Lately I've been living a soap opera.

Quick recap: my game went viral in China, with all the good and bad that comes with it. If you want to read the story from the start, I'll leave links to my other posts at the end.

But today I'm opening up a debate I never had a strong opinion on: does piracy help or hurt games? Because I think piracy is eating my game, and my server, alive.

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My server blocked

A couple of days ago, my hosting provider started blocking my backend. That's where I handle player analytics, scores, and so on. Turns out an excess of requests was forcing my server into temporary shutdowns. I thought I was being attacked, so when I asked them to just block the conflicting IPs, they told me there were hundreds of them, and that it looked like a legitimate flow of players.

Happy about the success and stressed about the urgency, I spent several days optimizing database calls, adding Cloudflare protection, and upgrading to a bigger hosting plan just to make sure there wouldn't be more blocks.

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For every 10 new players, 9 are pirates

When I finally finished optimizing everything, I checked the new players table and their usernames caught my attention. All of them were named xdgame, a Chinese website known for promoting pirated content.

Every time I hit refresh, at any hour of the day, exactly 22 of the last 25 entries had that name, despite being different Steam accounts. Today I had to widen the filter to the last 100 entries to confirm that 99% were pirates.

[Screenshot of table full of pirates]

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Optimizing my anti-pirate system

I already covered how my anti-piracy system works in previous posts, though honestly I don't know if it still works on this PC version or if they've already bypassed it.

[Link to anti-piracy system post]

As soon as this situation started, I did an extra optimization on the database to stop processing data coming from these versions. But the underlying problem is still there: there's nothing I can do on the client side, since I have no way to update the pirated version. That means the number of calls hitting my server stays exactly the same, and the only thing I can do is keep a bigger server plan to hold up the service. Hopefully the pirates update their version at some point.

Even so, I decided to leave new user registration active, just out of curiosity to see where my players were coming from. That's how I ended up counting that 99% today.

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"Pirates aren't in your market" - ☝️🤓

When the piracy situation got out of hand, I partnered with a Chinese publisher, who I have to admit seem to work really well. They opened pre-registration 2 weeks ago, took down several mobile pirated versions, and got thousands of sign-ups for the official version on day one. I've been genuinely happy with the reports they've been sending me.

Part of the reason I did this was an argument I kept seeing a lot: that if the game isn't on mobile, new pirate players are pirates because they don't have a PC to play on. But now that mobile piracy seems somewhat more under control, PC piracy is growing at an incredible rate.

Maybe they were simply choosing mobile out of convenience, not necessity, when it was free.

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I released a PC-only feature that made everything worse

One of the updates I released to keep improving the official version was a mod that connects the biggest Chinese streaming platforms (Douyin, RedNote, and Bilibili) to the game. This lets livestream viewers show up as customers in front of the streamer and chat with them.

This mod is an external executable shared on my game's forum. It started slow since nobody knew about it, but now there are hundreds of players live on those platforms every single day.

Personally, I think this has also driven the increase in PC pirate players, since they can enjoy the mod here, when they couldn't on mobile.

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Does piracy help games?

I don't buy into the "pirates who enjoy the game will buy it later" idea, so I was never a defender of piracy, though I never condemned it or looked down on anyone for pirating either. I just live alongside its existence and try to do so in the best way I can as a developer. As I explained in other posts, my only "remedy" was making the burger joint's customers dress up as pirates while an un-mutable sea shanty plays, and only paying a couple of doubloons for their food. A feature that kicks in after an hour of play, and works more like a bit of karma toward pirate players than an actual punishment.

When my game started going viral, I also wrote a post saying that maybe piracy itself helped me reach more people, since it generates more videos on social media and gets more people talking about the game.

[Link to piracy post]

But after analyzing these last few days, I think I might have been wrong. Here's the data:

• March 2025: My game came out a year and a half ago.
• June 2026: It goes viral in China through Douyin (their version of TikTok).
• June 28: The pirated PC version comes out, without many players.
• July 11: Mobile pre-order goes live on TapTap China, and anti-piracy measures are put in place.
• July 18: I release the Livestream mod for PC.
• July 20: I notice an increase in PC pirate players, though it had already been building up before this.
• July 20–22: My sales drop about -40%, and SteamDB shows a noticeable decline in active official players.

