Game Dev

Best Game Dev Report 2025!

With the year reaching the end it's time to look back at the Best of the Game Dev Report of 2025!

I didn't miss a single week, so that's 52 new issues each covering all sorts of interesting news and articles all about Game Dev, Tech and Gaming.

Here are my highlights of the year:

• Dev followed my FREE course, then made $150k!

  I love hearing about people following my courses and then going on to find massive success! This was a great story. I hope YOU also find success like this!

• Another Solo Dev makes $50 MILLION!

  It's been a big year for small teams, Schedule I, Supermarket Simulator, PEAK, Megabonk. It's crazy how as an indie dev your game can either make $0 or $MILLIONS!

• What do the best programmers do differently?

  If you want to improve your craft then look at what the best people doing it do differently, that's a great way to learn!

• Every Daily Deal of 2024 and how much they're worth

  Do you know how to get a Daily deal on Steam? And how much is it worth? This year they actually increased the number of slots which means more devs finding more success!

• Why is this so satisfying?

  This is an excellent exercise that I recommend you do. Look at something that seems super satisfying, and spend some time breaking it down to understand WHY it's so satisfying.

• What makes an Indie Game look Low Effort?

  It's important to know what to do, but also just as important to know what NOT to do. Here's a list of things that make games look low effort, study and avoid them!

• Dev making MILLIONS with simple strategy

  Nowadays finding success is tough so you need to find every edge you can, this one developer found a strategy that is working very well for them! I highly recommend you give it a try.

• Roblox is MASSIVE! And maybe you can use that?

  Another great strategy is one I covered in this report, use the massive size of Roblox for idea validation.

• The NEW Indie Golden age is here!

  Making a living as an indie dev is tough, but for some good news it seems we are actually going through an Indie Golden Age! Some genres that are easy to make are also the ones that are finding lots of success!

• Game ideas that sound like they SHOULDN'T work, but do!

  You can make games about literally anything! If you tell someone who doesn't play games "Oh when I go back home, for fun I like to work at a Supermarket" then that person will look at you like you're crazy, and yet Supermarket Simulator is loved by players!

• Rejected by 58 publishers, then made $750k

  Another story with a happy ending. Developer tried to get a publisher, failed, self-published instead, and made a ton of money!

• Tips from making 2+ games!

  The biggest mistake devs make is just making ONE game and then quitting the industry entirely. You learn a ton from every project so if you make more games you will improve your skills and your odds of success drastically.

• Rule #1 of Game Marketing

  All the marketing tricks in the world won't work if you miss the #1 rule. On the other hand, if you have it then marketing and finding success becomes infinitely easier!

And something I really enjoy is the FUN section where I've covered all sorts of random stuff, here are my highlights this year:

• Fun Web Sim in your browser!

  Really impressive simulation of a web that runs in your browser, you can cut and slice it in any way and the whole thing is physically accurate! The dev even made a tutorial explaining how it works.

• 3D Printed Robot Flesh!

  I love 3D Printing and this is some fascinating piece of tech. It's a 3D printed cube with a specific shape and a sensor that allows you to know where its being touched and how intensely. Awesome for all kinds of robotics.

• Algorithms IKEA-fied!

  IKEA instructions are usually brilliant, 0 text and yet super easy to understand. One dev took that idea and applied it to algorithms, awesome!

• 3D render of how a T-Shirt is made

  Visualizations are awesome and this one showing how a T-Shirt goes from cotton ball to an actual shirt is fascinating!

• AR Glasses Screenshot the World!

  I am still waiting for AR contact lenses, and when they arrive things like this will be insanely useful! Using AR you can slice a part of the world and identify what you're looking at. Imagine identifying some random fruit on a deserted island, or some piece in your car to help you fix it.

And if you want to see the Best of the Game Dev Report of 2024 then check this link!

Thank you so much for reading, I really hope you've enjoyed receiving the Game Dev Report every week!

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New Year Sale, FREE C4

The year is coming to an end so the Unity Asset Store is running a New Year Sale!

Most of the usual Top Assets are 50% OFF, if you’re looking for recommendations you can watch my Highlights from Black Friday and all of those are on sale.

My own Toolkit asset is on sale! Next year I will be adding tons of Tools and Elements to it and if you pick it up right now you get all of those as FREE Updates!

The Publisher of the Week this time is QAtmo, it’s a publisher with a bunch of 3D models and environments.

Get the FREE Explosive Device C4 & Defuse Kit which is a pretty nice model, perfect for making your own Counter-Strike!

Get it HERE and use coupon QATMO at checkout to get it for FREE!

If you’re interested in realistic environments then there’s a HumbleBundle out right now with a ton of them at an insane 99% OFF discount!

Includes a Carnival, Apocalyptic Hospital, Gothic church, Feudal Japan, Pharaoh theme, Medieval, Elven, etc. Lots of variety to make tons of games!

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