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How much money do you earn from your games?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by KaOzz, Oct 2, 2014.

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  1. KaOzz

    KaOzz

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    This is a question that everyone tends not answer, but many of us would like to know the answer.
    Do you have the guts to answer it?

    How much money do you earn from your games?
    Just the number per game, in a year, month, and the game genre and if you like, the name and link.
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2014
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  2. Xaron

    Xaron

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    Check my blog, there are my numbers. ;) I'm one of those very small fishes with very small app income.
     
  3. zDemonhunter99

    zDemonhunter99

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    I would like to disclose all of my sales figures but my conscience restricts me from doing so.

    But I will give you a clue. It starts with the letter 'Z' and ends with a 'o'.
     
  4. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    Asking an indie game dev for their sales figures is a lot like asking a lady for her weight.
     
  5. JuniezV2

    JuniezV2

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    the answer is always less than what you thought it would be?
     
  6. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    Actually good point. I just meant in general that it's "rude" :)
     
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  7. AcidArrow

    AcidArrow

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    Hmm... Zoo?
     
  8. Grimwolf

    Grimwolf

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    I don't understand what would be rude about it. Even if the numbers were embarrassing, he just gave a general request rather than singling anyone out.
     
  9. Zaddo67

    Zaddo67

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    I agree with SteveJ, it is "Rude".

    However it is a question many of us would love to know the answer to. I have searched for many hours trying to find out what the potential earnings of a game are. I came across many facts, eg: several thousand new games hit itunes each month. average developer makes < $500 per month, 1/3 of developers < $100 per month. 80% of revenue goes to apps in top 20%. Soul crushing statistics.

    Frankly, I don't do this to get rich. I do it because I love it and it is better than watching TV in my free time :)
     
  10. TylerPerry

    TylerPerry

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    The issue is that most people make no money from there first games, but you shouldn't expect it! If you became a doctor you don't make the money while you are at university, the same is with indie dev don't expect to make money while you are learning. Usually we are just some crazy kid, some dreamy old person who loves games and decided to make them themselves or a person who is fed up with the studio scene...

    Developers need to know design, production, PR and marketing and that is were 99% fail, as every one talks so much about programming and art in indie games but in reality that's just part of the whole picture.
     
  11. Yukichu

    Yukichu

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    I believe I am around -$2000 right now.
     
  12. Gigiwoo

    Gigiwoo

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    How to respond? Part of me wants to point at you and laugh. And yet, a better part of me wants to help. I suppose, since this is the first time this has been asked in the month of October, I'll share some ACTUAL numbers.

    3.5 years ago, I founded Gigi Games. I set out on a 5 year mission, that has involved 1000s of hours, in addition to my full-time day job (developing training games), raising 2 kids, and maintaining a strong and healthy marriage. I've mentored students, teachers, and young engineers. I've written blogs, spoke at conferences, and read thousands of articles. I've tried, failed, and improved my way through everything it takes to run a business, until now, I have six Unity mobile apps, and one solo game, Tap Happy.

    The answer to the question you are NOT asking is in the paragraph above. However, you don't have enough experience to realize you're asking the wrong question. So, I'll answer the one you did ask.

    Num Products: 7 (links in sig)
    Months Since Starting: 42 (answer to life!)
    Total Downloads: ~190,000
    Total Reviews: ~1500 (4.6 average rating)
    Total Investment: ~$13,000 (i.e. money spent by me, before Gigi Games was paying for itself)
    Current Income: ~$15-20/day
    August Income: $726

    The answer to the more important question lies in a simple truth. I shared deep secrets about my business - answering everything you wanted to know, and despite that, it's extremely unlikely that you will take the time to click the link to Tap Happy, to download a FREE iOS/Android game, and then follow-up with a review, as a way of saying thanks. And if that's hard, imagine how hard it is to get people to actually PAY for your games.

    Gigi
     
  13. welby

    welby

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    this guy's channel is interesting,.

