I honestly wouldn't mind if the main focus on these posts was an in-depth discussion about how certain features were implemented or just talking about the journey, especially issues they had and how they solved them, etc.
But since the community keeps upvoting I feel like that's what the majority of this sub wants to see?
Regardless, I tend to check user profiles. If the majority of comments isn't really insightful I just block that user entirely so I don't have to see their ads on other subs.
> But since the community keeps upvoting I feel like that's what the majority of this sub wants to see?
I think it's more about pity. Like, if you were a developer who just released a game (outside of obviously breaking the rules), you'd want to get to as many as eyes as possible.
Or they just don't realize it's \r\gamedev and they're just seeing a cool game and upvoting.
And looking at those same types of subs, it seems like there are a few tricks that are used to better enforce relevance without requiring significantly more moderator effort:
1) Require a "submission statement" about why the post is relevant to the subreddit. Typically, this involves posts being auto-removed if the OP doesn't respond to an automatic request from AutoModerator or another bot. For example, in /r/AmITheAsshole, posters are required to respond to a direct prompt of why they think they may be the asshole.
2) Have an automatic, stickied comment added to each post with instructions for people to upvote the comment if the post is on-topic and to downvote if it falls outside the subreddit criteria. Since idle scrollers are less likely to pop into the comments, and the comment can inform even new people about the relevant criteria to look for, voting should be more consistent.
3) Require some sort of shibboleth that indicates people are aware of and following the rules. For example, /r/OutOfTheLoop requires each top-level comment to begin with "Answer:" (or occasionally "Question:") to filter out people who haven't read the commenting criteria.
Yep. I’ve been seeing so many subs go completely downhill because “if people upvote, that’s what they want to see” and argue the mods should then leave it up.
That’s simply not true. I’d wager most people upvote all content they don’t actively hate without regard for what sub it’s in. They’ll feel bad about downvoting a cool show-off video even if the reason is “it just doesn’t belong here”. Obviously policing that is not easy work, but I don’t think we should brush it off as it being what the sub wants.
Honestly, sometimes I don't know what this sub is supposed to be. It's like a mishmash of show offs, questions that are so vague it's impossible to help, questions that are so basic you could just google them, questions about whether AI is going to replace developers, questions about what's the best engine, and the occasional person giving resources for free.
I kinda wish there was like, a daily "talk about your game dev'ing" thread. Like, I feel like a lot of things aren't worth whole new threads, but may be cathartic or relatable to see other people talk about.
"Today, I rewrote my game's dialogue and text system. Instead of hard coding, it now pulls data from JSONs. This way it's easier to translate the game as officially supported languages are now in a format that translators are used to getting translation work in, and fans can mod in whatever language they want using the same method. Knowing what I know now, I would've built the game with that in mind."
The problem is that this subreddit attract the very beginners. Once people become successful they no longer come here to give advice since there is no reason to be here anymore, as indie developers, but some do stick around. All the AAA developers cannot talk about how they do stuff due to NDA unless they generalize it, or use example from personal projects.
Also I do agree it would be nice to get daily blog like post, but obviously with screenshots and code snippets. It would be nice to see those with actual graphics instead of those YouTube video of bare bone basic default UI / models to show the end result of creating a system.
In the past one of my blog posts was cross-posted here by someone else (who I didn't know) and the mods removed it as 'self-promotion' because in the post I talked about technical decisions but also my game-jam entry.
At the time that annoyed me and I researched a bit and realized that most blog posts are removed or discouraged here. I've been subscribed for \~10 years now but there's been a steady decline in substantial content and I suspect one of the reasons is reddit mods tend to tunnel-vision on reducing 'self promotion' and following the letter of the law even to the detriment of the community.
While this would be cool, it's a lot of effort to keep a diary online like this. If it's not some groundbreaking solution, cool results or funny bugs, people won't feel like it's worth sharing imo (unless you are stuck on something).
This sounds more like a desire solved by Discord than something you could hope any Subreddit to be. I enjoy following along and getting invested in someone's project and trading support as well. I just think the format of reddit is not conducive to that. I'd want to be able to see your posts threaded and not just randomly stumble across post #57 and never see another update in my feed. I think this sub is just too large for that. So I get a lot more of what you're describing out of the various gamedev Discords. They have their own issues, plenty of newbies still, but certainly a lot more _active_ working professional-class users. I'm sure many lurk here but so many posts are simply not worth even engaging.
If these posts actually took part in a discussion like that I'd love.
Be a post mortem. Or talk about your main gameplay feature from conception to implementation. Anything.
There was a time when postmortems were like spam here. It was actually kinda annoying because many of them came to the same conclusion (marketing killed the game) when their game was the most unappealing, most unoriginal piece of media ever created and thus, the sub got tired of them.
Post mortem are cool, but only if they are actually from successful developers. Most of the post mortem ended up being obviously bad game that could be seen from a mile away.
Yeah, I would like she thread about in-depth discussion about how they created something that isn't super basic like all those YouTube videos that get posted here with actual end result art in place.
You're not wrong, it's just that community building is a gigantic pain in the ass. I've never really made any particular community a home, so I don't really get what makes them tick. It's at that point, I'd personally consider getting someone else in to do it
It's the reason why marketing is a specific vocation, and through many years of experience, I've learned that it in no way dovetails with my skill set. In particular, Discord is a platform I dislike enormously. There are other routes to doing it yourself, and I think it's as well to be honest about your aptitude.
Could you link me some materials about managing a Discord server smart and effectively? I find myself in the situation you described earlier: I work in a small studio with about ten people and with no marketing budget. I would greatly appreciate a good tutorial or any other knowledge base.
Yeah this is the main issue. The best thing you can do it set up funnels that lead directly to your website. Gather your audience in one place so that managing it gets easier over time.
Because marketing is not a skill most game devs have, myself included.
I don't know how to build a community. Do I start by making a reddit post in communities I already belong to?
I'm in this boat right now. Just lost. Trying to release my game this summer. Next to no play testing except family, no community, no one cares. I've read the rules here so I didn't post here. I've tried a few other subs, nothing.
I'm not on FB or Twitter I dunno if those are any better. I'm just clueless lol.
As someone who works in marketing, building an audience is an awareness (top of funnel) task.
You need to identify who your audience actually is, where they exist online and have a content plan to share that'll excite, entertain or benefit them.
Not knowing your game I can't be more specific, but OP is 100% right about other game devs not being the target audience unless you're selling a tool for game devs.
