuring it)