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"The Gold Rush is over."
Indie game developers are finding it increasingly difficult to get funding for new projects. The landscape of financial backing has shifted, with the lucrative deals once offered by Xbox Game Pass and Epic Games Store exclusives becoming less substantial.
Image Credit: Mega Crit Games, Slay the Spire
This shift was underscored during interviews at the recent Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Casey Yano, the co-founder of Mega Crit, the studio behind indie hit Slay the Spire, spoke about the fear among developers. He revealed conversations with several small teams who reported funding cuts and canceled deals, stating:
"It sounds like it's shit. We're definitely very privileged to be able to self-fund. [Otherwise] I'd be very, very, very scared right now."
Image Credit: Mega Crit Games, Slay the Spire
It's a sentiment echoed by Chris Bourassa, the director of Darkest Dungeon, another indie success story. He compared the current situation to the end of a gold rush:
"The Gold Rush is over. I come from the Northwest Territories. The town I'm from was built on gold, and then they found diamonds further north. Maybe another paradigm shift is waiting for us, but I definitely think the scale of the deals I'm hearing about is significantly dimishese from the big swinging days. Certainly we got our Epic [deal] at the right time."
Image Credit: Red Hook Studios, Darkest Dungeon
Both Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon overcame slow initial sales on Steam's Early Access platform to achieve significant success. However, with the fact that deals from platforms like Game Pass and Epic becoming less generous, the financial landscape for indie developers is undeniably changing.
In response to these challenges and in an effort to support indie development, several studios are joining forces. Red Hook, Mega Crit, and Evil Empire, among others, are hosting a "Triple-I" showcase in April, aiming to give the indie game development a much-needed boost.
For more information about the interview, please refer to the original article on PC Gamer. And don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.