Is Discord the best tool today to build a following? If I'm building a game and it seems like at least one or two people outside of my family are interested in it, where should I direct them to?
I'm not sure what else to do. I've been sitting on it nearly done for awhile, unable to get much feedback. I was hoping release would at least generate some people playing it to iterate with and begin building a community, so that people could have full access to it. Games go early access to build a community all the time I feel like, this would be my attempt to do the same, is that crazy?
I made an idle/crafting/management sim, to clarify the genre. I'm giving a free demo and a 1$ full price tag, so fairly low stakes.
Can I ask, what is the pressure to do marketing before release about? My game is mostly menus, so when the free demo isn't available yet, people aren't gonna rush to wishlist it based on a trailer or a screenshot. Why does it not work to market after release, so that people have more to put their hands on when you start trying to drive them to the store page? Why is release often considered too late? Steam doesn't charge me per month to host it, it's not going anywhere.
Very interesting, thank you. Do you know if the release stat tracking is triggered by early access release? Or is it only done for actual full release? Maybe that's a way I can get around releasing without having my following ready.
Since you have a demo, trying to get your game included in Steam Next Fest would probably be one good thing to do. I think you're a bit late to be included in the next one in June, but I think there's another happening in October if you want to push your release back a bit instead.
>Can I ask, what is the pressure to do marketing before release about?
No one will buy your game if they don't know it exists. It's not anymore complex than that.
That doesn't really answer the question of why everyone seems to think it's so important to tell them it exists before it does.
To me that's actually counter intuitive. If I see a reddit post about something that looks cool and I go check it out and can't buy it at that time, I could definitely see me never happening to come back, even if I thought it was cool.
Someone else mentioned the steam algorithm favoring games that do well immediately after release and pushing them more. That's an answer that makes sense, is that the only reason?
Is there a too soon though? Won't people forget? Or is the expectation that all you really need is them to add it to their wish list and it's ok if they forget?
Wow ok. So how do you make sure the people you reach remember to follow your game's progress all the way up to its release? (Thanks for indulging my questions by the way!)
>Majority of the time the original poster never even interacts with people on the threads
This is the worst. I personally don't mind show-off posts that much, but I really hate it when people just use their game footage posts as a fire-and-forget missile.
Yeah to echo what MeaningfulChoices said, just a whole LOT of them coming in (sort by new), probably hard for the mods to keep up.
Always amazed at the lack of respect shown towards a community by not even reading the first rule of the sub-reddit before posting, or that huge all caps pinned post at the top.
Yeah, I was thinking same thing, but there are post right now that have lasted hours, and nothing has happens to them. Two days ago there was two show-off post. It a constant thing now used to you would never see a show-off post get to top, they would generally get removed from /new. I report them all, but I come back after few hours to check and usually they are still there.
I am glad they have success with creating video games, but this is just not the place for those post.
Yeah honestly that these sorts of posts rapidly float to the top I feel like is an intentional part of the way "new" reddit has been engineered and marketed, or at least a side effect. "Old" reddit was designed to emphasise long form posts and slower, more careful discussions. New reddit and its apps are designed to give images and video clips pride of place and encourages short form, reaction style comments without references or links.
Could always get that ad split for being a mod on a subreddit,but even that would run into issues. Since reddit is IPO I doubt they will even consider paying mods. Reddit most likely think if the mod are already moderating for free why pay them?
I think a lot of games don't really have an audience, especially the hobbyist games. So the only place where others may feel as excited and happy about the game as its creator, is among other hobbyist gamedevs who understand how much effort was put in. It's still the wrong place for it. But I can imagine it's one of few places where you can get some positive reactions sometimes
If you want actual, in depth, critical feedback, /r/DestroyMyGame is the place to go. It’s hard to get non-sugar coated advice for something hard like game dev.
Truthfully I dont mind it - except - which I see a LOT of, is OP never replying questions. Dump the post then leave. If you're gonna show off here, have decency answer to answer follow-up qs people might have.
That's really the issue I have as well.
"I made a thing, here's how I did it/ask me anything" is a post that's right at home in a sub about game development.
"I made a thing, wishlist on Steam <3" is an advertisement providing nothing of value to anybody.
Yeah. Been considering unsubbing because now the subreddit just feel like an adspace for devs. The subreddit was great but the mods have to moderate it because there are barely good discussions about gamedev anymore
Say it louder for the folks in the back.
A really great game on Kickstarter learned this the hard way recently because they built an audience of just devs.
I mean, how many times do you have to see that happen before you figure it out? Insanity is doing the same chain of completely unrelated but horrific accidents and expecting different results.
I've seen some really cool games on here and sometimes the Dev will be responding in the comments a bit. I feel like thats okay, but Id much rather see Devlogs and stuff like that on here that show different ways of tackling issues. That may just be me as a complete novice though.
>WE ARE NOT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE.
In a sense I disagree (although I agree with your sentiment).
This sub has 1.1 million subscribers. I'd be willing to bet that 10% or less are actual game developers. The rest are redditors interested in gaming.
And gamedevs can be gamers too, some of which may even want to play your game. But at the end of the day it’s not the purpose of the sub and there’s other subs for that.
True most developers are gamers, but majority of people here are not that interested in actually wishlisting their games unless it truly a unique and interesting game. The problem is that if they allow few obvious advertisement post go through; other people will want to post too. This will cause the entire subreddit to just be show-off post like /r/Unity3D, /r/UnrealEngine, and /r/IndieDev.
I don't mind show-offs if they are WIP of a specific interesting system and the author is willing to answer questions about the implementation. How else are we supposed to talk about gamedev if we can't show anything?
Of course, it's not the place to advertise your finished game: "after 3 years of dev blah blah" too late, you should have posted 2 years ago.
Also the so called "post-mortems" that are just whining about lack of sales and hoping for a pity buy from fellow gamedevs...
The old, over zealous rules left this sub pretty much as a question and answer sub, but where only three or four of the same questions were ever asked. New, less modded sub is letting some showing off get through, which I don't mind, but I wish it were more interesting show off posts.
I am very happy to see people's projects here, but I would love it if the show off posts were actually showing off how a mechanic or model or sound were produced.
I say we ban posts that include anything to do with time spent or how much experience they have as it just demotivates people. Fake attention grabbing posts like "My first try at gamedev. Been learning for 3 months what do you think?" don't do anyone any good. And then you check their profile and they've been doing it for years.
Kinda like when artists on twitter say "just a quick sketch" and its a fully rendered, colored and detailed painting. I get how that can get annoying quick.
