How to Start an Indie Game Studio – Lessons From Joe Dietsch, Director Turned Wolf Haus Games Founder:

Figuring out how to start an indie game studio is not a question most people answer the same way twice. Joe Dietsch answered it by directing two feature films first, spending years in commercial and music video production, and then discovering one afternoon that Unreal Engine was free to download.

Joe is the founder of Wolf Haus Games and the creative director behind Join Us, a doomsday cult simulator heading to PC, Xbox, and PlayStation as a day one Xbox Game Pass title. He joined Ash Cason, Head of Marketing and Community at IndieGameBusiness®, on the Indie Game Business podcast to walk through the full path: from teaching himself game development through YouTube tutorials and late-night Unreal sessions to landing funding from Lifeline Capital and Krafton and building a twelve-person studio in Montreal.

What he shared is one of the more honest and specific accounts of how to start an indie game studio without a traditional industry background, without an existing network in games, and without a clean plan from the beginning.

The Origin Story – Film School, Feature Films, and a Free Game Engine:

Joe’s creative instincts go back further than film school. His first game was a missile command clone programmed on a TI-83 graphing calculator in math class. He got in trouble for it and decided the programming was more interesting than whatever the class was supposed to be teaching. That impulse never fully went away, but film felt more accessible. You had a camera, some friends, and you could just go make something.

He went to film school, graduated, built a career in commercials and music videos, and co-directed Happy Hunting, a feature that landed on Netflix in 2018. A second feature, Manifest West, followed. Then in 2021, he assumed Unreal Engine cost around three thousand dollars and had never bothered looking into it. The day he found out it was free, he downloaded it.

From there the pattern was simple: he kept waking up excited to go work in it. Some days the goal was figuring out how to build an exploding barrel, which in Unreal is not complicated but was a full day of learning at the time. The excitement did not wear off. That sustained excitement is something Joe returns to as one of the clearest early signals that he was pointed in the right direction.

How to Start an Indie Game Studio With No Industry Connections:

One of the most common questions around how to start an indie game studio is how to find the people to build it with, especially when you are coming from outside the industry. A community question submitted to the IndieGameBusiness® Discord asked exactly this, and Joe’s answer was direct about both what worked and why it was hard to generalize.

He had almost no games industry contacts when he started. His network was in film. So he worked with what he had: the few people he knew who were adjacent to games, and trusted them to introduce one specific person they thought should see the project.

The chain looked like this:

• Joe showed an early proof-of-concept to his long-time film collaborator Michael Abbott
• Michael introduced him to a writer who had worked on Assassin’s Creed, Army of Two, and Arkham Origins
• That writer introduced him to Reed, who runs Raccoon Logic in Montreal
• Each person either joined or introduced one more person they believed would genuinely connect with the project
• Nobody blasted the project to their whole network. Every introduction was deliberate and personal

This process eventually produced six co-founders and a team centered in Montreal. From late 2023 through early 2024, everyone worked nights and weekends while holding other jobs. There was no registered company and no money. Joe’s observation on that period is worth taking seriously by anyone researching how to start an indie game studio on limited resources: having no money means having no burn rate, which means having no artificial runway forcing a premature decision.

He watched other projects, including film projects, get burdened by taking on small amounts of capital too early. When people put money in before the timing is right, they tend to believe they still have a say in the direction even after their moment has passed. His recommendation is to wait for the right funding partners, even if those conversations take over a year. Lifeline Capital was the very first group Joe ever pitched. They did not invest immediately. They watched the team for more than a year to see whether the founders would still be working well together. Then they came in. Joe said he would have made the same call in their position.

The Concept Behind Join Us and Why the Tone Mattered More Than the Mechanics:

Join Us started as something much more contained. The original concept was a simple base-builder: a doomsday cult compound, ATF agents showing up in waves instead of zombies, rebuild during the day, defend at night. Something small enough to show a few friends.

Then the map started growing. A road appeared. A fishing hole appeared. A handcrafted open world roughly eighty percent the size of the Fallout 3 map took shape. None of that was planned. It emerged from building in three dimensions in an engine that makes spatial expansion feel natural.

The final concept is more specific than a survival game with a cult skin. You begin as a member of an already-thriving doomsday organization, get called up by the cult leader, and are sent to a small rural town to start a franchise. Nobody knows you. Nobody trusts you. You have to build something from nothing in a place that would rather you were not there.

The tone was the thing that determined whether people got on board or did not. In early pitches, there would be a moment around slide five where the room shifted. People stopped being unsettled by the subject matter and started laughing. The game takes something genuinely strange and presents it with a completely straight face. A cultist riding a pig while firing a flamethrower is funnier when the world around it looks like it takes itself seriously. The team identified that tonal contract early and protected it deliberately across every design decision.

What Film Experience Taught Him About Making Games:

Going from film into game development came with some accurate assumptions and at least one significant miscalculation.

The miscalculation: Joe assumed a game studio would feel like post-production in film, where editors work in isolated bays and everything is compartmentalized. He planned around that. What he found was that the team wanted to work together on an open floor, desks connected, people around each other all day. The energy was much closer to a film set than a post house. He adapted quickly, but the gap between his mental model and the reality was real.

What transferred well from film was the instinct to tell stories economically. Join Us communicates a large portion of its narrative through radio transmissions from the cult leader, who is never physically present. The player builds a relationship with this voice over time without the production cost of animating every scene. That was a deliberate choice rooted in years of thinking about how to do more with less, which is exactly the kind of thinking that commercial and independent film work tends to build.

The other major difference was temporal. In commercial work, if the sun goes behind a building in five minutes, you have five minutes. In games, you are on a multi-year timeline where tasks are non-linear and almost nothing is truly lost forever. Joe found this liberating rather than frustrating, but it required a genuine mental shift in how he thought about urgency and pacing.

Scope, Map Size, and the Feature Creep They Did Not Regret:

A twelve-person team building an open-world cult survival game with base building, follower AI, a handcrafted six-square-kilometer map, and fully modular construction systems is not a small undertaking. Joe acknowledged freely that the team probably should have cut more scope and did not. The game is built on feature creep in ways the team is honest about internally.

But the decisions that drove scope were not arbitrary. The map size is a good example. Six square kilometers is large enough to support exploration, multiple bases, distinct stories, and genuine discovery. It is also a size that a twelve-person team can fill entirely by hand with no procedural generation, which means every piece of it can be made genuinely interesting. A bigger map filled with grass and trees is easy to make in Unreal. It is also empty in the ways that matter.

The base building system went through significant evolution. Early versions used large pre-assembled structures that players assigned followers to. The team eventually moved to a fully modular system where individual components, planter beds, fences, decorations, large effigies, can each be placed and managed independently. Players can tend crops themselves or assign followers. The follower AI handles the same tasks the player can handle. It made the development work harder. It made the experience substantially more alive.

How Wolf Haus Runs a Twelve-Person Studio Without Bureaucracy:

Wolf Haus Games operates with minimal management layers. Joe is CEO and creative director, but the organizational structure is deliberately flat. When a team member who had come from a much larger studio pushed back on a system decision, Joe agreed on the spot and moved on. The team member was visibly surprised that a decision at that level could be made that quickly without escalation or review.

That speed is realistic at twelve people and may not survive a significant expansion without adding vertical management. For now, the practical habits that make it work are:

• Meetings happen when actually needed rather than on a default recurring schedule
• Quick questions go into private Discord rooms and take five minutes instead of consuming a calendar slot
• Everyone knows what everyone else is building because the team is small enough that full transparency happens naturally
• Decisions that belong to the person managing a system get made by that person, not routed through multiple approvals

This structure lets the team move quickly, correct bad directions fast, and implement good ideas without waiting for the process to catch up. Joe is clear that it is a function of scale and plans for it to evolve as the studio grows.

The One Thing He Would Tell Someone Starting Out:

Ash asked Joe what he would tell his earlier self. His answer came with the caveat that a much better version of it would probably surface at two in the morning.

The actual answer: prioritize the build. When you are figuring out how to start an indie game studio, there is a pull toward initiatives that feel important in the moment and rarely matter in retrospect. Company setup tasks, exploratory conversations, peripheral decisions, all of it can consume the time that should be going into the product. Joe’s personal test for anything generating stress or eating attention: if he will not care about it in three years, he should not care about it now.

He was clear that some of what pulled attention away from the game was genuinely necessary. But on balance, more time on the game and less time on everything surrounding it would have been the right call. For anyone working through how to start an indie game studio of their own, that is probably the clearest and most honest thing he said in the entire conversation.

Where to Find Join Us and Wolf Haus Games:

Join Us launches on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation as a day one Xbox Game Pass title. The game appeared in the Xbox showcase alongside Fable, Halo, and State of Decay, which Joe described as genuinely surreal to experience from the back of the theater with two teammates.

The Wolf Haus Games Discord is the best place to follow development and is linked directly from the Steam page. The Steam page also hosts a series of development blogs covering music, two-dimensional art, storytelling, and production details for anyone who wants to go deeper. TikTok and Instagram carry the most frequent new content and story updates heading toward launch, and Joe responds to DMs personally on both platforms.

Want more insights like this?:

Join us for our IndieGameBusiness Sessions, taking place on September 30th from 9am – 5pm Eastern or hop into the IndieGameBusiness® Discord to connect with Joe and other industry pros.

