From Laid off to CEO: Building a Multi-Million Dollar Software Company [Progress Thread]

[DonyaSze]

@DonyaSze I found an article about releasing indie games on Steam and how to get players. It has some gems inside.

How did these hit games find their first 1,000 players?

...and also the tens of thousands of players after that.

www.polygon.com

This is a good article! It mainly talks about how to get the first 1000, then steam gets you the rest. So what you have to do before launch is ask for wish lists, or get a publisher or make a demo or all of those things.

 

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[EmotionEngine]

02/1/25 Update #15

Project Completion: 98% (PC Version)

Development of the Windows PC version for Steam is nearing completion. I’ve added more polish and finished the necessary features to make this a better version than the original. I’m currently in the balancing and bug-fixing phase, and this will be the definitive edition of the game.

The Steam store page is now live. So far, I’ve gained 16 wishlists through multiple ads on Google, X, and Facebook. Of course, this isn’t nearly enough—I’m averaging about one wishlist per day, and at this point, it feels like pulling teeth. Ideally, I wanted to be getting at least 20–30 per day. While I’ve received some positive reactions to the game, analytics show that most of the wishlists came from Steam itself rather than the ads.

I plan to release the game in a couple of months, no matter what, because it’s time to move on. In total, I’ve spent around 12 months on this game, with the mobile version completed in 10. That’s enough at this point.

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve already begun early planning for the next title. It should take only 4–5 months to complete, at which point I can unveil it to gamers and gauge interest. If it doesn’t gain traction, I’ll move on to another project and continue testing market response. I’ll repeat this process until I find a project people genuinely want.

I may need to return to work in a few months (if I can find a job), as I’ve spent a significant portion of my savings pursuing this.

 

[EmotionEngine]

03/14/25 Update #16

Project Completion: 100% (PC Version)

The game is now fully completed, culminating in around a year and two months of work. This release features an updated gameplay loop, improved graphics, and integrated Steam rich presence, and achievements. The game has also been approved for launch by Valve. All I have to do is click the release button to make it go live. The release will be in a couple of weeks or so. I’m making only minor tweaks so I don’t break any code.

It has been over a month since the game’s store page was published, and I have gained 30 wishlists. Definitely not ideal. I have spent a few hundred on ads so far and have a little more to spend before it is out of my budget. I will get some free keys to give to potential influencers, and we will see how it goes. Overall, I believe this approach is better than how I marketed the mobile game, but only time will tell if I succeed in any way.

I did the best I could to salvage this project. At this point, I am just happy to have put forth extreme effort and developed a product from idea to completion. It is unreal watching my trailer and being able to say, “I made that.” I knew I would not create a viral hit on the first go. It will take many swings at the plate.

On a personal note, I am looking for a new game industry job, but it has been hard. I have gotten nothing but rejections from PlayStation to Rovio, a Sega subsidiary. It is pretty bleak, and my savings are down to the last third. I would do it again though, and starting my own business has been a great learning experience.

I hope to post in a couple of weeks after my game launches.

 

[EmotionEngine]

03/19/25 Update #17

Project Completion: 100% (PC Version) / Now Contacting Publishers

Quick update. I created a pitch deck and contacted the first indie game publisher. I have a couple more in mind in case this one declines. If that all fails, then it's back to the original plan—releasing and then moving on to a new project. (Still looking for a job too.)

The reason I did this is that a friend of mine wanted to play my game, so I told him to try it and give honest feedback. Around an hour later, I got a text: "Got to level 30! Game is good, man. Addicting." So, possibly giving a publisher with skilled marketing a shot may help. That's definitely where I'm failing. I realize the concessions I'll have to make to accommodate a publisher, such as giving up a chunk of the proceeds—anywhere from 10% to 50%. I should have less risk in their eyes since the game is basically complete, and they won't have to fund any major development.

 

[EmotionEngine]

03/24/25 Update #18

Project Completion: 100% (PC Version) / Publisher Responses

I have now submitted to 13 publishers and have gotten rejections from 3. I think the market mind is starting to tell me something but I'm not sure. Even Star Wars was rejected by multiple studios until Fox and Alan Ladd Jr. believed in it and decided to give it a shot. I'm more than likely NOT a Star Wars success-type of story, but it will be interesting what the other publishers respond with (if they do).