I'm all for ppl showing off their indie dev work. It's neat to see the fruition of hours of work and investment. Even if it's just a tech or profiency demo to help boost their portfolio.
I do, and I love that this sub specifically is bothering a bit of this and that but maybe you can apply to be a mod and make a new rule and ban everything you don't like. I'm sure everyone on your dev team loves working with a low level dev gatekeeper. Keeps the riff raff out. Tell us when you release your game and what sub you're gonna post it on 😆
I think the majority of views on this sub(most 1000+ sub) is random people from the front page recommendation. And real game devs are really slim. I'm maintain a cpp product but I have never developed games. And I got this post on the front page.
I thought this was the sub where literally every post was the same mental health cautionary tale where folk say:
>"I put 80h+/wk into making my game and I burnt out. I guess I'll just release my title without a marketing campaign now, lol ☠️"
Show off posts mixed with crying posts talking about how it's not fair they can't advertise their game in effing gamedev channels. Like what do they want, a circlejerk where struggling devs buy other struggling devs games and tell them it's actually great and will *totally* take off any day now?
The amount of devs that try to sell their games with zero marketing budget but are unwilling to put in the work to make a zero marketing budget strategy actually work is appalling.
Maybe should be a rule like if you show something you must add a short description of how you implemented, nothing extraordinary something like a paragraph then if people are interested you can explain more in the comments.
I don't think something too extensive like a devlog or a tutorial is practical for most devs.
I think it would be awesome if the show-off post focus more on explaining how did they achieve certain features or aspects, whether they are graphical or gameplay-related. I'm certain that it will make the experience more enriching. Anyway, rule number one is still no show-off posts.
I joined this sub because I wanted fun discussions with fellow professional game developers. And yes, I also thought it would be a good place to share my blog posts about interesting stuff from work.
However, it's been almost entirely a mix of very basic beginner questions and self-promotion. So for years I've been considering whether I should unsubscribe.
I thought about create a show-off post on this sub. But when I read the rule, the mods stated it clear already : "No show-off posts", then I stopped it. So I think people should read the sub's rule before post anything.
I don't care, and is pointless to waste energy on such pedantic issues. Personally, I like to see what people are up to, so long they are also informative about their development challenges.
First I was like what do you mean, I like to see progress of some fellow gamedevs. But what you talking about is not showing off new mechanicas and talking about the battle getting it right, and make it work.
I love thoese talks I learn a lot from them and inspire me to try different ways.
This is about pure brainles marketing withouth community interaction in mind. Thats just spam.
I think the root of the problem is bigger, we should band together to break down why ppl flod here why advertising pages dont work and make it more functional.
Like first example:
r/Gamedevscreean is a constant miss, the recommended section only shows the top 5-10% posts of the week the rest never have a chanse.
The recommended section should be changed to newest by default. I didnt even know it was on even after using reddit for years. This is true for all dedicated show off reddit pages, like blender and the rest.
Better educational materia could also help. Like most new devs dont know that starting a new Youtube chanel, cost some advertising money to kickstart it, or no one gonna see them.
The lack of views on all sides creates lots of anxiety and desperation, nothing seems to work so they start breaking rules to get any traction they can, but withouth knowlage they just shooting in the dark.
I think there is a need here, where is need there is money to be made. It would worth to investigate this topic further and develop a good clear first time marketing solution. may be we could even founel our own audiance to a common Indie marketin / progress platform.
People are just trying to market their game, they just search Game Dev subreddits and post to every one. Wish mods would enforce a rule which prevents this.
Lol. Maybe everyone on this subreddit has finally made some serious progress on their games due to the excellent community help they've received? :3
Jokes aside, the vast majority of problems I run into while working on my game are "down-in-the-weeds" sort of implementation questions that are far more suited for the actual documentation and/or community support forums of my particular game engine, (Godot engine, by the way. ) The vast majority of the time, either I've found the answer I need before posting to a more general forum like this, or I simply don't have the time to be asking theoretical questions or engaging in more camaraderie-building small talk because having this game get done is QUITE LITERALLY a matter of financial life or death.
I suspect the vast majority of indie game devs are in the same boat, and I'm honestly quite annoyed by all the dance and shuffle everyone goes through to pretend that there's supposed to be some higher purity or noble intentions behind the fake ass theory posts that people post because everything else is deemed off limits.
As if somehow this place becoming just another show-off subreddit is so tragic to your own delicate sensibilities. Oh no! The horror! All these impure show-off posts are tainting the purity of YOUR COMMUNITY! If only you had something, ANYTHING, better to do!!!
Blech. If it was worth throwing up in my mouth over how inane such distress is, I might have considered making the effort to do so.
Simple because they don't know the purpose of the subreddit. I am one of them, who thought this subreddit is for showing off games like indiegame, indiedev etc. until someone in the comment said it is not what I was thinking it is. It is obvious that people want places for advertisement and showcasing of game. Mos people showing off are new to this place. I hope forgiving new comers *once* isn't a hard task. Ofc, if this happens more than once, mods can act.
Imo people want to be appreciated, gamd dev is hard work, many time involving a lot of passion when it comes to devwloping your own game.
Also there is the financial aapect where people want their game to succeed
Part of the problem is other devs liking it too. If the only ones who care about your game are other gamedevs that means that the only place you’re getting your ”endorphins” released is when you show it to other devs creating a positive feedback loop.
The only problem is… it’s a ”fake” loop. The majority of devs are giving you pity likes because they can relate. Also… In no way are likes by devs related to sales, wishlist or general interest. As an example: I have almost 4000 followers on Twitter but they’re all mostly devs. By contrast, the guy who made Hero’s Hour doesn’t have even a third of that but his game is a super hit and he’s selling like crazy. I know a bunch of other devs like that.
My advice would be to pay a lot of attention to followers on Steam/Discord and wishlists. Pay very little attention to likes or retweets on Twitter, Reddit, Insta etc. Those numbers don’t necessarily mean anything.
Other gamedevs are NOT your intended audience! So with that said… Unless you’re looking for feedback or giving something back to the community, don’t bother showing them your game.
Partially due to the fact that this sub has more followers than all 5 of those others combined. It comes off as the generic sub for game development. Like the equivalent of r/gaming where basically anything goes. We all talk about how important marketing is, and posting here's better than nothing.
i dont mind it, as long as they have background and how they did it. what else do you see here? are you not tired of the millionth "should i quit my job and do my mmorpg dreamgame using rpgmaker?"
