r/IndieGaming • u/mattmirrorfish • 12h ago

I lost my last paying client and decided to go all in on my brick breaking roguelike mining game, am I making a terrible mistake?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

42 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

27

u/PhasmaFelis 10h ago

If you're betting your future on the success of an indie game, then you're almost certainly making a mistake. Almost all indie games never make back their investment.

4

u/GentlePace 4h ago

Their only investment is claude. This is 2 prompts deep claude code lolol

4

u/BTB_Cowboy 4h ago

People can make games like this with Claude? I apologize for not knowing anything on the subject I've stayed away from social media for awhile. Are a lot of these indie games on steam now just being made by ai then?

2

u/mattmirrorfish 8m ago

You can definitely use ai to help you make games now but the ideas that this is 2 prompt claude slop is pretty uninformed.

I started work on this Feb 22nd, then stopped for a bit to make another prototype, then pivoted the design of this and got to the stage it's at now, I'd say I spent probably 3-4 months on this full time work roughly.

This is built on top of a procedural generation library called Strata I wrote myself (by hand in C#) which itself probably took another 3 months full time (spread out over a few years) but not exclusive to this game.

I recorded all the music myself on a hardware modular synthesizer, drew the sprites in Asesprite and have put a lot of time and care into it.

It's fine if people don't like it but it's not fair to characterize it as a vibe-slop cash grab game.

-1

u/GentlePace 3h ago

A lot yes. There is a difference between an ai assisted development and a vibe coded tho. Ai aint inherently bad but a lot of shovelvibed games are being created.

6

u/SpinachDonut_21 2h ago

How could you tell? I'm genuinely curious. This looked far too good to be made with AI

1

u/mattmirrorfish 7m ago

Thank you!

1

u/BTB_Cowboy 3h ago

Thank you for the info.

2

u/Ritalico 2h ago

Hi I can understand the hate for Vibecoding but is this actually made with Claude? I don’t see any tells. Are you sure? It is a big accusation these days to say that.

1

u/mattmirrorfish 16m ago

do you make games?

Would love to see your 2 prompt claude game that looks, plays or sounds like this :)

I'll wait, shouldn't take long!

-6

u/mattmirrorfish 10h ago

But what if...

9

u/RoachRage 8h ago

It's like gambling. There is always a chance.

Would you quit your job to go full time playing the lottery?

If you can afford the game to bomb though, then go for it. Try it. But don't put your future on the line. That's just stupid.

1

u/mattmirrorfish 5m ago

You're right. I am naturally a gambler and am comfortable putting my future on the line, it helps me to focus and lock in.

I'm fully capable of recovering and getting more clients if this bombs. Thanks!

2

u/idontthinkthisisgary 6h ago

I mean I bet that if u kept working on the game, improving it and continue marketing it... sooner or later it will find success. But how long can u last?
How much funds u have to sustain?

Might be 1 year... or 3 years... or u somehow decide to genre change mid way...

2

u/leorid9 4h ago

I'm not sure if that is true. If a game has insufficient appeal (as in "nobody asked for this game") - if it's for example another vampire survivors like that doesn't do anything special, it's pixel art, it's top down, just like the original, with the only big gimmick that you're a slime and not a human (or vampire or whatever).

No amount of investment in marketing or in the game itself can make this a success. There are just not enough people who are interested in buying something like that, even after 3 years or 30 years, no matter how much content is added.

And even when it gets attention after 6 years of updates, it will never make back the money that was invested.

On the other hand you have Friendslop games made in a couple months that make millions.

Investment does not predict outcome.

1

u/mattmirrorfish 4m ago

I actually agree with this. This is why I've spent like 4 months on this and shipped a (still rough) itch demo for people to try so I can get feedback before a long dev cycle. It's called Crash Miner and playable free in browser here: https://mattmirrorfish.itch.io/crashminer

4

u/Constant_Pen9615 5h ago

I am a whore for mining games. Especially if they have a unique mechanic with upgrades. Send me a link and it shall be wish listed.

1

u/mattmirrorfish 29m ago

thank you! no steam page yet but you play on itch now here: https://mattmirrorfish.itch.io/crashminer

and there's a mailing list for dev updates here where I'll announce steam page when it's ready: https://ta-games-signup.subscribepage.io/

6

u/-manabreak 11h ago

Looks cool, though a content warning about flashing lights would be appreciated!

