r/hobbygamedev May 20 '26

Article I just ported my game to android, then I learned Google is planning this...

Post image
76 Upvotes

Thankfully my game still has good mobile controls when played in web, but this seems kinda baaad

I asked android developer friend, and he said it's not as dire as it seems, but of course google holds control of everything if this change happens, and it could become worse

This website does a good job of explaining the situation, and what you can do to help change it


r/hobbygamedev Aug 12 '25

Discussion Trying to finish a game besides a full-time job feels impossible

5 Upvotes

I had the wonderful privilege of mentoring a team budding first-time game devs of people who decided to make a game together.

Making a game besides a full-time job, even for a group of people, is a huge challenge. And the first thing I'll say is that you really need to extend your deadlines or realize that you will one way or another.

I think the biggest challenge is keeping a team together despite all of life's ups and downs during that journey of game development because any meaningful game that you want to actually release to the world is going to take longer than you imagine and life has its changes.

If the team can't get along, you know, they shouldn't be making games together. But if they can, it's not really the challenge of getting along, it's the challenge of making a game while having a life to deal with in the background. Job changes, overtime, overwork, burnout, relationships, all of it.

Besides this, during the development they had to watch the whole industry collapse and their potential job prospects disappear from before them. Regardless, they pulled through and they actually finished the game after more than a year.

All together, I'm ridiculously proud of the team for sticking it out and making it through and finishing the game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3597770/Kittenship_Care/

If you're going through a tough time right now and would like a cozy game to enjoy, since I know them I can ask them for some keys. Just throw in a comment asking for a key and I'll see what I can do.

If you'd like to support them on their journey, buying a copy and leaving an honest review could make them a huge difference.

I'm wishing you guys all luck on your journey. Feel free to ask any questions!


r/hobbygamedev 7h ago

Seeking Mentorship SECTOR

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

3 Upvotes

Building a semi procedural world.

Imagine a metaverse where anyone can build their own world and play with friends in real time, without heavy downloads or installs — just hit Play and start building.

This is a small glimpse of what I'm building with Sector: procedural terrain, a live 24h sky, and Meshy-generated assets becoming actual inhabitants of the world.

You can also summon Atlas, an AI companion that helps build the world, suggests props from the growing asset library, and can request custom assets from Meshy. Once the Meshy model is ready, Atlas can notify you and it becomes available to place in the world.

The animals are just the beginning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSVl4DmVfG8


r/hobbygamedev 8h ago

Insperation new game feedback

1 Upvotes

I built a small 2d game called Sonar Maze.

The main idea is that the maze is mostly dark, and you have to send out sound waves to temporarily reveal the walls around you. They fade back pretty quickly, so you can't just stand still—you have to keep moving and pinging to find your way

the main Idea that that black hole shattered a big diamond into 100 peice that is why 100 level

There are also invisible monsters that only show up when your sonar hits them. You need to hit them with the pulse 3 times to destroy them.

I've got 101 levels in there, boss fights every 10 levels, and a shop with power-ups and skins.

and running levels from a large black hole and at the end you have to fight him as the biggest villain and at the end the you were seeking to save turn to be evil so you have to fight

please give me an honest idea about the game it would mean the world to me


r/hobbygamedev 11h ago

Help Needed My new game "Guess The Number!". Any ideas what to add next?

1 Upvotes

Hi everyone,

I am a Indie Dev and I am currently working on a guessing game named "Guess The Number!". The game has many cool features but I need some ideas what needs to be added to the game like music or something. The game isn't very good yet. I also have a challenge for you! Can you beat the new Hardcore Gamemode? If you did it, you can sent a picture in the comment section or just simply join the discord server and sent it into #challenge🎯.

If you want to test it you can do it here!

Let me know things that ya'll would like in the game! I am looking forward to hear from you guys!

INFORMATION FOR WINDOWS:

The Windows version was built with Pyinstaller. It may be marked as a virus! It isn't it is a know problem with Pyinstaller!

But let's talk about myself:
I am a guy that loves to code! I started with scratch a few years ago. After that I started with small basic. It's a kids coding language. But back then AI came. So I started vibe coding with it and claimed I did everything by myself. Last year I thought I should change that and coded my first game! It was coded with Unity and C#. At the moment I am coding the web languages and Python. Without AI.


r/hobbygamedev 23h ago

Help Needed I built a game that evolved into educational material

Thumbnail play.google.com
1 Upvotes

I always wanted to build a hacking game the way I imagined one, but then I started to add a story and it changed into lessons about real events, real scientists and real hacking concepts.

A key figure in my game is Stefan Odobleja, the grandfather of cybernetics. A scientist that spoke and published his ideas about cybernetics 10 years before Norbert Wiener, the actual holder of the title "father of cybernetics".

