![Steam capsule art, what is there to know? [Marketing for Indie developers] @1upIndie](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hfZHMi1JFNY/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
This video shows you the basic theory behind making a Steam capsule art image and what kind of trends are visible so that you can use these informations on your own game's capsule art.
If you have been wondering what you can do to get more attention towards you game with your capsule art or why should be actually in there and as well as you are curious what kind of trends of the topseller are being set as standards, well then this video is for you. The second part (learn from the top seller what works and see trends) is a follow up video because it was too long and rambly.
If you just want the quick and dirty tldr info, here it is:
1. First establish some basic rules to follow:
- few elements, less is more
- focus points/high lighted things/visual hooks (via color/art)
- hierachy of elements (top left to right)
- style/color consistency
- balance/symmetry
3. Trends
- no pixel art
- dark themes, dark colors, male audience focus
- emphasis on a head/action/prop
- household names can get away with all
- text is mostly white/golden/orange/brown black
- no idea on your own capsule? Open skys and fog and text
- no gore/no sexual stuff
Game shown: BatBoy
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
💬 Discord: discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23 (See youtube about page for max discount)
CHAPTERS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0:00 Intro
2:28 Basic rules on capsule art for Steam
9:49 Trends set by the best sellers on Steam
This video shows you the basic theory behind making a Steam capsule art image and what kind of trends are visible so that you can use these informations on your own game's capsule art.
If you have been wondering what you can do to get more attention towards you game with your capsule art or why should be actually in there and as well as you are curious what kind of trends of the topseller are being set as standards, well then this video is for you. The second part (learn from the top seller what works and see trends) is a follow up video because it was too long and rambly.
If you just want the quick and dirty tldr info, here it is:
1. First establish some basic rules to follow:
- few elements, less is more
- focus points/high lighted things/visual hooks (via color/art)
- hierachy of elements (top left to right)
- style/color consistency
- balance/symmetry
3. Trends
- no pixel art
- dark themes, dark colors, male audience focus
- emphasis on a head/action/prop
- household names can get away with all
- text is mostly white/golden/orange/brown black
- no idea on your own capsule? Open skys and fog and text
- no gore/no sexual stuff
Game shown: BatBoy
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
💬 Discord: discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23 (See youtube about page for max discount)
CHAPTERS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0:00 Intro
2:28 Basic rules on capsule art for Steam
9:49 Trends set by the best sellers on Steam
![Steam capsule art, what is there to know? [Marketing for Indie developers]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hfZHMi1JFNY/mqdefault.jpg "Steam capsule art, what is there to know? [Marketing for Indie developers]
This video shows you the basic theory behind making a Steam capsule art image and what kind of trends are visible so that you can use these informations on your own games capsule art.
If you have been wondering what you can do to get more attention towards you game with your capsule art or why should be actually in there and as well as you are curious what kind of trends of the topseller are being set as standards, well then this video is for you. The second part (learn from the top seller what works and see trends) is a follow up video because it was too long and rambly.
If you just want the quick and dirty tldr info, here it is:
1. First establish some basic rules to follow:
- few elements, less is more
- focus points/high lighted things/visual hooks (via color/art)
- hierachy of elements (top left to right)
- style/color consistency
- balance/symmetry
3. Trends
- no pixel art
- dark themes, dark colors, male audience focus
- emphasis on a head/action/prop
- household names can get away with all
- text is mostly white/golden/orange/brown black
- no idea on your own capsule? Open skys and fog and text
- no gore/no sexual stuff
Game shown: BatBoy
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
https://www.patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23/ (See youtube about page for max discount)
CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
2:28 Basic rules on capsule art for Steam
9:49 Trends set by the best sellers on Steam")
![Access data structures + arrays [Game Maker | Basics]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hnYtW4ang4I/mqdefault.jpg "Access data structures + arrays [Game Maker | Basics]
This basics video tutorial shows you how to access data from structures like ds_list, ds_grid, ds_map or arrays in GameMaker.
The idea is quite simple. You create your own data like a ds list or an array and want to access/read out the value stored in there. Accessors are a shorter way to do that with a specific letter for each data structure. So if you want to access a specifc index of an array you can use the @ letter or for example for the ds_list the | letter. Thats it!
