If you were laid off from your AAA job, are thinking of starting an indie studio, and are struggling to decide what type of game to make, I wrote today’s blog post just for you.

In last week’s blog I explained how different the indie game space is from the AAA space. Specifically, I hope you picked up how important the right type of game is to find success as an indie game developer. It is critical to understand that there are genres that just don’t sell on Steam. 

In the previous post I explained that AAA dark-ride “going around” games are very very hard to sell at indie scale because they are too content intensive and too short for the tastes of Steam. Instead, it is important to focus on games that indies can actually make, and that the Steam audience wants. The games that sell well on Steam are quite niche and you might have never heard of them if you mostly familiar with AAA games. 

In today’s blogs I will list a bunch of these niche genres with example games that you can play and get a sense of how they work. I also listed a time commitment associated with those games because, well, savings and severance don’t last forever. 

But first, a warning

My goal with this list is to expand your understanding of what games are. There are lots of micro-genres within Steam that are wildly popular but few people outside of that clique know about. I list example games because I want you to go off and play some games in genres you have never heard of. You might find your new favorite genre!

If you decide to make a game in one of these genres, please learn the particulars of it, and respect the fans. I find too many indie developers shoot themselves in the foot because they mashup too many genres. When I list popular genres there is always some guy in the Reddit comments that says: “Ha haha I am going to make a Horror SLASH Dating SLASH Colony Sim Game because Chris said all those genres are popular.” 

That is not how genre works.

In this blog post I wrote that I think Genre mashups are riskier than people realize. People are fans of genres because they like the tropes of that genre. When you mix up too much you violate what they want and they will not like or recommend your game to their friends (See “Lesson #5: Careful with the innovation”). Probably the best way to innovate within a genre is to just change the setting or theming while leaving the underlying gameplay mechanics the same. I know it sounds boring, but that is what the fans want.

With that, here are a bunch of games I recommend you play based on the job role you held at your AAA studio.

Designers

Role: Systems designer

An experienced systems designer transitioning to indie games probably has the best chance to have a hit game out of all the job roles in a AAA studio. You know how to make games replayable, you can balance economies, create a good level progression so there is a balance of difficulty and novelty, and you can properly pronounce Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. You know how to make late-game systems that are satisfying. Steam loves deep deep systems which is why I think you have the best shot at making the types of games that will sell well on Steam:

Screenshot of the infinitely deep colony sim Rim World

Genres and example games that will do well for you:

Avoid these genres 

  • Tower Defense (I know these should work as a popular genre, but I find this genre very hit or miss for unexplained reasons. I think they have just been around for a while and Steam is tired of them). 
  • Real Time Strategy (A PC standby, yes, but I just find some games that should do well here, don’t. For some reason Steam doesn’t like them anymore)

Best bet for System Designers: Colony Sim

UI Designers / UI Developer / UX Designer / UI Artists and Graphic Designers

UI is so valuable to a good game, especially the menu-heavy type of crafty-buildy-strategy games favored by the Steam audience. Unlike AAA games where you typically control a 3D character, the types of games Steam likes are driven by complex menus and button presses. If you were responsible for UI in your AAA studio, your skills can really serve you well.

I don’t have hardcore data on this but my gut says games with a Tech tree sell 10,000% better than games that do not. Here is the gorgeous tech tree from Old World.

Genres and example games that will do well for you:

Narrative Designers and Writers

As I wrote above, Steam prefers crafty-buildy-simulationy games that have no linear content and story is secondary. HOWEVER, there are a few sub genres that buck that trend and they are mostly horror games and visual novels. Here are some genres that would do so well for your skill set and can be built my a small team.

Choices matter for Visual Novels. Here is the hit game Slay the Princess.

Genres and example games that will do well for you:

  • Adult Games [Short] (Do your own research) – I know I know writing smutty material isn’t why you got that English degree but hear me out… The fanbase is very very…thirsty and with your ability to write great dialog and descriptive scene setting, I think you would do great here. And if you aren’t comfortable telling everyone you are making porn, you can always create a separate Steam account to publish your trashy visual novels. And don’t feel discouraged, many famous authors earned money writing smut under pseudonyms for imprints like Olympia Press (read about it here) 
  • Horror games [Medium] Write great scenarios, hire an artist to make a monster for you and you have a good shot at doing well.

