iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Ludare

Nick Crosgrove 🔜 GDC 2027 @occultgamedev.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

I'm starting to spend serious time getting the Prototype and Pitch info for Moonstone out to folks. If you're scouting for projects, I would love to hear from you! We're building this for SteamDeck and Consoles, and have some very cool surprises in store! #IndieGame #GameDev

35029

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

As part of our preparation for this sponsorship, we also did a massive refresh on every single page of our website which is live now! So, watch the showcase and then come over to the Ludare platform to find some more amazing games you can support today! www.ludaregames.com

ludaregames.com

Ludare

Support your favorite indie developers!

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Tune in to see some of the best new ideas that studios are working on and show your support for fresh, new ideas. At least one of which will be joining the platform in the near future.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Helping new games go from early playable to fully launched game has been the core driver of our company from the very beginning. As such, we're really excited to announce that we are sponsoring the Insider Gaming Funding Showcase today! www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NsD...

youtube.com

The Insider Gaming Showcase - May 2026 Edition - LIVE AT 3PM ET

The Insider Gaming Showcase brings you 75 minutes of world premieres, announcements, and new trailers from 55 games. The games you'll see in this show are at different stages of development, and are…

110

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

From that first time someone gets to experience your game through your vision completed vision being shared with millions. So, if you are working on something now and want to get it in front of your most dedicated fans, lets talk about how Ludare can empower that.

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

There has to be something that makes you stand out in terms of experience or benefits to the player. At Ludare, our core focus has always been on making indie game development more sustainable.

110

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

It's become really clear in the last couple weeks how important it is for games and game platforms to compete on something other than price. Especially since there will always be another company or studio that has a bigger purse and willingness to sustain themselves long enough to take your market.

110

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Ludare gives your game a home from the earliest moments that makes every single major event, planned or unplanned, a major boost forward for your studio and game without risking a publisher partnership. Reach out if you want to learn more about how Ludare can work for you and your game.

010

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

All things that are really hard to do as an indie without burning the opportunities that publishers want. Things like Steam Next Fest, influencer partnerships, or viral moments. These are hard to take advantage of without planning for it or risking taking one of those moments from publishers.

110

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Coming back from DICE, the consensus seems to be that investment is moving slowly and more hesitantly. This means that if you are working on a new game right now, you need to be finding your audience, getting information, and have the resources to weather a due diligence process 3-4 times longer.

111

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

If you want access to a community focused on supporting early games in a way that can result in you getting the real money and data needed to make your game, check out the Ludare platform. Ludare: www.ludaregames.com Diesel Knights Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/die...

ludaregames.com

Ludare

Support your favorite indie developers!

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

This is also on top of the dwindling potential backers and total backing dollars spent on the platform each year. This is part of why we are building Ludare, a platform focused on building early community connections and getting the resources to develop your games without risking potential players.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

For example, putting your game on Steam as a demo is unlikely to reach the average user unless you really get the ball rolling yourself for the algorithm to catch it and spread it. Even then, those demo plays are risk some sales or give your game a bad reputation if it’s not fully ready for players.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Diesel Knight’s Discord is almost as big as it’s backer list showing that a large amount of support for something like a Kickstarter is going to come from those most interested fans. However, building this community is hard today and very few if any platforms are there to support you.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

One of the most important is how much work on outreach and community building (AKA marketing) needs to be done before and after the campaign to make it successful at all, let alone half a million dollars successful.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

I had someone share the Diesel Knights Kickstarter with me recently as an example of a highly successful indie Kickstarter. I think there are some key lessons that can be learned from their success that many people struggle to understand when they are looking to do their own crowdfunding campaigns.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 31/12/2025

2026 seems like it could be another big year for indies. So, make a resolution to try more indies games throughout the year. If you are looking for somewhere to find some of the most innovative, upcoming indies, check out our library at Ludare! www.ludaregames.com/Library

ludaregames.com

Ludare

Support your favorite indie developers!

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Wishing a happy holidays to all the indies out there. Take some time off of your project and relax before starting back up again in 2026.

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

If you want the same kinds of tools that make early access so valuable for Larian, check out Ludare and the integrated data analytics that we are building. www.ludaregames.com

ludaregames.com

Ludare

Support your favorite indie developers!

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

However, you have to make sure you have the systems in place to make it valuable. Either way, really excited to see what Larian has in store.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

The fact that Larian is choosing to continue to do early access really highlights the importance of building in the real world with your community. It gives you a lot of information that you can't get otherwise in the most direct way.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

So, we need to look at new solutions and data that can better show real sales potential. Things that are driven by player behavior and require a certain amount of work to do. On Ludare, we can expand your signals into play session details, progression, and net promoter score without extra work.

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Not to mention that the early wishlists that get you attention and partners are the ones that covert the least. Wishlist generation is also testing a set of skills that typically would be taken on by publishers (marketing) or can be easily blitz scaled with enough capital.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 15/12/2025

Wishlists are an interesting quantity that studios and publishers have decided to build their decision making around. It is certainly the closest approximation to sales that is fairly universal in PC but it converts at such a low rate (1-5%) that it easily becomes more noise than signal.

110

Reposted by Ludare

Baba ✌🏾 @baba-bloo-owl.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Happy to announce my next game, A Baby CEO?! You play as a nepo baby with good intentions who tries to bring childlike whimsy to a struggling book company! store.steampowered.com/app/3965540/...

44313

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Congrats to Sandfall, Team Cherry, and all the other TGA winners. However, remember that what we saw at the awards doesn't represent even 1/1000 of the total games industry. The ones that will come to define the industry going forward are more likely found in someone's living room than at TGA.

