Could I make a living being an Indie Game Dev?

I'm really sorry to hear that, Kiwasi. I do not want to give up yet. I've been at it since 2007, remember?

 

Hi there! Thank you for your interest. I'm glad you agree with me on that.

Here are the answers to your questions:

How long has it been released for?
It has been released since Sept. 27. In my humble opinion, this doesn't matter much given the amount of coverage, marketing, and ads that have been put in. It has been advertised since over 1 month before release, so people definitely knew it was coming. Also, it is on over 12 more or less popular Gaming News websites for its genre, with an estimated total views of over 300k.

Where's it being sold?
The game has been released on Steam, Itch.IO, Humble Bundle, and Gamejolt.
The number of sales for each platform is as follows: (3), 0, 0, 0.

I am putting 3 in brackets because it is still within the refund window, but I'm glad it has more than 0 sales, I guess? Still, nowhere near the threshold number I would have liked to see for people to show interest. I need 13k sales to break even. I wasn't thinking I was going to get that, but I would have liked to see 500, maybe even 1,000 sales in the first launch week (20% discount). This would have shown me that people have interest, and I would have continued working on it - I had many planned updates and features.

What kind of marketing to raise awareness have you done?
Tons!
-5.5 weeks pre-launch marketing on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+.
-PR on a dozen+ gaming news websites, youtubers, etc.
-Streamers on twitch.tv
-Paid influencers (this one is still in progress, but I doubt it'll turn things around)

I have to say that I am more or less in shock (and so is my Marketing/PR firm) that it has only 3 potential sales. It's disheartening, to say the least. But again, I will bounce back eventually - I cannot give up my dream - I do have interesting ideas (or so I think) for future games and also ideas for one of my favourites when I was a child: trailers (for the games)!

Thank you for reading! I hope you guys learnt something. Don't hesitate to ask me anything, I'd be happy to answer.

Edit: Just in case anyone is curious, the game is well-made, with a lot of love, too. I have received this compliment once or twice, so I can assure you it's not just me who thinks so. The firm I hired also performed a tremendous amount of work in QA, so they helped polish it out. I think it's a very lovable game.

 

Now the big question is, what is the game? And what are you charging?

 

I am charging $9.99 (USD) for it ($7.99 launch week discount). I was told by the hired firm that this is a good price for this kind of game. They have extensive experience in the field and backed up many successful games (including World of Tanks - which I am sure most people are familiar with), and I trust their judgement.

I have spoken with some friends of mine and they say they'd pay at least twice as much for that kind of game - but that's just a few people. I also suspect that similar games charge more (I guess some less) than that. So it's a good "median", in my opinion.

 

Okay but what is the game?

 

However embarrassing my next move may be, here is a link to the game page store on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/792000/Pit_Blocks_3D/

 

Huh, it reminds me of that 3D Tetris game I used to play back when I was a kid. You may have gone a little overboard with the backgrounds (they seem a little distracting) but this seems solid enough for me to buy it when my next paycheque comes in.

 

I can't say anything about the markets, but I wouldn't pay $8 for a game that seems at first glance like a tetris clone. There is a million mobile games like this that are free to play or cost 99 cents.

I don't say that to be mean, that's just the initial impression I have as a gamer. The backgrounds do seem at odds with the gameplay, as mentioned. Maybe some people will like that -- I don't know -- but first impression to me is one of discordance.

It does strike me as concerning that you don't know what a post-mortem is. Maybe you knew what it was but just didn't know the terminology (I hope). In any case, learning from others is like, probably the most effective way to spend your non-developing time.

Hopefully you'll snag a few bites with this, but if you take the time to do a careful post-mortum, that will likely help other people but probably help yourself even more.

 

Yes, distracting was the point in this case, to add some challenge to the whole gameplay. In my opinion, the difficulty level makes the achievement borne out of it that much sweeter. But that's just me, of course.

You also don't have to play with any environments on. You can select "None" as your environment.

 

You're missing the point.

Customer stumbles onto your page, what they see and feel in the first 10 seconds or so is what matters. I'm not criticizing your game -- I haven't played it. I am relaying what the first impression I get as a potential customer is.

 

I understand. Thank you for your feedback.

On a personal note, I disagree with my game being a tetris clone. Some people seem to think so, some do not. Maybe most do, and maybe that's why it has relatively no sales.
Quantitatively measuring the aspects of my game versus tetris indicates a low level of similarity. Factoring human emotion which is difficult to measure seems to indicate a clone. Well... I tried my best.

 

I agree with @BIGTIMEMASTER, this is not a $10 bracket game. This comes across to me as a game that would fit better into the <$5 bracket. It comes across as a quite casual game, which as far as I know tends to fare rather poorly on a platform like Steam, and seems better suited to mobile. Ask yourself, if you came across this game on the app store, would you shell out $10 for it?

