You (Probably) Can’t Trust Game Dev Formulas

0$ Marketing, Steam Demos & Custom Game Engine

This is a conversation with the Australian game developer Tommy, co-creator of the tower defense game Gnomes. Thy made it in a custom Rust Engine with just 10 months of time and 0$ marketing budget. It looks like a game anyone could make, but is it? I was curious to learn more. Links to my Guests ➤ Gnomes on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3133060/Gnomes/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/3133060/Gnomes/] ➤ Sea of Survivors on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2347940/Sea_of_Survivors/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2347940/Sea_of_Survivors/] Listen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.): ➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/ [https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/] 0:00 - Intro 2:29 - Prototyping, Timeline, Demo 6:11 - Next Fest, Early Marketing Wins 8:25 - Early Access and Launch Strategy 12:23 - Switching Teams, Going Solo, Moving to Godot 15:06 - 3D vs 2D: Marketing and Development 22:11 - Solo vs Team Trade-Offs, Is it Luck? 29:16 - Roles, Content Pipeline, Localization 35:05 - Core Loop: Moveable Towers, Guilds, Shop, Endless 38:49 - Game Design: Economy vs Defense 41:45 - Difficulty, Guild Matchups, Swamp Map, RNG, Power Fantasy 47:03 - UX-First Design: Minimal Tutorial, One-Hand UI, Juice, Pacing 52:59 - Constraints, Limits Shaping Design 56:05 - Marketing: Go Narrow/Deep, Reddit, Creators Timing 1:03:20 - Fulfilling Fantasies, Don’t Chase Trends 1:11:18 - Designing Doable but Deep 1:20:49 - Regrets and Post-Launch Changes 1:30:43 - Cheat Mode, Jank, and Nostalgia 1:31:59 - Copycats on Mobile: Kingshot 1:34:29 - Mobile vs Steam and Why Gnomes Isn’t on Mobile 1:39:27 - Life Changes, Workflow, and Team Plans 1:42:32 - Generalists, Triple Threat, and the Coming AI Era 1:48:44 - Nostalgia Sells; You Only Need the Crumbs 1:50:29 - Solo vs Team Itch; Don’t Engine-Shop 1:52:02 - Do You Have to Suffer for your Art? 1:54:20 - Godot Navmesh, Sunk Cost, State Machines 1:55:16 - Trailer-First, Vertical Slice, and Variable Scope 1:57:08 - Testing Appeal: Playtests vs Trailers and Honest Feedback 2:00:30 - Appeal-First vs Gameplay-First 2:04:47 - Build a Playtest Community; Observe Actions, Not Words 2:08:46 - 500 Testers, Steam Playtest vs Keys, Superfans 2:12:40 - First-Time Players Are Gold; Demos and the First 15 Minutes 2:17:40 - Treat Your Demo Like a Launch 2:18:36 - There is a Playbook and a Splash of Luck 2:20:07 - Outro My game "Thronefall": ➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/] ➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8 [https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8] ➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview [https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview] My game "Will You Snail": ➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/] ➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK [https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK] For the game developers among you: ➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ [https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ]

