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Maybe not the greatest story but definitely one of the loveliest games I've played was A Short Hike.

It is a kinda short (~5-6h) feel good game in which you more or less just have to explore a holiday island and meet different other Animals

The developer held a talk on the GDC how he made the game: https://youtu.be/ZW8gWgpptI8

⬐ enduser

It's on sale right now at GOG.

Nice. The resulting graphics style reminds me of a Short Hike, which is a family friendly bite sized 3D adventure and exploration game. I'm not affiliated in any way, just enjoyed the game with my kid. It has a nice balance of story, challenges, and some platformer action. https://ashorthike.com/

Edit: IIRC the shader a Short Hike used was discussed in the GDC talk by the game's author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW8gWgpptI8

You might want to watch this for inspiration: Short Hike Post-mortem (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW8gWgpptI8) about single developer struggles. Of course, this is one of successful stories, so your mileage might (and will) vary. Give yourself tight deadlines and see if you can stick to them. Do not be afraid to bail out early, if you see that game development is not working out. I'd suggest keeping your daily job until you at least have minimal working prototype of your game and get positive feedback.

As for games on mobile platforms, be prepared if you will create something new and unique - it will have dozen of clones on day three after launch.

oh sweet, I didn't know that existed. checking it out now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZW8gWgpptI8