As far as I can tell, $20 (maybe up to $30 maximum) is kind of the upper limit for indie games, generally speaking. Is this game half as deep and wide, so to speak, as the biggest indie title you've seen on Steam? Or is it a special niche game that is rarely made, and fulfills some kind of outlying need in the market? If it's neither of those, I think it's hard to justify that price tag.

My suggestion would be to drop the price for a while. A LOT. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Start at $2, market like crazy for a week, increase by $2, repeat. Get people playing your game at all costs. Just remember that you cannot collect data points without sales.

Frankly I think your marketing company doesn't have the perspective of the average gamer. If they can point out another tetris-style game, recently made, that sold well at >= $10, I'd be interested to see it.

And I also think the backgrounds could be a bit less noisy

 

Thanks for the link. You should also put it in your signature. Its hard to convince me you've done everything that can be done with marketing when you are ignoring some of the basic free stuff.

At a glance, you and your marketing company both appear to have fallen for a classic rookie mistake. You've tried to sell a mobile game on PC and at PC prices. I think you will struggle to find any games that have pulled this off successfully. Have you considered relaunching on iOS? Seems like the game could be a good fit there.

I could easily be wrong on this. But that's the impression I get from your Steam page. If you really are making a PC game, you'll want to massively rework your page to indicate some of the depth and complexity of your game.

 

This is a tough question to be asked after release, but did you do anything early in your project to test whether or not there was interest?

 

Yeah, I was told this with my Match 3 game as well (didn't end up launching it, at least not on PC). "This is a mobile game" said a large proportion of the Greenlight reviewers... despite the game being designed for a gamepad or keyboard/mouse.

But that just goes back to the point that perception is everything. Even if it's not a mobile game, if people think it's a mobile game it'll get treated like one.

 

One more thing, regarding pricing. I know that other real clones come at prices of $20-$30. Also, if I remember correctly, Tetris Effect is up to $60. I think my price is a better alternative. But then again... what do I know?

 

Sure, the 2 Tetris games on Steam are at least double my price (with the 20% discount). They did quite well, too. Not to compare to it too much since I still think my game is not a clone, but this "low" price offers a bit more than just simple gameplay.

 

I think I did.

 

You mean the multiplayer one published by SEGA, and the other one developed and published by Ubisoft? Both of which are bursting at the seams with social networking features.

 

@ThunderSoul I like the look of your game. I would consider making it a smaller grid and porting to mobile. I would not sell it on mobile but make it ad revenue. Also, I would make the scoring as small as possible, so it's actually rather hard to reach 99 points.

I don't think there is money in the puzzle genre in 2019 for indies, but a twist to theme with a simplification for pick up and play might yield some profits.

 

Yeah. Mobile game is a bit of a misnomer. By saying mobile, I don't mean 'designed to work with touch screen controls'. Mobile implies 'designed to be played as a filler game when sitting on the toilet'. This game looks like a casual time waster. Its something to do in between the rest of life. And PCs aren't great to lug around with you for casual time wasting.

Now its entirely possible I'm totally missing the point of the game. I'm judging it entirely by sixty seconds spent on the steam page. But if the OP is asking the question 'why did people get to my steam page but not buy the game', then its a relevant data point.

 

And most people aren't going to spend anywhere near 60 seconds.

If it looks at a glance like a Tetris clone, then for all intents and purposes that's exactly what it is for basically everyone.

 

Please make sure you don't have me confused with the creator of this thread. I do not know who that is. I just pitched in a while ago my 2 cents and some of you guys helped me out, and I appreciate it; however, I am not related to the creator of this thread.

 

I think my game has social networking features, too.

 

I'll be planning to implement what Demo mentioned in PB3D's discussion board for Update 1.1. Yes, I know, I'm still "wasting" time working on a dead game, but... what can I say? It's my... digital baby.

 

Digital babies need lovin' too...

 

What I mean is, they are pretty much made by AAA studios, with a lot of marketing power and access to communities already built around their other games and their brand. Casual social/multiplayer games go a lot better when you have that.

Anyway, I think the main thing is to get people playing your game, at all costs, and collect data by experimenting with different prices and marketing approaches. Have fun and good luck!

 

We are a fickle bunch. Your story is much more interesting then whatever this thread started on.

 

My last comment wasn't directed at any project in particular. It's just an example of perception mattering more than underlying facts.

Honestly, it could have been an RTS truck logistics management game under the hood. It wouldn't have mattered. At all. People saw screenies, the message they got was "looks like match 3 games on mobiles", and they looked no further. Nothing past that mattered because few people looked past that.

Your opening seconds are critical, and most games I see scrolling past on Steam waste them.