Video on arrays:
https://youtu.be/m4TzXe-hXpk
Video on ds lists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ygcKjltSQY
Cool monster image from video thumbnail:
https://opengameart.org/content/main-art-from-monster-rpg-2
Offical manual on that topic:
https://manual.yoyogames.com/GameMaker_Language/GML_Overview/Accessors.htm
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
https://www.patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
📸 Instangram: https://www.instagram.com/1upindie
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/1upIndie
💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23/ (See youtube about page for discount)
CHAPTERS
0:00 What we will do
0:39 Subscribe
0:54 Theory of what accessors and data structures are
1:19 Example of a simple data structure, here a ds list
4:49 Same thing for accessing arrays
5:34 Foreshadowing of the evil to come, structs")
![Dead Cells style fog - The easy way [GameMaker | Vfx]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/i4EjrjoJzec/mqdefault.jpg "Dead Cells style fog - The easy way [GameMaker | Vfx]
This vfx tutorial shows you how to make the fog effect like in Dead Cells with a few mouse clicks in GameMaker.
Before the newest patch 2022.8 you could also create this effect with particles which is a bit more difficult and resource intensive then now. We now can use the newest visual effect: Fractual noise, which overlays the area/screen with a fog like texture to enhances the graphics of you game. You simply create a black colored sprite, give it a transparent opacity and place it on an asset layer. Then you assign this asset layer the fractual noise effect. Play around with the opacity and the values in the inspector until you get the result desired. Thats it!
For more detailed infos check out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perlin_noise
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplex_noise
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
https://www.patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
📸 Instangram: https://www.instagram.com/1upindie
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/1upIndie
💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23/ (See youtube about page for discount)
CHAPTERS
0:00 What we will do
0:30 Subscribe
0:42 Quick peek how the result looks like
1:07 Bad way how to create the fog instantly
1:32 The easy way how to create fog with fractual noise
3:50 Game shown: Dead Cells")
![GamerMaker 2023 [explained] - quick and dirty](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/i5qcW46LXFU/mqdefault.jpg "GamerMaker 2023 [explained] - quick and dirty
This video is a compressed version of GameMakers update plans and their offical video. Not all things are covered, because I dont want to speculate or some content was not relevant for most people.
1. Current state which we have right now:
- particle editor, feather, move and collide, sdf fonts, ide performance enhancment, restructuring the ide, audio effect
2. Want to meet the YoYo Games team?
- meetups https://www.meetup.com/de-DE/pro/gamemaker/
- maybe in Gamescon exhibition in Cologne https://www.gamescom.de/
3. GameMaker bundle assets will become free in the future?
https://gamemaker.io/en/bundles
4. Convert from 3D into 2D tool:
https://forum.gamemaker.io/index.php?threads/new-3d-2d-tool-beta-release.97866/
5. New runtime of GameMaker
Gradual moving from gms2 to the new runtime
6. Svg support for GameMaker
.svg format will be supported in the future, which is great for mobile developers
7. New Code editor
The new optional code editor that hold all objects and their events in drop down tab
8. New prefab system
Predefined bundle of assets that are outside GameMaker libraries/packages
9. Updating the GameMaker market place
10. Delaying multiplayer support/beta to next year
9. More modding/extension/plugin support
10. Plans for ai system in GameMaker
11. Ide compiler order changed with more modular sub systems (libraries/packages/3rd party) in between
12. sdr/hdr rendering, which enhances the quality of rendering (contrast between brightest and darkest parts of an image)
Article here:
https://gamemaker.io/en/blog/gamemaker-update-2023
Full offical YoYo Games video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF5q_Y0NwJs
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
https://www.patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
📸 Instangram: https://www.instagram.com/1upindie
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/1upIndie
💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23/ (See youtube about page for discount)
CHAPTERS
0:00 Introduction
0:28 1. The current state of GameMaker
0:57 2. Want to meet the YoYo Games team?
2:00 3. GameMaker bundle assets will become free in the future?
2:40 4. Convert from 3D into 2D tool, game shown Dead Cells
3:20 5. New runtime of GameMaker
3:42 6. Svg support in GameMaker
4:36 7. New Code editor
5:02 8. New prefab system
6:10 9. Updating the GameMaker market place
6:40 10. Delaying multiplayer support/beta to next year")
![Draw things on top each other - Depth sorting [Game Maker | Basics]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/igp2Ac_X_Jo/mqdefault.jpg "Draw things on top each other - Depth sorting [Game Maker | Basics]
This basics video tutorial shows you how to depth sort (depth system) in GameMaker.
