This article doesn't touch it as it's a new game they are developing, but I used to wonder a lot how much are indie game devs making? Is it worth it? Can one expect to earn like a full time job working on it?
Generally very, very little. You can generally take the number of Steam reviews on a game and multiply by 50 to get a rough, ballpark idea of how many sales the game has made. Considering this game has 3 reviews on Steam and costs $6, it’s unlikely the game has made over $1000 on that platform.
That doesn’t mean it’s not worth making games, though! I’ve released two mobile games, still updating the second one, and although they’re a far cry from being profitable vs. the amount of time I’ve put into them, I still find the process and result very fulfilling.
Doubtful it even made that much considering the author said most of the steam players were friends or family. That said, I don't think you should go into indie development trying to go viral and make a ton of money.
I love this blog post because it highlights how difficult, yet fun and challenging it can be to create a game from scratch. I've messed around with GameMaker Studio 2 several times and this post has inspired me to do so again. Compared to the competition it's a relatively simple game engine, but it can be fun just to mess around and see what you're able to create.
Most indie game devs do not turn a profit on their work. The numbers vary from year to year but on average an indie game that launches on Steam earns in the $1000-5000 ballpark, which limits how much time you can profitably put into it.
Of course, if you can hit it big the numbers can be pretty good. But not many games manage to hit it big. It used to be much easier to get visibility as an indie a long time ago, but that's partly because there weren't very many indie games on storefronts like Steam, Xbox etc at the time so being there got you attention. Now hundreds of games come out every day and are competing with you.
I do know multiple indie devs who do it for a living, but they tend to have to supplement their game revenue with contract work, or they split the burden with a spouse who has a regular job.
Personally I've worked on multiple shipped indie games and have never earned enough off that to pay rent, though it was nice to get a few thousand in post-launch royalties over the span of a few years + the initial amount I earned working on it. I always had to supplement things with traditional freelancing or a day job.
Back in 2014 we made an iOS game* that got several million plays and some local press but never made enough money to motivate further work. I still like it and play it when killing time on flights. If you were solo and/or had very low living costs or expectations, or got a feature to kickstart things more, maybe you could make a modest living.
Doing it over, I think we'd probably put more time into making it a daily challenge or monetising differently or using a more neutral theme.
That's like asking 'how much are musicians/artists making'. Most are making near-zero. A few get lucky and are making many millions.
And while success requires a certain level of talent/skill, becoming a mega-hit seems very much about luck and being in the right place at the right time.
I hear this "luck" thing a lot but not sure that's the case. It's probably more originality + quality. So few undiscovered gems out there, thousands of average things though.
In no other industry/medium do you see nearly as much survivorship bias as in discussion around videogames.
I’ve always liked to think of it as a lottery, but where there are a ton of things you can do to buy yourself more tickets.
Doing the bare minimum is unlikely to bring you success, but it does happen… on the other hand sometimes a game will have a lot of things going for it and still perform poorly.
Also of all the things that are likely to bring a game success, originality is quite far down the list. That’s one of those areas where survivorship bias has a huge influence. (source: I’ve been a self-sustaining indie game dev for 12 years)
I don't want to sound dismissive, but saying "a game will have a lot of things going for it" to me sounds like about average. I mean it can still work out, but it does raise a flag.
> I’ve been a self-sustaining indie game dev for 12 years.
The quality of that 'average' has absolutely skyrocketed in the last decade or so, as ever-more-powerful tools have become available for ever-lower prices. But at the same time, we're also seeing 'indie' games with larger budgets than ever, either funded by publishers and or previous successes.
But games have been massively devalued over the last decade or so, when you've got AAA games practically given away (Game Pass, PS Plus, Steam sales), and indie games bundled up and sold for pennies, alongside the rise of F2P.
So now starting an indie game team is like starting an indie band. If you've got a bit of talent and put the effort in, you now have access to inexpensive high-end tools to unleash your creativity. But if you want to actually make money from your endeavours, it's getting ever-harder. And with the relative easy of porting games build with Unity/Unreal, even brand new platforms have completely oversaturated stores more or less by launch day, too.
Some of my favorite game developers live pretty much below poverty level and have to resort to patreon to make ends meet.
I really think that at this point developing games is more of a labor of love and it's very hard to pierce right now as an indie dev. It was most likely quite a bit easier 15 years ago when the indie scene was much smaller (but then there were a lot more barriers of entry back then)
OP here. It's not new as in "under development" new. It's newly released on Switch, but I've been working on it for over 2 years now on and off and it was released on Steam last year for PC/Windows.
This project was never intended to be a full time job (or even lead to one) and it was never about making money, either. If that were the goal I would have probably ended up with a very different game in order to appeal to the mainstream and give me more chance of (monetary) success.
For me this game was more about the process of creating something that is 100% an expression of me (and my son). I created it for the sake of creating it, nothing more. And I enjoyed every second of the process to the point where it's kind of sad it's over now. That's not to say it was always easy mind - it was painfully difficult sometimes and I almost give up in frustration and disillusionment many times.
> Can one expect to earn like a full time job working on it?
It really depends on where you live. A full time job in California earns much more that many other parts of the World.
That being said, most indie games fail financially. There are hits, of course. But there's also a a middle ground if you can live on low funds.
I have been full time indie since 2013. I have released about a dozen games and 4-5 of those have been financially successful.
I made about $250k net (after all taxes and fees) in these 9 years, so around $2300 net / month. That's about 3-4 times the average wage in my country and is close to being on par with what I could earn outsourcing my programming skills to the western companies. I'm doing what I love and enjoy having freedom of being able to choose when I work and when I go on a vacation, etc. Sometimes I work 16-hour days for weeks. Sometimes I take 2-3 weeks off and just play games, read books, watch movies and hang with my friends and family.
You probably never heard about any of my games: Rogue Bit, Son of a Witch, Watermelon Party. I'm perfectly fine with that.
That doesn’t mean it’s not worth making games, though! I’ve released two mobile games, still updating the second one, and although they’re a far cry from being profitable vs. the amount of time I’ve put into them, I still find the process and result very fulfilling.