🧠 Game Dev Takeaways From 2025
You made it! Welcome to the end of the year. 🏁
It's been a, uh, wild ride, but I'm hoping for more stability next year.
That said, we've learned a lot this year. Below you'll find some of my favorite new learnings this year, including lots of links to brilliant people in the games industry, shout-outs, and my personal take-aways from 2025.
Let's a-go!
🚀 Can you ship a full game in just a few months?
The truth is that yes, you can ship a game in just a few months. However, it's not easy! It takes focus, dedication, and (probably lots of) experience. From the article, here's how I'd try to ship fast:
- Use strict design constraints
- Laser-focus on one platform
- Start with a game shell (explanation here)
- Finish all features within 1 week
Matt Hackett
🌍 How Translations Could Double Your Steam Success
It's true! (Or is it? It could be. Let's find out next year.)
Translating your game into just a handful of the top languages on Steam could make your game accessible to a larger audience.
English obviously holds the biggest slice of the pie, but languages like Simplified Chinese are not far behind! Have a peek at the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for more information:
Matt Hackett
🕸️ Game design for indies: Webbiness
I've been using the term webbiness for years, but 2025 is when I finally wrote, drew, and talked about it. I swear it's a helpful game design term to consider when working on your game, especially for us indies:
Matt Hackett
📈 What Works For Getting Wishlists?
Every game dev wants more wishlists. So how do we get them?
Naturally, the article (and full podcast episode) are worth it if you've got the time, but here's the short list in case you don't:
- Make a really good game
- Make a game Steam wants
- Get a good trailer on IGN
- Make a visually interesting game
- Reach out to smaller outlets
Matt Hackett
✍️ What I Learned At GDC 2025
Again I recommend the article (and its how-to-do GDC sibling video) but here's a list to save you some time that you can redirect towards your game:
- There's still funding money 💰
- Giving a GDC talk is a lot of work 🎙️
- Game developers buy lots of books at GDC 📚
- GDC remains expensive 💸
There's also a section on how to get a talk into GDC, if that interests you. It's a lot of fun! I recommend giving it a shot if it sounds like a process you'd enjoy.
Matt Hackett
🛠️ How to get BACK into game development
This was the most-listened-to episode of Make the Game in 2025.
It's kind of an advanced topic because it assumes you were already making games, but dropped off, and are trying to get back into it. My buddy Sean McKenzie and I do a deep dive on our experiences, plus advice on getting back on the game dev wagon:
Matt Hackett
🕹️ How I got a publisher for my indie game
In 2025 we learned that yes, there is still funding money out there.
I'm just some guy, so if I can find a publisher for my game, then you can too! There's really no exclusive club or secret handshake; you just need an appealing game and to find the right partner who's excited about your game. That's it.
Here's what worked for me:
- Design an appealing concept
- Publish a demo
- Make friends
- Get lucky
Matt Hackett
🏆 My Favorite Game Dev, Marketing, and Steam Advice
I'll make this one short and sweet – if you want even more game dev goodies, check out this exhaustive list of my favorite topics in these categories:
- 🎮 How to Make Your Game
- 📢 How to Market Your Game
- 🛠️ How to Make Games For Steam
Matt Hackett
🔥 Random shout-outs
- Chris Zukowski continues to deliver friendly (even fatherly?) advice about marketing
- Thomas Stewart is cranking out top-notch interviews
- Simon Carless is a remarkably steady source of game discovery news
- I can't believe how quickly Jonas Tyroller makes podcasts and videos
- Acclaim is BACK and announced their first line-up of games
- Thomas Reisenegger is publishing bangers like CloverPit
- Victoria Tran's newsletter is fun and informative
- Rob Stenzinger posted on TikTok over 200 days in a row
- Isaac has been posting cool drawings like every single day
- Allen Wang launched Beyond the Grove on Steam
- Jose Antonini launched Commander Tiberius Troubleson on Steam
- Many of my friends got exciting new gigs this year, congrats y'all
- The Valadria Discord continues to be a chill, helpful place to hang out
- Bought my first issue of MAD magazine in many years and it still slaps
- Extra random cheers to SEA and David Butler for helping me sleep this year
(I know I'm missing some people/things, apologies!)
📝 My biggest takeaways from 2025
- There's a lot of doom-and-gloom but indies can still thrive
- There's still funding money (even in this chaotic climate)
- To survive we've got to apply our creativity towards making profitable games
From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for being with me this year (and for some of you, for many years now!). We've been on this game dev journey together for ages, but it feels like we're just getting started (in the best way).
I'm absolutely determined to ship a game (or two!) in 2026, and I will bring that energy into this newsletter in the hopes of motivating and inspiring you to do the same.
Happy New Year! 🍾
-Matt
