Indie Devs Struggle with Game Development

“You have a game idea. How do you decide whether it is worth making—and whether you can finish it? Join Dazao for a practical guide to planning a small indie game, especially a premium PC project. We compare 16 development paths, explore six gameplay loops, and work through audience testing, scope control, art production, engine choice, prototypes, and vertical slices. A fictional project, Lighthouse Watch, connects the examples. You will also see how to separate project spending, living costs, a”

“Hi all - I’m part of a small university team researching how solo and small-team developers make pre-launch and post-launch decisions on Steam (pricing, competitor research, tracking reviews after launch, etc.). We put together a short, anonymous survey (~5 minutes) and would really appreciate answers from anyone currently developing or who’s released a game on Steam - regardless of how big or small. No names, emails, or Steam handles collected, and it’s entirely voluntary - skip anything you’d”

“Hi all - I’m part of a small university team researching how solo and small-team developers make pre-launch and post-launch decisions on Steam (pricing, competitor research, tracking reviews after launch, etc.). We put together a short, anonymous survey (~5 minutes) and would really appreciate answers from anyone currently developing or who’s released a game on Steam - regardless of how big or small. No names, emails, or Steam handles collected, and it’s entirely voluntary - skip anything you’d”

“Lately you hear more and more stories like the one in LostRelicGames video about indie game demos being uploaded to Chinese platforms and even being expanded upon by someone else. It's incredibly demotivating. On top of that there's AI which is advancing at such a rapid pace. I'm not talking about it as a "tool to help you out" but rather the fact that AI is getting better and better at creating entire games. I keep getting this thought that I simply won't manage to fin”

“It's been a month since my game's launch discount ended, so I'm finally able to offer another discount. Steam Scream Fest V is coming up soon, and since my game is a small psychological horror title, it seems like the perfect event for it. But I've been wondering: Should I actually wait until the festival to put my game on sale? On one hand, my game fits the event perfectly, which is great. But on the other hand, thousands of other games will also be discounted at the same time,”

“I'm adding a Steam wishlist button to my demo game and found four ways to send the player to the store page. None of them can add to the wishlist directly. The player always has to click the button on the store page. Overlay store view (ActivateGameOverlayToStore). Opens the store page in the Steam overlay on top of the game. Valve's docs point to this one. Overlay web browser (ActivateGameOverlayToWebPage with the store URL). Same idea, but through the overlay's browser. Steam clien”

“I'm adding a Steam wishlist button to my demo game and found four ways to send the player to the store page. None of them can add to the wishlist directly. The player always has to click the button on the store page. Overlay store view (ActivateGameOverlayToStore). Opens the store page in the Steam overlay on top of the game. Valve's docs point to this one. Overlay web browser (ActivateGameOverlayToWebPage with the store URL). Same idea, but through the overlay's browser. Steam clien”

“I'm a solo dev making VR games, self-funded and self-published. But "indie" also gets used for studios with 30+ people, a publisher, and a multi-million budget. So I do not really get it. What do you call an indie game / dev ? Solo dev, self-funded, self-published Small team (2-5), self-funded Small team with an indie publisher 10-20 devs, publisher-funded 30+ devs, publisher, multi-million budget Small team (30+) owned by a big corporation I personally draw my line somewhere betwe”

“Is there any sort of rule of thumb for indie developers as to how many hours of gameplay a game should have for the price it asks? Honestly spending $69.99 on Onimusha and people saying they finished all side content and story in 25-30 hours had me feeling a little ripped off even though I do really like the gameplay. Not enough that I would leave a bad review or even a negative post beyond this here just for a frame of reference. Also would multiplayer modes count towards total gameplay or woul”

“Hi there! I am currently developing a videogame called "FROM THE DUGOUT". The development has been pretty good so far but I have began to wonder if I should release a demo. My game has become pretty big for a demo and I wouldnt like to cut things out. Since it is a soccer game should I release it just with a season maximum (like max 2 seasons played or something like that?) submitted by /u/AcrobaticHoney6780 [link] [comments]”

“This question is to the people who've worked on and released bigger indie games for a profit and have thus been thrust into handling team management and other non creative concerns. A short while ago i submitted a game to brackeys with a small team. it was very short content-wise and ridden with bugs but the story concept and theme that spawned feels worth it to keep working on. For that reason i have been thinking about picking up this project, recruiting more people for specific aspects of”

