Indie

What could publishers do to better support indie developers? This question was posed by Inverse journalists to the winners of The Game Developers Choice Awards 2025. According to one of the executives at Playstack, publishers need to start taking a more straightforward approach to allocating funds for games

The Tokyo Indie Game Summit, an event in Tokyo that showcases independent games both digitally and in person, experienced a more than twofold increase in attendance compared to last year's gathering at its third occurrence.

Last year was rich with indie horror games on Steam. The Valve platform saw the release of hundreds of new games, yet only a few achieved success. This was the conclusion reached by gaming marketer Dmitry Afanasyev, who studied the situation in this niche

On April 16, as part of the "Gaming Industry" conference, there will be a presentation and review of games by independent developers — the Indie Pitch. During this event, young teams will present their games to experts from the Creative Industries Agency (CIA) and the Indie GO Fund

Steam users enthusiastically welcomed Schedule I, a drug business simulator developed by the Australian indie studio Tyler’s Video Game Studio (TVGS). The game was released in early access on the night of March 25 and immediately made it into the top ten most popular new releases of 2025 on the platform

Microsoft has shared updated figures on ID@Xbox. Over the entire existence of the program, the company has paid indie developers a total of more than $5 billion.

Thanks to the spring sale, many old hits unsurprisingly returned to the top of the best-selling games on Steam. However, the top five remained almost unchanged

On February 26, the Swedish indie studio semiwork released their new game, a cooperative horror titled R.E.P.O, in early access on Steam. According to analytics services, it has become a major hit

The Finnish indie studio Yrdvaab announced that it saved its game Ephemeris from being shut down. The project was at risk of cancellation following an unsuccessful crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo, but the developers managed to secure 200,000 euros from investors in Germany

The authors of the bill regulating the gaming industry in Russia show little interest in the opinions of independent developers. This is the view of former Moscow City Duma deputy Elena Yanchuk. She decided to survey indie teams herself

Palworld has reached a new impressive milestone a year after its Early Access launch. Pocketpair’s survival title cements its place among the most successful indie games of all time.

Pocketpair is expanding its business by launching a publishing label. The Palworld developer plans to partner with other indie studios to help them fund and distribute their games.

Kylyk Games is a three-person team currently working on their debut project Urban Jungle. Here’s how they went from launching a Steam page to becoming full-time indie devs.

A new indie hit may appear on Steam. A solo developer from The Sledding Company shared that his multiplayer game, Sledding Game, managed to go viral and gathered 11.4 times more wishlists in a week than he expected

After a short holiday break, we’re back with our weekly roundup of the top-grossing games on Steam. Here are the key changes on the charts over the past seven days.

We continue summarizing the year 2024 with gaming (or gaming industry-related) teams and experts. Next up is an interview with Elena Morina, the CEO and founder of the publishing company Ravenage

The start of the Winter Sale has brought many older games back to the top of the Steam charts. However, no game managed to dethrone Counter-Strike 2 from its leading position.

GameDiscoverCo has put together a list of best-selling video games of 2024 on Steam and consoles. Let’s take a closer look at the expected leaders and some surprise winners.

We continue to sum up the results of 2024 with gaming (or gaming industry-related) teams and experts. Up next is an interview with Sergey Efremov, COO of Astrum Entertainment

Hollywood is set to adapt the game Pacific Drive for the big screen.

2024 has been a big year for indie games, with two major releases — Balatro and Buckshot Roulette — recently hitting new sales milestones.

Dungeon Clawler is a turn-based card strategy game with roguelike elements where players draw items for their deck using a claw from an arcade machine. The game debuted on Steam and mobile devices on November 21, 2024, and to date, it has sold over 100,000 copies

Tomas Sala, the creator of the building simulator Bulwark Evolution: Falconeer Chronicles, shared his solo development experience and offered advice to fellow developers on Thomas Brush's podcast

Digital Bros has announced the rebranding of its Hook Indie Publishing label to 505 Pulse

The German government is launching a new grant program to help budding indie developers create their first projects. A total of 8 million euros has been allocated to fund this initiative. The launch of the program was highlighted by Game Developer magazine.

The sports simulator Undisputed by the indie studio Steel City Interactive (SCI) has surpassed one million copies sold. It has become a real hit for the team, who took on game development for the first time.

It’s fascinating to see Turkish studios finding success on Steam this year. The latest example is Liar’s Bar, a co-op twist on the card game cheat with a grim version of Zootopia-like characters and deadly rules.

Digital Vortex Entertainment is a recently established publishing team dedicated to "elevating indie developers"

Indie games make up the majority of products released on Steam every year. But how much money doe they make on the platform and what is their revenue share compared to AA/AAA titles? A new report from VG Insights sheds some light on this matter.

