u/Opposite_Challenge89

I’m asking seriously because lately I keep feeling like I’m hitting the same wall.

So many projects still go the same way: token first, massive promises, roadmap, hype… and then a few weeks later liquidity is gone, the team is gone and everyone moves on to the next thing.

With Alpha Husky I did pretty much the opposite

I’ve been building the game for around 20 months. $HOWL is only about 165 days old.

The game already had missions, gear, pets, factions, exploration and tactical combat before the token became part of the bigger picture. It’s playable on web and Android too.

HOWL is optional. No wallet needed to play, no P2W. It’s there around the game, not instead of the game

And while another “next big thing” disappears, I’m usually just sitting there adding another system, fixing something or expanding the world 😅

So yeah, real question:

are there still people in crypto who actually value this kind of approach?

Or has everything become so ape-first that slow building barely gets noticed unless there’s a chart going vertical?

I think I’ve been doing the Solana token playbook backwards.

155 days ago I launched $HOWL.

Then instead of spending the next few months chasing callers, paid promotion and hype…

I mostly went back to building.

I’m a solo dev and I’ve been working on Alpha Husky around my full-time job for roughly 19 months now.

It started as a Telegram RPG.

Since then it’s grown into a full little world with missions, tactical battles, factions, companions, bosses, progression, inventory, cosmetics and persistent player accounts.

Most recently I built a standalone Android version too.

Telegram and Android now lead into the same player, same progression and same world.

And one thing I’ve been stubborn about from the start:

you don’t need HOWL, a wallet or even crypto knowledge to play the game.

HOWL is an optional cosmetic/community layer around it. I never wanted owning more tokens to mean being stronger than another player.

The funny part is that after all that building, the thing I’m probably worst at is still the thing every project apparently needs:

getting people to actually notice it exists.

HOWL is still tiny.

Small holder base. Small liquidity. No giant marketing wallet behind it.

I’ve funded what I reasonably can myself, but I’m just one guy building this after work — so there’s a pretty obvious limit to how far I can brute-force growth with my own money.

And I don’t really want to fake that growth anyway.

What I’d rather find are a few people who genuinely enjoy discovering projects before anyone cares about them yet.

Not people looking for a five-minute candle.

People willing to actually look first.

Try the game.

Check what’s been built.

Look at the development history.

Look at the token and wallets.

Ask me awkward questions.

If you think it’s rubbish after that, fair enough.

But if you look through it and think “okay… there might actually be something here”, then maybe you’re exactly the kind of early person I’ve been trying to find.

I’d rather have a small group of people who understand what they found than manufacture a huge-looking community that disappears the moment the chart turns red.

So yeah.

155 days after launching HOWL, I’m finally trying to get a little better at actually showing people what I’ve been building.

If anyone wants to dig into Alpha Husky, ask me anything here.

I’ll answer it straight.

Game first. Token second.

I’ve been building a game called Alpha Husky for about 16 months now.

It started as a Telegram mini app RPG, and now I’m also working on a mobile APK shell for it.

The game has factions, missions, pets, items, a map, base-building stuff, lore, daily actions, and a small world that is slowly becoming more “alive”.

But I’ll be honest — the hardest part is not building features.

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The hardest part is finding the first few real players who actually care enough to come back.

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Right now there are basically 2 real active players besides me.

That sounds bad, but I’m trying to turn it into the actual hook of the game instead of pretending we’re bigger than we are.

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The idea I’m testing is this:

Early players don’t just “join”. They leave a permanent mark in the world.

Something like:

an NPC inspired by them

a named mission

a map landmark

a Pack Log entry

a badge/title that only early players can have

a small piece of lore that stays in the game

Not as a paid reward. Not as some token promise. Just as a genuine thank you for being one of the first people who helped the world feel alive.

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I’m curious how other indie devs would look at this.

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If you saw a tiny live-world RPG where your first actions could actually become part of the game’s history, would that make you more likely to try it?

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Or would it still feel like the usual “please play my game” pitch?

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I’m not trying to fake hype. I’m just trying to find the first few people who might enjoy being there early enough to matter.

​Hey everyone,

​I’m a solo developer working on Alpha Husky, a text/tactical sci-fi game hosted right inside Telegram. I’ve just hit a massive milestone—the core engine is stable, the world-building is locked in, and I’ve just finished designing a massive multi-level dungeon called the Moon Lab Fortress (30 levels of boss encounters and laboratory factions).

​But here’s my biggest problem right now:

I’m suffering from the "Solo Dev Blindness." I’ve played my own game so many times that I can no longer judge if the difficulty curve makes sense, or if the mechanics are actually fun for a fresh player. I urgently need fresh eyes to completely break my balance, find loopholes, and tell me where the progression feels like a chore.

​What is the game about?

​Vibe: Post-apocalyptic, gritty cyberpunk/sci-fi with deep lore.

​Platform: Telegram (mobile-friendly, quick sessions).

​Key Mechanics: It features a dynamic, draggable tactical map, faction-based choices (Signal Directives that actually impact the world), and a community-driven progression system.

​What am I looking for in a tester?

​Someone who loves indie strategies, tactical games, or RPG theory-crafting.

​Players who aren't afraid to say: "Hey, level 12 is straight-up unfair" or "This mechanic feels completely useless, change it."

​You don't need a high-end PC—just a phone or desktop with Telegram.

​What’s in it for you?

Since this is an unpaid gig, I want to respect your time. You’ll get direct access to me (the dev) in our core community chat, your name in the credits when we launch, and a permanent, unique badge/role within the game's ecosystem for being part of the OG "First Wave" testers.

​If you want to help a solo dev get through this balancing nightmare and check out a unique mobile tactical project, drop a comment below or send me a DM, and I'll send you the direct link to the test environment.

​Thanks a ton for reading!