We did not think there were so many people interested in our super weird indie game.
Mind blown!!! 🔥

Game: Tom the postgirl

Hi everyone

We are going nuts after almost 2years of development in the game and we are excited to launch the trailer but we are facing lot of issues on getting wishlist and getting known by other indie gamers. Working on the new DEMO launch trailer and hoping demo launch in this Steam Fest.

Our Steam game link any suggestions would be helpful.

You want to be the very special person who gets us over the 550 mark? Be our guest, here is the link to our game to make it super easy for you!

PS: After looking at the gifs in this post you must be wondering why a AAA game is on this subreddit, but rest assured, we really are just humble husband and wife working on this game with a grand budget of $0.

Hi everyone,

I’m Tom, the solo developer behind Netherwake, a short first-person horror game releasing on November 13. With Steam Next Fest starting today, I’m going into it with 1,980 wishlists and thought I’d share how I got to this point.

I’ve found other developers’ posts like this useful, so here’s mine. I don’t have exact numbers for every source, but some things have helped more than others.
A big part of the wishlist growth came from having the trailer featured on IGN’s GameTrailers YouTube channel. That exposure has been one of the biggest contributors so far. I can’t give an exact percentage, but it accounts for a substantial part of the total.
Recently, I’ve also been reaching out to YouTubers and streamers who play horror games similar to mine. I’ve included smaller channels and creators in different languages, rather than only contacting the big English-speaking channels.

Each person gets a separate email with a short introduction, an image from the game and a link to the Steam demo. I’ve received replies, which is encouraging, but it’s still too early for me to say how much this outreach has contributed to wishlists.
The demo is also approaching 30 Steam reviews, with all but one being positive. The overall label currently reads “Positive.” I don’t feel the reason given in the one negative review was fair, but the response from the other players has been really encouraging.
One lesson from releasing the demo was how much I needed to rethink performance. I originally made heavy use of Unreal Engine’s newer rendering features for lighting and shadows, along with Nanite for meshes. Once people started playing, it became clear that most demo players’ PCs weren’t handling that setup well.
That meant a lot of extra work reducing my reliance on those features and adjusting the graphics to improve performance while keeping the atmosphere I wanted. If I were starting again, I’d test on a wider range of hardware much earlier.

I’ve also been posting on X, including Screenshot Saturday posts, and interacting with other developers. I find it difficult to judge how much this helps. There’s activity around the posts, but I can’t reliably connect that to wishlist additions.

Player feedback has helped with smaller things too. For example, players pointed out that the demo’s ending screen didn’t have an obvious way to leave it. Something I’d overlooked because I was so used to testing it myself.

So far, the trailer appearing on IGN’s GameTrailers channel has made the clearest difference to wishlist growth. The creator outreach is still ongoing, and now I’ll get to see what Next Fest brings as well. Hopefully I can come back after the festival with some useful numbers to compare.

Anyone else going into Next Fest with a similar wishlist count? I’d be interested to hear how it goes for you.

Hi everyone!

We’re working on The Fallen Grid, a zombie survival game where you can team up with up to 4 friends to survive the outbreak.

You can check out our game on Steam, and by adding it to your wishlist before our Early Access launch, you’ll be directly supporting us and helping the game reach a much better place.

Steam Page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5146450/The_Fallen_Grid/?l=english

Thanks for taking the time to check it out!

Is 2000 total Wishlists good for a launch? I am afraid of GTA 6 launch, also the halloween season will be good for our game (horror game)

Check it out: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5394070/The_Usual_Please/

大家好！我们是一个小型独立团队，正在制作一款俯视角像素艺术探索游戏，讲述一名宇航员被困在陌生星球上，寻找回家的路。

这里是你将探索的世界一瞥。其视觉特征围绕着黑、白与鲜艳红色的鲜明对比展开。黑暗的地形形成了广阔阴影的景观，细微的色调变化为黑暗增添了深度。白色的海浪沿着海岸线划过，零星的浅色石块在黑色地面上勾勒出细腻的细节。鲜艳的红色海水与陆地分离，赋予这颗星球独特的异世界感。

除了独特的视觉效果外，游戏围绕轻松的探索、零碎的叙事和基于地形的谜题构建。这是一个安静、陌生的世界，等待被发现，拥有独特的氛围和秘密等待被揭开。

感谢你的阅读！

Making an indie game on your own is quite an adventure, especially when your game is all about teamwork! 😂

I'm the solo developer behind Who's Got the Legs?, a 2D co-op platformer where 2–4 players control the same octopus.

