Around 13,790 indie titles were released on Steam, the all-known video game hub in 2023 alone, accounting for 99% of all publications. This steady growth shows that indie games are worth the hype, attracting a huge fanbase with their storytelling and design elements. But without a solid indie game development team, it’s hard to make your title a crowd-puller online.
After all, creating an award-winning game takes more than just an idea. It demands a team of dedicated and skilled individuals who strive to bring your vision to life. From programming to art and sound design members, each piece comes together to make an indie game puzzle stand out. Here’s a guide to help you assemble your dream indie game development team today!
If you’re thinking about how to start an indie game studio, remember, it all begins with a clear vision. What will your game be about? What are the core mechanics of your title? What are the emotions you want players to experience? Once you answer all these questions, you’ll have a strong vision for your game that serves as a direction for the team.
The bottom line is to start with a basic idea and refine it over time through testing and research. Let’s say you want to create a game about space exploration. In this case, set your ground first: will it be a survival game or a strategy game? Then, research successful titles in the same niche to gather inspiration, like “No Man’s Sky” or “Kerbal Space Program”.
Search up reviews online (or on Reddit) and notice what people praise about these games and what they criticize. Use these details to refine your own concept — because your title can only win if it fills the gaps left by competitors. Once done, draft a Game Design Document (GDD) that includes the following:
Once you have a clear picture of your indie game, it’s time to find team members that share the same passion. Each partner plays an essential role in the development process, ensuring that everything from the mechanics to the visuals and the story, flow smoothly. Let’s look at 7 essential roles you need to hire for a winning indie game development team.
A designer has the final say in all the decisions related to game design that may impact any meta-game, core-loop, and the players. The team runs to this member to approve any changes related to the design idea. These may include anything, like adding a spaceship or astronauts in the background of a space exploration game.
Ultimately, the job of the designer is to ensure that any and all elements align to the overall game’s vision. They also update the primary Game Design Document (GDD) so all updates are properly documented for future reference. Besides, designers also create a game’s aesthetics and use storyboards to draft the narrative. These members also oversee the user experience.
Without skilled programmers, your game ideas remain just that — ideas. A programmer is the technical foundation of an indie game team, writing the code that bring your title to life. They also create prototypes based on the initial designs, which allow the team to playtest and pool in feedback.
By optimizing a game’s performance, a programmer also ensures that it works smoothly on different mobile devices and platforms. These members also troubleshoot and debug a game to ensure it plays how it’s supposed to, attracting players round-the-clock.
An artist takes care of all the art players see in an indie game, from character designs to backgrounds and more. They add depth and emotion to your title, making people feel more connected to its central theme. A premium user experience is an artist’s ultimate goal. This is why they ensure that all the menus and icons are easy to navigate (and attractive).
If you’re thinking about how to find the best 3D artists for your indie game, follow these tips:
However, considering that you’re an indie developer, you may not have the hiring budget and time like AAA studios. If so, outsourcing game art to an experienced and qualified studio like Cominted Labs might be your best bet. With years of experience creating 3D assets for industry giants, the company knows how to make your art shine without stretching resources.
A sound designer, or a video game audio engineer, sets the soundtrack in place for an indie game. They ensure that the background music, sound effects, and character voices blend smoothly with the gameplay, helping the players feel connected. The goal is to make players feel like they’re truly inside the game with ambient sounds (like wind blowing, birds chirping).
Sound designers also draft a seamless player feedback experience, which informs the players about all their moves through audio. Remember the “oof” sound from Minecraft that lets you know when you’ve taken damage? That is all the magic of a sound designer.
Nothing is more disappointing than an indie game with a solid gameplay paired with typos and a boring story. This is why hiring a skilled writer is the best decision you can make. A writer composes the game’s storyline, which includes writing plots, characters, dialogue, and in-game text.
They also set up the backstory and plot of your narrative, ensuring that each component aligns with your overall game vision. Plus, if your game is based on player choice, the writer will curate dialogue trees with a smooth branching narrative. After all, their role is to keep the player engaged with the story and boost replayability.
A project manager oversees your entire indie game development team, ensuring that it achieves the set milestones within reasonable time. They also manage the project’s budget and resources wisely by distributing the available assets over the development timeline.
Since creating an indie game requires multiple team members, like programming, art, and sound design, a project manager makes sure that everyone is on the same page. These members also identify and mitigate risks, while taking care of quality assurance.
If you’re searching about how to start a game studio within budget, know that it requires a lot of detailed financial planning. You need to have a rough roadmap of all the costs involved before you start working on your venture. Here are a few expenses to budget for:
Considering the hiring and startup expenses, launching an indie game can quickly get out of budgets. If you don’t know how to find funding for a video game, the development process gets even more difficult. Here are a few funding sources to choose from, depending on the scope and of your game project.
Crowdfunding is the process of pitching your idea to the general public in hopes of obtaining funds to finance the idea. This approach is based on raising funds from the crowd by offering backers rewards based on their contribution levels.
In other words, you can incentivize the investors through early access or in-game items for funding your project. This approach helped the game “Hollow Knight” obtain $57,000 in funds. That said, Kickstarter and Indiegogo are two great platforms to get money to finance your development.
Grants are financial awards given by governments or organizations to initiatives that sound appealing to them. They give you the funds you need without the burden of repayment as the case with loans. All you need to do is research potential grant bodies that fund similar ventures and introduce your idea in a compelling manner.
An angel investor is someone who lends you the seed money to launch your idea, normally in exchange for equity or a return on investment. They may also give you the mentorship and guidance at times based on their industry experience. To secure an angel investor, connect with potential candidates through industry conferences or LinkedIn and pitch your initiative.
When all else fails, bootstrapping your startup is always an option. It gives your initiative the seed money it needs to start developing, getting your idea off ground. Anything can be used as self-funds, from personal savings to assets and even shares. However, remember to start saving at least a few years in advance.
While assembling a skilled indie game development team may sound challenging at first, it is worth the effort. It all starts with understanding and refining your game vision, which sets the base for everything that follows. Then, find a team that shares your passion and is as dedicated to turning your idea into a reality.
At Cominted Labs, we understand how difficult it can be to manage all aspects of game development single handedly. Instead of hiring full-time staff for every position, why not shift to game art outsourcing? Trusted by over 50 gaming companies, we know what it takes to set your indie game development apart from the competition. So, hire game artists with us today!
