
IndieGameBusiness®
Candid conversations with veterans of all aspects of the business side of games. We firmly believe that great games from all developers need the support they deserve to succeed. This podcast exists to provide that support.
IndieGameBusiness® is produced by The Powell Group, a video game consulting firm specializing in business development, marketing, and licensing. Our CEO has been in the industry for 20 years and closed countless publishing and licensing deals. The Powell Group monitors over 3,500 game developers and 750+ publishers.
Latest episodes

Dec 22, 2020 • 55min
How to Start Your Video Game Studio - Views from a Lawyer's Perspective
As an attorney in the game industry for over 25 years and having represented a large number of game studios from their start, I will do an overview of issues that developers wishing to start their own studio should consider:
- Should they incorporate?
- How should they structure ownership?
- How should they handle employees and subcontractors?
- How should they handle negotiations with publishers?
- Do I need a lawyer?
- How do I use lawyers and other professionals once I've hired them?
- When should I start thinking about these issues?
- How much will it cost?
As well as many other practical considerations.
To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: indiegame.business
Indie Game Business is produced by The Powell Group: powellgroupconsulting.com
Watch the official live stream: twitch.tv/indiegamebusiness
Watch Indie's live stream: twitch.tv/INDIE
Join the Indie Game Business Discord: discord.gg/indiegamebusiness
The Twitters to follow -
Indie Game Business: twitter.com/BusinessIndie
Powell Group Consulting: twitter.com/PowellGrp
Jay: twitter.com/Powell_Jay
INDIE: twitter.com/TheRealIndie
Donate to Extra Life with our link: extra-life.org/participant/IndieGameBusiness
Join the Indie Game Business Extra Life Team: extra-life.org/team/indiegamebusiness

Dec 21, 2020 • 60min
Live AMA With Kickstarter Director of Games Outreach - Anya Combs
Anya is back to answer all your Kickstarter questions live during the conference, tune in to learn how to prepare a campaign, best practices, and pitfalls to avoid.
To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: indiegame.business
Indie Game Business is produced by The Powell Group: powellgroupconsulting.com
Watch the official live stream: twitch.tv/indiegamebusiness
Watch Indie's live stream: twitch.tv/INDIE
Join the Indie Game Business Discord: discord.gg/indiegamebusiness
The Twitters to follow -
Indie Game Business: twitter.com/BusinessIndie
Powell Group Consulting: twitter.com/PowellGrp
Jay: twitter.com/Powell_Jay
INDIE: twitter.com/TheRealIndie

Dec 20, 2020 • 1h 17min
Establishing a Brand For Your Indie Game Studio With Trevor Dudeck
Trevor Dudeck, Co-Founder of Lemonade, joins us to discuss why it is important for developers to establish a brand early and how they can grow it.
To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: indiegame.business
Indie Game Business is produced by The Powell Group: powellgroupconsulting.com
Watch the official live stream: twitch.tv/indiegamebusiness
Watch Indie's live stream: twitch.tv/INDIE
Join the Indie Game Business Discord: discord.gg/indiegamebusiness
The Twitters to follow -
Indie Game Business: twitter.com/BusinessIndie
Powell Group Consulting: twitter.com/PowellGrp
Jay: twitter.com/Powell_Jay
INDIE: twitter.com/TheRealIndie

Dec 17, 2020 • 58min
The New Video Game Landscape, 2020
Takeaway: Audience members will walk away with +6 on all industry intelligence rolls.
We knew beforehand that 2020 would be a transitional year for the $120bn video games business. Major platform manufacturers like Sony and Microsoft are gearing up to release their new consoles, and a string of new competitors, including Amazon, Google, and Facebook have been aggressively investing in cloud gaming. What we didn’t know in advance was how the shift to digital gaming would accelerate as a result of a health crisis and economic collapse. In this presentation we’ll review the current state of the games business in its newfound role as a ’safe haven’ for investors, the new drivers of change, and how this is expected to alter the industry’s landscape in the years to come. Prior knowledge about the industry, while helpful, won’t be necessary to attend.
To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: indiegame.business
Indie Game Business is produced by The Powell Group: powellgroupconsulting.com
Watch the official live stream: twitch.tv/indiegamebusiness
Watch Indie's live stream: twitch.tv/INDIE
Join the Indie Game Business Discord: discord.gg/indiegamebusiness
The Twitters to follow -
Indie Game Business: twitter.com/BusinessIndie
Powell Group Consulting: twitter.com/PowellGrp
Jay: twitter.com/Powell_Jay
INDIE: twitter.com/TheRealIndie
Donate to Extra Life with our link: extra-life.org/participant/IndieGameBusiness
Join the Indie Game Business Extra Life Team: extra-life.org/team/indiegamebusiness

Dec 16, 2020 • 57min
How to Improve Your Game's Retention & Monetization Through Data-Driven Experimentation
Retention and monetization is the core to free-to-play games. They define your customer life time value and how profitable your game is going to be. During this session, we will learn about why customer life-time value (LTV) is important and how it is the key to making highly profitable games. We will then learn how to use an A/B test plan to incrementally improve LTV. We will do this by
1. Identifying bottle necks in your game that lead to lower retention and monetization.
2. Creating an A/B test plan to improve these bottle necks in the most effective way.
3. Executing your A/B test plan to (hopefully) eliminate those bottle necks.
4. Learning from the outcomes and remembering them when you are designing game mechanics or user interfaces in the future.
In addition, we will also learn how to use A/B testing as a way to safely roll out releases to reduce the risk of negatively impacting retention and monetization.
To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: indiegame.business
Indie Game Business is produced by The Powell Group: powellgroupconsulting.com
Watch the official live stream: twitch.tv/indiegamebusiness
Watch Indie's live stream: twitch.tv/INDIE
Join the Indie Game Business Discord: discord.gg/indiegamebusiness
The Twitters to follow -
Indie Game Business: twitter.com/BusinessIndie
Powell Group Consulting: twitter.com/PowellGrp
Jay: twitter.com/Powell_Jay
INDIE: twitter.com/TheRealIndie
Donate to Extra Life with our link: extra-life.org/participant/IndieGameBusiness
Join the Indie Game Business Extra Life Team: extra-life.org/team/indiegamebusiness

