Launching an indie game has never been more accessible, but as a result, it's also far more competitive. Modern development tools have lowered the barriers to creating games, but standing out on platforms like Steam has become an increasingly difficult challenge as thousands of new releases compete for players' attention every year. For publishers, success is no longer just about securing funding or handling marketing. It increasingly comes down to identifying games with a clear audience, building long-term platform strategies, and helping developers navigate an industry that changes almost monthly.

Established in 2016 by Kalypso Media founder Stefan Marcinek, Assemble Entertainment has published more than 50 indie games spanning everything from city builders and adventure games to cozy titles, roguelikes, and horror. Along the way, the German publisher has developed a reputation for embracing a wide variety of genres while maintaining a hands-on, developer-focused philosophy that extends well beyond launch day. 

We spoke with Assemble Entertainment's Senior Marketing and PR Manager, Maria Zubova, about the realities of indie publishing in 2026, why narrative games can still succeed despite rising production costs, the ongoing debate between publishers and self-publishing, evolving platform strategies, and why the biggest challenge facing indie developers today isn't making a great game; it's getting players to discover it.

Assemble Entertainment was founded in 2016 and won Best Publisher at the German Developer Awards twice. Can you walk us through the history of the company?

Maria Zubova, Senior Marketing and PR Manager: Assemble Entertainment was founded in 2016 by our CEO, Stefan Marcinek. Stefan was already well known in the German games industry as the founder of Kalypso Media (Tropico, Commandos). After leaving Kalypso, he could have done many things, but luckily for us, he decided to stay in games and start something new: Assemble Entertainment.

One of the biggest games in our history was Endzone - A World Apart, a hardcore survival city-builder that you could roughly describe as Banished meets a Fallout, Arc Raiders or S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-style setting.

Over the years, Assemble has evolved into a broad indie publisher. We have worked on everything from cozy games like Sticky Business to horror titles like Flesh Made Fear, roguelike deckbuilders like Decktamer and survivor-likes like Grind Survivors. If I had to put a label on us, I would probably say we are a "variety indie games publisher." To date, we have published more than 50 indie games on Steam.

Assemble's first big hit was a point-and-click adventure game. In a market often dominated by live-service games, roguelikes and viral hits, how do you evaluate games today and how can narrative games stay commercially viable?

Maria Zubova: Let me be honest: marketing narrative-driven games in 2026 is hard. At least, that has been our experience.

There are the obvious challenges: standing out visually, delivering a satisfying ending and meeting player expectations. But there are also very practical production challenges, especially localization. If you are working on a game with 100,000+ words and you want to support five to ten languages, localization becomes a major investment and a real business risk.

That does not mean narrative games cannot work. Roadwarden is a great example from our own catalogue. It is an illustrated text-based RPG with visual novel mechanics, which on paper sounds like a very niche product. But it became a major commercial success for us, received fantastic press reviews and earned a lot of praise from players. It was also awarded PC Game of the Year 2022 by EDGE Magazine and appeared in EDGE's overall Top 10 Games of 2022 alongside titles like Elden Ring, Immortality, Pentiment and Neon White.

So the lesson for us is not that narrative games are impossible. The lesson is that they need a very clear identity, a strong audience fit and a realistic production scope. Roadwarden worked because it knew exactly what it was and who it was for.

When we evaluate games today, we try not to look at them through only one lens. Every member of our publishing team looks at potential signings from a different angle: the business angle, the emotional angle, the production angle and the expertise angle. We try to consider all of them.

Assemble has never really been locked into one genre. We have had successes with adventure games like the Leisure Suit Larry sequels, city-builders like Endzone - A World Apart and narrative games like Roadwarden. That variety is very much part of our identity. If you wanted to label us, you could probably call us a variety indie games publisher.

Right now, we are especially interested in replayable and viral-friendly genres, particularly roguelike-inspired games. But that does not mean we have closed the door on narrative games, adventure games, city-builders, or anything else. We deeply value the narrative games in our catalogue and we would never want to discourage developers from telling meaningful stories.

Maybe we sign another narrative game tomorrow. Or a new city-builder. Nothing is ever completely certain in this industry and honestly, that is part of what makes it exciting.

The indie game market has become extraordinarily crowded. From your perspective as publishers operating in this space through 2025-2026, what is the current state of the indie market? Is it getting harder or easier for quality indie games to find audiences?

Maria Zubova: The common story is that standing out is difficult and unfortunately, the story is true.

From our perspective, it is definitely getting harder. The market requires lower risk, more careful evaluation and a much stronger instinct for finding the game that really clicks, both emotionally and commercially.

Of course, we all see viral success stories. We have experienced that ourselves with Paddle Paddle Paddle and there are other recent examples like Tangy TD. Those stories can make it look like discoverability is simply a matter of having a good idea and waiting for the internet to notice. And yes, that can happen. But I would describe those cases more as rare phenomena than as the general rule.

The strange thing about publishing is that sometimes a game seems to check every box: great developer, strong genre mix, innovative hook, amazing visuals, juicy gameplay. It has everything and still goes under the radar. Then another, more unconventional game launches with modest expectations and suddenly it is sitting in New & Trending on Steam.

So I would say this: it has never been easier to make games and share them with the world, but it has never been harder to be discovered. The tools are more accessible than ever. The audience is bigger than ever. But the competition for attention is brutal.

