Home Podcasts Game Dev Podcast | Coffee with Butterscotch
Game Dev Podcast | Coffee with Butterscotch

Game Dev Podcast | Coffee with Butterscotch

Butterscotch Shenanigans 567 Episodes Oct 14, 2026

Coffee with Butterscotch is a weekly podcast by indie game studio Butterscotch Shenanigans, creators of Crashlands. Each episode covers game development, productivity, business strategies, and entrepreneurship. The hosts share insights on building a small company and solving problems creatively. Listeners can submit questions for the show.

Episodes

[Ep594] Needle in a Haystack Simulator: Are Devs Cooked?
[Ep594] Needle in a Haystack Simulator: Are Devs Cooked? Oct 14, 2026 3601 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 deve
[Ep593] Top 5 Myths About Steam Wishlists
[Ep593] Top 5 Myths About Steam Wishlists Oct 7, 2026 3521 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.com00:00 Understanding Steam Wishlists10:08 The Myth of Accumulating Wishlists1
[Ep592] How IRON NEST Won Steam Next Fest and Launched With Nearly 1 MILLION Wishlists
[Ep592] How IRON NEST Won Steam Next Fest and Launched With Nearly 1 MILLION Wishlists Sep 30, 2026 7869 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, lean
[Ep591] How To Make An Indie Studio That Makes Hit Games
[Ep591] How To Make An Indie Studio That Makes Hit Games Sep 23, 2026 4008 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 ship
[Ep590] Hackers, Piracy, and Clones - How Should Indie Game Devs React?
[Ep590] Hackers, Piracy, and Clones - How Should Indie Game Devs React? Sep 16, 2026 4322 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
[Ep589] The One Skill Holding Back Indie Game Devs
[Ep589] The One Skill Holding Back Indie Game Devs Sep 9, 2026 4024 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 w
[Ep588] Can One Screenshot Boost Your Steam Sales by 25%?
[Ep588] Can One Screenshot Boost Your Steam Sales by 25%? Sep 2, 2026 3926 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
[Ep587] Are we in an Indie Golden Age?
[Ep587] Are we in an Indie Golden Age? Aug 26, 2026 3891 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. "
[Ep586] How Should Indie Devs Think about Post-Launch Updates?
[Ep586] How Should Indie Devs Think about Post-Launch Updates? Aug 19, 2026 4245 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 playe
[Ep585] How Should Indie Devs React to Negative Steam Reviews?
[Ep585] How Should Indie Devs React to Negative Steam Reviews? Aug 12, 2026 4260 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 ignori
[Ep584] 100,000 Steam Sales in 2 Days - Our Biggest Indie Game Launch Ever
[Ep584] 100,000 Steam Sales in 2 Days - Our Biggest Indie Game Launch Ever Aug 5, 2026 4311 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
[Ep583] The Day Before Launch: Scenario Planning for Indie Game Devs
[Ep583] The Day Before Launch: Scenario Planning for Indie Game Devs Jul 29, 2026 4525 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 ex

Recommended