Indie Devs Stressing Over Launch
Many indie developers are expressing anxiety and overwhelm surrounding game launches, particularly concerning wishlist numbers, bug fixes, marketing efforts, and the overall pressure of release. The posts reveal a common struggle with balancing development tasks and managing expectations.
SOURCES (60)
“We were sitting at around 150 wishlists before, and then our game showed up in the announcements section of Skill Up’s This Week in Videogames. 24 hours later, our wishlists had more than quadrupled. Still feels absolutely unreal. For context, we show up at 17:12:…”
“This will be my 4th game im releasing on steam. For far my best game (bear no grudge) did about 104 sales. I really hope to beat it so would love any feedback or anything. Or even politely tell me not to get my hopes up. https://store.steampowered.com/app/5011720/Spooky\_Tales\_and\_Mummy\_Trails/ submitted by /u/Mother-Train6096 [link] [comments]”
“the pressure is so immense. I'm constantly online and always feeling like i should do more, post more, promote more. I need to touch grass 🌱😭 submitted by /u/Any_Low_1706 [link] [comments]”
“cross-posting this from r/DestroyMySteam Hi, this is my first ever game I put on Steam. Been working on it for a bit. I've sort of been getting enough wishlists to make me think that it can be successful with hard enough work, but not enough to convince myself that it currently is successful. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3850090/Coup_de_Koala/ Since I know giving general feedback can be hard, I've also got a couple of questions: Does the trailer hook people in within the first 5 se”
“I don’t know what I’ve created, I can’t describe my game… I just know that I’m running late with its Steam release submitted by /u/Fantoome [link] [comments]”
“Guys, Please help me. It's my second game and I really want to get it right this time. I've entered into October NextFest and I want to get all my ducks in a row first. Be brutal with me. I need it. Help me understand what I need to change/improve: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4731610/New_Science/ Thanks submitted by /u/agapo_dgc [link] [comments]”
“Just got my Steam page approved a few days ago, which felt like a huge milestone for about an hour. Now I need fresh eyes because I've stared at it so long I can't tell what's good anymore. The game is Slay Sean, Save The World!, a comic roguelite auto-battler. Greek gods fighting over who gets to kick a crypto bro's ass. https://store.steampowered.com/app/4998540/Slay_Sean_Save_The_World/ Stuff I'm already second guessing myself on: whether the capsule reads at thumbnail siz”
“Have fulfilled all those requirements and the time and date for release has passed. Not sure why the button to release the game isn't available? submitted by /u/mrguidee [link] [comments]”
“Just wanted to share this story and say that you shouldn’t give up just because not everything is going the way you expected. Two months ago, we thought we had everything figured out. We've been polishing The Dark West demo for weeks, had hundreds of playtesters explore every single bit of the game, and things looked really good days prior to the launch. IGN covered us; the organic hype was insane, with hundreds of people waiting for the release just to jump in and try the game, and every la”
“Source: indiedex.gg I made a study of 120K steam listings and categorized indies to have a better look at how indie developers behave after launch, I see that most posts related to game marketing in general are hyper focused on wishlists. Wishlists is where people get the early dopamine hit and all the launch excitement, but that's not where brand equity gets built. 77% of indie studios with a dated Steam release have shipped exactly one game, and multi-game studios show meaningfully higher”
“I have a bit of a dilemma and am looking for some advice. I've seen a lot of advice saying you shouldn't launch until you have at LEAST 7K wishlists. My steam page (link attached) has been out for a month and has about 24 wishlists with some minimal marketing. Skulff is a spooky slapstick/macabre mini-golf game so I've been targeting a Halloween launch as its best window for interest. Unless some sort of marketing miracle happens I'm not going to hit anywhere near 7K wishlists by”
“Hey guys, this is a follow up post on this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1va2gtb/releasing_with_61000_wishlists_2_person_what_we/ TLDR : 2 person, launched with 61k+ WL, game made in 7months, 7 years of making games, Bills Must Be Paid is our first successful game, 100k+ copies sold in less than 72h, key factors for success (we think): experience helped us to make the right decisions, brainstorming for an extended period and letting the idea evolve, quitting ALL distractions not”
“I launched my Steam page 6 days ago, and to my absolute shock, it quickly reached 900 wishlists. But here is the reality check: I can already see the daily additions starting to slow down significantly. Honestly, seeing that momentum drop is bringing my mood down a bit. What should i do at this point. I dont have any demo just the steam page. submitted by /u/AltruisticFox6486 [link] [comments]”
“What does that say about the game or the genre we chose? Is 100 organic wishlists on day one a good sign, or is it too little to draw any conclusions? submitted by /u/Grouchy-Fisherman-71 [link] [comments]”