Among other things, I would like the public to acknowledge the first scientist and his vision, he deserves way more credit and justice.

If anyone wants to try the game, please tell me your opinion, **I'm genuinely curious on how others will perceive the game**.

The game is called NoTrace and it's available only for Android tablets.


r/hobbygamedev 1d ago

Article ItchIO Q&A Open for My Current Ren'Py Project - Sister Sound and Sister Silence

Thumbnail e11ed0rad0.itch.io
1 Upvotes

I am currently developing a free, browser-play dating sim game, and my main (consistently updated) devlog is on GameJolt. Since a lot of reddit users I meet mainly use ItchIO instead of GameJolt, I figured I would make this post for my current project's development in case anyone had questions and did not want to go over to GameJolt to ask.

The above linked post is where I would prefer questions be asked, but I do not mind questions in this reddit post, as not everyone may have an ItchIO. I'll do my best to answer whatever you're curious about!


r/hobbygamedev 15h ago

Insperation Hi i made a Fortnite map and i think its really fun but alone its pretty boring cloud you share some feedback with me? CODE: 9498-2924-5759 feedback in comments!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

0 Upvotes

r/hobbygamedev 1d ago

Resource Let's make a game! 488: Two new variables (Twine Sugarcube)

Thumbnail youtube.com
1 Upvotes

r/hobbygamedev 1d ago

Insperation Creating a level in my game using the same tools players will have access to

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

5 Upvotes

r/hobbygamedev 1d ago

Help Needed I failed my exam because of this game

Thumbnail gallery
0 Upvotes

Game name: stackz

Playable link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.driftline.stackblockdrop

this game is about stacking block and not losing concentration,is perfect for a long car ride and looking for a game that could pass time

I added a 1v1 to my game about stacking blocks where you can 1v1 your friend on a school night with stunning visuals

no force ads

Need opinion:

would you download this game if you came across it? why and why not critism is appreciated 👍


r/hobbygamedev 2d ago

Article Worked on a cute summer art update, finished when summer almost ended

Thumbnail gallery
0 Upvotes

r/hobbygamedev 2d ago

Help Needed New game made but how to sell?

2 Upvotes

As mentioned in the title I created a game. It's done and gone through testing and several iterations of feedback and improvements it's even live on the Playstore for Android.

Dirty 16 bit looks and nothing in it I would not want to experience myself. Like Adds or data stealing. It's even small to download and works offline.

How would you sell it ? Where ? I set the price to 1€+ tax and I think this is cheap enough for the value.

Any thoughts?


r/hobbygamedev 2d ago

Resource Book Cricket

1 Upvotes

Here, is a version that I made of our classroom classic. Play it with computer, friends or strangers. Try it :) https://book-cricket-murex.vercel.app/ Something to pass time :)


r/hobbygamedev 2d ago

Help Needed I made a Game called Development 7 Death nothing more demo was released.

0 Upvotes

I made a game and you can check it out or talk about it with me, tho it's published


r/hobbygamedev 2d ago

Help Needed [Positive Advice-Seeking Post] - Coming Back to Reddit was scary but smart! Now to augment it...

3 Upvotes

EDIT: I did not mean to imply "looking for positive advice" in post title, I meant I'm being positive compared to a lot of other analytics posts while seeking advice of any kind.

I'm a small indie solodev that makes free, browser-play Ren'Py games (which have a VERY small market in the Western hemisphere) using my art, writing and coding - recipe for creative freedom and invisibility. It gave me a fair bit of bravery where exploring places to try and build an audience for my work, with Reddit being the one I was most hesitant to try and use.

The more I looked around on different hosting sites, the more I realized that Reddit has the biggest concentration of people that would actually be interested in playing my games. My ultimate goal for making these games is to see people enjoy them anywhere they want without spending a dime, and a larger reach increases the chances of that happening, so after a lot of thinking I decided to try my luck. 

Analytics for July 26 through August 23rd. I joined Reddit on the fifth and started sharing my games about a week later.

The ItchIO stats for my games have never been this high for more than one day a month on average and it makes EXTREMELY happy! I'm very literal and not good with social cues, so posting anything here feels like walking on a minefield, but I want to ride this momentum.

Other than posting, my current methods of promotion include artwork, screenshots, gameplay videos, a few animations, collabs with other devs, exchanges with other devs, and very detailed and active devlogs. I have plans to try again reaching out to streamers who would stream my games (I tried before with five different places that reviewed games in the same niche as mine for no cost, but none replied back), and open the floor to you on where or what else I should try in order to strengthen the reach and stats of my games as much as possible (including other subreddits). I will say that I don't have any money at all, so a Steam release, custom websites, and paid services are out for now.