Industry Veteran About Coding for Games

This is a conversation with Ricard Pillosu, an industry veteran with over 20 years in both AAA and indie teams, currently working as Co-Founder at Epictellers a 30+ head team working on the CRPG Starfinder: Afterlight. Links to my Guests ➤ Starfinder: Afterlight on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/3245640/ [https://store.steampowered.com/agecheck/app/3245640/] ➤ Epictellers Website: https://www.epictellers.com/ [https://www.epictellers.com/] Listen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.): ➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/ [https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/] 0:00 - Intro 1:21 - Why Big Success Can Be Dangerous 3:31 - Luck Is 70% 6:13 - The Hardest Part of Building a Studio: People 7:57 - Ric’s Journey so Far 9:45 - Becoming a Lead and Manager 12:30 - How Does AAA Build Games? 16:02 - Prototyping Rituals in AAA 18:29 - Pre-Production and Messy Realities 20:41 - Scrum Era, Sub-Teams, and the Human Factor 22:50 - Charisma, Toxic Positivity, and Milestone Negotiations 26:51 - Reputation Traps in Big Teams 29:19 - Is Experience Overrated? 30:56 - Culture Clashes and the Timeline Fallacy 32:49 - Wisdom Over Experience 39:12 - Choose Simple Solutions 41:55 - Enforcing Pipelines 42:26 - From Overengineering to Readability 46:24 - When Copying Is Okay 47:18 - Don’t Pre-Architect 49:18 - Pick Patterns Per Problem 54:16 - Be Nice to the CPU 55:45 - Why Godot? 58:40 - Signals, Call Stacks, and Deferring Work to the Frame 1:00:37 - Queues and Frame-Slicing 1:02:43 - Start From the Game: Feature Wishlists 1:04:24 - Why Decoupling Matters 1:05:46 - Turn Manager Example: Building Layer 0 1:12:06 - Layer 1 Orchestration: Game States and Combat Manager 1:14:18 - Syntactic Compression 1:17:47 - Micro-Managers: Mouse and Targeting Systems 1:20:48 - What Makes a Great Gameplay Programmer 1:22:56 - Anti-Patterns: Ego, Overcomplication, Blame 1:24:39 - Coding Into a Corner: It’s Part of the Journey 1:28:49 - Jonas’s Background and Goals 1:31:18 - Coding Mastery vs Commercial Success 1:34:02 - Path to Mastery: New Engines, Teams, and Contexts 1:35:22 - Reuse and Scalability Myths 1:36:10 - Why Build Multiple CRPGs: What Really Transfers 1:37:48 - Boredom and Scope Creep 1:41:42 - Why Second Games Take Longer 1:42:53 - Everyone Should Build an Engine 1:48:20 - Why Unity/Unreal Feel Bloated 1:50:49 - Godot’s Incentives: Smaller, Developer-First 1:52:11 - Will Godot Grow? “Fighting the Engine” Metric 1:56:41 - When to Pick Godot, Unity, or Unreal 1:57:05 - Closing Thoughts My game "Thronefall": ➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/] ➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8 [https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8] ➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview [https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview] My game "Will You Snail": ➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/] ➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK [https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK] For the game developers among you: ➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ [https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ]