“The easy part of getting my game finished and released is now over. Now comes the hard part of marketing the game. Due to an error of not changing my release date in advance I had to release my game early but after working non stop I got it done and now I just need to focus on the demo and future updates. I launched 10 hours ago and so far only 5 sales but I am counting that as a win. I know the game is aimed at a very niche market but I'm hoping that will work in its favour. Have any of you”
“So after releasing the demo, I stopped posting about the game for a while. Had to think about stuff. The feedback from people who actually played it was positive despite the flaws and rough edges, but it didn't get much attention otherwise. Still, wishlists kept ticking up slowly, at least one a day, along with a steady trickle of new players. Now I'm sitting right at the edge of my first wishlist milestone (so close I can taste it). Before I put the rest of the story into the game, I”
“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifMuNUMctOI Hey everyone! It's hard to believe it's already been a year since we launched our game on Switch and Steam. I was lucky enough to spend five and a half years working on the game after making the decision to quit my job and go all in. I can't lie, it was incredbily stressful at times but I also learned so much and am so thankful I got to experience the journey I went through. I thought it'd be interesting to put together a retrospective”
“Kind of excited that my first game on Steam is finally going to be released. While it might not be a big hit, at least I can say I released a game! Also had a really fun time and will probably continue making games after this. Anyways if you like gambling you can see the store page here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4939850/Casino_of_Time/ submitted by /u/Total_Pie_3692 [link] [comments]”
“Hi all, I just wanted to ask if I'm doing something wrong or maybe my game concept or art isn't good enough. I'm making a multiplayer game called "Stranded" that I recently published on steam. Is it normal to have only 3 wishlists in 24 hours? I haven't really done any marketing and the trailer is in the works. If you guys could please take a look at my page and give me any feedback, I would really appreciate it. Posting some artwork here as well. -- Stranded is a 4-12”
“Hi all. I didn't think this would ever happen, but just a couple days ago I ended up beginning work with a wonderful artist to completely overhaul the visuals of my game. If I had known this would happen I would not have set my release date to be what it is, but it's too late now. I think my two options are to either delay it or release the visual overhaul as an update whenever it's ready. I can honestly see either side. I'm just barely over 100 wishlists anyway, but there's”
“20 sales in 5 hours. Considering I had 1600 wishlists it is kind of on a weaker side, but the next 2 weeks there should be some solid sales. This is my first money from Steam, so it is motivating. How much did u earn in first 4-6 hrs after release? submitted by /u/EroticGameDev [link] [comments]”
“Hey everyone! Long story short, my game Tiny Shop: make it cozy just crossed 50,000 Steam wishlists and I'm very nervous and scary!!! That's huge for me. Like, genuinely huge. And I owe a massive thank you to everyone who helped, especially those who gave feedback along the way. That means more than you know. With that milestone, I figured I'd sit down and write something personal to share what's going on in my head. My name is Rostislav. I'm just a regular indie dev. Origina”
“Hey everyone! Long story short, my game Tiny Shop: make it cozy just crossed 50,000 Steam wishlists and I'm very nervous and scary!!! That's huge for me. Like, genuinely huge. And I owe a massive thank you to everyone who helped, especially those who gave feedback along the way. That means more than you know. With that milestone, I figured I'd sit down and write something personal to share what's going on in my head. My name is Rostislav. I'm just a regular indie dev. Origina”
“I've recently launched a steam page, and the amount of wishlist already collected is far bigger than I expected (not crazy numbers though) - but it's always good to hear from a fresh point of view. Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4868900/Dreadloop/ What do you like, what do you hate and what do you believe could be improved on my part on the steam page? Except for a trailer lol, I know I need to find some time for this... Thank you for any feedback (positive and not!). I'll”
“Context: retro arcade helicopter rescue game, single-player campaign + 4-player couch PvP, priced around $14.99. Marketing so far: trailer shared by IGN Gametrailers & Indie Game Hub, Facebook/Reddit posts, our own social media + promoted posts, the lot. The date is tied to a Nintendo Switch release. The dilemma as we see it: momentum is finally building in Steam and a delay could grow wishlists, but we're a part-time team and every month of delay has real costs. For those who've lau”
“Before anyone asks, the game is called "Sir, We Have an Orc Problem" and you may have seen it on various widgets on the Steam home page today. Steam link is at the end of the post. This was intented to be a quick game after we decided that spending 1.5 years on the last project wasn't worth the risk. For context the previous game made ~$70,000 gross 9 months after release, with half of that sum coming from the first week. If you subtract the returns, VAT, Steam cut, publisher cut e”
“So I've been digging into my steam back end numbers recently to try and see if there's any take aways or areas we could improve, but I've realised that I don't really have much bench marking on conversion rates aside from <2% = bad and >5% = good. So I thought I'd share some of the numbers from our game up until now, in the hopes some people will share there's, and thus we will all have some half decent benchmark numbers! The numbers below are based on our lifetime”
