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 became known about the closure of Wicked Games, which was working on the creature-collecting MMO Spherix
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 the series of publications about games that are seeking investments or a publisher. Next up is an article about the Russian team Sunday Morning Meet-up Studio, which is developing the ironic adventure game Jesus Christ
To no surprise, Elden Ring has taken the Steam charts by storm. Let’s take a look at the top-selling titles on the platform over the past seven days.
WN Game Finder Contest took place at the recent WN Conference Istanbul’24. Let’s take a look at the jury and winners in the main categories.
Various headlines across different media have proclaimed this year's lineup of showcases as 'The Year of the Indie'—and they have a point. The featured titles at events like Guerrilla Collective, Wholesome Direct, and Day of the Devs were remarkable, with indie games also making appearances during the Summer Game Fest and Xbox Games Showcase. Over the duration of the week, numerous titles from smaller or solo developers showcased creativity and innovation, including narratives from underrepresented cultures and a whimsicality often absent in the realism and intensity of AAA games. Similar to last year, the team at GamesIndustry.biz has chosen to spotlight some of the standout titles they believe deserve more recognition, as most attention tends to focus on new releases from major developers and franchises. Below are our selections from the summer games showcases of 2024
Here is our weekly overview of the top-selling games on Steam by gross revenue. Some major evergreen hits have been upstaged by several new titles and pre-orders for upcoming releases.
Innersloth, the developer known for the popular social deduction game Among Us, has launched a new fund to support indie games. Dubbed Outersloth, the initiative was revealed during today's Summer Game Fest Opening Showcase. The studio aims to extend its success by providing financial backing to other indie developers' projects. "There have been numerous excellent indie games in recent years, but it's common knowledge that the industry is facing challenging times," said co-founder Forrest Willard. "Some developers don't get the opportunities they deserve, so we thought we could offer some assistance"
We continue our series of articles about games that are seeking investments or a publisher. Up next is a piece about the Russian team Labyrinth Team, which is preparing to release the spatial puzzle game Labyrinth of Light.
On May 9, solo developer mino_dev released the action-roguelike "Rabbit and Steel" on Steam. In an interview with GameDiscoverCo, they shared the game's performance metrics.
The year 2024 was notable for Steam with the release of numerous indie hits: Palworld, Manor Lords, Content Warning, Balatro, Backpack Battles, and others. In fact, the success of some of them was unexpected. Raphael van Lierop, the founder and CEO of Hinterland Studio, which developed The Long Dark, listed possible reasons for the indie boom on LinkedIn.
The TIGA Association wants to achieve greater government support for British game developers. She called on the UK government to introduce a special tax deduction for indie teams in the country - Independent Games Tax Credit.
On April 4, the global release of Buckshot Roulette took place. This is a horror game from an Estonian solo developer, which immediately resembles the narrative of Inscryption and the creations of Yoko Taro.
It has always been difficult for small developers to get funding, but now the situation has become even more gloomy. In an interview with PC Gamer, the creators of Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon stated that indie teams were paid less for an exclusive release in the Epic Games Store and Game Pass.
We continue the cycle of publications about games that require investments or a publisher. Next up is material from the Russian indie studio Dieselduck, which is developing a game about traveling on the airship "Nephelia: Through the Clouds".
Valve has published a list of the most played games on Steam Deck over the past 12 months. While it is full of evergreen hits, there are also a few relatively fresh titles that have managed to make it to the top.
It appears that a group of indie studios have decided to join forces for a mysterious collaboration. The so-called Triple-i Initiative brings together studios behind games like Vampire Survivors, Darkest Dungeon, Slay the Spire, and more.
Good news. Despite the crisis in the industry, new gaming companies are still emerging. Emanuel Palalic and Garrett Young have announced the launch of a new studio. It's called Emptyvessel. This is the second such announcement in the last 24 hours.
A new AAA studio started by industry veterans has emerged. Emptyvessel, led by former id Software, Naughty Dog, Gearbox, and Activision developers, bills itself as a developer-founded, developer-first company.
It’s always great to see indie games succeed in the market. Backpack Battles, an auto-battling RPG with an interesting hook, is doing really well on Steam right now, exceeding the expectations of its creators.
Together with the Game Finder business partner search service, we continue the cycle of publications about games that are looking for investments and publishers. Next up is material about the Russian studio Aeroplan Games, which is preparing to release a game dedicated to the culture of the Altai Republic.
