Indie game development is tough. It’s unpredictable, underfunded, and deeply personal. But it’s also creative, thrilling, and full of potential—if you can find a way to survive. At Triangular Pixels, we’ve been navigating the indie world since 2014, and while it’s never been easy, it has been sustainable.
Here’s how we’ve made it work—not through overnight success, but by staying smart, flexible, and grounded.
Starting Out: Big Decisions, Small Beginnings
We started in 2014 with ambition and a prototype—like many others. We continued to work at other studios though until we had most of a game and felt like we could finish it in 6 months as well as having potential funding, we only then made a bold decision to move somewhere much cheaper to live.
That one decision gave us breathing room. Living costs in Cornwall are far lower than in traditional tech hubs, and that freedom allowed us to keep developing without burning out or going broke.
So the tip is here is that if you can mange work, even if part time, then keep working, create your game part time, and look to reduce your outgoing costs in other ways.
Tiny Games, Big Ripples
Rather than try to make our magnum opus from day one, we did a few game jams. Some of them went viral, and that momentum acted as a calling card for our capabilities and style. It showed what we could do—even on tight budgets and timelines.
Smaller projects meant quicker turnarounds, lower risk, and more room to experiment. These experiences laid the groundwork for larger projects down the line.
Staying Sustainable, with Work for Hire too
We’ve always kept the studio small and agile, working in a micro-team with clearly defined goals and boundaries. We’ve been open with collaborators about limited contracts and short-term commitments. That honesty builds trust—and keeps things manageable.
When needed, we take on work-for-hire, but with a key rule: we charge enough not just to pay the bills, but to sustain our developers and keep momentum on our internal projects. If a contract doesn’t support the team, it’s not worth the cost.
Think Beyond the Industry
Another thing that helped us survive? Looking beyond traditional game work. We started exploring non-game industries—businesses that might not know they need games, but do.
We went to generic local business events, met people from other sectors, and pitched ideas they hadn’t considered: interactive training tools, gamified experiences, VR storytelling. That work helped us diversify and grow without relying solely on the games industry.
Smarter Tools, Lower Costs
Subscriptions can kill a small studio. That’s why we made a conscious effort to cut or reduce ongoing monthly costs and use open-source or one-off payment tools wherever possible.
We use:
- Blender for 3D work — professional-grade and completely free.
- DaVinci Resolve for video editing — a powerful alternative to subscription-based suites.
- Affinity for image editing and design — a one-time purchase instead of an ongoing cost.
We’ve also built our own self-hosted infrastructure, including:
- An in-house build server, Jenkins, tailored to our needs and under our control running on a spare PC.
- NextCloudPi, a replacement for Google Drive, using large, scalable storage solutions that give us freedom and ownership without creeping monthly costs, running on a Pi5
- Self-hosted SVN rather than any ‘cloud’ or subscriptions.
This kind of digital self-reliance keeps our overheads low and helps us retain control over our tools, data, and pipeline.
And Selling Tools
Another way we’ve supported ourselves is by creating internal tools and assets for our own games, and then taking the extra step to polish, document, and package them for release to other developers. What starts as something bespoke for our workflow—whether it’s a shader, a level design tool, or a VR interaction system—often has wider value. By making these tools publicly available, we’ve created a steady supplementary income stream that helps fund future development while also giving back to the dev community. These are Technie Tools which can be found on the Unity Asset Store.
Building Local, Together
Being in Cornwall, we realised we weren’t alone. There were other studios here—each facing the same pressures. That’s why we helped form and support Cornwall Games, a community where local developers share opportunities, tips, and connections.
It’s not just about survival—it’s about lifting each other up.
Often you can also share work – you do a bit of code for someone’s project and they can do a bit of art for yours!
Small Grants, Big Impact
Over the years, we’ve secured small local grants, including funding from Cornwall-based organisations. These micro-grants have helped bridge the gap between ideas and prototypes, giving us just enough support to get to the next stage.
They might not be headline-grabbing amounts, but they matter. And they’ve helped keep us moving forward. They led to a polished pitch for our current project, Unseen Diplomacy 2, which then unlocked UK Games Fund grants for us, which then unlocked Meta funding for us and our full dev budget.
Keep It Tight, Keep It Yours
One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned: you don’t need to wait for a publisher to tell your story.
We’ve learned how to self-publish, and to keep our games tight and focused. That focus allows us to make something polished and compelling without overstretching our resources.
Be aware of the “publeecher” – the publisher that says “oh, it’s too soon, come back later”, and many are just not worth your time. Find out who funds games like your own, who funds games from pitches rather than waiting for them to be released, who have funded teams like yours (i.e. for our studio, funding out which publishers had yet to actually fund a woman-led game! Which meant finding out which to avoid). Ultimately that’s because it can be a very wasted effort at times if they are just not going to fund early enough, or a team make-up like yours. Through them a pitch, sure, but don’t wait for anyone, work on making a game!
Keep Event Attendance Limited and Keep Making Your Game!
One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned over 11 years is to be highly selective about events and conferences. It’s easy to feel like you have to show your game everywhere, but the truth is: if you go to every event, you won’t have time to actually make your game. Even if every person who plays your game at a show ends up buying it, that still rarely covers the cost of travel, accommodation, time away from development, and stand fees. That’s why we focus only on events that offer a clear benefit—whether that’s reaching the right audience, meeting key press, or securing business opportunities. We’ve shown at major UK events like Develop, Rezzed, EGX, and Insomnia, but we’ve never paid for a stand. Some of our most effective showings have been at small pub meetups, where a few journalists or influencers happened to be there and word-of-mouth did the rest. Time is one of your most valuable resources—spend it wisely on making your game and choose events that genuinely amplify your impact.
In Summary: It’s About Strategy
It’s not glamorous, and it’s not always easy—but it can be possible.
If you’re an indie dev trying to find your way: you don’t have to follow the traditional path. You just need to find a sustainable one. For us, diversifying income and slashing costs, that’s made all the difference.
