New Action Game From Indie Ashburn Developer Reaches Major Influencer, Takes Off

ASHBURN, VA – An independent video game developer in Loudoun County is watching interest in his latest creation soar after a major gaming influencer tried it out.

Trevor Parker, 34, of Ashburn, is the creator of Engagement, a new action strategy game in which players build a ship from salvaged materials, raise a fleet of escorts and fight a swarming enemy. The game will be released on Nov. 12, but its appearance on gaming influencer Splattercat’s YouTube channel is already putting the Loudoun developer on the indie map like never before.

Building Interest Through Influencers And Festivals

Having a YouTuber with nearly a million followers spend some time with your game is huge, Parker tells Patch.

One of the most interesting things about independent game development is the interdependence of the developer and influencer communities, he says. “I think a lot of people see influencers as just social media hotel highlighters or fashion divas, but I don't think you will find a successful indie game that made it without the help of an influencer. Indie game influencers are core to indie game development because they have the exposure you will need, and they are the ones who make it possible for all of your hard work to be seen by the world,” Parker explained.

In addition, Engagement was part of Steam Next Fest, a week‑long event on the Steam gaming ecosystem that lets players access demos of hundreds of unreleased PC games ahead of their official launch dates. (Find some of Engagement's reviews from Next Fest here.)

Between the Splattercat appearance and Next Fest, Parker told Patch, thousands more players have expressed an interest in Engagement than he would have expected to reach with his typical marketing.

From Player To Developer

Parker tells Patch he’s only been making games for about two years, but he’s been playing since he was a toddler, looting boxes for weapons in Call of Duty from the comfort of his father’s lap.

He started making games after he realized that, as a prolific game reviewer, he was judging a process he knew nothing about.

“Once I got past my 100th review, I started asking myself if it was fair to keep judging other games without ever trying to make a game myself and seeing what really went into the development journey.”

Now, he says, he finds the development process so engaging, “I often would rather spend my time working on one of my games than playing one like before!”

Parker’s games are for everyone from newbies to veterans, he says. He has a day job in marketing, so making games really isn’t about the money; rather, he wants to entertain his fellow humans and leave some happiness in his wake.

“I want to be able to inspire and give joy to people across the world and have that last beyond my time here on earth,” he says.

Spreading Joy In A Savage Business

Sometimes, as an independent game developer, creating fun means fighting through a very nasty industry.

“The gaming development community is very cut-throat. It's very, very vicious,” Parker says. It’s already difficult to get noticed among the myriad offerings from big corporate developers, but politics and AI debates now also pit small communities against each other.

“There’s a big subsection of gamers that hate anything to do with the tag of woke or wokeness,” Parker says. Games that prominently feature female, Black or other minority characters run the risk of being tagged as "woke" by a subsection of gamers and disregarded before they're even played. As a Black developer, this creates yet another barrier to reaching an already picky audience in an increasingly crowded space.

The role of AI in development is as inflammatory a topic, he says. Parker himself believes AI can be a useful tool in developing games, and he’s used it in some, though not in Engagement. Steam currently requires independent games that use generative AI to disclose that publicly, and those disclosures can become another excuse for disregarding independent work as “AI slop.”

AI tools can lighten small developers' workloads, but AI disclosures can result in the loss of 20 or 30 percent of potential earnings, Parker says. The indie gaming community is 'tearing itself apart' over this right now, he says.

Connecting With Real Players

For all that, Parker does love to hear what people who actually play his games think of his work. "I like to make games for players that do not hesitate about giving me their feedback," he says. "My players call me a bit of a machine because I take their feedback and update/patch the game daily or at the latest, every other day, which is something very rare in the gaming industry."

And bring on the bad news, he says. That's what really helps him make better products and build his legacy of fun.

Engagement will be available on Nov. 12. Find it and all of Parker’s games here.

Are you a local business owner? Post a business listing on Patch! It’s an easy way to reach a local audience and connect with customers close to home. Go here to get started today.