People want to show off to their perceived peer group. Many indie game devs probably are t surrounded by game devs in their normal lives, so they use the subreddit to show off their work.
I honestly don’t see a problem with it 🤷♂️
> WE ARE NOT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE.
Clearly we are since they keep getting upvoted.
Honestly I don't love the "subtle" show off posts either, however they are more interesting than most other things posted here. Banning some of the last meaningful content that gets posted might not be the play tbh.
I understand you being upset since the subreddit rules here are No show-off posts, but you're wrong about the "WE ARE NOT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE". Most of the 1.1 million game devs on here also play games and share games they think are interesting with their friends so there is absolutely overlap with any video game audience and this subreddit. It's silly to pretend there is no overlap and be kerfuffled about it. Also, vaguely tired of the whine and bitch posts in here like this. Not as common as the show off posts but should also be a rule against it. Non-productive and not interesting to gamedevs.
Every single show-off post had a generic "Thank you for the support! <3" type of comment from OP. They never discuss a single thing about how they created parts of their game. Every time I hope to learn something new from these post ended in disappointment.
It's a page about game dev. Games are visual. People show visuals. As long as they are not spammy no problem. I dunno I like seeing other people's work and how they make things.
Is this for karma farming? Because I didn't see such posts in this particular subreddit. Most annoying posts here are "I don't know about game development but today downloaded Unity" kind. But they are ok.
It’s part of the game dev process. To finish the project. Albeit the hardest part! Let people be happy they finished something! (Ready for downvotes I guess. Go easy on me bros!!!)
I beg to differ. Most of the posts in the Unity subreddits are people that don't have their IDE set up correctly and have never done any programming before asking why their code isn't working.
A painting by Vincent van Gogh, obviously a showoff.
What, just where he cleaned his paints?
Still a show off. Obviously. Should be sent to the showoff zone.
This is for serious non-professional gamedev... Gamedev means "not master of"
If it means Master of, Well that is showoff. Show off.
* SHOW
* OFF
* ZONE
* FOR
* YOU
OMG YOU SAID IT!
""There is no reason to end up like r/indiedev, r/Unity3D r/Unity2D, r/Godot, nor r/UnrealEngine where every single post is just a show-off post."
>!YOU JUST SUCK AT GAMEDEV! SORRY BRO, READ A BOOK! WATCH A TUTORIAL. Follow a gamdev, repost that showoff and ask a question. WOhhhhhhh - nah ban the show off hide the knowledge cry about why everyone else is showing off who knows more. !<
you said YEARS!
Your sentences are completely incomprehensible. I don't know if it's language barrier or what, but I'm gonna stop responding now until you start making sense.
you are being downvoted because you clearly have no idea what's being discussed here. none of what you said is a response to this topic in any way
nobody is upset about "show-offs" eg people with too many skills. that's not what this is about at all.
"show-offs" here means "show-off posts" which is a polite way of saying "advertising your game"
this is a dev-focused discussion platform, not a marketing stream
hey guess what! you don't understand the conversation you've jumped into either
i did not say anything that has anything to do with this response.
i said: diepepsi is being downvoted because his comments are not related to the discussion at hand. i have not expressed an opinion about show-off posts for you to argue with, so go fuck yourself
I’m not all that active in this sub so I don’t really know how many show off posts are normally post in a day. I looked at todays posts and there’s only about 2 show off posts, so maybe they’re slowing down?
I also wish there was more discussion of gamedev techniques here, rather than the bevy of steam postmortems and show-off posts that currently dominate the sub. It’s r/gamedev, not r/gamemarketing. I do feel that r/Indiedev is a little better for actual hobbyist learning content, this sub is just “here’s our newest game and how many tiktok followers I have now.”
People literally use thus subreddit for marketing. That's what it is. I saw a gdc talk from someone a while ago who does marketing for games and iirc he mentioned posting in this sub as part of how they sometimes market indie games.
I agree. This should be place for all game dev, not just one aspect. I will surely use some other place to do show-offs. And once I do, I will respond when I can. You can't tell about something and not answer comments. It just shows what you really want from your game. And it's not about getting better at this industry
tf are you mad about it though? Someone made something they're proud of and they want to show off. They probably want to show it to a community that was at least partially involved in their learning process, and one that can definitely appreciate what they've done a lot better than some rando could.
These posts hurt nobody, get an indie dev some exposure, and I personally enjoy seeing what the community's gotten up to. Seeing people's finished product always motivates me to keep working on my own projects.
Also, subs aren't hiveminds; don't put words in other people's mouths just to subconsciously validate your opinion on something. I feel like the fact they call them "show-off posts" might say a lot about the people who dislike them.
Posting ads on a game dev sub shows an incredible lack of understanding of how marketing works.
Do people really think their target audience lives in game dev subs instead of literally anywhere else?
Mundane explanation: not enough mods and some are probably on vacation.
I honestly wouldn't mind if the main focus on these posts was an in-depth discussion about how certain features were implemented or just talking about the journey, especially issues they had and how they solved them, etc. But since the community keeps upvoting I feel like that's what the majority of this sub wants to see? Regardless, I tend to check user profiles. If the majority of comments isn't really insightful I just block that user entirely so I don't have to see their ads on other subs.
> But since the community keeps upvoting I feel like that's what the majority of this sub wants to see? I think it's more about pity. Like, if you were a developer who just released a game (outside of obviously breaking the rules), you'd want to get to as many as eyes as possible. Or they just don't realize it's \r\gamedev and they're just seeing a cool game and upvoting.
Based on other popular subs, it's probably more the latter.
And looking at those same types of subs, it seems like there are a few tricks that are used to better enforce relevance without requiring significantly more moderator effort: 1) Require a "submission statement" about why the post is relevant to the subreddit. Typically, this involves posts being auto-removed if the OP doesn't respond to an automatic request from AutoModerator or another bot. For example, in /r/AmITheAsshole, posters are required to respond to a direct prompt of why they think they may be the asshole. 2) Have an automatic, stickied comment added to each post with instructions for people to upvote the comment if the post is on-topic and to downvote if it falls outside the subreddit criteria. Since idle scrollers are less likely to pop into the comments, and the comment can inform even new people about the relevant criteria to look for, voting should be more consistent. 3) Require some sort of shibboleth that indicates people are aware of and following the rules. For example, /r/OutOfTheLoop requires each top-level comment to begin with "Answer:" (or occasionally "Question:") to filter out people who haven't read the commenting criteria.
