Members of the Game Republic student club attended a webinar with panellists Jared Rigby (co-founder of Seventh Disorder), Sarah York (founder of Panda Cat games), Nareice Wint (studio head of Miami Avalon). The session was centred primarily around what skills are needed to start an indie studio, marketing and building a strong community and better organising ongoing projects.
The webinar formed part of Game Republic’s activities for 2026 supported by Official Partners Red Kite Games, Xsolla, Double Eleven and Strategic Partner Steel City Interactive. Here are some of the key points from the session…
Starting an Indie Studio
While the specific paths into founding a studio differed significantly between panellists, the core themes throughout were a shared passion for creating games and building something meaningful that ‘encompasses’ all the values they care about. Rather than following a single pattern, studio formation often grows out of existing creative work, long-term career ambitions, or early-stage collaborations that gradually become more serious over time.
“What first set me off on the path of setting up our own studio was finding collaborators that I really, really wanted to work with.” – Jared Rigby
Over time, through using these methods, a shared vision and a strong working dynamic are created that naturally evolve into a studio. Successful studios are rarely formed around a single moment of inspiration, but instead develop through collaboration, experimentation, and a growing commitment to shared goals.
Running an Indie Studio
Running an indie studio requires a holistic approach. Both a strong business and organisational foundation need be established when the project first begins. Careful planning before production was highlighted as essential, including realistic budgeting, timeline estimation, and a clear understanding of funding needs to reach key milestones such as a playable prototype or vertical slice. Funding indie games is rarely sourced from a single place. During the discussion, panellists described combining freelance work, co-development, grants, contract work, and personal savings to reach a stage in the project that can be fairly evaluated by a publisher. The key theme throughout was strong organisation, with consistent documentation methods, holistic planning by consulting all team members, and clear communication are all crucial to keep development on track. Ensuring the studio head is not solely responsible for all major decisions is also essential as trying to manage production, design, programming, and business responsibilities alone can quickly become unsustainable. Therefore a ‘willingness’ to delegate tasks to other team members is required to succeed as a studio.
“Pre-production is super important, understanding things like budgeting, timelines as well as the company’s cash-flow makes all the difference.” – Jared Rigby
“Make sure people aren’t waiting around. Plan when people come on and off projects.” – Nareice Wint
“Make sure you’re thinking about your studio as a brand. What are the values and traits you encompass and what do you want to be known for.” – Sarah York
Creating the right team that caters to the values of the studio is essential to be successful. Technical ability alone is not enough; other skills such as communication, adaptability, initiative, organisation, and collaboration are just as vital, having team members who can be allocated to many different areas of the project is both more productive and time efficient. Networking through game jams, industry events, online communities, Discord servers, LinkedIn, and mentorship programmes was highlighted as the definitive way by the panellists to meet key collaborators and build long-term professional relationships.
Managing Projects in an Indie Studio
A strong theme across the discussion was the importance of keeping the early stages of the projects manageable. Early development is often when most problems linked with insufficient planning and allocation of budgets occurs. The more effective approach being focusing on smaller more manageable prototypes, clearly define the gameplay loop before committing significant time, resources and upscaling a project any further.
“We fell into the trap of making an open-world RPG. Make small things first, prototype fast and understand the game loop early.” – Nareice Wint
Regular playtesting with friends, family, peers, and external players was highlighted by all panellists as the most valuable way to receive quick feedback and validate design decisions, also helping to establish a community in support of the game. Developers are also encouraged not to be afraid of using marketplace assets during prototyping. Rather than spending months creating bespoke art for untested concepts, asset stores can provide a fast and affordable way to experiment before committing to full production.
Marketing Your Game
Marketing is not an aspect of game development that should only be considered after the game’s completion. A strong community can be grown by showcasing the stages of the game’s development. Serving as another way to get external unbiased feedback. Some studios have successfully built marketing strategies alongside development from the beginning of their projects. They did this by consistently sharing updates across platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube Shorts, and BlueSky. Using a wide range of platforms allows the game to be exposed to more users and grow a community more quickly.
“We planned marketing alongside development from day one. We focused on discoverability first, before asking people to join our community.” – Sarah York.
Publishers generally don’t have specific criteria but increasingly look for evidence of player interest. They do this by analysing social media presence, Discord communities, playtests and Steam Wishlist’s which all help to demonstrate how in demand the game is. It’s essential to involve the communities once they have been established to maintain their support, this can be done through exercises to gather feedback via playtests. Analysing feedback on a wider scale and seeing the topics that occur most consistently, provides valuable insight into what is important to the audience, allowing positive changes to be made.
How Can You Plan Long Term Success for an Indie Studio?
Longevity was a crucial theme during the discussion. Developers were encouraged to think about the type of games their studio wants to be known for and to identify strengths that can be developed across multiple projects. Reusing systems, assets, workflows, and production pipelines can save time while helping teams refine their expertise over time.
“Think about what types of games you want to make as a studio. We know what our strengths are, we want to make real games about real people.” – Nareice Wint
Final Thoughts
The webinar concluded with the consistent message that creating a successful studio was a long-term collaborative process that required creative solutions, constructive feedback, and a willingness to adapt. More importantly, there was no set strategy for creating a successful indie studio. Building strong production habits early, documenting and tracking the creation of the studio, and maintaining an organised approach ensured a stronger foundation for long-term success.
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