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This week I finally gave Codex a try and I was extremely surprised at how good it was! Not necessarily for Game Dev but rather for all my other business/content creation tasks. It helped me create a bunch of Chrome Extensions that I can use for various things like setting up video metadata, searching my video library, helping me set up this newsletter (I write in a .txt file then I have to copy paste into the newsletter website), also made a simple one to store some notes, one to help me set up invoices, and more.
My next goal is seeing how it can maybe help me set up starting scenes for various tutorials that I'd love to make. I can easily teach you how to make a Save System off the top of my head, but setting up a demo scene with a moving character, some coins, doors, an environment and so on, takes hours. So if I can speed up that process then I'll be able to cover lots more topics in tutorials!
I will be making a video tutorial this week covering how to use Unity from Codex/Claude as well as how to use the Unity CLI + MCP. I think with the right guidance these tools can genuinely help you.
Game Dev: Should you pay $370 for a post of your game on X?
Tech: Steam Frame is finally here!
Gaming: StarCraft is BACK!
Fun: Treat your kids like AI?
Game Dev
Should you pay $370 for a post of your game on X?
One of my favorite accounts on X is Indie Game Joe, he posts about interesting indie games, I've certainly found quite a few through his posts. His account has grown quite a lot in recent months and he definitely understands Indie Game Marketing.
His posts are free, he doesn't charge devs, but other people that post about games do charge for coverage (which can be fine), and that's what this giant article he posted is all about. Is it worth it? Should you as an indie dev pay for coverage? How much is an X post worth? If you're curious about paying for coverage of your Indie game then this article is a must read.
I'm not personally too familiar with the account "Best Indie Games" so I can't comment on the specifics of that account but I can definitely agree with the fact that you should be paying based on what you actually get, views/impressions, and not a vanity subscribers or followers metric. Paying $370 for a post that gets 2500 impressions is absolutely not worth it.
For the most part, since indie games are very cheap ($3-$15) it is very very hard to get a positive ROI on any paid advertising, therefore in general I don't recommend you do it. If you really want to then I'd say try using something very targeted like Reddit ads pointing at hyper specific niche subreddits. Sometimes those can help getting wishlists at a cost of $1-$2 per wishlist which is pretty expensive but might be useful to test how much are people interested in your game.
Although in general I would say, if you have trouble getting organic coverage, it is likely because your game is not as appealing as you think and therefore paid coverage will likely not save you.
 | I think this is a very important topic to talk about because a lot of indie devs don't know how paid marketing works, and if they get a quote saying "I have an audience size of 300,000 and if you pay me $200 you can reach them!" then that sounds awesome! But then they pay their hard-earned $200 and in return get 3000 impressions and 10 visits to their page leading to 1 wishlist and 0 sales. That's not fun. |
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The Autumn Sale on the Asset Store is on! This is a big one! All the top assets are discounted 50% OFF, including my own Code Monkey Toolkit Asset!
I’ve also just updated it with a bunch more Tools and Elements to help you make games BETTER and FASTER. I’ve added a Main Menu and Graphics Settings Window to quickly help you get your prototypes up and running. I’ve also added Day Night Cycle, Simple Destruction, Save System, along with the other 50 Tools and Elements that were already on the asset. Oh and an interesting new addition for those of you using AI agents, I’ve added Skills.md so that agents can learn how to use the Toolkit. I tested it myself with Unity AI and just asked it to build a scene with a player character interacting with some cubes and it did it perfectly!
Get my Toolkit HERE and browse everything on sale HERE!
The Publisher of the Week this time is Giant Grey, publisher with some interesting tools for roads and data analysis.
Get the FREE PathGrid which is a grid system to help you create roads and paths like in a city builder game.
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It’s got every theme imaginable, Sci-Fi, Modern, Medieval, Fantasy, etc.
Great sound and music can really elevate your game, and having a giant pack like this with tons of variety really helps.
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Tech
Steam Frame is finally here!
Valve's new VR headset, Steam Frame, is finally launching! Although getting one currently involves a waitlist AND it's super expensive.
