My Entrepreneurial Story -- And How It Can Help You Grow Your Indie Game Studio

Hey, my name is Dariusz.

I didn't go to school for marketing. I'm not a marketing guru. I don't sell courses. I accidently got into marketing because if I wanted to support myself financially doing creative projects, I had to learn how to find customers.

So, here's my entrepreneurial story. And as I share with you my failures and success, I will relate it back to you and your own journey to building an indie game studio so you too can support yourself financially doing something creative.

My Early Failures

Probably like you, I'm a very creative type. I draw, do 3d art, and graphic design. I also love programming and stats.

But in the "real world", you don't get paid a lot if you want to do creative things. And if you do get a job doing creative things, you're just a cog in a big wheel doing a boring specific job.

Anyway, after graduating University in 2001, I realized I wasn't going to get that cool, interesting, creative job. The only jobs I got were mind-numbing corporate jobs.

But my need to do creative projects never went away. So at night, after work, I would work on my creative projects. And my goal was to figure out how I could financially support myself doing something creative.

So, my first idea was I wanted to contact European manufacturers, and in Photoshop I would create brochures and catalogs in English so that they can distribute them in Canada. That idea failed.

I also wanted to do a webcomic (I was inspired by Homestar Runner). That failed.

I also wanted to make a website where you pay your city fines online. Remember, back in 2002, you couldn't really pay your bills online. But that failed.

And then I wanted to start a graphic design company. But so did everybody else in 2002. So that failed.

I failed hard. For four years, I never found any customers... never made any money pursuing my creative ideas. I failed because I thought all you needed was a good idea, and a quality product, and customers will just line up and pay you.

Nope.

But then I had some breakthroughs...

Breakthrough #1: Validate And Work Your Way Up

In 2005, I was reading Mark Cuban's blog "blog maverick". And he had a biz idea about scanning photos.

But I ignored it. But then at work, somebody mentioned that they were scanning their photos... but were having some issues with resolution and image quality. So since I was good at Photoshop and digital images, I helped him out with some tips.

But that got me thinking...

I put up a classified ad about scanning services. Just to see if there was any demand for this idea.

And guess what?

I got my first customer -- ever!

But here's the thing: I didn't have any scanners or equipment. I didn't have a website. I wasn't ready at all.

I just had an idea. And I tested that idea with potential customers. And it worked.

But this time, I decided to do things differently. Instead of spending months perfecting my idea and hoping customers would come, I decided to test the waters first. I created a simple classified ad to gauge interest. No fancy equipment, no website, no big investments. Just a small ad to see if anyone would bite.

And to my surprise, it worked. I got my first customer. This was a game-changer for me. It taught me the importance of validating an idea before committing significant time and resources. By starting small and testing early, I was able to pivot and adapt based on real customer feedback, rather than assumptions.

But not this time. For the first time, I validated my idea by going to potential customers FIRST, and seeing if they would buy or not. And once I knew people were interested in my idea, that's when I started investing in equipment, a website, and putting more effort into product development.

And this is an important lesson for game devs too... game devs will spend weeks or months working on a game idea, getting validation and feedback from other game devs, and then once they're "ready", then they start trying to reach out to potential customers. If that! Most devs actually really start thinking about marketing when they're 3 months before launch, and they have maybe 400 wishlists. Now they're scrambling because they're worried that their game launch will fail because they didn't do any marketing.

But marketing starts at day one. And you have to be damn sure your game idea will have a fighting chance right from day one.

This is why Kickstarter is a great testing ground for ideas. There have been games that got funded without offering any real gameplay or playable demo. All they had was an idea -- and good marketing. Of course, there have been devs who had great marketing but didn't deliver a game that lived up to that marketing. But still, your idea alone needs some initial attention if you want a fighting chance to succeed.

But having a good idea alone isn't enough.... and this leads me to...

Breakthrough #2: It's Not Your Idea That Sells, It's How You Sell It

My scanning idea was working. I would put up a classified ad and I would get customers. But guess what? I wasn't the only one. When a good idea hits, a lot of people are going to take that idea and do the same thing. So I had competition. The market was getting crowded.

And same with you. Right now as I write this, there are hundreds of game devs making action-roguelikes. That seems to be the big idea right now. And one good idea will spread fast. And that's how the market is overcrowded with a lot of good ideas.

And so like you right now, back in 2005 I was now facing an overcrowded marketplace.

But I noticed something. The people who were offering scanning services were all saying the same things in their ads. Basically they were saying:

"Scanning services, quality service, at a low price."

So I knew that if I just said and did the same thing, my ad would be ignored. So I had to zig while everybody zagged.

What I did was, I remember talking to a customer and asking him why he wanted to scan his old slides and photos. And I remember exactly what he said, because what he told me changed the course of my entrepreneurial efforts forever...

He said,

"I inherited my dad's old slides. And I feel guilty throwing them out. I want to scan the slides digitally, and just get rid of originals without feeling guilty".

Now, it wasn't what he said specifically that changed everything for me. It was the insight I got.

Remember how everybody was putting out classified ads saying the same ol' "scanning services, low price, excellent quality?"

Well, this time, I made an ad that said:

If you inherited your Dad's old 35mm slides and you don't want to keep them, then here's what to do..."

This is what turned my business idea from being just a side hustle into a full time business. That ad got me more clients than I could handle. At the time, I was still working full time. So I could maybe do one client a week. I forget now how many clients I landed from that ad. But I remember feeling overwhelmed with the demand.

The funny thing is, my service and price was ALL the same. The only thing I changed was the title of my ad.

Because it was after that ad, I realized that it's not your idea that sells... it's how you sell it. Yes, you first need a good idea. You need to validate it. You need to see if people will buy it before you invest time and money into developing the complete product.

But, you also need to know HOW to sell your idea.

Nobody cared about "quality service" or "low low price". They cared about their Dad's old slides sitting in the garage, and fading, and getting ruined by time. So I used that in my marketing message. And that simple change in my marketing message is what cut through all the noise, and got me attention in an overcrowded marketplace.

And it's the same with your indie game. Nobody cares about your features, your art, your story, your gameplay. Thousands of games offer the same shit you offer. The key in getting attention in an overcrowded marketplace is your marketing message.

And I'll talk about how to develop a marketing message that cuts through the noise and gets you attention later. But for now here's...

Breakthrough #3: You're Not Selling A Product, You're Selling An Outcome

That ad where I talked about "scanning your dad's old slides", got me my first real success. I did the math, and I realized with all these new clients, I could pay a full month's rent and bills -- and plus some. But since I was working a full-time job, and only could work on the project at night and weekends, that meant it would take over a month or more to finish all my clients' jobs.

So I had to make a risky decision.

I quit my job. And decided to put all my time and energy into finishing this batch of client projects.

And I told myself that if I don't get any more client work, then I can always go back to working office jobs.

(Ps. this was back in 2005, Calgary Alberta -- Oil and Gas country. And getting a good office job was easy. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was very lucky. Looking back, not all my success was due to my brilliance -- I also know I was lucky to be in a city where I could take risks like that... plus I didn't have a family or kids).

So after that big breakthrough, I learned something very important:

I need to talk to every customer. Because that's how I'll learn to write better marketing that gets attention. The more I learn what my customer wants and doesn't want, the better my sales copy and market will be because it will RESONATE with them.

And that's what I did. I would talk to current customers, and I would get small little tidbits of info.

For example, most people who scanned their photos, were scanning their wedding photos. So I made an ad talking about "scan your wedding album into digital so that you can share those images quickly with friends and family on Facebook". (Remember, back in 2005, Facebook was mostly for sharing family and friend's photos).

And I learned that most people who had 35mm negatives were often artists and photographers. So I wrote ads saying, "If you're a photographer, and you have thousands of your old negatives sitting in a box, scan them into digital so you can see your work again".

This might be boring to listen to me talk about this... but there is a very important insight for you here.

I learned that people were not buying "digital scans". They didn't care about my services, quality, and price. They only cared about what it would GET THEM. They only cared about the outcome. They were essentially buying an outcome.

For example, somebody who buys a Lambo isn't buying it to get from home to work, and buy groceries. They're buying it for social status and display of wealth.

It's the same with your indie game. Players aren't buying a game. They're buying an experience, they're buying fun, they're buying challenges, they're buying a sense of accomplishment, they're buying escape from reality, they're buying praise from others, they're buying personal achievement.

And this is why I always tell game devs in my tips to get out there and talk to potential customers. Potential customers will tell you what outcomes they want. And once you understand what they want and need, or want to avoid, then when you can use that to help you write more persuasive marketing on your Steam page or when you post content on Reddit or TikTok.

You see, most game devs talk about game features. But that's boring to players. It's boring because features mean nothing to them. But when you show and tell that player what your feature will do for them in terms of fun or enjoyment or achievement or entertainment, then you'll have their full attention.