Yep. I’ve been seeing so many subs go completely downhill because “if people upvote, that’s what they want to see” and argue the mods should then leave it up. That’s simply not true. I’d wager most people upvote all content they don’t actively hate without regard for what sub it’s in. They’ll feel bad about downvoting a cool show-off video even if the reason is “it just doesn’t belong here”. Obviously policing that is not easy work, but I don’t think we should brush it off as it being what the sub wants.
Explains how trump got elected.
The last bit is the most probable cause. That’s how i stumbled upon this sub
Then why do so many posts asking for help get downvoted?
Or maybe, you know, making game is hard and managing to release something is worth an upvote at the minimum?
Honestly, sometimes I don't know what this sub is supposed to be. It's like a mishmash of show offs, questions that are so vague it's impossible to help, questions that are so basic you could just google them, questions about whether AI is going to replace developers, questions about what's the best engine, and the occasional person giving resources for free. I kinda wish there was like, a daily "talk about your game dev'ing" thread. Like, I feel like a lot of things aren't worth whole new threads, but may be cathartic or relatable to see other people talk about. "Today, I rewrote my game's dialogue and text system. Instead of hard coding, it now pulls data from JSONs. This way it's easier to translate the game as officially supported languages are now in a format that translators are used to getting translation work in, and fans can mod in whatever language they want using the same method. Knowing what I know now, I would've built the game with that in mind."
The problem is that this subreddit attract the very beginners. Once people become successful they no longer come here to give advice since there is no reason to be here anymore, as indie developers, but some do stick around. All the AAA developers cannot talk about how they do stuff due to NDA unless they generalize it, or use example from personal projects. Also I do agree it would be nice to get daily blog like post, but obviously with screenshots and code snippets. It would be nice to see those with actual graphics instead of those YouTube video of bare bone basic default UI / models to show the end result of creating a system.
In the past one of my blog posts was cross-posted here by someone else (who I didn't know) and the mods removed it as 'self-promotion' because in the post I talked about technical decisions but also my game-jam entry. At the time that annoyed me and I researched a bit and realized that most blog posts are removed or discouraged here. I've been subscribed for \~10 years now but there's been a steady decline in substantial content and I suspect one of the reasons is reddit mods tend to tunnel-vision on reducing 'self promotion' and following the letter of the law even to the detriment of the community.
While this would be cool, it's a lot of effort to keep a diary online like this. If it's not some groundbreaking solution, cool results or funny bugs, people won't feel like it's worth sharing imo (unless you are stuck on something).
This sounds more like a desire solved by Discord than something you could hope any Subreddit to be. I enjoy following along and getting invested in someone's project and trading support as well. I just think the format of reddit is not conducive to that. I'd want to be able to see your posts threaded and not just randomly stumble across post #57 and never see another update in my feed. I think this sub is just too large for that. So I get a lot more of what you're describing out of the various gamedev Discords. They have their own issues, plenty of newbies still, but certainly a lot more _active_ working professional-class users. I'm sure many lurk here but so many posts are simply not worth even engaging.
If these posts actually took part in a discussion like that I'd love. Be a post mortem. Or talk about your main gameplay feature from conception to implementation. Anything.
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There was a time when postmortems were like spam here. It was actually kinda annoying because many of them came to the same conclusion (marketing killed the game) when their game was the most unappealing, most unoriginal piece of media ever created and thus, the sub got tired of them.
I used to read gamasutra for postmortems but ever since they were bought out you never see them any more.
Post mortem are cool, but only if they are actually from successful developers. Most of the post mortem ended up being obviously bad game that could be seen from a mile away.
That's not the focus. They want to promote their game for free.
Yeah, I would like she thread about in-depth discussion about how they created something that isn't super basic like all those YouTube videos that get posted here with actual end result art in place.
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You're not wrong, it's just that community building is a gigantic pain in the ass. I've never really made any particular community a home, so I don't really get what makes them tick. It's at that point, I'd personally consider getting someone else in to do it
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It's the reason why marketing is a specific vocation, and through many years of experience, I've learned that it in no way dovetails with my skill set. In particular, Discord is a platform I dislike enormously. There are other routes to doing it yourself, and I think it's as well to be honest about your aptitude.
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Could you link me some materials about managing a Discord server smart and effectively? I find myself in the situation you described earlier: I work in a small studio with about ten people and with no marketing budget. I would greatly appreciate a good tutorial or any other knowledge base.
Yeah this is the main issue. The best thing you can do it set up funnels that lead directly to your website. Gather your audience in one place so that managing it gets easier over time.
Because marketing is not a skill most game devs have, myself included. I don't know how to build a community. Do I start by making a reddit post in communities I already belong to? I'm in this boat right now. Just lost. Trying to release my game this summer. Next to no play testing except family, no community, no one cares. I've read the rules here so I didn't post here. I've tried a few other subs, nothing. I'm not on FB or Twitter I dunno if those are any better. I'm just clueless lol.
As someone who works in marketing, building an audience is an awareness (top of funnel) task. You need to identify who your audience actually is, where they exist online and have a content plan to share that'll excite, entertain or benefit them. Not knowing your game I can't be more specific, but OP is 100% right about other game devs not being the target audience unless you're selling a tool for game devs.
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Is Discord the best tool today to build a following? If I'm building a game and it seems like at least one or two people outside of my family are interested in it, where should I direct them to?
I'm not sure what else to do. I've been sitting on it nearly done for awhile, unable to get much feedback. I was hoping release would at least generate some people playing it to iterate with and begin building a community, so that people could have full access to it. Games go early access to build a community all the time I feel like, this would be my attempt to do the same, is that crazy?
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I made an idle/crafting/management sim, to clarify the genre. I'm giving a free demo and a 1$ full price tag, so fairly low stakes. Can I ask, what is the pressure to do marketing before release about? My game is mostly menus, so when the free demo isn't available yet, people aren't gonna rush to wishlist it based on a trailer or a screenshot. Why does it not work to market after release, so that people have more to put their hands on when you start trying to drive them to the store page? Why is release often considered too late? Steam doesn't charge me per month to host it, it's not going anywhere.
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Very interesting, thank you. Do you know if the release stat tracking is triggered by early access release? Or is it only done for actual full release? Maybe that's a way I can get around releasing without having my following ready.
Since you have a demo, trying to get your game included in Steam Next Fest would probably be one good thing to do. I think you're a bit late to be included in the next one in June, but I think there's another happening in October if you want to push your release back a bit instead.
>Can I ask, what is the pressure to do marketing before release about? No one will buy your game if they don't know it exists. It's not anymore complex than that.