 

I saw a good writeup on how to get the most out of your Steam page, including how to cut the opening of your trailers (start on gameplay, leave titles and logos to the end) a few days ago on reddit. I'll have to dig that up.

 

Making your own games is quite similar to writing a novel. If someone came to you and asked you if writing a novel is a good way to make a quick buck on the side, what would you honestly tell them?

That doesn't mean you can't make good money writing books, but those stories usually fall into one of two categories:

1) The one-in-a-million mega hit. Unemployed housewife writes strange tale about some dude going to magic school. Becomes one of the richest women in the world. Yes, things like that happen. Once in a million attempts.

2) Writers who are extremely good at their craft and pump out a large amount of relatively low-effort titles (romance novels, young adult vampire stories, etc) that they know their market demands. There is nothing glamorous or particularly creative about doing this, but it can be very lucrative.

Games are quite similar. Most people making games are aiming for #1 and almost invariably fail (just like buying a lottery ticket though, you might still want to give it a shot). The closest to #2 in games right now is web and casual games for platforms like Big Fish. We rarely hear about those in the media or in enthusiast circles, but there is actually good money to be made there. The requirement though is that you are really good at your craft and can pump out well polished, generic titles in a short amount of time. This is rarely what people have in mind when they talk about the indie dream.

Mobile is a beast in itself, and in a pretty depressing state IMO. Unless you are one of the top developers you mostly rely on going viral. On the other hand, it is still a good platform for top indie games that doesn't require huge development budgets. If you aren't one of the best though, you probably won't be noticed at all.

That said, I still think that making your own games is a good idea. But it needs to be something you really want to do, whether it will be lucrative or not. One of the best things to come out of releasing a game is the accomplishment itself. Nobody can ever take this away from you, and it's the best advertising for yourself as a developer. It takes an incredible amount of persistence and resilience to see a (quality) game through from start to finish, and having solid proof that you have done it is always going to create opportunities.

@ThunderSoul's project is a good example for this. It looks well made, and while it's easy to see why it wouldn't be a commercial success (not simple and polished enough for a casual game, no strong hook for a hardcore game), it makes for a fantastic portfolio piece. So my advice to you (as someone who's been in a similar position not that long ago) would be to set the game aside for now and either look for employment or contract work. Presuming you have some solid technical skills, you should be able to find something relatively easily. Get your finances back in order and as you gain experience you should be able to get to a point where you can start putting money aside again. Then one day you can try again (either in your spare time or based on your savings) and together with your improved skillset and the lessons you've learned from the first attempt, you will be in a much better position to make it a success this time.

Of course if you are currently employed in a different field already and made the game in your spare time, then you will have to decide for yourself if you want to risk making the switch to full time game development. But if you do choose to do so, having this finished game under your belt is always going to be a big asset.

On a side note, I believe that marketing is quite overrated (especially the paid kind). I have yet to see any strong evidence that a genuinely great game is really going to fail due to lack of marketing alone or a mediocre game is going to be a success due to marketing. If that was really the case, we should have tons of stories of games that failed to sell anything and suddenly became a financial success after marketing investments. Where are those stories? Marketing is an amplifier, it can turn a moderate success into a somewhat larger success. But that's about it IMO. The absolute best marketing for any game is word of mouth ("going viral" could be considered the most extreme form of it), and you just can't buy that. It's sad that you (ThunderSoul) had to spend so much money to find this out, and I hope we can stop recommending indie devs to do the same. What I would recommend instead is try to find an indie publisher / marketing company that will take care of marketing for a percentage of the revenue. If you don't find a publisher interested in doing this, then you can be pretty certain that the quality of the game just isn't there to make it worth the investment to begin with.

 

I agree with you that marketing is seriously overrated. I had to give it a shot and find out for myself. I do not exactly regret doing what I did. It was important to cement theory with hands-on experience.

I disagree with my game being unpolished; it is - we spent months polishing it and the result is very good. I don't see what else I can do at the polishing level.

I am already employed in my field of study (software development), so I am good there. Thanks for the feedback.

Very interesting piece you wrote there.

 

Hire yourself an artist next time then. It could look a lot better. Chances are if you are great at programming, you've got a mindset that isn't geared the same way as somebody who spends all day looking to create pleasing visuals. Everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses.

 

I think you're making a few too many assumptions here. :\

 

Just to be clear, I didn't mean it that way. It's apparent that a lot of effort has gone into polishing the game and fleshing it out with details.

What I mean in this context is polish on the design level. It still has a somewhat rough look, and you immediately get the vibe that it has been designed by a programmer / generalist. That is perfectly fine for a certain type of game, but casual gamers are a bit more superficial in that regard. Whether it's the "juicy" presentation of Candy Crush or the super elegant design of Threes, it just must be devoid of any unnecessary clutter, anything that doesn't look like it belongs 100%. It probably doesn't matter though, since the concept itself seems a bit to complicated for casual games too begin with (this may sound ridiculous... but anything that even involves manual camera control is probably too complicated for a casual game).

