Indie Developer Resources

Business Guides

• Gov.uk guides to business and self-employment

• HMRC's Video Games Development Company Manual

• Ukie's Access to Finance Guide

• Ukie Guides to Getting Investment Ready - a series of guides from industry experts (bottom of page)

• Gamesindustry.biz Academy - written guides to understanding many aspects of the games industry, from the team at gamesindustry.biz.

• NCSC's Guide to Cyber Security - Guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre on how organisations can protect themselves in cyberspace, including the 10 steps to cyber security.

Business Resources

• presskit() - Rami Ismail's presskit template for game studios

• toolkit() - Presskit, contract and media distribution tools from Vlambeer.

• Ukie Standard Contracts - standard contract templates created specifically for games businesses

• Global Games Industry Guide - a Trello board compiled by Liam Twose of various industry resources.

• Global Games Industry Virtual Events Calendar - a Trello board compiled by Liam Twose of online games industry events.

• Games Opportunities - a free newsletter for opportunties in the UK games sector, curated by Colin Macdonald.

• Game Discoverability Now - A blog by Simon Carless providing a regular look at how to help people find and buy your games.

Pitching to Publishers

• Raw Fury's Developer Resources - an archive of helpful templates, including a publishing agreement, pitch deck template, mutual NDA and financial scenario planner.

• Chucklefish's Pitching Guide - Practical advice on how best to approach publishers and an example pitch deck, from indie publisher Chucklefish.

• Sample Pitch Deck - A template pitch deck for showcasing games to funders, created by Gwen Foster of Robot Teddy.

• Video Game Pitch Decks - A collection of pitch presentations from game creators around the world and the outcomes of each sample, curated by Evva Karr.

Game Development Resources

• Learn Unity - how to get started programming in one of the most popular game engines

• GDC Vault - a library of videos from panels at the annual Game Developers Conference, with advice on game design and development

• Free for Dev - a list of software "as a service" (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, etc.) and other offerings with a focus towards infrastructure / ops, that have free tiers for developers

• Game Accessibility Guidelines - a straightforward reference for inclusive game design

• Game Maker's Toolkit - a youtube channel deep diving into game design, level design, and game production

• Games Press - one-stop archive of game press releases

• Indie Boothcraft - a guide to exhibiting your game at a convention

• Magic Tools - a long list of tools, resources, assets and software for game development

• onlinegamedev - an archive of online game development tools

• PixelProsepctor - an archive of helpful resources for game developers

• Game Design Resources - a collection of game design resources and guides, curated by @TychoBolt

• Level Design - In Pursuit of Better Levels - a collated resource of level design tips, curated by @TychoBolt

• Start Making Games - A simple, one-stop, shop for some sound advice for starting out making games, curated by US game designer Craig Morrison

Community

• UK Games Industry Slack Group

• PitchYaGame - a Twitter initiative to help promote indie developers

Indie Dev Data Insights

General

• ICO Partners Steam Newsletter - free regular email rounding up all the games released on Steam each week

2020

• 'Steam in 2019' Analysis - by Sergio Garcia
• Cultist Simulator Mobile - Our First Year - by Weather Factory

2019

• Cultist Simulator's Mobile Launch - Weather Factory

2018

• A Year of Monument Valley 2 - ustwo games

2016

• Monument Valley in Numbers: Year 2 - ustwo games

2015

• Monument Valley in Numbers - ustwo games