Sometimes I question as to whether or not indie developers research into the market before they set out and make a game. In most cases I would say that they don’t. At the indie level, it doesn’t matter if your game sells, you just want to make a game. But isn’t it nicer when thousands of people actually buy your game rather than a couple hundred?
The most effective way to achieve this is to do your research. Find out if there is an audience that you’re aiming for. Is this audience large or is it niche? Niche audiences are extremely hard to find without the proper marketing so what is your marketing strategy? What will you do if your strategy fails? Are there portals/distributors who would be interested in your game? If you cannot reply to these questions with specific details then you’re screwed.
I’ve played some great indie games before but some of those never sold well. Some were even higher quality than the ones that do sell well. So what’s the difference? The ones that sold well did the research before they developed the game.