Business Basics For Small Indie Game Devs Who Want To Build a Successful Studio

What you'll learn are the non-obvious business basics most game devs never grasp. And because most indie game devs don't grasp these basics, they often fail at their goals of finding customers and having a studio that supports their life.

And what I'm about to teach you is NOT boring technical stuff. It's not about how to incorporate. It's not about how to write business plans. Business plans are just "business guesses" anyway.

So here's your first business basic insight...

Nobody Will Pay You -- Except Customers...

The very first insight most game devs never get is: where the money comes from?

And this is the biggest reason their small indie game studio never grows... it's because they don't understand where they get paid from.

For example... a game dev will work for some big company. They get paid every week or two. Their wage is a given. As long as they work hard, they will get paid. For the most part, wages are guaranteed.

This is a HUGE problem when a game dev then decides to go off on their own. They don't realize the true impact of losing a guaranteed income.

This is obvious, sure. Every game dev knows that they're taking a risk when they go on their own, and they are losing their guaranteed income.

But here's the insight I want you to learn... here's the non-obvious experiences you'll face...

Your wages are no longer coming from some big corporation. Your wages directly come from the customer.

This subtle change has a huge impact on how you see your indie game studio.

For example, when you're a hobbyist, you don't care about where money comes from. You just want to make games that people love.

But if you're doing this to become a success in terms of making money, then where you get your money becomes VERY important.

Most game devs are scared of this notion of: customers now pay their wage. So they resort to Kickstarter campaigns, they want investors, they want a publisher to pay them.

And if they can't get funding, they'll want a YouTuber or game journalist to cover their game so that OTHER PEOPLE find customers for them.

Employee Thinking Stops You From Growing

What worked for you as an employee is NOT going to work as a small indie game studio.

What I mean is, as an employee, a developer gets used to getting paid... getting a wage regularly.

And when this developer starts their own studio, they bring this "employee thinking" with them.

In a job, the developer would produce. And then they got rewarded with a pay cheque. And the pay came regularly and constantly.

So employee thinking is: Do a good job. Produce. Work hard. Get paid regularly.

But when you start your own indie game studio, you can produce all you want, you can work all you want, but... it's gonna be a LOOONG time before you see any rewards from your work.

And that's ok. That's the nature of running your own business: rewards aren't instant. YOu have to be ok with delayed gratification.

But this "employee thinking" is really really hard to shake off. And that's why, like I mentioned before, game devs want to find Kickstarter money, investors, or a publisher.

And if they can't get funding, then another good way is to get a YouTuber or game journalist to help them find customers and get paid.

I know it sucks. I know it's risky to let go of "employee thinking" and let go of the notion that customers now pay your wage.

But once you take full responsibility that YOU have to pay yourself, then you'll build your self-efficacy. Self-efficacy means how much you think you believe you can accomplish a task.

Self-accountability is really important if you want to grow your game studio. Nobody is coming to save you. Not a publisher, or investors, or kickstarter, or a youtuber, or a game journalist.

You need to rely on yourself. You need to get comfortable that customers now pay your wage. That it's up to you to get paid.

This "employee thinking" is the single biggest reason why small indie studios fail. They don't understand that if there are no customers, there is no business. And when they don't see money coming in, they quit. When they don't get their funding, they don't persevere.

When you rely on yourself, you become a better game developer. You realize there is a balance between what you want and what gamers want. You start seeing opportunities to build games that everybody wants, but nobody is making. You start making games that are marketable.

If you rely on other people's money, you lose that drive to survive. You lose that skill of making a video game everybody wants, but nobody is making yet.

Next...

You Are Responsible For All The Results

When you're working for a company (or even as a game dev hobbyist) you are sheltered from all the danger.

What I mean is, when you're inside a company, your results are NOT the end result.

For example... the company has you sit there and be a coding monkey or designer or artist. You do one specific job all day. Your results are not the END results. What you finish gets moved onto another person.

You're hardly ever responsible for the entire results of what you do. You're just responsible for your little chunk of that video game.

But once you leave, and become an indie game dev, you are now responsible for ALL the results.

This sounds obvious. But here's the insight...

When you're working in a company, it's safe. Yeah, you may worry that if you don't do a good job, they may get rid of you. And yes, working at any game company means you could be laid-off next week.

But you're still not at all close to danger. You just worry about your specific role. And you hope that the company doesn't lay you off. You don't have to worry about sales and profits.

This is a big shock to an indie game dev who goes off on their own and starts their own studio. They didn't realize how important sales and getting customers is. They thought that they could rely on their talent as a game dev, and the money would just keep coming.

And as an employee, this is what happened. Talented people get rewarded. Well, not all the time. But for the most part, if you're talented, you'll have a better chance of keeping your job and getting paid.

But once you leave that security of a company, your talents mean jack shit.

You'll finally realize that working for yourself, you are RIGHT NEXT to the danger. You are no longer sheltered by a company and its resources and its wages. And all responsibility falls on you now.

