1. It's a very tough market, with high levels of competition and really high expectations for games on the user front. Hell, look at Steam for example. There ar

1. It's a very tough market, with high levels of competition and really high expectations for games on the user front. Hell, look at Steam for example. There are hundreds of thousands of games there, and even many of the better ones sink without a trace simply because of how many options players have. If you don't have a unique selling point, a decent marketing strategy and a certain level of skill in game design, forget it. 2. Usually one of the following: A: Over ambitiousness. Feature creep can easily become a real problem in game development, and if you get caught up in too much, it's likely your game will never keep up with competitors. Look at Duke Nukem Forever for example; 14 years spent chasing shiny tech, all for a game that felt dated when it got released. B: A lack of marketing. Seen way too many indie devs work super hard on their dream project, then fail to really advertise it at all. You can't afford to do that, otherwise your work will pretty much never find an audience. Get running that blog and posting social media updates before launch, and make sure influencers like famous YouTubers and streamers are incentivised to play your game too. C: Over promising and failing to deliver. Yeah, you said it yourself; that hurt No Man's Sky. But it wasn't the only game affected by this, many, many others are too. Don't promise what you can't deliver. D: Reacting poorly to criticism. I know, art is personal, and your game can feel like your baby. But when people criticise it, the best response is to find out why and improve anything that needs improving, not scream at them and threaten lawsuits. You do not want to be another Digital Homicide or Dalas Games. E: Just not offering anything unique. Seriously, if your idea is that you'll release another runner game on the app store or take the match three genre by storm, you may want to rethink that idea. 3. Game development forums and subreddits. Maybe Discord chats too. https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/ https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/ https://www.gamedev.net/forums/ https://www.gamedev.net/forums/ https://forums.tigsource.com/ https://forums.tigsource.com/ Or just the ones in this article to be honest: http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-indie-game-development-forums/ http://www.pixelprospector.com/the-big-list-of-indie-game-de... 4. If you're making games for mobile, the only practical solutions at this point are ads or in app purchases. Not sure any viable alternatives exist, especially given how even Nintendo couldn't inspire people to pay them money upfront with Mario Run. 5. See question 3.