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Game Dev Podcast | Coffee with Butterscotch

Butterscotch Shenanigans

Coffee with Butterscotch is the hilarity-filled weekly podcast of award-winning indie video game studio Butterscotch Shenanigans, best known for its smash hit Crashlands. Grab a drink and tune in every week to learn the ins and outs of game development, productivity and workflows, the business of selling video games, our takes on entrepreneurship and building a small company from scratch, and how to be an unstoppable problem-solving machine.

Got a question you want answered on the podcast? Ask us at https://podcast.bscotch.net

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27 episodes
weekly
Avg 1 hr 5 min
English

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Episodes 27

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Wednesday · 1 hr
[Ep594] Needle in a Haystack Simulator: Are Devs Cooked?
In episode 594 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers dig into the Needle in a Haystack Simulator phenomenon and what it reveals about how game ideas spread, get cloned, and go viral. They explore why a strong, simple premise can trigger a wave of fast followers almost overnight, what AI tools mean for how quickly someone can spin up a clone, and what any of this means for indie developers trying to build something original in a market that rewards familiarity "How Many Dudes?": https://how
October 7 · 58 min
[Ep593] Top 5 Myths About Steam Wishlists
In episode 593 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers debunk common myths about Steam wishlists and how they influence game success. They explore how external marketing, timing, and understanding Steam's algorithms are crucial for indie developers aiming for success. "How Many Dudes?": https://howmanydudes.com 00:00 Understanding Steam Wishlists 10:08 The Myth of Accumulating Wishlists 17:32 Public Awareness and Marketing Impact 19:23 Understanding Wishlists and Their Impact 20:15 The Role
September 30 · 2 hr 11 min
[Ep592] How IRON NEST Won Steam Next Fest and Launched With Nearly 1 MILLION Wishlists
In episode 592 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers welcome their first ever podcast guests Nick and Dominik, the team behind IRON NEST. Seth and Sam walk through the entire dev cycle with them, from how they chose the name and built a thriving Discord community to the marketing decisions that drove nearly a million wishlists. It's a candid conversation about pivoting on data, leaning into community feedback, and what authentic engagement actually looks like when it's working. "How Many D
September 23 · 1 hr 6 min
[Ep591] How To Make An Indie Studio That Makes Hit Games
In episode 591 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers dig into what actually makes a small studio function well over the long haul. Using Butterscotch Shenanigans as the through line, they walk through how their team structure has evolved, how they think about hiring, bottlenecks, and unexpected skills and what it looks like to keep a small team functioning well through years of shipping games. "How Many Dudes?": https://howmanydudes.com 00:00 Cold Open 00:28 Introduction and Welcome 03:08
September 16 · 1 hr 12 min
[Ep590] Hackers, Piracy, and Clones - How Should Indie Game Devs React?
In episode 590 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers work through every flavor of people messing with your game, from hackers and exploiters to pirates and outright clones. They dig into what's actually worth losing sleep over, how to think about customer support when players break things on purpose, and why piracy and knockoffs might not always be the disaster they feel like in the moment. "How Many Dudes?": https://howmanydudes.com 00:00 Cold Open 00:28 Introduction and Welcome 04:55 Und
September 9 · 1 hr 7 min
[Ep589] The One Skill Holding Back Indie Game Devs
In episode 589 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers make the case that understanding your own workflow might be the most underrated skill in game development. They dig into how invisible bottlenecks and unchecked error rates quietly drain productivity, why most studio problems trace back to work that nobody can see, and what it actually looks like to map, measure, and improve the way your team gets things done. "How Many Dudes?": https://howmanydudes.com Stress-Free Game Development GDC T
September 2 · 1 hr 5 min
[Ep588] Can One Screenshot Boost Your Steam Sales by 25%?
In episode 588 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers get into the weeds on Steam store page optimization and what the data from How Many Dudes is suggesting. They break down what swapping screenshots and micro trailers appears to have done for visibility and conversion, where players are actually coming from, and why your visual hook might be doing more work than you think. "How Many Dudes?": https://howmanydudes.com 00:00 Cold Open 00:48 Introduction and Welcome 02:25 Sales Performance An
August 26 · 1 hr 4 min
[Ep587] Are we in an Indie Golden Age?
In episode 587 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers point out that right now might actually be the best time to be an indie developer. They dig into why smaller, faster games are resonating with players, what the data from How Many Dudes tells them about market dynamics and visibility, and how studios can build sustainable businesses without burning themselves out in the process. "How Many Dudes?": https://howmanydudes.com "How Many Dudes?" Timeline blog: https://blog.bscotch.net/post/in
August 19 · 1 hr 10 min
[Ep586] How Should Indie Devs Think about Post-Launch Updates?
In episode 586 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers discuss the current state of game sales, post-launch support strategies, and how community engagement and critical mass influence a game's longevity. They explore the strategic considerations behind post-launch game updates, including when to update, what kind of updates are effective, and how updates influence marketing and player engagement. "How Many Dudes?": https://howmanydudes.com 00:00 Cold Open 00:33 Introduction and Welcome 04:3
August 12 · 1 hr 11 min
[Ep585] How Should Indie Devs React to Negative Steam Reviews?
In episode 585 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers dig into the post-launch data for How Many Dudes, unpacking what Steam review scores, wishlist ratios, playtime histograms, and demo numbers are actually telling them. From there they get into the harder question of what to do with negative reviews, how to tell the difference between feedback worth acting on and noise worth ignoring, and how they're thinking about difficulty and accessibility as the game finds its audience. Support How M
August 5 · 1 hr 11 min
[Ep584] 100,000 Steam Sales in 2 Days - Our Biggest Indie Game Launch Ever
In episode 584 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers are fresh off the biggest launch in Butterscotch history, and they're breaking down exactly what happened. They dig into the numbers behind How Many Dudes hitting 100,000 sales in two days, what drove the momentum, how it compares to their previous launches, and what the long tail might look like from here. They also get into the emotional side of shipping something this fast, what mobile looks like as a next step, and what a launch like
July 29 · 1 hr 15 min
[Ep583] The Day Before Launch: Scenario Planning for Indie Game Devs
In episode 583 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers are one day out from the How Many Dudes launch and walking through everything still in motion, from wishlist momentum and embargo management to Steam Deck verification and what the algorithm might actually do. They share how they're thinking through best and worst case scenarios, what lessons from Crashlands 2 are shaping their expectations, and how to stay sane when everything is out of your hands. Support How Many Dudes! Official Websi
July 22 · 1 hr 11 min
[Ep582] How to Design a Game That Markets Itself
In episode 582 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers share what they've learned about designing games that are easy to talk about before they're even finished. With How Many Dudes days from launch, they dig into how scope, platform focus, and building around shared human experiences can set a game up to market itself. Support How Many Dudes! Official Website: https://www.bscotch.net/games/how-many-dudes Trailer Teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgQM1SceEpI Steam Wishlist: https://sto
July 15 · 56 min
[Ep581] 1 Year of Indie Game Dev in 1 Hour
In episode 581 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers recap the full year-long journey of How Many Dudes. From a GMTK game jam entry to a bean burrito short that hit 900k views, blowing past 100k wishlists by January, and everything in between. They break down what actually moved the needle, what the numbers looked like along the way, and what the final push to July 30th looks like from the inside. Support How Many Dudes! Official Website: https://www.bscotch.net/games/how-many-dudes Traile
July 8 · 59 min
#[Ep580] Anatomy of a Steam Game Launch - Indie Devs Reveal Their Launch Strategy
In episode 580 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers pull back the curtain on exactly how they're launching How Many Dudes, covering everything from timing, influencer outreach, trailer creation, to post-launch strategies. They discuss how they navigate the complexities of game marketing, with a reminder that most of what determines a launch's success was decided long before launch day. Support How Many Dudes! Official Website: https://www.bscotch.net/games/how-many-dudes Trailer Teaser: h
July 1 · 1 hr 3 min
[Ep579] Xbox, PS5, Steam Machine, & GTA6 - are they charging too much?
In episode 579 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers dig into the pricing on Valve's new Steam Machine and how much of today's hardware costs comes down to components, inflation, and tariffs versus companies testing what the market will bear. From there, they turn to the cost of making a game like GTA6 and whether player expectations have kept pace with what it actually takes to build at that scale. Support How Many Dudes! Official Website: https://www.bscotch.net/games/how-many-dudes Trai
June 24 · 1 hr 8 min
[Ep578] Has AI Ruined Steam Nextfest?
In episode 578 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers discuss whether Steam Next Fest is becoming a victim of its own success, as AI-generated slop and asset flips make it harder than ever for games to get noticed. They explore what Steam can realistically do about it, why the economics of publishing are shifting under everyone's feet, and what it actually takes to build the kind of studio track record that cuts through the noise when algorithms start failing you. Support How Many Dudes! O
June 17 · 1 hr 5 min
#[Ep577] Indie Devs React to Steam's New Personal Calendar
In episode 577 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers dig into Steam's new personalized calendar feature and what it means for how indie games get discovered, wishlisted, and surfaced to players. They break down the difference between following and wishlisting, why launch timing still matters so much, and how Steam keeps finding new ways to put indie games in front of the right people. Then they shift into How Many Dudes beta testing, where player feedback is reshaping difficulty tuning and
June 10 · 1 hr 5 min
[Ep576] How Many Dudes Beta Begins, and AI Just Got Dumber
In episode 576 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers kick off the closed beta for How Many Dudes and dig into what they're actually trying to learn from it. Then the conversation pivots hard into the AI hype cycle, unpacking why GitHub Copilot's switch to usage-based billing just handed a hundred-times-larger bill to the developers who went all in, and what that says about where this whole thing is headed. Support How Many Dudes! Official Website: https://www.bscotch.net/games/how-many-dud
June 3 · 1 hr 6 min
#[Ep575] Indie Devs Yell At Cloud
In episode 575 of 'Coffee with Butterscotch,' the brothers are 60 days from launching How Many Dudes and find themselves juggling the final stretch of dev alongside the tedious reality of cloud saving, achievements, and store integrations. They dig into why every platform manages to turn straightforward tasks into elaborate obstacle courses, and what that actually costs developers in time and sanity when the deadline is creeping closer. Support How Many Dudes! Official Website: https://www.bscot

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