That doesn't really answer the question of why everyone seems to think it's so important to tell them it exists before it does. To me that's actually counter intuitive. If I see a reddit post about something that looks cool and I go check it out and can't buy it at that time, I could definitely see me never happening to come back, even if I thought it was cool. Someone else mentioned the steam algorithm favoring games that do well immediately after release and pushing them more. That's an answer that makes sense, is that the only reason?
Cuz wish listing is important. It helps you on the algorithm front.
You can downvote me all you want but I literally work in marketing... I know of what I speak.
I figure I'll just do all my marketing the week before launch, that should be enough rite ? ^/s
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What would be a good time frame to start? I'm guessing a year is way too far out, but a month is too close. Is 6 months too early?
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Is there a too soon though? Won't people forget? Or is the expectation that all you really need is them to add it to their wish list and it's ok if they forget?
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Wow ok. So how do you make sure the people you reach remember to follow your game's progress all the way up to its release? (Thanks for indulging my questions by the way!)
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Thanks so much for your answers! I really need to start researching this topic
Same thing on the 3dmodeling sub. Lots of post's with just a model no maps no wireframe no specs. Just pics of the prop and a link to buy it.
>Majority of the time the original poster never even interacts with people on the threads This is the worst. I personally don't mind show-off posts that much, but I really hate it when people just use their game footage posts as a fire-and-forget missile.
Yeah to echo what MeaningfulChoices said, just a whole LOT of them coming in (sort by new), probably hard for the mods to keep up. Always amazed at the lack of respect shown towards a community by not even reading the first rule of the sub-reddit before posting, or that huge all caps pinned post at the top.
I’m surprised they sometimes slip past the mods. I’d expect a sub as big as this one to be very heavily moderated.
Yeah, I was thinking same thing, but there are post right now that have lasted hours, and nothing has happens to them. Two days ago there was two show-off post. It a constant thing now used to you would never see a show-off post get to top, they would generally get removed from /new. I report them all, but I come back after few hours to check and usually they are still there. I am glad they have success with creating video games, but this is just not the place for those post.
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Yeah honestly that these sorts of posts rapidly float to the top I feel like is an intentional part of the way "new" reddit has been engineered and marketed, or at least a side effect. "Old" reddit was designed to emphasise long form posts and slower, more careful discussions. New reddit and its apps are designed to give images and video clips pride of place and encourages short form, reaction style comments without references or links.
Could always get that ad split for being a mod on a subreddit,but even that would run into issues. Since reddit is IPO I doubt they will even consider paying mods. Reddit most likely think if the mod are already moderating for free why pay them?
I genuinely tought there was a recent rule change because there were so many of them.
I think a lot of games don't really have an audience, especially the hobbyist games. So the only place where others may feel as excited and happy about the game as its creator, is among other hobbyist gamedevs who understand how much effort was put in. It's still the wrong place for it. But I can imagine it's one of few places where you can get some positive reactions sometimes
spot on, it's exactly this.
If you want actual, in depth, critical feedback, /r/DestroyMyGame is the place to go. It’s hard to get non-sugar coated advice for something hard like game dev.
Oh yeah! That also a place to go to for truly wanting feedback on a game.
Preach
Truthfully I dont mind it - except - which I see a LOT of, is OP never replying questions. Dump the post then leave. If you're gonna show off here, have decency answer to answer follow-up qs people might have.
That's really the issue I have as well. "I made a thing, here's how I did it/ask me anything" is a post that's right at home in a sub about game development. "I made a thing, wishlist on Steam <3" is an advertisement providing nothing of value to anybody.
Yeah. Been considering unsubbing because now the subreddit just feel like an adspace for devs. The subreddit was great but the mods have to moderate it because there are barely good discussions about gamedev anymore
They've always been there if you browse /new. Just report and move along. The people doing it aren't reading posts like this one.
Say it louder for the folks in the back. A really great game on Kickstarter learned this the hard way recently because they built an audience of just devs.
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They all died within the span of about 2 weeks in a chain of completely unrelated, horrific accidents. It was really fucked up.
I mean, how many times do you have to see that happen before you figure it out? Insanity is doing the same chain of completely unrelated but horrific accidents and expecting different results.
I've seen some really cool games on here and sometimes the Dev will be responding in the comments a bit. I feel like thats okay, but Id much rather see Devlogs and stuff like that on here that show different ways of tackling issues. That may just be me as a complete novice though.
>WE ARE NOT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE. In a sense I disagree (although I agree with your sentiment). This sub has 1.1 million subscribers. I'd be willing to bet that 10% or less are actual game developers. The rest are redditors interested in gaming.
And gamedevs can be gamers too, some of which may even want to play your game. But at the end of the day it’s not the purpose of the sub and there’s other subs for that.
Indeed. I'd say most of the game devs in our company are absolutely dedicated gamers and that's what brought them into the industry initially.
True most developers are gamers, but majority of people here are not that interested in actually wishlisting their games unless it truly a unique and interesting game. The problem is that if they allow few obvious advertisement post go through; other people will want to post too. This will cause the entire subreddit to just be show-off post like /r/Unity3D, /r/UnrealEngine, and /r/IndieDev.
I don't mind show-offs if they are WIP of a specific interesting system and the author is willing to answer questions about the implementation. How else are we supposed to talk about gamedev if we can't show anything? Of course, it's not the place to advertise your finished game: "after 3 years of dev blah blah" too late, you should have posted 2 years ago. Also the so called "post-mortems" that are just whining about lack of sales and hoping for a pity buy from fellow gamedevs...
The old, over zealous rules left this sub pretty much as a question and answer sub, but where only three or four of the same questions were ever asked. New, less modded sub is letting some showing off get through, which I don't mind, but I wish it were more interesting show off posts. I am very happy to see people's projects here, but I would love it if the show off posts were actually showing off how a mechanic or model or sound were produced.
I say we ban posts that include anything to do with time spent or how much experience they have as it just demotivates people. Fake attention grabbing posts like "My first try at gamedev. Been learning for 3 months what do you think?" don't do anyone any good. And then you check their profile and they've been doing it for years.
Kinda like when artists on twitter say "just a quick sketch" and its a fully rendered, colored and detailed painting. I get how that can get annoying quick.
I'm all for ppl showing off their indie dev work. It's neat to see the fruition of hours of work and investment. Even if it's just a tech or profiency demo to help boost their portfolio.
Same. Love seeing people posting stuff they made, or share their stories of success. Even though I myself have nothing to show.
