Ask HN: How do you build organic traction as an indie dev?

7 points by charm137 7 days ago | 7 comments

I have recently become a fulltime indie gamedev.

While I'm willing to trust myself on technical and creative output, the topic of getting the word out that I might release something interesting and worth people's time seems to have become increasingly daunting. Most popular technical channels like HN / specific sub-reddits require active community participation and "karma-farming" just to be able to post something, which is hard for me to spend time on (I'd rather work on my stuff). Twitter(X) / Bluesky have low visibility for gamedev topics. All text-focused websites seem to have become really hard organic marketing channels especially after AI slop came in.

IG / Tiktok / Twitch would be channels I'd rather use when I get into the actual spending-marketing-dollars mode (i.e., inorganic; which is also when I'd get into Steam / App Store level marketing as well).

So far, Youtube seems to be the one place where the algorithm might not be quite as punitive as the gates that other places have put up, but it's not a place for getting high-quality feedback (surprisingly videos on LinkedIn do rather well - on engagement but not sure that's the right channel).

What do folks here in a similar situation do?

mirmor23 6 days ago |

> Most popular technical channels like HN / specific sub-reddits require active community participation and "karma-farming" just to be able to post something, which is hard for me to spend time on (I'd rather work on my stuff).

the irony of this post!

why should people care about what you are up to when you've no interest in even pretending?

it also seems like you are angling for maximum impact with minimal effort AND budget. how about giving away the game for free for the first 6 months to see if it passes the turd test?

gus_massa 6 days ago |

Do you have a blog? What are the two most interesting anecdotes about developing your game that you would tell an old friend while drinking a beer?

charm137 4 days ago | |

Yes. And it's rather dry and technical. Good advice on the "interesting anecdotes" / story aspect of it.

gus_massa 3 days ago | | |

URL? I can try to take a look and pick 2 or 3 I like, as a recommendation to post here. (Anyway, it's difficult to predict what the hivemind will upvote.) (Which are your 2 or 3 favorites?)

robosynx 7 days ago |

In the same position as yours. Hit the ground and talk to people is the best way to reach clients and potential leads.

charm137 6 days ago | |

Thank you. That indeed appears to be the best approach. Judging by some other comments here, I sense many people here (just like much of the internet) are just angry by default for some reason and assume no prior effort on the part of the poster rather than offer solutions to what is a legitimate business problem.

krapp 6 days ago |

Do you have a website? Do you have a devblog? Have you actually built anything? There isn't anything in your HN profile to point to.

No one is going to care that you "might release something interesting and worth people's time" in a market that was saturated even before AI slop. What do you actually have that's worth anyone's time?

You build organic traction through community participation, and getting people interested in something real and sincere. You have to put in the effort.