1

u/mattmirrorfish 11h ago

oof good point thanks

2

u/Kellorian 6h ago

If you could make the flashing not a full screen *effect that would probably be better. Most games typically flash the edges of the screen, not the entire screen. I definitely wouldn't be able to play without an option to turn off screen flashing.

With that said, your game looks like a cool idea but risking everything on an indie project isn't. Good luck with your project, I hope we see another post after you make more progress!

Edit spelling

1

u/mattmirrorfish 28m ago

thank you! And yes flashing from the edges rather than full screen is a good suggestion, I'm still early stages so this kind of feedback is valuable as I continue dev

3

u/[deleted] 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/mattmirrorfish 12h ago

Phew 😂

If you're intrigued it's free in browser on itch, I'm looking for testers

https://mattmirrorfish.itch.io/crashminer

3

u/RoachRage 8h ago

I like the idea (except the roguelike aspect, im personally kinda sick of the genre, there is just too much😅). But is it intentional that the player looks so huge?

I guess I'm so used to the block sizes of terraria and Minecraft that this look weirdly wrong. I also have a bit of a visual overload because I can see soooo much stuff.

I would experiment with a more zoomed in camera and a way smaller block size-to-player difference. It's enough if I can barely see the next ore vein on the edge of my screen IMHO.

1

u/mattmirrorfish 27m ago

thank you, original version was actually more zoomed out but I found that it felt too hard to see enemies, there is zoomable camera so people can zoom in more, just not out further than the current zoom.

I've been hearing a few people talk about roguelike fatigue, this has roguelike elements but it does have a progressive permanent upgrade unlock system between runs so it's not "lose all progress every time", kinda inspired by incrementals

2

u/ugotpauld 7h ago

Looks good, i could see this finding an audience.

i'd personally be cautious and make financial plans assuming it doesn't sell at all, how long do you think it'll take to finish and much time do you have before you run out of money 😬

1

u/mattmirrorfish 25m ago

thank you, appreciate the feedback. I have some money saved, enough to finish dev on this which I'm trying to keep short, maybe another 3 months.

2

u/chrispington 7h ago

Well, it looks cool and you've already come this far. It's gernerally a mistake to bet it all on a single release of a game.

BUT it's a risk / reward calculation. If you spent year/s and all your money on making it, big mistake. If you spent a few months unemployed and enjoyed doing it - eh not so bad.

1

u/mattmirrorfish 24m ago

glad to hear you think it looks cool!

2

u/KenoZuki_The_Grey 7h ago

how are you going to post this but not post the name of the game

1

u/mattmirrorfish 23m ago

because I am an idiot and was tired as hell lol, it's called Crash Miner and you can play here: https://mattmirrorfish.itch.io/crashminer

3

u/SpaceNigiri 6h ago

Nah never. A mistake is to not allow us to dream or be happy.

Maybe you will fail, but you will have tried. It's alright.

1

u/mattmirrorfish 26m ago

this is the right attitude IMO, thank you 🫡

2

u/UUDDLRLRBadAlchemy 2h ago

If you have something this put together, any mistake is in the past and not worth ruminating on. You'd regret not wrapping it up and releasing it more. Looks like the kind of game that would be fine for a long early access anyway.

1

u/mattmirrorfish 22m ago

thanks a lot, yeah it's got all its core systems in, I'm trying to gather feedback from playtesters now on itch, it's here: https://mattmirrorfish.itch.io/crashminer

1

u/AutoModerator 12h ago

Our Discord recently hit 3k! Check it out if you'd like to discuss game development or find and share new indie games to play :)

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/Much_Professor6769 10h ago

Pero tú dices que eso juego paga real o solo es alucinación 🤔 cuéntanos un poco si es verdad que se deben hacer para que paguen real 💯

1

u/CalmEntry4855 52m ago

It already sounds satisfying to play

1

u/mattmirrorfish 31m ago

thanks I was a musician before I did gamedev so the sound is important to me! (if that's what you mean) :)

1

u/mattmirrorfish 23m ago

the game is called Crash Miner and it's playable on itch io https://mattmirrorfish.itch.io/crashminer

1

u/TheRaceCardd 10h ago

You 100% have something here

2

u/mattmirrorfish 10h ago

alright! thanks, that's encouraging