But this means you need to talk to potential customers. You will never learn what makes your game appealing by sitting and thinking to yourself about it. You need to get out there and ask, so that you learn what players think about your game, and then use that feedback to improve your game and your marketing message.

This leads me to...

Breakthrough #4: Differentiate Or Die

After talking to customers and potential customers, I learned what they wanted, needed, and wanted to avoid. I used this knowledge to mold my business to what the market wanted and wasn't getting. And I learned how to write sales copy that got people to trust me, like me, and buy from me.

But even still... in a very competitive market, you can't just pump in money and time into marketing. Your product needs to be able to find its own niche in the market and stand out.

For example, my market was scanning. And there were a lot of photo scanning services, all competing. So again, when they zig, I zag. So what I did was, I focused mainly on 35mm slides and 35mm negatives. I wanted to avoid competing altogether. I wanted to create my own category, my own niche market that I could dominate and be number one in.

It's the same thing in the game market. For example, because the action-roguelike genre is blowing up, I'm going to talk about it...

Here are four games that are Action-Roguelikes, but each one found their own niche within that market:

Dead Cells: Metroidvania, Platformer

Hades: Hack and Slash, Dungeon Crawler, Mythology

Undermine: Binding of Isaac but wearing Link's skin / RPG

MoonLighter: Shopkeeper, Dungeon Crawler

My point is, the only way to compete in an overcrowded marketplace is to NOT compete. It's to find a gap in the market, and to carve out your own little niche you can dominate.

And the only way to find a gap in the market ...again... sorry... you gotta talk to potential customers.

When you talk to potential customers, you will start seeing patterns. You will slowly start uncovering new information about what your market wants and needs -- and isn't getting. And then you use that information to help you develop a marketable game, and help you craft sales copy that grabs attention because it resonates with what people want.

And yeah, there will be games like Undertale or StarDew Valley that probably never asked customers what they wanted, they made a game they wanted to make, had little marketing, and yet were a huge success.

But people like you and I, we didn't get that lucky. So we need to do this extra work.

Ok, this leads to...

Breakthrough #5: Create Content And They Will Find You

After two years of writing classified ads, I knew how to write persuasive sales copy. I knew what to say to grab a client's attention. I knew what to say in my ad to hold their attention. And I knew what to do to get them to take the first step into becoming a customer.

But using classified ads was only getting me maybe 100 views every day or so. I needed 1,000 views. So I took what I learned from writing ads, and updated my website (ScanCanada.ca) using the same sales copy formula I developed.

But one problem. How would people find me? Kijiji and Craigslist gave me a platform to find my customers.

And using a website means I would no longer get the benefits of a platform that has customers for you.

So to start getting visitors to my site, I started a blog. Today this might seem normal. But you gotta remember... back then, people used blogs as a personal diary. Blogs weren't used for marketing purposes.

But my blog wasn't me talking about technical stuff like image resolution, and scanner specs. What I wrote in my blog were for normal everyday people who wanted to scan their images, but had no idea what to do.

And again, I didn't just start writing about what I wanted to write. I did some research first to understand what my audience wanted. So what I did was, I would go to photography forums, and talk to people about scanning. I would ask what problems or frustrations they had. And I would help them. So after learning a lot about what problems people had, I started writing my own blog. Basically, I took people's questions, answered them, and made a blog about it.

This blog exploded because my SEO was amazing. If you typed in "how to scan", you'd find my blog.

And because I started to get a lot of visitors, it meant that people would click on my services I offered -- and that meant more clients.

And because I was getting so much demand, I had to hire another person to help me. I was growing.

This is why I tell game devs to post content on their Steam Community Hub. And I often get asked, "but how are new customers supposed to find your content using your Community Hub?".

I heard this same question back in 2005: how are you supposed to find new customers using a blog? And it was the same thing with YouTube back then: how are you supposed to make money creating home videos on YouTube? And it was the same question in 2009 with Twitter: how are you supposed to market a business on a place where people show off their food pictures?

Create content, and people will find you.

But you can't post on platforms where your customers aren't hanging out. TikTok, Reddit, even YouTube... people aren't shopping for small indie games when they're surfing on TikTok or YouTube.

But they sure are looking for new games when they're scrolling Steam and they happen to find your game.. and they go to your Steam page... and then they happen to check out your Community hub, and when they see there's a lot of engagement, then that tells them that your game is has a lot of interest... and social proof is very important in influencing people.

Your Steam Page Community Hub is your number one resource to help you find new customers -- even if it doesn't look like it.

Ok, next...

Breakthrough #6: The Best Marketing Is Word-Of-Mouth

But by far, this was my biggest breakthrough.

I would often do cold calls or emails to local businesses. And I sent an email to a local art gallery. And I talked to the director there about scanning. He was interested in what I was doing. So I came over and we had a meeting. He then hired me to scan some of their photographs. He was a great client that kept sending me work. But he was also very influential in the community. And he told his friends about me. His friends owned local businesses. And next thing I knew, I was getting local businesses as clients.

Then that word-of-mouth snowballed to where I was landing billion-dollar clients. My biggest achievement was when Atco Gas became my client. This was my former employer! I was proud because I would walk into those halls everyday dreading the day... but not this time... this time I was walking into the calls because they were my client.

It was me in my small home office (and my employee working remotely), doing business with these huge companies.

And then by 2013, I landed some of the biggest brands and companies in Canada. I had 3 remote offices. And at this point, I was just managing the business, and had time to work on my second startup.

My clients I attracted at ScanCanada.ca

That was my biggest breakthrough because I learned that word-of-mouth is more powerful than content, sales copy, marketing, and paid ads.

But how do you get word-of-mouth going?

You'll hate me... but need to talk to potential customers. You never know who you will talk to. That one person you reach out to might have a YouTube channel, or know somebody who does. Or that one person will love your game so much, they will post something about you on Reddit.

This is a slow process. This takes work. This takes some luck. And sometimes you'll get rejected.

But you cannot expect maximum results with minimum effort.

So many people are so focused on efficiency, life-hacks, productivity, that they start wanting more for themselves with the LEAST amount of effort.

But never underestimate how much time and energy it takes to get a business off the ground. Yes, there is luck involved. And yes, you are probably working full time, have a family, or you're in school, and at night you work on your game. But talking to potential customers is just as important as the art, story, and code in your game.

Without this effort, you might have a game, but you won't have customers.

Breakthrough #7: Success Begets Success

After my success with ScanCanada.ca, I used what I learned to start three other startups:

In 2009, I started a side business, HowToScan.ca. I sold scanning courses through email. People would land on my blog to get free advice. And then I would funnel them to get more free stuff by joining my email newsletter. And then my newsletter offered them paid courses. Today this is a very normal business model. But back in 2009, email marketing wasn't a big thing. And there was no MailChimp. I had to develop my own email responder. And the only reason I used email was because I could automate everything. I built a machine, and maintained it, and it found me customers.

Then in 2019, I shifted gears. I wanted to do freelance game art for game devs (artstation.com/dariuszkonrad).

Of course, I wanted to create characters and cool environments. But the market was full of artists doing that. So I went on Twitter, and reached out to game devs and talked to potential customers. And after months of doing my research like this, I noticed a pattern: some devs wanted cool cartography maps for their game. So that's what I offered. I did that for a few years (artstation.com/dariuszkonrad)

But as I was making 2d and 3d maps for game devs, I kept talking and asking questions to help me improve my services. But I noticed another pattern: game devs hate marketing, and have no idea where to start.

So I realized game devs need marketing more than they need maps. So in 2023, I started my research, and you guessed, talked to potential customers about their frustrations with marketing. And by 2024, I started this blog and YouTube channel.

You see, it doesn't matter if it's scanning, art, marketing, video games... the fundamentals of growing a small business into something where you can support yourself financially, apply to most ideas.

It works because you're tapping into a market, and trying to discover what is missing in that market, and seeing if there is any demand. THEN you start developing a product or game around those wants and needs. And because there is demand, you're giving your game a fighting chance that it will find players, and sell game copies at launch.

Everything I Learned In 20+ Years Of Entrepreneurship In One Spot...

So let me sum up everything I learned in 20 years of entrepreneurship, and how to grow your game studio, find players, and sell more game copies:

1. Talk to potential customers
2. Discover what your customer wants and doesn't want
3. Discover what your customer is already getting from other products (or games)-- so you avoid making a product that gets swallowed up in the void of an overcrowded market place
4. Discover gaps in the market that no other person is taking advantage of -- so you can maybe even create a NEW market or category
5. Test innovative ideas at the small scale to see if they resonate with potential customers BEFORE committing to making a game that may or may not sell
6. Use what you discover to craft sales copy and marketing that resonates with your customers
7. Know how to clearly communicate the benefits of your product and why it's different -- so that customers get motivated and want to buy your stuff

That's it my friend! I hope you got at least one idea to help you take action and start helping you find players and start growing your indie game studio!

Later,

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Dariusz Konrad
Work: Game devs I've helped so far