Overall this is pretty depressing, and I need a job asap. Sorry for the mini progress rant.

 

[jbg]

I think the market mind is starting to tell me something but I'm not sure.

I mean, game dev market is currently in a shitty place in general. It's got nothing to do with you in general. I don't have time to read the whole thread, but why are you looking for a publisher if the game is already done? Can't you self publish it and move on?

Regarding self publishing games, invest in the following. This is straight from my mistakes literally this month. In this order:
1. Capsule art so when Steam recommends your game people click it
2. Professional trailer so when people click on your page see what the game is about
3. Demo so people can try it and get hooked + early feedback
4. SET EXACT RELEASE DATE 2 WEEKS BEFORE RELEASE ON STEAM - otherwise you lose free visibility for those 2 weeks
5. Don't under-price, but don't overprice either, Steam is bargain bin, normal pricing ideas from this forum don't work unless you have actually premium game (mostly deep replay value or quality artstyle)
6. Get 10 reviews any way you can after launch, otherwise steam doesn't push you
7. Do bundles after with other developers

Are you on HTMAG discord?

 

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[EmotionEngine]

I mean, game dev market is currently in a shitty place in general. It's got nothing to do with you in general. I don't have time to read the whole thread, but why are you looking for a publisher if the game is already done? Can't you self publish it and move on?

Regarding self publishing games, invest in the following. This is straight from my mistakes literally this month. In this order:
1. Capsule art so when Steam recommends your game people click it
2. Professional trailer so when people click on your page see what the game is about
3. Demo so people can try it and get hooked + early feedback
4. SET EXACT RELEASE DATE 2 WEEKS BEFORE RELEASE ON STEAM - otherwise you lose free visibility for those 2 weeks
5. Don't under-price, but don't overprice either, Steam is bargain bin, normal pricing ideas from this forum don't work unless you have actually premium game (mostly deep replay value or quality artstyle)
6. Get 10 reviews any way you can after launch, otherwise steam doesn't push you
7. Do bundles after with other developers

Are you on HTMAG discord?

Yes, its a bad place in general. I've been working in the game industry for 20 years and started my company after getting laid off days before Christmas. Can't even get back in after hundreds of application to jobs, a reason I started my own company.

Publisher would be for marketing and promotion, people who are much better at that than I am. I'm a designer, artist and programmer.

Also, solid list of tips. I'm good on a few of them, specifically steam store presence and a professional trailer.

I'm rarely on Discord.

(On a site note, one of my pitches got rejected by one of my favorite companies since I was a teenager (90s) and bought a ton of their games. Fancy that.)

 

[jbg]

Publisher would be for marketing and promotion, people who are much better at that than I am. I'm a designer, artist and programmer.

I'm rarely on Discord.

You are way longer in the industry than me, I just published my game 2 weeks ago and I'm probably going to F*ck off doing something else. I incredibly strongly feel you are overestimating what publishers can do for you and what you can do for yourself. But maybe you know something I don't.

The most important marketing decision is already finalized - which is genre. I don't think any publisher will invest money in ads or something else after the game is already revealed and has small amount of wishlist's. Since your store presence is solid, that only leaves Steam visibility, influencers, ads and quality of your game. I don't know what other levers do you have?

Steam visibility is all explained how it works on HTMAG discord and has been my exact experience, everything to the word. Plus there is a bunch of people with whom you can bundle you game later. Influencers is "just" hustling and having an interesting looking game. You can never pay for enough ads compared to what Steam will give you after they deem you sales worthy. And well, quality of game is what it is, you already know how that works.

Am I missing something? What else can they provide you with? Maybe funding for the next game, and using this game as a proof you can ship?

 

[EmotionEngine]

You are way longer in the industry than me, I just published my game 2 weeks ago and I'm probably going to F*ck off doing something else. I incredibly strongly feel you are overestimating what publishers can do for you and what you can do for yourself. But maybe you know something I don't.