Dec 15, 2020 • 57min
Unpacking Game Jams and Events in Africa and Beyond in 2020
Gain further insights from a two week gamathon which occurred in Africa in 2020, what the future holds as well as how online events are connecting the industry.
thatIn 2020, with COVID-19 occurring, many events had moved digital. During this time, Africacomicade was started where a two-week gamathon occurred. Join your host Sean and one of the founders of Africacomicade to hear more about the event, future plans and how online events are connecting the industry.
To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: indiegame.business
Indie Game Business is produced by The Powell Group: powellgroupconsulting.com
Watch the official live stream: twitch.tv/indiegamebusiness
Watch Indie's live stream: twitch.tv/INDIE
Join the Indie Game Business Discord: discord.gg/indiegamebusiness
The Twitters to follow -
Indie Game Business: twitter.com/BusinessIndie
Powell Group Consulting: twitter.com/PowellGrp
Jay: twitter.com/Powell_Jay
INDIE: twitter.com/TheRealIndie

Dec 15, 2020 • 1h 11min
A Conversation With a New Distribution Platform for Video Games - VoxPop Games
Everything VoxPop can be found below:
https://linktr.ee/voxpopgames
https://discord.gg/GQ4hwrr
https://twitter.com/VoxPopGames
https://www.twitch.tv/voxpopgames
https://www.linkedin.com/company/voxpopgames/
To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: indiegame.business
Indie Game Business is produced by The Powell Group: powellgroupconsulting.com
Watch the official live stream: twitch.tv/indiegamebusiness
Watch Indie's live stream: twitch.tv/INDIE
Join the Indie Game Business Discord: discord.gg/indiegamebusiness
The Twitters to follow -
Indie Game Business: twitter.com/BusinessIndie
Powell Group Consulting: twitter.com/PowellGrp
Jay: twitter.com/Powell_Jay
INDIE: twitter.com/TheRealIndie

Dec 15, 2020 • 1h 10min
How 2020 lead to innovation and a chance to reset in-game advertising w/ Jonathon Troughton
Frameplay's CEO is here discussing what's changed in in-game advertising and best practices for 2021.
frameplay.gg
To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: indiegame.business
Indie Game Business is produced by The Powell Group: powellgroupconsulting.com
Watch the official live stream: twitch.tv/indiegamebusiness
Watch Indie's live stream: twitch.tv/INDIE
Join the Indie Game Business Discord: discord.gg/indiegamebusiness
The Twitters to follow -
Indie Game Business: twitter.com/BusinessIndie
Powell Group Consulting: twitter.com/PowellGrp
Jay: twitter.com/Powell_Jay
INDIE: twitter.com/TheRealIndie
Donate to Extra Life with our link: extra-life.org/participant/IndieGameBusiness
Join the Indie Game Business Extra Life Team: extra-life.org/team/indiegamebusiness

Nov 30, 2020 • 1h 13min
How A One Person Studio Runs a Successful MMO with Alex Winchell
Alex has been running Politics & War Online for six years and he's had over 200,000 players in that time. An interesting talk on his experience over the years, how he did it, and what's next for him.
To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: indiegame.business
Indie Game Business is produced by The Powell Group: powellgroupconsulting.com
Watch the official live stream: twitch.tv/indiegamebusiness
Watch Indie's live stream: twitch.tv/INDIE
Join the Indie Game Business Discord: discord.gg/indiegamebusiness
The Twitters to follow -
Indie Game Business: twitter.com/BusinessIndie
Powell Group Consulting: twitter.com/PowellGrp
Jay: twitter.com/Powell_Jay
INDIE: twitter.com/TheRealIndie
Donate to Extra Life with our link: extra-life.org/participant/IndieGameBusiness
Join the Indie Game Business Extra Life Team: extra-life.org/team/indiegamebusiness

Nov 21, 2020 • 1h 8min
From Tabletop To Desktop w/ Tom Young of Nomad Games
The UK's Nomad Games has a history of bringing great board games like Talisman, Smash Up, and Fury of Dracula to the digital space. We sat down with Tom Young to discuss how it's all done and answer questions from our community as well.
To learn more about the show or our online business matchmaking events for indie developers visit: http://indiegame.business
Indie Game Business is produced by The Powell Group: http://powellgroupconsulting.com
Watch the official live stream: www.twitch.tv/indiegamebusiness
Watch INDIE's stream: www.twitch.tv/INDIE
Join the Indie Game Business Discord: http://discord.gg/indiegamebusiness
The Twitters to follow -
Indie Game Business: https://twitter.com/BusinessIndie
Powell Group Consulting: https://twitter.com/PowellGrp
Jay: https://twitter.com/Powell_Jay
INDIE: https://twitter.com/TheRealIndie
Donate to Extra Life with our link: https://www.extra-life.org/participant/IndieGameBusiness
Join the Indie Game Business Extra Life Team: https://www.extra-life.org/team/indiegamebusiness