“One thing that’s easy to underestimate when starting an indie game is how quickly the budget gets spread across development, art, animation, QA and everything around the actual gameplay. From our experience working on game development projects, the biggest mistake is often trying to build everything in-house, even when the team has limited resources. For example, outsourcing specific parts like 2D/3D game art, animation or technical development can sometimes make more sense than hiring for every”

“Hey there! I've been working on a game for while and I feel it's advanced enough that it's time to start talking about it and preparing the communication and marketing stuff, but it's the first time I'm doing this. Is creating a Kickstarter campaign a good idea ? I mean not now obviously as no one has heard about the game but I'm thinking creating and posting some content for a few months, showing off levels/gameplay and design, creating a Steam page and wishlist and in a”

“We are a small indie dev studio, pitching our first project to publishers. We don't have prior experience on how we can make our budgeting for the game. We have our demo ready soon on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4864880/Moha/ We want to know things like: \- Is that ok if we include renting cost for office? \- What about equipment cost? \- How should we align the salary rates? Also, any other advice related would be appreciated! submitted by /u/BlackMirageStudios [li”

“I'm an experienced developer (more than 30 years), currently working on my first "proper" game. At what point in development should I start thinking about a Steam page/identity? I know I'm not ready now, but I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, and experiences you've had of doing it too late or too early. Thanks! submitted by /u/AlienFishMonster [link] [comments]”

“I recently launched my steam page for my game that I want to have at steam next fest, and I cant shake the feeling that both the trailer, capsule, and copy on the page feel kinda cheap, amateurish, and bad. Whats the best way to polish up the game page while still getting the point of the game across, I feel like that a bit muddled as well. submitted by /u/jackrockstar [link] [comments]”

“I’m currently developing a small rhythm game that I’m planning to release on Steam only, probably around $12.99 USD . The programming, visuals, and song mapping aren’t really the part I’m worried about. I’m handling those myself. The part that scares me is the music licensing cost . I’m aiming for somewhere around 30–40 songs , and even if I keep the individual licenses relatively reasonable, the total adds up very quickly. Based on my current estimates, I could end up spending close to $40,000”

“I’m currently developing my first game, a horror investigation game, and I’m trying to decide where I should release it. My initial plan was to release it on the Google Play Store since I’m focusing on mobile, but I’m also considering putting it on Steam. For those who have released games on Steam: How much does it cost to publish a game on Steam? How does the pricing/revenue split work? Do you think Steam is worth it for a first-time indie developer, or would it be better to focus entirely on m”

“I don't have skills for modeling, but can design VFX better. and I have ideas for character design. What do you think about releasing it with early access at a low price, then covering development costs afterward and outsourcing character modeling to update it? I think it’s good for games to include character traits to grab attention, but I don’t have the ability or the money for that. I’m preparing a project to participate in the Steam Next Fest early next year, but until then, it’d be bett”

“Hello guys, I'm an indie dev, working on fourth game and I'm trying to understand player mindset in terms of Steam reviews, because a lot of games live and die by the reviews. If you liked a game, do you bother to leave a review, or you are most likely to leave a negative one if you hated it? What are the triggers to make you want to leave a positive review and same question for a negative review? submitted by /u/Captain0010 [link] [comments]”

“I feel like there are two ways to see if anyone is even interested in a game: Create a proper steam page and see how many wishlists you can get. Post some stuff about your game, but make sure its kind of appealing gameplay wise AND visually and see if people engage with it. Both require art. And I am not sure if any feedback you get when the game is ugly is even worth much, because art changes how the game feels by a lot, right? Do you somehow validate your idea with other people before the game”

“I'm an indie developer, and I'm currently working on my first PC videogame. As the title says, I have zero budget, but I still want to publish my game and sell it in a game store and not on my website, to give it more visibility. I was thinking about itch.io, but what other stores are worth considering that don't ask for an entry fee? Thank you in advance. [EDIT] Ok, unless someone has something new to say, everyone confirmed that Itch.io is the only worth it, so consider the thread”

“TL;DR: The “new” publisher approach we’re observing: Make a video/trailer as fast as possible, test on social media, paid or organic, compare against certain KPIs (amount of impressions, wishlists…), decide to iterate and keep working on the game or kill the game and move on to the next project. The approach might not sound bad in theory but this approach would have killed our most successful game! We (team of 2) spent around four years working with mobile publishers (2020-2024), and lately we’v”