Avoid these genres 

  • Point & Click Adventures – There are a few hits out there but they are mostly from developers who have been making these games for decades and built up a following. One of the limiting factors for these games is that Streamers don’t like to stream them because they don’t want to feel dumb on stream.
  • Walking Simulators – A few years ago these games had quite a following. However it seems like the genre really quieted and haven’t seen many take off in some time. These games are also quite resource intensive.

Programmers

Role: Engine programmer

You are the theoretical physicists of the game world. You can code at the machine level. You understand deep systems architecture. You make game engines, drivers, and algorithms that the world depends on but doesn’t even know they exist. You are death, the destroyer of worlds.

That is awesome. 

Unfortunately I have found that sometimes deep engine and system programmers don’t have the finesse and balk at the spaghetti code required for gameplay programming that makes Mario’s jumps feel satisfying. With that in mind, the genres I recommend you focus on are the most complicated genres that require deep, low level architecture to get right.

Do you understand orbital mechanics? Good! Steam loves those types of games. Here is Kerbal Space Program.

Genres and example games that will do well for you:

Avoid these genres 

  • Puzzle games with circuit boards – For some reason engineers always design circuit board puzzle games. I have seen lots of them and they never sell well.
  • Puzzle games in general – I know you are the smartest person at the company, but Steam players just don’t like puzzle games. Streamers don’t like puzzle games. It is very very risky.
  • Action, arcade, combat games, souls-likes – Again if you are not used to doing gameplay programming, avoid real-time action games. Gameplay programmers who can make games like Dark Souls “feel” good are artists. If you don’t have that skill, avoid anything that requires real-time dexterity and finesse. If you can’t make the gameplay feel perfect, fans will revolt because they demand fluid controls.

Best bet for Engine Programmer: Deep simulation physics sandbox games 

Role: Netcode / Multiplayer programmer and designer

I will tell you right now, multiplayer is not a good fit for small indie teams. It is too hard to get the critical mass of players together to field a full multiplayer server. Fans also expect constant updates every season with new content. Also, hackers can take over a server and if you don’t patch it fast enough, fans will run away. 

Please, I am begging you, don’t make a multiplayer game for your first post-AAA game. 

Genres and example games that will do well for you:

My advice is to look at all the hit single player indie games and see which one you could confidently make a coop player experience with excellent net code.  

Best Bet: Coop Horror

Role: Artists

Other than gameplay designers, I find artists can find the most success in indie games. Artists can make visuals that just go viral and earn you thousands and thousands of wishlists. 

However, the dark side of this is that typically artists aren’t coders or designers so their games are beautiful but the actual gameplay might be boring, buggy, overly simplistic, or janky. For that reason, all my recommendations here revolve around games where the controls and gameplay are not as vital to the game’s success.  

There are several types of artists within AAA studios so I broke them down into sub categories based on discipline.

Role:  Character artists 

Because you can make perfectly rigged, amazingly lifelike characters, you might be tempted to make an action adventure platformer game. DON’T! They are very very hard to sell on Steam and they require a ton of assets that as an indie you can’t make. Instead I recommend working on genres that do well with great looking characters that don’t rely on “going around” an environment.

The creepy character design of Indie Horror Hit The Mortuary Assistant

Genres and example games that will do well for you:

  • Visual novels [Short] – Fans love beautiful still art here. Also the coding for a visual novel is a lot less intense than other genres. The down side is you have to do a LOT of writing.
  • Vampire-Survivor Likes [Small] (Vampire Survivors, Brotato, 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Halls of Torment) – The genre is getting saturated but good art can make you stand out. 
  • Horror games [Medium] (Choo-Choo Charles, The Mortuary Assistant) – These games live or die based on how good the monster design is. The good thing for artists is the way you stand out in a horror game is in the art, and not the deep gameplay systems. Also you can probably just retheme an off-the-shelf FPS code pack from one of the asset stores to save yourself the pain of coding it up.
  • NSFW Games (I won’t link to them, you know how to find them) – Listen, sometimes you just need money fast to pay off expenses until you get your studio put together.  Erotic games sell extremely well on Steam. Look. You know how to make realistic looking characters. You have probably taken a bunch of figure drawing and modeling classes. Might be a good short term project. You just might not want to put it on your resume though.
  • Turn based battlers [Long] (Darkest Dungeon, Iratus, Monster Train) – If you have great art in this genre you will really stand out. The risk here is they require a lot of deep systems design to satisfy the Steam audience. Don’t approach this genre unless you have great gameplay design chops.