     
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  14. KaOzz

    KaOzz

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    Gigi, nobody is obliged to answer the question. Each person will answer if they really want.
    Thanks for sharing!
     
  15. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    I'm happy to share some ballpark info on earnings. These are approximate figures to date (so some of them are over a long period). My latest release was via a publisher so I can't share specifics. It was a LOT more successful than any previous stuff though.

    Loon (dev time 1 month): approx. $100
    Descend RPG (dev time 18 months): approx. $10000
    Voids (dev time 2 months): approx. $200
    Requiem Z (dev time 4 months): approx. $1000
    Coldfire Keep (dev time 18 months)

    The lesson I've learnt - if you have a niche that you're passionate about (e.g. for me it's first-person dungeon crawlers), then maybe stick to that niche and build a fan base. Unless you happen to have some brilliant, out-of-the-box idea that takes you off on a tangent.

    I do this in my spare time by the way. I have a full-time job.
     
  16. zombiegorilla

    zombiegorilla

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    Millions (weekly).
     
  17. AndrewGrayGames

    AndrewGrayGames

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    For The Hero's Journey? A steady $0.01USD weekly. For Zombies vs. Knights, if I'm lucky 0.01 Euros weekly (if I have a day that has > 30 plays of the game. It used to be a much lower threshold to get one eurocent, but something changed somewhere, somehow.)

    One reason my earnings are so low to this point, is because in the triangle of "Better, Cheaper, Faster: Pick Two", I went with Cheaper and 'Faster'...which doesn't lead to anything good per se. In the case of The Hero's Journey it wasn't good or fast; THJ was my longest project at 10 months, and some of the feedback was actually, "...It took you 10 months to create this!?" TL;DR - The quality isn't there so far. That's something I'm correcting.

    As much as I enjoy @Gigiwoo's advice of a 12-week dev cycle, with 2 weeks of 'core' development and 10 weeks of pure polish, that advice only works for the sorts of small projects you see on iOS and Android, which is good if that's your target.

    After much deliberation on my part...that's really not. I own an Android phone, but I'm not gung-ho about writing for it. I don't own an iOS device at all. It may be that I'm passing up money, but I don't think it's as bad as some would interpret that - I know from my brief attempts at LPing that it's much better to do something genuinely than try to fake it for money. That never works.

    However, the advice I was given - to sell my works and not rely on webplayers, especially with the sorts of projects I favor - was good. I'm building a prototype of Sara the Shieldmage in a webplayer for feedback purposes. I'm going to sell the game on itch.io, and if possible GOG, Steam, indiegamestand, and wherever else I can. The desktop gaming market is not yet dead, rumors of mobile's overarching defeat of desktops is grossly exaggerated.

    Back to Gigi's advice, I'm trying a modified version of it where I develop a set of core features in a two week span, take a week to retrospect and determine what polish is needed, then apply said polish over another two weeks. Ideally, I would only want to do four iterations such that I write a game in six months. Hard deadlines actually help you; I wrote Zombies vs. Knights in one month and it's the game that has earned me the most money of any of my Unity works thus far. But, if it takes more than six months, that's OK too. I want the quality to be there. 'Good' and 'Cheap' require sacrificing speed.
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2014
  18. Aiursrage2k

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    Most of my games are old so almost nothing. I made like 750 net in august month in the asset store and bought unity5 pro and ios pro so i guess -750 (since i already had unity 3 pro and ios pro).
     
  19. Teremo

    Teremo

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    I'd like to buy a vowel.
     
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  20. jonkuze

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    I honestly don't think it's a rude question, it's a very good question as we can all learn from one another through our success and failures... with that in mind I will share my story and my results and hope that other can do the same as even though I have somewhat of a success story to share, there is still much for me to learn from others...

