How do you actually build a decent community around an indie game? (Early dev on Nightbound, feeling a bit lost)
Hey everyone,
I'm a game designer/producer working on Nightbound: Cursed Merchant; an isometric Action-RPG with rogue-like elements, currently in early prototype, targeting Early Access in early 2027 on Steam
Quick pitch: Merchant by day, demon by night. Nightbound is an Action-RPG with rogue-like elements. By day, run your shop and sell your crafted gear to adventurers. By night, with the curse put on you by the Mage Order, transform into a creature of the dark to survive the depths, gather rare resources, and forge your way out of an impossible debt.
The design side I feel solid on. Community-building is where I'm less sure, so I wanted to share what we've already done and ask where to go from here.
What we've set up so far:
- Weekly devlog series every Friday on IndieDB
- Discord server
- Posting content regularly across X / Instagram / TikTok
- Early prototype is playable internally, building toward playtest-ready
My actual goal: Since we're early, I want to do a lot of playtests over the long run. So the community I'm trying to build will consists of people who'd genuinely want to join playtests, give honest feedback, and grow with the project.
If you've grown a community around your indie game, especially one with active playtests, I'd love to hear what actually worked, and what was a waste of time. Mistakes, weird wins, war stories, all welcome.
Happy to go deeper into Nightbound's crafting or the day/night split in the comments.
Thanks 🙏