You (Probably) Can’t Trust Game Dev Formulas

This is a conversation with my game dev friend and former collegue Friedemann Allmenröder. We created ISLANDERS together, he then went on to make many more fantastic indie games such as Pizza Possum, Summer House and recently Slots & Daggers. In this conversation with dive into the philosophy of game dev creativity and I try to understand more about how Fridemman's process for making hit games looks like these days. Links to my Guests ➤ Slots & Daggers on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3631290/Slots__Daggers/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/3631290/Slots__Daggers/] ➤ Summer House on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2533960/SUMMERHOUSE/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2533960/SUMMERHOUSE/] ➤ Portfolio Website: https://allmenroeder.com/ [https://allmenroeder.com/] ➤ Twitter/X: https://x.com/Friedemann_A [https://x.com/Friedemann_A] Listen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.): ➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/ [https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/] 0:00 - Better At Games, Worse At Advice 1:20 - Appeal × Retention As Core Formula 3:35 - Beyond Visuals: Many Kinds Of Appeal 5:05 - “Make Something Almost Too Small” 6:35 - Finding The Fresh but Familiar Twist 8:19 - Useful vs Pointless Innovation 11:07 - Why Clear Formulas Break Down 13:20 - Intuition As Compressed Rules 15:05 - Training Taste With Good “Data” 18:30 - Creativity As Remix, Not Creation 20:07 - Labeling What You Like And Why 22:22 - Missing Discourse On Creative Work 23:56 - Ideas vs Execution In Modern Dev 24:35 - Origin Story Of Slots & Daggers 27:21 - Why So Many Gambling-Like Games? 29:20 - Randomness, FOMO And Accessibility 32:07 - Farm Game, Weekend Prototype, Publisher Test 36:10 - Six-Week Jam To Seven-Month Project 41:46 - What “Execution” Really Means 45:36 - Sculpting Ideas And Minimalism 49:55 - First Prototype And Sketchy Pixel Style 52:24 - Unity Lighting, Bloom And Cheap Coherence 55:28 - “Everything Must Animate” Philosophy 1:00:22 - Fast Polish With DOTween 1:02:36 - Sound Design, SFX Packs And Screen Shake 1:05:22 - Visual Feedback Instead Of Text 1:08:06 - Reused Tech, Wiggly Leaves And The Famous Glass 1:10:27 - Building A Strong Tabletop Vibe 1:15:25 - Color, Post-Processing And Mood Swaps 1:18:53 - Dangers Of Overdoing Post-Processing 1:22:01 - Marketing Starts With An Appealing Game 1:24:45 - Publishers, Demos And Next Fests 1:30:17 - No Secret Hacks, Just Good Basics 1:35:11 - Is The Indie-Pocalypse Real? 1:38:47 - Dopamine Farming And Attention Economy 1:42:10 - Will Quiet Games Come Back? 1:43:56 - What To Make After A Loud Game 1:44:47 - Game Recs: Rainy Season And Eastshade 1:48:43 - Outro And Future Catch-Ups My game "Thronefall": ➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/] ➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8 [https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8] ➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview [https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview] My game "Will You Snail": ➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/] ➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK [https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK] For the game developers among you: ➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ [https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ]

How to Make Brilliant Games With 0 Combat

This is a conversation with Danny Weinbaum from @EastshadeStudios, the creators of one of my favorite roleplaying games, Eastshade, currently working on a new game called "Songs of Glimmerwick". How do you make successful adventure game? What makes for good quests? How to write peaceful games and bring them to satisfying conlcusion? How to craft beautiful environments? Links to my Guests ➤ On YouTube: @EastshadeStudios ➤ Eastshade on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/715560/Eastshade/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/715560/Eastshade/] ➤ Songs of Glimmerwick on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1706510/Songs_of_Glimmerwick/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1706510/Songs_of_Glimmerwick/] Listen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.): ➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/ [https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/] 0:00 - Intro 1:00 - Leaving Lyndow 3:30 - From AAA to indie 6:12 - Eastshade in a nutshell 8:52 - Designing a living world without combat 11:13 - Appeal vs fun; discovering the painting loop 15:43 - The “walking sim” problem 18:06 - Explainer trailers 19:50 - Grizzly Games team size and roles 21:20 - Market research, scraping Steam 27:32 - Eastshade sales and budget breakdown 28:55 - Full voice acting 31:18 - Environment art fundamentals 36:03 - Performance strategy 43:35 - Composing “hero shots” 44:40 - Unique landmarks, modular tilesets 49:41 - tiny open worlds; Glimmerwick’s world 51:11 - What makes a good quest 54:29 - Case study: the island mystery 56:03 - Glimmerwick’s budget, team, and timelines 57:35 - Glimmerwick’s origin and the “one captain per game” rule 59:49 - Positioning in the witchy/magic-school space 1:03:00 - Early reception: wishlists, betas 1:06:41 - From free camera to fixed 1:13:58 - Prototyping adventure games 1:20:02 - Locks and keys done right (Outer Wilds) 1:26:18 - Magic systems in Glimmerwick: spells, farming, potions 1:28:31 - Tech art pipeline and approach to writing 1:31:38 - Marketing; word of mouth 1:36:20 - Time system innovation: “event pucks” 1:40:57 - Why time makes worlds feel alive 1:43:21 - YouTube strategy: audience, impact, and shorts 1:49:12 - Turning illustrations into worlds 1:53:48 - Where to start with an adventure game 2:04:07 - Replacing combat: a merchant-driven adventure idea 2:11:06 - Glimmerwick status: wishlists, demo, conversion 2:12:22 - Show the verbs: improving the store page 2:16:37 - Marketing plans and development status 2:18:10 - Designing satisfying non-combat endings; Eastshade’s farewell 2:22:48 - Glimmerwick’s ending approach: reunion and nostalgia 2:25:26 - YouTube ROI and streamlining devlogs 2:31:10 - Thumbnails, hooks, and careful advice 2:32:42 - Game quality vs marketing; reading Steam’s middle class 2:34:18 - Game show idea, “friend slop,” trends vs art, and co-op 2:38:38 - Wrap-up My game "Thronefall": ➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/] ➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8 [https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8] ➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview [https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview] My game "Will You Snail": ➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/] ➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK [https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK] For the game developers among you: ➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ [https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ]

