Fiverr embraces indie games with new store for game devs, artists and animators
Video game and tabletop game designers already find freelancers on Fiverr, now they'll have their own section.
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
Indie game developers, from small groups to one-person shops, often need to pull in outside help on projects. For years, many of them have found freelancers via Fiverr, the online freelance services marketplace. Now the company is recognizing that by launching a game-specific storefront, putting skills such as game programming, storyboarding, character design, audio production and game marketing under one roof.
The company says its seen massive growth in game-related searches, where finding an animator, environmental artist, soundtrack composer, trailer editor or other experts may have meant digging through many unrelated Fiverr category pages, looking for freelancers with game industry experience. That goes for both video game developers, as well as tabletop game developers, who rely heavily on art and design services.
In the new Gaming Store section, freelancers who specialize in creating game content will be found under a single banner covering multiple categories. This includes services for game streamers as well, such as on-screen graphics, logo design and video editing.
Video game concept art from Fiverr freelancer Norman Suarno.
Games from small, independent developers have been showing strong year-over-year growth for a least the past five years. Steam, a primary outlet for indie PC games, added fewer than 3,000 new games in 2015, but nearly 8,000 in 2017. Most are built on shoestring budgets, which means many of the jobs done by full-time employees in larger game studios are instead farmed out to less-expensive freelancers.
"Over the last year, Fiverr has seen rapid organic growth in gaming-related purchases from buyers and gig registrations by sellers," said Micha Kaufman, Fiverr CEO. "Launching our Gaming Store brings us another step closer towards our goal of being the everything store for digital services. It provides convenient access to high quality gaming talent and gives our freelancers additional opportunities to do what they love."