u/Trashy_io

I am still a new-ish solo dev, I've made a few post in this sub and I currently have two new projects both in decent spots in development demo and polished prototype and can't decide which one to trash or both of them and start from scratch on a new project with everything I have learned.

1st project: Deep Dig Crew
A 2D digging sim where you help run and operate a small sketchy construction company. That has a Crane, Excavator, and a dump truck you need to use in order to reach the worlds core upgrading you equipment along the way. It has a soft ending at the core but just lets you keep digging.

Meant to be a relaxing spin on the incremental genre.

2nd: Zom-Bazooka
A survivorslike TD wave based game where it turns slowly into a incremental game through after run permeant upgrades. With in game supply drops that act as the upgrade cards. Only weapon is a rocket launcher but do have plans to make different types of base abilities instead of just explosions if I do end up going with prototype

Meant to be silly but engaging, and feel like a extension of the 2000's to early 2010's flash game era.

I have recently finished a pretty big update for Dig Deep Crew and haven't started making any marketing content on it yet but am just sitting here wondering if its worth even doing that. I would like to work towards a steam release at this point as I am near a year since starting everything and was the original goal with Dig Deep Crew. Either way if I have to start from scratch I have learned a lot, and would like to thank everyone took the time to give feedback along the way!

Any input on if either of these look or sound appealing and why not would be awesome.

I am also just now really investing the time in growing my presents across social media as well (not a big fan of it I don't even have any personal accounts lol.) But am starting to make fun, weird, little clips of stuff I am working on or experimenting with in a funny way over on youtube, and would love if you find my work interesting to sub on YT and feedback and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated on there as well!

Can link if anyone wants to test them out but really just looking for some feedback on if either of these look like they have potential. Thank you!

Click to see it in full view, its format for capsule, but was wondering if this would be Steam worthy? Its my first big project and am doing everything myself, definitely not an artist but thought it turned out really decent, any suggestions on how to make it better?

I think one I remove the "Demo" tape it will fill way to empty. I have moles and worms in the game maybe add some of those in? Haven't fully committed to putting it on Steam yet as I'm looking for some feedback since after I did a major update, thank you!

Second picture is what it looked like before and it was a pure AI generated image which I don't think it looked terrible but felt a bit off.

The first one is the new one and was made still using AI but my custom workflow I've been developing for assets inserted experimenting with it for capsule, art, and cut, transitions etc.

It all started as a learning project/part experiment and is starting to actually yield a lot of great results, and speeding up development time tremendously, still never settling though!

Would love some input on the new cover art and if there's any ideas on how to possibly make it better or any suggestions on this side of the workflow, headaches you've dealt with yourself id love to hear them!
Note: Still main focus is 2D but have been experimenting with 3D but am taking notes of everything I come across so let me hear it!

Im a pretty new dev and am still trying to grow my community a follow or sub on any platform would be super appreciated, I really like itch and is where majority of my content will end up! I have a lot of neat stuff planned out and hope you follow along to check it out!
- Trashy.io :)
https://trashyio.itch.io/

Custom made everything, EVERYTHING :) Next project will be non pixel art any suggestions for testing purposes?

Some honorable mention
Happy Wheels
Fireboy and Watergirl
Bubble Trouble
Heli Attack 3
Commando 2
Fragger
Dune Buggy
Raft Wars

But I am finding them be be incredibly hard to get people to play test the small version as if something were to catch some attention I would build it out into a bigger and longer version, is this style of gaming just not popular anymore, mobile only now maybe? I am finally to the point with it all that my games are worth sharing but the typical posting on YT and Tiktok videos are bringing on bringing in small numbers. Any advice? Maybe pivot into just bigger projects?

I’ve been devolving workflows where instead of making an LLM work from a giant chat thread, I give it a lightweight Canvas UI to build inside.
Not a full app. More like a reusable workbench.

The useful part is the codebase has commented rules baked into it, so the LLM already knows:

what sections exist
how the layout should behave
what the project is for
what not to break
how future edits should be handled

So instead of re-explaining the workflow every prompt, the tool itself becomes the context. Which takes way longer to build and set up properly but the result... unbeatable in my opinion. And don't see anyone else using this.
I’ve mostly been using it for JS/Canvas game-dev assets, but I’m starting to think this could apply to almost any project where chat alone gets messy.

Prompt templates helped us talk to AI better.
Reusable UI workspaces might help AI actually work better. At least for me its been the biggest multiplayer and my current strategy going forward, developing tools and project work.

Anyone else building stuff like this? The result are just too good to ignore. I can gen, animate, edit, and export in any format. I think my previous post didn't do a good enough job of explaining the key difference between this workflow and others. I hope this post helps make it stand out, and no I don't think this is an end to SaaS. Just a new approach maybe?

even if only 1-5 upvotes still a win in my book XD

I like to experiment on the weekends with things I like procrastinating on. And this morning it was 3D and I'm quite impressed with what I managed to accomplish with a short amount of research and applying my 2D and optimization knowledge from having a bit out dated hardware xD also this was all done in Gemini on mobile.

Any way before I go off on a tangent, my reason for posting is what I am curious what the current biggest bottlenecks with 3D gen is? I am familiar with the topology issues although I don't fully understand it yet lol, I was hoping to get some more insight on where I should be looking into as far as LLMs current limitations so I can build around those, thank you!

I built a small browser arcade game called Flock, Fly, & Fire. You play as a bird collecting eggs while a 60-second timer counts down. When it hits zero, the game flips into Frenzy Mode for 30 seconds — birds start rushing around the screen, the pace spikes, and the peaceful egg run turns into a tiny feather disaster before the loop resets.

The goal was to make something quick, replayable, and easy to jump into without a big tutorial.

I’m mainly looking for feedback on the core loop.
Does the calm to frenzy switch feel fun enough to replay?
Should Frenzy Mode get harder faster?
Would upgrades/powerups make it stickier, or would that overcomplicate it?

It’s free to play in browser, Mobile, PC + Gamepad.
Click "Run or Fly Away" to play the game right in browser.

I built a small arcade game called Flock, Fly, & Fire.
For the first 60 seconds, you’re just a bird collecting eggs and trying to rack up your score.

Then the timer hits zero and the game flips into Frenzy Mode.

Birds start running around the screen, the pace jumps, and suddenly the peaceful egg run turns into 30 seconds of feather-covered chaos before the loop resets if you successfully thin the flock out completely.

It’s meant to be quick, simple, and replay able the kind of game you can try once, chase a better score, and immediately realize you stayed longer than planned.

The game is free to play / free to download.

I’m planning to keep making tiny chaotic games like this, so feedback on the loop, pacing, or what would make you replay it is.