Any alone indie living of that?

Well, I'm from Argentina, I had finished a "practice" game, and I think now I can make something fun.
I want to know if everyone has another job, and makes games in his free time, or if anybody is only working in his indie projects, because I heard everywhere that it's really difficult to win something with that.
So... Anyone do that? in this case, please, tell me your experience, and advices.

Sorry, my english is bad.
Thanks for read!

 

I don't have a company, so I don't make even close to that much money, But I can say that it is hard getting an Idea and finishing it. I never have really finished One single project I made so yea. But in the long run, it's quite hard.

 

What ChipMan said.

But experience helps. I think the more experience you have and the more experience that the people working with you, even in your spare time, have, the easier it is to get something done.

I am not sure I would even know where to start without my 7 years of game programming experience at a large developer / publisher. There have been a lot of things along the way working on my own game with former colleagues that we look at each other and say, man, if we didn't have the experience that we have we would have totally missed that, or ignored the other thing. The experience has certainly contributed to a smoother transition into developing our own stuff.

 

You sound like a very solid guy

I plan on making my own Game Company someday. Dunno if it will ever get up lol.

 

Sadly, seems to be really hard to get a job as game programmer, at least in my country. But yes, I'm sure that experience is something that you can't get alone. Thanks!

 

Thanks, I try to be.

Never give up on your dreams. Nothing great ever comes easy - and I am by NO means a top notch software engineer.

Its one of the reasons I have started coming to the forums, to try and share a little bit about what I have learned along the way. I've started providing code examples in some of my responses.

I am considering doing a tutorial on the actual backend work - getting a database set up on a hosting site, a PHP page that parses form data, and then using Unity's WWW class and From stuff to send and retrieve data back and forth. I think one of the things people still struggle with a lot is how to save their data (PlayerPrefs is a good start, but it obviously doesn't work well if you want to store complex data - you can still do it but its a lot of funky stuff).

 

Yep, I don't know if is harder to start or to finish xD
But the worst thing if you finish a game and you can't get more than 100 plays :S
That's my question, it's the competition so hard that it's almost impossible to make a visible game?

 

Yep, seems really hard to save game data, and worse make a online highscore. At least with facebook SDK share scores seem a lot easier.

I'd love if you make that tutorials

 

Nice, I really enjoy the way the Nintendo Entertainment System games looked, so I tried making a game inspired by it, And it is a cool like game, but it's buggy

1)movement is not pixelxpixel (Which I understand for many reasons.)
2)and the build size is WAY to big.

So yea, cool story bro

 

Don't let that stop you. Go through the other tutorials and then try to branch out from them, do something a little extra that the tutorials don't do - to get the creative juices going. Eventually you will be able to get what you vision into code and data and start working it out.

 

Advertise.

 

i run a development company and only have time for game dev at home for fun. My advice is find others near you (maybe get friends interested) and if you have a good idea just try and make a game you all have fun playing, then see what happens. Your small team of friends would ideally be a artist/designer, a programmer/coder, a good organizer and planner and very detailed person.

 

Making a game visible is going to become more and more difficult as more people create games / apps. Basic intuition tells us that if there are only 10 games on Facebook you can get a high visibility; if there are 100,000 games on Facebook its much harder. Same goes true for the App Store, Google Play, etc...

However, Facebook Ads, Unity Ads, etc... seem to do a fairly good job of targeting your games and apps towards people who would be interested in them. I just wish Unity Ads worked with Facebook (web player), or that Unity would allow Facebook Ads in their Facebook API for Unity. It makes things more difficult.

 

Well, that's what I do in my first game, when I finished the roll-a-ball tutorial
If you want to see it : http://gamejolt.com/games/arcade/the-fantastic-adventure-of-a-ball/44034/
It's a short game and I'm not too good with the art side xD
Sorry for the spam.

 

MagicZelda is spot on.

The current game a colleague and I are working on, we actually took paper, cut out stuff that represented gameplay elements, put it on a coffee table with us and a few other people who don't play video games usually and put them through it... then discussed what they liked and didn't liked, and since we were using cutouts on paper to represent gameplay elements we could make new ones or change things and go back through the scenarios and re-evaluate. Its really helpful, and allows you to adapt the gameplay fast and think of things that would otherwise be more difficult in finding out (what works, what doesn't work).

 

Yes, I made a suggestion when Unity ads was announced, asking if they will put browser support, but nope :S

 

dang... no browser support?

 

Nope, not yet at least.

I wonder if its a Facebook / Unity thing... Facebook has their ad system, Unity now has their ad system, and maybe there is an issue there. (Facebook maybe wants Unity to use Facebook Ads if its being played on Facebook through a web browser while Unity wants to be able to use their ad system regardless of what platform the Unity game is being run on (or through Facebook and a web browser).