Sadly the price isn't really their fault, it starts at $1059 ($1300 1TB), and Valve says the RAM shortage pushed the price way above its original target. This was never intended to be a mass market device to compete with something like the Quest 3, it was always meant to be for the hardcore users, but still over a thousand bucks is definitely pricey even for that audience.
The good news is that the hardware sounds excellent! Reviews so far are all extremely positive, everyone praises the comfort, convenience, and especially the wireless PC streaming. It seems like the Foviated Streaming and the Wireless Adapter does work genuinely extremely well.
It can work either in standalone, or receiving footage from a game running on your desktop, all wireless. The one negative appears to be the battery, when working in standalone on a heavy game you can expect under 1 hour of battery time! That's tiny! On streaming it's more close to 2 hours which for VR I think is fine. Technically you can just hook a power bank to it and store it in your pants to get more time.
One insanely impressive thing is how they got Half Life: Alyx working on-device! That's crazy! Such a high end impressive game running standalone on a mobile chip! Optimizing that must have been one tough challenge.
Right now you can't just straight up buy it since they didn't build many, you have to join a waitlist and hope to be chosen. I did join the waitlist as soon as I could but apparently I wasn't selected for the first batch, so no headset for me just yet. I'd love to get it to finally play Half-Life: Alyx, which looks like it could be the best VR game ever, and I'd also like to experiment with some VR development myself.
| I really really want to play Half Life: Alyx. I held off on buying an Index because everyone was constantly saying "Valve's new headset is coming soon!" and now it's finally here but sadly can't quite get it just yet. I wonder how long it will take for them to add more stock, will be it quick like a bunch of new batches every month? Or will there still be shortages one year from now? |
Gaming
StarCraft is BACK!
There have been lots of game announcements recently, here are some of the biggest highlights from BlizzCon and Tokyo Game Show so far:
StarCraft is returning, but NOT as an RTS! Blizzard revealed an open-world shooter set in the StarCraft universe. There's a GORGEOUS cinematic trailer, I definitely recommend you watch it you enjoy sci-fi, regardless of whether you like the game or not, Blizzard is still top tier when it comes to making trailers. There's no gameplay because the game is coming out in 2030! That feels like a lifetime from now. The fact that it's not an RTS is interesting, maybe they also have an RTS in the pipeline? Maybe this game is meant to just flesh out the world of StarCraft some more? Interesting strategy.
Diablo V is coming in Spring 2029! I remember playing Diablo IV when it came out, really enjoyed it although haven't played it since. This is another one that is super far in the future.
Warcraft III got a new expansion! Forsaken Kingdom launched during BlizzCon, over 23 years after The Frozen Throne.
Also happening this week is Tokyo Game Show which brought more trailers of lots of games. Crazy Taxi: World Tour looks like great nostalgia-bait, Bloodstained: The Scarlet Engagement looks like some great sidescrolling action, and Persona 4 Revival is coming in February.
Capcom showed more Monster Hunter and Mega Man. Monster Hunter Wilds: Ascendance is coming in 2027, while Mega Man: Dual Override targets Spring 2027.
| I was shocked at the StarCraft announcement. It's been decades since StarCraft 2, it feels like a dormant franchise so it's awesome to see it returning! Technically it's not returning like most people would want, but if they're making games in the same universe I have to assume they also have an RTS in the pipeline. |
Fun
Treat your kids like AI?
If you're a regular on X or more AI-focused discussions you probably understand the joke in this post. There's tons of posts talking about how you should talk to your AI in a certain way to get the best results. As well as the classic "make no mistakes!"
What about applying it to your kids? Heh very silly!
| I found this funny, it's obviously ridiculous to apply this way of talking to other humans, but for AI it works great! For me my best prompt tip has been "ask me any clarifying questions before you get started," I write that whenever I ask AI to build something or help brainstorm ideas and it works extremely well. The more context it has the better the output will be. |
Marketing Your Game in 2026 - Trailers or TikTok?
Excellent explainer on the difference between these two very different video formats
The Software Behind Almost Every Video
Have you used FFmpeg? It's probably the most widely used software in the world, without people knowing it!
Get Rewards by Sending the Game Dev Report to a friend!
(please don’t try to cheat the system with temp emails, it won’t work, just makes it annoying for me to validate)
Thanks for reading!
Code Monkey
