Spyke

I'm Building Games That Don't Treat You Like a Wallet

I got into making games because I love games. Not because I see players as a balance sheet to drain. But somewhere along the way a lot of the industry stopped shipping things you finish and started shipping things designed to hook you, time you, and quietly bleed your wallet on a Tuesday night.

Loot boxes that are just slot machines with extra steps. Countdown timers built to make you panic-buy. Hyped-up trailers covering for a launch that's broken or empty. Full price games that still nickel-and-dime you for the fun parts. That's not design, that's a casino wearing a costume.

To be clear, I'm not mad at charging money. I sell my own game, and there are optional purchases that keep the servers on and pay the people building it. Charging a fair price for real work is honest. Engineering addiction and hiding a hollow product behind a flashy trailer is not. There's a line, and a lot of people sprinted past it.

So here's my flag in the ground. Fair price. Finished game. No psychological traps, no dishonest hype. You buy it, you own it, you actually have fun. That used to be the baseline. I want to make it the baseline again.

View original on lemmy.world

Players, Not Wallets

Somewhere in a glass tower, a meeting happened. The question on the slide wasn't "is this game fun." It was "how do we get them to spend again before they notice they stopped having fun." That's the part that gets me.

I'm not against paying for games. I sell mine for less than a lunch, with a few optional extras that keep the servers on and let me keep doing this. That's a fair trade. You give me a little, I give you a whole world and I don't pick your pocket while you're standing in it.

What I'm against is the slot machine wearing a game's skin. The blinking timers built to make you anxious. The fun locked behind a wall so you'll pay to feel something. The hyped launch that ships broken because the marketing already cashed the check. Designing a game to drain you instead of delight you is a choice, and a lot of big teams keep choosing it.

So here's where I plant my flag. I'd rather make a smaller, honest thing that respects your time and your wallet than a shiny machine engineered to bleed you slow. If you're tired of being treated like a balance instead of a player, good. Come build the other timeline with me. We're still out here, and we're not selling you back the joy.

View original on lemmy.world
indiegaming·Indie GamingbyGaran Lorn

Dead Reckoning — Free colony ship sim, looking for feedback

You're in charge of a generation ship carrying 1,000 colonists in cryo suspension. You don't know exactly where you're going. You won't arrive for centuries. Your job is to keep everyone alive long enough to find somewhere worth landing.

Each year you get a report. Resources tick up or down. Events fire — some are choices, some are just things that happen to you. Factions form aboard the ship and start pulling against each other. The crew drifts — ideologically, genetically, psychologically — and the UI starts to reflect it.

There are 11 endings. Most of them are bad.

What I'm looking for:

  • How far did you get, and what killed you?
  • Did anything feel unfair vs. appropriately punishing?
  • Was there a moment where you understood what the game was actually about?

Free download, Windows/Linux. A full run is 30–60 minutes. https://garanlorn.itch.io/dead-reckoning

Any feedback appreciated. Even "It sucks".

View original on lemmy.ca
indiegaming·Indie GamingbyYUART

Spent more time looking for a game than actually playing one? Help me test Gamescovery, a recommendation engine built for your actual taste.

Hey everyone,

Like many of you, I've spent more time hunting for my next game than actually playing. I'm frustrated with recommenders that just push popular titles, ignoring what makes my taste unique.

That's why I've been building Gamescovery (games discovery!).

What is it?

Gamescovery is a new recommendation system designed specifically for games. The goal is simple: use your ratings from the games you've played to find hidden gems and perfect matches you'd otherwise miss.

Why it's different:

  • It's not a generic engine. It's being built from the ground up to understand what you love about games.
  • Future updates will let you fine-tune recommendations based on what matters most to you (genre, mood, developer, etc.).
  • We start by focusing on the incredible world of itch.io indie games to help you uncover amazing projects that big algorithms overlook.

This is where you come in.

The alpha is now live, and it's very much an early build. I'm not a big company, I'm a solo developer who wants to build something the community actually finds useful. That's why your feedback is crucial.

As an alpha tester, you'll get:

  • Early access to a tool designed to beat the "recommendation paradox."
  • A direct line to the developer to shape project's future.
  • The chance to help build a non-biased, community-driven platform.

Ready to try it out?

👉 Sign up for the alpha and start getting recommendations here: https://gamescovery.com/

Want to chat, suggest features, or report bugs? 🎮 Join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/brr7aYezMc

This project has and will always have a free tier. The dream is to support all major platforms, but we're starting with itch.io to prove the concept.

Thanks for your time, and I'm excited to hear what you think!

View original on feddit.org
indiegaming·Indie Gamingbymrhenry77

Tidewrath - Roguelike MMORPG

Solo dev here, over the calm holidays I built myself a small roguelike MMORP cozy (but permadeath) free to play browser game (mvp) called Tidewrath.

Every 5 minutes a tsunami wipes the surface. Get underground or lose everything. World regenerates, you start fresh.

Isometric pixel art, click-to-move combat, fishing, building stuff, player shops.

This is the first early access version. It should also work on iphone (fullscreen if you add to home screen and sound if you unmute phone).

No accounts yet, so if you want, you can just hop in and see how long you survive.