Each player handles different actions, so even the simplest obstacle can turn into a hilarious disaster if you don't work together.

I've been building the game in Unity, creating different worlds, obstacles and mechanics to make every level a new cooperative challenge.

The game is planned for March 2027, and there's already a free demo available on Steam!

🐙 Steam page + free demo:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4618110/

If the concept sounds fun, adding it to your wishlist would mean a lot to me. 💜

We're also participating in PokeIndie's Indie Game of the Month this October! If you'd like to support this little indie project, you can vote here until October 27:

🏆 https://pokeindie.com/events/pokeindie-indie-game-of-the-month-october-2026/vote

Thank you for supporting solo indie developers! 🎮

Hey everyone!

I can imagine how exciting these last few hours must be for everyone participating in Steam Next Fest. I really hope all your hard work pays off! I thought I'd share my own experience and results in case they're helpful to anyone.

I've been working on my first game, The Borderless, as a solo indie developer for about 1.5 years now. It combines elements from different genres, but I'd mainly describe it as a cozy island-building and management sim.

I participated in Steam Next Fest for the first time this past June. You can see the daily wishlist additions throughout the festival in the chart I've shared. Before the festival, I had around 850 wishlists, and by the end, that number had reached approximately 1,350. That's roughly a 60% increase!

But one of the most valuable things I gained from the festival was player feedback. In fact, I spent the following few months almost completely overhauling the game based on that feedback. So the trailer and screenshots currently on my Steam page show the updated version of the game, not the version I originally brought to Next Fest.

That's why, even if you don't gain as many wishlists as you hoped, please remember that Next Fest can still be an incredibly valuable opportunity to improve both your game and your skills as a developer.

Once again, good luck to everyone participating! I hope this Next Fest turns out to be a great experience for all of you!

If you're curious about the game:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3687370/The_Borderless/

I'm making The Last Wish, a relaxing spot-the-difference game. Compare paired scenes, zoom in on the details, and use the magnifier when you need a closer look. There are 17 scenes and 85 differences, 100 Achievements with no timer.

If this looks like your kind of puzzle break, you can wishlist it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5398810/The_Last_Wish/.

I'm the developer. The artwork and music use generative AI.

Time Survivor is our first game, for sure we made a lot of mistakes, but we are still proud of our journey.

We started from a game jam, and we managed to achieve the first place for gameplay. This gave us hope, the game was highly appreciated.

So posted on r/incremental_games and our post exploded, this was our first breakthrough.
After that we went trending on Itch, and IdleCub made a video about our game.
This two events combined gave us about 1.5k wishlist.

After that we kept getting some wishlist every day, but nothing serious (less than 5/day).

Then flat. We kept posting on Reddit every now and then but very low results.

A week ago we released a major update on Itch, and we went trending again, and got about 100 more wishlist in few days, but that was it.

We will be joining the Next Fest regardless. It'd not ideal, but we wanted to put an end to this journey, even if we could and can do better.

We know we should have contacted streamers and posted on social media but we didn't, that was a big mistake, we will do that after the Next Fest and we will release the game at the end of the year.

Thank you for listening our brief story. Hope you gave a chance to our game :) and if you like it leave a wishlist to support us.

The AI datacenter boom has swallowed the grid, and an evil corporation’s coal plant runs the town. You start with nothing but a single 50 W solar panel, then build up solar, wind and batteries, run real cables, and knock on doors to win customers away from the coal plant one house at a time.

It’s been 6 months of evenings and weekends, and seeing the Steam page go live felt unreal. Im making my way to early access, and I’d love to hear what you think, good or bad.

Wishlist if it looks like your thing: SteamPage

I added Rave mod to the game and when the boss round comes, this is what waits for people. https://store.steampowered.com/app/4735700/Cyber_Plinko/

Hey everyone! The Steam Cooking Fest has ended, and here's how Cats Love Cakes did during the event:

🐱🍰 +70 wishlists during Cooking Fest!

Now I'm heading into Steam Next Fest with a provisional trailer and a lot of curiosity about what comes next.

I'll share my results after the festival ends! Let's see how much of a difference Steam Next Fest can make for my game's visibility and wishlists.