The IndieGameBusiness® podcast drops new episodes regularly, covering the business side of making and selling games. Subscribe to the newsletter to get episodes, Discord events, and industry news straight to your inbox. Subscribe now

Indie Game Publishing Latin America – How Indie Hero Is Building a Global Indie Game Ecosystem From Brazil:

Juliana Brito runs more businesses than most people have projects on their backlog. As co-founder of Indie Hero, Game Jam Plus, Plugin Plus, and a growing indie publishing label, she has spent five years building one of the most active and internationally connected game development ecosystems in Latin America, and increasingly beyond it.

Juliana joined Jay Powell, Founder of IndieGameBusiness®, for a fireside chat covering how all of these businesses started, why the original business model failed, what she has learned about publishing and marketing games with almost no budget, and the practical approaches that have actually moved the needle for the small studios she works with.

How Game Jam Plus Started and Why the Original Idea Fell Apart:

Game Jam Plus is celebrating its tenth edition this year. The origin story is not what most people expect. It did not start as a game jam. It started as a crowd testing platform where game developers could submit games, other developers could playtest them, and everyone would benefit from cheaper, higher-quality feedback before launch.

The problem was getting enough people onto the platform to make the testing valuable. The solution was to run a game jam that would bring developers in, generate leads, and funnel those participants into the testing platform. The game jam worked. The crowd testing platform never did.

After five years and genuine effort, the testing platform was dropped entirely. The game jam, which had started as a marketing tool, had become the actual business, growing from a small Brazil-only event to a global competition running across fifty countries with thousands of participants each year.

Julia’s reflection on that arc is worth sitting with: the original ideas were not good. What she and co-founder Ian turned out to be skilled at was recognizing the opportunities that appeared as things evolved and saying yes to them even when they had no prior experience in that area. An event manager hired them to bring studios to a conference. They did not do that yet, but they figured it out. A government agency wanted an accelerator program. They built one. The business that exists today grew out of saying yes to those opportunities, not from executing a plan they had written at the start.

Why Indie Hero Exists and What It Actually Does:

Indie Hero was created specifically to be a commercial engine for the ecosystem that Game Jam Plus was building. The original model was intermediation: connecting publishers and investors with studios and taking a cut of the deals that resulted.

In five years, they closed five deals. The revenue from those deals was negligible. The model did not work.

What they learned from watching those deals fail was that the problem was not access to publishers. The problem was that the studios were not ready. Pitch decks were poorly constructed. Business models did not hold up to basic scrutiny. A studio asking for three hundred thousand dollars to make a game whose best-case comparable sold three hundred thousand dollars total had not done the math. Indie Hero started running classes to fix those fundamentals, teaching pitch deck construction, financial modeling, and the basics of how publishing deals actually work.

From there, the business continued to evolve:

• Government agencies hired Indie Hero to run accelerator and incubation programs for game studios
• Event managers hired them to organize B2B events and bring qualified studios to conferences
• The Brazilian Game Festival grew to sixty-five thousand attendees
• B2B events were built with MeetToMatch infrastructure to manage the matchmaking between studios, publishers, and investors
• A small publishing label was added two years ago when Julia realized the knowledge developers needed was available but they were not willing to use it themselves

The Publishing Label and What It Has Taught Her About Self-Publishing:

The publishing operation started from a specific frustration. Julia had spent years pointing developers toward publicly available resources, the Steam documentation, how-to-market-a-game websites, the IndieGameBusiness® community, and watching most of them ignore those resources and insist on finding a traditional publisher instead.

When a developer told her he would give her a share of his game if she did the publishing work herself, she took the deal. The label launched. Two years in, it has published approximately twenty games with ten more lined up to launch in the near term. Games have sold thirty to forty thousand copies. The operation is close to breaking even. None of the games are large budget productions. Most cost a thousand to two thousand dollars to make and are designed to generate a positive return on that investment rather than to be breakout hits.

The studios she signs tend to be games that would never find a traditional publisher, not because the games are bad, but because traditional publishers are not structured to work with small, niche titles that will sell a modest but real number of copies. A game that sells thirty thousand copies to a dedicated niche audience is a success for a micro-publisher. It does not fit the acquisition criteria of a publisher looking for titles with million-copy potential.

One standout example: a studio from Italy received a grant of approximately half a million euros from the government to build a beautiful open-world adventure game. Two years of searching for a publisher produced nothing. The game was too close to The Legend of Zelda’s territory for any publisher to take a chance on it commercially. Indie Hero signed it, brought in PR partners in Japan and Europe, hired influencers in Asia, and is handling Latin distribution directly. The budget for the entire marketing operation is small. It still made more sense for the Italian studio than two more years of rejection.

What the Steam Documentation Actually Contains and Why Developers Do Not Read It:

One of the most consistent themes in Julia’s work with developers across all of her programs is the gap between what developers know about the platforms they are launching on and what is publicly available in those platforms’ own documentation.

She asks developers the same question in every talk she gives: how many of you have read the Steam documentation? In a room of fifty developers, she typically sees one hand.

Steam drives approximately fifty percent of sales for most indie games. The documentation covers how the algorithm works, how the platform surfaces games to new players, how tags and keywords affect discoverability, and how the recommendation system responds to different player behaviors. That information is updated every six months and is publicly accessible. Most developers launching on Steam have not read it.

Julia’s characterization of what she has learned from actually reading and applying that documentation:

• Understanding the Steam algorithm is more valuable than spending money on influencers. Influencer campaigns she has run have accounted for as little as five percent of total sales on some titles.
• Getting tags, keywords, and localization right consistently outperforms paid promotion in terms of return on effort.
• Localization is not just translation. The way a game is sold in Germany requires different framing than the way it is sold in the United States. In Brazil, games without meme content underperform with local audiences.
• Steam behaves differently from social platforms like Instagram. Rather than daily algorithmic distribution, Steam functions on peaks. When a large number of players engage with a game at the same time, the algorithm amplifies that activity disproportionately. Campaigns that concentrate engagement in short windows rather than spreading it across weeks produce better results.

A-B Testing Thumbnails Before Steam Next Fest:

One of the most concrete and immediately actionable things Julia shared was her approach to Steam thumbnails, which she described as something almost no developer in the indie space was doing before campaigns, despite it being standard practice in every other content industry.

Before submitting a game to Steam Next Fest, Julia runs A-B tests on five different thumbnail variations, putting each through paid ads to measure which version converts better at a click level before committing to a campaign. The difference between the best and worst-performing thumbnail often appears small, but the compounding effect inside Steam’s algorithm means a thumbnail that converts at a slightly higher rate produces meaningfully better outcomes when the Next Fest traffic peaks hit.

She referenced The Diary of the CEO podcast, which tests between one hundred and two hundred thumbnail variations before publishing a single episode. That level of testing feels extreme in the games context, but her point is that even testing five variants is being held up as unusual in the indie game space. The bar is very low. Basic testing discipline alone puts a developer ahead of most competitors.

The variables worth testing according to her experience:

• Warm versus cold color palettes and which performs better for the specific genre
• Two-dimensional versus three-dimensional art representation of the game in the thumbnail
• Character-forward versus environment-forward thumbnail composition
• Whether text overlays on thumbnails help or hurt conversion for the target audience

How to Get Reviews in the First Twenty Four Hours:

Launch-day reviews are one of the clearest signals Steam uses to determine how aggressively to surface a new game. Julia’s approach to generating early reviews is not a paid strategy. It is a community strategy built over the months before launch.

Her logic is direct: if a developer has built a genuine community around their game, even a small one of a hundred engaged Discord members, those people already care about the game succeeding. They are not passive followers. They are active participants who have been watching development, providing feedback, and identifying with the project. If those people are asked directly and personally to leave a review on launch day, most of them will do it.

A developer who coordinates that request thoughtfully, aligning timing across their community so reviews land in a concentrated window, can generate a meaningful number of reviews in the first day through community alone. That initial burst of concentrated review activity sends a strong signal to the Steam algorithm at exactly the moment when the game is most visible.

The underlying requirement is that the community needs to exist before launch. Building community is not a launch-week activity. It is a development-period activity. Developers who arrive at launch without a community have no base to activate and are dependent on organic discovery alone, which puts them at a structural disadvantage in the early hours when Steam’s algorithm is forming its initial read on the game’s momentum.

Whether GTA VI Is a Threat to Indie Publishers:

Jay asked directly whether Grand Theft Auto VI’s release represents a threat to the indie games Julia publishes. Her answer was grounded in how she actually thinks about market competition.

She is not trying to sell a million copies of anything. The games her label works with are targeting thirty to fifty thousand copies sold to audiences who are specifically interested in those genres. A player who is deeply attached to horror games or a specific niche genre is not going to stop buying games in that niche because Grand Theft Auto VI released. The audience overlap is minimal.

Her concern is not with titles directly competing in the same genre. Her concern is with large general-audience games that might pull casual players away from browsing new titles during a specific window. For a niche indie game with a dedicated audience, the release calendar impact of a cultural phenomenon like GTA VI is real but limited.

Want more insights like this?:

Join us for our IndieGameBusiness Sessions, taking place on September 30th from 9am – 5pm Eastern or hop into the IndieGameBusiness® Discord to connect with Juliana and other industry pros.

