What if the smartest way to make your dream game is to wait 10 years before making it? Yahya Danboos spent more than a decade learning game development before taking on Luminous Knights, his Kingdom Hearts-inspired indie action RPG. Now, after four years of development, he’s also built an audience around the game and grown it to more than 20,000 Steam wishlists, with over 10,000 coming largely through Twitter/X. In this episode of Dev Dream Pod, Yahya breaks down what he learned from taking the long road to his dream game and how indie developers can actually get people to notice what they're building. We talk about why your first game probably shouldn’t be your dream game, how to control scope when making an ambitious RPG, designing satisfying action combat and boss fights, building reusable systems for future games, and deciding which player feedback is actually worth listening to. Then we get deep into indie game marketing. Yahya explains why developers should start marketing from day one, why he believes you should launch your Steam page as early as possible, what happened when his game went viral, how Twitter/X helped generate thousands of Steam wishlists, and why TikTok, YouTube Shorts, devlogs, Reddit, and other platforms each present different opportunities for indie developers. We also talk about Kickstarter and crowdfunding for indie games, why Kickstarter is harder than it was a decade ago, building an audience before launching a campaign, working without a publisher, and Yahya’s ultimate goal of becoming a full-time independent game developer. If you're making an indie game, trying to grow your Steam wishlists, learning how to market your game, building an action RPG, or wondering when you're finally ready to make your dream game, this conversation is packed with lessons from a developer who has spent more than a decade figuring it out. Topics include: indie game development, solo game development, Luminous Knights, Yahya Danboos, Kingdom Hearts, Heartslike games, action RPG development, Unreal Engine, game design, combat design, boss design, Steam wishlists, Steam marketing, indie game marketing, Twitter/X marketing, TikTok, YouTube devlogs, Kickstarter, crowdfunding, community building, player feedback, game scope, and becoming a full-time indie developer. Dev Dream Pod is hosted by Blake Gocey and features conversations with indie game developers about making games, marketing games, Steam, game design, building an audience, and pursuing the dream of becoming a game developer.
