Home › Topics › Games & Game Development
Indie game development: videos Hacker News recommends
Indie development: solo developers, small studios, game jams, shipping a game, Steam, game business, marketing indie games, devlogs, Vlambeer, Minecraft-like creators. Below: every video in this topic that at least three HN users linked with real commentary, in at least three different months (20 talks, 10 demos, 3 interviews), best-scored first, with the comments on each video page.
- 12 HN recommenders 12 months 2013–2025G grapefrukt · talkThe go-to recommendation on game feel and polish, cited by HN as one of the best talks for anyone making interactive things feel good.
- 10 HN recommenders 11 months 2014–2025D Dutch Game Garden · talkA perennial recommendation for anyone learning game feel and juice, praised for showing concrete steps that turn a bland prototype into a satisfying game.
- 9 HN recommenders 9 months 2015–2026A Alexandre Franco · talkHN recommends it as a talk whose advice on simplicity and avoiding unnecessary work applies well beyond games.
- 9 HN recommenders 9 months 2020–2025I Internet Historian · documentaryFrequently recommended as an entertaining account of a failed launch and recovery, especially in threads about Star Citizen and over-promising.
- 11 HN recommenders 8 months 2018–2025HN keeps recommending it as an inspirational, funny talk on running a long-lived indie studio and what Steam provides for its 30% cut.
- 7 HN recommenders 7 months 2013–2020C CreativeMornings HQ · talkHN cites it repeatedly in debates about in-app purchases and monetization corrupting games.
- 6 HN recommenders 6 months 2019–2026M Morphcat Games · talkHN points to it whenever discussion turns to how old games were so small, as a clear tour of 8-bit optimization and creative work under hardware limits.
- 4 HN recommenders 5 months 2020–2024B BUas Games · talkThe go-to talk whenever Wave Function Collapse, Townscaper or tile-based procedural generation comes up.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2020–2025I Imphenzia · tutorialIt is the most-recommended beginner Blender tutorial on HN, with several people saying it made them comfortable in a couple of hours.
- 6 HN recommenders 4 months 2020–2022HN points to it whenever Dwarf Fortress comes up, mainly for the alcohol-poisoned cats bug story and a developer's view of the game's depth.
- 5 HN recommenders 5 months 2021–2026HN commenters cite it as the go-to evidence that Roblox exploits child developers, and parents are pointed to it before letting kids build games there.
- 4 HN recommenders 4 months 2014–2022V VblankEntertainment · talkRecommended as a fascinating look at fitting a modern game into NES constraints.
- 2 HN recommenders 3 months 2018–2022N NYU Game Center · talkHN points to it for the design philosophy behind PICO-8's constraints.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2026HN commenters recommend it as a hilarious account of mass-produced app store shovelware and cite it in threads on spam and low-quality content.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2019–2026P PocketGamerbiz · talkHN mostly cites it critically, as an insider's blunt playbook for psychologically exploiting players in F2P and loot box games.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2021–2023Pointed to when non-Euclidean geometry or games in hyperbolic space come up, along with the creator's well-liked devlog.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2017–2024Recommended in indie and solo game development threads as a grounded account of making a living in games.
- 4 HN recommenders 3 months 2021–2026HN points to it as a concrete case of procedural animation that keeps characters responsive, often in threads about Overgrowth and game feel.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2021–2023J jon d · talkHN considers it one of the best GDC post-mortems, with funny anecdotes (such as turning down Hotmail equity) and multiplayer insights.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2020–2025HN recommends it when people ask why games aren't marketed by creator like films, and for the value of attaching your name to your work.
- 3 HN recommenders 3 months 2021–2026Recommended among the nice visual explorations and tech demos of non-Euclidean geometry for games.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2015–2017Recommended as a great talk on live, functional-style game programming.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2016–2023HN points to it as a first-hand account of game netcode and engineering lessons from a Blizzard and Guild Wars developer.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2015–2026HN recommends it as a way to demystify game creation and shows what an experienced developer can build in a 48-hour jam.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2020–2023Recommended for its insight into game design and cited as a vivid example of how tricky localization can be.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2023–2026J James Lambert · demoPointed to as an impressive technical N64 homebrew demo showing unexpectedly high-res textures.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2023–2024G GiantGrantGames · commentaryHN recommends it for its argument that single-player campaigns and modding are overlooked in RTS design.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2010–2015HN holds it up as a vivid example of focused game-jam productivity, and it has been used to demystify programming for students and inspire tools for recording coding sessions.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2016–2024HN commenters recommend it as an honest account of the emotional toll and persistence of long indie game development.
- 2 HN recommenders 2 months 2016–2025J Jeija · demoPointed to in Minetest and spherical-voxel-world threads as a striking example of what the open-source engine can do.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2012–2022S simme337 · demoHN points to it as an example of Notch's famous live-coding sessions, which drew many early Minecraft fans.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2022–2024L Logo “ND” Surströmming · talkHN points to it for insight into how the Caves of Qud developer thinks about game engines.
- 1 HN recommenders 1 months 2020–2022HN people cite it for solo-dev inspiration and for the rendering technique behind the game's look.
- cited 4× 0 months 2023–2024G Godot Engine · demoHN points to it as the official showcase that Godot works for non-game application development.
- cited 4× 0 months 2014–2017M [mtbdesignworks {Miegakure, 4D Toys}] · demoHN links it in discussions of 4D visualization and Miegakure as an intuitive demonstration of the fourth dimension.
- cited 4× 0 months 2025–2026B Branta Games · demoHN people cite it as the origin of the vanishing-in-a-screenshot effect, used in ideas for captchas and AI-resistant text.
- cited 3× 0 months 2017–2022Mostly shared as a more reliable YouTube mirror, and cited as a related talk on motivation; one commenter criticizes Blow's comments on impostor syndrome.
- cited 3× 0 months 2013–2022HN links it as a historical artifact showing what Minecraft looked like at its very beginning.
Questions
What is the most recommended indie game development video on Hacker News?
Juice it or lose it - a talk by Martin Jonasson & Petri Purho by grapefrukt: The go-to recommendation on game feel and polish, cited by HN as one of the best talks for anyone making interactive things feel good.
How is this indie game development list ranked?
By HackerTube's score: the number of distinct months in which an HN comment recommended the video, plus half a point for every month with a strong recommendation. One viral thread counts less than steady recommendations over years.
Where do the videos come from?
From every Hacker News comment between 2007 and 2026 that linked a YouTube video, labeled by an AI model as a recommendation, a citation, a joke or a criticism. The list is published by HackerTube under ODC-By 1.0; this edition adds indexable pages and the comment context.
Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.