The release of the indie game Antoblast has been postponed to December due to its developer being affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton

From January 1 to September 30, 2024, indie games earned a total of $4 billion on Steam, according to a report by the analytics firm VG Insights. This accounts for 48% of the total revenue from all games in the Valve store for the period

Relaxing castle builder Tiny Glade has become a success for Pounce Light. The developers say they now have enough resources to continue supporting the game.

The company Rostelecom, along with the gaming accelerator Indie GO, plans to establish a fund to support independent developers, reports the newspaper Kommersant. It is called Indie GO Start.

France's independent Studio Black Flag has announced its closure following a declaration of bankruptcy

The industry is currently navigating a perfect storm characterized by swiftly advancing technology and the escalating demands of contemporary AAA games, requiring a large number of developers to dedicate years to achieve the scale and fidelity that audiences now anticipate

We spoke with Anton Chernov, CEO of the KupiKod platform, about how profitable the business of topping up Steam accounts in Russia is, whether it's possible to enter it today, as well as the size of the Russian gaming market and how much foreign AA and indie titles can earn on it.

Hideaki and Saori Utsumi, two former Capcom developers, have found a new game studio. The two-person team is now working on their debut project.

Achieving success as an independent developer is challenging. For each game that gains both critical acclaim and commercial success, there are another ten that do not generate profit for the creators who have invested years in their craft. Beyond these, there are even more projects aspiring for commercial recognition but lacking the experience to turn prototypes into completed products or the connections to access publishers capable of boosting their games above the competition. Game incubators serve as a critical bridge in overcoming these hurdles. Initiatives like the MENA Hero Project and the NYU Game Center Incubator are designed with a singular objective: to convert small indie game projects into polished, market-ready products by linking novice and smaller creators with seasoned industry professionals and investors. These programs typically offer workshops, collaborative workspaces, and financial support, enabling creators to devote more time to improving their work for commercial launch

In mid-August, a controversy arose around the roguelike sandbox game Soulash 2 regarding its romantic relationship system. A number of gamers were dissatisfied that characters of the same gender could not form romances.

The top 3 games on Steam by gross revenue remained unchanged from the previous week. However, there were still plenty of events to cover, including the successful launch of Tactical Breach Wizards and strong pre-orders for upcoming major titles.

At Devcom, Jasper Barnes, head of game scouting at Team17, discussed the criteria indie publishers use to determine which games to back and how developers can distinguish their projects by understanding player desires. Barnes emphasized that the key element in evaluating a game is gauging whether it will capture players' interest. He stated, "I think that is something that people often overcomplicate. It really should be as simple as leaning on an emotion, a previous title that you're excited about, or other cultural phenomena – it doesn't have to be a single thing"

On July 22, the French indie studio of two people, Bureau 81, released the game The Operator on PC. The initial results of the project were quite impressive

The potential closure of Humble Games adds to a series of harsh developments impacting indie game publishers over the past 18 months. The sector has faced plummeting share prices, staff layoffs, fewer game signings, and some companies shutting down entirely. Publishers are grappling with challenges similar to those affecting the broader gaming industry, including a decline in game revenue, excessive investment, and soaring costs. Additionally, fundamental and possibly enduring changes in the market landscape are increasing competition. "I’ve been in publishing for almost ten years and it’s always been uncertain," remarks Simon Byron, Managing Director of Yogscast Games. "Predicting a game’s performance before release is never precise. While you can gauge potential, pinpointing a game’s sales accurately is elusive—I've never been perfectly spot on. This uncertainty is challenging for companies that need to deliver consistency for their shareholders

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Steve Escalante, founder and former general manager of the now-closed Versus Evil, has launched a new publishing label. The company, called Digital Bandidos, will focus on small-budget indie games.

Ex-employees of Nintendo and Sega have established a new firm called First Break Labs, focused on supporting independent game developers. The company intends to offer funding and marketing assistance to partnered studios, leveraging over 20 years of its team's experience with both indie games and major AAA titles. Alfonso Cubias, the chief publishing officer, has a background of over five years as head of product marketing at Sega and has held senior marketing positions at Digital Extremes and SmileGate

Rooftops & Alleys, a parkour game focused on freerunning through concrete jungles, has been another indie success this year. It has gathered a strong community around it and performed well commercially in its debut month.

Another game studio has ceased to exist. It has been announced that Wicked Games, which was working on the creature-collecting MMO Spherix, has closed down

Adult Swim is removing additional indie games from its catalog, including Mega Coin Squad, Super House of Dead Ninjas, Traverser, and Zenzizenzic. In consistent announcements on the Steam pages for each title, Adult Swim noted it could "no longer continue as publisher" due to changes at Warner Bros. Discovery, necessitating the "shut down" of these games. "Adult Swim is no longer able to continue as publisher for this game, and the developer is not available to take over as publisher at this time," the company stated

We continue our series of publications about games seeking investments or a publisher. Up next is a piece about the Russian team Sunday Morning Meet-up Studio, which is developing the ironic adventure game Jesus Christ