Should We Shut Down Our Indie Studio?

Cosmic Trinity Games — Sun, 29 Jun 2025 11:19:40 +0000

We’ve been building our indie studio, Cosmic Trinity Games, for just over two months now. It's been exciting, chaotic, and honestly… a bit scary.

Recently, my co-founder and I hit a point that made us stop everything and ask:

Should we just stop? Is this really going to work out?

Here’s why we even asked that.

Reality Check: Our First Game’s ROI

We’re close to wrapping up our first mobile game. While prepping for launch, we started digging into user acquisition (UA) and marketing. We watched GDC talks, read post-mortems, and tried to figure out how much it would cost to get real players into the game.

Eventually, we created a spreadsheet with all the projected costs and returns. We also ran those numbers through a couple of AI tools — just to double-check our logic wasn’t completely off.

Turns out, we weren’t wrong.

We were just looking at some very harsh maths:

Estimated cost: $5,000–$7,000 for ~50K installs (Tier 3 countries)
Estimated ad revenue: $1,200–$2,000
Net result: A clear loss, unless retention and monetisation are much better than average

Seeing that data honestly killed our vibe for a few hours.

We sat in silence for a while, just staring at the spreadsheet, wondering if this was what our future looks like.

So… What Now?

After that gut-punch, we talked. A lot.
Yes, the numbers look rough.
Yes, we’ll probably lose money on this first launch.

But here’s what we reminded ourselves:

We’ve learned a ton already — in design, dev tools, Unity workflows, and player behaviour.
We still have full-time jobs. We're not betting rent money on this.
We’re not just making “a game”. We’re building tools and systems that we’ll reuse, polish, and expand across future projects.

If we quit now, all of that progress disappears.
If we keep going, we keep getting better.

Our Takeaway: This Is Normal

This isn’t failure. This is part of the process.

For us, Cosmic Trinity isn’t a one-hit-wonder studio. We’re in it for the long haul. Even if the first few launches lose money, the goal is to build something that compounds over time — better tools, better UX, better LTV, more insight with each game.

It’s not about avoiding failure. It’s about not wasting the lessons it gives you.

If You’re an Indie Dev Reading This…

You’ll probably run into this moment too.
Where the numbers say: “This is a bad idea.”
Where spreadsheets and projections look bleak.

And maybe they’re right — for now.

But if you’ve got a plan, a long-term mindset, and you're learning as you go… don’t stop.

This isn’t advice. This is just where we’re at.

And we’ve decided to keep going.

If you’ve been through something similar, we’d love to hear how you handled it. Reach out, share your story, or just say hi.

Let’s build better games — together.

Why We Switched from Godot to Unity – 5 Hard Lessons from an Indie Studio

Cosmic Trinity Games — Sat, 14 Jun 2025 09:10:25 +0000

When we started Cosmic Trinity Games, we were all-in on open-source tools. Godot felt like the perfect fit — lightweight, flexible, MIT-licensed, and fast to prototype with. We even wrote about why we picked it for our first game.

But as our projects grew up, cracks started to show.

In this post, we’re sharing the real reasons we switched from Godot to Unity — and the tough lessons we learned along the way. If you’re an indie dev trying to choose the right engine, this might save you a few weeks of headaches (or heartbreak).

Why We Loved Godot (At First)

Godot is fantastic — especially if:

You're building solo or as a duo
You prefer Python-style syntax (GDScript is clean and easy)
You want fast iteration and small exports
You’re targeting 2D or simple 3D projects
It made us feel fast and scrappy — the engine never got in the way.

Use case:

Testing ideas quickly on budget laptops
Modular UI and gameplay via the node system
Open-source freedom without legal baggage

But…

The Cracks That Made Us Switch

After a few prototypes, things got messy — especially when our team grew and we moved into 3D + mobile production.

Asset integration was painful

FBX import felt inconsistent. Rigging and animation workflows took too many workarounds.

3D lighting and physics lacked reliability

We constantly fought with shadow bugs, broken colliders, and unpredictable lighting behaviour.

C# support felt fragile

Debugging larger projects caused weird errors. Mobile export with .NET was unreliable and poorly supported.

Use case:

Tried to build a 3D runner game with character animations
Mobile pipeline broke more often than it worked
Adding a second dev slowed us down instead of speeding things up
It wasn’t one big failure — it was a hundred small paper cuts.

Why Unity Made More Sense (For Us)

We didn’t want to switch. But we had to ship. Unity gave us:

Massive Asset Store

We saved weeks by plugging in ready-made UI kits, VFX, and tools.

Better 3D pipeline

Real-time shadows, light baking, terrain tools — all built in.

C# that actually works

Robust debugging, mobile-ready builds, and predictable behaviour.

Mobile exports that don’t break

Unity’s Android/iOS support is boringly reliable — and that’s exactly what we needed.

Use case:

Baked lighting for stylised 3D
Clean animator controller workflow
Faster iteration for our mobile levels

Sure, Unity has baggage (💰 runtime fee drama, heavier editor), but for us — it got the job done.

Mistakes We Made (So You Don’t Have To)

We break down all 5 lessons (and how to avoid them) in the full story:
Read why we switched from Godot to Unity — the hard way.

What’s Next?

We still love Godot. And we’re rooting for its future. But right now? Unity gives us the production-grade tools we need to deliver games that players actually play.

Just because Godot didn’t fit our needs at Cosmic Trinity Games doesn’t mean the engine failed — it means we hit its limits based on how we work. That’s on us, not the engine. In fact, we believe in Godot so much that we’ve decided to start contributing back to the features we wished it had.

Coming soon on our blog:

How We Built a Studio with Free & Open-Source Tools
Which Unity Editor Tools We Created to Speed Up Development (Coming soon)
How We’re Prototyping UA-Based Level Design (Coming soon)

Got thoughts on Godot vs Unity? Hit reply — let’s talk.
We’re all just trying to ship fun games with the least pain possible.

Follow @cosmictrinitygames for more dev logs, toolkits, and lessons from the trenches.

DEV Community: Cosmic Trinity Games

Should We Shut Down Our Indie Studio?

Reality Check: Our First Game’s ROI

So… What Now?

Our Takeaway: This Is Normal

If You’re an Indie Dev Reading This…

Why We Switched from Godot to Unity – 5 Hard Lessons from an Indie Studio

Why We Loved Godot (At First)

Use case:

But…

The Cracks That Made Us Switch

Asset integration was painful

3D lighting and physics lacked reliability

C# support felt fragile

Use case:

Why Unity Made More Sense (For Us)

Massive Asset Store

Better 3D pipeline

C# that actually works

Mobile exports that don’t break

Use case:

Mistakes We Made (So You Don’t Have To)

What’s Next?

Coming soon on our blog: