Quest Lecture #41 Samuli Karppinen "Community Building for Indies: Trust First, Systems Second"

Most indies treat the community wrong, running it like ads, then wonder why wishlists are not climbing and nobody shows up at launch. This keynote treats community as trust built by hand, with three concrete actions you can run in the next three weeks. A Quest lecture by Samuli "BAITO" Karppinen, a Founder of XPFIRST marketing agency. Indies can’t outspend AAA studios, but they can out-trust them. This talk breaks down how community becomes your strongest growth engine through real, actionable trust-building methods, case examples, and a practical 3-week action framework. Includes lessons from Road to Vostok, Deep Rock Galactic, and more. Quest Lectures are a series of free industry talks designed to help game developers navigate their game development journey. Each lecture is a new quest, covering the skills, challenges, and opportunities you'll encounter while building games, studios, and careers. What is GameCity Kajaani? Kajaani is the birthplace of Finnish game development education and has been creating game industry success stories for nearly 20 years. Through community building, talent development, and entrepreneurship support, GameCity Kajaani helps aspiring developers transform their passion into professional careers. As an authentic game city, Kajaani offers the perfect environment to gain experience, build connections, and level up your skills alongside a growing game development community. Kajaani Game Catalyst, a free 3-year growth program for early-stage developers, is a part of the Kainuu GEMS project, co-funded by EU.