The IndieGameBusiness® podcast drops new episodes regularly, covering the business side of making and selling games. Subscribe to the newsletter to get episodes, Discord events, and industry news straight to your inbox. Subscribe now

Indie Game Marketing Strategy – What Actually Drives Game Sales:

Viral moments feel like the goal. A clip blows up on TikTok, a streamer picks up your game, and suddenly everyone knows it exists. But awareness alone does not pay for the next project. Sales do, and sales require more than hype.

Eleni Sagredos, a growth marketer who has worked with indie studios, publishers, and large-scale creator campaigns, joined Dan Long on the IndieGameBusiness® podcast to break down what actually moves players from discovery to purchase. What she described is a structured, measurable system that most indie developers either do not know about or are only partially using.

What Growth Marketing Actually Means:

The term growth marketing gets used loosely, so Eleni started with a clear definition. Growth marketing is not just paid advertising or social media management. It is an understanding of the full customer journey, specifically where a player is in that journey at any given moment and which actions will move them to the next stage.

The practical implication is that marketing channels are not interchangeable. TikTok, email, press, paid ads, and influencer partnerships all serve different functions depending on where a player is in the buying process. When developers say a particular channel does not work, Eleni’s first question is always: does not work for what goal? The channel may be perfectly functional, just applied at the wrong stage of the funnel.

The Marketing Funnel and How It Applies to Games:

Eleni walked through the three stages of the marketing funnel and how each one maps to the game buying journey:

• Top of funnel: Awareness. This is where players first discover that your game exists. Content that stops the scroll, a viral clip, a striking visual, a gameplay moment that spreads organically. The goal is reach and discovery, not conversion. Channels that work here include TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and organic social posts.

• Middle of funnel: Consideration. The player has seen the game but has not committed. Now the goal is to build trust. When someone sees a viral clip and gets curious, they typically Google the game next. What they find at that moment determines whether they move forward. Reviews, press coverage, social proof, and consistent community presence all contribute here.

• Bottom of funnel: Conversion. This is where awareness turns into a wishlist add or a purchase. The Steam page is the primary conversion point for most indie games. A strong capsule image and a gameplay-first video carry enormous weight at this stage. Eleni stressed the distinction between a trailer and a gameplay video. She skips through trailers looking for actual gameplay, and so do most players.

Understanding which stage you are trying to influence at any given moment changes how you evaluate whether your marketing is working. A TikTok that gets a million views is not a failure if it does not immediately convert to sales. It is doing top-of-funnel work. The question is whether your mid and bottom-funnel systems are in place to catch the people it sends your way.

Why Indie Game Marketing Strategy Hype Alone Does Not Drive Sales:

A lot of developers look at a game that went viral and attribute its success entirely to the viral moment. Eleni’s point is that this misreads the situation. The viral moment is visible. What is not visible is everything else that happened simultaneously or shortly after: the press coverage, the review scores, the gameplay footage, the community response on social media. All of those elements work together to convert awareness into purchases.

Focusing only on creating a viral moment while neglecting the rest of the funnel means that when attention does arrive, there is nothing in place to convert it. Players who discover your game and then find no reviews, no active social presence, no gameplay footage, and a weak Steam page will move on. The hype dissipates and the sales never materialize.

The Steam Page as Your Most Important Conversion Tool:

Eleni emphasized the Steam page as the place where purchasing decisions actually get made. Everything above it in the funnel is driving traffic to that page. What players find when they arrive determines what happens next.

The two elements that carry the most weight on a Steam page:

• The capsule image. This is the first impression. It needs to communicate genre, tone, and visual identity instantly. A weak capsule image costs you players before they ever read a single word about the game.

• The video. Eleni was direct: put gameplay at the start. Not a cinematic. Not a tone piece. Actual gameplay. Players are evaluating whether this is something they want to spend time with, and the fastest way to show them that is to show them playing it. Trailers that bury gameplay or avoid showing it altogether create doubt rather than excitement.

The rest of the Steam page, the description, the tags, the screenshots, all matter. But the capsule and the video are the gatekeepers. If those do not land, most players will not read far enough to be influenced by anything else.

Social Proof and Why It Has to Come Before Launch:

One of Eleni’s strongest recommendations was to start building social proof at least six months before launch. The reasoning is straightforward: when a player hears about your game at launch and gets curious, they investigate. What they find during that investigation either builds confidence or raises doubts.

Social proof in this context means more than social media follower counts. It includes:

• Press coverage and articles about the game
• Review scores and written reviews from any source
• Community discussion on Reddit, Discord, and social platforms
• Creator content showing real gameplay
• Wishlists as a signal that other people have already decided this looks worth trying

If none of that exists when a player goes looking, the game feels like a risk. Players who are on the fence will not take that risk. They will move on to something with more visible validation.

Starting early is not about spending money on paid promotion six months out. It is about building the foundation of trust that launch-day marketing will rely on. Press outreach, community building, creator relationships, and organic content all take time to develop. Starting at launch is too late.

Email and Social as the Foundation of a Marketing System:

When asked where to invest limited marketing resources, Eleni did not point to paid ads or a single platform. She pointed to email and social, specifically because they are channels the developer controls.

Her reasoning on email:

• Email consistently delivers one of the highest ROI of any marketing channel
• A newsletter audience is a warm audience that has already opted in
• Unlike social algorithms, email reaches the people who signed up directly
• Email covers more than newsletters. Creator outreach and press outreach both run through email, making it a multi-purpose channel

Her guidance on when to send emails was practical: only reach out when you have something specific to say. A message that opens with a clear call to action, a playtest invitation, a launch announcement, an exclusive key offer for creators, will perform. A message that opens with a general check-in will get ignored and eventually filtered out.

On social, she recommended posting with intention rather than volume. Each post should have a clear sense of where in the funnel it belongs and what it is trying to accomplish. Posting regularly without that clarity produces content that exists but does not move anyone closer to a purchase.

Working With Creators and Influencers:

Creators are part of the picture, but not a substitute for the full system. Eleni has worked with major creators including Markiplier, and she confirmed that large creators do move the needle when the fit is right. She has also run press outreach campaigns to more than a hundred smaller creators simultaneously, which takes more time to manage but produces a different kind of result.

The distinction she drew between large and small creators is worth understanding:

• Large creators often have parasocial audiences who will act on recommendations with genuine conviction. A well-placed video from the right large creator can produce a significant and fast sales spike. The risk is cost and fit. A poorly matched large creator campaign can produce almost nothing despite significant spend.
• Small creators tend to have more engaged, interactive communities. A creator with a hundred viewers who genuinely talks with their audience can produce higher conversion rates per viewer than a creator with a thousand viewers who broadcasts rather than interacts. The tradeoff is scale and management time.

Her overall recommendation was to work with a mix, calibrated to the size and capacity of your team. If you are a solo developer managing marketing alongside production, working with a handful of creators across different size tiers is more sustainable than coordinating a hundred-person outreach campaign.

What to Do on LinkedIn as a Game Developer:

Eleni mentioned LinkedIn as an underused channel for game developers, particularly for building industry credibility and reaching press and creator contacts directly. Her observation on what performs there:

• Posts that establish authority by connecting with other industry professionals and documenting real events and relationships
• Free, practical marketing information shared openly without a sales pitch
• Content framed around informing rather than entertaining, which fits how LinkedIn audiences use the platform

LinkedIn is not where you will find players, but it is where you will find press contacts, potential collaborators, publisher representatives, and the kind of industry relationships that support the rest of your marketing work.

Final Advice for Indie Developers on Indie Game Marketing Strategy:

Eleni’s single most important piece of advice for indie developers marketing their games:

Start early. Build social proof before launch. When players hear about your game for the first time, they will look for evidence that other people have already decided it is worth their attention. Your job in the months before launch is to make sure that evidence exists.

Want more insights like this?:

Join us for our IndieGameBusiness Deep Dive, taking place on May 27th from 9am – 5pm Eastern or hop into the IndieGameBusiness® Discord to connect with Eleni and other industry pros.

The IndieGameBusiness® podcast drops new episodes regularly, covering the business side of making and selling games. Subscribe to the newsletter to get episodes, Discord events, and industry news straight to your inbox. Subscribe now

A Game Launch Is Not the End of the Story:

Many indie developers assume that a game’s fate is decided during launch week. If sales are slow or wishlists do not convert, the common belief is that the game is finished. Developers move on to the next project, leaving the original game behind.

The experience of Jo from JoGameDev tells a very different story.

During an episode of the IndieGameBusiness podcast hosted by Dan Long, Jo explained how his game Spellmasons found new life years after release. The game launched modestly, experienced slow sales, and appeared to settle into a quiet existence on Steam. Then something unexpected happened. Through deliberate marketing efforts, social media storytelling, and an understanding of how discovery works, the game experienced a surge in attention that dramatically increased sales.

The lesson is clear. A launch is only the beginning. If a game is good and developers are willing to learn how to reach players, interest can grow long after release.

This article explores the strategies Jo used to turn an aging indie title into a success and what other developers can learn from his experience.

The Early Days of Spellmasons:

Spellmasons began as a passion project inspired by tactical strategy games and spell combination mechanics. Development lasted years and the game launched with limited marketing preparation.

