He Teaches Indie Devs to Build an Audience. Here's How He Built His
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What is Chris Zukowski’s origin story and how did he transition from corporate tech to indie game marketing?
Hello.
Hello my friend. Today I am joined by one of the most trusted voices in game marketing. The legend himself, the one and only Mr. Chris Tsukowski, founder of how to market a game. Chris has spent his career teaching indie devs how to build their audience. So I thought it would be fun to flip things on his head and ask Chris about how he has built his. Because when you think about it, Chris has built the exact thing that So many indie devs are trying to build with their games. Trust, community, and most importantly, a direct way to reach his audience without relying entirely on social media, YouTube, or Discord. So in this episode, we explore the backstory of how to market a game. Chris shares how he started this whole thing as a side project while working full-time before growing it into one of the most important resources.
In the indie game space. And don't worry, we take plenty of time to talk about Steam. We talk about Steam visibility, why smaller games can be the smarter path, what devs should be paying attention to when studying the market and how to build momentum without relying on hopes, vibes, and one lucky viral break. And in Christy fashion, this episode is full of takeaways for any. Any indie dev who is trying to build something sustainable. Welcome to Freakin' Cool Indies. Chris, thank you very much for joining me today on Freakin' Cool Indies. Take me back to the origin story. I need to know, you know, this the spider bite, the gamma rays, the super soldier version of this all. Uh you were working in UX and UI for many, many years, you know, worked all your way up to a director level um for uh for multiple tech companies.
So how did you kind of make that a initial transition from, you know, working working big big tech or just corporate America, let's call it, into into taking the step back and and and kind of starting your own thing and becoming the the steam marketing expert that you are.
Yeah, it it goes back, um I used to work for IBM, big corporate uh America, and I I just like to make stuff on the side. And I made a game for Xbox indies. Do you know about Xbox indies? Of course. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I I want to make one of those. So I made a game while I was still working at IBM and I you know, I had to go to my boss and 'cause I IBM, if you work on a side project, you have to get it signed off so that They don't own your IP or whatnot. So I had to explain my boring corporate IBM boss what like a video game is that c it was like a it was a silly game where you like collected bombs and stuff. And I had to explain this to my boss who's like an old Navy sailor who like rose the ranks of IBM.
And so I'm like, I'm making a silly video game. Ha ha ha ha ha. It that was humbling. That was humbling, but I got through it. I got through it. And uh but I kept up. That's the thing is I never quit my job. I kept at it like nights and weekends for a long time. I'd say like a good seven or eight years of just doing stuff on the side while in corporate America. So kids, you don't have to quit your job. Stay don't. Don't quit your job. Uh just do it nights and weekends. Just see if you really like it. And so I eventually, you know, over the years built up um and I I kind of released some Steam games and then uh about twenty nineteen I eventually I well I started writing a blog around twenty fifteen twenty sixteen about how Steam works, how game development works, all that kind of stuff.
really going out there uh like once a month I'd publish a blog. And then about twenty nineteen, um, I w I'd wrote I I'd gone up to be on a I was a manager by any other company standard, but it was a small startup. So I was like, I was there was a point of leverage where I just, and this is a tip for anybody, if something crisis is happening and you need to step in, ask for a raise during that moment. Because there was like a crisis where somebody quit and then another manager quit. And I was like, I'll do it, but I want to be a director and then get a pay bump. And I it was literally like in an office and and the the CO, because it's
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is Chris Zukowski’s origin story and how did he transition from corporate tech to indie game marketing?
0:00–4:36
2
Why does Chris believe “everybody’s doing indie marketing wrong” and what research proved social media doesn’t work?
4:36–11:16
3
How did the blog and newsletter become the core of Chris’s audience‑building strategy?
11:16–19:22
4
Why does Chris consider Discord and YouTube the “outer rim” of his marketing wheel?
19:22–27:57
5
Should indie developers start a newsletter and what is the “once‑a‑month rule”?
27:57–35:36
6
What is “working the maze backwards” and how does it help build trust with the audience?
35:36–44:17
7
What is Chris’s hot take on Steam visibility and why is it not the real problem for indie devs?
44:17–49:05
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Freaking Cool Indies
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