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After your first indie game, decide what you want the studio to become before choosing its next project. A solo game made around other work, a self-published release intended to support a team, and a publisher-backed production demand different scopes, budgets, timelines, and levels of financial risk.
Start with the future you want
Before asking what game to make next, ask what kind of studio you want to run. Your answer shapes the project: how much time and money you can commit, how many people you need, how much creative and financial risk you can accept, and whether the next release needs to support another one.
The planning discussion in The Business of Indie Games contrasts a game intended to fund a 10-person team and a follow-up with a solo project made on nights and weekends. Those are different business goals, not merely different-sized versions of the same plan.
- Hobby or nights-and-weekends project: Set boundaries around the time and personal money you can afford to contribute. The project may not need to generate a studio-sized income.
- Self-published release: Plan for development as well as the costs and work of bringing the game to market. Your budget and schedule should account for the possibility that revenue arrives later or is lower than hoped.
- Publisher-backed production: Consider whether outside financing and support fit the game and the studio’s goals. Assess the agreement’s actual terms rather than assuming a publisher will remove financial or operational risk.
- Mixed model: Co-development or contract work can sit alongside original IP. Decide how paid work will affect the time and capacity available for your own game.
There is no universal best path. Compare options by creative control and ownership, upfront capital and exposure, team and scope, delivery timeline, marketing and operational support, revenue timing, and the ability to fund a follow-up.
#1 Best Overall
Turn the goal into a project plan
Once you know what the studio is trying to achieve, translate that ambition into connected decisions. A plan is useful when it shows how the game’s audience, scope, people, time, and money fit together—not when it is just a release date or a budget target.
- Target market: Identify the players the game is for and what you need to learn about whether they will want it.
- Scope: Define what the team can realistically build and deliver. If the schedule or budget changes, revisit what is in the game.
- Engine and technology: Choose tools that suit the project and the team’s capabilities; account for their effect on production.
- Localization: Decide which languages and regions are part of the plan and include their work in scope, schedule, and budget.
- Timeline: Make milestones and the release window work with the scope and available people. A date can affect hiring and what the team can finish.
- Team: Identify the skills and capacity required at each stage, including whether work will be done by employees, contractors, or partners.
- Budget and runway: Estimate what production and release require, how long available funds need to last, and what happens if revenue does not arrive on the hoped-for schedule.
These choices depend on one another. Moving the release date can change hiring needs; adding features can change both budget and schedule. Revisit the plan when assumptions change instead of treating the original date, scope, or team size as fixed.
Choose funding with its trade-offs in view
Self-financing, project-based or publishing deals, co-development, and contract income are possible parts of a studio’s funding mix. Each changes the balance of risk, control, workload, and potential future revenue. Compare concrete terms and project fit; broad industry trends cannot tell you which option is right for your studio.
In its 2025 State of the Game Industry report, GDC said 56% of respondents had put their own money into game creation and 28% had used project-based or publishing deals as a funding source. These are respondent-reported findings, not estimates of what every studio does or a forecast of an individual game’s chances.
GDC’s 2026 trends report announcement points to co-development and indie funds as active parts of the financing conversation. It notes: “While larger studios face challenges seeking funding through proof-of-concept prototypes (and more), indie game funds are helping to fill the gaps.” That describes a broad trend; it does not establish that a particular fund is accepting applications or that its terms fit your project. Check availability, eligibility, and commercial terms directly before building them into a plan.
Keep figures in context when using industry surveys to inform decisions. GDC says its 2026 State of the Game Industry report draws on responses from more than 2,300 game industry professionals. That sample and its questions differ from those of other reports, so survey findings are signals about respondents, not population-wide certainties.
Rank #4
Unity’s 2025 Gaming Report says more than 60% of developers in its survey named extracting more value from each game as a primary strategy in the current industry climate. Treat that as reported industry context, not a prescription to add monetization or extra products. Any revenue strategy still needs to fit the game, its players, and the studio’s capacity.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Plan for the release and the next game
A launch is a transition in the studio’s plan, not a reason to stop planning. The indie-business planning material recommends saving or reinvesting any remaining profit and beginning preparation for the next game before the current release cycle is fully over. That preparation may include evaluating what the team learned, deciding how much runway to preserve, and revisiting the next project’s scope and budget.
Do not treat a release as proof that the studio can now sustain itself indefinitely. Decide in advance how money from the game will be allocated, and update that decision against actual income and costs. The aim is to make each project leave the studio with a clearer understanding of its resources and options for the next one.
Test adjacent revenue before taking on another business
Merchandise and other adjacent products can look like a natural extension of a game, but producing and selling them involves work beyond game development. Before committing to inventory, test whether players want the product and whether the expected margins justify the time, cash, and operational effort. Do not assume that interest in a game automatically translates into profitable demand for merchandise.
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