Would love some feedback if anyone gives it a try.

https://tidewrath.com/

View original on lemmy.world
indiegaming·Indie GamingbyENNIX

More about: Beyond the Iron Cycle

check the release post: release-post

Beyond the Iron Cycle BTIC is fully independent project by one entity.

It is very hard to work and publish such a project as a single entity. Allthough the programming itself - on its own - is already hard, but the harder challenge is to publish the game as independent as possible - and when you know the project, you will know why this has to be as independently published as possible.

After trying several options (github, gibtlab, bitbucket, Savannah, http-hosters, ... - those are more/less: centralized/offering a lot of not needed features/unnecessarily complicated/hosted by toxic-entities like Microsoft/payed services) i think that lemmy is best platform and community to publish the project.

The code i wrote is really easy to check, if in doubt test this on some old laptop or raspberry pi - no strings attached.

Also i choose not to host this (very special) project continually, but until some (yet unknown) point in the future as limited downloads.

Until then, you will find the "release fountain"-post in the according community: https://lemmy.ml/c/btic

for some time i will answer some questions about the game here in the comment-section of this post.

thx, good luck and have fun!

Many things occur as a chance, but some chances may drift away in time and space and they will never come back.

[edit: typos, name hosting-options]

View original on lemmy.ml
indiegaming·Indie GamingbyENNIX

release fountain : Beyond the Iron Cycle

#linux #gaming #indiegaming #cyberpunk #decentralization #free-and-libre #terminal #unix #network

release fountain : Beyond the Iron Cycle

check out the release post: release-post

download: https://limewire.com/d/LUrxA#ZfERLUVwxU (limited downloads) sha256sum: 9cfb455a5ce72fd9fa9c9929cbb6ca6de6c120074da9921e5d656dbb7330e3bc hc-25-12-17.tar.bz2

game start: POS: Pos: r=1.1 SNU; dlt=32.11; phi=45.06 - relay pod

. . . This is an automated beacon signal . . .

You managed to reach the relay-pod, right on the edge of the estimated maximum extend of the Iron Cycle.

You need an operational hypercore to jump away from here.

Intermediate tasks:

  • get&start the hypercore (hc-YY-MM-DD.tar.bz2)
  • start a tor daemon
  • contact the outpost pod [Sun, UTC 18-20]
  • configure a tor-service (check MY_README)
  • set up an url1 ([r][h])
  • send a peer request to user1

[edit: title,link-target]

View original on lemmy.ml

Feedback for my first (mini-) game?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/30613855

I finished this first game of mine about three months ago. Back then i was too anxious to post it. I would love some feedback on it generally. i am aware of some bugs, and generally know how to do it better nowadays, but i didn't want to touch the code anymore. I'd describe myself as Gamedesigner first, coder second, and artist last. so i would be especially interested in how the game feels to you.

Thanks to everyone who took time out of their day for this :3

Feedback for my first (mini-) game?https://sorryforsmelling.itch.io/astro-domeOpen linkView original on lemmy.blahaj.zone

Steam Summer Sale 2025 - 15 Hidden Indie Gems

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.abnormalbeings.space/post/5293159

The 15 games mentioned in the video, each with a short description/review segment:

  • Unbox: Newbie's Adventeure
  • Utopia Must Fall
  • Chroma Squad
  • Shadow Gambit
  • En Garde!
  • Tinykin
  • Our Adventurer Guild
  • Timespinner
  • Renowned Explorers
  • The Brutale
  • Wintermoor Tactics Club
  • Unsighted
  • Wayhaven Chronicles
  • Demon Turf
  • Roadwarden
Steam Summer Sale 2025 - 15 Hidden Indie Gemshttps://videos.abnormalbeings.space/w/cVKLvUD548WChoUjgPo7xVOpen linkView original on lemmy.abnormalbeings.space
indiegaming·Indie GamingbyGulAtiCa

Steam World Ocean Day Charity Sale 2025

Wanted to let others know of this new weekly custom Steam Sale that is benefitting Whales & Dolphins worldwide via a charity group. There will be a Steam Daily Deal happening tomorrow (June 6th, 2025) to help support. Every sale in the group will donate a portion to the charity group.

I have 2 games in the sale myself, Rocket (a roguelite space game) and Drop It: Block Paradise (a physics puzzle game) that every sale I'll be donating 50% to the cause myself.

Steam World Ocean Day Charity Sale 2025https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/skyboundgames/sale/worldoceanday2025Open linkView original on thebrainbin.org

17 New Indie Games – June 2025

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.abnormalbeings.space/post/3637775

The list, if you don't want to watch the (whole) video:

  • Popucom
  • Zefyr: A Thief's Melody
  • Deltarune: Chapter 3 & 4
  • Dragon is Dead
  • Forgotlings
  • Vilde
  • The Alters
  • Date Everything!
  • Lost in Random: The Eternal Die
  • Warton
  • Dragonloop
  • Crown Gambit
  • Rematch
  • Star Overdrive
  • Outrider Mako
  • Shuffle Tactics
  • Ruffy and the Riverside
17 New Indie Games – June 2025https://videos.abnormalbeings.space/w/pi2qhESd2X4rJjeE7peku3Open linkView original on lemmy.abnormalbeings.space