Game development is probably one of the most challenging forms of software development - having to bring together realtime gameplay, art, animation, effects, and all the other systems that go on in the background - all while worrying about performance. Not to mention having to design a fun and (hopefully) intuitive user experience. Kudos to all of you out there that setting off alone (or in small groups) to build games independently.
That’s why we’re on a mission to make the process of game development as easy as possible. To remove the barrier of entry and reduce the number of hurdles you have to jump over to build, ship and run your game successfully. To that end, last year we started sharing our annual Indie Game Developer Resources list. It’s a curated list of resources that are relevant for this year in game development.
The games industry is an ever changing world, so we try and keep up with it by releasing this list every year. So, let’s get started!
Company & Funding
Running a Remote Team is being embraced by studios around the world and does simplify many things. But don’t forget to make sure the teams have a chance to bond.
Steam Tags by Revenue helps you find and select a game genre to focus on based on the average revenue of a Steam tag and the number of games with that tag.
Elite Game Developer Templates has a handful of great templates and guides for building your gaming business - from deck templates to legal agreements to cash flow planning
Guides & Tools
What Should You Spend Money on if you have a Small Marketing Budget outlines what you should focus your money on if you’ve got a limited marketing budget.
Community Manager Resources outlines vital tools and learnings around building a successful community in your game.
Wishlist Conversion is becoming a more common way to predict your game’s first week, month, and year of sales, so use this tool to help you plan ahead.
Websites & Newsletters
GameDiscoverCo is a weekly newsletter from the amazing Simon Carless providing insights, case studies, and useful tips and tricks around launching games on PC and consoles.
Poly.Pizza is the free 3D model replacement to Google Poly which unfortunately closed down.
Premortem Games has a category of articles focused around running a game studio. There are lots of great stories here that can help inspire and guide you on your own journey.
We hope these links and resources can be of use to you and help you build the best game and company possible. We will continue doing this every year, so if you have any awesome resources that you think we should consider including, please tweet them to us @myLootLocker or share them in our Discord channel!
See you in 2023!