An indie developer says Steam's refund policy cost his well-reviewed game 55,000 refunds
Paddle Paddle Paddle holds a 90% positive rating on Steam, it's also just $3
Indie gaming articles
A four-day Steam freebie turned into $250,000 for an indie game
The takeaway: A recent free-game promotion on Steam is drawing attention to how giving away a title can still generate substantial revenue when there is a clear path to selling additional content. A four-day free giveaway of Graveyard Keeper, a title published by tinyBuild, generated roughly $250,000 in revenue, according to CEO Alex Nichiporchik. Most of that money came afterward, as new players who claimed the free copy went on to purchase downloadable content for the game.
MicroProse's next game is flight simulator Legendary Pilots
A more accessible flight sim focused on managing an airline
"Why make game art at all?" New Blood publisher fears DLSS 5 is replacing artistry with AI
DLSS 5 divides developers as backlash grows over AI-driven visuals
This Quake-style shooter fits in just 64KB
Developer built his own image editor and programming language to save precious bytes
WTF?! While the latest AAA first-person shooters usually require over 100GB of storage space, and even retro-style indie titles consume a gigabyte or two, a solo developer recently released a project that resembles the original Quake but could comfortably fit on an NES cartridge. The creator built most of the development tools himself, including the programming language.
Why $7.99 has become the sweet spot for indie games on Steam
"And we found that eight bucks is still five bucks. It doesn't become ten bucks."
Indie games on Steam are getting cheaper, and the $10 hit is taking over
"Middle-priced" games are disappearing, squeezed between $70 AAA and $10 indies
Too many games, not enough players: the industry's growing challenge
Steam saw 18,626 new games in 2024 – nearly double 2020's total
The takeaway: New technology and democratized development tools have supercharged the way games are created and sold. The result? An explosion of creativity like never before. But there's a catch: a marketplace so overcrowded that even the best games struggle to be seen. For players, this is a golden era. For developers and publishers, it's an escalating arms race where only a few titles manage to break through.
Indie studio urges fans to pirate game rather than play Roblox imitation
The core issue is how quickly popular indie games are copied and sold by others with little change
Stardew Valley is now the highest-rated game on Steam
Farming sim maintains near-perfect rating from almost 1 million reviews
Why it matters: As a foundational title in the "cozy game" subgenre, Stardew Valley has remained one of the most successful indie games for much of the past decade. With Steam player counts higher than ever over the past year, Eric Barone's pixel art farming simulator now also holds the highest user rating on the platform.
Scammers are stealing indie games and selling them on Steam
Steam appears to lack a proper vetting process to prevent this kind of abuse
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - does it live up to the hype?
The debut title from Sandfall Interactive is set in a surreal, painterly world where a chosen group must stop a mysterious ritual that erases people from existence each year. Though a bit short, Clair Obscur delivers a unique narrative, stunning visuals, and a classic RPG experience with serious Game of the Year ambitions.
Former Ubisoft director, Clair Obscur maker slams AAA dev bloat: "It would've taken 25 years" to make my game
Smaller teams are making better games, go figure
Let's get back to fun: The video game industry has always been unpredictable, but the current trend in triple-A development raises serious concerns about its long-term viability. As costs rise and development processes grow increasingly bloated, many question whether the industry is on the verge of another crash. Recent statements by former Ubisoft creative director Guillaume Broche suggest the situation may be more dire than previously thought.
California fire relief bundle includes Tunic, Octodad, and hundreds of other games for $10
Third-party tools can help users navigate included items from this and other bundles
Indie developers say the Game Pass and Epic Games Store gravy train is over
Comments come via Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon developers
A Games List of Only Amazing Hidden Indie Gems and Snubs
Let us introduce you to 20 hidden indie gems you haven't heard of, but fully deserve your attention. These are all impressive games that never got the chance to dance under the bright lights.
Placid Plastic Duck Simulator is Steam's latest viral hit
Is this the next Goat Simulator-esque success story?
Paradox officially allows fans to create Vampire: The Masquerade games
In exchange for a third of sales
The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe gets April 27 launch date
The game has been delayed three times to ensure quality and expand its scope
Valve's Next Fest 2022 just kicked off with hundreds of indie titles to try
More gaming than you can digest in a week
Epic Games Store is beta testing game self-publishing similar to Steam Direct
Epic wants faster game releases on its store, but how big a flood of content does it want?
Long-awaited pixel art RPG Eastward set for September 16 release on PC, Mac and Switch
The 2020 Independent Game Festival finalist has been in development since 2015
Indie marketplace Itch.io will give developers 100 percent of sales revenue on Black Friday
A dev-friendly move from a dev-friendly company
Alt254 is a Zelda-style adventure game that takes minimalist graphics to the extreme
In Alt254, you play as a pixel
The developers of Superhot are giving away the sequel for free to owners of the first game
As long as you already own or buy Superhot before July 16, you can have the followup for free