Tachyon Entertainment

Happy Towel Day!

Hey, gamesnart, thanks for the question!

Just remember, if you want to learn to make games, I’ve got tons of resources linked under my advice and resource tags. I’m not much of an artist these days, but the way to improve at art and coding is the same: practice a little every day.

As for the question of how you can support indie game developers, there are a lot of ways! :)

Free ways to help:

Like and reblog their work.

Tweet and post about games you’re excited about.

Make fan art.

Answer their Asks and provide feedback when prompted.

Tell them that you like their work. A simple “I love your stuff!” will lift anyone’s spirits.

Write reviews or do “let’s play” videos. If the games you’re excited about aren’t ready for release or don’t have public demos/betas, contact the devs and say you want to do videos or reviews and politely ask if they have a demo you can use for the video. (Don’t be discouraged if they don’t have a playable build, though.)

Beta-test and give good feedback. (Some studios use “beta” as a “pay to play this early” system, but the original point of beta testing is to find and fix bugs before the final release.)

Organize a game jam! You can set up your own jams for free via itch.io and gamejolt.com. This is a good way to get completed or mostly-completed games to write reviews of and make videos of. You can also offer prizes (which may or may not be of monetary cost to you, depending on what they are).

If you can code, write, or create art or music, start a collaboration with someone who needs help in one of those areas. I recommend keeping the scope of such a collaboration small and specific, so nobody feels burned-out by a long project.

Network! I follow a lot of developers, devblogs, and artists on tumblr, and I do the Follow Friday posts to help the cool cats that I follow get a little exposure. Another benefit of following a ton of people is that if someone says “Hey, I’m a [coder, artist, writer, musician] looking to collab, can anyone help?” I can say “Oh yeah, so-and-so said they were looking for that sort of help,” and help people make that collaboration happen.

Contact the devs directly and ask if there’s anything you can do to help. There’s a good chance they’ll say, “nope, but thanks for asking!” and that’s okay. You probably brightened their day just by asking.

Non-free ways to help:

Buy indie games! There are tons of good games on itch.io and GoG and other sites. Some are even available as pay-what-you-want. If the price is right for your budget, you can stock up on keys and give them as gifts. :) 

Support devs and other content-creators whose work you like on Patreon, Kickstarter, Indiegogo and other sites.

Buy game-related merchandise if you like its look and/or function.

Place stacks of cash in places indie devs are likely to find them, like under their pillows, or in the cabinet where they keep the coffee. I keep mine above the coffee pot, on the right. (In case you were wondering)