The state of the indie games industry in 2024

The games industry continues to experience layoffs and studio closures, with indie studios such as Black Flag and Studio Thunderhorse being recently shut down due to numerous challenges.

Over the past few months, GamesIndustry.biz spoke to indie developers about the most significant issues the sector faces in today's market, and the support that needs to be offered to keep indies thriving.

The leading issue developers raised is the difficulties of securing funding. Aurélien Condomines is the co-founder of Kamaeru: A Frog Refuge developer Humble Reeds, and he notes this is especially a challenge because of how competitive the market is.

"There's a problem with the offering of the markets, and there is also a problem with pricing because a lot of developers are ready to underprice their games," he explains. "When you combine that with financing [issues], you have a real squeezing effect which in the long term… I mean, you can already see it. Studios closing and people not being able to make a living out of game development."

"Finding external funding or a marketing partner often feels crushingly impossible"

Rebekah Saltsman, Finji

Finji CEO Rebekah Saltsman agrees, adding that the pressures of long development cycles, the size of your team and what they can accomplish without burning out, and "astronomical" budgets don't help either.

"The quantity of money we have to make from our projects, and then finding external funding or a marketing partner, it often feels crushingly impossible. Even for our studio, we have quite a track record of coming out of it. Everybody is [feeling it] right now. Whether it's studios looking for $100,000 or $10 million – it's really hard."

An added issue for Finji (and many other indie developers) is using third-party engines such as Unity, as it can be challenging to keep up to date with technological advancements the longer a development cycle becomes.

"There's often a moving target with these engines where you think you have everything set, but because games take too long, the engine is shifting underneath you slightly," she notes. "The fidelity of your graphics has to improve by the time you launch because it will take you two to five years to get the game done, especially when you start factoring in R&D."

Another challenge is the creative process itself. Every game has a story to tell, and it has to start somewhere. For Don't Nod Montréal's studio executive producer Luc Baghadoust, that process can be a major challenge for any studio.

(Admittedly, Don’t Nod is not strictly speaking an indie studio anymore. It’s also worth noting that this interview took place at Gamescom prior to Don’t Nod announcing a redundancy plan.)

"You cannot just assume that the first design you make will be the right one," Baghadoust says. "Iteration is key, and the technology is always changing.

"The hard part is ensuring we can leave room for creativity and don't delay things or [go over] budget."

"It's really hard to stand out and show your game to the right eyes"

Mélanie Christin, Humble Reeds

Having a solid creative vision is all well and good, but actually getting your game out there and seen is no mean feat. Discoverability and overall visibility are something that all developers expressed concern about.

Humble Reeds co-founder Mélanie Christin expresses the difficulty in standing out among "so many good games" whether on digital distribution services or at events such as Gamescom.

"It's really hard to stand out and show your game to the right eyes," Christin says. "There are people that would be interested in your game, but they just can't see it because there are so many other good games around. It really comes down to marketing, but even in marketing, things change so fast that it's hard to know how to reach your audience."

Condomines adds: "And the audience has a lot of choice. Even as a gamer, you have so many choices that in the end, you don't know what to choose, so you keep playing the same old stuff."

Christin echoes that sentiment, especially when deciding between a new game and an old favourite.

"With old games, you are set for a lifetime. Half of gamer time is taken up by games-as-services or old games. It's hard for new games to stand out and be shown to people who would enjoy them."

New games get lost in a sea of their contemporaries as well as popular classics – especially on a platform like Steam, which has several thousand to choose from, as mentioned by Alison Czarnietzki, the CEO of Ctrl.alt.DEAL developer Only By Midnight.

"When you look at Steam, you have millions of people logging in and playing the same 16 games like Call of Duty. If you remove that and look at the people who play indies, it's very small. And then all those indies are struggling for visibility. For example, the new and upcoming feature [on Steam] only lasts for a few hours. Making games is one thing, but the marketing side is extra hard."

As for what the games industry can do to support indies, Czarnietzki highlights how events like Gamescom and its Indie Arena Booth are a fantastic way to get eyes on games that may not otherwise get the attention they deserve.

"Making games is one thing, but the marketing side is extra hard"

Alison Czarnietzki, Only By Midnight

"Everything here, they're labours of love. There's real artistry on display – I'd say more innovation than you'll see in the AAA areas. But we're all struggling to get eyeballs. So when I see events like this that are celebrating indie projects, the [industry] needs to put a spotlight on these neat ideas."

Condomines has a similar sentiment, adding that the attention needs to be placed on indie games at launch in particular.

"We are all fighting to get our games out there. Games may have a long lifespan, but the real traction you get is really around the launch. And then, because there are so many good games, they disappear."

Aside from visibility, the industry can also support indie development by taking care of the next generation of developers. For Finji's Saltsman, this comes in the form of mentorship and guidance.

"Anyone holding back support needs a stern talking to," she says. "If you have the space to reach down behind you, it's the only way our industry will grow, get better, and make cooler stuff. It's on the shoulders of those of us who are obviously way too busy, probably have families and kids at this point, and are being pulled in a thousand different directions.

"We should also be pulled by the people coming behind us to make introductions, provide mentorship and feedback, and throw our weight behind projects that have funding with teams that definitely ship but may just need mentorship to understand what that means."

Saltsman clarifies that this has been the way for indie developers for some time, but it needs to stay that way and extend across the industry — not just within the indie scene.

"Indies have historically done this quite well. But it's an open invitation to everybody, in local and online communities, to provide mentorship if you have the time. And that's not telling people what to do; it's to walk alongside a person and be there for unbiased feedback and support.

"Most games, if you put some support behind them from a much louder megaphone like a storefront or a publishing partner, that game can make a profit if you put some assistance behind it. That's not all of them, but they can, and it might be modest, but modest profits are still profits. And that's the space we've been operating in forever.

"Let's keep making games because as long as we make modest profits, we can keep our studios open. We can keep doing this because that's what we are and what we have to do. If I didn't, I'd retire and do something else – literally anything else, because it's got to be easier than this."