Launching Your First Indie Game? Our Marketing Leaders Share their Expertise

Why Indie Game Marketing Matters More Than Ever in 2025

It’s no secret that indie gaming has seen impressive growth over the past decade. According to Video Game Insights in 2024 indie games on Steam outsold AA and AAA games for the first time, and compared with 2018 indies had doubled their revenues on the platform. 

These numbers perhaps aren’t surprising when you consider all the indie games that have successfully cut through to mainstream audiences in recent years. However, success breeds competition, and as more and more indie developers bring their creations to gamers, the harder it is to cut through the noise and connect with audiences. 

We spoke with some of the marketing leaders across Keywords Studios to understand what indie developers can do to give their games the best chance of success when bringing them to market.

Understand Your Indie Game Audience Early to Maximize Market Fit

Hollie Gilbert, Project Director at games user research company Player Research, emphasises the importance of understanding your audience at the earliest stages of product development, she advises ‘when bringing games to market teams should prioritise two things: firstly, a behavioural and psychographic persona of who their target audience is and who they're developing and marketing their game for; and secondly, early and regular feedback from this audience.’

Having a clear view, early on, of product-market fit helps keep a project focused and ensures decisions on the game’s development is taken in the best interest of the player experience, removing some of the subjectivity. Hollie continues, ‘having access to real player insights can not only derisk the development process, allowing for more attuned feature development or a better backlog of priorities, but it also provides much more clarity to all downstream launch activity.’

Build a Winning Indie Game Brand Before You Market It

And clarity downstream, provides a critical bedrock on which to build the games brand. Christopher Tait, Head of Creative Strategy at ICHI emphasises the importance of thinking about the brand strategy before diving into marketing activations. Tait says, ‘if there’s one thing I’d recommend, it’s starting with your brand before jumping into marketing assets. A solid brand strategy sets the stage for how your game shows up in the world; it’s what helps it stand out and stick in people’s minds. When you know how it should look, sound, and behave, it’s a lot easier to make sure your marketing hits the mark.’

This risk of failing to do this work up front, Christopher argues, is a great game that fails to hit it audience: ‘you might have an awesome game, but if its unique edge—the special sauce—isn’t clearly defined, your message might not reach the people out there who’d really love it.’