Pretty Dreadful

Solo-indie-gamedeveloper. Pretty Dreadful on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2460520/Pretty_Dreadful_Heritage/

[higanbana-games]

It took me 8 years to make my first game

In December 2025 I released my first indie game "Pretty Dreadful: Heritage". It’s been about 2 months since the release and I feel the urge to sum things up. Not just moneywise. I'd like to reflect on my experience in solo indie development overall.

(for those who is interested, you can watch a video om my YouTube channel - it covers pretty much the same info as I'm going to list in this post)

I made my first attempt in solo dev back in 2018. I had no skills but had lots of passion. I tried to make a short visual novel in Ren'Py. However, I pretty soon realised I couldn’t provide a good enough visual for such a genre. 

So, my next attempt was “a point & click adventure”, because I like the genre myself. 

My first attempt with Unity was kind of clumsy. And it took me about 2 years to get confident enough with the engine and the tools. That’s when I really started developing something that looked like a real game.

After that I had to take a really long a couple of years break before I could try again and do things properly.

Lots of things have happened and I don't want to mention any of them here. (this world sucks, right?)

It happened so that I made the Demo in just 3 months. Things were a bit hectic back then, and I couldn’t do my absolute best at that time. Nevertheless, I’m glad I did it. 

Releasing the Demo was the pivotal point. It made me feel like I have no right to give up.

That’s when I stumbled upon my greatest weakness.

I’m an extremely introverted person, and it’s hard for me to update any social media on a regular basis. Even for the purpose of marketing.

I feel pretty comfortable writing here as I prefer a blog format. But all those reels, shorts and other things... It's just not for me. The sad thing is, no one is going to notice you or what you do if you don't catch up...

I honestly tried to be active on social media for a short period of time and somehow got almost 300 wishlists, which felt like a real success. (that’s when I found out that other games counted in thousands, oops)

So, I took the best time I had and put all my efforts into the development. I had to set a time limit though — the game had to be released in December, 2025.

When the day came, I felt a lot of contradicting emotions. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn't do better. But I was extremely happy anyway, because it was my first real project and I released it no matter what!

It’s been more than 2 months since the release. So, how much money did my indie game make?

By the end of December, the game reached 400 wishlists.

It’s March now, and I earned… less than a 100 dollars! Yup. That’s it.

When I made the game, I did it mostly for my heart’s content. And partially, I was curious to see how things would turn out to be naturally.

You might wonder what’s the point then?

Well, first of all, I’m just happy I made a little cozy game. And I hope that one day it’s going to find more people who would enjoy it. Second of all… I saw lots of videos on YouTube where people shared their success stories as indie developers. And I find them inspiring! But, let’s be honest, most of those stories are a survival bias. There are still lots of really good games buried somewhere on the last pages of Steam which just couldn’t survive the pressure.

So, I just want to show you what can happen when you love your project, but it doesn’t bring you instant success and loads of money.

I still love making games and I definitely would like to make another one. Probably, I’ll try and put more effort in marketing and social media next time.

I’m still dreaming of translating my game into more languages. Especially, Japanese. (It still feels weird to have the game set in Japan, but no Japanese language in it.)

Anyway, that was a wonderful journey. And I hope that every indie-dev enthusiast will go on and make their dreams come true! (Yes, you can use my example as a “don’t do that” guide if you want more people to see your game.) (^_^)

Have a lovely day, everyone!

[higanbana-games]

Pretty Dreadful release!

Steam page

After almost 5 years of development, the game is finally out. And I’d like to say a huge “Thank You!” to everyone who wishlisted my little game. Your support means a lot!

By saying "5 years" I don't mean a steady every day work, unfortunately. I had periods of time when I didn't open the project for more than a year or, on the contrary, worked on it every day and night.

It started as a little portfolio thing for the job which turned into a hobby project which grew into a real game of its own. And I'm really proud of it.

I’m a no programmer solo indie developer and I've tried my best to make the gameplay captivating but steady. (dealing with bugs when you have only a visual scripting tool in your hands was challenging).

I had huge plans on Steam achievements and in-game collectibles, but my skills aren't sufficient enough for that. I also planned to add a Japanese localization (and other European and Asian languages as well!). But I'm too broke to afford that right now...(^ ^;)

I strongly recommend you to try at least for two endings (it's pretty easy to do - just stick to one of the two main NPCs and their interests)

I hope this journey isn't over for I'd like to make more little games in the future. This was a truly unique experience that I'd definitely like to retry.

P.S. As you might have noticed, English isn't my first language. I'd like to have my in-game texts proofread one day. Yet, I hope my level is good enough for you to enjoy the story. (^ ^)

Lots of love! <3

[higanbana-games]

Release date!

