46 With Kids & A Day Job: The Indie Dev With A Different Dream

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Flawed Tactics on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2600970/Flawed_Tactics/In this episode of Dev Dream, I sit down with Charlie — a 46-year-old dad, husband, full-time corporate worker, and solo dev building Flawed Tactics, a clever PvP autobattler. We dive deep into why he wakes up at 4 AM to make games, how he solved the “dead multiplayer lobby” problem with async PvP, and the wild stock market meta that dynamically prices minions and spells to kill net-decking forever.Charlie also shares why even a $500,000 game probably wouldn’t let him quit his day job, the surprising accessibility of game dev legends, and his honest shift from financial dreams to building a real community. If you’re a game developer balancing life, work, and passion projects, this one will hit hard.Watch until the end for Charlie’s current gamedev dream and his unique take on why game design is the hardest discipline of all.Chapters:0:00 – Intro0:35 – Async PvP Fix2:02 – Dad Dev Life3:10 – $500k Not Enough7:58 – Hardest Game Design9:29 – First Commercial Game12:25 – Legends Are Accessible14:33 – Redefining Success28:54 – Flawed Tactics Pitch33:31 – Stock Market Meta38:45 – Live + Async PvP46:20 – Next Fest Plans1:03:43 – Gamedev DreamSubscribe for more honest conversations with indie game developers chasing their Dev Dream → https://www.youtube.com/@DevDreamPodLet me know in the comments: Would you rather play constructed or deck-building autobattlers? And what’s the biggest sacrifice you’ve made for your game dev passion?#IndieGameDev #AutoBattler #GameDevelopment #SoloDev #FlawedTactics #IndieDev #GamedevPodcast #AsyncPvP #TeamFightTactics #IndieGames #GameDesign #DevDream