HOLDING THE BABY: how to make and distribute physical games in the age of digital download dominance
A downloadable zine
So, you worked hard on your game, and you've posted it to Itch.io, and maybe even put it on Steam. Great job!
You pat yourself on the back, but something aches in your heart as you look at your game among a sea of other thumbnails, and anticipate it being swept up in the waves, lest the social media gods have mercy on you and your poor, pathetic link...
There's just got to be more to this game development thing than throwing up a post, and praying that the algorithm does its thing!
HOLDING THE BABY: How to Make and Distribute Physical Games in the Age of Digital Download Dominance is your guide to escaping digital-only games distribution and creating a more tactile and personal experience with your precious creations. In it, you will find information on how to acquire, design, distribute, display, and enjoy physical copies of your games, even on a shoestring budget. Just like you held your favorite childhood game at your local game store so long ago, you can hold a game you're proud of!
If you're ready to empower yourself to take back your games distribution experience from social media algorithms and Internet marketplace censorship, then it's time to read this zine.
It's time to HOLD THAT BABY!
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
Xenon Fossil's USB Holder Zette Printable Templates for making cool casette tape cases for USB physical copies!
HOLDING THE BABY was featured on Polygon!
Download
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Development log
- featured on polygon + new pages added!Oct 17, 2025
- physical copy display inspo!Sep 03, 2025
Comments
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this was not only an amazingly informative zine but also a blast to read! i couldn’t help myself but to scan the little buttcheek QR code at the end, what a great touch that was. thank you for the work you’ve done on this!
This is such a wonderful and inspiring guide!! I've made physical copies of a few of my games in the past (one of the things I tried involved physically cutting and putting a sticker onto multiple USB sticks) but you've offered so many more great ideas and gave me hope for the future of indie games. Thank you!!
i’m so glad it helped!!! yeah, before i really got into physical copies, i was getting ready to purchase a ton of usbs and individually laser engrave them in a machine???? looking back i was kind of insane for that. oh well, i’ll probably try it again one day. hope you get some absolutely sick physical copies!
i love this! i hope we'll see more devs making phys copies of their games. this guide provides a lot of great options for devs to try & is both informative & inspirational!
Thanks so much for making and sharing this! Lots of really cool ideas in here; I found it very inspiring!
thank you!!!! i’ve been working on the sequel to this zine for almost a month now, and it’s been so much work. i took a break today and wanted to tell you that it was so nice to see your comment and that it really encourages me to know this inspires people at a time where i am tired from working on more stuff about bringing digital games to physical spaces. it genuinely really keeps me going TToTT
Yes, so much!
I have been so busy lately and honestly feeling discouraged by a variety of factors (biggest being the payment processor fiasco) but reading your zine helped me see my work and my current situation in a new light and to feel much less defeated!
I’m very grateful!
ahhh this is awesome! I'm an organizer for a Texas gamedev nonprofit community that sells physical indie games ( societyofplay.net/zettes ) , I want to print some physical booklets of this and hand them out for free at events we go to unless you have objections :) I've been working on my own guides and resources to make physical indie games so this is great
that would be awesome! absolutely no objections! i’m actually starting to sell physical indie games from different creators at markets. i’m slowly building up my library of creators behind the scenes. it’s really awesome to see other people doing that too! and by “really awesome,” i mean, i’m kind of looking at my screen with huge, pathetic eyes because i am so happy there are people doing this!! i hope there will be many, many of us in the future!
i have a site where i am gathering lists of websites that help support indie creators and resources, also slowly but surely (https://priro.pro/indiehaven). can i link to the zette shop there to spread awareness of it? i think people would really love to see it there!
that sounds lovely, no objections here!!! i'll link you back on SoP's zette page also :) in addition, have a zette templates download page on itch
https://xenonfossil.itch.io/game-zette-printable-templates
that i'm going to continue to update with even more templates and such if you'd like to link that as well!
will do, thanks so much!! i’ve also added your zette templates linked on this page, because i think it will help a lot of people who want to make their own physical copies.
Oh been wanting something like this for a while! Thanks!
np!!! i hope you make some cool physical copies (and if you do i want to see!!!!)
my copies will be for my erotica web series first and foremost! Idk if you're into that but the news will be here if it happens; https://www.gummyandthedoctor.com/
I am!! I actually have a list I’m working on for my site where I’m compiling all different artists who have their work hosted on their own websites outside of itch.io due to all the censorship going on. Can I add your site to the list? I think people who frequent my site would enjoy your work a lot!
you can, but our actual video work isn't hosted on our site due to some restrictions. We host all the videos on pornhub and ao3 so I don't think we actually qualify for the list right now ;>; at the moment our website is just a hub for video links until I can get a reliable server. (I'm just a comic artist and not too smart with websites)