The most important marketing decision is already finalized - which is genre. I don't think any publisher will invest money in ads or something else after the game is already revealed and has small amount of wishlist's. Since your store presence is solid, that only leaves Steam visibility, influencers, ads and quality of your game. I don't know what other levers do you have?

Steam visibility is all explained how it works on HTMAG discord and has been my exact experience, everything to the word. Plus there is a bunch of people with whom you can bundle you game later. Influencers is "just" hustling and having an interesting looking game. You can never pay for enough ads compared to what Steam will give you after they deem you sales worthy. And well, quality of game is what it is, you already know how that works.

Am I missing something? What else can they provide you with? Maybe funding for the next game, and using this game as a proof you can ship?

What you say makes sense. This indie dev thing is still fairly new for me and its definitely not the same as working AAA games.

I'll probably just self-publish after entering Steam Next Fest in early June. Then I'll move on.

 

[EmotionEngine]

As stated in the first post.

I will be documenting this journey here, sharing my milestones and failures periodically

They're coming in fast now which is sort of good because I'm not left waiting. 3 more rejections in.

 

[FJ123]

Why not...

Put up a landing page talking about your game

Have a Stripe link so people can buy it

Send them a Google Drive link to download it

Run Facebook ads on it // post it on Reddit


If all goes well, you could tell a publisher how your game is selling like hotcakes and they need to support you ASAP

 

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[EmotionEngine]

Why not...

Put up a landing page talking about your game

Have a Stripe link so people can buy it

Send them a Google Drive link to download it

Run Facebook ads on it // post it on Reddit


If all goes well, you could tell a publisher how your game is selling like hotcakes and they need to support you ASAP

I've thought about doing something like that early on or creating a Shopify page. Not sure how much different it would be to direct them to that page and get the game or direct them to the Steam page (which is up now) and then get the same game.

Nevertheless, thanks for your response and it has me thinking about it again. I may actually do it because what do I got to lose, right?

EDIT: Want to add that your post kind of brightened my day a bit. I've become quite depressed with this project and not being able to find a job. Sometimes we can miss the obvious opportunities.

 

[jbg]

I've thought about doing something like that early on or creating a Shopify page. Not sure how much different it would be to direct them to that page and get the game or direct them to the Steam page (which is up now) and then get the same game.

Nevertheless, thanks for your response and it has me thinking about it again. I may actually do it because what do I got to lose, right?

EDIT: Want to add that your post kind of brightened my day a bit. I've become quite depressed with this project and not being able to find a job. Sometimes we can miss the obvious opportunities.

I know how hard the game dev is bro, but don't give up. Please don't follow the advice in the post above, that is a waste of time, I highly doubt that guy is a game developer.

You need to get as much Steam wishlists as possible, and get to 10 reviews as fast as possible. You already know what you need to do regarding Steam. Any time spent on anything but Steam and your game is not worth it. Any visibility you think you can get somewhere is nothing compared to what Steam will give you if you show to Steam your game is worth being sold. I can't screenshot you my visibility chart because it's against Steam TOS, but it literally skyrocketed after I got 10 reviews. Literally the day after I got 10 reviews my Discovery Queue traffic 60x. You probably have a way better game than me due to your 20 year experience, so you will probably have also better results.

Even if the game fails on whatever metric, you will likely find a job easier with SHIPPED A GAME ON STEAM BY MYSELF written in bold & caps lock. shipped-a-game is an ethereal life achievement that people who know how hard it is will always respect.

I'm writing this maybe with extra emotions it's because I know how F*cking doomed it all seems, and maybe it even is, but go through it. And good luck.

 

[FJ123]

Not sure how much different it would be to direct them to that page and get the game or direct them to the Steam page (which is up now) and then get the same game.

If the game is already on steam, you can throw up a landing page and put in a section that looks like this:



Source: Super Blood Hockey | Games By Loren Lemcke - Official Website

Steam handles all payment processing / hosting / social proof so no need to do it yourself.

Want to add that your post kind of brightened my day a bit. I've become quite depressed with this project and not being able to find a job. Sometimes we can miss the obvious opportunities.

No worries

But yeah, if the game is done + on steam, then your next hurdle is marketing. That includes wishlists + reviews.

