"You can make an amazing game, but you can't make a success. Your players make the success."

Imre Jele - Co-Founder of Bossa Studios

Selling Your Game

Game Publishing

Making a great game is only half the battle - getting it out into the world is a whole different story. What if you are just a small team looking to get your game to as many players as possible?

The publishing process can be very different depending on your game and your goals. The two routes for a game to go are traditional and independent publishing, each with its own advantages and downsides.

Traditional publishing means having a publishing company take over the distribution and marketing of your game in exchange for a share of the sales. With its resources, a publisher can get your game reviewed by game journalists, showcase it at industry events, or make money by selling advertisements. Often, a publisher also invests resources into the development and provides assistance from industry experts.

A publisher will have their own vision of how your game can be sold, which means they can request particular game changes or development schedule adjustments. It is ultimately up to you to decide if the concessions are worth it. However, there are many game developers out there, and getting picked up by a respectable publisher is not easy.

With the rise of digital distribution, indie publishing has become a viable route for many studios. This means getting the game to stores, creating a buzz online, building a community, and getting the game to reviewers by yourself. Due to the freedom granted by lack of publisher and investor constraints, “indie” has become a synonym for “original”. An indie studio gets total creative control over their projects and keeps all of the income.

Releasing a game without a publisher’s support requires a lot of work and a good understanding of community building and marketing, but many studios find it worth their time.

Publishing the Indie Way

How do you release a game on your own? It can feel like a gargantuan task and it is, but everything is possible if you put your best effort into it.

Let's break it up into three aspects: Market Platforms, Player Community, and PR.


Exercise: Indie or Traditional?

Exercise: Indie or Traditional?


Know Your market

The following video focuses on analyzing markets, and how you can follow certain trends in the industry. It also gives you an example of how you can fail to match the demands of the market.

Making Indie Games That Sell
The following are useful tools and methods recommended for people that want to see statistics about game sales/owners on Steam.

  • Steam review system
  • Epic games
  • Steamspy
  • Sales analyser
  • Krita
  • The Boxleither method
  • Steam tracker

Exercise: Platforms and Popularity

Exercise: Platforms and Popularity

Answer the following questions about the material you just learned.