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Interesting data further highlighting that EA is your launch. Really highlighting the need for places where games can get support early without burning the all important initial release. newsletter.gamediscover.co/p/the-state-...

newsletter.gamediscover.co

The state of Steam Early Access 'graduates' in 2025

Data? We've got hella data. Also: musings on Switch discoverability & news.

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

If you want to improve the quality of data you are able to build with, reach out. DMs are open!

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

The expensive nature of these other insights largely came from the lack of a general solution and the overhead to build your own. Ludare is taking that first step to build a comprehensive data suite for the metrics that matter most for making a game and drive confidence from partners.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

Part of the reason developers and publishers rely on that one metric is because it's the easiest one to be collected (it's automatic once you release a Steam page) and is the closest to real sales data that can be collected without serious resources and investment.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

But the only major metric most studios gather, analyze, and present to publishers is whishlists which don't really indicate the quality of the game as much as the teams ability to market it. Which is an entirely different skill set than that needed to make a game.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

When we talk about analytics, there are a lot of good insights that can be pulled from comprehensive analysis and collection of data on who is playing, how often they play, and how long they play.

110

Reposted by Ludare

Zhenia Puzankov @allworms.bsky.social · 06/12/2025

My Narrative Design Lessons bundle is now live! You can get at least a book worth of ND foundations, dialogue design, and experimental tools. All come with a free lesson. Been doing this 16 years. So happy to share. itch.io/s/172588/nar... #narrativedesign #gamedev #indiedev #gamewriting

itch.io

Narrative Design Lessons by All Worms

A bundle by All Worms, $50.00 for Dialogue Design Lectures, Narrative Crash Course, Strangened Narratives

11815

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Ludare is trying to build that new way through our low cost subscription and playtime based revenue sharing. If you are a developer making something new, or a player wanting to support new ideas, lets talk.

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

This has resulted in the total funding for video games halving across the same number of projects. Clearly this indicates that there is interest in supporting new ideas but not with the current, high risk methods.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Kickstarter at one point was a very strong platform for indie studios. You could pitch off of some early art and a team to get all your development needs met and a early audience. But the last decade of operations has shown a trend away from the platform because you shift all the risk to players.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 03/12/2025

We're excited to welcome @allworms.bsky.social' entire game catalog of AHANAR, Baby Labor, and Duck Date to the Ludare platform! Sign up at ludaregames.com and you too can support developers like All Worms!

ludaregames.com

Ludare

Support your favorite indie developers!

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

With the game awards around the corner and the year close to ending, what has been the most experimental game you tried this year? Blue Prince is one of our favorite attempts to twist the deck building genre and it executed it well!

010

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

There has now been 3 major instances in the last month made public of indie developers impacted negatively by the near monopoly on PC game distribution. Maybe it's time we look at different platforms and solutions so that the choices of one group doesn't determine if a studio survives.

000

Reposted by Ludare

Zhenia Puzankov @allworms.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

On Sep 12th we’re launching a new narrative design course. 13 weeks long. Full online with live calls and exciting assignments! If you want to make something that includes audience/player collaboration, this is the class for you. #indiedev #narrativedesign #gamedev allworms.notion.site

allworms.notion.site

Interactive Narratives | Narrative Design Course

Join this Narrative Design course now for 600 USD! Only in November!

0199

Reposted by Ludare

Jason Schreier @jasonschreier.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Two months after Valnet purchased Polygon, the gaming site is running advertisements designed to look like articles

281257253

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

We can't just expect all players to go along with the mantra of "less game, lower quality, higher price" but we can change the dynamics so that players feel they get treated well while increasing indie games' share of the wallet and drive more revenue to developers and do so early in the process.

000

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Not wanting to leave this thread on a down note, I'm sure you're left with the question of "OK, well what do we do about it?" Well, as a startup looking to overcome this weakness in the gaming marketplaces, our answer is to change the formula and use the power of indies coming together.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

This means that our current markets are driving us to lower our prices even more than the outside economies and realities of survival are already driving prices to the lowest possible. This impact is even more strongly felt amongst indie games where there is immense pricing pressure and competition.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

So, even if we say that back in the 90's I was able to sell my game at $40 and that I was able to keep that up in real value, the raise of sales mean that I would have had to undercut my own price in the recent decades to something like $32 today. (Assuming an average 20% discount)

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

The thing that it doesn't cover is the increasing downward pressure on prices that comes from the increased price competition within the actual game marketplaces themself. So, we already at a heavily devalued dollar but then we end up taking less of that.

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

Namely, it was this chart. The one that highlights that games have never been cheaper in terms of real prices pegged to the 2024 $. It also shows an interesting tid bit that any price increases tend to get lost very quickly. (In this case in less than 2.5 years.)

100

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 20/02/2025

I was reviewing Matthew Ball's outright massive and very insightful slide deck where I was realizing that I think there is something in that deck that is actually very understated. So, let's dive into some of the realities of selling a game. #indiegames #gamebizdev #gamepricing

150

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Continuing to roll out our library announcements, next we have Solar Purge from Hitscan Games. Solar Purge is a top down, twin stick shooter where you and up to 3 of your friends can explore a sci fi world as you fight off hoards of aliens. Sign up: www.devpowered.com #gamedev #indiegames #ludare

041

Ludare @ludare.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

Continuing in release lineup announcements, we have Sweetcore Brews. Sweetcore Brews is a visual novel based on the classic witchy sitcoms. Made by the wonderful developers at @nochistudios.bsky.social. Join now to support Nochi and others. www.devpowered.com

021