Am I ready? Absolutely not. Every day I have to fix more and more bugs which increase like a damn Fibonacci sequence 🫠 I have to blame the unintended 5 endings for this😈

Yet, I cannot delay the release because life makes its own rules (probably I’ll tell this story after it’s all over).

I hope I won’t have to cut any content I have left planned (it’s not much but still…).

This post is a bit chaotic, but it’s perfectly good for this platform I believe 🙃

Please, support the game with wishlists on Steam if you’d like to know how this story ends 👻

DEMOをちぇっくしてくに! (o^_^o)

[higanbana-games]

Steam Next Fest

「Pretty Dreadful」 is going to Steam Next Fest in October!

Yep, I’m still alive.😅 And I’m bold enough to say that the game is 85% ready. Why 85? Let me say that some days and nights in the game matter.

Four endings are also on-route. Initially, I was going to try for two, but ended up with twice as many.

I hope, the game will be accepted to the Fest without any issues. And if things go as planned, I’ll soon be able to announce the release date as well.

P.S. I’m still not good at social media, though I realise it’s the only way to let people know about my game. Well, the time is yet to come.

Please, check out the demo and add it to your wishlist! <3

And of course I thank everyone who's added 「Pretty Dreadful」 to their wishlist. Lots of love to you, wonderful people!

___

2025年10月

Steam Nextフェスに行きます！

DEMOをちぇっくしてくに! (o^_^o)

[higanbana-games]

Some end of the year results (^ ^)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

This year has been pretty hectic (which becomes quite a usual thing these days). Nevertheless, I’d like to make a short overview here.

I’m happy to share that the demo of my little game got about 200 wishlists. I know it’s not a huge number, but it makes me happy anyway. If all those 200 people came into my room and said “I’d like to play your game”, I would be in a pleasant kind of shock. (o^ ^o)

Thank you everyone, who noticed my game!

(If these characters remind you of someone, I'm happy you can understand the reference. You may also find some interesting spoilers for the game in this art. (^_~) )

The development is moving slowly but steadily. I believe that 2024 was a harsh year for many people out there. I’ve personally been through several crises (unfortunately, the last one isn’t over yet).

Mind the difficulties, I don’t want to become one of those developers, who for some reason abandon their project (though I respect them all and their decision).

Honestly, I’m not very good at blogging. I’d like to share many things I’ve already made for the game, but I don’t want to spoil things either (^^;). I’ll think it over and try to find some balance.

I’m sure everyone has their struggles and crises to overcome this year. So, I’ll try to focus on good things and make a list of good results. That’s a good thing to motivate myself to go on and encourage someone else not to give up on their dreams (I hope).

(I'd love to spoil new this location because I worked on it a lot, and I hope you'll find it pretty)

1. Left quite a toxic job environment,

2. Started taking care of myself and my health,

3. Added 11 locations, 6 new NPCs, 3 monsters and numerous minor things to the game,

4. Learnt lots of new things which help me build the gameplay faster and better,

5. Finally restarted learning Japanese and have a significant progress in it. (I went to a Japanese Language school back in 2017, but had to stop my journey in learning the language. I’m happy to finally be able to continue from the point where I had stopped)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I know this is the blog about the game developenment. Yet! I’d like to share more of my interests here, since they are often connected to the game anyway. And, they can tell you more about me as a person/game developer. (^ ^)V

As a little experiment, I’m going to start with using my newly acquired Japanese skills. It will encourage me (and maybe someone else) and show that it’s never too late to pick up the hobby you once loved again. (Also, I humbly hope to make some basic Japanese translations in the game for its release.)

こんにちは！

名前はナタリです。よろしくお願いします🙇‍♀️

2017年からゆっくり日本語を勉強しています。そしてこのブログに日本語ときどきできたいと思います。

自分でコンピューターゲームを作っています。

コンピューターゲームがあまり上手じゃないですけど、毎日ゆっくり頑張ります！

今年はちょっと難しかったですね。。。

来年もうお世話になってください❣️

[higanbana-games]

Hints in Point&Click Adventures. How not to make players feel stupid?

The Point&Click Adventure genre implies a very simple gameplay from its name. Whether it’s a 1st person or a 3rd person game, players are meant to click in various areas on their screens. And that click calls many possible actions: talk to an NPC, pick up an object, use an object, examine some area, trigger an event/action and many other possible variants.

Story is what gives such games a meaning. Detective stories, romance novels or even horrors. However, a good story can simply go unnoticed if the gameplay doesn’t complement that story.

I’ve played many games of different genres, but when it comes to a story quest I often stumbled on one thing that unites such games as Syberia, Fran Bow and even Elden RIng. It’s the lack of in-game hints.

Every story is unique and has its own deep meaning, and I absolutely love every game I mention in this post. So, the following examples will just show some hard parts in the games I mention.