From the advice on this forum, it looks like you don't need a publisher - which is good! It means you don't have to wait for someones approval before you can advertise your product.

Anyways, good luck.

 

[EmotionEngine]

04/21/25 Update #17
Project Completion: 100% (PC Version)

I sank into a little depression but I overcame it. Building a business definitely screws with your head a bit.

So I created a new branch in my repository and cut a demo. I submitted the playable demo and it was approved this morning by Steam after a little back and forth and some issues with my store page. They’re real sticklers about capsule and banner images. Anyhow, I’m also now registered for Steam NEXT FEST in early June. A new trailer and its variants have been created for launch as well. It’s much tighter and gets to the point. I enjoyed editing it.

I’ve been spending many more hours polishing the game and adding a host of gameplay improvements that were not very risky to implement this late in development. Essentially just more polish. The product has been improved in every way, including graphically. I’ve added a host of custom particle effects and other sprite VFX created and animated by hand.

ChatGPT has been instrumental in checking my code for errors (the game has zero actual runtime errors), though it may still have bugs, which I’m continually fixing. I’ve only found a couple logic ones recently. I used one of my monthly credits for ChatGPT’s “Deep Research” mode and it has given me great data on timing and price among other things.

If this goes well, I’ll quickly port this back to mobile and release this version on iOS. It should only take a week's worth of work.

I plan on doing my next update post mid or late June.

 

[cYn]

ChatGPT has been instrumental in checking my code for errors (the game has zero actual runtime errors), though it may still have bugs, which I’m continually fixing.

Have you explored other models? Claude Sonnet 3.5/3.7 has been my go to model for technical coding and it’s been amazing. Lots of data, along with the community, has backed up that Sonnet is the best model when it comes to handling code.

Maybe the latest models from OpenAI like 4.1, o3 or o4-mini-high might have gotten a lot better, but I’ve stuck with Sonnet for a while now.

 

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[EmotionEngine]

Have you explored other models? Claude Sonnet 3.5/3.7 has been my go to model for technical coding and it’s been amazing. Lots of data, along with the community, has backed up that Sonnet is the best model when it comes to handling code.

Maybe the latest models from OpenAI like 4.1, o3 or o4-mini-high might have gotten a lot better, but I’ve stuck with Sonnet for a while now.

Never tried it but 4o has been great. My game has zero runtime errors and I've played it for hundreds of hours and monitor the engine. There are things AI's have problems with such as game logic.

These type of issues really can only be found by a human playing.

Example:
I have a data structure that lists Experience Points needed for each level. Level 1 has 10 EXP required, Level 2 has 11 and Level 3 has 300. The AI does not understand that Level 2 is broken. Going to 10, 11, 300 is not good design for level up scaling.

Example 2 (See code example below):
I asked it "What is wrong with this. public const int YEAR = 13;" ?
Result, it sees nothing wrong but it should be 12. A year would only have 12 months. If the game acts on that data to set something like a UI element that has 12 variations, a crash will occur and the AI would miss it.

 

[cYn]

If 4o has been working for you, keep at it!

There are models out there that does a lot better when it comes to logic compared to 4o as it’s very general.

What I’m saying is if you ever feel stuck with 4o, try a model that does better at coding/logic. Just a suggestion! Continue to do what works.

 

[FJ123]

Example:
I have a data structure that lists Experience Points needed for each level. Level 1 has 10 EXP required, Level 2 has 11 and Level 3 has 300. The AI does not understand that Level 2 is broken. Going to 10, 11, 300 is not good design for level up scaling.

Use an exponential function.
Then you don't even need to store the values in a data structure (you can if you want to though).

 

[EmotionEngine]

Use an exponential function.
Then you don't even need to store the values in a data structure (you can if you want to though).
View attachment 65550

I thought about that but there are issues since I generate different enemies with varying quantities of xp rewards.

The exponential growth does not take into account fine tuning/tweaking. Make certain levels easier or harder, introduce XP plateaus or spikes (e.g., milestone levels), or create pacing changes in progression (like slowing down in mid-game and speeding up near end-game).