“Ten days ago my store page went live. Ended up with 278 wishlist adds and 3 deletes. I had this whole theory in my head about where they were coming from. Thought it was my TikToks, maybe a couple Reddit posts, or Steam showing the page around. Turns out I was completely wrong. I only found out because I was clicking around Steamworks looking for something else and randomly stumbled into Marketing → Traffic. 117 of those wishlists came from a single article on a Japanese games site. 332 visits,”
“anyone else notice this? was normal up until a bit later in the day yesterday, then nada. submitted by /u/lawroter [link] [comments]”
“Moths, after releasing the demo the game is still at 290 wishlists So i'm trying out goofy things in the trailer, as the release date is 3 days away!!! July 30, at 1:00 PM PDT Random Dragons on Steam submitted by /u/Capital_Interview_77 [link] [comments]”
“It has been a long time coming, but I finally published my game on Steam today! If anyone is losing motivation, I hope this gives a small boost to help you finish it out... it's well worth it! submitted by /u/ZazalooGames [link] [comments]”
“Hi, I am working and posting about my game for the last year and more. So far getting wishlists was a hard grind. Without activity on social media the needle didn’t move a bit. Demo release and Next Fest was already a huge boost but died done quickly afterwards again. And now for the first time ever I have steady stream of wishlists coming in for the past two weeks. Started right after announcing my release date (August 12, 2026) and getting on the personal calendar. Currently participating in a”
“as a solo dev i'm so thankful to everyone who wishlisted my game, i haven't yet made a proper trailer or even took proper screenshots for the game i'm happy that people wishlisted based on idea. steam page: Echoes of Kyria on Steam submitted by /u/Sarn7 [link] [comments]”
“I haven’t spent any money on marketing so far. I handled the outreach myself, and a Japanese gaming outlet covering the game brought a big part of the traffic. I also wanted to thank everyone here who supported the original announcement post, checked out the game, shared feedback, or added it to their wishlist. The response from this community genuinely helped. Still a long way to go, but this feels like a great first milestone. Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4972950/Lootdeck/ &#”
“I know, it's not an insane number, but I thought it was worth sharing what I did. I'm not the first one and won't be the last one to suggest to developers: send emails for your trailers! I sent a cold email to GameTrailers and Indie Games Hub. Got no replies at all, which is kinda normal, but Indie Games Hub ended up featuring my trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_Iy5oLj12w 3 days ago. The video didn't went viral or anything like that. It's a RPG game I'm developi”
“I recently published my store page (2 days ago) and have gotten only 30 wishlists. I haven't done any marketing, actually my first indie game. How do you go about reaching out to Instagram influencers and youtubers? Do they do it for free? How much if not? submitted by /u/mrguidee [link] [comments]”
I posted about a visual update for my game, 404 Survivor , on Xiaoheihe and got around 20k views, 1000 wishlists on the platform itself, and 50+ Steam wishlists on top of…
“I'm genuinely asking because I don't have a good frame of reference. My Coming Soon page has been live for about a week and it's sitting at around 300 wishlists . I know there are games that get thousands in a few days, but I've also seen people say that even 100–200 organically is a solid start. For those of you who've already launched games: Would you consider this a healthy first week? How predictive was your first week's wishlist count of your eventual launch?Is there”
“A week ago, I launched the Steam page for Undying Soul , the solo indie game I've been developing. After the first week, I've reached 57 wishlists . It may not sound like a huge number, but every single wishlist genuinely motivates me to keep improving the game. I'm continuing to polish the combat, challenge rooms, bosses, and overall gameplay, and I'll keep sharing updates as development progresses. If fast-paced 2D action roguelites with challenging boss fights, build variety,”
“Thank you everyone who supported and defended me. Also thanks to all the people spreading the word and calling me out for using AI (that's not true btw, I streamed the development process on twitch), even if it wasn't my plan to farm wishlists you guys made it happen anyways. Even negative attention means reach, so keep up the good work my fellow game devs, show your game to the world, you cannot overexpose your game!!! Marketing means attention, some are good, some are negative, but in”
“Hi All, I see some indie devs will regularly post the dev progress as Steam announcement, some even monthly. On the other hand, I think those dev log posts are mainly visible to people who already wishlisted the game. also, people may be reminded by the post and just delete the wishlist if they just added without strong interest, to clean up their wishlist. So #1, will posting dev log on Steam help gain more new wishlist additions? #2, will doing this even trigger more wishlist deletions? #3, ma”