Right now I'm counting 9,000 players under that piracy website's name.

So at this point, my opinion on piracy is no longer "piracy exists in parallel with healthy growth."

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Why am I writing this?

I'm not writing this looking for attention, since thankfully the game is still doing well. Nobody here needs to buy it, that's why I'm not sharing the name. [Link to the post about my game is doing well]

My day-to-day over the last month has been putting my project aside to handle this situation as best I can, and while stressful, it's been quite the experience. That's why I keep sharing it so much.

Many of you have encouraged me to keep posting about it, but to those who haven't, I'm sorry if I've become tiresome with this topic. I feel like it shows a side of gamedev that a lot of people don't talk about, out of fear that the situation will get worse or just jinx it.

The main reason I write this is because I genuinely enjoy sharing my story, it's helped me make better decisions for my project and my future as a studio more than once. I've gotten messages that made my day, and I feel like other users find it interesting too. Again, if that's not your case, I hope you'll forgive me for continuing.

I'll keep you posted whenever there's news. If you want me to, that is.

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*Disclaimer: This post is AI-translated. I'm a native Spanish speaker, I wrote and structured all of this in Spanish, and had AI translate it into English. I reviewed the translation afterward to make sure the message hadn't changed. Hope you don't mind.

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*Update: After some users suggestions I tried to remove the php files that were receiving all the data and update oficial users to a new endpoint. Somehow pirates trying to reach a non-existen url causes a higher CPU usage so I used Cloudflare to block this URLs. Now server is under 10% of usage! 😁

Hello all. I've been building a custom engine over the past 7 years using C++/Vulkan. It began as a hobby project and learning endeavor but since last year I've been putting serious engineering effort into its various subsystems. I've finally broken the barrier to the engine's frontend, so to speak, and can now begin authoring my first game.

I have some very particular ideas in mind and a couple local artists who are willing to help me bring it to life. I was wondering, when does it become reasonable to consider something like a Patreon or kickstarter to help me takeba swing at getting a studio off the ground? Publishing games with a solid team has been my dream since I was a kid.

I'm assuming it's never wrong to consider putting together a grayboxed demo or even a tech demonstration, to be more general, for the sake of acquiring funding. My current roadmap is to deliver a demo that showcases my game's core loop and several mechanics. I recently got laid off from my job as a SWE, and I don't have the biggest savings. I'm hoping that all of the study and work I put into my engine will afford me some respite with the help of anyone willing to support my ambition.

Any pointers and advice would be lovely. Thank you!

We recently got our first "AI slop" comment about our game.

The ironic part is that we use zero AI-generated assets.

No AI-generated art.
No AI-generated marketing materials.
No AI-generated trailer.

We even work with human translators instead of relying on AI, despite being a small team.

We completely understand why people are cautious AI-generated content is everywhere right now.

But it feels like we've reached a point where "AI" has become the default accusation whenever someone doesn't like something.

Have any of you experienced this?

Did you ignore it, explain yourselves, or just move on?

Every generation of games introduces new mechanics, but some great ideas quietly vanish.
I’m not talking about graphics or nostalgia—I’m talking about actual gameplay systems that made games feel different.
What mechanic would you bring back, and why do you think the industry abandoned it?

I can't decide which one is better for my game. I need some outside input.

A lot of people have suggested that I should use AI for art assets, especially since the whole industry is doing that now.
But I don’t really see it that way.

I’m more comfortable starting with paper and pencil, and I don’t think that makes the process outdated.
I really enjoy shaping each character’s unique silhouette first, then slowly refining the details based on that foundation.
There’s something in the expression, the small imperfections, and the unconscious details created by hand that I feel AI has a hard time recreating.
And I am confident with this.