Jo started building Spellmasons roughly five years before the marketing breakthrough that changed its trajectory. His inspiration came from two games he loved. One was Into the Breach, a tactical strategy title built around small grid based battles. The other was Magicka, known for its chaotic spell combinations.

Jo wanted to combine those ideas into a tactical game where spells could interact in creative ways. The concept grew rapidly during development. What started as a small grid based prototype expanded into a larger physics driven system with complex spell interactions.

Development lasted two years while Jo worked a full time job. Most of the work happened during evenings and weekends. As the project neared completion, he decided to leave his job temporarily to finish the game and push it toward release.

However, marketing started very late.

Jo began promoting Spellmasons only about three months before launch. This limited the time available to build a following or gather wishlists. The game eventually launched with around ten to twelve thousand wishlists, helped by coverage from content creators such as Retromation and Splattercat Gaming.

Even with that support, launch week was stressful. Bugs appeared due to the complexity of the custom game engine and multiplayer systems. Jo spent long days releasing patches while trying to stabilize the game.

Despite the rocky start, players saw potential in the design and reviews remained positive. That early goodwill would later become extremely important.

The Long Quiet Period After Launch:

For several years Spellmasons continued receiving updates, but sales were modest and development returned to a part time effort.

After the initial release period, Spellmasons entered a phase familiar to many indie developers. The game generated occasional bursts of sales during discounts, but overall revenue was not enough to support full time development.

Jo returned to traditional work while continuing to update the game during spare time. For a while he released updates every month, slowly expanding the game with new content.

The player community remained active but small. Feedback from players helped identify bugs and inspired new features. The Discord server allowed direct conversations with players who cared deeply about the game.

Still, the broader gaming audience had not discovered Spellmasons.

Many developers might consider this stage the end of the road. Instead, Jo decided to examine the situation more carefully.

Identifying the Weakest Link:

A major shift occurred when Jo analyzed where his time was going and realized marketing had received almost no attention.

Jo asked himself a critical question.

Where could his effort create the biggest impact?

Up to that point, nearly all of his time had been spent improving the game itself. While improvements were valuable, they were unlikely to convince completely new players to discover the game. If people did not know Spellmasons existed, additional gameplay features would not change that.

The real weakness was exposure.

Jo realized that even a small improvement in marketing effort could dramatically increase visibility because the game had received so little promotion previously.

This realization changed everything.

The Short Form Content Experiment:

A challenge from a marketing focused friend led Jo to begin producing short videos daily. These videos eventually became the main driver of discovery.

In October of the year before Spellmasons experienced its sales surge, Jo accepted a challenge from a friend who worked in marketing.

The challenge was simple but demanding. Create short videos every day until Christmas.

Jo negotiated slightly and committed to producing five short videos per day across platforms such as TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram.

The workload was intense. Early videos were rough and attracted little attention. Editing even a forty second clip could take six hours while Jo learned the process.

But something important happened during this period. Jo began studying storytelling.

Instead of posting random gameplay clips, he started presenting small narratives about development decisions, character changes, or interesting gameplay interactions. These short stories gave viewers a reason to watch until the end.

Eventually several videos began gaining traction. Then one went viral on TikTok. Soon after, videos began spreading on Instagram and YouTube as well.

That sudden visibility created a chain reaction.

How Viral Content Triggered Steam Visibility:

Increased traffic from social media generated new sales which attracted attention from the Steam algorithm.

The viral videos did not only produce views. They generated real sales.

Steam pays close attention to revenue trends. When a game begins earning more money in a short period of time, the platform often increases visibility through store promotions.

After the social media spike, Jo received an unexpected message from Steam offering a Daily Deal promotion on the store homepage.

Daily Deals appear in a prominent location and reach millions of users. For an indie developer this exposure can be enormous.

Jo prepared carefully for the promotion by releasing a major update that added a new wizard class along with additional spells and mechanics. The update gave returning players a reason to revisit the game while also improving its appeal to new audiences.

The result exceeded expectations. Sales during the promotion were far stronger than previous events.

More importantly, the increased activity changed how Steam treated the game.

Jo described this as reaching what some developers call real Steam. Once the platform sees consistent demand, it continues recommending the game to more players.

Spellmasons had finally reached that stage years after launch.

The Three Pillars of Game Success:

Jo identified three major areas developers must evaluate when trying to grow their audience.

During the podcast conversation Jo explained a framework he uses to evaluate where effort should go. He divides the problem into three categories.

The game itself

The game must be genuinely enjoyable. Validation should come from players who have no personal connection to the developer. Honest feedback from strangers provides the clearest signal.

Presentation

Store page quality matters. Screenshots, trailers, logos, and descriptions must clearly communicate what the game offers. If potential players cannot quickly understand the genre or gameplay, many will leave without investigating further.

Exposure

Even a great game with excellent presentation cannot succeed if people never see it. Marketing, creator coverage, and social media are methods of placing the game in front of potential players.

When one of these areas falls behind the others, it becomes the most important place to focus effort.

For Spellmasons, exposure was the missing piece.

Why Storytelling Works for Game Marketing:

Short videos became effective when Jo shifted from simple clips to stories about development and design.

Many developers assume marketing means repeatedly showing gameplay footage.

Jo found that approach rarely holds attention.

Instead he framed each video as a small story. For example, rather than simply announcing a change to an enemy character, he explained the problem the character created during gameplay and how redesigning the ability improved the experience.

This structure triggers curiosity.

Viewers begin wondering why the change was necessary or how the solution works. That curiosity encourages them to continue watching.

The goal is not tricking viewers into clicking. It is giving them something interesting or entertaining during a short period of time.

Developers have a huge supply of stories because game development constantly involves solving problems, experimenting with mechanics, and adjusting designs based on player feedback.

Learning how to share those moments in an accessible format can turn development progress into compelling content.

The Role of Community During Development:

A small but dedicated community provided critical feedback and motivation throughout development.

The Spellmasons Discord server played an important role during the game’s growth.

While thousands of players joined the server over time, only a small percentage participated regularly. This is typical for most communities. A small group of dedicated fans often drives discussions and feedback.

Those players helped identify bugs, suggested new ideas, and even tested experimental changes. Their enthusiasm also motivated Jo during difficult development periods.

Watching someone stream the game for ten hours during launch week confirmed that the core concept resonated with players.

Direct conversations with fans allowed Jo to understand which features mattered most and which improvements would have the greatest impact.

Community feedback did not replace design decisions, but it provided valuable perspective.

Lessons for Indie Developers:

The Spellmasons story highlights several important lessons about long term success.

First, a game can grow years after release. If the game is enjoyable and continues receiving updates, renewed attention can transform its trajectory.

Second, marketing deserves the same level of dedication as development. Treating it as a secondary task limits a game’s potential audience.

Third, short form video content can reach massive audiences if it communicates clearly and tells a story that holds attention.

Fourth, algorithms respond to results. When social media traffic leads to increased sales, storefronts may amplify that success through additional visibility.

Finally, community interaction provides both technical feedback and emotional support. Developers who stay connected with their players often create stronger games.

Building the Next Project With These Lessons:

Jo is applying these insights to his next game by starting marketing earlier and launching the Steam page as soon as possible.

Jo’s new project titled Some of You May Die is already benefiting from lessons learned during the Spellmasons journey.

The Steam page was created early in development rather than waiting until the game was nearly complete. Even if the page begins with placeholder assets or early screenshots, it allows developers to collect wishlists immediately.

Jo also began producing short form marketing content far earlier in the development process.

Another advantage comes from technical experience. The new game uses systems developed for Spellmasons, allowing faster development because many complex problems were already solved.

Building multiple smaller games can accelerate learning and reduce development risk compared to focusing on a single massive project.

Anecdotes and Reflections:

The story of Spellmasons challenges a common assumption in indie development. A slow launch does not mean failure.

With persistence, thoughtful marketing, and consistent updates, a game can reach players long after release. Visibility often depends less on timing and more on how effectively developers communicate what makes their game interesting.

For indie creators, the message is encouraging.

If players enjoy the experience and developers continue learning how to reach their audience, the opportunity for success remains open long after launch day.

Want more insights like this?:

Join us for our IndieGameBusiness Deep Dive, taking place on May 27th from 9am – 5pm Eastern or hop into the IndieGameBusiness® Discord to connect with Jo and other industry pros.

Level up your indie gaming journey! Don’t miss out on the latest IndieGameBusiness® podcasts – sign up for our newsletter today and stay tuned for upcoming episodes, Discord events, industry news, and more. Stay in the loop – Subscribe now!

Why Indie Game Press Still Matters in 2026:

In 2026, getting Indie Game Press coverage as an indie developer is harder than it has ever been. Thousands of games launch each year across Steam, console storefronts, and emerging platforms, while media teams shrink, attention spans tighten, and algorithms increasingly dictate visibility. Yet despite these challenges, press coverage remains one of the most powerful credibility signals an indie game can earn.

In this episode of the IndieGameBusiness® podcast, host Dan Long sat down with Jade King, Lead Features Editor at TheGamer, to pull back the curtain on how games journalists actually work, how indie games get noticed, and what developers can do today to dramatically improve their chances of coverage. The conversation offered rare, candid insight into the realities of modern games media and the mistakes indie developers continue to make when pitching the press.

