I don’t mean to be passive-aggressive, animations are really hard (especially to produce on game-wide scale alone), but I love those in-sync doggos, choreographed tails like they are about to start a (good-)boy band.

Hey! So, I’ll go into more detail once I have a strong enough connection to watch the videos smoothly. For now some general advice that is often missed by new game devs:

1. Make your game fun. Not just fun to you; fun to others too. Even if that means taking a step back and looking at a mechanic you personally enjoy from a very objective perspective.

2. Make sure the game runs well. Limit the jittering and framerate hiccups. Give flexibility to controls. Let people change them. Provide all the options.

3. Drip feed mechanics into the gameplay in a natural way BUT make sure everything is technically unlocked immediately. This opens up more replayability without the opening slog some games force people to sit through.

4. Finally, ask for help and take criticism seriously. None of us are shitting on something you have put tremendous work into. We want the experience to be awesome. As much for you as for us.

Bonus: If you can, try and release your game on Steam between other releases in the same, or in adjacent, genres. Also consider reaching out to streamers that have shown they are willing to give factual and fair critiques, reviews, and chances for a game.

I have been considering creating a game for some time and these are the rules I would follow. Fun factor and playability absolutely stomp on everything else. A fun, playable, easy to get into experience will sell itself. From there it’s just a matter of holding onto the hype long enough to make all that effort so very much worth it.

This appears to be The Short Snow.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3054440/The_Short_Snow/