That's why most game devs go towards funding and getting a publisher. It's safe. They want to push the responsibility of finding customers to somebody else.

But you can't grow your studio if you don't have customers. And it's your job to learn how to find customers.

And that's a good thing. Because now that you know that it's your responsibility to face the danger, you'll have a better chance of succeeding. This won't be a shock to you. You'll persevere a lot more when you know that danger is part of growing your indie studio.

This leads me...

Players Do Not Pay You Because You're Talented And A Hard Worker

The only way to grow your indie game studio is by getting gamers as customers.

And what you make will be judged by gamers. And gamers judge with their wallets. Your success depends on what a gamer likes and doesn't like and is willing to spend money on.

Gamers don't spend money on your talent. Gamers don't spend money on your ideas. Gamers don't spend money on your hard work.

Gamers don't care about your talent, your ideas, or your hard work. Gamers are self interested. They spend money on what makes THEM happy or satisfied or what fulfills their needs.

Your video game is just a way to get what they want.

And this is OK. When you're out making video games for a profit, knowing this will help you sell more copies.

Again, if you're a hobbyist, you don't care about all this stuff. You just want to make a game YOU like. And if it's successful, it's successful. And that's OK, too.

But if your success in growing your studio means that it's your job is to CREATE customers.

Yeah, you're still creating video games. But the reason you're making video games is to create customers.

Without customers, you have no indie game studio. You have no money. You have no resources to make a new game. You'll always be relying on other people's money (i.e. publishers, investors, even employment).

If you truly want to free yourself from other people's money, and become self-reliant, then where you spend your time is very important.

If you spend your time on making video games YOU like, and hope other gamers will like, then it'll be very tough to become a successful video game studio.

It's your job to balance what YOU want and what GAMERS want. Knowing what a gamer wants is a business basics. Trying to force or convince a gamer to like what you like is very hard to do. You also gotta know what THEY like before if you want them to buy your game..

Now, I'm not saying to pander and chase trends.

And I'm not saying you need to become some corporate stooge that only thinks about money and only sees people as money.

No. I'm actually talking about the total opposite.

When you spend all your time making games so that you CREATE new gamers, then you're really out there trying to discover what is NOT out there, yet.

What I mean is, you're not making games that are already out there. You're making games that nobody has played ever... but want to play.

AAA game publishers are the ones that pander. They constantly make games because of what market research says. They make games that are safe. They only make games that can be turned into franchises.

But as an indie video game dev, you can make what the hell you want. You can explore new game mechanics. You can experiment with story and gameplay. You can experiment with art and animation.

But this can't be done just in a vacuum. What you explore, also needs to be directly connected to what a gamer wants.

And this is what I meant by when I said you're closer to danger.

You might come up with a truly innovative game, but if a gamer doesn't care, then you have to go back to the drawing board.

You are closer to danger because what you make can be a complete failure... or a huge success. You live by the sword. And you die by the sword. Gamers judge you with their wallets.

The good news is, you can make games you love to make, and the type of games where gamers will buy.

So let's start right now...

Your Challenge To Help You Find Customers, And Grow Your Indie Game Studio:

Let's get rid of "employee thinking", and let's work on your skills on getting customers. To do that, I want to know:

What can you do RIGHT NOW to get one step closer to getting your first customer or wishlist?

It doesn't matter if your game is only 2 hours old, or 2 years old. Or if you launched your game, and sales are really slow.

What matters is action. No more planning. No thinking. No more strategizing. Take action: what can you do in the next 15 minutes to get you one step closer to finding a fan, or a wishlist, or a potential customer?

To help nudge you in the right direction, here's your one step action plan:

1) Find a subreddit that's in the same genre your game is in. Or find a subreddit for games that are similar to your game.

2) Find a post, and go to the comments. In the comments, find a user.

3) And send them a DM, asking:

"Hey, I'm making a {you're genre here} indie game. And I was wondering if you can have a look, and tell me what you think. Here's the link: {your link}"

Just get the ball rolling. Commit to getting out there and talking to potential customers at least 3x a week. What you're doing here is you're learning how to get comfortable being "in danger". It's the only way I know how to overcome fear: expose yourself to that fear. Plus, the feedback you get will help you iterate you game and make something that people will want to buy.

And again, it doesn't matter how far you're into game development. It's really important to learn this skill of getting customers as early as possible. Because that's how you grow your game studio.

What's Your Goal?

Launching soon, need wishlists? Click: Get Wishlists

Game sales low after launch? Click: Get Game Sales

Want to test a game idea to see if it's profitable? Click: Get Market Research

Ok, great job. I hope you got at least one idea to help you find customers and grow your game studio.

Later!

Dariusz Konrad
Email: dariusz at mainquestmarketing dot com
Discord Username: dariuszkonrad
LinkedIn: My entrepreneurial successes
Work: Game devs I've helped so far