From Fan Blogs to Features Editor – Jade King’s Journey:

Jade King’s path into games journalism didn’t begin with prestige outlets or industry connections. Like many journalists, it started young, contributing to small blogs, reviewing anime, covering niche JRPGs, and gradually building a portfolio. While studying journalism at university in Brighton, Jade began freelancing for tech and gaming sites, eventually taking on more responsibility, attending events, and building industry relationships.

That gradual climb shaped how Jade approaches coverage today. Journalists are not faceless gatekeepers. They are players, writers, and fans who care deeply about the craft. But they also operate under intense constraints: deadlines, traffic targets, limited staff, and constant content pressure. Understanding this human context is essential for developers hoping to build productive press relationships.

What “Indie Game” Means in 2026:

A decade ago, “indie game” generally meant a small, self-funded project without a publisher. Today, the term is far more fluid. Games with dozens of developers, sizable budgets, and publishing partners are still labeled “indie,” while solo developers struggle to compete for attention in the same category.

From a press perspective, this creates tension. Larger “indie” titles often receive priority because they drive traffic, already have visibility, or resemble AAA releases in scope. Smaller projects, even excellent ones, risk being overshadowed unless they find a way to stand out.

For developers, this means relying on the “indie” label alone is no longer enough. You must clearly communicate why your game matters, what makes it unique, and why it deserves attention now.

How Indie Games Actually Reach Journalists:

According to Jade, indie games most often land on a journalist’s radar through a combination of factors:

• Steam visibility (wishlists, trending demos, Next Fest traction)
• Social media momentum
• Recommendations from trusted colleagues or developers
• Personal interest in a specific genre or theme
• Previous relationships with creators

Events like Steam Next Fest play a critical role, allowing journalists to quickly sample dozens of games without committing to full reviews. Demos that clearly communicate their appeal within minutes are far more likely to generate coverage than full releases buried in inboxes.

This reality underscores an important truth: press coverage is rarely a single moment. It’s the result of cumulative signals that tell journalists a game is worth their limited time.

The Reality of Journalists’ Inboxes:

One of the most eye-opening parts of the discussion was the sheer volume of emails journalists receive. Depending on the season, Jade may receive hundreds or even thousands of emails per day, many of them nearly identical press releases.

This makes it logistically impossible to read or respond to every pitch. Lack of response does not mean a journalist disliked your game. More often, it means they never saw it.

For developers, this means every detail matters:

• Subject lines
• Timing
• Brevity
• Visual assets
• Clarity of messaging

Your pitch must earn attention in seconds, not minutes.

Why Indie Pitches Fail Before They’re Read:

According to Jade, some of the most common pitch mistakes include:

• Sending messages through personal social media accounts (Instagram, Facebook)
• Writing overly long or unfocused emails
• Using all caps or spam-triggering language
• Failing to explain what the game actually is
• Assuming journalists “owe” coverage

Journalists value professionalism and boundaries. Cold DMs outside professional platforms often backfire, even when intentions are good. Email, LinkedIn, or professional social channels are far more appropriate.

What Makes a Pitch Stand Out:

A successful pitch does three things immediately:

1. Explains the game clearly
2. Shows why it’s unique
3. Makes coverage easy

Jade emphasized the importance of:

• A compelling subject line
• A short description with clear genre context
• High-quality screenshots or GIFs
• A trailer link
• Estimated playtime
• Demo availability

Comparisons can help — “X meets Y” — as long as they’re accurate and not overused. Most importantly, pitches should be concise. Journalists do not want essays; they want clarity.

Timing Is Everything:

Many indie developers unknowingly sabotage their pitches by sending them at the wrong time. Emails sent late Friday, over weekends, or during major industry events are likely to be buried by Monday morning.

Developers should research:

• The journalist’s time zone
• Typical working hours
• Industry calendars

A well-timed pitch can dramatically increase visibility, especially for smaller teams without PR support.

Building Relationships Without Forcing Them:

Developers often ask how to “build relationships” with Indie Game Press. Jade’s advice was clear: don’t force it. Commenting thoughtfully on articles, engaging professionally on LinkedIn or Bluesky, and respecting boundaries goes much further than aggressive outreach.

Once a relationship exists, through interviews, previews, or informal conversations, coverage becomes more natural. Journalists are more likely to champion games made by developers they trust and respect.

Reviews, Criticism, and Emotional Reality:

Negative reviews are difficult for developers, especially solo creators deeply invested in their work. But Jade emphasized that criticism is never personal. Journalists aim to be constructive, not cruel.

Importantly, many meaningful conversations happen before reviews are published, during previews, demos, and informal feedback sessions. Developers who engage openly often gain insights that improve their games long before launch.

Making Games “Fun” for Indie Game Press

One recurring theme was reducing friction. The easier it is to understand, play, and write about a game, the more likely journalists are to cover it. That means:

• Clear press kits
• Organized assets
• Accessible demos
• Honest communication

Press coverage is not a favor, it’s a collaboration. When developers respect journalists’ time, everyone benefits.

Social Media Is Part of the Equation:

While not every developer can manage multiple platforms, consistent social presence matters. Posting gameplay clips, GIFs, dev insights, and participating in indie spotlight hashtags can slowly build awareness.

Press coverage rarely exists in isolation, it’s amplified by community engagement, creator interest, and ongoing visibility.

Why You Should Never Force Coverage:

One of the fastest ways to lose a journalist’s interest is attempting to dictate coverage or headlines. Press autonomy matters. Developers should present their game, not script its narrative.

When coverage feels earned, it’s stronger, more authentic, and more impactful.

Final Advice for Indie Developers in 2026:

Jade’s closing advice to developers was simple but powerful:

• Be yourself
• Be confident in your idea
• Learn from rejection
• Keep going

Press coverage is unpredictable, but not impossible. Developers who treat journalists as collaborators rather than obstacles stand the best chance of being seen.

Anecdotes and Reflections:

The indie game landscape is crowded, competitive, and often discouraging. But as this conversation made clear, journalists still care deeply about discovering great games and sharing meaningful stories.

For developers willing to do the work, refining pitches, building relationships, and respecting the realities of modern media, press coverage remains a powerful tool for visibility and long-term success.

In 2026, indie games don’t just need to be good. They need to be understood, and that starts with how you tell your story.

Want more insights like this?:

Join us for our IndieGameBusiness Sessions, taking place on February 18th from 9am – 5pm Eastern or hop into the IndieGameBusiness® Discord to connect with Jade and other industry pros.

Level up your indie gaming journey! Don’t miss out on the latest IndieGameBusiness® podcasts – sign up for our newsletter today and stay tuned for upcoming episodes, Discord events, industry news, and more. Stay in the loop – Subscribe now!

Why PC Game Distribution Needs a Broader Strategy:

For many indie developers, PC game distribution begins and ends with Steam. While Steam remains the dominant platform in the PC ecosystem, relying on a single storefront introduces real business risk, especially in an increasingly global and competitive market.

In this episode of the IndieGameBusiness® podcast, host Dan Long sat down with Vadim Andreev, CEO and Co-Founder of Rokky, to discuss how indie developers can expand beyond Steam without sacrificing control, revenue, or visibility.

The conversation explored global PC distribution, emerging markets, gray-market misconceptions, regional pricing, localization, and why launching everywhere at once can be a strategic advantage, not a risk.

The Origins of Rokky and the Evolution of PC Game Distribution:

Understanding modern PC game distribution requires understanding where it came from, and why centralized platforms emerged in the first place.

Vadim Andreev entered the games industry in 2009, at a time when piracy dominated PC gaming and paid digital distribution was still viewed skeptically. Early work in telecom digital storefronts exposed him to the challenges of selling games, music, and software in an ecosystem that hadn’t yet earned consumer trust.

Over the next decade, those challenges evolved into opportunities. Steam helped normalize paid PC games, but in doing so, it also became the single point of dependency for most developers. Rokky was created to solve that imbalance, not by replacing Steam, but by layering distribution on top of it.

Today, Rokky connects more than 200 publishers to over 200 regional storefronts worldwide, creating a bridge between developers and markets many never reach.

The Current State of PC Game Distribution for Indie Developers:

Steam dominates PC game distribution, but dominance is not the same as completeness.

According to Rokky’s internal data, nearly 88% of indie developers earn the majority of their revenue from Steam alone. While understandable, this concentration creates exposure to platform algorithm changes, visibility fluctuations, and regional blind spots.

Steam is not going away, nor should it be ignored. However, focusing exclusively on Steam means missing:

• Regional storefronts in Asia, LATAM, and MENA
• Marketplace audiences equivalent to ~30% of Steam’s user base
• Free marketing support from non-Steam stores
• Additional revenue layers that require minimal effort

The takeaway is clear: Steam should be your foundation, but not your ceiling.

Is Steam a Monopoly or Just the Default?:

Steam’s dominance is earned, but that doesn’t mean it should be the only option.

Vadim emphasized that Steam’s success is well deserved. It beat piracy, created trust in PC digital purchases, and built an unmatched infrastructure. However, from a business perspective, de facto monopoly creates dependency.

Developers who rely entirely on Steam surrender control over:

• Discovery algorithms
• Promotional timing
• Visibility prioritization
• Policy changes

Distribution diversification is not about rebellion, it’s about resilience.