• ✅ Steam store page is live
• ✅ Provisional trailer
• ✅ Demo available
• ❌ No achievements
• ❌ Game hasn't been released yet

If you'd like to support the game, you can wishlist Cats Love Cakes on Steam! 💜

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4987490/Cats_Love_Cakes/

Hey! I'm a solo indie developer working on my new game in my spare time Catkanoid
It's an arkanoid-style with Cat and Kapibara with power ups and upgrade cards that make you stronger as you play!

Thanks to everyone who wishlisted my game :)

Several years ago I had launched a website chaoschess.online where players could play a chess variant that used SVG images for traditional pieces and would have "crazy events" occur mid-way through a match. After using Coursera's study program on Blender and a metric ton of pdf guidebooks, I rebuilt the game into a 3D environment.

Here's the basic gist:

• There's a 10-chapter story campaign about old chess pieces (eg, Empress, camel, lion, etc) coming back with a vengeance
• Each match features a Chaos Event (a flood, volcano, witch's curse, blizzard) that impacts both players
• Also there's potential for a pawn uprising, where all the pawns on the board revolt, crown a new red king, and attack both white and black pieces as a third player
• The game also features 7 scenarios, that test your skill against varying difficulties. A viking invasion keeps pumping 3rd-player berserkers each turn onto the board, and your only goal is to outlast the opponent king. A dragons vs vampires scenario includes a day/night cycle in chess that modifies the pieces abilities. And a zombie attack is chess meets minesweeper.
• To overcome the bad stuff happening, you get to add two Champion pieces to your board to fight on your behalf. These pieces have special abilities and moves. The Executioner can leap over pieces in front of it and eliminate the first opponent piece in its path. The lion piece can move twice, just like its historical piece. The Thief moves like a pawn but can attack diagonally backwards in addition to forwards. The Necromancer can return a captured piece back to your ranks. And so on....
• Several gorgeous environments and the board view can be adjusted so you have full view of the action

Links: Steam | iPad | iPhone

Hi everyone, I’m Ryan, and I’m making my first game.

My sister and I used to be OBSESSED with Master of Olympus when we were kids. It was the best! I wanted to play it again recently, but couldn’t get it working on my Mac or phone and didn’t fancy buying an entire computer setup just for one game.

So I built my own Ancient Greek city builder. An entirely reasonable response.

It’s called Mythic City, and I’m designing it for mobile. I’ve tried to capture that feeling of watching a little settlement grow, getting its economy working, building temples and having the gods turn up to help or complicate things.

I used to be a web developer so moving into game development has been eye opening to say the least. You guys must be at least partially insane, but the rewards and gratification you get when building something like this are much greater than any website I ever built!

Ive used some AI assistance to help with a few different elements such as coding and music etc. But really most of my time has gone into designing the systems, testing them and investigating why nobody seems to be getting their bread.

Thought I’d introduce myself and find some other people who enjoy this sort of game.
I will be releasing it soon once the App Store page is up and running.

If anyone want to be notified when it’s released you can visit our landing page and join our mailing list:

https://mythiccity.app

Thanks everyone :)

This will be something of an experiment/case-study which, I hope, will be marginally useful to my future self and maybe some other devs who come by!

As per the title, I’m currently working on a small game called Slots Up which is sat at 263 wishlists as of 10am GMT this morning. I had hoped for more, however realistically I’ve done nothing to push the game or drive wishlists outside of releasing the demo already on Steam and itch.io

Now a wise man may conclude that it would be sensible to increase marketing efforts and push back to a later date and get some more wishlists, maybe drive marketing harder and shoot for February next fest, however I have other projects I want to move on to and I was never intending to have a “successful big release” with this project, my release date is fixed at November 26th and that will be that! So here’s the plan:

I will be using the week of next fest to hopefully capitalize on the (likely small) increase in visibility. That will include daily activity on the Steam page announcements section (roadmap, updates, future plans, etc), reaching out to some content creators to see if I can get some demo coverage, daily posts on short form content platforms (YT shorts, TikTok, and IG reels) and most notably a major content update in the middle of the week to possibly bring players who enjoyed the demo back for seconds

No idea how well this will turn out, I’ve previously had a game with no demo gain 100 odd wishlists in next fest with zero input, so I’m hoping to hit at least double but we’ll see!

I’ll be back later in the week with updates and results 🫡

Updated my shmup and prepared a new demo plus trailer on Steam in preparation for the upcoming Next Fest
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5054650/

Hope everyone likes the tweaked gameplay and polished looked

Full game launch scheduled on Steam for end of this month of October

Other platforms soon hopefully as well