Steam's new "golden age" is special because so many genres are popping off at once, indie expert says: "It's almost like the player base was drinking and their inhibitions lowered"

We Gotta Go characters holding lanterns.

Steam researcher, marketing consultant, and indie game advisor Chris Zukowski has been talking about a new "golden age" of indie games on Steam for a while now, so I was keen to dig into the idea during an interview at GDC.

Simply put, Zukowski sees data to support his theory that multiple genres are currently enjoying the kind of Steam boom that hit roguelikes after the release of Vampire Survivors. If you made a game like Vampire Survivors in that window, you had an above-average shot at success because the audience was hungry for more of that. And right now, a lot of genres are going through that on Steam, meaning devs with overlapping ideas, or the agility to pivot to a new project in that space, can get a piece of that pie while players get more of the trend they've fallen in love with.