The main issue I think is that the core mechanic just doesn't look very appealing. Unless there is something to it that doesn't come across on the Steam page at all, this is essentially Tetris in three dimensions. It looks more complicated than Tetris, but not necessarily more fun, and all kinds of 3D Tetris variations have been tried already.

That's probably the most important lesson for new indie devs, you really need to start by finding the hook that you know will sell the game. If you can't find it, then no amount of content or polish is going to make up for it. That's much easier said than done of course, all of my own game projects have been similar results where I just couldn't resist putting way too much effort into a concept that didn't really justify it to begin with. I don't really regret any of it though, every project was a great learning experience and gave me more confidence in my work. Hopefully we'll all still get a chance to get it right

 

The company that recommended a $10 price point is out of their mind. It's 2018!

I just watched the 8 minute video. A lot of work seems to have gone into the backgrounds and story, but it's still a lot to ask for $10 at this point in time.

Ten bucks for a puzzle game on steam really wasn't absurd 3-4 years ago, but it really is today.

 

Interesting. Thank you for taking the time to take a look.

If I may ask, what price would you pay for this particular game?

 

Thanks again for your in-depth analysis. I got a better idea of what you meant, and a lot of what you said reverberates with what I feel, too. I just... always denied it thinking maybe "it's just me"... Or at least I hoped/wished it was just me...

 

I'm not your target audience, so it might not be best to ask me. My expectation for simple puzzle game pricing is zero regardless of add ons or meta game. There are simply too many free alternatives (real free not horrible f2p) on desktop.

EDIT: I think if the backgrounds had real impact on the game play and this was mobile AAA polish, you could possibly get away with $5-$10. But it's gotta be mobile AAA polish and the backgrounds need to really impact gameplay in an interesting and fun way.

 

Zero, with ads or IAP. If I like the game I might spend a couple of dollars to remove ads.

 

Thanks for your input. Can you define "real impact", please?

 

Thanks for your input!

 

This is completely a guess, but I'm thinking that they looked at successful similar titles without looking enough at unsuccessful ones when making their pricing recommendation.

If you look at Tetris and other "big brand" puzzle games they do sell at higher price points. If you look no further then sure, that justifies the price point in question here.

However, as others have pointed out, there are also a huge number of games that sell for less or for free. With that in mind it's of critical importance to analyse the difference between both the cheap stuff vs. the expensive sutff (ie: what about these games makes people willing to pay more?) and the unsuccessful stuff vs. the successful stuff (ie: what about these games makes people choose them over the others?).

 

He made 7 match 3 games in 11 years and didn't have a hit? I'm shocked he wasn't booed off stage. A lot of it sounds like stand up comedy. Then toward the end he mentions he had a hit game.

 

What about the wishlists? Did they at least go up? There was a GDC speech about how he does speeches and does conventions and he never gets sales... he gets wishlists. People are conditioned to wait for sales. Sure that's not 100% of every game, but I have a feeling that's what 99% of us will experience.

One of my friends has a marketing and Twitter publicity company working for him. I watch his Twitter with jealousy and scrutiny. He's gone from 200 followers to 800 in 2 months. No one ever comments. The retweets seem to be bots. I have this crazy theory that they're fake followers to make the marketing company look good. I think he's $20k in the hole now.

 

An impulse purchase price range is my suggestion. Unless someone just loves puzzle games most people won't bother buying them when there are countless others available for free. If someone starts thinking about whether they want to make the purchase you've almost assuredly lost them to the competition.

You might be able to achieve a similar effect with regular sales too. People love to think they're getting a deal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse_purchase

 

Get off your high-horse. He managed to survive (with a family) for many years as an indie dev... sounds pretty great to me. He happened to focus on a niche as do a lot of successful indie folks, so what?

The multi-billion dollar valuation of some match-3 type games (hello Candy Crush) is pretty a strong indicator; Mega-corps like King aside he also worked on several hits in the genre for others, suggests that maybe its a genre with quite a bit more potential than you seem to think.

 

I have 59 wishlists, (5) sales. Again, the 5 is in brackets because it's still within the refunds period. If I had 10k wishlists, I'd know what the issue was and what users would want, and I would probably make it happen. 59 is relatively "nothing". :\

Edit: They could even be scammers waiting to see what to sell it off as if they can successfully scam me for keys.

 

At a local indie dev talk a few months ago one of the speakers showed that 6 of the top 20 apps were match-3 games.

 

You must be hanging out with a different crowd. I've been at game dev conferences where people have gotten cheers just for announcing they have broken even.

While there are some people making millions (also met those indies at the same conference), most local indies I know are only just scraping through.