Tips On Developing Successful Indie Games in 2024

During the early 00s, a programmer named Daisuke Amaya made a game called Cave Story, inspired by his favorite titles. It was not only a lengthy, proper game, it was also fully made by Amaya himself: he wrote music, he came up with the story, and he designed and created characters. The quality assurance was made by his online friends.

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To this day, Cave Story still remains a great, enjoyable game that was made from scratch by a person independently. Back in 2004, when it was released, people occasionally made Flash-based games or some jokes, but people couldn’t even consider single-handedly making something that felt like a game made by a talented team.

In 2008, programmer Jonathan Blow made Braid. After the initial release, it turned out to be a massive success – something Blow couldn’t see coming – selling 50,000 copies in the very first week. A result that is incredible for a game made by several people, without any publisher. This was the moment when game makers started to ask themselves a question: “Can we do it on our own too?”

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In 2009, a Swedish programmer, Markus Persson, started working on a game that later would turn out to be Minecraft. The rest is history: 200 million copies, selling it to Microsoft, millions of fans all over the world. Indie games have come a long way, and currently, they can be a great option for an enthusiastic developer to make a successful game from scratch.

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What is Indie Game Development?

Indie game development occurs when a game is made by a single person or a small team that handles all the processes of game-making. It’s a game that doesn’t have the financial support or influence of a big publisher. Usually, the goal of this game is to make something that may seem odd to a massive audience but represents a specific, unique artistic vision of an individual or individuals making the game.

What Does Indie Mean In Games? 

Making it on your own in the game industry has its name – an indie game development.  Indiana Jones has nothing to do with indie games, luckily, otherwise, they would mostly be about archaeology – not that we mind that… 

So What Does Indie Mean? 

Indie means independent: Indie developers usually don’t have to present their game to a big team of investors risking massive amounts of money, meaning the stakes are not very high, so people making indie titles are eager to experiment with conventional game elements. 

Do Indie Devs Take Risks? 

However, since indie devs also have to live, budget and marketing also matter. Of course, indie developers still have a lot of risk to take, but they have an incredibly valuable asset, which is creative freedom and an option to avoid any compromises to produce a game they envisioned without any interference.

How To Create An Indie Game?

Creating a game requires going through several stages of game development, from prototyping and early builds to launching it and supporting it with patch releases:

1. Prototype and conceptualize: Even though it’s important to consider a target audience, think of a game you would love to play. What kind of movement will it have? What art style will you use? Is it going to be story-rich or you’re planning to focus heavily on gameplay mechanics?
2. Choose your tools: It’s important to consider what engine you are going to build your game on, which tools you are going to use for creating assets, for composing tunes. Speaking of engines, indie game developers tend to choose Unity, Unreal Engine or Godot. We made several blog posts that compare these engines which you can read to choose the one that suits you.
3. Develop the core: Now you have to build the game from scratch, slowly but surely implementing all the ideas you came up with. Take your time and don’t be afraid to experiment  – indie games at large tend to be very unconventional, providing a great counterbalance to big studios’ projects.
4. Playtest and polish: A game you’re about to ship must work properly. You must polish game mechanics to make them feel nice and fun, and squash some occasional inevitable bugs, glitches, and exploits to make sure a player will be able to have an intended first-time experience and won’t lose his progress midway through a game-breaking bug.
5. Consider promotion: The trickiest part of going indie is that the marketing, which usually is handled by a publisher, is on you. Thankfully, it’s pretty simple to promote your game by blogging on social media, participating in demo festivals, and collaborating with online influencers. As you can see, having your game presented on a Manhattan billboard is not necessary! 
6. Launch the game: Releasing your game to this world can be stressful, but after working hard on it it also can be incredibly satisfying. Now, players get to interact with your passion project, providing you with revenue and feedback.
7. Provide additional support: Listening to feedback from your players is crucial for all kinds of developers, but for indie, it’s almost essential. Your loyal audience understands that the game is made by a small team or by a single developer, so they’re very likely to support you financially and tell you some fun ideas for existing mechanics or bugs.

How To Make An Indie Game-Making Process Easier?

Recently we wrote a blog post about the stages of game development, discussing each stage in detail, and you can read it here. As you can see, it can be rather overwhelming!

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Creating any game, especially an indie game, requires a lot of effort since you have to climb up this mountain alone. For which – we salute you! But it’s not only about dedication and determination, it’s also about the vast span of your skills. You must be a jack of all trades or gather a small team of talented collaborators.

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If you encounter a particularly hard task and feel as if it prevents you from shipping a game, you can always rely on the game outsourcing studio’s services.

In 2023, we released a game called The Unliving, our very own indie game. Choosing pixel art and a rogue-lite genre, two of the most popular aspects of indie game development, we wanted to make a game that we would like to play. And we are open to helping you with your passion project.

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RocketBrush Studio can assist with various game-making aspects, be it sound design, level design or creating model assets.

How To Make an Indie Game Successful: 5 Easy Tips

One of the most attractive aspects of the indie phenomenon is that some games become incredibly successful, gathering their creators a lot of revenue and passionate fans. It’s quite hard to point out the particular formula of indie success, but you can always look at the games that got this massive recognition in the past and follow their lead. Let’s take a look together!

1. Establish A Distinct Artistic Vision

Indie games have become associated with art early on. When a game is made by a single developer or by a small group, it’s very easy to implement individualistic tidbits into it, as if it’s a painting or a poem. It can be visual, thematic, or even gameplay-based. Try to think about things in life that move you and represent them in your project, making it a game that you personally would love to play. It may result in resonating with other people who think the same, gathering an audience that respects your artistic approach.

2. Come Up With Creative And Unique Approach To Gameplay

A lot of players rely on indie games for the sake of getting something truly new. For instance, roguelike, a genre based on a difficult learning curve, would be very hard to implement in a game for a massive audience. Indie games gave roguelikes a new breath of life thanks to their risky, uncompromising approach.

3. Compose Memorable Soundtrack

Players often pay attention to the soundtrack of an indie game, especially if it’s catchy or memorable. If possible, try to make some tunes that will truly stand out so that people will listen to them outside the game. Maybe some of them would be willing to play a vinyl edition of it!

4. Listen To Community Feedback

In many cases a big community of passionate players can gather around your project, providing you with feedback, thoughts, impressions, and fan art. Be sure to interact and collaborate with them, an indie development makes it incredibly easy to hear and satisfy them.

5. Provide Post-Launch Support 

Supporting the game after its release is also common among successful indie titles. A lot of them rely not on pricey marketing campaigns, but on word of mouth, so making sure your customers are happy is a great investment into getting even more players and fans.

Wrapping Up: Designed for Success

Creating a game is a challenging task, and creating an independent title is even harder. Yet it rewards those who are willing to do it by providing you with creative freedom and total control. A lot of developers who have worked in big studios for a long time left to create games without corporate interference, growing tired of narrow pipelines, big budgets and scales of major titles.

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Cooperating with an outsourcing company can make the process of game-building much easier, whether you’re an indie developer or not. RocketBrush Studio can help you with modeling, game art, sound design, or even full-game production. We’d love to work together on a great new title you have in mind!