7 Real Game Dev Paths (Steam Isn't the Only One)
Everyone talks about Steam like it's the only destination for indie devs. It's not. There are dozens of paths available and most of them never get mentioned because they don't make for clickable YouTube thumbnails.
This post breaks down 7 real options for indie developers. Some of them might surprise you. One of them might be a better fit for you than the Steam route you've been chasing.
1. The Major Steam Release
This is the one you already know. One big game, usually one to three years of development, launched on Steam with hopes of going viral and making serious money.
It has the biggest potential reward. It also has the biggest risk. Most major Steam releases don't make back their development time. That doesn't mean you shouldn't pursue it. It just means you should go in with your eyes open.
If this is your goal, build your foundation first. The developers who succeed with big Steam releases aren't the ones who jumped straight into a three year project. They're the ones who spent years building smaller games, learning scope, and developing the discipline to actually finish something long.
2. Small Steam Releases
Think small puzzle games, simple action games, single mechanic games. The kind of game that has one core thing it does really well and doesn't try to be everything.
The strategy here is volume and iteration. Instead of betting everything on one big release you're putting out two to four games a year. If one flops you get back on the horse fast. You learn from it, apply those lessons to the next one, and keep moving. Each game is another revenue stream, another shot at finding something that connects with players.
This path is underrated. You can build a small studio around it, do it solo, or do it on the side while working a day job. The development cycles are short enough that failure isn't devastating and success compounds over time.
3. Join a Small or Mid-Size Studio
Not everyone wants to be their own boss. Not everyone wants to make every design decision, handle marketing, manage the business side, and still find time to actually build the game. Some people just want to develop games. That's completely valid.
There are a lot of well-run indie studios out there that hire developers, artists, and designers. Small teams of 5 to 30 people making real games and bringing in real revenue. Getting hired at one of these is a legitimate career path that doesn't get talked about enough in indie dev circles.
Building a portfolio of finished projects is how you get there. More on that at the end of this post.
4. AAA Studio Work
Yes this gets a bad reputation. The stories about crunch culture and poor treatment of employees are real and worth taking seriously. But it's also true that thousands of developers work at AAA studios, enjoy their work, and build long careers there.
If your dream is to work on the next Halo or the next Assassin's Creed, that's a real path. A 9 to 5 building games for a major studio is still building games. There's nothing wrong with wanting that stability and wanting to work on large-scale projects with big teams and serious resources behind them.
Just go in knowing what the culture can look like and make your decision with full information.
5. Building Tools and Assets
This one flies completely under the radar and it's one of the most sustainable paths out there.
You don't have to make games at all. You can build tools, systems, plugins, and asset packs for other developers to use. Upload them to the Unity Asset Store, the Unreal Marketplace, or similar platforms. Charge $20, $50, $100 or more for a well-built system that saves other developers hours of work.
The best tools on these platforms aren't the flashiest ones. They're the ones that are well-maintained, regularly updated, and genuinely solve a problem developers keep running into. If you pick one or two specific systems and really refine them, you can build a full career doing nothing but this.
If you find that you enjoy building systems more than building full games, this path exists and people are making real money on it.
6. Freelance and Contract Work
This is gig work for game developers. Studios need extra hands during crunch. Teams need someone who specializes in shaders. A project needs a level designer for three months. That's where you come in.
The upside is flexibility. You jump between projects, build a wide range of experience, and get paid for specific skills rather than committing to one employer full time.
The honest downside is that this path requires you to be your own marketer. Nobody is going to come find you. You have to put your work out there, reach out to studios and developers, and build a reputation over time. If you're introverted that extra layer can feel like a lot on top of the actual development work.
It's a viable path. It just takes longer to get traction than some of the others and it rewards people who are proactive about putting themselves out there.
7. Build Your Own Studio
This can be combined with almost any of the other paths. You can run a studio that makes large Steam games, small Steam games, tools, whatever you want. The difference is you're building a team instead of doing it alone.
A studio doesn't have to mean 50 people in an office. It can be two people. Three people. A handful of developers and one artist splitting revenue shares on a project. Starting small is fine. Starting solo and adding one person later is fine.
A few things worth knowing before you go this route:
Pick people based on skill and work ethic, not friendship. Friends don't always make good collaborators and it's a lot easier to damage a friendship over a failed game project than most people expect going in.
Don't build a team where everyone has the same skills. If you have five developers and zero artists, you have a problem. Think about what roles the project actually needs and find people who fill the gaps.
Try not to be the best person on your team. If you can bring in someone who is a better programmer than you, do it. You can pick up other skills. A team where everyone is learning from each other moves faster than one where the founder is the ceiling.
How to Actually Get Started on Any of These Paths
Here's the thing. All seven of these paths have the same starting point.
You have to learn the fundamentals. How to code at a basic level. How to use an engine. How to take a project from nothing to finished and published. That foundation is not optional regardless of which direction you eventually go.
After you have a few projects under your belt you'll start to get a natural sense of which path actually fits how you work. Some people realize pretty quickly they don't want to spend two years on a single game. Others realize they love the deep focus of a big project. Some find out they're more interested in building tools than building games. You won't know until you've built enough to have an honest read on yourself.
Here's how the starting point differs by path:
Steam games (large or small): Build small projects. Get away from tutorials as fast as you can. Publish everything on itch.io. Stack reps and keep pushing your scope up gradually.
Studio work (indie or AAA): Build a portfolio of finished projects that show you can learn, improve, and actually complete things. It doesn't matter if the early projects are rough. What matters is showing a progression and demonstrating you can ship. That's what got me hired as a software engineer with no degree and no experience, and the same principle applies in game dev.
Tools and assets: Build your foundation first, then identify one or two specific systems you'd want to use yourself. Start there. Refine them. Keep them updated.
Freelance and contract: Similar to studio work. You need visible proof of your skills and you need to be willing to reach out first. Cold outreach, building in public, showing your work online. You can't wait for people to find you.
Your own studio: Build skill first. Then find people with similar goals, similar work ethic, and complementary skills. Start small.
There is no single right path here. The right one is the one that fits how you work, what you actually enjoy, and where you want to take your life. That might change a few times along the way and that's fine. The important thing is to pick a direction, build the foundation, and start moving.
If you want help figuring out which path makes the most sense for where you're at, come join us inside Tenth Legion Games. It's a community of developers who are genuinely trying to help each other grow, not compete, not tear each other down. Just real developers at all different stages working through the same problems together.
Join Tenth Legion Games on Skool
Want to hear me walk through all seven paths in detail? Watch the full video on my YouTube channel.