“I recently (09 July 2026) announced my game "HordeFall" and made within these 12 days a total of 85 wishlists. All my wishlists come from social media posts I make myself. I post daily updates in short format about my games developing process on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, and I also post from time to time here on Reddit and X about my game. I haven't had any luck so far with any post going viral, but I keep grinding. 6 days later, on 15 July 2026, I announced the playtest for”
“My Steam page has been live for two weeks and has about 140 wishlists. Incremental games usually have an audience on Steam, so I'm wondering if the problem is how I'm presenting it rather than the genre itself. Or maybe the concept just sucks. What's your first impression? Would you wishlist this? If not, why? https://store.steampowered.com/app/4895470/FractalOS/ submitted by /u/RecentMedicine9726 [link] [comments]”
“Do you remember your first time? Did it live up to the hype or was it plain terrifying? I've just done it now for just the Demo of my game and it's a bit of a weird mix of fear, anticipation and hunger...but that's probably because I was stressing too much and forgot to eat before I launched it! It's strange, I've worked in Game Dev professionally for a long time now but this was the first personal project I've pushed live to Steam so it's a very different feeling fro”
“TL;DR: Launched my game a week ago, did't expect that much players to get it. Hello there, First things first, so we can focus on the real subject. My game is Yet Another Incremental Game But This Time About Coding Now, let's dive into what I want to share today. I've started to build YAIG in April 2025. I've always wanted to make a video game, that's the reason I started to learn how to code. Over time, I kinda forgot this, and said to myself: "I don't want to learn”
“Hey guys. 4 days ago, on thursday, I've released a demo of my game Dark Roll 2 on Steam. It had 750 wishlists at the time and I did send the "Demo notification" right away. Over this time, I got around 200 downloads, mediam time is... 9 minutes, which seems low. (Demo can take around 20min to finish). Despite that, I didn't hear people complain and the only reviews I got were good ones... And what's actually odd for me, my wishlists "skyrocketed", at least compare”
“Hi all, Gearing up to launch my first iOS game and have been on /indiedev a lot looking for advice. Quite rightly a lot of advice is geared towards the steam store and wish lists. I wondered if there was an equivalent for iOS? I know people can preorder but does it matter? Is there anything else you can do ahead of release to help with visibility on launch? I’m getting my head around all the other marketing I need to do but would be interested to know what App Store specific things I could be do”
“I know it's not much or anything but this is my first game on steam and I think I'm moving along pretty well! If you guys want to check the game out yourself and even play the playtest go to: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4576560/TANKLE I would love some feedback straight from reddit so make sure to leave your thoughts and comments here! Tank you all for your support! (; submitted by /u/THEGAMERSTUDIOS [link] [comments]”
“I have zero experience posting here. Has it helped your wishlists? submitted by /u/Antidote-Studios [link] [comments]”
“Thought I'd share some numbers about the game for anyone who hasn't released yet! And to maybe get you interested in the game too. 👀 Disclaimer: This is just a brief breakdown of my experience publishing on Steam. I'm not claiming anything does or doesn't work. As you'll see from number I don't have the success to even back my opinions or theories. lol. TLDR: Self published. Small team. First official project hasn't done too well so far. Based on my experience I high”
“At this point it's almost like a bad habit, and the worst part is it's not like the number is growing by even one every day 🙈 I think I'm at 10-20 times a day lol submitted by /u/DDevilAAngel [link] [comments]”
“And we are off! +1700% looks pretty good to me, LOL! The game has started off pretty slow which was expected. My marketing troubles go over why. But over all I'm pretty hopeful. The game has received a positive review (player logged ~6 hr) and a negative review (player logged ~0.5 hr). There have been 11 copies sold with two copies returned so far. Not half bad if I do say so myself. I will say that watching the returns come in is pretty gut wrenching, but the user who only spent half an hou”
“The game is Few Shall Return is anyone is curious https://store.steampowered.com/app/3377400/Few_Shall_Return/ submitted by /u/victor-ballardgames [link] [comments]”
“I see people talk about gaining dozens, hundreds of wishlists every day, but I've gained 82 wishlists since my store page went up in April. I don't think that's even 1 every day. From what I can tell, if your game has a bad launch then it'll take an act of god to recover from it. I've done marketing, I made a demo, I've tried my best to make an appealing steam page, I recently had someone make a nice looking capsule, still not much. I wanted to release my game into early”
“Hi everyone! I’m a first-time solo indie developer, and I launched my Steam page yesterday for my cozy farming & life sim, Hello, Hollow Town . After the first day, I’m at 24 wishlists . Since this is my first game, I honestly have no idea whether that’s normal or if I’m doing something wrong. I’d really appreciate some honest feedback on my Steam page. Things I’d love your thoughts on: • Does the capsule art make you want to click? • Is the page clear about what kind of game it is? • Does a”