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We The Indies
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For people who make games

Your game. A real disc.

Send the build. We make a copy by hand when someone orders one, and pay you on every sale. Free to start. No minimums. You keep every right.

Start a submissionSee what you keep
  • Free to start
  • No minimums
  • Made by hand
  • You keep the rights
A white disc sleeve printed with the words YOUR GAME HERE, photographed on a black backdrop
Shot in our workshop. The sleeve is waiting for your art.

What you can submit

A game becomes a real PC disc.

  • A game

    A PC disc with a menu

    • CD, DVD, or dual-layer DVD, picked by the size of your build, in a DVD case or a jewel case.
    • Installer, disc menu, and Windows updates you choose to send.
    • Add a soundtrack CD or photo cards for a deluxe edition.
    From $10Case wrap and disc label

Your studio

Your game studio, your storefront

Give your releases a home with your logo, a banner, your own background and colors. Choose what to feature and share one address for your studio.

Customize your storefront

Already making them yourself?

If you are already making your discs by hand and sending them out yourself, you do not need a company, a warehouse or a catalog to open a storefront. Bring what you already make, keep making it exactly the way you make it, and it gets one address a buyer can find instead of a direct message and a spreadsheet. Same page, same fee, same fulfillment setup as anybody else.

Make more of your release

Add a soundtrack CD to a supported game edition.

How it works

Send it. We make it. You get paid.

  1. Phase one: pre-production

    Minutes, not an hour.

    What it wants

    • Who you are: the name on your profile.
    • The title, and one line about it.
    • A link that shows it is real: its page, a trailer, a store listing.

    Then: We read it and write back: yes, you can sell here, or yes, you can be Coming Soon. Nothing goes on a store page until a person has said so.

  2. Phase two: production, Coming Soon

    What the store page needs and nothing more.

    What it wants

    • Who it is for: the age band, and what a buyer should know first.
    • The art on our templates: the case wrap at 8400 x 5100 px and the disc face at 2835 x 2835 px, both at 600 dpi, PNG. More than one front is welcome; a buyer can choose.
    • Screenshots as PNG at the game's own resolution, and a trailer as an MP4 (H.264).
    • The case render we make from your art, for the page.

    Then: The page goes up as Coming Soon with a Wishlist button. Every wishlister gets one email the day it goes on sale.

  3. Phase three: post, on sale

    Only when you are ready to sell.

    What it wants

    • The final game files: the build, up to 16 GB, uploaded here.
    • The final art, if it changed.
    • What the disc does when it runs: the launch buttons and the menu (Rialto's metadata).
    • The price, and the agreement with your name typed on it.

    Then: Then it goes on sale, made by hand when someone orders it, and you are paid on every copy.

A Maki's Adventure cover on the paper trimmer, mid cut
Finished Sea of Dreams cases held in two hands
Every cover is trimmed by hand, one cut at a time. This is the bench your disc is made on.

What you keep

One table. You pick the price.

The same numbers for a game, a film, or an album. A standard submission on the Rialto path has nothing up front. Paid authoring is on the pricing page.

New this September: the same materials, made by hand in the USA, new features on every disc, and we take less of every sale than we did in year one.

PriceYou keepWe takeRevenue Split
$10$6$460-40
$12$8$467-33
$14$9$564-36
$16$11$569-31
$18$12$667-33
$20$14$670-30
$30$22$873-27
$40$30$1075-25
$50$36$1472-28
$60$44$1673-27
$70$52$1874-26

Some discs cost more to make, so their lowest price is higher: two discs with a Blu-ray start at $16, a disc with a soundtrack CD or a dual-layer DVD at $12, a single CD or a 4.7 GB DVD at $10. The wizard tells you as you build it.

The full page.

Art template center

Start with our specs

Print specs, bleed guides, and editable masters for every surface we print. Drop your art in, export, and submit.

Two kinds of file here. The layered PSD masters are what we print from, so start there for anything real. The PDF quick-specs are a guide to the sizes. Two case-insert masters are too large to serve from this page; ask and we will send them.

Layered masters
Guide PDFs

Download a template, fill it in your own tools, and upload the finished art with your submission. We print anything; if you need a size you do not see, ask.

After it ships

What a disc keeps doing.

  • Updates you choose

    A game installed from a disc we built can take a patch you send from IndieHub. The patch reaches the game on the computer. The disc stays as it was made. The first game updates go out after this week.

    Game updates

  • Cloud Saving

    A way for a player to move their save files to another computer with a Save Code they write down. No account. Play never waits on it. This is not a shipping update.

    Cloud Saving

  • Posted from Florida

    Made first, then posted, worldwide from the United States. Tax and shipping are added at checkout, never taken out of your split.

    Shipping

  • A number on every copy

    Each disc we make gets a number, signed onto the disc and shown on its own page. A real copy with a number, not a skin on a file.

    Game preservation

Questions we get

Who qualifies?
Indie teams of any size. If you have shipped something, we will talk.
How much does it cost me?
Nothing up front for a standard submission on the Rialto path. Paid authoring is listed on What a disc costs. We make each copy when someone orders it, then split the sale with you. The whole table is on this page.
Who owns it?
You do. Always. We take no equity and no rights. This is service work, not publishing.
Can I leave?
Yes. Your masters stay yours and your rights never moved. Tell us and we stop making copies.
Where do you ship?
Worldwide, from the United States. US sales tax is charged at checkout for Florida addresses; other US addresses add none. International orders may attract import tax, duty and a courier handling fee on arrival. See Shipping.
What art do I need?
Your key art on our templates: the case wrap and the disc face for a game or a film, the front insert and tray card for an album. The kit is on this page, and we print anything; ask if you need a size you do not see.
Can I push updates after a disc ships?
Yes, through IndieHub. Updates go through a light review, then reach the installed game through the updater; the disc itself stays as it was made, as the agreement says. The first updates go out after launch week. Play never needs an account.

A note from the founder

I started We The Indies because I wanted the games I loved on a shelf. Not a subscription page. Not a delisted storefront. A real disc, with real art, that nobody can take away.

If that sounds like your players, let us make your game physical.

Chandler, For the Indies

Start a submission
A stack of finished Maki's Adventure retail DVD cases on a desk
Maki's Adventure, fresh from the assembly bench.