    Apocalypse City
    http://www.indiedb.com/games/apocalypsecity

    Apocalypse City is a Browser Based Multiplayer FPS built in Adobe Shockwave, Released in Mar 2012. I invested somewhere between $5,000 - $7,000 on this Game (as my first game ever), Published to Various Web Portal Sites, earned over $100,000 Gross Revenue from Google Adsense in 2013.

    I did not (code) this game, rather I outsourced a developer who also did the art... I provided the design ideas, and he completed the game in maybe 6 months. He also had an FPS Engine in Adobe Shockwave Pre-Built so that made development much easier.

    At the time Adobe Shockwave was still a good Browser Plugin for playing games, but in 2013 Chrome as most of us should know began Blocking Plugins, then later that year Google's Adsense Program Split between Adsense and AdMob, so there was a drastic sudden change in Advertisers Budget where more advertising funds were being pushed towards AdMob to reach users on the Mobile Platform. So somehow I was lucky enough to earn massive revenue last year from Google Adsense, but at the same time Suffered lose in Revenue probably due to both Adobe Shockwave being Blocked by Chrome as 80-90% of my users were coming from Chrome Browser, and while I still maintained good Traffic for sometime that year, the earning went lower because of the Adsense, AdMob Budget Split from Advertisers. So I got paid much less per click, or impressions... I went from earning maybe up $1,000 per day down to $100-$200 per day which was still pretty good, but in the end the high revenue earnings came to an end after my game fell off the front page from many of the Game Portal Sites Apocalypse City was hosted at.

    There is tons of money to be made on the Browser Platform, but just like the app store, you'll need to keep your game on the top of the charts to earn the most revenue. Apocalypse City had different gameplay modes, login system leaderboard, and had 2 Maps, but also had very low graphics being made in Adobe Shockwave, and probably suffered from lack of interest due to the Popularity of other Browser FPS Games made in Unity such as BeGone, CSPortable, Warmerise, Contract Wars and others...

    Today I earn about $300-$400 Gross Revenue Monthly from Apocalypse City and few other Browser Games. I am currently working on Apocalypse City 2 and Heroes of Rune, a MOBA style game... both Built in Unity and also targeting the Browser Platform.

    adsense.jpg
     
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  21. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    @Kuroato - Very interesting! I barely ever think about browser-based games. From the looks of your stats I probably should :)
     
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  22. jonkuze

    jonkuze

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    Yes, alot of people I have seen say Browser Games are not worth it... but like anything else, you need a good game, marketing strategy etc... I find it much easier to reach users in the Browser than any other platform, as for best example... today alot of advertising if not all advertising and promotion of your game is done online discovered through the users web browser... now imagine if they just clicked a link that took them back to your game and it instantly begins to load the game? The user doesn't have to click a link, go to an app store, download the game, close app store, or steam client downloader, find icon on desktop, click run game... those are alot of steps and as far as i'm concerned every step adds up to more time that could turn your user or potential new player away from your game.... Browser is instant Access especially if you Stream your Game Content correctly!
     
  23. Tomnnn

    Tomnnn

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    Mad Mark: $75 for ~10 hours of work

    I'm new to the idea of selling what I make since I generally don't complete anything, but a few people threw some money at me so I put my game on a flash drive and let them hand it around the club room. I was paid a little bit monthly to help work on something else. I was also paid $500 to make an application that turned 3 related equations into a visual region.

    Unless your idea is brilliant and you're a great artist / sound person, it's probably best to just help out existing projects. You'll still get better, but you'll also get paid more.
     
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  24. iSmart

    iSmart

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    2D development?
     
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  25. nipoco

    nipoco

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    He works for Disney's mobile games department. They make all kinds of games. 2d and 3d.
     
  26. iSmart

    iSmart

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    Luck guy :)
     
  27. Haseeb_BSAA

    Haseeb_BSAA

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    Millions weeky? Thats too good to be true!
     
