The Indie Cluster is a platform providing opportunities, resources, and services centered around supporting indie game developers. We focus on quality assurance testing, discoverability, hands-on production, and curating a traveling booth for our games. As our digital future demands more interactive experiences, sustainability is crucial for these small businesses. We’ve created a modular studio for our members, allowing each developer to focus on their game while still staying connected and succeeding together!
The Cluster was created by indies, for indies. The experience of fighting to complete your project, wearing multiple hats, building a community before launch, while simultaneously feeling alone when pitching your ideas are feelings we know all too well. In this volatile space, we love seeing projects thrive, and learning how they did it. We decided to commit ourselves to sharing resources and opportunities to help developers grow their businesses. We also wanted to create a model to supply those needs directly, dealing with the logistics so members won’t have to. For years now, we’ve been the pulse of the indie gaming scene here in Atlanta, Georgia. It took some business finesse, some bootstrapping, and some friendly connections to have a recognizable platform today. Our traveling booth created opportunities for developers to network at local conferences, meet potential customers, and gain much needed feedback on their games.
We use our Twitch channel as a tool to not only promote indie games but to talk UX design, find bugs, and host playtests live for those that may need it. With our new membership strategy, we are excited to be giving QA support, coaching, social media management, and start up advice to a global market. Most other online game communities are just websites, however we provide directed services. This has never been done before so we’re super proud of our team and the heart of our partners. In the community we’ve been able to foster, there’s so much talent and enthusiasm for creativity and the future of games. Through the hard times, it was their spirit that kept us going. We got started by taking advantage of our resources to provide an easier development experience to those without access. Staying true to that helped us sit down and define how we were going to help the world. With an oversaturated market, developers, students, coders, and creatives need to stand out and innovate to survive. Understanding business, how to leverage your network, and selling themselves, not just their game, is vital today.
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In teaching and serving this community, our mission is to never let a passion project die because of a lack of resources. I can’t speak highly enough of the family environment we have cultivated here in Atlanta. It’s become a core part of our company’s culture, and something we want to offer those indies without a network. Game development is at the intersection of art and technology. We create artistic expressions in a rapidly growing medium that changes constantly. If you’re not innovating and iterating, it’s easy to get left behind. For developers, the setbacks from becoming a starving artist are magnified as development time for one project often lasts years. This is where our system comes in, enabling that innovation and fueling those iterations. Indies already have the experience in creating something out of nothing. The Indie Cluster provides the buffer for these game makers to become successful entrepreneurs. Game design theory is experimentation, encapsulation, discovery, and presentation. Start ups suffer through the same process as games do during production. By automating the common things, we’re able to show more love to the product. The product being, great games by our clients. We built our website with this in mind, presenting our members and their games professionally. We’re excited to expand our outreach projects, building arcade cabinets and teaching minoritized students how to make games. We plan on hosting more community oriented streams and building a library of game dev content. Even blockchain technology is on our radar as we prepare our developers for a sustainable future.