“My game is about a month away from release, and I'm debating whether I should disable the Steam demo before launch. The main issue is maintaining the demo alongside the full game. I'm currently adding content and making changes for the full release, while also wanting bug fixes and quality-of-life improvements to make their way into the demo. It's starting to add a lot of extra logistics at a point where I'd rather focus on getting the full game ready. I could leave the current d”

“I just worked with a game called 'Bobbitz' (on steam) and made all the sound effects ( UI sound, entity, voice, etc) and ambiences, and also the title theme. The music and ambiences tracks are around 1min 10sec long. i have 5 years of experience in music production and sound designing, but from the past few months im really getting into game music. as this is my first official work. I've no idea what should be the pricing lol 🥲 Im just taking ideas what different gamedevs would say.”

“Right now Steam lowers its 30% cut for games that make over $10 million and $50 million. That is great for massive studios, but it means small devs are the ones paying the highest rate. I ran some numbers on what an indie friendly bracket would look like, and the math is pretty interesting. Imagine if the bottom tiers worked like this: $0 to $10k: 0% cut $10k to $100k: 15% cut $100k+: 30% cut Under this setup, Valve takes just $13.5k out of a game's first $100k, instead of the current $30k.”

“Hello! It's been a very long time for me not posting anything related to gamedev and now I feel better I started working again on my "nearly-finished" game. Since this game was almost done (the famous 90% lol), my question is focused on the pricing. A bit of info regarding the game (no link, I'm not trying to promote anything here): it's a rogue-like that mix platform and survivors mechanics the game offer a progression through a shop (long-term upgrades), characters and le”

“ive been a game dev for a good couple years now, made 3 indie games myself, of which i released 2, worked on 2 non indie games(well, technically indie since no publisher but yk when budget is in millions i hardy consider it that). these are my thoughts on which things (visually) are working right now judging from player habits and whats selling on steam, any input is welcome and im no expert so any corrections are welcome too. what do yall think about this? M.E.T.A(most effective tactics availab”

“I recently made a pretty drastic pricing change to my solo game, Lofi Cozy Room, and I thought the reasoning behind it might be worth sharing with other indie devs. I originally launched at $14.99. I've spent a lot of time building the game, so from my perspective that price didn't initially feel unreasonable. But after release, I kept hearing a very similar piece of feedback: People liked the concept and visuals, but $14.99 felt like a lot for something intentionally designed to be ligh”

“Hi there, a little bit abt myself should be given. I am a senior in hs rn. Game Development/Design has been a dream of mine for some time. I currently am making my own game with the help of Claude Code. What disturbs me abt the future is how wicked good AI is getting, wicked fast. I mostly want to know if college was/is worthwhile for becoming a gamedev. If so, where do I go? I also want to add that i have some programming experience, and IMO AI is the future for indie/big studios, b/c it will a”

“Bit of context, Im working on a game, and in the middle of development, Ive switched art styles from pixel art to Flash/vector art. Im still working on the demo, but Ive heard a rule where I shouldnt change the Steam page assets until Ive finished all 3 areas in my game. I did announce that I am switching art styles in the announcement tab, though. Should I update the main store page screenshots and the trailers with just the first finished area now, or wait until the other two are done? Heres t”

“50 year old newbie gamedev here. For the last year I've been working on a 3d puzzle game and about done development. ( https://store.steampowered.com/app/4840960/3\_Switch\_Problem/ ) My goal was to actually finish a playable game with a beginning and end, characters, menus, internal systems that work together, and including putting it up on Steam. I have a demo, Next Fest in Oct, and then will release right after. The amount I've learned from doing this project has been huge and I'm”

I shipped my first game to Steam yesterday. Before that, Valve rejected the build. There are plenty of "how I made my game" posts here but not many about that specific step,…

“I've got an opportunity. Get the mentioned sum, hire people, create a game, whatever we want. We live in a third world country, and it is possible to find a game dev for 30k/year. I'm not sure if it's possible to create anything worthwhile, but otherwise I get no money at all. I am willing to give all the creative ownership to artists and a game designer, and take on all the management. What is possible? Where to start? Your thoughts? EDIT: Thanks for your insights, everyone! I'v”