The Risks of Launching Only on Steam:

Limiting your launch to Steam alone introduces risks many developers don’t recognize until it’s too late.

Key risks include:

• Lost regional revenue: Players in China, LATAM, and MENA often use local platforms rather than Steam.
• Algorithm dependency: Visibility is unpredictable and uncontrollable.
• Single-point failure: Policy or algorithm changes can instantly impact revenue.
• Missed marketing support: Many external stores provide free promotional placement at launch.

Launching elsewhere doesn’t dilute Steam performance, it complements it.

Common Misconceptions About Distribution Beyond Steam:

Fear, not facts, keeps many developers from expanding their distribution strategy.

Two misconceptions dominate:

1. “If my game is good, it will sell itself.”
   Quality is essential, but discovery requires proactive marketing and distribution.
2. “Everything outside Steam is unsafe.”
   While gray markets exist, controlled distribution with region locking and pricing strategy eliminates most risk.

Importantly, selling Steam keys through authorized partners often drives traffic back to your Steam page, increasing visibility rather than harming it.

What Types of Games Benefit Most from Broader Distribution?:

All games can benefit, but scale increases the upside.

Vadim noted that while any indie game can gain value from distribution, larger games see larger returns. On average, developers can expect 10–20% additional revenue from distribution platforms layered on top of Steam.

This isn’t about replacing Steam sales, it’s about additive revenue.

Understanding Distribution Platforms vs Storefronts:

Rokky is not a storefront, it’s infrastructure.

Steam, GOG, and Epic are storefronts. Rokky operates differently by:

• Connecting publishers to hundreds of B2B storefronts
• Selling Steam keys through authorized regional partners
• Handling pricing, region locking, analytics, and marketing coordination

This approach unlocks markets without fragmenting builds or increasing technical burden.

The Power of Global Markets: China, LATAM, and MENA:

Western markets are saturated, growth lies elsewhere.

China alone represents one-third of the global PC gaming market, yet many Western developers fail to account for:

• Local storefronts
• Local influencers
• Unique marketing ecosystems
• Platform-specific discovery channels

Rokky maintains local teams, partners, and marketing expertise in China and other regions, helping developers avoid costly cultural missteps.

Localization – The Non-Negotiable Requirement:

Without localization, your game may as well not exist.

Vadim stressed that text localization is the minimum requirement for international success. At a bare minimum, developers should localize into:

• Simplified Chinese
• Spanish
• Portuguese

Arabic and Hindi were also highlighted as emerging priorities, particularly as India continues rapid growth.

Gray Markets Explained – Behavior, Not Platforms:

Gray markets are not inherently bad, they’re behavioral gaps.

Vadim reframed gray markets as a result of three exploitable gaps:

1. Regional arbitrage – selling cheaper regional keys globally
2. Discount exploitation – bulk buying during sales
3. Bundle leakage – unclaimed keys flooding resale markets

These risks are preventable with:

• Region-locked keys
• Thoughtful discount structures
• Clear bundle key return policies

Practical Steps Developers Can Take Today:

Distribution success doesn’t require massive budgets.

Key actions include:

• Region-locking Steam keys
• Adjusting regional pricing strategically
• Avoiding deep, short-term discounts
• Asking bundle partners about unused keys
• Launching globally at the same time

Notably, Rokky offers pricing tools and advisory services for free, even before formal partnerships.

Why Simultaneous Global Launches Matter:

Launching everywhere at once unlocks free marketing.

When developers launch globally at the same time:

• Regional stores promote the game pre-release
• Email campaigns and homepage banners are activated
• Influencer campaigns align with launch timing

Delayed regional launches miss this opportunity entirely.

Subscription Models and Cloud Gaming – Reality Check:

Not every trend is ready for prime time.

Vadim was candid about limitations:

• Subscription models struggle on PC due to Steam DRM
• Cloud gaming remains capital-intensive and unprofitable
• GPU costs alone can exceed monthly subscription revenue

The recommended approach mirrors film distribution: sales first, subscriptions later.

What a Healthy PC Distribution Mix Looks Like:

Balance, not replacement, is the goal.

A healthy strategy includes:

1. Steam as the primary platform
2. Simultaneous distribution via authorized partners
3. Regional pricing and localization
4. Marketplace participation with safeguards

This layered approach reduces risk while increasing reach.

Looking Ahead – The Future of PC Distribution:

Distribution is evolving, and developers should evolve with it.

Vadim outlined several future trends:

• Silent key activation APIs replacing manual keys
• Growth of India as a major PC market
• Increased comfort with distribution partners
• Greater revenue diversity for indie developers

The message was clear: distribution should be proactive, not reactive.

Anecdotes and Reflections:

PC game distribution beyond Steam is no longer optional for developers seeking long-term sustainability. It’s a strategic multiplier, one that expands audience reach, strengthens revenue stability, and reduces platform dependency.

As Vadim Andreev emphasized throughout the conversation, Steam remains essential, but it shouldn’t be the only door your game walks through.

For indie developers willing to think globally, the opportunity is already there.

Want more insights like this?:

Join us for our IndieGameBusiness Sessions, taking place on February 18th from 9am – 5pm Eastern or hop into the IndieGameBusiness® Discord to connect with Vadim and other industry pros.

Level up your indie gaming journey! Don’t miss out on the latest IndieGameBusiness® podcasts – sign up for our newsletter today and stay tuned for upcoming episodes, Discord events, industry news, and more. Stay in the loop – Subscribe now!

The IndieGameBusiness® 2026 Battle Pass gives you access to the remaining 2026 lineup at a reduced price that continues to decrease as each event takes place.

As each event passes, the cost adjusts so you are only paying for what is left. Grab your ticket for just $88 USD Today!

You’ll still receive full access to expert talks, practical workshops, and direct industry insight designed for developers, publishers, and service providers. You will also receive two days of MeetToMatch access during the September IGB Session to connect directly with industry professionals.

What You Get with the IndieGameBusiness® 2026 Battle Pass:

When you grab the Battle Pass, you unlock:

• 3 live IndieGameBusiness® events
• 2 professional Masterclasses
• Two full days of MeetToMatch access during our September IGB Sessions
• A full year of expert talks, actionable workshops, and direct industry insight

Everything is streamed online across YouTube, Twitch, and LinkedIn, so you can attend from anywhere without burning travel money or PTO.

2026 Event Lineup at a Glance:

Included Events

• IGB Session & MeetToMatch | Feb 18 COMPLETED
  From Pitch to Partnership
• Deep Dive | May 27 COMPLETED
  Building Strong Publishing Partnerships
• IGB Session & MeetToMatch | Sept 30
  The Path from Storefront to Success
• Deep Dive | Dec 9
  Game Marketing That Works

Included Masterclasses

• June 17, 2026 — The Production Toolkit Every Game Team Needs | Completed
  Heather Chandler
• October 20, 2026 — Community Management: The Basics
  Ash Cason

IndieGameBusiness® Sessions – From Pitch to Partnership:

February 18, 2026

Event Details

• Lectures: February 18, 2026
• MeetToMatch: February 18–19, 2026
• Ticket Price: $0–$60 USD
• Time: 9am–5pm ET
• Platforms: YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn
• Event completed

IndieGameBusiness® Deep Dive – Building Strong Publishing Partnerships:

May 27, 2026

Event Details

• May 27, 2026
• Free
• 9am–5pm ET
• YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn
• Event Completed

Masterclass – The Production Toolkit Every Game Team Needs:

June 17, 2026

Led by Heather Chandler, a veteran producer with 25+ years of experience on titles like Helldivers 2 and Fortnite, this Masterclass cuts through over-engineered systems and focuses on what actually works.

Heather breaks down:

• The core production tools every team needs
• How to spot problems before they explode
• How to course-correct when things slip
• Building production habits that support the team, not slow it down

If development chaos feels familiar, this Masterclass gives you clear, practical steps you can use immediately.

Masterclass Details

• June 17, 2026
• Completed
• 11:00am–12:30pm ET
• Heather Chandler — Head of Production, The Powell Group

IndieGameBusiness® Sessions – The Path from Storefront to Success:

September 30, 2026

Launching on a storefront is only the beginning. Turning visibility into sales takes planning, data, and execution.

This one-day Session focuses on helping developers understand how storefronts work — and how to make them work for you.

You’ll Learn:

• How to optimize your store page for conversion
• How platform algorithms and sales cycles work
• Managing discounts and promotions strategically
• Tracking analytics that actually matter
• Building long-term sales momentum post-launch

Perfect for teams preparing a launch or trying to improve performance after release.

Event Details

• Session: September 30, 2026
• MeetToMatch: September 30 – October 1, 2026
• $0–$60 USD – Grab your ticket today!
• 9am–5pm ET
• YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn

Masterclass – Community Management, The Basics:

October 20, 2026

In this Masterclass, Ash Cason breaks down what community management actually looks like for indie teams.

This isn’t theory, it’s real-world insight into:

• Community 101 fundamentals
• Building safe, inclusive player spaces
• Supporting community team mental health
• Hiring the right community manager for your project
• Avoiding common (and expensive) mistakes

If your community is growing or is about to, this is required knowledge.

