"I do promotion for the developer, saying so up front — this community explicitly welcomes devs sharing work, and I'd rather be honest about which side of that I'm on.

Hyperion Starfall is a fixed-screen arcade shooter. One screen, wave-based enemies with distinct behaviours, scoring built around clearing formations efficiently. Space Invaders lineage rather than bullet hell.

Levels 1-8 free on Android, PC build on itch. No ads, no analytics in either.

https://hyperionstarfall.com/ Footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=motzsGFPjt8

Worth saying: the fediverse crowd tends to care about the no-tracking part more than most, and that was the dev's own call rather than a marketing angle I bolted on afterwards."

Hey everyone!

I'm SketBR, a solodev, and I've been working on Starfish ROOM: WELCOME TO LOOP ETERNAL.

It's a fast-paced 2D Musou/action roguelite inspired in VSurvivors, Bullet Bunny and Spent Shells where you play as Kibo Wave, a transgender catboy fighting hordes of monsters and aliens to unlock others ROOMS.

There are also weird random cards, combo abilities, dash attacks, dynamite, alien bosses, and an eternal loop system where eventually you have to face Boki, Kibo's clone from the future. I develop the game as a solo dev using GDevelop, and a lot of my development has been done directly on an Android phone. It's definitely been a weird way to make a game, but I've learned a lot from it.

Steam page / wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4520420/Starfish_ROOM_WELCOME_TO_LOOP_ETERNAL/

Hey! I’m Fortisq, the solo developer of Bitiverse.

It’s a small, free, persistent browser MMORPG that has somehow grown far beyond my original sensible plans. You can fight monsters, gather resources, craft equipment, trade, join guilds, build a permanent homestead and eventually excavate a personal dungeon beneath your house.

The game is fully playable, but I know it’s rough in places. Some systems are surprisingly deep; other parts may be held together by one pixel and a nervous goblin.

I’m not going to promise that Bitiverse will become your new forever MMO. I’d just love a few patient players to wander in, try it honestly and tell me where they become confused, bored, stuck or unexpectedly entertained.

There’s no download or mandatory account wall. Press Play, make a guest character and only create an account later if you decide the little fellow is worth keeping.

https://fortisq.itch.io/bitiverse

If you try it, even ten honest minutes and one useful observation would mean a lot. If you build a house, tell me where, I enjoy watching actual neighborhoods appear in this ridiculous little world.

I'm building ALIS, an early single-player UE5 survival prototype around a reconstructed real-world city location.

The question I want to test is whether familiarity with the place changes a player's decisions and sense of risk, instead of being only scenery. The current public release is an early Windows prototype, not a finished game.

Project context and ways to follow or take part: https://fall.is/community/

Would you prefer survival in a recognizable real place or in a completely fictional map—and what would the setting need to affect before it mattered to you?

What do you think of the new mechanics and stage?

I am looking for up to three founding testers for Neviroth, a live private Minecraft Java land-claim survival alpha. To be transparent, this is an independently run multiplayer project built on Minecraft rather than a standalone game. Players need to own Minecraft Java; alpha access itself is free.

The first players will have unusual influence because the world is still unwritten. They can found its first kingdoms, name places, build roads and landmarks, establish traditions and rivalries, and create the history later players inherit. Their feedback can directly change claims, economy, progression, events, and community rules before public launch.

This is real early testing, so expect bugs, balance changes, restarts or rollbacks, and requests for clear feedback. Access is not instant: every one-minute application is reviewed manually. There is no fixed weekly schedule; accepted players can join whenever they are available.

See the actual alpha-world map and apply for one of the three openings: https://neviroth.net/community/alpha/apply?src=lemmy_indiegaming&campaign=alpha-social&ref=e5892749f2e8&content=indie-gaming-founding-playtest

Hey indie gaming folks! 🖐️ Following the super helpful feedback I got from this community on my previous game (Arrow Escape), I just released a brand new directional challenge: Helicopter Escape!

Instead of arrows or cars, you're now clearing a congested helipad. The goal is to strategically tap helicopters to launch them safely into the sky without overlapping rotors or causing mid-air collisions. 🚁💥

It’s completely free, instant-play in your browser (no downloads or sign-ups), and designed for a chill, ad-free experience. 🧠✨

I'm currently optimizing mobile touch hitboxes and viewport scaling—I would love your honest feedback on visual clarity and difficulty scaling! Feel free to test out this new puzzle game on your device and let me know your thoughts! 🚀

Hey indie gaming folks! 🖐️ Following the amazing feedback on my free online arrow escape game, I just released a brand new directional puzzle: Traffic Escape!

In this new game, you strategically tap gridlocked cars to clear a chaotic parking lot without crashing. It's completely free, instant-play in your browser (no downloads/sign-ups), and designed for a chill, satisfying spatial brain workout. 🧠✨

I'm currently fine-tuning mobile touch hitboxes and viewport scaling—I would love your honest feedback on how the controls and difficulty curve feel on your specific device! Try it out and let me know your thoughts! 🚗🚀

Hi everyone,

I'm an indie creator who really enjoys clean, minimalist logic puzzles. Lately, I felt that too many web and mobile games are overcrowded with pop-ups, forced daily sign-ins, and overwhelming visual clutter.

I wanted to build something extremely simple: a game you can fire up in your browser instantly, test your spatial logic for 5 or 10 minutes, and feel that satisfying "click" when a grid clears.

So, I created this free online arrow escape game.

What it's all about:

• 100% Browser-based: No downloads, no account registrations needed.
• Pure Spatial Logic: Focused entirely on path-finding and grid clearing.
• Zero Distractions: Designed specifically for a quick, calming mental break during work or study.

I am currently trying to polish the level design and difficulty curve. I would really appreciate any feedback from fellow puzzle enthusiasts here!

Did you find the mechanics intuitive? How does the touch/click controls feel on your device? Thanks for checking it out!

I'm not a dev just sharing.

Dev social media

https://bsky.app/profile/seba-dev.bsky.social

Original post

https://bsky.app/profile/seba-dev.bsky.social/post/3motdy3x4gs2f

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.

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.

Just saw the PS3's XMB in an indie horror's trailer

Had to double check. Small "chotto a momentte" situation.

The trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xu5LKAnPPA

#IndieGaming #PS3

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".

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!

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/

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]

#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]