When Publishers Fail Their Devs: The Silent Damage of Broken Press Pages

When a $1M budget and an indie legacy aren’t enough—two platforms fail the devs they promised to support.

This past week, I ran into two prime examples of platform failure that directly hurt the games they’re meant to support:

• A promising new pixel-art RPG about mental health (Hello Anxiety) is being promoted by a publisher with a press page that throws 400: Bad Request errors and broken social embeds.
• A major indie label—Neon Doctrine, with dozens of released titles—still has a live footer showing a raw JSON object. I flagged it days ago. It’s still there.

I’m not funded. I earn next to nothing—maybe a couple bucks from Google Ads in a good month. The last time I received a donation was over a year ago. You can even check the donation page; it’s public.

I’m not a pro web designer. I make mistakes, sure. But when I do, I fix them.

Because I care. Because I can. This platform exists to support indie games and the talented devs behind them. I write about games that deserve visibility. I give feedback, advice, exposure. I review, promote, cover. I help games grow.

One person. Me. Running multiple YouTube channels, a website, social media and writing nearly everything. I make mistakes—sure. But I see most of them. And if I had the time, the money, or even one extra set of hands?
Those mistakes wouldn’t happen. Not like this.

This isn’t about me, though. This is about all the games and creators being left behind because the people who are supposed to elevate them—those with funding, teams, and resources—don’t bother to check their links.

It’s frustrating because the time I spent writing this, AGAIN, could have gone toward helping a game that needed coverage. A game I forgot the name of—because this mess stuck with me instead.

Sure, a few people have stepped up since I blasted the industry the other day on LinkedIn. I noticed. I respect that. But I also need to call out the bluff.

Because if you have a platform and you’re not maintaining it, it’s not just your credibility that’s on the line. It’s the visibility of the devs who trust you.

Fix it—or move aside.

If you want help, ask. If you find something broken on my site, tell me. I’ll fix it. That’s the minimum standard.

Because indie devs deserve better than broken promises and broken pages.
If you’re looking for ways to get it right from the start, check out Fix Gaming Channel’s Guide to Indie Game Success with Aidan Minter—a practical resource for developers navigating press kits, store pages, and game visibility.

The State of My Own Site

Still migrating. Hundreds of articles not yet live. If you’re missing your coverage, that’s why. I know there are some broken links and 404s still out there, but we’re fixing them. Redirects are being set up. We’re doing this manually, and yes, there are mistakes—but if you spot one, please let me know. I’ll fix it. I always do.

Some months, I get a few bucks—maybe two figures—from Google. That’s it. I do this because I have to. Because indie games matter. Because developers deserve someone who actually gives a damn.

I’m not a professional web designer. I’m a writer. But to get my words out, I needed a platform—so I built one. I review games, write opinion pieces, guide developers when they ask for help, and give visibility to the games that deserve it.

The Tragedy of Broken Platforms

This is about all the indie games and talented developers who drown in broken platforms, overlooked kits, and invisible pages. It’s about the attention I could’ve given a great game—if I hadn’t been stuck trying to navigate someone else’s mess.

Some of you reading this know exactly what I’m talking about. Since I blasted the state of things on LinkedIn a few days ago, I’ve seen some changes. A few folks stepped up. I respect that. But there are still too many that haven’t.

Funded by millions and shipping a live site with broken press pages, raw JSON footers, 404s, and influencer login screens that don’t even load?

Hire someone on Fiverr? Can’t find a freelancer who needs the job and knows what they’re doing? Ask me, I do it for free!

Meanwhile, indie devs trust you to carry their game—to help them succeed, to get their work seen. And when you can’t even handle the basics, it’s not just credibility that breaks. It costs them visibility, momentum, and money.

This affects real people—game developers and creators, artists, players, and writers like me.

It’s not the devs’ fault. But this is the packaging their games come in. If the box is broken, the game inside gets ignored.

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