Who are indie gamers and what do they like the most about these titles? Humble Games, publishing arm of Humble Bundle, has conducted research to answer these questions and better understand the audience.
What is the difference between an indie approach to game development and a business one, - Alexander Myasishchev, director of Nau Engine, told in his column for App2Top.
Indie developer Maxim Bykov has been developing the lamp role-playing platformer Roam (formerly Moist) for three years now. About the project, the pipeline, the difficulties of development and expectations, in our interview with him.
The Voronezh agency Weloveplayers, which previously engaged in promotion on social networks and work with gaming media, announced a change in positioning. Now the agency is talking about itself as an indie game publisher.
On January 11, 2024, the distribution of Sail Forth, an adventure game offering to surf the ocean on a sailboat, started in the Epic Games Store. The distribution led to a huge increase in the game's audience.
WN Media Group has shared the data summing up its latest conference for game developers in publishers, which took place in Serbia last week. It was attended by industry professionals representing companies such as Larian Studios, Riot Games, Saber Interactive, Sperasoft, Two Desperados, Ubisoft, TapClap, and Wargaming.
A new day, new results. Next up is an interview with Pavel Prokonich, CEO of HeroCraft.
Another sad news in a series of reports of mass layoffs. The Danish indie team Triple Topping is closing four years after its founding.
In a world where more than 1,000 games are released every month, even quality titles run the risk of not recouping their development costs. Here are the lessons indie studio Pixelsplit learned from the launch of its theme park sim Indoorlands.
We continue to summarize the results of 2023 together with the game teams. Next up is an interview with Anton Mikhailov, creative director of the indie studio Tortuga Team.
We continue to summarize the results of 2023 together with the game teams. Next up is an interview with Ilya Maksimenko, founder of the FlyinDogs indie studio.
The cooperative horror Lethal Company, created by a lone developer Zeekerss, has become a hit on Steam. It took the third place in the chart of the highest-grossing premium products on the site over the past week.
On October 27, two indie developers Joe Henson and Joure Visser released the horror DON’T SCREAM for early access on Steam. In a conversation with gaming expert Simon Carless, they talked about the success of the game.
Thronefall is a minimalistic urban planner with Tower Defense elements. Indie studio GrizzlyGames, consisting of only two people, shared the success of the game in a conversation with gaming expert Simon Carless.
BattleBit Remastered has been a massive success, especially for a game made by three indie developers. However, its story should serve as more of a warning to other indie studios wishing to make a multiplayer title than a call to action.
Pitching a game to a publisher or investor is an important step most game developers face at various stages of their journeys. This template could help aspiring indies avoid pitfalls when creating one.
Gwen Foster, who is engaged in business development at indie studios SUPERHOT Team, Well Told Entertainment and Sad Owl Studios, decided to help colleagues from other studios. She posted a sample presentation online for pitching the game.
Spotlight by Quantic Dream is a new publishing label started by the Detroit: Become Human and Heavy Rain developer. Two indie games, Under The Waves and Lysfanga: The Time Shift Warrior, are expected to come out this year.
Unifiq Games founder Seyed Nasrollahi has created a free database of active indie publishers and investors. This spreadsheet should help game developers find companies they could pitch their projects to.
The founder of the studio UnifiQ Games Seyed Nasrollahi (Seyed Nasrollahi) compiled a table with investors and publishers of indie games for consoles and PCs. There are 150 companies in it.
We usually hear stories of success, but cases where indie games don’t live up to their devs’ expectations are unfortunately much more common. The Wreck co-creator Florent Maurin has opened up about the game’s commercial failure, also reflecting on the point of making indie games in today’s market.
Microsoft has celebrated the 10th anniversary of the ID@Xbox program. In honor of this, she shared a number of numbers.
Last year, independent Kazakh studios made games more actively than indie developers in any other countries. The number of new games from indie studios in Kazakhstan increased by 115.7% compared to 2021. This was reported by Unity in a recent report on the gaming industry.
The Canadian Dynasty Loop has not paid its employees and contractors since January, four employees of the indie studio told the Polygon portal. To date, the company’s debts exceed $2 million.
Up-and-coming game developers often use ready-made assets in their first projects. And this Argentine artist offers indie creators thousands of free models and assets for a variety of genres and styles.
The organizers of the Indie Cup competition told about plans to launch the Ukrainian Games portal. They want to collect all the information about Ukrainian games and developers in one place.
Take-Two‘s “daughter” named the Private Division Development Fund. She said that the foundation will offer independent developers financial assistance and advice, but they will have to publish the games themselves.
