After working for a while on Balanced Dungeons, I reached a point where I felt the need to publish something.
Not a final version. Not a polished one. Just… something.
If you’ve been following this series, you already know the main goal behind this project: to finally go through the full process of building a game and putting it out there on a platform like itch.io (outside of game jams).
So I did it.
I made a build and published it.
The game is still far from finished. There are bugs, rough edges, and a lot of things to improve. But that wasn’t the point. This was my first real win: having the courage to show something incomplete to the outside world and see what happens.
And the response was… unexpected.
Some friends and colleagues from the industry tried the game and started sharing feedback. Shortly after publishing, I even received an email from someone I didn’t know, saying the idea felt interesting and innovative.
One of my friends went even further and recorded himself playing through all the levels, pointing out what worked and what didn’t. That kind of feedback is incredibly valuable, and I truly appreciate the time he put into it.
All of this gave me a huge boost of energy to keep going.
It also made something very clear:
Publishing early is not something to fear — it’s something to embrace.
There’s still a lot to improve in Balanced Dungeons, and I also have new ideas I’m excited to start exploring soon.
But this step… this mattered.
If I had to leave one takeaway from this post, it would be this:
Don’t wait for perfect.
Show your work.