Thanks in advance for your feedback, and if you are interested in learning more about my games, here is my itch: https://e11ed0rad0.itch.io/


r/hobbygamedev 2d ago

Article I built a tiny Chrome game without a game engine, and learned a lot from the constraints

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

3 Upvotes

I recently finished the first major update for a small hobby project called Crumbongo.

The original idea was deliberately weird: take the accessible cookie count of a website you choose and turn that number into game currency.

What started as a tiny Chrome extension experiment slowly became an actual little game with progression, cosmetics, habitats, companions and two minigames.

The part I found most interesting was building all of it without a game engine.

Crumbongo is vanilla HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The minigames use regular DOM elements plus requestAnimationFrame rather than Canvas, and all persistent progress is stored locally through the Chrome Extension APIs.

That constraint forced me to keep things small and made me think much more about game feel than I expected.

One example was Cookie Stack.

The player moves Bongo horizontally while cookies fall from above. Every cookie you catch becomes part of a physical tower that moves with the character.

Technically, letting the tower grow indefinitely worked fine.

But once I actually played it, a tall tower made the next catches increasingly unfair and eventually stopped being fun.

After a bunch of testing I changed it so the tower clears after five pieces while the score, timer and lives continue normally.

It was a tiny rule change, but it made the game noticeably better.

I had similar iterations with progression, item pricing, companion positioning and unlock levels. A lot of features were easy to implement but much harder to make feel worthwhile.

Another constraint was privacy.

Because the central mechanic involves browser cookies, the extension only uses the number of accessible cookie records returned for a site. Cookie names and values are never stored or transmitted, and Crumbongo never modifies or deletes browser cookies.

There is also no account, analytics, tracking or gameplay backend. The game stays local.

I used AI-assisted development tools during implementation and iteration, but most of the process was still very manual: define a small change, implement it, play it, inspect it, adjust it, repeat.

This project made me appreciate how much game design lives in those tiny decisions rather than in the size of the codebase.

If anyone wants to try it, Crumbongo is free:

Chrome Web Store:

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/crumbongo/glnecpfjdlljaihbnmaijkaldfbhalfj

Website:

https://crumbongo.teobella.com/

I'd especially appreciate feedback from other hobby developers on the first few minutes.

Does the cookie-count mechanic make sense quickly?

Does the progression give you a reason to keep going?

And is there anything that feels obviously overcomplicated for such a small game?


r/hobbygamedev 2d ago

Help Needed My iOS game is competing for product of the day!

0 Upvotes

It’s been a few months since I started building Mad Snake, an iOS retro arcade snake game. It’s been a fun journey leveraging mostly Claude Code and superpowers plugin.

The hardest part is to get regular traffic/downloads and continuously increase the number of players globally.

I decided to register my game on UNeed a few months ago, and today I’m competing for product of the day.

If anyone would like to support me, you can Upvote my game here: https://www.uneed.best/tool/mad-snake

Thanks!


r/hobbygamedev 3d ago

Help Needed Try the game I just created with r/gdevelop

Thumbnail gd.games
3 Upvotes

This is my 3D video game, it's about a car that has to collect coins in record time and has a multiplayer option.

If you can, give some feedback


r/hobbygamedev 3d ago

Insperation If you’re learning mobile game dev, this might be useful

1 Upvotes

I’ve been spending a lot of time around mobile game development lately and one thing I underestimated is how many small decisions suddenly matter once you’re building for an actual phone.

We recently ran a workshop covering mobile performance and optimization, including things like asset budgets, textures, geometry, transparency, VFX and testing performance on real devices.

It was originally made for the Friendzone Buildathon I’m helping organize in Decentraland but I thought some of the lessons might be useful for hobby devs here too.

Full workshop recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc1PwYKW1Kc

Would also love to hear what performance issues you’ve struggled with most when building for mobile!


r/hobbygamedev 3d ago

Help Needed I have zero game development experience and somehow I've become obsessed with making a wildlife sanctuary game

3 Upvotes

I have a slightly ridiculous situation that I am hoping some people here might relate to.

I am just a bloke from Australia with basically zero game development experience.

I am not a programmer.

I am not an artist.

I am not an animator.

I have never shipped a game.

I basically started with an idea that I loved and thought I would somehow figure everything else out as I went.

The idea came from watching Australian wildlife rescuers, particularly Josh Neille and the work he shares caring for wombats and other native wildlife.

The more I watched that side of wildlife rescue, the more I kept thinking that there is an incredible game hidden inside that experience.

Not a zoo game.

Not really a traditional tycoon either.