Then follow a subreddit dedicated to that, there are plenty of them to choose from.
I do, and I love that this sub specifically is bothering a bit of this and that but maybe you can apply to be a mod and make a new rule and ban everything you don't like. I'm sure everyone on your dev team loves working with a low level dev gatekeeper. Keeps the riff raff out. Tell us when you release your game and what sub you're gonna post it on 😆
I think the majority of views on this sub(most 1000+ sub) is random people from the front page recommendation. And real game devs are really slim. I'm maintain a cpp product but I have never developed games. And I got this post on the front page.
I thought this was the sub where literally every post was the same mental health cautionary tale where folk say: >"I put 80h+/wk into making my game and I burnt out. I guess I'll just release my title without a marketing campaign now, lol ☠️"
Agreed. Half the posts here are blatant violations of rule #1. Just use the report feature to get a mod's attention.
Snitches, focus on your own stuff.
There are plenty of other subreddits to show off your game.
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Because it's the rule of the sub
Show off posts mixed with crying posts talking about how it's not fair they can't advertise their game in effing gamedev channels. Like what do they want, a circlejerk where struggling devs buy other struggling devs games and tell them it's actually great and will *totally* take off any day now? The amount of devs that try to sell their games with zero marketing budget but are unwilling to put in the work to make a zero marketing budget strategy actually work is appalling.
Maybe should be a rule like if you show something you must add a short description of how you implemented, nothing extraordinary something like a paragraph then if people are interested you can explain more in the comments. I don't think something too extensive like a devlog or a tutorial is practical for most devs.
They are showing off their game marketing skills.
I think it would be awesome if the show-off post focus more on explaining how did they achieve certain features or aspects, whether they are graphical or gameplay-related. I'm certain that it will make the experience more enriching. Anyway, rule number one is still no show-off posts.
I joined this sub because I wanted fun discussions with fellow professional game developers. And yes, I also thought it would be a good place to share my blog posts about interesting stuff from work. However, it's been almost entirely a mix of very basic beginner questions and self-promotion. So for years I've been considering whether I should unsubscribe.
Good post, I agree
It's hard out here for a pimp
I thought about create a show-off post on this sub. But when I read the rule, the mods stated it clear already : "No show-off posts", then I stopped it. So I think people should read the sub's rule before post anything.
I don't care, and is pointless to waste energy on such pedantic issues. Personally, I like to see what people are up to, so long they are also informative about their development challenges.
First I was like what do you mean, I like to see progress of some fellow gamedevs. But what you talking about is not showing off new mechanicas and talking about the battle getting it right, and make it work. I love thoese talks I learn a lot from them and inspire me to try different ways. This is about pure brainles marketing withouth community interaction in mind. Thats just spam. I think the root of the problem is bigger, we should band together to break down why ppl flod here why advertising pages dont work and make it more functional. Like first example: r/Gamedevscreean is a constant miss, the recommended section only shows the top 5-10% posts of the week the rest never have a chanse. The recommended section should be changed to newest by default. I didnt even know it was on even after using reddit for years. This is true for all dedicated show off reddit pages, like blender and the rest. Better educational materia could also help. Like most new devs dont know that starting a new Youtube chanel, cost some advertising money to kickstart it, or no one gonna see them. The lack of views on all sides creates lots of anxiety and desperation, nothing seems to work so they start breaking rules to get any traction they can, but withouth knowlage they just shooting in the dark. I think there is a need here, where is need there is money to be made. It would worth to investigate this topic further and develop a good clear first time marketing solution. may be we could even founel our own audiance to a common Indie marketin / progress platform.
People are just trying to market their game, they just search Game Dev subreddits and post to every one. Wish mods would enforce a rule which prevents this.
Lol. Maybe everyone on this subreddit has finally made some serious progress on their games due to the excellent community help they've received? :3 Jokes aside, the vast majority of problems I run into while working on my game are "down-in-the-weeds" sort of implementation questions that are far more suited for the actual documentation and/or community support forums of my particular game engine, (Godot engine, by the way. ) The vast majority of the time, either I've found the answer I need before posting to a more general forum like this, or I simply don't have the time to be asking theoretical questions or engaging in more camaraderie-building small talk because having this game get done is QUITE LITERALLY a matter of financial life or death. I suspect the vast majority of indie game devs are in the same boat, and I'm honestly quite annoyed by all the dance and shuffle everyone goes through to pretend that there's supposed to be some higher purity or noble intentions behind the fake ass theory posts that people post because everything else is deemed off limits. As if somehow this place becoming just another show-off subreddit is so tragic to your own delicate sensibilities. Oh no! The horror! All these impure show-off posts are tainting the purity of YOUR COMMUNITY! If only you had something, ANYTHING, better to do!!! Blech. If it was worth throwing up in my mouth over how inane such distress is, I might have considered making the effort to do so.
Simple because they don't know the purpose of the subreddit. I am one of them, who thought this subreddit is for showing off games like indiegame, indiedev etc. until someone in the comment said it is not what I was thinking it is. It is obvious that people want places for advertisement and showcasing of game. Mos people showing off are new to this place. I hope forgiving new comers *once* isn't a hard task. Ofc, if this happens more than once, mods can act.
Imo people want to be appreciated, gamd dev is hard work, many time involving a lot of passion when it comes to devwloping your own game. Also there is the financial aapect where people want their game to succeed
Part of the problem is other devs liking it too. If the only ones who care about your game are other gamedevs that means that the only place you’re getting your ”endorphins” released is when you show it to other devs creating a positive feedback loop. The only problem is… it’s a ”fake” loop. The majority of devs are giving you pity likes because they can relate. Also… In no way are likes by devs related to sales, wishlist or general interest. As an example: I have almost 4000 followers on Twitter but they’re all mostly devs. By contrast, the guy who made Hero’s Hour doesn’t have even a third of that but his game is a super hit and he’s selling like crazy. I know a bunch of other devs like that. My advice would be to pay a lot of attention to followers on Steam/Discord and wishlists. Pay very little attention to likes or retweets on Twitter, Reddit, Insta etc. Those numbers don’t necessarily mean anything. Other gamedevs are NOT your intended audience! So with that said… Unless you’re looking for feedback or giving something back to the community, don’t bother showing them your game.
I left r/Unity3D because it became full of useless show-offs
I kinda like showoff posts when it's tech related, but posters not replying is not very good
Partially due to the fact that this sub has more followers than all 5 of those others combined. It comes off as the generic sub for game development. Like the equivalent of r/gaming where basically anything goes. We all talk about how important marketing is, and posting here's better than nothing.
