LuckyGene

Indie Dev Marketing: Growing Your Game’s Audience

The indie game market is booming, with projections indicating it will reach $20 billion by 2025. However, with this growth comes heightened competition, making effective marketing strategies essential for indie developers. This article highlights key tactics for both pre-launch and post-launch marketing, including building a community, leveraging influencers, and engaging with players through social media and content marketing. By focusing on player relationships, continuous updates, and performance analysis, indie developers can boost their game's success and stand out in a crowded market.

Why Every Game Needs Great UI/UX

In the fast-paced world of game development, where innovation and competition are fierce, UI/UX design plays a pivotal role in shaping the player’s journey. This article explores how user interface and user experience go beyond aesthetics to influence engagement, accessibility, retention, and monetization. With insights backed by research and real-world examples, it makes the case for why investing in thoughtful, inclusive design is crucial to building successful games that players love—and keep coming back to.

10 Essential Tools Every Indie Developer Should Know

In the ever-evolving world of indie game development, the right tools can make all the difference. From managing projects and collaborating with teams to crafting assets and debugging code, today's indie developers have access to an arsenal of powerful, cost-effective solutions. This article explores 10 Essential Tools Every Indie Developer Should Know—covering game engines like Unity and Godot, asset creators like Blender and GIMP, and workflow enhancers like Trello, GitHub, and Discord. Whether you're just starting out or looking to level up your current process, these tools will help streamline your workflow, boost productivity, and keep your creative vision alive.

From Code to Controller: Crafting Game Logic in C++

From crafting your first lines of code to building vast, living worlds, the journey of a game developer is one of creative engineering and technical artistry. This article takes an in-depth look into how C++ empowers developers to implement high-performance game logic — the invisible architecture that drives interactivity, behaviour, and immersion. Whether you're navigating basic object-oriented principles or diving into multithreaded AI systems and data-oriented design, this guide offers a comprehensive roadmap for mastering the art and science of gameplay programming. Ideal for developers seeking to push the boundaries of what games can be, using the precision and power of C++.

Building a Game in Unreal Engine 5: A Developer’s Journey

LuckyGene Indie Studio dives headfirst into Unreal Engine 5, embracing its revolutionary features to bring their ambitious action RPG, Project Genesis, to life. From mastering Nanite and Lumen for stunning visuals to optimizing performance and leveraging Niagara for immersive VFX, the team shares their journey of adapting to a new development paradigm. This deep-dive highlights the studio’s triumphs, challenges, and the collaborative spirit driving their vision for next-gen indie game development.

Why Indie Studios Are Shaping the Future of Gaming

The indie game scene is redefining the gaming industry with bold creativity, technical innovation, and inclusive storytelling. Once overshadowed by AAA giants, indie developers now lead the charge in shaping the future of interactive entertainment—fuelled by accessible tools, digital platforms, and a hunger for unique experiences. As the market grows, so does the impact of these small but mighty studios, offering fresh perspectives, embracing risk, and building diverse communities that resonate deeply with players around the globe.