  28. OldRod

    OldRod

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    Thanks to everyone who has shared their numbers in this thread. It helps keep people like me grounded to reality to see what the average guy makes from a game, as opposed to the soul-crushing news of Kim Kardashian's game making $200 million in the first month last summer (truly mind-boggling... and not in a good way)
     
  29. dbryson

    dbryson

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    Thanks to all those that replied. It is interesting to see how much various games make and approaches earn.
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2014
  30. dbryson

    dbryson

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    @Kuroato: very interesting post, thank you. Your success story is very inspiring. I wonder if you might elaborate on what sites you put your game on, what marketing you did, etc. Thanks.
     
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  31. Socrates

    Socrates

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    You may also want to check out the Gamasutra site. There are developers who post analysis of their earnings; some will post detailed information comparing multiple platforms or what kind of special deals worked best for them.
     
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  32. mancuso

    mancuso

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    About £5.00 a month from a baby mobile app via ads.
     
  33. N1warhead

    N1warhead

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    The question will never have the same answer.... As one guy said, a lot of it has to deal with Marketing. If you know how to Market then you chances are quite high to make a higher salery, however nothing is ever guranteed. Even AAA Games have been dumped after one released because Sales weren't worth what they were getting even if they profited at the end.
     
  34. Fcaldas

    Fcaldas

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    I have two games, one built with Unity and the other is native Android and iOS.

    GeoWhere is my best game so far. Built natively for Android and iOS. 45k downloads on android, 1100 active users. $150 in its life time.

    Cecil the Lion Goes Hunting is my very first Unity game as I have just started studying it. 6 hours of work and $5.7

    Will release a new unity game in the next two weeks, which is again a product from my studies.

    I plan to release another game after that, again a product of my unity3d studies and the game after that I plan to make it the real deal. Investing some money of my own, hiring someone to help me marketing specially.

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.funkapps.geowhere
     
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  35. Nubz

    Nubz

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    Sort of personal and not your business don't you think?
     
  36. zombiegorilla

    zombiegorilla

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    Just 3D (for my studio), and that is just a couple of games. Counting the our other mobile studios and partners , it is waaaay more than that. We are one of the top 5 publishers in the space. Our percentage of total revenue of the App Store is the double digits. ;)
     
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  37. drewradley

    drewradley

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    I've been meaning to ask you: did you give them your soul or first born son? ;)
     
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  38. Gigiwoo

    Gigiwoo

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    For my part, I've found the best investment is art. A skilled artist, working at a moderate fee is worth gold. Icon, screenshots, videos, in-game art - there's so many ways they take the product to the next level. I've had great success with Peter Simon.

    Gigi
     
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  39. jgnmoose

    jgnmoose

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    In the 2015 market the most difficult part is getting players to actually find your game in the first place.

    My current practice is to investigate the competition level and how saturated a game type is before investing much time in development.
     
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  40. Ony

    Ony

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    Enough to raise three awesome, healthy children, live in a nice place, drive a fun car, eat well, and enjoy life for fifteen years so far. Success comes and goes in waves (at the moment our latest game isn't performing as well as it should be) and it can be stressful as hell, but I guess it's in my blood to be tenacious because I just keep keeping on.
     
  41. keezakoni

    keezakoni

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    I've got a few demos out privately and the income i have received is not solely from my game, Sandbox Rpg i use atavism as my online server coordination currently under private testing, i use google ads and facebook ads, i was dead all month and had 2 big days 666.96 and 1160, yay for ads, also make sure you use SEO which is search engine optimization for your websites/ games that way keywords are more likely to pull up your website/game; also good thoughts are to greenlight your game on steam if it is for pc!


    However at this point i've invested $4000 roughly so we can all agree my number is negative. Negative income. BUT! no one ever said following your dream was easy now did they?
     
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  42. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    I'm making about a cent a day off of Pond Wars. About a dollar a day off of YouTube tutorials. About five dollars a day freelancing.

    This is massively dwarfed by my day job, which comes in at a significantly higher number that I'm not willing to disclose.
     
