The challenges and joys of managing an indie game studio

Updated: December 2025, Jamieson Lee Hill, Video Game Writer/Narrative Designer

This is our first in a series of 'Build an Indie Game Studio' blogs. In article one, we explore the pros and cons of running an indie game studio and interview two exciting indie developer studio bosses. The articles in this series include: 

BUILDING AN INDIE GAME STUDIO SERIES:

1. Pros and Cons of Running an Indie Game Studio - December 2025

2. Hosting and Servers for an Indie Game Studio/Publisher - February 2026

3. App Game Development for an Indie Game Studio/Publisher - March 2026

Introduction: Running an Indie Game Studio in 2025/26

Indie game development has become one of the most culturally vibrant powerhouses in modern entertainment. Yet behind every viral success story lies an uncomfortable truth: a small studio must support its game with the same infrastructure expectations placed on multi-billion-dollar publishers. If the backend collapses, success becomes a burden rather than a breakthrough.

Running an indie game studio can mean dealing with small indie game team challenges, indie game studio funding, controlling server costs for indie games, deciding between cloud vs colocation for indie games, and preparing for indie game launch scalability long before success arrives.

In this new article, Videogame Writer Jamieson Lee Hill explores the challenges and joys of running indie game studios through interviews with two indie game founders. We also explore three other 3 independent game studios/publishers that are rocking it in the sector, and finally see how IP House London supports Indie gaming studios with colocation services. 

Three Indie Game Studios Setting the Benchmark

To start, we should look at three indie developer studios that are setting the benchmark for game development. I didn’t choose 3 of the highest earners because that meant including gambling games, and as a Game Design writer, I wanted to evaluate more than just money earned. 

Instead, I opted to explore three highly popular independent gaming studios/publishers with big fanbases, each famous for a different game genre.

1. The Masters of First-Person Shooters: New Blood Interactive

New Blood Interactive (NBI) is an independent publisher and often a developer, famous for bringing back the fast-paced, action-packed ‘boomer shooter’ genre. They are responsible for popular first-person shooter titles like Dusk.Watch a clip here now.

NBI has cultivated a loyal fanbase by championing nostalgic, brutal, and highly stylised FPS games. They have defined a niche for modern FPS video games. 

Location: Seattle, Washington, USA.

Top 3 Titles (FPS): Dusk, Ultrakill, Amid Evil.

Reviews:  The latest of those 3 titles, Ultrakill, has 10/10 on Steam and 8.5/10 on IMDb. It is a madcap retro-style FPS. 

Started: 2018.

Famous For: Revitalising the retro-style, 90s-era ‘boomer shooter’ FPS.

Notable People: Dave Oshry, CEO.

2. The RPG Powerhouse: Larian Studios

If you haven’t heard of Larian, you probably don’t game that often or don’t play RPGs. Baldur’s Gate and Divinity are two massive gaming franchises with an army of fans. I have enjoyed many hours of fun on Baldur’s Gate 3, but I am more of an FPS guy if I am honest. I keep my roleplaying to tabletop D&D!

Larian Studios is a Belgian developer famous for creating sprawling, deep, turn-based Role-Playing Games (RPGs) with an emphasis on player freedom, complex world interaction, and engaging co-op play. 

Larian Studio’s games are widely considered among the most definitive modern RPG experiences. They are massive successes both critically and commercially, proving that large-scale, deep RPGs can still be produced by Indie studios/publishers.

Location:  Ghent, Belgium (with global studios).

Top 3 Titles (RPG):  Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Divinity: Original Sin.

Reviews: Baldur’s Gate 3 has 10/10 on IGN, 10/10 on GameSpot, 96% on Metacritic, 97% on PC Gamer, 96% on Steam. 

Started (Year): 1996.

Famous For: Creating critically-acclaimed, highly interactive, and massive fantasy RPGs. Baldur’s Gate franchise. 

Notable People: Swen Vincke, Founder and CEO.

3. The Platforming & Metroidvania Icon: Team Cherry

In the world of platform and adventure games, Team Cherry is an indie game studio that stands out. The Hollow Knight franchise consists of beautifully crafted games that bring back nostalgia for the mid-80s to mid-90s heyday of platform gaming.

 Take a look at Hollow Knight for yourself. 

Team Cherry is famous for creating one of the most successful and beloved action-platformers of the last decade i.e. Hollow Knight. They set a new gold standard for the modern "Metroidvania" sub-genre with the Hollow Knight series. Despite their small size, their flagship title is renowned worldwide for its atmosphere, challenging gameplay, and deep lore. 

Reviews: Their new title in the series Silk Song came out in September 2025. It has excellent reviews with 9/10 on IGN, 5/5 on Eurogamer, 90% on PC Gamer, 9/10 on Gamespot and 9/10 on Steam.

