What Indie Game Publishers Really Think: 15 Years of Industry Insights from Finji's Rebekah Saltsman

GDC Festival of Gaming says Finji co-founder and CEO Rebekah Saltsman is sharing 15 years of self-publishing experience in a talk aimed at developers considering the publishing side of the business. The session is framed around what indie publishers really think about, and more importantly, what small and midsized teams should understand before trying to handle publishing themselves.

The core topics are the ones that tend to shape whether a project can actually reach market: publishing access, available development funds, and the shrinking number of co-marketing opportunities. That makes the talk especially relevant for teams that assume a good build is enough; in practice, the business relationship can be just as important as the game itself.

Finji’s perspective is useful because it spans both internal development and published titles, which gives Saltsman a view from both sides of the table. For developers, that usually means learning how publishers evaluate risk, timing, audience fit, and whether a team can support launch beyond the build itself.

The broader context is GDC’s 2027 return to San Francisco from March 1-5, with the usual mix of design, programming, audio, art, business, and production talks. For indie teams, the message here is straightforward: self-publishing is still viable, but the bar for business literacy keeps rising.