“I’m not expecting to become rich or make a huge hit right away. I’m more interested in whether it’s possible to eventually make a decent side income (or even a full-time income) from making and selling indie games. submitted by /u/gananin1 [link] [comments]”

“Yes, me and my friend have a bit of a game studio. They were originally gonna develop a game on rec room but it got shut down. Should we move to Roblox or should we move to Steam? We hadn’t even gotten to make our first game or do anything before rec room announced they were shutting down. specifically, should we move to Roblox studio or unreal engine? (yes we know those are two very different engines) submitted by /u/Advanced-Friend6158 [link] [comments]”

submitted by /u/maskedmangamedev [link] [comments]

“I've got a bit of a conundrum with my demo launch on Steam. My game is a sandbox without distinct levels, so I can't just say "the first 3 levels are included in the demo" and call it a day. At first on itch I just cut off the player's game after 2 hours and made them start over. But that was annoying to the most engaged players. Context: My game is a historical sailing sim inspired by Uncharted Waters II: New Horizons. So it's about starting with a small ship, sailing”

“So, what's more likely to succeed: spending 2 years on one big indie game, or releasing about 8 small games over the same period, assuming the goal is roughly $300k in total revenue?Also assume, that games would be developed by a one man band game developer. And, the $300k number is a bit pulled out of a hat, but it should be a comparable gross salary over two years for a software developer. My gut feeling says that going the multiple small games over one big game approach has much better ch”

“The title is pretty self-explanatory. What advice would you give me? Not just advice, but anything—guides, videos, help—everything is welcome, not just about development, but also about marketing, design, whatever you want. I want to point out that this isn't the first game I've created. I've already participated in numerous game jams, always delivering and always achieving placements above 50%. I don't just have the idea for the game, but I already have the initial prototype (de”

“Hi! As the title says, i am trying to get into game development. I am a pretty good 2d animator but i have little to no experience when it comes to coding and such. I am super into metroidvania games and would love to make one on my own. Maybe not to that scale but with the same principles of a platformer. I need advice on where to start and which game engine i should go for and the tutorials i should be referring. submitted by /u/PrithviDSheela [link] [comments]”

“It seems like there are so many posts about flopped indie games and "my game made me go broke" YouTube videos, and honestly after seeing a ton of them, the solution is right there in front of all of us. Level design or rather the total lack thereof Indie developers pour countless hours into art, gameplay, systems, UI and then just toss assets onto an empty space and hope that it becomes a level no flow, no pacing, no sense of environment, no natural way to guide the player through your”

“What do you think, is this something that could work on Steam? There aren't many rhythm-based games on Steam so I'm wondering if there's a good reason for it. I made the same mistake with my previous game (card auto-battler in style of Clash Royale) and it bombed, and I imagine the reason is in big part due to the genre and my mobile-y look on it. submitted by /u/PartTimeMonkey [link] [comments]”

“Just curious about a few things. I imagine a bundle being just 2 or more games sold together at a cheaper price. Is this revenue for sales split evenly between games? Obviously at the discounted rate right? Is it best to bundle always and often? Or should I allow a few organic sales in the first week or so before reaching our to others? Are bundles permanent? Or optionally a limited time? Thanks submitted by /u/samohtvii [link] [comments]”

“So what I count as "serious" is I will try release beta at steam and maybe going to start making second a bit after the first game releases Context: I haven't released any game to steam before, but I have experience working in solo as programmer and 3d and I have worked in teams including for gamedev with friend but it didn't go far and I have experience working in multiple engines and worked as backend dev Why I choose it I like factory games and I have a theme and some ideas”

“me and 2 other partners are working on a horror roguelike card game, we only need 3-5k to finish the project the way we want, i thought about getting kickstarter but i'm afraid of not hitting the target amount and getting nothing, is there any other platforms you guys recommend? submitted by /u/AlvinhoGames_ [link] [comments]”

“Is it worth publishing my games on Steam, or should I release them on free platforms like CrazyGames or Poki? I recently finished an ASCII-style roguelike game. It's a shooter inspired by The Binding of Isaac , but with dungeon crawler-style exploration, and it's visually styled after the classic Rogue . I uploaded the demo to Itch.io , where it got a few players and one review. I haven't promoted it on social media yet because I'm stuck trying to decide whether I should release”

