Post
The indie strategy of designing games to fit a high-performing Steam tag for algorithmic visibility.
Steam's algorithm surfaces games partially based on tags ('Roguelike Deckbuilder,' 'Cozy,' 'Survivors-Like'). Indie devs increasingly design with these tags in mind — building a cozy farming sim because the tag performs, or adding deckbuilding to a game it barely needs. It is the genre equivalent of keyword SEO, and the entire subgenre saturation cycle (Vampire Survivors-likes, Balatro-likes) tracks directly to it.
Example
After Vampire Survivors, the Survivors-Like tag exploded with 300+ games in two years. Post-Balatro, deckbuilder roguelikes saw the same wave. Cozy games and fishing mechanics have become near-mandatory features. Successful devs now study tag data as seriously as market research.
Why it matters
Tag-chasing shapes what indie games get made and accelerates genre-cycle fatigue. Understanding it explains why certain subgenres feel suddenly flooded, and why unique games can struggle despite being good.
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