So big week this week as Hollow Knight: Silksong is releasing tomorrow and it is the #1 most wishlisted game on Steam. Should we scream? Cry? Yell? What is an appropriate level of fear? Here is a chart of the number of games with at least 400 followers released every Continue Reading
The demo effect: From 7000 wishlists to 42,000
Hello! This is the second installment of case studies about games released by our Moderators. Today we are looking at Parcel Simulator. A surprising number of the HTMAG moderators have gone on to release hit games! Yes yes yes correlation != causation. But, come on, something is rubbing off on Continue Reading
Gnomes: Tower Defense with 10-month dev time hits $367,484
Alright bear with me for the log rolling, but somehow the HTMAG discord has the best moderators. A high percentage of our mods end up releasing successful games. Maybe moderating all these developers’ posts gives them a deeper understanding of the industry? Maybe it is osmosis? Maybe good karma for Continue Reading
2025 Q2 games that are selling
There actually are games that are making money on Steam. Real money. And even small games made by small teams (sometimes even one person) are doing it. Every quarter I dig deep and look at and play Indie games that have earned over 1000 reviews to get a sense of Continue Reading
Don’t make your game free
I have seen a number of marketing strategies lately where developers release their game free with the hope that they will get more visibility. In today’s blog I will explain to you some of the strategies and then warn you of the dangers of free and to persuade you against Continue Reading
Can you market a game with zero following?
Lately I have been seeing more and more first-time devs lament “How can I possibly market my game when I have 0 following! No social media, no youtube subscribers.” In today’s blog post, I am here to reassure you that a huge number of the games that do well come Continue Reading
Merchant 64: The importance of rapid release and sharing your work
Middle games are the opposite of your dream game, they are games that you make quickly but not poorly. The point of a middle game is not to become a millionaire but to get something public. They are more polished and complex than a game jam game, but much less Continue Reading
Crafty Buildy Strategy Simulation Buyers Guide
At the end of 2024 I wrote my definition of the meta-genre that Steam players really really like called Crafty-buildy-strategy-simulationy-games (read it here). The “crafty-buildy” genre dominates PC. It is mostly unique to the PC marketplace. However I find that many indie game devs have a more console-game-based cultural history. Continue Reading
Consider the Horse Game
Alright, I finally got a chance to write up my thoughts on HORSE GAMES! I have been teasing my thoughts on this sub-genre for a while and finally sat down with Alice Ruppert the writer and creator of The Mane Quest blog to ask her everything about horse games. But Continue Reading
Most people who buy your game won’t play it
The amazing thing about Steam and its player base is that they buy games they aren’t going to play. More than likely the person buying your game is not going to play it. In today’ blog I am going to deep dive on how Steam players actually behave which hopefully Continue Reading