Location: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.

Top 3 Titles (Platformer/Action-Adventure): Hollow Knight, Fearless Fox, Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Started (Year): 2014.

Famous For: Designing highly polished, atmospheric, and critically acclaimed action-platformers (Metroidvania).

Notable People: Ari Gibson, William Pellen, and Jack Vine, founding team.

The Real Pros and Cons of Running an Indie Game Studio

Interviews with 2 Owners: Tale Era Interactive and Cultic Games

I was thrilled to interview two Indie Game Studio owners to ask them directly about the highs and lows of running an indie game studio. In fact, I have worked with both gentlemen on several gaming projects.

First of all, I spoke with Erhan of Tale Era Interactive, who produced the FPS title Holy Shoot. It has recently won an award for best new game with Kristal Pixel, a great achievement for a relatively new studio. 

The second owner I spoke with about running an indie game studio was Can Oral of Cultic Games. His studio was responsible for the cult classic Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones, and more recently, Cats and Other Lives. Cultic Games is currently producing a tabletop role-playing game called Human No More. They raised over $60,000 on Kickstarter, and it is due to drop in 2026. 

CASE STUDY: TALE ERA INTERACTIVE 

Check out Tale Era Interactive’s Game: Holy Shoot

It was great to catch up with Erhan, whose passion for video games and indie game business development is so apparent. He comes across as a person with serious business know-how, and also owns a very successful IT business called Koda. Tale Era Interactive is the culmination of a vision between him and his brother, Ersin (Chief Technical Officer), to make their own video games. Let’s find out what it is like running an indie game studio straight from the horse’s mouth. 

Can you tell me about you and Tale Era Interactive?

“I am Erhan, the co-founder and CEO of Tale Era Interactive, a small indie studio from Istanbul full of talented and passionate people who love creating stylish, fast and fun games.

Our current title is Holy Shoot, a chaotic roguelite FPS that launched on Steam Early Access with Very Positive reviews. The game won the Best Action/Adventure game award at Kristal Piksel and was nominated in several categories, which made our whole team incredibly proud. 

We were also lucky enough to have our gameplay trailer featured on IGN’s global front page, which was a huge moment for us as an indie team.”

Indie Game Studios Pros and Cons: Tale Era Interactive

What are the Main Challenges of Running an Indie Game Studio?

Erhan replied:

Indie Game Studio Challenges

“Running an indie studio is incredibly rewarding, but it definitely comes with its challenges. Wearing many hats. As a small team, you end up doing everything at once, such as development, marketing, support and community management.

Indie game studio costs: limited budgets. Tools, servers, storage and build systems all matter, and you feel every cost. Reliable and affordable infrastructure helps a lot.

Standing out. New games are released constantly, so getting noticed and building a community takes patience and persistence.

Balancing passion and business. You follow your creative vision while trying to keep the studio sustainable and the team motivated.

What are the Joys of Running an Indie Game Studio?

Erhan said:

“Even with the challenges, there are so many things that make this journey special.

Creative freedom. You get to make the exact game you imagine without layers of approval or corporate rules.

A close and supportive team. Every success is shared, and the atmosphere feels like family.

Seeing players enjoy your game. Watching someone have fun with something you built is an incredible feeling.

Every milestone feels meaningful.  A positive review, a rise in wishlists or a kind message on Discord always makes your day.

Freedom to experiment. You can try new ideas, change direction quickly and keep the creative energy alive.”

Thanks, Erhan, for this insightful look into managing an Indie Game Studio. 

Key Takeaways from Tale Era Interactive Case Study:

• Small teams must balance passion and workload.
  
  
• Indie game studio costs matter more for indies, especially servers and tools.
  
  
• Community building is slow but essential.
  
  
• Creative freedom remains the biggest reward.

CASE STUDY: CULTIC GAMES

Next up, I spoke to Can Oral at Cultic Games about running an indie game studio. First of all, check out Cultic Game titles:

Cultic Games Website

Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones

Cats and Other Lives

Human No More. Coming out in 2026. 

Speaking to Can was fascinating. Can Oral has a rare creative genius and a wonderful sense of humour. It was a pleasure finding out more about his successes and challenges running an indie game studio.  Indie game development business is a subject that Can teaches at BAU University in Karakoy, Istanbul, where the gaming studio is based. 

Success is no stranger to Can. Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones is a cult game with a passionate fanbase. Also, Cats and Other Lives is a cat adventure game with glowing reviews on Steam. 

Can and his team have now turned their hand to designing and releasing a tabletop RPG game called Human No More. I secretly hope he returns to video game design, as I would love to work with him on a PC game project. 