“Hey all, I just wanted to see if anyone has advice for a first time game developer whose goal is just to make back the $99 Developer fee I paid to Apple. I'm not trying to get rich, retire early or start a mega gaming empire. I just want enough people to play my game so I can make $99 in a year. I have three puzzle games that I think are each good on their own and would be interesting to people who are into a little brain challenge. They aren't really math related, but they are slightly”

“Hi, I'm majoring in computer engineering, with a minor in applied art, and game design, and I wanted to work in game design, whether it be the programming, story, level design, and concept art/visual development. I have been hearing so many horror stories about working as a game dev since 2018. Rather it be crunch culture, where people are working overtime and getting tired from work, underpay where people aren't getting enough money for their work, workplace harassment, and abuse, AI ta”

“A friend is making his first simulation game while learning game development. He planned to release it on itch.io , but I told him Steam might look better when applying for jobs since it also shows he dealt with publishing, store setup, marketing, and an actual launch. Now I’m wondering if that’s useful experience or just unnecessary extra work for a first project. Do studios actually care whether a portfolio game was released on Steam, or is the quality of the game all that matters? submi”

“I've seen multiple ads on Reddit and Twitter/X where indie devs pay to promote their games. I was wondering how effective these campaigns actually are. Has anyone here tried running paid promotions on Reddit or Twitter/X? If so, what kind of results did you see in terms of wishlists, sales, CTR, or ROI? Was it worth the cost? submitted by /u/cheesebbang [link] [comments]”

“I have a Bachelors of Arts, 3D Digital Design, from RIT. I graduated 10 years ago. I never got a job in games as a game artist or designer. I also studied game design and level design during my time at college and continued my game design education after gradation to this day. I have a gameplay designer portfolio is that is very recent and I also have a 3D Environment Artist portfolio on my ArtStation (which is outdated for few years now). Now the gaming industry, is doing really rough now. Wors”

“So, I'm an aspiring developer, but I know jack-shit about coding. All I really have an understanding of is the art side of things (since I've always had an interest in drawing, taking up digital art at 12, and constantly looking to improve my skills), as well as what notes I've taken at panels the few times I went to a convention, but some of them are lost — old phone that I broke, learning that magnets and phones don't mix well when I was mid retail shift. Anyways, I do know a b”

“I love game development, and my initial intention is NOT for the money. I love it for the hobby and I will always have I love game dev so much that I would chose game dev over a girlfriend anyday. I'm just saying. So I'm not in it just for the money. It's the PERFECT creative medium for me. I haven't found any other hobby or creative medium that satisfies me as much as game dev Now money is also important. We need it to survive. Another thing we all know is, making money doing so”

“hi, i’m making an retro football RPG inspired by the old Captain Tsubasa games for the NES and the game runs at 256×144 lower res than NES, mostly because i’m not good enough at pixel art yet to go much higher while keeping the quality consistent across every character, animation and cinematic i almost switched to a higher resolution, but I remember seeing the first Mina the Hollower trailer gave me confidence. and now that it has released and been well received, it is nice to see that such a lo”

“Hi! I'm having my first meeting with a game publisher tomorrow for my solo game, and I'd love to hear from developers who've worked with publishers before. The publisher is small/brand new no game shipped What are the biggest questions I should ask? I'm especially curious about: What services should I realistically expect from a publisher? What are the biggest red flags? What terms do you wish you'd negotiated differently? How much creative control is it reasonable to give up”

“i want to make a particular game about a strange draw that can't jump, only flouting to left and right and can use his only super duper arm to climb up like a wire in all directions (it hasn't legs) for killing enemies and climbing up in the levels. but i just can't understand what i supposed to do, trust me, i tried to watch videos on but i can't keep up with they, i am completely disoriented and hopeless, i need so much help for doing something (i want to use godot) submi”

“I've seen this article a lot used as an example of how making a small indie game on Steam is unreliable, and how those that gain success are the exception to the rule, but I question if this particular story is a good example of it, as there is the fact that a huge portion of video games are just... bad. There's asset flips, AI slop, broken buggy messes. While there is some subjectivity here, there are games the majority of people would see as "bad" and it kind of dilutes the n”

“After the layoffs, I am planning to start again as an indie developer. The mobile gaming market feels much tougher now, and the competition is intense. What's the current vibe in mobile and browser gaming? If you were starting from today, what would you build? I'd really appreciate your advice and honest opinions. submitted by /u/ktash8 [link] [comments]”