Masterclass Details

• October 20, 2026
• Grab your ticket today!
• 10:00am–11:30am ET
• Ash Cason — Marketing & Community Lead, IndieGameBusiness®

IndieGameBusiness® Deep Dive – Game Marketing That Works:

December 9, 2026

Great games still fail without the right marketing strategy.

This free, one-day Deep Dive focuses on helping developers build marketing plans that drive real results! Without wasting time, money, or sanity.

Topics Include:

• Marketing strategies for every stage of development
• Building authentic, engaged communities
• Messaging that sells without overselling
• Working with influencers and media effectively
• Using analytics to guide smarter decisions

Whether you’re launching your first game or refining your next campaign, this event gives you tools you can actually use.

Event Details

• December 9, 2026
• Free
• 9am–5pm ET
• YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn

Why the IndieGameBusiness® 2026 Battle Pass Matters:

When you purchase the IndieGameBusiness® 2026 Battle Pass, you’re not just investing in your own growth.

You’re helping IndieGameBusiness® continue offering free and deeply discounted education, supporting developers and professionals who might not otherwise have access to these resources.

Together, we’re building a stronger, more accessible, and more sustainable game industry. One well-informed team at a time!

Level up your indie gaming journey! Don’t miss out on the latest IndieGameBusiness® podcasts – sign up for our newsletter today and stay tuned for upcoming episodes, Discord events, industry news, and more. Stay in the loop – Subscribe now!

How Indie Devs Can Do More With Less:

In the ever-changing world of indie game development, one thing remains constant: limited budgets and endless ambition. In the latest episode of the IndieGameBusiness® podcast, Jay Powell, CEO and Founder of The Powell Group and IndieGameBusiness® sits down with Mike Gallagher, founder of Untitled Advertising Lab, to unpack realistic, sustainable Indie game marketing strategies for indie studios. With decades of combined industry experience, Jay and Mike dive into what it really takes to market a game in 2025 without burning out or burning through your budget.

From Film to Games: Mike’s Marketing Journey:

Mike Gallagher didn’t start in games. His roots were in film and production, slogging through the rainy sets of Vancouver until he shifted to PR, eventually landing at EA. After leading marketing at studios like Hyper Hippo and Hothead Games, he founded Untitled Advertising Lab, a boutique agency helping small to mid-sized studios with practical, ROI-driven marketing support.

Start With What You Have – Internal Resources Matter:

Mike’s first piece of advice? Audit your internal capabilities. Before spending a dime externally, understand what your team can already do. Have an art team? Great—train them to create marketing assets. Have someone savvy with Discord or social media? Start building a community early. Every team is different, but identifying strengths (and gaps) is key to stretching your budget.

“The more efficient you are with internal resources, the more you can focus outside help on the things your team truly can’t handle,” Mike notes.

Community is Not Optional:

Community isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a foundational pillar of Indie game marketing strategies. Whether it’s Discord, your Steam page, or app store comments, every player touchpoint matters. Studios that prioritize engagement—early and consistently—see better results at launch.

“The wider your funnel, the more likely you are to convert,” Mike explains. “That starts with strong community engagement across all channels.”

Steam Next Fest – One Shot, Use It Wisely:

Next Fest can be a game-changer—but it can also be a wasted opportunity. Mike warns that too many studios enter unprepared, launching demos without the infrastructure to build on the momentum. If you’re not planning to release soon after Next Fest, you risk losing your only free marketing beat.

“It’s like using your one bullet before the boss fight,” Jay jokes. Mike agrees. The key is planning: have a solid indie game marketing strategies push pre-Fest, leverage the momentum during, and be ready to act on the data and community interest that follows.

Why Indie Devs Often Struggle with Marketing:

Most indies underestimate timelines. They plan to announce in September, but the trailer isn’t ready until late August. That leaves barely any time to build hype. Worse, many don’t budget enough time for marketing assets—even though these take almost as much care as game development itself.

“Marketing isn’t just a press release and a tweet,” Mike says. “It’s a process that takes time, iteration, and testing.”

Virality Is a Hope, Not a Strategy:

Can you go viral through social media alone? Technically, yes. But counting on it is risky. Organic reach is throttled, and even posts with thousands of followers often get shown to just a tiny fraction of your audience. Paid boosts help, but need to be highly targeted.

Instead of chasing trends, Mike advises devs to focus on consistency, clarity, and community. Your early posts may only reach a handful of people, but if they’re the right people—influencers, early adopters, tastemakers—they can help you grow authentically.

The Ideal Timeline for Next Fest Prep:

Mike recommends at least a six-month campaign from announcement to launch. If you’re targeting October Next Fest, announce your game by July or August. Your three major beats should be: Announcement, Next Fest, and Launch. And don’t blow all your resources upfront—leave some gas in the tank for post-launch promotion.

“Launch isn’t the end; it’s the midpoint,” Mike warns. “You need a post-launch plan just as much as a pre-launch one.”

Early Access – Pros and Pitfalls:

Early Access can help manage expectations, but only if you’re truly planning to grow the game after launch. Without meaningful updates, players will feel misled. If Early Access is part of your strategy, communicate clearly what’s coming next.

“Don’t call it Early Access unless there’s actually more coming,” Mike advises.

Building a Pre-Announcement Community:

Worried that devlogs only attract other devs? That’s fine at first. Early followers help you build social proof. Start with a transparent “glass box” approach, sharing your journey. Over time, shift the focus to the game itself, drawing in a broader player audience.

“You need the first few people through the door,” Mike explains. “They make it safe for others to follow.”

Can You Overshare? Yes and No:

Oversharing isn’t about volume; it’s about what you share. Avoid giving away narrative spoilers or key gameplay mechanics. Show, don’t tell. Give players a taste, not the whole meal.

Out-of-the-Box Tactics That Worked:

Mike shares two smart, budget-conscious campaigns:

• Spy vs. Spy Cross-Promotion: At Hyper Hippo, two games with opposing ideologies were cross-promoted through comic-style gags, eliminating the need for remarketing spend.
• Local Influencer Scavenger Hunt: For EA’s NHL series, they worked with small-town hockey influencers to create real-world scavenger hunts that exploded on social media.

Both succeeded because they leaned into the culture of the community, not just traditional Indie game marketing strategies playbooks.

Self-Publishing – Start With a Plan:

Not sure if you should self-publish? You can make it manageable by starting with strategy. Know your timelines, budget, and goals. Pick key beats. Assign someone to manage marketing assets. And be realistic: marketing takes time and money, just like development.

“Set your major beats, get your assets ready, and assign clear roles,” Mike says. “You don’t need to do everything, but you need a plan.”

Key Takeaways for Indie Marketing in 2025:

• Start marketing six months before launch
• Prioritize community engagement early
• Be smart with your Next Fest timing
• Treat Indie game marketing strategies timelines like dev milestones
• Don’t chase virality—build consistency
• Early Access should mean something
• Choose tactics that reflect your community’s culture
• Have a realistic post-launch plan

Want more insights? Catch the full episode on YouTube or join the IndieGameBusiness® Discord to connect with Mike and other industry experts.

About the Speaker Mike Gallagher is the founder of Untitled Advertising Lab and a former marketing leader at EA, Hyper Hippo, and Hothead Games. He specializes in helping indie studios build sustainable Indie game marketing strategies that actually make sense for their size and budget.

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Serious Games, Real Impact – Insights from Jennifer Javornik at Filament Games:

The gaming industry is vast, and while most of us associate games with entertainment, there is a growing sector focused on creating games that have a meaningful impact beyond fun. Jennifer Javornik, Chief Partnerships Officer at Filament Games, shared her insights into the world of “serious games” during her conversation with Jay Powell, CEO and Founder of The Powell Group and IndieGameBusiness®. These are games designed with a purpose—whether it’s education, training, or social good. In this blog post, we break down the key points discussed in the podcast, from the importance of educational games to the challenges of developing them and bringing them to market.

Jennifer Javornik’s Journey – From IT Consulting to Serious Games:

Jennifer’s career took an unconventional path to the gaming industry. Originally aspiring to be a Broadway star, she became deeply involved in theater and performance. However, her career took a turn when she found herself in IT consulting. For 18 years, Jennifer worked in government consulting—a serious and conservative industry—while continuing to engage in theater as a professional improv comedian. Despite her success in the IT field, Jennifer wanted to make a change.

After considering various industries, she realized that the gaming sector was the perfect combination of her technical expertise and creative passions. She saw how video games could combine storytelling with interactive technology, ultimately leading her to Filament Games, where she has worked for the last ten years.

Filament Games – Creating Playful Experiences with Purpose:

Filament Games is a studio that focuses on creating educational games aimed at improving people’s lives. The company’s mission is to provide playful experiences that are also valuable learning tools. Unlike traditional entertainment games, serious games like the ones created by Filament aim to transform the player’s mindset or teach new behaviors.

Filament Games designs games to engage players in meaningful learning experiences. These games are not just about fun; they have clear educational outcomes and are often designed to be used in classrooms or as enrichment activities after school. The goal is to activate players to apply what they’ve learned to real-world situations, thereby creating tangible change in their knowledge and behavior.

The Importance of Serious Games:

The concept of serious games has gained traction over the years, with educators and researchers recognizing their potential to improve learning outcomes. Unlike passive learning methods such as reading a textbook or watching a video, serious games require active participation. This active engagement is one of the key reasons why games are so effective at teaching complex concepts and skills.