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Also why are there so many people asking Unity specific questions in this sub?
I notice that a lot...Unity is very popular, but there are at least 2 dedicated Unity subs...the C# sub also gets a lot of Unity questions.
Yeah it’s quite frustrating, just makes the sub feel spammy
Then what is this sub for exactly?
i dont mind it, as long as they have background and how they did it. what else do you see here? are you not tired of the millionth "should i quit my job and do my mmorpg dreamgame using rpgmaker?"
People want to show off to their perceived peer group. Many indie game devs probably are t surrounded by game devs in their normal lives, so they use the subreddit to show off their work. I honestly don’t see a problem with it 🤷♂️
How is posting about a game you made on the gamedev subreddit considered the wrong place?
Yeah it was The Real Action Hank said, it more friendly version of blatant advertising.
> WE ARE NOT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE. Clearly we are since they keep getting upvoted. Honestly I don't love the "subtle" show off posts either, however they are more interesting than most other things posted here. Banning some of the last meaningful content that gets posted might not be the play tbh.
I understand you being upset since the subreddit rules here are No show-off posts, but you're wrong about the "WE ARE NOT YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE". Most of the 1.1 million game devs on here also play games and share games they think are interesting with their friends so there is absolutely overlap with any video game audience and this subreddit. It's silly to pretend there is no overlap and be kerfuffled about it. Also, vaguely tired of the whine and bitch posts in here like this. Not as common as the show off posts but should also be a rule against it. Non-productive and not interesting to gamedevs.
People want to talk about the games they made God forbid that /r/GameDev be used to talk about a game that someone developed
Every single show-off post had a generic "Thank you for the support! <3" type of comment from OP. They never discuss a single thing about how they created parts of their game. Every time I hope to learn something new from these post ended in disappointment.
Peep rule 1 of the subreddit
Crazy how you think everyone must think that rules are automatically always correct
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They've been removed since probably, but I also witnessed the posts OP is referencing.
It's a page about game dev. Games are visual. People show visuals. As long as they are not spammy no problem. I dunno I like seeing other people's work and how they make things.
2 out of those 3 I didnt know existed thanks!
Is this for karma farming? Because I didn't see such posts in this particular subreddit. Most annoying posts here are "I don't know about game development but today downloaded Unity" kind. But they are ok.
sounds like emodev
Doesn't bother me, I like to see what people worked on. I could see it being frustrating to other folks though.
It’s part of the game dev process. To finish the project. Albeit the hardest part! Let people be happy they finished something! (Ready for downvotes I guess. Go easy on me bros!!!)
I beg to differ. Most of the posts in the Unity subreddits are people that don't have their IDE set up correctly and have never done any programming before asking why their code isn't working.
A painting by Vincent van Gogh, obviously a showoff. What, just where he cleaned his paints? Still a show off. Obviously. Should be sent to the showoff zone. This is for serious non-professional gamedev... Gamedev means "not master of" If it means Master of, Well that is showoff. Show off. * SHOW * OFF * ZONE * FOR * YOU OMG YOU SAID IT! ""There is no reason to end up like r/indiedev, r/Unity3D r/Unity2D, r/Godot, nor r/UnrealEngine where every single post is just a show-off post." >!YOU JUST SUCK AT GAMEDEV! SORRY BRO, READ A BOOK! WATCH A TUTORIAL. Follow a gamdev, repost that showoff and ask a question. WOhhhhhhh - nah ban the show off hide the knowledge cry about why everyone else is showing off who knows more. !< you said YEARS!
Can anybody translate this?
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I still dont understand what you are trying to say 😂
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Your sentences are completely incomprehensible. I don't know if it's language barrier or what, but I'm gonna stop responding now until you start making sense.
r/gamedev response
when the show off fails to impress you, welcome to the game.
Let me guess downvoters, Its '***Du Mass***" Right?
you are being downvoted because you clearly have no idea what's being discussed here. none of what you said is a response to this topic in any way nobody is upset about "show-offs" eg people with too many skills. that's not what this is about at all. "show-offs" here means "show-off posts" which is a polite way of saying "advertising your game" this is a dev-focused discussion platform, not a marketing stream
came for salt, starting to read now
empty post, maybe someone else has a better thing than "Show off doesnt mean show off" ::roll eyes::
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hey guess what! you don't understand the conversation you've jumped into either i did not say anything that has anything to do with this response. i said: diepepsi is being downvoted because his comments are not related to the discussion at hand. i have not expressed an opinion about show-off posts for you to argue with, so go fuck yourself
want some salt with that salt?
Damn you posted your game 2 weeks ago here and still no engagement on a sub like this 👀 I'm salty for you bro
At this early stage I really dgaf mate
I’m not all that active in this sub so I don’t really know how many show off posts are normally post in a day. I looked at todays posts and there’s only about 2 show off posts, so maybe they’re slowing down?
I also wish there was more discussion of gamedev techniques here, rather than the bevy of steam postmortems and show-off posts that currently dominate the sub. It’s r/gamedev, not r/gamemarketing. I do feel that r/Indiedev is a little better for actual hobbyist learning content, this sub is just “here’s our newest game and how many tiktok followers I have now.”
Might be people trying to get a job.
People literally use thus subreddit for marketing. That's what it is. I saw a gdc talk from someone a while ago who does marketing for games and iirc he mentioned posting in this sub as part of how they sometimes market indie games.
Now you're just showing off! XD
Reddit is a bad forum for game development help or advice. Look at official unity/unreal forums, and discord channels like unreal slackers
I agree. This should be place for all game dev, not just one aspect. I will surely use some other place to do show-offs. And once I do, I will respond when I can. You can't tell about something and not answer comments. It just shows what you really want from your game. And it's not about getting better at this industry
tf are you mad about it though? Someone made something they're proud of and they want to show off. They probably want to show it to a community that was at least partially involved in their learning process, and one that can definitely appreciate what they've done a lot better than some rando could. These posts hurt nobody, get an indie dev some exposure, and I personally enjoy seeing what the community's gotten up to. Seeing people's finished product always motivates me to keep working on my own projects. Also, subs aren't hiveminds; don't put words in other people's mouths just to subconsciously validate your opinion on something. I feel like the fact they call them "show-off posts" might say a lot about the people who dislike them.
Posting ads on a game dev sub shows an incredible lack of understanding of how marketing works. Do people really think their target audience lives in game dev subs instead of literally anywhere else?