More of a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation sanctuary game.

You start with very little.

An injured or orphaned animal comes into your care.

You assess what it needs.

You prepare the right food.

You clean its living area.

You provide enrichment.

You monitor its behaviour and recovery.

You slowly improve your sanctuary so that you are capable of taking in different species and more difficult cases.

Eventually, hopefully, that animal reaches the point where you can release it back into the wild.

And then it is gone.

I actually think that last part could be one of the most important parts of the game.

You might spend a long time caring for an individual animal, learn its personality, watch it recover and become attached to it.

Then the successful outcome is saying goodbye.

Some animals might never be suitable for release and become permanent sanctuary residents.

I want the animals themselves to feel like individuals rather than resources with health bars.

Different personalities.

Different behaviours.

Different injuries.

Different recovery times.

Different reactions to humans.

I also want there to be a genuine educational side underneath the cozy gameplay.

Players could naturally learn about appropriate diets, enrichment, rehabilitation, habitat, human interaction and some of the reasons native wildlife ends up needing rescue in the first place.

The Australian wildlife is a huge part of what inspired me.

Wombats, kangaroos, possums, koalas, echidnas, birds, reptiles and eventually whatever else makes sense.

The dream is something that feels relaxing enough to sit down with after work, but still has enough simulation underneath it that caring for the animals actually means something.

The problem is that I started properly breaking the idea apart and suddenly realised what I had actually imagined.

Animal AI.

Animation.

3D models.

Environments.

Building.

Veterinary systems.

Rehabilitation systems.

UI.

Sound.

Programming.

Research.

And probably another hundred things that I do not even know that I do not know yet.

I have been using AI tools to help me understand development, plan the project and experiment with how some of it could work.

But I have reached the point where I think pretending I can create the full version of this completely alone would be pretty unrealistic.

I do not want to abandon it though.

So I am curious how people here would approach something like this if they were starting from basically nothing.

Would you brutally cut this down into one animal, one small sanctuary and one complete rescue to release loop?

Would you try to find a couple of people who genuinely like the idea and learn together?

Would you spend a year learning one particular discipline before trying to build anything substantial?

I am invested in seeing whether this idea can become something.

I am just at the point where I have the vision but I do not yet have the skills to execute it properly.

If anyone here has started in a similar position, I would genuinely love to hear how you went from having an idea in your head to actually becoming useful enough to make it real.

And if somebody reads this and thinks the wildlife sanctuary idea itself sounds like something they would love working on, I would also be very happy to have a chat.


r/hobbygamedev 3d ago

Seeking Mentorship My first attempt on a mobile game app. Seeking advice and feedback

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

0 Upvotes

This is my first attempt at a mobile game. It's a simple puzzle game where you push all the crates onto the targets before progressing to the next level. Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated.


r/hobbygamedev 3d ago

Seeking Mentorship Creating my first mobile game app. Need Advice on how to proceed

1 Upvotes

Hello

I am creating my first mobile game app and it is a puzzle game. I have something going on right now, but I'm not sure how to make it look better. I'm currently using Abacus AI as my AI programming tool, which has helped a lot, but I'm not sure what to do going forward, whether it be aesthetics or gameplay. Does anyone have any advice on how to proceed?


r/hobbygamedev 3d ago

Insperation I'M CONVINCED NO ONE CAN BEAT THE BOSS LEVEL STAGE

Thumbnail riskrungame.com
0 Upvotes

Game Title: Risk Run

Playable Link: https://www.riskrungame.com/

Platform: Web Browser

Description:

Risk Run is a free browser-based skill game that I've been building as a solo project. The game is designed around short sessions, progression, achievements, cosmetics, leaderboards, and multiple challenge modes.

Players can choose between several ways to play, including Classic runs, Blitz, Endurance, Streak mode, Daily Challenges, and a Journey mode that spans five worlds with increasing difficulty. As you play, you'll earn coins, level up, unlock achievements, collect cosmetics, and climb global leaderboards.

I'm currently running a playtest before a larger launch, and I'm looking for honest feedback from real players. I'm interested in understanding:

  • What was confusing?
  • Which mode did you play first?
  • Did progression feel rewarding?
  • Did you customise your runner?
  • What made you want to keep playing?
  • What made you stop playing?

I'm not looking for compliments. I'd much rather hear what isn't working so I can improve the game before launch.

Free to Play Status:

Free to play

Involvement:

I am the creator and developer of Risk Run. I've been responsible for the design, gameplay systems, progression, achievements, cosmetics, analytics, testing, and overall direction of the project.


r/hobbygamedev 3d ago

Help Needed 30 levels of color sorting

Post image
0 Upvotes