Avoid:

  • 2D and 3D platformers – These games can be traps for artists. Yes, if you are a good artist you can stand out, however, the controls for a platformer must be so exact and feel so good that anything less than perfect will be ignored or at worst reviewed poorly. You can only succeed as a platformer if you are the best game of the year. All the other genres I list above are more forgiving with fanbases because the players have voracious appetites. Also, a platformer with good art takes a long long time to produce. It is risky. 
  • Battle Royale / Hero Shooters – I always find the character design of these FPS/3rd Person shooters so interesting and would fit your skillset. AAA Companies that make Battle Royale often hire a bunch of character artists to make skins and new heroes. So you probably know that genre. However, multiplayer games are very very hard to succeed in and require a lot of net code to do it right.

Best bet for character artists: Horror Games

Role: VFX or Environment artist or Level Designer

For Environment artists, they can make any screenshot look like a work of art. Whether it is lighting, particle effects, or just a painterly skybox, environment artists are what we think of when we think of AAA.

If you were a level designer, you might be tempted to make an 3D adventure game. Watch out. At AAA studios, you were probably responsible for making individual levels for a linear, content-heavy game. The gameplay that sells at Indie scale is different.

To save you from that trap I have selected a bunch of genres that benefit from great visuals but can be built by smaller teams.

Beautiful Tiny Glade has racked up over 400,000 wishlists. Beautiful games almost market themselves.

Genres and example games that will do well for you:

  • 3D environment making games [Medium] (Townscaper, Tiny Glade, Flowscape)- There is no official genre name for these, but it is this secretly HOT genre if you have the environment art skills. In these games, players use intuitive controls to create amazing looking scenes. They are like little digital sandboxes where no matter how untalented the player is, they can always make a virtual diorama that looks amazing. It is like digital model making. There is no goal or challenge, just beauty.
  • Home decorating games [Medium] (Unpacking, Furnish Master, Paralives)- Another HOT secret sub genre that benefits environment artists. These are games where you decorate miniature interiors. Yes I know Unpacking is a bit of a narrative-proto-puzzle game, but I think a lot of its popularity stems from how fun it is to digitally create a perfect space. 
  • Horror games [Medium] (Choo-Choo Charles, Don’t Scream) – If you can make a spooky forest, a realistic looking cabin in the woods, you could do so well with the horror genre. These games depend on creepy locations and your skillset will set you apart from the rest.
  • Open World Survival Craft [Long] (Valheim, The Raft, V Rising) – These games are all about having limited resources at the start and getting thrown into a giant unforgiving world. As an environment artist, you can make that world beautiful. Note though, that these games are massive in scope and typically need someone who is also strong with systems design because if this game is too simple and not enough systems, the fans will reject you. Did I mention that Steam fans want deep deep games?
  • Simulation game [Medium] (MudRunner, Euro Truck Simulator, PowerWash Simulator, Lawn Mowing Simulator) – Don’t laugh. Simulation games are HUGE. They are so, so popular on Steam. If you have the skills to create a realistic looking world, make a simulation game! In these games you have a seemingly mundane job in that world. Players typically inhabit a blue collar career and buy upgrades after completing jobs. Take it seriously and make the gameplay deep. I am serious. They sell amazingly well.