Things feel natural if they are being draw correctly. Image a stack of cards and it is obvious that the top card would be visible to you. So what we do is to check where the instances are and sort them to their own depth (or their own layer so to say) according to their y position in the room. We cluster all the instances into a parent object and swap their current depth to their -y value. We do that with the with statement that allows use to go through all the instances and swap their own depth. Thats it!
Advanced version of controlling depth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QCgN2RDA9I
(Free) Art shown in the project and in video thumbnail:
Ansimuz CC0
https://opengameart.org/content/tiny-rpg-forest
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
https://www.patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
📸 Instangram: https://www.instagram.com/1upindie
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/1upIndie
💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23/ (See youtube about page for discount)
CHAPTERS
0:00 What we will do
0:59 Subscribe
1:11 Theory of depth and how things are being draw
2:03 Depth sorting
2:37 Grouping instances into a parent object to sort
3:44 Pitfalls of this depth sorting")
![Gradient water/sea background - The easy way [GameMaker | Vfx]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/imIDu84jIF0/mqdefault.jpg "Gradient water/sea background - The easy way [GameMaker | Vfx]
This vfx tutorial shows you how to make a sea/gradient background for showing off in GameMaker with just a few mouse clicks.
The setup of this background consists of 3 visual effect layers. A gradient with a light and dark color, the underwater effect for a nice distortion of that gradient and a vignette to give the whole thing a more pleasant look. Super easy and no keyboard was used/hurt in the process.
Tldr: - vfx for the win
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
https://www.patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
📸 Instangram: https://www.instagram.com/1upindie
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/1upIndie
💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23/ (See youtube about page for discount)
CHAPTERS
0:00 What we will do
0:48 Set a gradient effect layer
0:42 Set an underwater effect layer
3:11 Finishing with a vignetter effect layer")
![Gravity Storm under the hood [game design, make in GameMaker]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jY_0SUvzbDE/mqdefault.jpg "Gravity Storm under the hood [game design, make in GameMaker]
Gravity Storm: First Mission is an action platformer similar to Metal Storm which was a Nes game in 1991. The idea is that the player can change the gravity on a button press and use the environment to his advantage.
This game design series will be each Friday on one of the games from my (community) discord channel or here youtube channel. The idea is to softly analyse and give useful feedback for the game. So you are all invited to chip in!
Game/demo found here:
store.steampowered.com/app/3482870/Gravity_Storm First_Mission")
![Weapon damage [#7 Vampire Survivors Remake in GameMaker ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/k3evjBNv0Cg/mqdefault.jpg "Weapon damage [#7 Vampire Survivors Remake in GameMaker ]
This is the 7th video in a series on remaking Vampire Survivors in GameMaker.
The video tutorial shows you how to use the weapons created to damage the enemies and if their hp pool is zero to destroy them. For that we first assign a damage value to the weapon parent and assign a hp variable in the enemy parent which is getting substracted later on. So we need to create a collision rectangle list (or any other collision you prefer) to get the id of the enemy being hit/collided with and there we substract from each enemy hit the hp the damage value. If the hp is zero or below we remove the enemy instance from the game. Thats it!
To refine this system, we organize the damage values of each weapon in the player and each time we spawn a weapon we grab the current value, which will increase/change during gameplay. Normally you would do that in an outside controller object, but this simplified version does the trick also. Also note that we use a collision [rectangle] list because this is making sure we get each step all the instances getting hit by the weapon. The regular collisions only collide with one instance each step which would result in instance visibly hit not getting any kind of damage or hp reduction.
🚧 For the future: This series will will build expanded the further we go into the series.
💻Project + assets found here:
https://1up-indie2.itch.io/vampire-survivors-mini-engine
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
https://www.patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
📸 Instangram: https://www.instagram.com/1upindie
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/1upIndie
💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23/ (See youtube about page for discount)
CHAPTERS
0:00 What we will do
0:43 Subscribe
0:55 The concept what we do
2:05 Create a damage variable for all weapons
2:36 Create a health variable in all enemies
3:24 Make a step event that can collide with all enemies
6:55 Refine the system by storing and grabbing unique damage values for each weapon
8:32 foreshadowing the next video
9:00 Game shown: Astalon: Tears Of The Earth")
![Structs - light objects [Game Maker | Basics]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/k874pndLJEs/mqdefault.jpg "Structs - light objects [Game Maker | Basics]
This basics video tutorial crash course shows you what structs are in GameMaker. An advanced video will go into constructors and more functions.
