GDC 2025 Session Viewer
Independent Games Summit: Funding a Susitainable Cooperative Indie Studio in the Apocalypse
Ty Underwood (Department Chair, Lake Washington Institute of Technology)
Dietrich Squinkifer (Co-Founder, Soft Chaos)
Jess Rowan Marcotte (Co-Founder, Designer, Writer for the job title, Soft Chaos Cooperative)
Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass, Indie Games Summit Pass - Get your pass now!
Track: Independent Games
Format: Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
Indie games have faced a crisis of financial sustainability where there seems to be no relief. Despite this, some cooperative indie studios have survived due to the unique qualities of the democratic, worker controlled cooperative model. Soft Chaos shares some of their strategies for building a studio in trying times, and how cooperatives are coming together to build a new, cooperative funding platform.
If you want to leave behind big tech platforms, risky publishing deals, and inequitable power dynamics, many of us are joining together to build our own funding platforms and finding new ways to build financially sustainable, worker controlled cooperative studios. Join us to learn how you can be a part of it.
Takeaway
Attendees will learn about finding funding and financial sustainability as a worker-owned indie cooperative. Attendees will also learn about larger forms of socialized funding and production that multiple cooperatives are building. Attendees will be invited to rethink how they approach funding and sustainable studios.
Intended Audience
The intended audience is for individuals and groups open to the worker cooperative studio model, and who are seeking new ideas for funding sustainable studios.