This Young Solo Dev Built a Steam Hit in 4 Months

This is a conversation with @zoroarts8930, a young solo dev who managed to land an indie hit with his co-op game Paddle Paddle Paddle. We talk about that success, how to potentially replicate it and also about the role of luck. Links to my Guest ➤ YouTube Channel: @zoroarts8930 ➤ Paddle Paddle Paddle on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3570070/Paddle_Paddle_Paddle/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/3570070/Paddle_Paddle_Paddle/] ➤ Makis Adventure on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1843110/Makis_Adventure/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1843110/Makis_Adventure/] ➤ Rogue Jungle on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2352850/Rogue_Jungle/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2352850/Rogue_Jungle/] Listen to the podcast on the go (Spotify, Apple Podcasts, etc.): ➤ https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/ [https://tyrollerjonas.podbean.com/] 0:00 - Intro 1:09 - Path Into Game Dev 4:49 - Maki’s Adventure Postmortem 9:15 - Building a Level Editor 15:40 - From Rogue Jungle to Paddle Paddle 17:59 - 3-Hour Prototype and Viral Validation 20:21 - Two-Week Demo, Streamers, and Early Momentum 21:39 - Publisher Deal, IGN Feature, and Wishlist Velocity 24:00 - Shipping in 4 Months; Reviews and Netcode 25:21 - Graphics vs Gameplay: Stylized Jank 26:54 - Capsule Art and Voice-Over Trailer That Converted 28:46 - Playtesting and Bug-Free Launch 30:58 - Handling Hate and Prioritizing Fun 33:13 - Networking: Photon Fusion, Shared Boat, Prediction 39:24 - Passion vs Business: Making Games for a Living 41:57 - Balancing Heart and Market 48:45 - Future Plans: Small Games and a 3D Sequel 49:50 - Sales Momentum, Regions, and a Major Update 51:44 - Working With Assemble and Filtering Spam 54:20 - Pitching Devolver, Publisher vs Self-Funding 56:23 - Investing in Audio: Composer Plans, Budget, and Impact 59:28 - Influences: Pokémon OST; Learning From Others 01:07:24 - Can You Repeat a Hit? 01:11:14 - Luck: How Much It Matters and How to Reduce It 01:18:43 - Early Flops, Iteration, Strong Steam Pages, and Being First 01:22:25 - Launch Day: Hitting Publish, Friday Strategy, and Early Sales 01:27:03 - When the Right Game Markets Itself + Next Steps 01:31:20 - Rogue Jungle 01:39:52 - Outro My game "Thronefall": ➤ Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/2239150/Thronefall/] ➤ Discord: https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8 [https://discord.gg/gVYctptyg8] ➤ Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview [https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Thronefall-2669627.html#Overview] My game "Will You Snail": ➤ Play Will You Snail on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/ [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1115050/Will_You_Snail/] ➤ Join the Will You Snail Discord: https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK [https://discord.gg/G3mRDrK] For the game developers among you: ➤ Join our creative game dev community on Discord: https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ [https://discord.gg/Ye6zzfQ]