Jennifer notes that in today’s world, information acquisition is no longer the challenge—thanks to the internet and artificial intelligence (AI), most people can access information whenever they need it. The real challenge lies in applying knowledge in practical ways. Serious games provide a platform for players to not only acquire knowledge but also practice applying it in simulated environments. Games can immerse players in scenarios they might not typically encounter in real life, giving them the tools and knowledge to solve problems and make informed decisions.

Games in Education – A Shift in Learning Methods:

The role of games in education has changed significantly over the years. When Jennifer first entered the serious games sector, educators were hesitant to embrace games as learning tools. However, this attitude has shifted dramatically, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to move toward online learning. Today, games are increasingly seen as an integral part of education, particularly in elementary schools, where the use of games to teach has become nearly ubiquitous.

One of the major factors behind this shift is the growing recognition that different students learn in different ways. Some students may thrive in a traditional classroom setting, while others benefit more from interactive and hands-on learning experiences. Games offer an engaging alternative that meets learners where they are, allowing them to learn at their own pace while providing immediate feedback.

Jennifer highlights that educational games can be especially beneficial for disengaged learners—those students who might not traditionally perform well in a classroom environment. These students often find themselves more engaged and motivated when using games, as games provide immediate rewards for effort and can break down complex tasks into more digestible chunks.

The Role of Technology in Serious Games:

Technology is central to the success of serious games. Filament Games uses a wide range of tools to create immersive and educational experiences. For example, one of their notable projects, Roboco, is a game designed to teach players about robotics. The game offers different modes of learning, such as a sandbox environment where players can create robots freely, a robot repair area where players can learn to fix broken robots, and a campaign that challenges players to solve real-world problems.

The game’s use of technology isn’t limited to just the game design. The development of Roboco was also funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which enabled Filament Games to incorporate advanced educational features such as Python coding and robotics automation. This project is a perfect example of how serious games can offer hands-on learning experiences that not only teach technical skills but also help foster creativity and problem-solving.

Filament Games has also expanded Roboco into a virtual reality (VR) experience. With funding from Meta, the game’s core building functionality was adapted to VR to create a more immersive experience. This shift to VR offers players a more tangible, physical interaction with the robots they build, further enhancing the learning experience.

Overcoming Challenges in Serious Game Development:

Despite the growing demand for serious games, there are still numerous challenges developers face when creating and releasing them. One major challenge is the market’s perception of educational games. Historically, educational games have had a stigma of being “boring” or “too educational,” which has led to resistance from both consumers and educators.

To overcome this stigma, Filament Games focuses on making their games enjoyable and engaging first and foremost. As Jennifer explains, they don’t call their games “educational” because they want players to focus on the fun and learning that happens naturally while playing. This approach helps to avoid the traditional resistance associated with educational games.

Another significant challenge is discoverability. Educational games often have a difficult time finding a place in the crowded game market, especially when platforms like Steam are dominated by entertainment-focused titles. Jennifer shares how Filament Games faced this issue with Roboco, which they eventually released on Steam after extensive testing and iteration. The game garnered positive reviews, but it required significant effort in terms of marketing and outreach to get the word out to the right audience.

One of the strategies they used to promote Roboco was by partnering with streamers who had a genuine interest in the game’s unique subject matter. This helped generate buzz and visibility within the gaming community, leading to organic growth. Jennifer also mentions how important it is to engage with the community early on, whether through beta testing or user feedback.

Serious Games Beyond Education – Medical and Military Applications:

While Filament Games is best known for its educational titles, the company has also ventured into the medical and military sectors. Serious games are increasingly being used for training in high-stakes industries such as healthcare, where simulations can provide safe environments for practitioners to practice their skills.

For example, Filament Games worked with the U.S. Office of Naval Research to create a simulation for sonar operators. This simulation allowed trainees to practice using sonar equipment in a virtual setting before performing real-world exercises on submarines. This type of training is cost-effective and efficient, as it reduces the need for expensive in-person training sessions.

The medical field has also seen the rise of serious games, particularly in training surgeons and other healthcare professionals. As Jennifer notes, these games are not intended to replace actual hands-on experience, but they provide a valuable tool for practice and skill development.

The Future of Serious Games: Expanding Reach and Impact:

As the gaming industry continues to grow, so too does the potential for serious games to make a real impact in education, healthcare, and beyond. Jennifer is optimistic about the future of serious games, particularly as technology continues to evolve and become more accessible. She envisions a world where games are used not just for entertainment but as powerful tools for social good, helping to solve real-world problems and improve people’s lives.

Anecdotes and Reflections:

Serious games are a unique and powerful tool that combines entertainment with education, training, and social impact. Jennifer Javornik’s insights into the development and impact of these games highlight their growing importance in various sectors, from schools to medical facilities and military training. The key takeaway from her conversation with Jay Powell is that serious games offer a highly effective way to engage users in meaningful learning experiences while also providing valuable feedback and skill development.

As the industry continues to evolve, the potential for serious games to drive change and influence positive outcomes in education and beyond is limitless. With their ability to immerse players in realistic scenarios and provide hands-on learning, serious games are positioned to be a critical component of the future of education and training.

This blog post is inspired by the podcast discussion between Jennifer Javornik and Jay Powell on the topic “Serious Games, Real Impact“.

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Introduction:

In the latest episode of the IndieGameBusiness® podcast, Jay Powell, CEO and Founder of The Powell Group and IndieGameBusiness®, interviews Chris Zukowski, Creative Director of How To Market A Game. Chris shares invaluable insights into common mistakes indie game developers make and how to avoid them to achieve marketing success. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the key points from the podcast.

Mistakes You Can’t Take Back:

1. Launching into Early Access for Feedback

Early access should not be treated as a beta testing phase. Chris emphasizes that once a game is available for purchase, it is effectively launched. The initial reception in early access heavily influences its future success. Games with minimal early reviews have a significantly lower chance of achieving long-term success. Instead, use in-person playtests, remote playtests, or platforms like Itch.io for feedback.

2. Delaying Marketing Until the Game is Finished

Successful games often have their Steam pages up at least six months before launch. This allows ample time for building a wishlist and creating anticipation. Contrary to popular belief, wishlists do not “age out,” and having a longer marketing runway is beneficial.

3. Waiting Until the Last Minute to Launch Your Steam Page

Getting your Steam page approved by Valve can take time due to potential issues that may need correction. It’s crucial to have your page ready well in advance of any significant promotions to avoid last-minute setbacks.

4. Promoting Your Game Without a Steam Page or Mailing List Ready

Always have a way to capture interest. If your game garners unexpected attention, ensure you have a Steam page, mailing list, or Discord server ready to direct potential players to.

5. Not Updating Your Release Date on Steam

Ensure your release date is accurate to avoid prematurely appearing in the popular upcoming list on Steam. Missing the correct timing here can severely impact your launch visibility.

Steam Page Mistakes:

1. Launching Without a Trailer

A trailer is essential for your game’s announcement. It doesn’t have to be perfect but should exist to draw initial interest.

2. Forgetting Gameplay in the Primary Trailer

Steam users want to see gameplay, not cinematics. The first trailer should focus heavily on gameplay to engage potential buyers immediately.

3. Obscuring Your Game’s Genre

Clarity is key. Ensure that potential players can quickly understand the genre of your game. Use clear descriptions and appropriate tags.

4. Screenshots Without UI

Include UI in your screenshots to help users understand the gameplay mechanics and genre.

5. Overloading with Lore

Too much lore can obscure what the game is about. Focus on clear, concise descriptions that highlight the gameplay and genre.

Communication and Business Mistakes:

1. Looking Like an Asset Flip

Avoid using only stock assets or presenting your game in a way that suggests minimal development effort. Showcase variety and depth in your screenshots to reflect a well-developed game.

2. Having a Quiet Steam Page

Regularly update your Steam page with events, GIFs, and posts to keep it lively and engaging. This activity shows potential buyers that the game is actively developed and supported.

3. Not Cross-Promoting from Old Games

Use your existing games to drive traffic to new projects. Implement cross-promotion strategies like in-game widgets and franchise lists on Steam.

4. Not Utilizing Publisher Cross-Promotion

Leverage your publisher’s network to boost visibility. Publishers should actively promote your game across their platforms and channels.

Anecdotes and Reflections:

Chris Zukowski’s insights provide a roadmap for indie developers to avoid common pitfalls and maximize their game’s market potential. From early marketing strategies to effective use of Steam’s platform, these tips are crucial for indie developers looking to make a significant impact. Implement these strategies to ensure your game not only launches successfully but also sustains long-term growth and player engagement.

For more detailed guidance, visit How To Market A Game and subscribe to Chris’s blog for weekly updates and in-depth analysis on game marketing.

By structuring your marketing efforts and learning from common mistakes, you can significantly improve your chances of success in the competitive indie game market. Remember, consistent and strategic marketing is as crucial as the game development process itself.

This blog post is inspired by the podcast discussion between Chris Zukowski and Jay Powell on the topic “Mastering Indie Game Marketing”

Level up your indie gaming journey! Don’t miss out on the latest IndieGameBusiness® podcasts – sign up for our newsletter today and stay tuned for upcoming episodes, Discord events, industry news, and more. Stay in the loop – Subscribe now!