I honestly don't know but whatever is preventing either one from being usable across platforms I hope clears up soon.

 

nope, but maybe in the future...
here is my post: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/support-for-other-platforms.269624/#post-1781433

 

I'll look into it.

 

Interesting... lol, well darn, no webGL

 

Erm... I think guy who made Thomas Was Alone made a living out of making indie games.

 

Cool to see a reasonable discussion about this. Usually in these discussions someone inevitably comes along and talks about the rare cases such as Minecraft, Crossy Road, Flappy Bird (Angry Birds before that) and so forth as if that is a fairly common and realistic goal despite the fact that many people have made games (and very good games) that have come nowhere close to making that kind of money. You are likely to make very little if anything. The evidence of that? All of the people (including many on these forums) who have made one or more games and made nothing to very little money at all.

There are people making money and there are people making a full time living with it but as someone mentioned above it will become more and more difficult (meaning it will happen less and less) as time passes and more and more people continue to pour into game development. It's just common sense despite what some people would have you believe.

All of that is not to discourage you. Making games is a lot of fun. It is very interesting. But don't quit your job and going a step further don't even expect to make any (meaningful) money from this. Just do it because you enjoy it! If you can do it for that reason alone then you cannot lose and any money you make will be an awesome bonus. =)

 

I agree BIG time!

 

That's seems to be the sad reality
Some indies make really good games and wins nothing, while some big enterprises makes tons of money with crappy games.
I have some ideas to do, and if I have luck... well, nice, a round of beer for all the unity community (?), and if not... I think the most valuable thing is a player saying "I was having a bad time, but I really enjoy your game". Sadly we can't eat it (ñam ñam, tasty players), but maybe we can say "hey! I make someone happy!".
Sorry again for my bad english, and thanks for your response.

 

I'm living off it. Although I'm mostly living off of residuals from simple apps from a few years ago, along with some freelance work to make ends meet. And my definition of "living" probably doesn't live up to what other people expect out of life. But hey, my meager existence beats working 9-5.

 

so... You can't live of simple apps anymore?

 

I dunno. Maybe you can. I didn't hit on a whole lot of anything before switching over fully to games and the occasionally freelance gig. I guess the fact that 5 year old apps still bring in around $600 a month or so for me says something. I'm not sure what though. Haha. Ultimately I just like games more. My last three mobile games didn't really go anywhere. Before that was about 7 months of time developing a piece of desktop software that also bombed out. As long as my next moderate success comes before I lose my house, I'm happy. I hate freelancing, but that's always there if I absolutely must bring in some money.

 

Its the unfortunate reality of democratization of stuff you can use to build things - if a greater number of a population have access to things then a greater number of a population will be producing things. If a greater number of a population are producing things then the markets become more diluted than they were previously and consequently it becomes harder to get "your piece of the pie".

That's why big companies are fearing 3D printers. People can build at home for less what the companies produce in factories. More people making the same stuff for less give in to more competition, and more competition means people get a smaller piece of the pie than they had gotten before.

In the case of existing businesses that also means layoffs unfortunately.

That being said, if you have a good idea and you know you or you and a team have the skills to get it done, then go for it. You never know. I think gaming still has a lot of room to grow, so its not a matter of dilution at this point (IMO).

... and its not just that... Unity can be used to create things other than games. I remember reading an article somewhere about some person in Europe who made DJ software for a dance club in Unity... controlled not just the music but the club lights.

 

With code you can do anything, in fact you can call any windows APIs if you are on windows, or any Mac API if you are on iOS or Mac, guess it applies for the rest.

That means, you can do what ever you like with Unity!

 

I was nearly making a living out selling apps on the app stores, if you define living by earning above minimum wage. But then I got a bit lazy, went travelling, made a big vanity project game, and so my finances went down but then I started putting in some hard work and its improving again.

So my tip is: Work hard! Get yourself a part time job, or freelancing to make ends meet. If one app doesn't succeed, move on to the next one, try a different platform, a different genre, try ads, try payments, try in app purchasing etc. You don't have to make the next Angry Birds to make a living. Just hard work! You may not get rich. But you might have fun trying!

 

I'm in the same spot as you (also from Argentina). I'm an Engineer and full time C# developer on a company.
My main view is to learn foundations for game design, build a couple of little projects to share with the world (for free o maybe with adds to make a dollar ) and build up my knowledge on game dev.

Maybe, just maybe, some day I'll be able to make a game that makes cash. But only as an extra of my daily job.

 

I was a full time electrical engineer, created two games as a hobby at night before I quit my job and started my own company. I then finished another game and working on a new one now.

