u/Critical-Warning1267

After nine months of blood, sweat and pixels, today I finally pressed that precious “Publish” button with a trembling hand. Now I can continue working on the game without rushing or stressing about it. And if everything goes well, everyone will be able to play the demo in December, just in time for New Year!

Add the game to your wishlist — right now, this is the most important thing you can do for the game.

Legacy of the Depths is set in an alternate Russia of the 1920s. More precisely, in an alternate Russian Empire, where the February Revolution never happened and Nicholas II continues to rule the country with a much firmer hand. But all of that is just the setting.

You play as Alexey, a scientist and the grandson of Alexander Melnikov — the only surviving member of a mysterious expedition to the Barents Sea. After his grandfather dies in a psychiatric hospital, Alexey receives a strange letter that pulls him into a story his family tried to bury.

Travel through remote villages, abandoned places and forgotten corners of the Russian North. Talk to people who hide more than they tell, investigate strange events, search for fragments of lost coordinates and follow the trail of an expedition that was never supposed to return.

Add the game to your wishlist:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4825820/Legacy_Of_The_Depths/

I've been slowly reworking the UI for Legacy of the Depths, and this is the latest version of our dialogue system.
i tried quite a few approaches during development. At one point, the dialogue looked closer to Disco Elysium, with all the text on one side scrolling vertically. We also experimented with a much simpler layout with almost no visual framing.
Eventually I settled on this.
Character portraits on both sides, the NPC's dialogue on the left, and the player's responses on the right.
I'll admit that the basic composition was partly inspired by Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. I added a screenshot from Rogue Trader as the third image so you can see the reference I was looking at. But since Legacy of the Depths also has a strong detective element, I wanted to push the visual style in a different direction.
The whole interface is designed to resemble old archives, documents and case files — so that every conversation feels a little like you're reading an interrogation transcript or investigating someone's testimony.
I think it turned out great.

Legacy of the Depths is an atmospheric pixel art adventure set in an alternate version of the Russian Empire in the 1920s. You play as a man who travels across northern Russia, trying to follow the trail of an expedition that disappeared 40 years ago. There will be mysteries to uncover, secrets to find, puzzles, mini games, exploration and a bunch of other stuff along the way.The Steam page should be up on September 1st.

1.Background.
Hi Reddit! My name is Denis, and I have no idea how to market my game. But you still need to talk about your game, even at the early stages of development. So first, I’ll tell you who I am and how I’m making my game with zero experience in game dev. Enjoy the read! 😊

Since I was a kid, I’ve dreamed of making video games. I studied 3D modeling in 3ds Max when I was 14. I also read various books on game development around that age. But I never really mastered 3ds Max — I didn’t have money for the second month of the course, and back then the classes were in‑person, and I didn’t even have internet yet. I never finished the books either — I just didn’t have the patience. Basically, I had plenty of excuses not to do anything. But I did manage to make a Pong game using one of those books — let’s call that my first attempt.

Time passed, the era of info‑business kicked in, and I bought Unreal Engine courses . I liked the courses, and I even managed to make a horror game using ready‑made assets. It was really interesting. But then I got sick, missed my cohort, and gave up on self‑learning. That was attempt number two.

2.Attempt number three and AI .
Three more years pass, and I’m 32 now. I’m reading Lovecraft and realize I really want to make a game with a Lovecraftian aesthetic — but set in the backwoods of an alternative Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. (I’ll make a separate post about the lore and setting later — so be sure to subscribe!)

But I don’t know how to code or draw at all. However, I do have a degree in directing, so I know a thing or two about drama and screenwriting, and I’ve got a good eye for visuals plus a lot of gaming experience.

This time I’ve been smarter than usual and didn’t try to make my own GTA or my own take on Gothic, etc. I decided it’ll be a story‑driven adventure game done in pixel art. It’s a very simple genre, but it still has its own quirks.

I chose the easiest engine to get into — Godot 4.5. I went with it because it’s relatively simple, free, and there’s no need to pay any royalties.

Inspired by the idea, I started jotting down all my thoughts in Chat GPT. But don’t rush to throw rotten tomatoes (or whatever they throw here on Reddit). Just read the whole paragraph first.

Turns out, you can actually code with Chat GPT — with some struggle, but it works. I was shocked, but GPT wrote the mechanics for me, told me what to click in the engine, which buttons do what, and so on. So, without any courses or YouTube videos, I could already put a level together.

We built a level, created interactive objects, and even made it possible to complete the level in two different ways. That surprised and inspired me even more.

Besides coding, I generated images to use as sprites. That’s how I got a vertical slice and the earliest build. And even though, both technically and visually, it was basically AI‑generated junk, it already looked like a real game.