Avoid:

  • Adventure Games (both 2D and 3D): You are very good at creating beautiful worlds but avoid the temptation to try and make an indie-scale Uncharted or Assassin’s Creed game. AAA games where you just “Go around” need so much content, and the controls and the interaction must be at such a high fidelity that a small indie team cannot meet the expectations of the fan base. All the other genres I list above are much better alternatives that linear adventure games.
  • 2D platformers / Metroidvanias – To succeed at indie scale, your graphics basically have to be revolutionary BUT the controls also have to be amazing. Blasphemous, Ori and the Blind Forest, Hollow Knight are your competition. Your competition is fierce and the costs are high. I really only see one or two indie-scale platformer-adventure games that can succeed each year. Please, there is much less competition if you try to make a game from those I list in the “Good Genres” section. The fans are BEGGING us to make more games in those genres. Steam doesn’t need another 2D platformer.
  • Boomer shooter – Although this is a quite popular genre, and the art style has a simplified low-poly look which reduces production time, and I love them, I find they are very hit or miss. Boomer shooters are also “going around” games which means you often get stuck on the content creation treadmill where the success of the game depends on you pumping out tons of expensive seen-only-once content. If you want to create a FPS, consider doing something with more generative content like Mothergunship.
  • Multiplayer games – If you are a multiplayer level designer you might be tempted to create your well honed skillset to make the multiplayer shooter you always wanted. But DON’T. Multiplayer is very very hard to sell because you need a HUGE player base and lots of content. Instead, consider making a coop multiplayer horror game. Coop doesn’t require an open lobby system and instead relies on people bringing their own friends.
  • Immersive Sims – Every level designer I have met secretly has a dream Immersive Sim that they have always wanted to make. But Immersive Sims destroy studios. I looked at the top 500 selling indie games of 2022 and only 1 was an immersive sim. They are too complex for indies and nobody buys them when there are AAA alternatives. Please do not listen to the siren song of Immersive Sims. 

Best Bet for VFX and Environment artists and Level Designers: Horror Games.

Role: Concept artists

I love looking at concept art for upcoming AAA games but unfortunately the bootstrapped budgets of indie studios means that they just don’t have the need for painterly 2D art to prototype their look. They gotta just start making their game.

Now you might be tempted to use your 2D art skills to make a beautiful 2D action adventure platformer. But as I have mentioned, 2D platformers are a very very hard sell on Steam. However, there are a number of genres that are very popular that could still use your skillset (even if it isn’t concept art).

Just because the world has embraced 3D art doesn’t mean 2D art is dead. All the games here feature excellent 2D art. Here they are.

Genres and example games that will do well for you:

  • Card Battlers / Card Games [Medium] (Monster Train, Stacklands) – Card art and UI art is crucial to standing out in this genre. The risk with these games is that the systems design MUST be deep. So brush up on your system design skills. If you try to make a “casual” card battler game, the fans of the genre will ignore you. You must go deeper.
  • Incremental game [Short] (Orb of Creation, Microcivilization, Chillquarium) – These games typically feature simpler-graphics and are extremely popular. I think there is a real opportunity to make a beautiful looking incremental game. But don’t think that if you have a pretty game you can slack on the depth of the design. These fans love deep incremental games and don’t care what it looks like. 
  • Horror games (2D versions) [Medium] (My Beautiful Paper Smile, Lily’s Well, REFLEXIA Prototype ver., At Home Alone Final, FAITH: The Unholy Trinity) – Although most horror games are 3D FPS trips into hell, there is a sub genre of 2D horror games that transcend because they have extremely creepy art.
  • Visual Novel [Medium] (Slay the Princess, Our Life: Beginnings & Always, Cooking Companions) Visual Novels (VNs) are the unique outlier in that they are a linear(ish) genre that focuses on content. But you create a ton of high quality art to stand out and have a killer story. But if you nail it, there is a high upside.  
  • Narrative Strategy Games [Medium] (Roadwarden, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. Citizen Sleeper) – This is a very specific sub genre that is like a Visual Novel but with a little additional strategy and choice making. Much like a VN they rely on beautiful static 2D art to set the mood.
  • Turn based battlers [Long] (Darkest Dungeon, Iratus, Monster Train) – If you have great art in this genre you will really stand out. The risk here is they require a lot of deep systems design to satisfy the Steam audience. Don’t approach this genre unless you have great gameplay design chops.

Avoid:

Same advice applies as I mention for environment artists, avoid 2D action adventure platformers. That genre is so overcrowded and relies on you having excellent controls even if your art is spectacular.

