how best to support indie developers as a consumer - a thread by me, noted indie game fan

The #1 question: where should you buy games from?

here's the percentage of each game sale devs earn on the most popular storefronts

dev website - 100
itch - dev's choice, 90 default
Epic - 88
Microsoft PC - 88 (begins Aug 1st 2021)
Humble - 75 store, 95 hosting
Steam, GOG - 70

It's pretty rare for devs to distribute their games themselves. itch is generally the best choice for pure financial support per game sale.

If you like an indie game on Steam, check if they have an itch page - especially because many itch purchases include a Steam key

However, pure $ doesn't mean everything. Steam is, without question, the largest gaming storefront. A happy algorithm there means a LOT for the visibility and success of smaller creators. Since indies don't have the benefit of marketing budgets/teams, Steam IS the marketing.

Steam wishlists are a HUGE deal, especially for games that aren't out yet. Release week is a huge deal. More wishlists = happy algorithm = good sales.

If you are *at all* interested in a game, wishlist it on Steam.

Leave a review if you enjoyed the game.

Not only does this REALLY boost Mr. Algorithm, but it's also a good opportunity to correct misconceptions and concerns. We aren't always willing to spend money to satisfy curiosity. Give us a nudge in the right direction.

Speaking of reviews: there's a reason Steam has a "Yes/No" review system. Even on broader rating systems, a perfect score is all that matters.

Only give perfect scores or do not review at all. Even though a 4.5/5 is nearly perfect, it will do more harm than good.

(When I refer to leaving reviews here I mean on websites like itch, Metacritic, Steam, etc. If you have a personal blog and write critiques/reviews do whatever you want, just be fair!)

Many devs are now using Twitter to advertise their games and connect with the community. How do we spread the good word on this hellsite?

Even if you have 0 followers, interacting with tweets is super helpful, because it'll show up in more people's feeds.

Interact with their tweets. Replies > Retweets > Likes. Even dropping a simple "Looks cool!" reply can do a lot.

If you have a larger following/community, quote retweeting with your personal interest is extremely effective in getting more people interested.

I think that's all the algorithm stuff out of the way, so here's one I have a bad habit of forgetting:

Leave official bug reports.

Early Access, demo, and beta versions of games are released in those states for a reason - use the official tools included for reporting bugs.

A general rule: Please temper your expectations.

I see this a lot, especially for games in the same genre as popular AAA releases (see: creature collectors). Don't expect the same of a 20-person team as a 100s-person team with millions of dollars to spend on development.

This could be a whole thread by itself, but please learn to appreciate just how much it requires to get a game out the door at all, let alone in a playable state.

If AAA studios can release buggy messes with their massive, experienced teams, imagine just how hard it is!

As a content creator myself, I do want to touch on specific advice for us. Temper expectations is still a good one - many of the indies that make it big on YT/Twitch are ones with a high level of polish, by established indie teams. Hades and Spiritfarer are not the average.

I dunno if people will be willing to accept this one considering the old Rockstar debacle, but:

If a game's focus is on its story, please don't release full spoiler content (including finished Let's Plays) during release week.

We feel a need to release content for games on day one, and I get that. Just know that, for narrative games, the story is quite literally everything. Consider releasing a "First Look" or spoiler-free review as soon as you can instead of playing it in full.

Include the game name and storefront link somewhere in your content.

For streams: A !game command that links to the Steam page and the game/dev name in the title
For videos: A link to the store page in the description and the game/dev name in the title

That's all I can think of for now but I'll update this if anything else comes to mind. Thanks for reading and supporting great game development! One last bit of general advice:

PLAY MORE INDIE GAMES

oh and also like follow me and stuff I always forget to do this. I'm a lesbian who loves indie games and curates an LGBT+, anti-racist space. I also have a Guilded server for my stream community with a big list of indie games I'm interested in. links in reply

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lotusloveslotus 
Guilded: https://www.guilded.gg/r/zzMldvvm7j?i=x4ow98n4

Things I forgot: buying a Steam key from not-Steam means your review on Steam is not counted by the algorithm. This includes itch and Humble.

Don't feel bad buying from Steam, but make good use of it and leave a review if you enjoyed - a miniscule ~3% of users leave reviews.

I also completely forgot to talk about music. We can all agree that video game music is some of the best out there.

If you enjoy an OST, please support the artist and buy it on Bandcamp when possible. https://twitter.com/posthuman/status/1389480550432448513

Usually if a soundtrack is available as "DLC" on Steam, it's also available on Bandcamp. The benefit to Bandcamp is you can download it without having the base game installed, and in all available qualities (MP3, FLAC, WAV, etc.).

Apologies for not including consoles or mobile, but I simply don't know/play those platforms. There are a LOT of amazing indies on Apple Arcade and Nintendo Switch. My assumption for their revenue share is the industry standard of 70% to the dev, like Steam and GOG.

It should be noted that this 70% does not include the price of the development kit for consoles nor the amount of dev time it requires to port a game. This is why many indies choose to develop and publish first on PC, and may not port anywhere else.

Don't expect or beg for ports.

I agree a lot of games are perfect for the Switch or mobile. But developing for those platforms is a whole other beast than PC, and requires a significant financial and time investment by the developer. It's not reasonably possible for many teams