Indie Game Development Blog.
Dev logs, game-design breakdowns, and honest numbers from building Soul Strip — from the first prototype to Steam.
Roguelike balance: every number I set by feel was wrongThree passes at the price of one progression system, all of them wrong, all of them caught by a simulator that plays the game itself.Game designI rebuilt the DarkStyleGames websiteA new visual system, rebuilt pages, an expanded Soul Strip wiki, and a downloadable press kit on the new DarkStyleGames site.CommunityQuitting Mid-Fight Was a Free Retry, and a Player Found ItA player showed me that quitting to the main menu undid the fight in Soul Strip. The mechanism behind the bug, and the snapshot that closed it.Dev logHow Alchemy Works in alhimos: Brewing as the Whole GameIn alhimos, brewing is the core loop. Pick 2–4 ingredients, read the success chance, and brew — here's how the alchemy table actually works.Game designMeet alhimos: an MMORPG Where You're the Alchemist, Not the Warrioralhimos is a mobile MMORPG built around alchemy — you gather ingredients, brew potions, and win fights with the right mix, not a sword.CommunitySteam showed my game 43,592 times. I drove 5% of that. The algorithm did the rest.Soul Strip's first 7 days of Steam traffic — 43k impressions, 1,729 visits, 4% CTR. Where it came from, and why my tweets weren't the source.IndustrySteam sent my store page back three times before anyone even ran the buildMultiple rounds of Steam review, long waits, and a store page at the end. What each round pushed back on, and what I'd tell a solo dev about to do this.Dev logSoul Strip's Void Element: The Card-Draw ArchetypeA deep dive into Soul Strip's 13 Void cards: extra draw, energy mid-turn, Hex that turns hits into Poison, and the Void Storm synergy.Game designDesigning the Element That Wins by Not Dying2 of 11 Holy cards deal damage. The rest buy time: Barrier halves every attack and shuts out Poison and Burn. How a defensive element works in Soul Strip.Game designSoul Strip Ascension System: 20 Levels That Change How You Build DecksGuide to Soul Strip's 20 ascension levels: five difficulty tiers, cumulative modifiers, what each tier breaks in your deck and what climbing pays.Game designSoul Strip Relic System: 50 Items That Shape Every RunGuide to Soul Strip's 50 relics: trigger types, rarity tiers, where relics drop, risk/reward picks, and the standouts for each build.Game designSoul Strip Demo Is Live — Here's What's In ItThe first playable demo of Soul Strip is available on itch.io. Act 1, 23 cards, 5 elements, and a card evolution system with 5 art stages.Community5 Elements in a Genre That Avoids ThemSlay the Spire and Balatro skip element systems entirely. I built one in Soul Strip. Discover what broke, what worked, and the design trick that saved it.Game design
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