Indie games have an incredible talent for going from a small unknown project to a hugely popular game beloved by millions around the world. Although they may start their development in silence, once they get discovered they can explode into something much bigger than themselves. Undertale, Nidhogg, Hades, and many more are great examples of projects started by small groups of dedicated people, and sometimes even solo acts, whose work manages to accrue a vast and dedicated fanbase.
Another indie game that’s on the rise is HammerHelm, a town building RPG by Jonathan Hanna of Super Six Studios. HammerHelm just finished early access and released on Steam, meaning its fanbase is getting bigger than ever.
When Game Rant spoke to Hanna, he highlighted some of the challenges of working independently. It’s no surprise that indie game development is still much easier for teams like Supergiant Games than it is for people who start out working alone like Hanna. He reflected on HammerHelm’s early development and explained that taking on every responsibility of every department of a game’s development was a pretty big challenge. In HammerHelm’s early days, it was up to Hanna to do everything from building graphics to fixing bugs to cutting trailers.
Things are very different for HammerHelm and Hanna now, though. He now works with a publisher and has collaborated on the RPG with several artists. What’s more, Hanna now has a fanbase that he can talk to in order to get a fresh perspective on the state of HammerHelm, thanks to Steam early access and now to its release. Hanna says that having a community around HammerHelm has been crucial in the game’s development, determining what it looks like and how it plays.
There’s no denying that communities can have a huge impact on games – especially if developers encourage fans to define them. Minecraft’s new mob polls and League of Legends’ player polls for champion reworks are just a few good examples of game developers asking fans for their opinions and making the game better based on what fans want. The same is true for indie games like HammerHelm. With the help of his fans, Hanna can figure out what the state of the game is much more easily than he ever could on his own. Feedback is crucial in any creative endeavor because it offers perspective that the creator just can’t come up with on their own.
That was probably the most difficult part, not really having people on the team to bounce ideas off of and get ideas from, especially before I was public…it’s like writer’s block, where I’m just trying to figure out a cool idea for combat, and I don’t have anybody to bounce ideas off of…but that was one of my favorite things about launching. Now I have a whole bunch of people I can bounce ideas off of. The game is a big idea that I’m bouncing off people every day, and I love that. I love that interaction with the community and seeing what they like and what they don’t like, and seeing what I can change based on that feedback.
Community is even more important for indie games than it is for AAA studios, though. If Sony or Microsoft comes forward with a new AAA title, their fans will pay attention and immediately give feedback that the companies can use to make the game better. Indie developers, especially people working on their own, don’t always have the force of notoriety necessary to develop a community and get feedback, which can be a burden on a game’s development. Without feedback, it’s easy for an indie developer to feel lost.
Thankfully, HammerHelm doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. It already developed some fans in early access, and now it can garner even more fans that’ll offer even more perspectives on the updates that Hanna rolls out for his game. Many fans praise Hanna on Steam for his responsiveness and attention to fan comments, which sounds promising for HammerHelm’s future. Constant communication is a great way for camaraderie to develop between Hanna and HammerHelm’s fans, which will create a dedicated player base who can shape HammerHelm’s many upcoming updates for the better.
HammerHelm is available now on PC.
