I played Countdown and lasted 2:20. I didn't think it was a particularly great game. It was fine. It didn't really have progression or feel satisfying to play. Pac-Man has the ghosts get faster every level. The treat in Countdown does not seem to escalate. There are more things to avoid but it does not get meaningfully harder. It is just avoiding the things. In Pac-Man you have to make micro as well as macro choices. You have a lot of control so when the ghost kill you it feels like your fault and as someone who has played a lot of Pac-Man it is my fault when I lose. Your game did have me avoiding things and collecting things, but not collecting things will make me lose so it is not a choice of what to collect and when. I just had to collect everything as quickly as possible.  It is an interesting idea, but interesting ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is all that really matters.

 When I read your above statement you said two things that interested me. "I understand why some people see it as a threat, and I don’t want to brush those concerns aside." You are brushing those concerns aside. But that is not what I found interesting. I don't see AI as a threat. I am a writer. I don't see Shakespeare as a threat. You could read Shakespeare but he is not my competition. If you want to read something I wrote I am the only person you can get it from and AI isn't going to change that. Maybe some people don't like AI because they see it as a threat, to those people I say you never had what it took to begin with.

 "I simply don’t have the time or energy to learn every skill needed to accomplish everything AI helps me do." Cool. That is actually the problem. Did you see my review of your game. Writing that required research. I have been watching GMTK, Design Doc, No Pun Included etc. for years. Those skills you don't have time to learn are the fundamentals. I know how this is going to sound but the journey is more important than the destination. You are not making the next great game. Neither am I. That is just not realistic. I am not joining the MLB either. If you only care about having the end product maybe this in not the hobby for you. I am not telling you how to live your life. Do what you want. I just want you to know people are not threatened by AI. The objections people have to AI are much deeper than that.

 Hope this was helpful. Have fun :)

Hey!

I've tried a few of your games, and I wanted to share some thoughts with you!

Stealer: I really like the concept! Visually, it's very well executed, and I found it quite entertaining.

Countdown: Another interesting idea, although I have to admit that these kinds of games make me way too nervous! Haha.

Protogaia: This is actually the one I was most interested in trying, but unfortunately I couldn't. Have you considered releasing a limited demo? I'm a big fan of this type of game. In fact, one of the next games I'm looking forward to checking out is Graveyard Keeper 2. I absolutely loved the first one!

Rust Orbit 3D: I jumped straight into this one, but my browser almost exploded! Haha. Seriously though, performance was extremely poor, and even the smallest spaceship movements were incredibly slow.

For reference, my PC has an i7-8700K, 48 GB of RAM, and an RTX 3060 Ti with 8 GB of VRAM. It's getting a bit old, so perhaps that's part of the problem, but I thought you might appreciate the feedback.

Now, regarding what you said about AI and game development, I'd like to share my perspective.

I'm also a solo indie developer, and at 46 years old, I'm not exactly a teenager anymore! I genuinely believe that AI is, above all, a set of tools that we can use to help us create things.

I use AI extensively in my own project, both for programming and creating visual assets, among other things.

I completely understand why some programmers, artists, and developers see AI as a threat. And to be fair, I think some of those concerns are justified. But in my humble opinion, these technologies are tools, and learning how to work with them is becoming an increasingly valuable skill. There's also something that people who haven't actually worked with AI agents might not realize: using AI doesn't mean the work magically gets done for you.

I can easily spend between 7 and 14 hours a day developing my game. And that's WITH AI helping me.
You're still the one directing the project. You have to know what you want, make decisions, explain your requirements, guide the agents, and constantly review what they're doing. And believe me, it's not always a walk in the park!

AI agents make mistakes. Sometimes they break perfectly working code while trying to fix something else. Sometimes they solve problems brilliantly, and other times they create three new problems while fixing one!

You have to review their work, debug issues, clean up code, rethink implementations, anticipate potential problems, test everything, and make countless decisions along the way. There's nothing particularly magical about that process. It's still a tremendous amount of work, just with a different set of tools.

My programming knowledge is actually fairly basic compared to that of a professional software developer. But I know what I want to build, how I want it to work, and what kind of experience I want to create.

And I honestly believe that having a clear vision, being willing to learn, and having the determination to see a project through are incredibly important.

AI helps me turn that vision into something real, but it doesn't replace the vision itself, or the effort required to get there.

So you definitely have my support. I think it's great that you're pursuing game development seriously, regardless of age, background, or the tools you choose to use.

And one last thing I'd like to thank you for: including Spanish translations in some of your games! I'm from Spain, and although I can understand English reasonably well, my English is far from perfect. I really appreciate being able to read instructions, menus, and other game content in my native language. I know localization takes time and effort, especially for solo developers.

Even if a translation isn't absolutely perfect, being able to understand most of the game in Spanish already makes a huge difference to me.

I can manage in English, of course, but given the choice, I'll always prefer Spanish!
Anyway, I just wanted to share my impressions and offer a bit of encouragement from one solo indie developer to another.

Keep going, and best of luck with your games!

PD: Sorry for such a long comment! I got a bit carried away, haha! :D

Really appreciate the honest approach to game design and AI! 🎮👏 It's great to see developers sharing their journey and welcoming feedback. Looking forward to seeing how your project evolves. Keep up the great work! 🚀