50+ Must-Have Resources for Indie Developers

January 25, 2024

As an indie game developer, we understand that resources can feel restricted at times. We’ve scoured the internet to compile the best resources to guide you through any challenges you might face in your game creation.

Whether you’re focusing on game design, learning more about programming, or looking to master marketing, this guide is your one-stop shop for smoother game-making projects.

Game Design Resources

Game Designer: Game Designer is the revolutionary AI tool that turns your concepts into comprehensive game design documents (GDDs) with just a few keystrokes.
Game Design Document Template: A good game design document forms the basic core of building great games
GDC Vault: Your gateway to insightful game design talks, balancing free and paid content from GDC panels
Game Design Dojo: Created and run by indie game dev themselves, Game Design Dojo is a podcast all about the design, production, and publishing of video games from an indie game developer perspective
Lost Garden: Dive into the backlog of industry veterans offering valuable insights and free art assets

Programming Resources

C# Mini-Course for Beginner Game Devs: Build your foundational skills with this C# Mini-Course for Beginner Game Devs.
Learn Unity: Learn more with Unity’s official tutorials
Game Programming Patterns: This is a great e-book that’s basically a collection of patterns that the author found in games that make code cleaner, easier to understand, and faster
Game Code School: Decode programming with free pattern books and a guided journey from beginner to intermediate coder
Envato Tuts+: Navigate through regularly updated programming, art, and game design tutorials

Art Resources

AI Art Generator for Games: Use this free text-to-image generator for games to quickly create backgrounds, concept art, or icons for your game.
2D Game Art for Programmers: The site is created by Chris, a seasoned artist who started working on pixel art on Commodore 64, evolved to various platforms, and shares his game art wisdom online for over a decade and counting
Opengameart: Source diverse assets for game jams from Opengameart
Kenney: Access top-quality free assets on Kenney
Spine: Master 2D skeletal animation
Blender: Create 3D models with Blender
Krita: Explore Krita for painting and for free 2D skeletal animations, supporting Mac and Windows

Audio Resources

Music Composer: Transform your ideas into music with a cutting-edge AI music generator
Audio Tuts+: Find thousands of free tutorials and quick tips covering all aspects of music and audio from songwriting to audio production
SoundJay: Dive into tutorials for crafting game music and source free sound effects or premium music for your game
Stock Music: Trusted source for stock music. They offer simple subscription plans for unlimited music and sound effects
DSK Music: Enrich your sound palette with instruments from DSK Music
LMMS: Try LMMS for music creation

Marketing Resources

Indie Game Marketing Checklist: Every great marketing program starts with a great marketing checklist. Know what you need to do, then execute on it.
Indie Game Girl: Emmy Jonassen is an independent video game marketing consultant, freelance writer and speaker helping indie developers build adoring fan bases for their games
Pixel Prospector Marketing Guide: Learn to create compelling landing pages, learn more about buyer personas, and navigate the marketing cycle with curated article links
HubSpot Marketing: Make better marketing strategy with insights from HubSpot
Semrush: Research the keywords the game dev community use to improve your website’s reach and visits
Loops: Newsletter and e-mail marketing is one of the most cost-effective methods to reach out to your audience. Especially when you’re growing, organizing your e-mail list becomes a crucial part of your project
IndieDB: Submit your game to this indie game news site for potential exposure
Slay the Spire: Success through Marketability and Beginner’s Guide to Games Marketing Online: Learn from success stories and explore marketing strategies for indie games

Community Development Resources

Toucharcade: TouchArcade is a mobile games journalism website that hosts forums and weekly podcasts
r/Gamedev: Subreddit forum to share progress, seek feedback, and collaborate
OccaSoftware Community Discord: possibly the best and most supportive indie game-maker community out there. Test it for yourself ;)
Polycount Forum: Polycount has been known for its community forum
Game Dev Network: Discuss, share progress, and network with like-minded developers in one of the biggest forums out there
Game Developers Conference: Attend top conferences for real-world insights into game development and the app ecosystem

Best Blogs

OccaSoftware Blog: Get foundational skills in the business of games, game development, and Unity-specific tutorials.
Microsoft Game Dev: Gain insights into Microsoft technologies’ diverse content related to game development and stay updated on industry news
CGspectrum Blog: Get the latest game and film industry news, artists interview, free resources and many more
GamesIndustry.biz: Well-known as a market-leading website and community for news and information about the global video games industry. We particularly enjoy their daily newsletter
HTML5 Game Development: Dive into HTML5 game development insights

Best Podcast

Psychology of Video Games: They have a pretty cool take on the intersection of psychology and video games
GameDevUnchained: Need someone to relate and look up to? GameDevUnchained shows you the inside look at what it’s like to be a game developer
Level Design Lobby: Level Design Lobby breaks down game and level design techniques, showing how they are used within games, as well as how we can improve upon them

Best Game Development Courses

C# Mini-Course for Beginner Game Devs: Build your foundational skills with this C# Mini-Course for Beginner Game Devs.
Udacity: Browse a myriad of game-dev courses with their monthly subscription
Udemy: Udemy has been known to provide some of the best online learnings with thousands of high-quality on-demand courses
Coursera: Explore interactive 3D graphics, game physics, and diverse courses from leading platforms

Conclusion

If any of your favorite resources are missing, share your insights with us through Discord and let’s build the gaming future together!

Embark on your game development odyssey with this comprehensive guide. Success awaits, and if we missed any of your favorite resources, share your insights in the comments below. Your journey begins now!