“Fran Bow” - ticket to the Club

The overall game is a masterpiece! Yet, I had a really hard time trying to understand what I was supposed to do to get into the Club in Ithersta.

(The following might be a spoiler if you haven’t played the game yet)

What the quest is about:

you have to find a hidden passage from the back of the club and send your cat in there,

you play as a cat too steal a ticket from one of the guests and bring that ticket to Fran,

Fran shows the ticket to the security guy at the entrance but he can easily tell she’s lying to him and doesn’t accept the stolen ticket,

Fran takes a smeared pest control specialist’s card she picked up ages ago and a green crayon she had got even earlier than that. And she draws herself a ticket on that card.

Fran gives that ticket to the security guy and he lets her enter the Club.

The main problem here is that Fran has had the objects she needs in her inventory all that time, but the quest makes players find a way to steal a ticket and try it first. Only after that sequence of actions can she fake her ticket. Of course, it can be explained like Fran had to see the real ticket before she could draw the one for herself. But this idea wasn’t emphasized in any way, which makes it extremely hard to figure the logic out by yourself.

No chance to skip the mini games

Another concern I had was on release of a wonderful game called “Children of Silent Town”. The game has stunning art and gives pretty but creepy vibes. The story felt so smooth that I did not even once think of looking into guides. Yet, some mini games were relatively hard. Though they had basic visual hints explaining how to play, some of the games took me too much time to enjoy them. And there was no button to skip it nor the more precise instruction showing how to complete it.

“Rusty Lake” - good visual hints

As a good example of guiding players through the game, I would call the “Rusty Lake” series. There are good visual hints following through the gameplay. And when there are no such obvious hints and players feel stuck, it’s up to players whether to try and figure everything out by themselves or press a button and see a thorough visual instruction.

My point here is simple. Hints should be balanced.

If you have to use a head of cheese to open a door with a complicated mechanism and there are no hints on such a unique usage - players might feel too stupid to solve it.

If a player character or an NPC comments on every action with phrases like “The door is locked” or “The villain ran over there”, it might frustrate players. For such comments are too basic and don’t give any extra helpful information while on the other hand they don’t guide players nor hint at what to do next.

The balance between making players feel too smart or too stupid is really delicate. 

The main idea is to make players feel smart when they solve another puzzle or listen to an NPC carefully and follow the implication; or just let them enjoy the game in a simple way they choose by directing them smoothly and letting them skip the hard parts.

There probably isn’t one correct answer or a universal solution on the subject (should there really be one?), and I just shared my thoughts and observations.

Every story-driven game is unique, and game designers choose the best way that suits every single project to reveal its potential and touch people’s hearts. <3

[higanbana-games]

Why am I making a Point&Click Adventure?

Of course, it’s one of my favourite genres of a game, as I grew up playing Syberia, Nancy Drew and recently I was fascinated with Fran Bow, Sally Face and Spiritfarer. Point and Click Adventures seem relaxing, almost like reading a book but with an opportunity to interact with the game world and various NPCs. You don’t have to worry about your character’s health bar, abilities upgrade and many other things which might require your concentration and reaction speed.

Yet, another reason is that I suck at coding. (^_^;) Several attempts to learn programming were pretty unsuccessful and disappointing. And I started looking for alternate ways.

Actually, my first real game build was a visual novel made with Ren’Py. I was really simple and worked well, but I realized that my art skills were far below the appropriate level for such a genre.

That’s when I “got acquainted” with Unity and found a marvelous asset pack called Adventure Creator. It’s basically created for point and click adventures and offers you simple tools of visual scripting to make your game come true.

My first attempts to make a location and a character who can walk, speak and interact with the world were pretty lame (even with the help of tutorials). Yet, with every scene, every NPC, and every detail I feel more and more confident.

I dream of making many games in various genres some time in the future. And now, I’m just happy I could make my first demo of a game that everyone can enjoy. (^_^)V

[higanbana-games]

Funny Bugs Montage

I love bloopers in movies and TV shows. How come, games don't have such an option? Probably, because there are too many inevitable bugs in every development... (^_^;)

When I first started working with Unity, I made lots of mistakes. Many were pretty frustrating. Yet, some of them seemed really funny, so I decided to make a short montage.

It'll be nice to look back one day and remember how it's all started with a smile. (^_^)V

Pretty Dreadful: Heritage Demo

[higanbana-games]

Devlog about Demo Update

I made a lot of talking (in writing ^^;) about the things I improved in the Demo of Pretty Dreadful, but I almost abandoned my YouTube channel.

So I thought it would be nice to actually show the update. For those who haven't played the game yet, it's a good chance to see it live (whether it meets your expectations or not).

