Countless games are created every day by independent game developers. But even if you are a gamer, chances are high that you will never hear of them. Only very few of these games will reach a big enough audience to cover their development costs. Most of them will fade and be forgotten, not due to a lack of quality but a lack of visibility.

Building a community around a game in development is an excellent way to connect with people early on. Having a loyal fan base is not only beneficial for the financial success of the game, but provides the developer with constant feedback and can serve as a great motivator to push through the tough times of development. This talk illustrates community-based game development on the example of “Niche – a genetics survival game”, a Swiss indie game project. The main focus points of this talk are: First steps towards a supporting community, crowdfunding and selling a game in a beta stage.