Distribution has fragmented across Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, console platforms, and subscription services like Game Pass. How do you approach platform strategy in 2026?

Maria Zubova: A platform that rules them all, that has to be Steam, right? For many of our games, yes, that's the case. But there are many other revenue streams out there to explore. I recommend that each game receives a tailored platform strategy. And as a publisher, it's our job to find the right one.

Our approach is to evaluate each title individually and tap into as many platforms and revenue streams as possible (PC stores, consoles, mobile, subscription services, physical deals and many more). I highly recommend doing the research, you might be really surprised by what the industry has in store for your games!

What does Assemble provide as a distributor versus a traditional publisher?

Maria Zubova: We believe strongly in a human approach. For us, developers are artists and we want to treat their work with respect. I have never liked the top-down dynamic that some publishers still bring into their relationships with developers. To me, that mindset feels completely outdated. You are working together on a piece of art, but also on a commercial product that needs care, structure and strategy.

I am happy to see that many modern indie publishers share this philosophy. What I hope separates us from some more traditional publishing models is that we are not afraid of accountability. We are human and we are not perfect, but we are also people who can sit down, talk openly, figure things out, compromise, self-reflect and be transparent.

That empathy is especially important when you have published more than 50 games and the developer you are working with may be releasing their very first one. The experience gap is real and it is the publisher's responsibility to be aware of that.

As a distributor, we can support developers with platform relationships, store management, sales opportunities, long-term catalogue work and deal-making. As a publisher, we go deeper into production, marketing, PR, creator outreach, positioning and launch strategy.

But in both cases, the core values are the same: direct communication, long-term thinking and not abandoning a game after launch. Some of our games continue to find opportunities years after release and we actively look for those opportunities.

Some developers argue publishers are not worth it anymore and advocate for self-publishing. What is your perspective on the publisher versus self-publishing debate in 2026?

Maria Zubova: There is absolutely nothing wrong with developers self-publishing. More power to them.

Today, many developers are not only game creators but also marketers, community managers, content strategists and business owners. That is a lot to carry, but many teams are very good at it.

At the same time, not every developer wants to do all of that. Some love managing Discord, posting on social media, writing Steam news, preparing press releases, handling store pages and doing content creator outreach. For others, that work is hell.

That is where we come in. We see ourselves as a support structure for everything that is not strictly development. We help developers with the parts of releasing a game that they either cannot do, do not have time to do, or simply do not want to do alone.

So I do not think the question is "publisher or no publisher?" The better question is: what does this specific team need and what kind of partner would genuinely make the project stronger?

Player tastes and expectations for indie games seem to be evolving. What are you seeing in terms of what players are looking for in 2026?

Maria Zubova: Recently, we have seen strong performance from bullet heaven games, funny "friendslop" games, incremental games, cozy games and titles with roguelike or roguelite elements. I would not say roguelikes are a new 2026 trend, but they remain a very strong design language for indie games because they support replayability, content creation and long-term community engagement.

Across almost every genre, I think strong visual appeal matters a lot. Art is often the first thing a player connects with. That does not mean every game needs expensive graphics. It means the game needs a clear, fresh and modern visual identity. And "modern" can absolutely mean pixel art. A game like Lacuna is a good example: it has a strong visual personality and feels contemporary without chasing realism.

What I love about our team is that everyone at Assemble would answer this question slightly differently. Personally, I still believe cozy games have had a very strong place since the pandemic. One of my colleagues is completely obsessed with roguelike mechanics. Another believes deeply in the power of weird, strange horror games.

That variety of opinions is healthy. It keeps us from thinking there is only one path to success.

You organize GermanDevDays, attracting over 1,100 attendees from the German-speaking game development industry. Tell us a bit about that event.

Maria Zubova: GermanDevDays is an annual game development conference in Frankfurt, Germany, with several dozen talks and panel discussions, workshops, over 60 speakers and a curated selection of playable games showcased on-site.

What makes the event special is that it is completely free for students, teachers and speakers. After decades in the games industry, our CEO Stefan Marcinek wanted to give something back to young and aspiring developers.

We also offer free booths to young indie developers and they do not have to be students. The goal is to make the event accessible and useful, especially for people who are still at the beginning of their journey in games.

For us, GermanDevDays is not only about business. It is about community, knowledge sharing and giving new voices a place to be seen.

Looking ahead to the rest of 2026 and beyond, what is your outlook for indie game publishing? How is Assemble adapting?

Maria Zubova: Indie publishing never gets boring, because it is constantly changing. Isn't that part of the fun? We stay open to new genres, trends and market opportunities while continuously refining our marketing strategy, exploring new opportunities, challenging old assumptions and responding flexibly to the future of the games industry. Do not be afraid to kill your outdated workflows.

At the end, something that is important to me to say: Please, please don't feel discouraged by the look, quality and success of others. Trust me, I also catch myself comparing my work or the company I work for with others and suddenly feel as if I, or we, are not good enough.

We are not robots, it's human to feel those feelings. BUT try to reflect afterwards and internalize this: What gets shared is often survivorship bias: the big wins are visible, while the failures, slow progress and quiet struggles stay hidden. Your output is not bad because you could have done more. You did enough, even if you could have done more. Your path doesn't have to look like anyone else's.

Maria Zubova, Senior Marketing and PR Manager at Assemble Entertainment