Please, check out the latest Devlog and subscribe to my channel if you like it. I don't have a clear plan right now, but I'm definitely intended to update it more often and share the development of the whole game (^_^).

[higanbana-games]

A little tribute to a very good person

Many things were said, and I don't feel I can add more.

The Gazette have always been a huge part of my life, and the news about Reita-san left me devastated.

When I first planned to make my little game, it was The Gazette who inspired me greatly (and now you can see familiar faces as the game characters). The character that was inspired by Reita-san is a cool supernatural detective. He wasn't meant to be introduced in the Demo (but later in the main game). Yet, after everything that's happened, I felt the need to show my respect to such a great person.

I didn't want to rush to make things properly and animated the character with great love. And I hope he'll steal people's hearts when it'll come to the whole game.

Thank you for inspiring me to go on, Reita-san!

P.S. I created the art on top many years ago. It's just a low quality photo of a real drawing, and I decided to keep it as it is to represent the time passed.

[higanbana-games]

Pretty Dreadful Demo Update

The updated Demo is out now!

Re:do can see strange things around him. Ghosts, monsters, dead people? He is eager to ignore everything just to fit in and feel "normal". Yet those things are not eager to let Re:do go and stay unnoticed. How much longer can this lie go on?

Please, enjoy the demo, if you haven't played it yet! (^ ^)

Pretty Dreadful: Heritage on Steam

Re:do left his quiet life in a village to pursue his career dreams in a big city. However, time passed and after graduation the guy found hi

Every bit of support is highly appreciated. Please, wishlist the game if you like it <3

P.S. A little spoiler for the upcoming location of the main game (^^)

[higanbana-games]

Big Demo update is coming soon!

Though I’m working on the main game, it felt wrong to leave the Demo as it is. So I polished it to have the sense of completion - as much as it’s possible at this point.

Things that are waiting for you in the updated Demo are:

* New menu and short but pretty cutscenes to complement the story.

* The main character can finally run (better late than never 😅).

* An autosave system is added (the Demo turns out bigger than I thought, so it’s a must)

* One big tribute to a person who inspired me to go on. (I’m planning to make a separate post about the whole situation later)

* A couple of Easter eggs, and many minor adjustments.

(If you can find both Easter eggs in these locations, you can write your suggestions in the comments)👻

P.S. The date of the update isn’t set yet. I’ll just post about it when it’s out for you to play🌸

[higanbana-games]

Pretty Dreadful Demo

It's been a long way...

I started about 1.5 years ago and barely knew how to use Unity engine. There were lots of struggles on the way. I had merely made art for the first two locations and the main character, when I had to abandon it all. I was sure I will never finish this project.

Things were getting worse, and I found myself at my lowest point in life. That's when I remembered about my little game I had been dreaming to make.

About 5 months ago I took off from where I had left it. This project was the only thing that helped me go on. It kept me busy, it made me overcome technical struggles and my complete ignorance of coding.

It happened so that I had no one to ask for help or advice in terms of game development. It was a real life quest for me: make a game, fix all bugs, make builds, montage a couple of Devlogs, montage Demo trailer, create Steam page, release Demo...

I still can't believe I did all that on my own and reached that significant milestone in my life!

I know there aren't many people who would notice my game. There are more projects on Steam, that are simply better and more interesting than my tiny game.

However, if you ever run across my pretty little game, please, enjoy it. And maybe you'll even want to know what happens next... (o^ ^o)

Pretty Dreadful: Heritage on Steam

Re:do left his quiet life in a village to pursue his career dreams in a big city. However, time passed and after graduation the guy found hi

[higanbana-games]

It’s been pretty long since my last post here.

I’ve made quite a significant progress in my little game. It has a Japanese vibe from the very beginning, but I had a feeling it missed something. Until I realised the game cannot go without a typical Japanese city street. I really hope it looks like one.

I miss Japan a lot, however I’m happy I can make things like this little location and imagine walking there.

[higanbana-games]

I’m not an artist. However, seing my own timelaps was quite funny and made me feel like a real one.

Who do you think lives behind every door (and which door leads to the main character’s aparto)?

P.S. When I made this location, I accidentally remembered Aoi’s lockdown story (and lots of beer being drunk). So, I couldn’t resist the temptation and added this little easter egg. (^^;) Though, I’m still thinking of implementing him as a complete character later.

[higanbana-games]

I’d love to make a game about everything I like and everything that inspires me to create.

One band that inspired me. Five members… well, here are four of them. The fifth one is definitely going to be an inspiration for one more character - he is on the way.

P.S. I’m not copying anything or anyone. However I would be glad if some fans can recognise these guys. (^^)

[higanbana-games]

Hello world!🖖

Welcome to my humble indiedev blog.

My dream is to make a point and click game inspired by things I like.

I just hope that someone else likes it, too.🌸