Indie dev (WoollyOne Games). Built Game Market Atlas to help you see where your game idea fits on Steam with data. 🇻🇦 Matthew 28:20
North Carolina, USA
Joined August 2016
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Here’s the hard truth:
There is no known meta for indie game dev with the rise of AI. Nobody knows what will end up being the smart play. Everyone’s experimenting.
I, for one, find that incredibly exciting. So, these are my personal guiding principles going into 2027. 👇
My #indiegame Smiglee's Statues: The Cursed Curation has a core fantasy more unique than 98% games in the genre. It also flopped. Why? 🧵
1. I barely did any creator outreach/marketing so it really didn't have a shot (launched with like 80 wishlists)
2. The game had fairly little content/trailer and key art weren't great
3. Had only a 45% chance of getting >10 reviews anyway
Lesson learned: market your game!
gamemarketatlas.com/game/445…
My favorite thing about Game Market Atlas is you see some very interesting games lol. Like "BRAZILIAN DRUG DEALER BEFORE 4: DEMONS FROM THE PORTAL TO HELL I OPENED ARE STILL IN THE FAVELA AND NOW I HAVE TO SAVE MAMADAS FROM RONALDO."
Massively successful hit BTW
How do you break out in extremely saturated #roguelike deckbuilding space? Ask Shroom and Gloom, which massively outperformed expectations. The core loop isn't genre-bending, but the presentation (86% uniqueness score) really drives it home!
Each tiny white dot is an upcoming game that is vying to dethrone Balatro in the Table Top nebula. Each blue dot, roughly 96% of games in this genre, is a game that failed. If you're and #indiedev and considering competing, the demand seems far lower than the supply right now.
Why do AAA game studios love fantasy RPGs? Just look at Baldur's Gate 3. It had a 88% chance of massive success before it even released (according to gamemarketatlas.com). There's a HUGE appetite for massive RPGs, very little supply.
Before #indiedev's get too excited: there is a fair amount of survivorship bias. In order to even remotely resemble an RPG like Baldur's Gate you need a huge game that most won't attempt.
The games AAA studios are releasing vs the ones players are playing... not a perfect overlap!
They are straight up allergic to cozy games and stick to genres that already have more historical hits.
Instead of making a 2D platformer, make a... "Hidden Cats" game?
Absolutely insane demand in this niche!
I mapped every single #indiegame and the results are fascinating.
Every blue dot is a game with <10 reviews. A bunch of blue/green dots in a single region means devs keep making attempts in this genre with no success. Can you guess what genre is in this circle?
Interesting trend revealed by my tool Game Market Atlas. When a game defines a genre and has a strong style, copycat games are mostly similar by core loop, fantasy, and hook.
They avoid copying the art style, which I suppose makes sense.
