LuGus Studios discusses building Liftoff, growing a niche drone sim audience, and sustaining a 15-year indie studio through community-driven development, iterative workflows, and a focus on impact over scale.

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LuGus Studios co-founder Kevin Haelterman shares how the Belgian indie studio survived 15+ years by pivoting from work-for-hire to self-publishing with Liftoff, a drone simulator born from a viral prototype. Key lessons include building an audience before the product, treating updates as marketing, running games as live services without toxic monetization, and staying lean at 13 people by focusing on impact over headcount. The studio also invests in the local Belgian game dev ecosystem through meetups and a co-working space called Spawn Point.

How LuGus Studios Turned a Viral Prototype Into a Successful Business