I think I am VERY VERY lucky and definitely not the norm, but I am easily able to live off my games right now.

I also make a lot more money since I'm just a one man team, and I get all the profits (minus 30% from stores and also taxes)!

 

Am I living alone off the income? No. But it is the sole hobby that sustains my spirit and will to live. Game programming and engines like Unity let me materialize my dreams

 

Find a niche. Figure out what people in that niche will pay for. Do that better than anyone else. Keep doing it every day, all day, no quitting. Finish your games. Brand yourself as a leader in your niche. Make a living. Retire.

 

More easily said than done, but true nonetheless.

 

This is literally almost exactly how I was able to make my business and make a living off of making games, lets just see how long I can continue it!

 

That's the key. If it was 5 years ago I'd be much more positive about the moneymaking side of this. But if you really take a look around you will find that many people who were making good money even making a full time living from game dev just a few years ago have seen a large drop in their income.

It reminds me when make money online was a big thing. Build a website get traffic to it and monetize it. I got into it early and it was very worthwhile. It took time and work but the return was worth it. Not a high amount per hour but a reasonable amount. The goldrush happened and tons of people came in doing the same thing. Flooding the internet with websites. It got to the point where I could spend a month on a new site and it would bring in 1/10 at best of what the average had been previously. This whole game dev thing is like deja vu to me.

 

Question: Do you think $600 US a month from apps is good or bad? And how much a month would you say counts as a success?

 

In my spare time, I'm Indie, and for my primary gig, I'm a pro. The best advice I ever got was to NOT quit my day job too early, though technically Gigi's income might be enough for some.

Gigi

 

$600/mo could be great or terrible, depending. And there are many types of capital - aka success may or may not be financial.

Gigi

 

It's up to you to decided what is successful though. Is that defined as making it your only income and job? Or is it a success when you can get $600 a month and pay for a sweet new car payment? Up to you.

Some single dev indie companies make over a grand a day, which easily pays the middle-income bills obviously, but you can be successful making $200 a day if that provides for your needs and you enjoy it.

 

If it was your only income, it definitely wouldn't be considered a success in the US. That totals $7200/year, taking home closer to $6000/year after taxes. The poverty guideline for a single person is $12000/year.

 

Knowing how to surf is a lifesaving skill.

 

Ha ha. Yeah but my visitor retention rates were high. The problem was getting the people to find the site to begin with. Even though every site catered to a niche market and often a tiny niche when the goldrush happened since everyone kept saying find a niche all of the niches became flooded as well. Figure literally millions of people all searching for niches and companies spring up in India (just one example I know for certain) that had people working full time just to locate niche markets and build dozens even hundreds of websites around them. People underestimate just how crippling the effect can be when "everyone" starts doing something to make money.

 

I've been saying a lot lately to "do what everyone else isn't doing." I still believe that, but yes, when everyone is doing what everyone else isn't doing, and there's no more room in hell, then yeah that plan goes out the window, haha.

There was a time back in the mid 2000s when I took a side break from game-development and started doing web sites. It sounds like you and I were maybe doing that around the same time. I made a killing from sites that offered graphics (gifs, etc.) for MySpace, and absolutely owned the "gothic" and "horror" MySpace market. The first two to three pages of Google results for MySpace horror, gothic, etc. were filled to the brim with my sites. I built them up and built them up and kept building more, and then watched as the market got saturated. So... I sold my sites off to other people and companies who saw what everyone else was doing and wanted in on it, and I went back to making games.

You can find a niche, and make a living. You can find booms, and make a living. You can even do what everyone else is doing, and make a living. The real key is to not stop. Do it, then do it again. Don't quit. Learn how to surf. Learn how to dance. Learn how to live when there's no money coming in at all.

I'm getting out of game development because it's time for me to get out of game development. I wish everyone the best of success as they jump into that pond. Find a wave. Swim hard.

 

@Ony : oh yeah I agree finding a niche and doing what everyone else is NOT doing are the keys for sure. It was no longer worth it to me to build websites to earn income from BUT with so many people doing it a new market was created and for a bit I made websites let them age a bit get some traffic and then sold them to people who wanted to buy website properties (virtual real estate it was called).

I think game dev is to that point right now. I think a person can work very hard and make a great game and still make next to nothing from it. But a new market has been created from all of these people flooding into game dev.

 

What exactly do you mean by "a new market has been created from all of these people flooding into game dev"?

What's the market created BECAUSE of people flooding the market?

 

There are a lot of miners. Sell shovels.

 

Wouldn't that be what Unity is doing? Or someone making assets for the asset store? You are saying create things to sell to all the people now wanting to throw money at making games, instead of actually making the games yourself?