If you want to see more of the art details and get a better idea of what kind of game this is, the game is free to play on itch: https://namepixelrobin.itch.io/pinball-realm

The numbers

Total Steam revenue: $162. Total units: 29. A small portion of those came from the recent Steam sale (69% discount). No paid advertising. We gave a few steam keys away to people who reached out and asked for them, likely automated comms.

The game

150+ hand-made rooms to explore, 8+ music tracks, 4 fully animated cutscenes, 7 hidden collectibles, and a bunch of really cool original art my buddy started in his garage, with painted textures he digitized for the planet NPCs and cheese moons. We've described it as a cozy metroidvania-lite, though it's probably aptly described as a top down platformer too.

The team

Two people. Some kind folks volunteered their time and energy for voice acting, and we scored a decent composer for rev share. Our respective partners were supportive and kind enough to playtest and give feedback.

What went wrong (or at least, what didn't happen)

We ran out of steam between the two of us and didn't really do any marketing outside of LinkedIn (heh) and some light Facebook/Reddit posting. Our Discord community had been a little dead for over a year before release. Most of our friends and family didn't really engage with the process and barely acknowledged its existence post-release.

It's been difficult to get people excited or invested at even a cursory level. A handful of people said the game was too difficult, so we implemented a cozy no-death mode, and still heard it was too difficult. We'll retool how we talk about the game and how we get people engaged in the process.

What we'd do again

Honestly, most of it. We both went in thinking the game wouldn't make money and we didn't really try to make money. It was a lot of fun to build, and I'd probably do it all the same way to preserve the excitement of building the experience. I've felt a little like I'm missing a limb since we finished.

What's next

We're scoping down our next game so we can net a nice little win before exploring a larger project again. We're a lot more learned than when we started, and I'm grateful the learning along the way ended up supporting my real-life career in tech.

A week ago, I uploaded my first web game to CrazyGames, and it got approved one day later (for a two-week Basic Launch trial, after which it may be permanently integrated into their site).

The current problem I am facing is that the CTR is at 0.5%, while a good rate would be about 1.5–2%. Now my question is whether the main reason for the 0.5% CTR is that the cover is not interesting or that it is AI-generated.

As for why I didn’t make the cover myself, I am horrible at drawing, and it is not something I enjoy. Therefore, I don’t want to invest time in learning it.
For refrence this is the Cover:

and here a clip of the gameplay:

https://reddit.com/link/1v30fh7/video/4a12uv44loeh1/player

Combat's built around one thing: you don't run a party, just two characters trading off on the same lane. One sets up, the other swaps in to finish. And since losing either one ends the run, half the game is just deciding who takes the next hit.

Had a full party in early builds and it felt like every other tactics game out there. Cutting it down to two is what finally made it feel like something.

Does the swap actually read in the clip? Or does it just look like I'm switching characters lol

Steam page's here if you wanna see what it is :: Steam page link ::

It's made with python + raylib

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4840980/Bound_to_Rot/

I've gotten so many comments, positive and (mostly) negative, that have shaped my game that it's started to shape the way I approach GIVING feedback as well. The people who were the most critical gave me the biggest gift, and it's something I am trying to pay forward now. Thanks to everyone who helps make the indie dev community actually WORK by offering support and actionable feedback. I'll be doing the same moving forward! :)

After around 17 months of development, I launched v0.1 of Coin-Op Empire, my first game.

It’s an isometric arcade management sim where you build and run your own arcade. You place machines, manage employees, deal with customers, maintain machines as they wear down, survive rush hours, and slowly grow the business.

I coded it myself, drew everything myself, and now the systems are set. It was a long and really fun journey, where I learned a lot of things on my own.
I’d really appreciate feedback, especially about what feels confusing, which systems need better explanation, bugs you encounter, and what parts of the game you think have the most potential.

Thanks for checking it out. This is only the beginning, but getting my first game out into the world feels like a pretty big milestone.

