u/Foolish_Gambit_Dev

I am on the hunt to buy a PC, Mini PC or Laptop for basic gaming on extreme budget.

I am a solo game dev for basic 2D and 3D games. I do all my unity work on my MacBook Pro M2, this is my daily work horse but I want a PC for PC compatibility testing and also for game research. I love my mac but hate that 90% of all games are still PC only. The main things I want out of it is below:

\- Test my 2D Unity builds for PC compatibility
\- Play 2D and simple 3D games for research
\- Most games will be Balatro, Slay the Spire and A Game About Digging A Hole.
\- If I can get it to work, I would love to play Half Life 2 and maybe even No Man Sky on low graphics at a solid 30fps.

I already bought a Beelink Mini PC, Mini S12 Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake-N N95 but got screwed over with malicious Malware already preinstalled.

Now I am thinking I want to go down the route of a laptop to keep my set up portable and I landed on ThinkPads as just a not glamorous solution for my needs. The model I was researching was:

\- Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 (Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U)

\- 16gb ram 512gb storage

\- Windows 11 pro

\- AMD Ryzen 4000 series or newer

\- TPM 2.0

Thoughts on all this?

I am on the hunt to buy a PC, Mini PC or Laptop for basic gaming on extreme budget.

I am a solo game dev for basic 2D and 3D games. I do all my unity work on my MacBook Pro M2, this is my daily work horse but I want a PC for PC compatibility testing and also for game research. I love my mac but hate that 90% of all games are still PC only. The main things I want out of it is below:

- Test my 2D Unity builds for PC compatibility
- Play 2D and simple 3D games for research
- Most games will be Balatro, Slay the Spire and A Game About Digging A Hole.
- If I can get it to work, I would love to play Half Life 2 and maybe even No Man Sky on low graphics at a solid 30fps.

I already bought a Beelink Mini PC, Mini S12 Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake-N N95 but got screwed over with malicious Malware already preinstalled.

Now I am thinking I want to go down the route of a laptop to keep my set up portable and I landed on ThinkPads as just a not glamorous solution for my needs. The model I was researching was:

- Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 (Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U)

- 16gb ram 512gb storage

- Windows 11 pro

- AMD Ryzen 4000 series or newer

- TPM 2.0

Thoughts on all this?

I am on the hunt to buy a PC, Mini PC or Laptop for basic gaming on extreme budget.

I am a solo game dev for basic 2D and 3D games. I do all my unity work on my MacBook Pro M2, this is my daily work horse but I want a PC for PC compatibility testing and also for game research. I love my mac but hate that 90% of all games are still PC only. The main things I want out of it is below:

- Test my 2D Unity builds for PC compatibility
- Play 2D and simple 3D games for research
- Most games will be Balatro, Slay the Spire and A Game About Digging A Hole.
- If I can get it to work, I would love to play Half Life 2 and maybe even No Man Sky on low graphics at a solid 30fps.

I already bought a Beelink Mini PC, Mini S12 Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake-N N95 but got screwed over with malicious Malware already preinstalled.

Now I am thinking I want to go down the route of a laptop to keep my set up portable and I landed on ThinkPads as just a not glamorous solution for my needs. The model I was researching was:

- Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 (Ryzen 5 Pro 4650U)

- 16gb ram 512gb storage

- Windows 11 pro

- AMD Ryzen 4000 series or newer

- TPM 2.0

Thoughts on all this?

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Hey Devs,

So, I just watched Code Monkey’s latest video on the new Steam storefront refresh, and as a solo dev currently working on my own first solo dev project, it honestly felt like a gut punch.

Here’s the video for context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZfIxeK463o

The TLDW on what changed: Steam just rolled out a refreshed homepage. Historically, hitting roughly 7,000 wishlists right before launch would be the the golden threshold to get your game onto the universal level-playing-field "Popular Upcoming" tab. That gave indies massive, mass-market front-page visibility right at launch.

According to the video's analysis of the current games on that tab via SteamDB, that section is now heavily weighted toward raw popularity rather than chronological release date. The smallest game that was currently sitting there has an estimated 70k–80k wishlists (based on follower counts). Major titles, AAAs, and high-budget indies are taking over the slots. It feels like the solo indie dev days are slightly numbered here.

Are we screwed, or is it just a new meta? Code Monkey points out that Steam is trying to redirect niche discovery to the new "Your Personal Calendar" and a streamlined Discovery Queue.

• The Bad: The massive, front-page general traffic boost for hitting 7k wishlists seems completely gone.
• The Potential Silver Lining: The personalized calendar means traffic might become hyper-targeted. Instead of getting 5,000 general wishlists at launch, you might get 500 from users who are statistically way more likely to buy your specific sub-genre on day one.

For those of you close to launching or actively marketing right now: How are you pivoting? Are we completely dependent on Next Fest and external short-form platforms now to build massive momentum, or do you think the personalized algorithm will actually treat high-quality, niche indies better over time?

Let's discuss this.

For me my ideas come from playing games, watching anime, and seeing interesting blender models on Reddit. Then doing a deep dive discussion on chat GPT. Some ideas stick, some ideas fall to the wayside. Whatever ideas stick, I'll develop a visual board, blender prototype and maybe even a unity prototype.

What all your idea generation pipelines?

So I am a Mac book pro M2 user and building a game on unity. Imaging CloverPit, Raccoin, etc. A single room 3d roguelite game with gambling mechanics and a hint of horror.

I need a PC for game testing my builds, plus steam pc gaming but I have a total budget of 350 bucks. What are my options? What to avoid, what to look for? should I go for a Laptop, Mini PC, or build my own PC tower? Is 16GB and 520SSD enough?

I don't need anything fancy. Just play test my builds and play Slay the Spire, Slots&Daggers, CloverPit, etc. At best No Man Sky at a solid 30fps.

What's your advice lads and lasses?

I'm a solo game dev, new to this whole thing but deep into everything game dev. Learning play testing and the advice I am reading is "play test as soon as you can".

My current plan is below:

1. Play test with a few friends when you have a mechanic loop but not a final game. Test whether the mechanic is readable, understandable and more importantly if it's fun.

2. When the Vertical Slice is rough but done. Put your game on itch.io but under a secret name and images. Test , feedback, make changes.

3. When the demo is polished and ready. Play test via live streaming for final changes. only after this post on steam.

4. Demo feedback from steam to make changes in the final game.

I probably have this wildly wrong. Correct me, educate me.

New game dev here who's become OB-SESSED with making games. Like it's all I consume and do for the last 6 months. What's the best genre to jump into as a complete newbie?

Set up is Unity, Blender, Aesprite, Codex.

Also any advice?