November 7, 2025
Lag dragon meets hype train
I'm Making a Small RPG and I Need Feeback Regarding Performance
Indie RPG dev battles a surprise “lag boss”; commenters split on what’s to blame
TLDR: An indie RPG dev asked players to test a desktop build after battle scenes stuttered, even though the browser version runs fine. Commenters split between “not your Mac” and “something’s leaking,” with one tester reporting fights degrading to 10fps, pushing calls for profiling and more details.
An indie dev quietly building a small pixel RPG asked the internet to playtest performance, and the comments turned into a boss fight of their own. The game, made with a JavaScript game library and aimed at Steam, runs smooth in the browser—but some folks hit battle-mode slowdowns in the desktop build. One tester on an M1 Mac said it was “totally smooth” and even praised the art. Another dropped the mic: “You’ve got an M3 Air—if stuff’s breaking, it’s not the machine.” Meanwhile, a skeptic asked if this was really a bug report or a call for encouragement, which, to be fair, the dev totally deserved. The spice escalated when a player on an M2 Mac reported fights starting fine, then nosediving to 10fps and getting worse with every enemy attack, even as CPU and memory stayed calm—a mystery worthy of any RPG side quest. Practical voices chimed in with the classic “use a profiler” advice, urging the dev to capture a performance report from affected testers. The community vibe? Equal parts tech detective, cheer squad, and meme factory (“final boss is the frame rate”). Try the unfinished build yourself at itch.io, then bring receipts.
Key Points
- •The game is a small RPG built with JavaScript and the KAPLAY library.
- •It runs smoothly in Firefox but exhibits performance issues when packaged as a desktop app.
- •The developer is targeting Steam and needs good desktop performance.
- •Unfinished builds for Windows, Mac, and Linux are available via itch.io for testing.
- •Performance problems occur mainly during battles; users are asked to test and share gameplay recordings.