Twitchy Steam Key Vendors

April 10, 2026 | Author: HDIAndrew

I meant to write about this when we launched Emperor of the Fading Suns Enhanced last year, but releasing Machiavelli the Prince Enhanced last week reminded me of it – all the people who claim defunct Twitch accounts to use them for their own skeezy purposes.

Right after launch, we received AI-generated emails from people claiming to have Twitch accounts and wanting to stream the game. At first glance, these look pretty good – several thousand followers. Dig a little deeper and you quickly see that they have not streamed in three or four years.

I know there are game devs who give keys to anyone who asks, believing that the few legit requests outweigh all the illegitimate key resellers. However, I find it especially objectionable that people are setting up these retired Twitch streamers to take the blame. I doubt any of these scam emails actually have access to the Twitch accounts, and are instead pointing to them to give them a cloak of legitimacy. Still, indie devs who give the keys are likely to blame the streamers when it gets resold, not their own naivety.

A lot of Twitch streamers do have a reputation of asking for free copies and never streaming the game. I am very happy that I have found a lot of legitimate streamers, both in the Stream Atlanta community and beyond, but I understand why so many indie devs are leery. I wish Twitch had a way for streamers to keep their accounts but have a big “On Hiatus” sticker for any who have not streamed in six months of more. However, there is definitely no incentive for Amazon to implement this easy fix.

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Selling Games on Steam

October 28, 2025 | Author: HDIAndrew

This article, about how many games do not turn a profit on Steam, has been making the rounds. The problem it highlights is legitimate, though it does not take into account how many of these are student projects, in early access, etc.

Even with these issues, and having sold games in physical stores, on mobile, on consoles, and in the modern online stores (Steam, GOG, Zoom Platform), I much prefer the last category (though seeing your game in a box at Target is a thrill). Yes, HOLISTIC DESIGN, INC. games face A LOT of competition on them every day, but these channels also give us sales year after year, as well as the chance to improve our games and find their audience.

We rereleased Emperor of the Fading Suns on GOG.com about five years ago, and it sold all right. When we released the Enhanced version in 2022, sales on GOG jumped. When we released the (even more) Enhanced version on Steam this year, sales on both platforms jumped again. There is no way we could have done this through any of the other sales channels, especially considering our near $0 marketing budget.



Steam is certainly not perfect, and issues like AI slop are definitely going to test it. Still, the sheer number of devs on it, the many who are making money, and the number of players who now have access to indie games they otherwise would never have seen, speak to its value.

I am not as concerned as the author about the low revenue of many Steam games, since the sheer quantity means thousands of games are still making money. Steam also offers a nice long-tail effect. My main concerns with Steam are its problems attracting a new generation of gamers, who are more active on mobile, Roblox and Fortnite. I am glad those platforms exist, but the discoverability problems for indies are even greater on them.

My favorite aspect of Steam, and the one I wish they would emphasize more, is the focus on community. The secret for success on Steam is good game + good community + continuing support x time. Tripwire Interactive’s Killing Floor was one of the early indie successes on Steam and proved this well, and its games continue to prove it to this day.

At DreamHack Atlanta this weekend, we will have more than 70 indiegame developers looking to break through the noise. You can see some of them in the DreamHack Indie Playground Steam sale. A fair number of them have the chance to succeed on Steam, and you get the chance to try them first 🙂

EDIT: I have been reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Leonardo DaVinci, and he discusses how the master worked on the Mona Lisa for well over a decade, and was still working on it when he died. I love that some devs are continuing to work on their older games – tweaking them, fixing bugs, and adding new content. This was something we could not do when we sold games in boxes, and I hope more devs take advantage of this Steam/GOG ability until we have a Mona Lisa-quality game.

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Launching in a Recession

April 1, 2025 | Author: HDIAndrew

We have gotten a lot of great response since we announced last week that Emperor of the Fading Suns is finally coming to Steam on April 4 (Wishlist it now at https://store.steampowered.com/app/2799350/Emperor_of_the_Fading_Suns_Enhanced/). In fact, really the only negative response I have heard has been from fans worried about us launching our game during an economic downturn, or a “correction” as it is currently officially named.

However, this is not the first time I have faced this. When we launched “Vampire: the Masquerade,” it was during the 1991 recession brought on by the Gulf War. We worried about how this would impact our fans, but it proved to be an advantage. The base rules were $20, and they offered a huge amount of entertainment value for the dollar. 

As opposed to a movie, that you would go to a theater and watch once, this game offered hour after hour of fun. Many of our players who bought the book figured it ended up costing them less than 10 cents per hour of fun, and of course many people played the game without ever buying the book. I love that social component.

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