u/Omerdevng

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to share a quick postmortem of my last two months because I think a lot of solo devs fall into the same trap I did.

My goal was straightforward: Build a prototype in 30 days, get playtesters and put out a high quality YouTube vlog every single week.

What failed: The first prototype was way too big. It needed endless modeling, animations, and a dungeon-generation system I had zero experience with. I had to kill the project after two weeks and pivot to a small-scope tower defense game that I actually have the experience to deliver. I also completely underestimated how much time running an active Steam title (Deepstone Rift) and handling community QA takes away from pure coding time.

What worked: I actually hit the weekly YouTube goal! Even better, it wasn't just a vanity project those videos successfully funneled over 1,000 targeted visits directly to our Steam page and grew our Discord.

The biggest takeaway: If you are working on a game alone or in a tiny team, do not beat yourself up if you miss a deadline. Even major studios miss milestones. Being an indie dev means wearing 10 different hats (marketing, community management, video editing, QA). Making the game is simply not enough anymore.

I put together a detailed video tracking the exact metrics, traffic stats, and why I had to pivot if anyone wants to check out the full transparent breakdown: https://youtu.be/DKyCpJsBV_4

Let me know how you guys handle the balance between marketing and actual development!

thank you very much!

I played my own game recently and realized something: it’s actually bad.

After testing it for a while, I had to face the truth. It didn't need more content the current core loop just felt clunky and frustrating. So, I decided to completely freeze feature development and spend a few days strictly fixing what’s already there (tuning input buffering, snappier UI transitions, and pathfinding bugs).

The game instantly feels twice as good to play now just from cleaning up that friction.

What do you guys think? Is it better to keep pushing out new content, or stop and make sure the current loop is actually fun first? I'd love to hear your thoughts and how you handle this in your own projects.

If you want to see the full video breakdown of the exact things I fixed, you can check it out here: https://youtu.be/cND0lBS6U6E

Getting laid off a few weeks ago was a massive wake up call. I had two choices: update my resume and dive back into the corporate grind, or take the leap and go full-time on my indie studio. I chose the latter. However, passion doesn't extend your runway, and the biggest mistake I see indie devs make is trying to build a game with corporate level living expenses hanging over their heads.

Instead of focusing entirely on how to make money immediately, my first strategic move was focusing on how to stop spending it. I packed up, downsized my living space, and completely restructured my monthly budget. In the startup world, runway is everything. By slashing my personal overhead by nearly 40%, I effectively doubled the amount of time I can spend developing my game before needing to worry about outside funding. Lowering your burn rate is the ultimate, underrated indie dev strategy because it buys you the rarest commodity in game development: time to iterate.

If you are planning to take the leap into full-time indie dev, don’t just audit your game’s scope audit your lifestyle scope. Shifting from a consumer mindset to a survivalist-creator mindset changes how you make design decisions. You stop rushing features out of financial panic and start building with sustainable intent.

I did a deep dive into this transition with visual examples of the new setup and the exact breakdown of the budget strategy here if you're interested: https://youtu.be/sPMnBHS_PQ8

what do you thin in this there is any improvments in the fonts?
and anyone have a recomendation please help me thanks.

From Laid Off to Full-Time Indie Dev: Why I’m Not Looking for a New Job.

Recently, I was impacted by layoffs. It’s a position many of us have found ourselves in lately, and the initial shock is always tough. But once the dust settled, I realized something: this was the universe giving me the push I always wanted.

Today, I am officially launching my journey as a full-time independent developer.

No more corporate red tape. No more building someone else's vision. Just raw product development, building in public, and testing my limits.

I’ve documented the entire transition from the day I got the news to my strategy for surviving the next few months in my latest YouTube video.

If you've ever thought about betting on yourself, this one's for you.

full video: https://youtu.be/HZ4704VccYw 

Hitting six-figure sales looks great on a portfolio, but raw units sold can hide systemic flaws in long-term studio survival. After analyzing the Steamworks data for my titles Northend Tower Defense and Deepstone Rift, I realized I ignored critical red flags in player retention, refund rates, and Steam reviews. The biggest takeaway? High initial conversion doesn't mean a healthy player lifecycle if your core loop doesn't respect the player's playtime.

In game design, it’s easy to get blinded by a successful prototype and rush a launch. However, if your game lacks a deep progression hook or suffers from early-game friction, your refund rates will spike, dragging your Steam review score down into the "Mixed" danger zone. For my upcoming survival game, I'm completely overhaulings my Unity prototyping workflow. Instead of just testing if a mechanic is "fun for 10 minutes," I'm building data-driven frameworks to test 10-hour retention loops before writing production code.

If you are a solo developer or building an indie studio, look past your wishlists and look hard at your retention metrics. I did a deep dive into my exact metrics and flawed design choices with visual Steamworks examples here if you're interested: https://youtu.be/7vhCpACf1Hg