A Business Model Canvas for Indie Game Development
Lay out your indie game business plan with the Content Model Canvas (the Canvas), the one-page business plan for your film, series or game. Its nine blocks cover who plays, how they find it, what it takes to ship and how it pays.
How It Plays, and How It Pays
Many indie games start with a world and a mechanic that feels right, and a game design document that says how the game plays. That document rarely says how the game will work as a business:
- Who plays it, and on which platforms
- How players find it, and where they buy it
- How it pays: the price, the model, the partners
What an Indie Game Business Plan Holds
The Canvas keeps the nine blocks of the Business Model Canvas and points each one at your game. Whether you work solo or as an indie game studio, you see the whole business on one page, from the first prototype to the months after launch.
Value Propositions
What your game gives its players: the world, the feeling of playing it and the reason to pick it over the rest.
Audience / Client
The players you make the game for, and the clients who pay: the players themselves, a publisher or a platform.
Channels
How players find the game and where they get it: a store page, demos, festivals, streamers and video creators.
Customer Relationships
How you build a community and keep it: devlogs, playtests, a Discord server and updates after launch.
Key Activities
What it takes to ship: prototyping, production, playtesting, porting, certification, marketing and the launch.
Key Partners
Who helps you build and sell it: a publisher, the platforms and stores, funds, contractors and porting studios.
Key Resources
What the game depends on: the team and its skills, the engine and tools, the code, the art and the rights to it.
Cost Structure
Where the money goes: the team's pay, contractors, engines and tools, hardware, porting, marketing and events.
Revenue Streams
How the game pays: premium sales, free to play with in-game purchases, DLC, crowdfunding or a publisher deal.
A Filled Example for an Indie Game
Here is the Canvas filled in for an indie game we invented, from the first demo to the console port. It shows the level of detail that fits in each block. Your own answers will look different.
Bunk & Broth
Cozy indie management game (fictional)
Run a mountain hut for one hiking season: cook for the hikers who climb up, give them a bunk for the night, hear their stories and keep the hut warm, stocked and open until the first snow closes the pass.
Value Propositions
- A cozy game about hosting strangers for a night
- Cooking and caring, with no timers and no fail states
- Every hiker brings a story, told over dinner
- Each in-game day fits in a short session
Audience / Client
- Players: fans of cozy and management games
- Players: hikers and lovers of the outdoors
- Players: people who want calm, short sessions
- Clients: the players who buy it, and a publisher
Channels
- A Steam page that gathers wishlists early
- A free demo during an online games festival
- Streamers and video creators who play cozy games
- Console stores after the PC launch
Customer Relationships
- A devlog with sketches, recipes and progress
- A Discord server for playtesters and fans
- Players vote on the next hiker to arrive
- Free updates with new hikers and recipes
Key Activities
- Build a playable prototype and test it early
- Write the hikers' stories and dialogue
- Polish the demo for the festival
- Launch on PC, then port to consoles
Key Partners
- A publisher for marketing and console ports
- Steam and the console platforms
- A composer and a sound designer
- A localization studio for other languages
Key Resources
- The founders: design, code and art
- The game engine and its tools
- The hikers' stories and the hand-painted art
- The prototype and the playtest notes
Cost Structure
- Living costs for the founders until launch
- Music, sound and localization
- Software, engine fees and hardware
- Festival, trailer and marketing costs
- Console porting and certification
Revenue Streams
- A regional games fund for the prototype
- A publisher advance, recouped from sales
- Premium sales on PC: one price, no ads
- Console sales after the port
- A soundtrack and an art book sold as DLC
Adapted from The Business Model Canvas (opens in a new tab) by Strategyzer AG (strategyzer.com (opens in a new tab)), licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (opens in a new tab).
Want to start on paper? Print the free film business plan template (PDF). It is worded for a film, but the nine blocks work the same for a game.
From Prototype to Plan
An example shows the shape of the answers. Yours depend on your game, and the Content Model Canvas tutorial helps you work them out:
- The nine blocks in order, each with questions to ask yourself and practical tips
- Your own canvas, saved section by section and ready to download as a PDF
- A map of the Canvas that shows how the blocks connect
- Bonus files, including a blank Canvas (PPTX) to fill in on screen and the tutorial (PDF)
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The game design document says how the game plays. The Canvas shows how the game works as a business: who plays, how they find it, what it takes to ship and how it pays.
Yes. The nine blocks are the same whether you make the game alone or with an indie game studio, and the whole business fits on one page.
Yes. It is worded for a film, but the nine blocks are the same, so you can print it and fill it in for your game.