Indie DB

MARCH 7, 2023

This sandbox shooter indie begins a brand new playtesting period

Sandbox 89

Sandbox Playtesting Indy 89

PreMortem.Games

JANUARY 8, 2024

The advantage of the indie space in general is that we get to work on smaller, more niche ideas. I have seen a lot of teams try to develop indie games that break apart because one team member loses interest, or the team members get in an argument, or one of the developers has a newborn child and understandably needs to step away.

Dev 160

Dev Playtesting AAA Indy 160

PreMortem.Games

MARCH 15, 2024

In Guntouchables by Danish indie developer Game Swing , enemies randomly power up from the upgrades that a team of four players can’t lift out of the levels. To make sure all upgrades and weapons are properly balanced, Game Swing does playtests throughout development. “We We solve everything by keeping on testing”, says Sommer.

Co-op 138

Co-op Playtesting Balance Art 138

PreMortem.Games

OCTOBER 30, 2024

I have a lot of respect for solo indie developers, but I often struggle with the limitations and it is not what I want to be doing long-term. Playtest early. Will you ever work in a team or is it only solo for you? Personally, I’m not a big fan of the solo development process, because there is only so much that you can do solo.

Dev 104

Dev Puzzle Concepts Esports 104

PreMortem.Games

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Yet, for indie dev Almar, it offered an escape from the corporate rat race he felt trapped in. So, almost two years ago I decided to fully embrace the indie path and became a solodev.” The indie community is amazingly helpful, but you will have to fight by yourself with every single element in your own game – and that takes time!

Dev 160

Dev Playtesting Art Games 160

PreMortem.Games

DECEMBER 19, 2023

One of the biggest breakout hits of 2023 was the haunting fishing adventure Dredge by New Zealand-based indie developer Black Salt Games. Playtesting is a major and frequent part of our development process so we had confidence throughout that we had a really good experience on our hands. says co-founder/CEO Nadia Thorne.

Playtesting 118

Playtesting Rigging Horror Prototyping 118

PreMortem.Games

AUGUST 16, 2023

There are plenty of indie developers that say this and it’s possibly the most crucial part of game design and development. Trying to develop an indie game on the scale of a AAA title is the reason why a lot of indie studios fail.”

Technology 104

Technology Indy Games Playtesting 104

PreMortem.Games

JULY 1, 2024

Now, with the follow-up, Nirvana Noir , the New York-based indie studio Feral Cat Den is crafting audio-visual poetry in motion. Previous to making their own indie games, the studio’s background was in advertising and product design. Their first game, Genesis Noir, was already a moving work of art.

Art 138

Art Games Graphics Puzzle 138

PreMortem.Games

MAY 1, 2023

BitCake Studio , an indie game development studio based in Brazil, is celebrating its 10th year in the industry. Everyone must be online from 14h to 18h on Discord because this is ‘when things get done’ and we can all do brainstorms, playtests and all that.” says Lamhut laughing.

Studios 104

Studios Build Playtesting Concepts 104

PreMortem.Games

MARCH 30, 2023

The debut game Dredge from New Zealand-based indie studio Black Salt Games oozes atmosphere and manages to combine multiple genres into one haunting adventure. We had three very different games that we spent around two weeks on each, developing them up to a point where we could playtest them with other people”, says Mason. seconds.

Playtesting 104

Playtesting Prototyping Games Mechanics 104

PreMortem.Games

MARCH 20, 2023

The debut game Dredge from New Zealand-based indie studio Black Salt Games oozes atmosphere and manages to combine multiple genres into one haunting adventure. We had three very different games that we spent around two weeks on each, developing them up to a point where we could playtest them with other people”, says Mason. seconds.

Playtesting 104

Playtesting Prototyping Mechanics Games 104

PreMortem.Games

FEBRUARY 15, 2024

I didn’t take the thought seriously until I watched Indie Game The Movie and even then it was another few years before I released my first game, Swoopy Boi. I also released the demo on Steam early (after invite-only playtesting) so I can gather feedback from real players.

Build 138

Build Dev Playtesting Development 138

PreMortem.Games

JULY 22, 2024

For feedback, opt for playtests or betas instead. And finally, indie developers often underprice their games. “Indie games have actually gone down in price while AAA games have been raising their prices.” “Once somebody can lay money down and get your game, the die is cast, the concrete is set,” states Zukowski.

Games 104

Games Communications Studios Indy 104

PreMortem.Games

JULY 29, 2024

Oscar Salandin , known as Peculiar Pixels, received a major validation for his debut game, BOTSU Ridiculous Robots , by being named the Overall Winner at the Develop Indie Showcase Awards 2024. Some had worked on AAA games I’d played, released indie games, or previously ran companies in games. Especially early-on.

Dev 138

Dev Development Sandbox Indy 138

PreMortem.Games

JULY 8, 2024

Today, his award-winning studio, just a year old, has been a part of the prestigious Google Indie Games Accelerator and the Creation Africa Program. The Pineapple on Pizza team developed a sequel to their game Braai Guy at the Google Indie Games Accelerator. “It’s Growing up, I was a really mischievous kid,” Sithlu recalls.