Link to the game:
https://cola-powered-gamer.itch.io/coin-op-empire

So, we're a team of three working for the demo of an indie game about this rabbit, Sam, whose wife died which caused him to get into being dependent on painkillers and facing problems with the custody of his children. We really need a programmer, while, if anyone volunteers, it would be nice having a backgrounds artist. The game is in pixel art and the artist will need a digital art supply. Regarding the programmer, any programming language is accepted as long as your able to work with it. Payment for your work is not guaranteed, that's why it's volunteering work and I understand if you do not want to work on it for free. The game will be published on itch.io,The game will be free-to-play. Whoever wants to join our project contact me in private and I'll provide further information such as the finished demo's script and a more detailed context. Thanks to anyone who responds!

Building a life simulator game about being homeless. There's a few on the iOS store that I do like but none of them are as in-depth as I'd like them to be, nor as realistic or have the best progression - thus leaving me dissatisfied. Today we got 1 activity we can do which is beg. I wanted to get the basics down first so I have something repeatable for future actions. Much much more to come. Building for iOS, macOS, and iPadOS.

There's a really cool app, Credits, and it's currently in beta. It's the best way to search movies, shows, cast and crew. It's a great tool for discovering shows and movies and even tells you on which services and platforms you can watch them. What makes Credits great:

• completely free – no paywalls, all features are available to all users
• no ads – none of the content is obstructed by ads
• lightning fast – no freezing, no lagging, everything is buttery smooth
• privacy-first – no data collection of any kind whatsoever

The fact that it is in beta means that you have the opportunity to shape the future of the app through user feedback.

Hi all, we will develop a cozy pharmacy game. I can't give too much details about it rn but we would like our users to get relaxed. And for this sake we would like to decide our art style. We just started to make 3 basic examples from AI. But in actual game we won't use it, we just used it to decide which one should be better.

Which one might be a better style?

I've been developing a HD-2D gamedev project inspired by MarioRPG.

Action commands, physics-based movement and a recreated room from my 5-year-old game Abdogtion.

Still early, but the systems are coming together.

https://reddit.com/link/1v31j2s/video/78b00v33noeh1/player

Hey everyone,

I was develooping an android game for the past 3 months, after the game was successfully launched in play store, i wanted to add subscription payment methods.

Unfortunately, i not eligible for the play store pass program offering subscription payment gateways as Im not a resident of approved countries.

I dont want to use ads inside my app, so i seached for any alternatives, i found that using an LLC you will get access to stripe, and integrate subscription monetization to my app.

I would like you to recommand me to some authetic low cost online LLC business services (Preferably very low annual fees for tax....), maybe in new mexico, wyoming, and tell me your experience with LLC in your apps, or websites.

Thanks

I’ve spent the last few days improving the checkout system in Big Market Simulator.

Current features include:

• Customer queues
• Cashier scanning items
• Automatic price calculation
• Payment processing
• Continuous customer flow

There’s still a lot to polish, but it’s becoming much more stable than before.

If you’re developing simulation games, I’d love to hear any suggestions or ideas.

Hi, Im A Brand New Indie Dev And Im Looking For People To Help On My New Game Fung Us, A Revival Of Old 2020-2021 Among Us

I Need

2-3 Artists

3-5 Coders

1-2 Sound Designers

And 5-10 Playtesters (Not Including Me, Im A Playtester As Well)

If You Want More Info Go To FungUsOfficalDownload/fung-us: Download For Fung Us On PC And Mobile

DiDiDiG fell just short of 1,000 wishlists before launch.

Today, it finally reached that milestone.

Back to development.

The game is currently waiting for approval on Google Play!

Disclosure: I’m part of the team building FormVerse.

I ran a small workflow test using a generic sci-fi cargo crate:

1. Generated the first draft from text
2. Inspected the PBR, solid and UV views
3. Received an asset-health score of 87
4. Requested thicker handles, fewer surface greebles and a clearer lid seam
5. Compared the revised result
6. Attempted a GLB export

What worked: the first draft had a readable silhouette and coherent material direction, and the prompt-based revision produced a useful visual change.

What didn’t: GLB export failed twice. The health score also doesn’t prove production-ready topology, and retopology, collision, LODs and runtime checks would still be needed.

For an actual indie pipeline, would this save meaningful prototyping time, or just move the cleanup work downstream? Which checks should block export?