As far as HNM goes, I am a freelance team member as an editor and occasional actor (see video here about Combat in HNM). 

Indie Game Studios Pros and Cons: Cultic Games

Can, what are the challenges of running an indie gaming studio?

“An indie game studio is both a passion and a commercial entity, which makes it hard to maintain its delicate balance. Although indie teams taste the utter joy of doing something completely original and of their own, they also have to survive the sometimes harsh conditions of an ever-changing, highly commercial industry.”

What are the joys of running an indie gaming studio?

“There is an endless ground for experimentation and professional growth in indie development. Since there are no strict borders of responsibility between team members, it allows them to operate on many levels, enriching their capacities and artistic expression. 

Indie teams also possess a kind of freedom and autonomy that is rare in other software engineering-based endeavours.

Do you have anything to say about hosting and servers, positive or negative?

When it comes to websites and other web-based services, we've been working with service providers to have a steady and active service. We do not host our own servers as of yet.”

Key Takeaways from Cultic Games Case Study:

• Indie studios must balance creativity with commercial pressure. Indie game studio costs are a key factor.
  
  
• Small teams grow by working across multiple roles.
  
  
• Freedom and autonomy drive innovation.
  
  
• Reliable service providers remain essential for stability. (In our next article in this Build an Indie Game Studio Series, we explore hosting and servers.)

Thanks to both Erhan and Can for such great insights into the industry and what it is really like running an indie game studio. Be sure to check out their games. It was fascinating to hear about their journeys. 

IP HOUSE: The Ideal Colocation Partner for Indie Game Studios & Publishers 

(Reviewed by IP House Technical Team)

Indie developers like Tale Era Interactive and Cultic Games need stable and controllable backend infrastructure without the weight of enterprise complexity. 

IP House London colocation delivers exactly that. You get predictable pricing, low latency and Tier III equivalent resilience designed for online games, multiplayer servers and live service backends.

Tier III Reliability for Continuous Gameplay

IP House provides fully redundant power, cooling and network systems. Studios gain enterprise-grade uptime and avoid the unpredictable cloud scaling fees that strike during viral moments.

Low Latency Connectivity in London Docklands
 

Located inside one of Europe’s most connected network hubs, IP House London offers direct peering routes suited to real-time multiplayer, matchmaking and global distribution.

Strong Physical Security and 24/7 Support

Private racks, CCTV, multi-layer access control and monitored environments protect code, player data and build pipelines. Remote Hands engineers complete installs, swaps and diagnostics so your developers stay focused on the game itself.

Scalable Infrastructure For Indie Game Studios

Start with a single server or quarter rack and scale to half or full racks as your audience grows. No downtime and no need to redesign your backend.

Built for Indie Game Studios That Need Control

You keep ownership of your hardware strategy, networking choices and deployment workflows. IP House removes the operational burden while strengthening stability, performance and compliance.

A Backend Strategy for Indie Game Studio Growth

Prototype testing, launch stability and global expansion all benefit from predictable colocation instead of volatile cloud costs.

If your last spike exposed backend limits, talk to IP House. Build infrastructure that scales with your success.

Thanks again to Erhan and Can for their brilliant contributions. They are two fantastic gentlemen whom I have the greatest respect for, and their never-ending efforts to make video games that people will love for years to come.

Book a Call Today to Explore Hosting Your Indie Game with IP House London. Fill out the Contact Form below.

FAQs

What are the biggest challenges of running an indie game studio?

Small teams must manage development, marketing, community and backend infrastructure with limited resources.

How do indie studios keep their games stable during growth?

By using reliable hosting, scalable servers and controlled environments for patches.

Does colocation help indie game developers?

Yes. Colocation offers predictable costs, low latency and high uptime compared to unpredictable cloud fees.

About the Author

Jamieson Lee Hill, MD for Gold Viking Limited, is a videogame writer, narrative designer and content specialist. He has worked with indie studios across Europe and Turkey and has written the Build an Indie Game Studio Series for IP House. He started gaming in 1977 and D&D in 1980.

Glossary

Roguelite:  A genre focused on procedural levels and repeated runs.

Metroidvania: A platforming subgenre with exploration-based progression.

Colocation:  Renting physical data centre space to host your own servers.

SOURCES

Primary Sources

Interviews

1. Can Oral, Cultic Games Creative Director & Owner

2. Erhan Taskin, CEO of Tale Era Interactive

Secondary Sources

1. Data Centers Article on Indie Games
2. Dusk PC Game
3. Tale Era Interactive
4. Cultic Games Website
5. Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones
6. Cats and Other Lives
7. Human No More. 
8. Human No More Combat Video
9. Kristel Pixel Awards for Holy Shoot
10. IGN Holy Shoot
11. Holy Shoot Steam Page