Studios 129

Studios Educational Education Point and Click 129

Game Dev Unchained

JULY 5, 2023

Pham and Max delved deep into the world of indie game development, discussing everything from the inception of the game to its surprising success. What’s also worth noting is that Battle Bit Remastered is the first game released by this indie team. Community-Driven Game Development Max spoke candidly about their journey.

Indy 105

Indy Game Developer Game Development Development 105

Brand Game Development

MARCH 16, 2020

You do the game development and playtesting. Crowdfunding is more popular than it has ever been before, which is great because this is one of the most popular ways to produce indie board games. Of course, at the same time, indie board games are getting a lot better. This is true for solo developers and small groups.

Games 130

Games Quality Assurance Art Game Developer 130

Brand Game Development

DECEMBER 9, 2019

We finally got to a point in 2014 when he said, “I think we’ve done enough, we can start playtesting it.” A lot of small indie companies only have one printing of a game, and then they start to have another print run of another game. This is just my opinion for designers and indie publishers who ALSO want to get into retail.

Retail 130

Retail Games Writing Indy 130

Interesting Choices

OCTOBER 5, 2011

It's rather surreal to see my name in a list with a bunch of indie luminaries , but hopefully I'll be able to live up to expectations. Also wanted to give a quick update on my various boardgame designs: City Draft - This 7 Wonders inspired drafting game is consistently liked in playtests and has been improving slowly and steadily.

Game Designer 40

Game Designer Game Design Playtesting Tile 40

Rindoku

OCTOBER 7, 2016

It was scary, thrilling, amazing and… we won the Dev-Play Indie Pitch! Alex and Ovi receiving the Indie Prize at Dev-Play. Meeting other indie devs is really cool. For one, we will be heading to Casual Connect in Berlin to take part in the Indie Prize. Fix the problems we identified during the playtest.

Point and Click 52

Point and Click Dev Demo Playtesting 52

Radiator Blog

MARCH 16, 2023

Viewers may see this as a rough unfair way to train anyone, but in the industrial dev culture that Zak and Ryan come from, the conventional wisdom is that the only way to become a good level designer is to "go map" -- stop talking, make levels, watch the playtest go wrong, and iterate. Through all this, Tim seems to cautiously step back.

Art 147

Art Concepts Dev Studios 147

Ask a Game Dev

JANUARY 23, 2024

Whenever I do solo dev work, the feature that always takes the longest and tends to require the most work to get something playable by actual players is the UI. Building out the gameplay features is always a lot of fun, but you can only go so far by fiddling with variables and restarting.

Dev 52

Dev Build Content Feature 52

SOVEREIGN MOON

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Further over to the right we’ll see the playtest buttons which allow us to play, pause or stop our game. Our NoCode game development course teaches indie game devs how to build breathtaking games from scratch. . The first thing you’ll notice is the main menus up in the upper left corner. Let’s look over to the left first.

Asset 52

Asset Editing Code Scripting 52

Mircosoft Game Dev

OCTOBER 7, 2018

The above activities are intentionally planned not to fill the whole day, so that there is time to get to know each other, present one's work to other attendees, playtest games, etc. As an indie dev, he also published Aequitas Orbis in early access, a multiplayer 2D space game using Godot 2.1. Thursday, 11 October 2018.

Demo 52

Demo Simulation Shaders Engine 52

iXie gaming

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

Test Your Game and Deploy Performing thorough playtesting is crucial in NFT game development. On the other hand, minting involves tokenizing the assets on the selected blockchain network. Use specific smart contracts or minting tools to develop the NFTs. It helps you refine the gameplay experience.

Game Developer 52

Game Developer Game Development Development Asset 52

AWS Games

AUGUST 18, 2023

Women in Games: Celebrating Your Achievements & How to Effect Change – leaders from studios, startups and indies alike will come together to join in a discussion on the state of the games industry for women, including how to celebrate victories and create lasting affirmations to career development in the gaming industry. Learn more.

Games 52

Games Engine Engineering Game Developer 52

Astral Clock Tower Studios

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

This is the place where we break down all aspects of development for 3D Dark Fantasy ARPG Kristala—an indie game in developed by the wildly talented dev team behind women-owned indie games studio, Astral Clocktower Studios. If you're new 'round these parts, let us help you get properly acquainted. Take a look!

Dev 52

Dev Animation Animation Concepts 52

PreMortem.Games

JUNE 11, 2024

Renee Gittins , indie game developer of Potions: A Curious Tale , faced severe harassment after the release of her game on Steam earlier this year. She taught herself programming and volunteered for indie studios, eventually creating her first prototype, ‘Potions: A Curious Tale’. She used it both as a marketing and playtesting tool.

Development 104

Development Playtesting Indy Prototyping 104

PreMortem.Games

JUNE 14, 2024

It was right at the beginning of the pandemic, in early 2020, when Austrian indie dev Dominik Hackl started working on Summit , a 2D mountain-climbing Metroidvania. With my new project I will do A LOT more playtesting early on and also maybe art testing. Without much game dev experience he relied on YouTube dev vlogs to help him along.

Dev 104

Dev Games Playtesting Art 104