IndieGameBusiness®

How do you sustain and grow an indie dev team with contract work for over 10 years?  That's what we talk to Jeff Hardy, CEO of Floor 84, about on the show.  Along the way we also cover: Coronavirus and GDC How you make money as a "creative" in the industry Planning ahead to keep your company afloat and more... _____ To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events f...

Dr. Bartel has literally written the book on ethics in games and whether what you do in games says anything about the real you.  It's a bit of a step away from our usual show but we had a fascinating chat.  He's research has focused on AAA games like Skyrim, GTA V, and others.  You can pre-order it here on Amazon.   _____ To learn more about the show or our online business matc...

Luke Stapley is a Senior Marketing Manager for Cocos based in China.  With all the news surrounding the CoronaVirus it was obviously a topic we had to discuss.  We also spoke about the benefits of the Cocos engine and the state of indie development.  Plus: Keys to localization and culturalization in China Why multiplayer and social games do well Advice for finding the RIGHT partner...

Cory Trese returned to the show to talk about what they've done to prep for their latest Kickstarter project.   This interview was recorded shortly before the launch of the campaign.   While Cory jokes in the episode that all their advice may be worth nothing if the Kickstarter fails, it should be noted it was fully funded in less than 12 hours. We also touched on: Marketing tips fr...

Cory Trese returned to the show to talk about what they've done to prep for their latest Kickstarter project.   This interview was recorded shortly before the launch of the campaign.   While Cory jokes in the episode that all their advice may be worth nothing if the Kickstarter fails, it should be noted it was fully funded in less than 12 hours.  We also touched on: Marketing t...

GDC released their 2020 "State of the Industry Report" and Jay and Indie are diving into it line by line. Did you know only 25% of developers are using a publisher?  Lots of interesting tidbits and discussion around their findings. Get the report here: http://reg.gdconf.com/gdc-state-of-game-industry-2020 _____ To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie d...

Ericka Evans and Brandon Pham join us for our first developer roundtable.  We'll discuss: What’s the biggest issue facing developers this year? Should developers be planning for multi platform launches What is the role of the publisher in 2020 from the developer standpoint How do you handle crunch? How are you planning for ongoing education for your teams? and more.. _____ To learn more about...

Peter Kojesta is the CEO at Exis Interactive and he's been in the industry for 20 years.  We sit down for a talk on all the crap they DON'T tell you about being an indie dev.  Things like: The outsource / contracting world and the trap for indies How you’ll often get stuck with a newbie managing outsource – even when you have 15+ years’ experience. How change in client’s team means you o...

We welcome Chris back to the show to discuss how to find your game's hook, what felt he did right and wrong in marketing his latest game, and more! Links from the show: http://returntoadventuremountain.com/how-to-design-mario-levels-that-dont-suck/ http://howtomarketagame.com/free http://howtomarketagame.com/2019/12/11/how-i-do-competitive-analysis-for-my-game/ http://howtomarketagame.com/2019/12/...

If you haven't read Victoria's articles on indie game marketing you should do that first .  We cover a lot in this episode, but here are a few points. Victoria explains the modern buyer's journey. She outlines some of the most common mistakes teams make in marketing We cover how you approach marketing with a title like Dwarf Fortress What tools she uses to manage all this and more.... _____ T...

Elena grew developer iLogos from just a handful of people to over 300 in a matter of years.  Her advice and experience when it comes to business development is certainly to be listened to.  Especially if you are trying to find new contract work for your studio.  In this episode we cover: Common mistakes developers make How to make your game more attractive to publishers Tips for net...

Having a great audio solution for your indie game can get expensive.  Unlock Audio has created a system that helps.  We're talking with Elliot Gallighan today to  answer all your questions on how to give your indie game a AAA audio solution. Unlock Audio - https://www.unlockaudio.com/ Unlock's awesome pricing tool - https://tool.unlockaudio.com/ _____ To learn more about the show or...

Renee Gittins is both an indie developer and the Executive Director of the IGDA.  She stopped by the show today to give postmortem on her successful Kickstarter and talk about the new happenings at the IGDA.  The links mentioned on the show are listed below. https://store.steampowered.com/app/378690/Potions_A_Curious_Tale/ https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JustinFrench/20180129/313801/The_...

Sebastien knows a bit about positioning products.  He's been in the industry for 15 years and has worked on everything from indie games to digital distribution at Amazon.  Most recently, in addition to his indie game, he's built the Yunoia platform that pairs developers with publishers.  As part of that platform, he and his team created the PPG tool (https://game-statistics-staging....

You know copyrights and trademarks are important, but how much do you know about the difference between them, how to get one, and what to do when you have one?  That's why we brought industry veteran attorney Dan Rogers to the show.  We go through these questions and more (while trying to raise money for Indie's charity drive on Twitch). _____ To learn more about the show or our online b...

We typically only look at publishers as a source of funding and marketing.  Juney explains all the additional value a good publisher can add from SKU strategy to securing age ratings to finding development support.  There's a lot of untold support that comes from a good partner and Juney lefts the veil on all of it. _____ To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking ev...

Red Vonix returns to the show to talk about his experience as an indie dev at the Tokyo Game Show.  We talk preparation,  knowing some Japanese, customs, and how to best approach the show. _____ To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: http://indiegame.business Indie Game Business is produced by The Powell Group: http://powellgrou...

Operation Supply Drop provides thousands of digital codes, physical games, board games and more to active duty military and veterans.  Executive Director Glenn Banton stops by to talk about working with non-profits in general, walk us through some of the tax implications, and answered our questions on how donating to non-profits in general helps developers as well. _____ To learn more about t...

Brandon and his co-host Larry produce the popular podcast "GameDev Unchained".  They're also experienced AAA developers that have made the jump to indie development.  We talk about what lessons they did (and did not) bring with them from the AAA world, their podcast, and the free video conference they host each year to help pass on some of their knowledge. _____ To learn more about the s...

Gregan joined us to give a bit of insight into what publishers are looking for from developers.  We discuss what to be ready to show, how to approach them, and the key indicators that they are looking for in new teams.  _____ To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: http://indiegame.business Indie Game Business is produced by The...

Chris wrote a great article recently after he did a bit of user research into how users look at Steam pages before they buy (or don't).  We asked him to come on the show and elaborate.   He also gave us some great insight on email marketing and shared his free ebook as well. Chris' Gamasutra article Chris' Email Marketing Ebook _____ To learn more about the show or our online busine...

In one of life's cruel ironies, conferences can be the absolute worst time to demo your game to publishers and media.  We'll tell you why.  Plus we catch up from GD Connect and PAX!  This is a short one, we're getting back in our groove from being off for two weeks! _____ To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: http://indieg...

What if we could use all this technology, insight, and visibility we have as an industry to make the world a better place?  There's a growing movement to do just that and Elizabeth Sarquis and her team have been on the front end of it for some time.  We talk about their new platform as well as all the benefits we as an industry bring to the table in this episode. https://www.linkedin.com...

Getting your game on the various app stores isn't good enough these days.  You need to be able to optimize everything from your text to your icon to grab the attention of players, and the various search engines.  Nav Gupta has been doing this for a long time and he stops by to share his tips and insights into doing it well. https://www.twitch.tv/academyofgames0 https://twitter.com/Academ...

Alex Golebiowski and his partner established PixelNAUTS as an outsource art studio back in 2010, they recently just self published Lost Orbit on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.  Although they have now self published the game on four platforms, Alex talks to us about the hurdles in doing so and why they're looking for a publisher for the next game. _____ To learn more about the show or our onlin...