  43. Gigiwoo

    Gigiwoo

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    Your comment inspired a train of thought in my brain - picture the trains in the Pixar movie, Inside, Out. From a quick response, it evolved into this thread.

    Gigi
     
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  44. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    When you consider the number of games posted in the Showcase forum and the number of replies here it seems quite likely that most people do not want to share that they are making pennies per day at best. Not that one can really blame them.
     
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  45. roger0

    roger0

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    Air Guardians makes a couple dollars a day from sales on Steam, or 15 $ -20$ per week. There's occasional sales every 8 weeks that can spike in sales up to 150$ in one day.

    Total Steam revenue has been about 3500$ in 8 months.
     
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  46. goat

    goat

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    That last paragraph is called shaming and it's not very nice or effective sales technique. I did buy your GiGi dots in the asset store although I haven't come up with a situation where I can use them. You should be glad I bought the dots for what they were rather than some shaming sales technique.

    I have no trouble stating I released 1 game and have made 0 dollars. I find nothing shameful or embarrassing about that.

    Maybe more embarrassing is the amount of money I have spent on things to be used to make games:

    Unity Licenses : So long ago I forget, but about $750
    Unity Asset Store : about $3000 (and truthfully all but about $750 of that is waste)
    EP121 : about $1300
    HP Stream 7 : $90
    NextBook Android : $70
    HP Elitebook Used : $130
    Asus Iconia Tab 8 : Free
    3rd Art Asset Licenses: $3000 (and eventually these will see more use)

    Total : $8340 and a number that will keep rising (e.g. I hope for Skylake MacMini this autumn)

    I won't count the 2007 Mac Mini as I bought it preceding my purchase of Unity. I probably shouldn't count my EP121 or my HP Elitebook either as I've owned a computer since my 2 year out of college back when even a feeble computer was extremely expensive.

    Compare the above to a seemingly simple and cheap hobby like wood carving where you use a set(s) of pfiel knives for $200 - $500 and each 10" x 4" x 3.5" block of wood you carve costs anywhere from $25. There the expectations are more realistic - no one going into it expecting to make a living from it. It's a hobby. Some do become niche wood carving celebrities and do make a living from it (not counting the tourist wood carving industry in the Alps).
     
    Last edited: Sep 2, 2015
  47. Deleted User

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    @goat

    If it makes you feel any better, I know someone who spent $300K on a music studio and never earned a dime from it..
     
  48. goat

    goat

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    Oh, I don't feel so bad, well the EP121 makes me feel like a sucker since I'm actually throwing it in the trash sans memory, SSD, and Intel WiFi cards when I get my used HP 8460p this week for a sweet $130. The money wasted on majority of Unity Assets isn't so bad but it was a case of the stomach buying and not the head. I have ideals quickly sometimes and get excited. I've now make up my mind I want to make just 3 games but I want those 3 games to be what I want them to be and to be honest Unity and the HW wasn't there at the budget that I had. And to be truthful even if I had the budget I wouldn't have been able to target the devices I wanted and expect them to run my app. HW & Unity 5 Free is just now getting up to speed with what I want to do in a game and since I have a tiny budget well that suits me fine as potential customers aren't rolling in dough either. Unity 5 and current HW is starting to live up to the democratization of game development although I take that to really mean I can learn techniques to create games that I don't have to throw out with each iteration of HW and SW.

    I had a coworker that once turned his barn into a music recording studio but he's a techy and enjoys building out those type things. I'm not even sure if he could sing but I know he could play guitar. Me, I'd just buy Reason and let that SW disguise my caterwauling, I'm not sure why people that can really sing would do that though.
     
  49. Teo

    Teo

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    He deserve it. That happen when you disrespect money as value, and burn them mindless.
     
  50. Deleted User

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    Well it made him happy, it's all that matters.. No point earning it if you're never going to use it.
     
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