Adjacent Game jobs:

  • I know you probably want to work on your own game, but in the short term you could earn a lot of money painting Thumbnails (Steam calls them Capsules) for games. A Steam capsule is one of the most important marketing assets and your skills are in demand. Every day someone asks me if I know any good artists to do a capsule for them. Indies need the help!

Best Bet: 2D Horror Game

Production roles

Role: Audio / Sound designer

It might seem to obvious “I am a sound designer, I should make a rhythm game” But DONT! They don’t sell that well on Steam especially at indie scale because it is hard for us to license popular music. Yes I Know Trombone Champ went viral but it is an outlier because it is silly.

Here is an alternative

  • Horror games [Medium] (Choo-Choo Charles, Don’t Scream) – Part of the fun of Horror games is that they are in darkness (which decreases the need for graphical assets) and they rely on sound. Perfect for you.

Also consider releasing music packs for asset stores. A lot of developers cannot afford bespoke music but still want their games to sound good. 

Role: Producers and QA and Marketing

Producers are the most underrated roles on any development team. Like literally. Check out this management study where they looked at the various roles in a game studio and found that producers had the biggest impact on whether a game was profitable or not. If you have a choice between a star designer and a star producer, it is actually better to have a star producer. AMAZING! 

Bad reviews sink buggy games and QAs are all that is holding that back. Similar to producers you might have a secondary skill which applies above. 

Marketing! My heart! Marketing and community teams have been greatly affected by the layoffs but their skills are so vital to success of any game.

If you were recently laid off from a AAA studio and specialize in one of these roles that works with a larger team, consider freelancing or blogging to support yourself post AAA life.

Seriously, I know it sounds boring and old fashioned to blog when it is much more fun to just dunk on some idiots on Social Media but please for your sanity and your long term financial health, blogging is much much more valuable. It opens doors, gets you speaking engagements, clients, book offers. Nobody writes long form anymore so you will stand out. 

I wrote a starter guide here when all the social media platforms started imploding on themselves. 

I am not just saying this as a nicety, I am telling you to do this because I know first hand that my career here in the games industry is a direct result of writing a weekly blog. It really does work to write long form. 

Please, consider writing a regular blog. 

Bonus: Genres everyone should to avoid

No matter what role you had in AAA, there are a few genres which I always warn developers against:

  • VR games on Steam – The VR market just isn’t there on Steam. There is often only 1 successful VR game on Steam per year. If you really want to make a financially sustainable VR game, consider pitching Facebook and getting it on the Oculus store. 
  • Top down Space shooters or SHMUPs – Space shooter games like Galaxian, Asteroids, Gradius, Ikaruga are very hard sells to the Steam audience. If you really want to make a space shooter, consider making a Vampire-Survivors-like OR if you really like spaceships, consider making a crafty-buildy-style spaceship game like Cosmoteer or Gratuitous Space Battles or Stellaris.
  • Match 3 – Yes, Match 3 is the biggest genre on Mobile but it is a poison pill on Steam. I have worked with indie teams that mix-in a Match 3 mechanic with a popular genre and the game failed. Adding Match 3 to any genre is going to hurt your chances. Steam players really hate match 3.
  • Battle Royale – Fortnite is one of the most profitable games ever but it is a bad idea for you to make one of these games. Fans of the genre usually only pick one Battle Royale game to play and they play nothing but it. So there is not much room for more than 2 or 3 of these games across all of Steam. It is very very hard to break into this market.
  • “Casual” versions of a game – Read my post on why you should avoid making casual games. Some new indie devs say to themselves “I don’t think I can make a game that is as deep as Rim World so I will make a simpler version for non-fans.” This is a mistake. Steam Fans hate “casual versions” of other games. They want deeper versions. The reviews will say “Baby’s first version of <genre>” or “This feels like a mobile port” or “Bored, only played 5 hours and saw all the content.” Steam wants deep games. NOTE: Casual is different than “Wholesome.” Wholesome games are very viable. But simplified versions are very risky.

Summary

Ok I know that was a long list. If you are confused and have analysis paralysis, just start blogging and make a Horror Game.