Structs are in principle ligh object or simply data containers. These data containers have a specific syntax which is very similar to the JSON standard (OOP: object oriented programming). Jason stands for Java script object notation and is an universal file format for human reading. The idea is that you have keys (the name of a variable) and values (the actualy value assigned to the variable) inside a struct. That can be used to created topdown hierarchies (nesting, a struct in a struct etc.) that can be chained (with the dot operator) together .
In short: Structs are light weight object with key values data inside them. Thats it.
Offical manual:
https://manual.yoyogames.com/GameMaker_Language/GML_Overview/Structs.htm
Video in detail about structs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe2GziffrIo
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
https://www.patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
📸 Instangram: https://www.instagram.com/1upindie
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/1upIndie
💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23/ (See youtube about page for discount)
CHAPTERS
0:00 What we will do
0:33 Subscribe
0:44 What is a struct? Spoiler, a light object
2:04 Syntax of a struct (JSON format)
6:02 The big no noes what not to do
6:42 Why use structs
7:50 Game shown: Tears of Astalon")
![External Hit Animation - Juice up any game [GAME DESIGN CODE]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kalIpZffZ3o/mqdefault.jpg "External Hit Animation - Juice up any game [GAME DESIGN CODE]
This video shows you how to juice up any video game with good Game Design. External Hit animations are the backbone of any video game and indicate to the player with an animation that something is happening to the player/npc instance. Note that external hit animations are coming from the outside and can be considered as an additional animation being drawn on top of the instance being hit and can be one or multiple animations being created.
There are two most common ways how to do this. A visual and easier way is to simply have an hit animation image that is running down its animation and once it is finished you then remove it. That can be used as a default hit animation for all cases or as specific type of hit animation (elemental, weapon hit or internal bleed/oil/rubble) or both.
The most common way in video games is to use particles that are being spawned in a particular way. This approach is more complicated and needs fine tuning becaues these animations are a composite of different particles. A vanilla hit effect for example has a fast moving ring that goes from the center and exands plus small lines that rapidly move out of the center in an circular fashion.
Tldr:
- sprite/image or particles or both to create hit effects
- can be default, specific internal/external effects
🚧 For the future: There will be follow up video that shows these hit animations with code and a visual
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
https://www.patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
📸 Instangram: https://www.instagram.com/1upindie
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/1upIndie
💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23/ (See youtube about page for discount)
CHAPTERS
0:00 Hit animation with sprites/images
0:18 Specific hit animation (elemental, weapon etc.)
1:04 Hit animation with particles
1:40 Combined hit animations
2:14 Game shown: Celeste")
![Metroidvania Map the easy way - Concept [GameMaker]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/kgZjhEuhgNc/mqdefault.jpg "Metroidvania Map the easy way - Concept [GameMaker]
This video tutorial covers the concept of how to create a metroidvana map in GameMaker. Every good sidescroller/metroidvania has it and now I can offer a simple, scaleable and performative version to you without tanking your performance.
The idea is quite simple, you define how many columns and rows you want to have, draw on each cell one empty image/sprite and draw one active cells recolored rectangle and their walls (connector walls optional). Or do create for each cell one specific sprite (delux version) where you have less repeated cells to work with but map clarity is much improved.
The following parts will be coding and add, start location, visited/not explored cells aswell as map movement and zooming.
You can find the project file in my discord server under this section:
free-stuff_gamemaker or the first pinned comment by me
👑 Support me and get fresh game art and game maker projects every month:
https://www.patreon.com/1upindie
Follow me on:
📸 Instangram: https://www.instagram.com/1upindie
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/1upIndie
💬 Discord: https://discord.gg/gvr98nb
📜 Udemy: https://www.udemy.com/course/become-a-video-game-developer-with-gms-23/ (See youtube about page for discount)
0:00 What we will build in part 2
0:45 How the my old map worked and now is fixed
1:35 Step 1 - Define how many rows and columns you want, draw empy cell
1:55 Step 2,3 - draw active cell on x,y cooridnates that have a level via one white block and recolor it
2:20 Step 3 - Draw walls to show where the player can go, alternative draw wall-connectors
3:28 Delux version is where you have one specific image to draw and recolor it
4:45 - Concept again, one event, we draw all pieces, draw that on a surface and store the whole thing in one image/sprite
5:20 The basic version will be free to download on my discord server")