Blown away by what I’d managed to do, I found a pixel‑art artist to replace all the AI‑generated art with hand‑drawn stuff. Then I brought in a programmer for GDScript (that’s the engine’s built‑in programming language). The programmer completely rewrote the code, so there’s no trace of AI left in it now. After that, I added a composer, and now we’ve got a small piece of the game ready. I’m really happy about it — I can hardly believe it myself!

3.Where did the money for development come from?

It’s pretty simple: I have a day job, and I put part of my earnings into the game. Of course, it’s not a lot of money, and even so, it hits my already pretty thin wallet.

But a lot of beginner devs look for like‑minded people to work for free, for a yet‑nonexistent share of the sales. I believe that any work should be paid for — especially something as big as making a game. For example, I could’ve easily not been able to afford the artist, but thanks to my well‑honed powers of persuasion, I managed to negotiate a slightly lower price. That definitely makes me happy.

My point is: if you can’t afford something or someone, you can always negotiate. But working for free is a bad idea.

4.What’s the game about?

It’s 1889. Alexander Melnikov is the leader of an expedition to the Barents Sea. There were 6 people in the expedition, but everyone except Alexander mysteriously died or went missing.

Synopsis:

The game’s protagonist is Alexey — Alexander Melnikov’s grandson. Alexander was the only close relative he had; his parents died long ago. In his final years, Alexey’s grandfather completely lost his mind and kept rambling about a mysterious island. Forty years after the expedition, the old man dies in a psychiatric hospital. Before he passes, he leaves his grandson — who’s also a scientist — a dying note claiming that the island really exists. He doesn’t have the coordinates, but he mentions there are people who can help find them.

Alexey’s main goal is to collect pieces of the coordinates from different parts of the country. Along the way, he’ll uncover details about the expedition and eventually reveal a terrible secret about his grandfather — and about himself.

Gameplay:

The game focuses heavily on the story. You’ll get lots of dialogues with interesting characters. Each dialogue offers at least two answer options, and every choice triggers unique responses. In fact, those lines are already in the working build.

On top of that, the gameplay includes exploring locations, side quests, and mini‑games — so there’s more to do than just follow the main plot.

The game also features light non‑linearity. For example, the first level can be completed in two different ways. A postman will knock on the door, and the protagonist might simply not have time to open it. In that case, instead of interacting with the postman, the protagonist will find a parcel with a letter on the floor. This means they’ll miss the dialogue with the postman — but it won’t change the overall story.

The game features several distinct locations, each with its own unique atmosphere. You’ll explore a eldritch, otherworldly village; a fishing town steeped in uncanny oddities; a passenger train complete with a dining car; and, of course, an island shrouded in mystery and darkness. 😊

Even though there’s a map in the game, there won’t be any fast travel. Here’s how the map works: once you finish a quest in a given location, you open the map and choose where to go next. Since it’s 1929 and fast travel didn’t exist back then, you’ll travel by coach with a coachman.

The coachman isn’t just a driver — he’s also a full‑fledged companion who knows everything about the places you’re heading to. You’ll get lore, tips, and stories from him during the journey, so the trips themselves are part of the experience.

1. On September 1st, we’ll release the trailer and launch the Steam page.
2. Next up, we’re polishing the demo version. Right now, the code is ready, but a lot of the artwork still needs to be drawn.
3. We’re also planning to look for investors to fund the full development.

Since the project’s currently funded by my own, rather unstable income, I can’t give any concrete release dates. But whether we get investors or not, we’re absolutely going to finish this game.

That’s it!
I’ll tell you about the side quests and the implemented mechanics in my next posts. By the way, the game is called Legacy of the Depths.

Hey, Reddit! This is my very first post here, so I’m a little nervous hitting “submit”—but I’m super excited to introduce our project to a new audience. I’ll be sharing updates as we move forward, and I’d be thrilled if you’d follow along.

I’m part of the small team behind Legacy of the Depths, a narrative‑driven Nordic noir adventure. We started working on the game back in November with zero prior experience in game dev, and it’s been a steep but amazing learning curve. Since February, we’ve been fully focused on polishing the trailer and getting our Steam page ready.

The game takes place in an alternate early 20th‑century Russia, deep in the frozen north. It’s a story about family secrets, expeditions gone wrong, and the slow creep of madness—with heavy nods to Lovecraft, Poe, and Dostoevsky.

You’ll explore atmospheric locations, piece together clues, and face tough choices that change the course of the story. There’s also dialogue with branching paths and some mini‑games to break up the tension.

The full trailer and Steam page go live on September 1st (in both English and Russian), but I wanted to share a short teaser cut here first.

Since we’re a small team learning as we go, any feedback on the vibe, the story hook, or even small visual details is a huge help. What’s the first thing that catches your eye in the teaser?