How much money do you earn from your games?

Its that time of the month again when Steam has given me an earning report for October. In the previous month my 2 games did quite well thanks to the Halloween sale and more specifically a 50 cent sale. My take for the $10 game on 25% off did $30 in sales while the 50 cent sale of the $1 game net me a cool $40 for a whopping 140+ units sold.

October's breakdown!
+ $70 ($30 for 1 game and $40 for the other)
- $50 a month (owning a company, paying for a bank account, accounting software, domain name and hosting)
----
+ $20 (profit)

Profit is all relative considering it cost me thousands of dollars to make my first game. So its still well in the red.

With transaction money (cards + wallpapers + emoticons), the $1 game made me 75 cents and the $10 game made nothing at all. No one bought the game, so no one owns the cards to lower the price to sell them.

In the next week or so I need to hunt down the people I made the other 3 games with that are now on Steam. I doubt the 2 that were released in October did very well considering they have 0 reviews. One of them was already dumped into a bundle for an 8% cut so maybe that will make money? I'd suspect it makes $100 and then my take would be $50 as we do a 50 / 50 split.

No new reviews on my games, but reviews are becoming obsolete. Even with reviews, do people believe them or do they just assume well this game obviously paid for good reviews.

Other than that there's a new sale going on... so I did the $1 game at 50 cents again and the last time I did it, the game sold like 50+ copies in the first day... now its sold 2 in the past 9 hours. Several fans of the game told me they'd make an effort to vote for it to win a specific category. So the game surprisingly has its fans.

As for the publisher I mentioned last month. The relationship is going good. They want me to make a Switch exclusive game. I said yes, so he sent me a free dev kit and I'm thankful for that. They also seem to be helping with random bits of publicity via their newsletters and Twitter. While I can't say that its making a difference, but its better to have the publicity than not.

Thanks to everyone for letting me constantly bump this thread about the money side of what little I make. Oh and thanks for Thanksgiving.

 

Its Steam report day for November! Its time to resurrect the topic.

+ Sold 100+ copies of the $1 game at 50% off... 1 copy refunded. I made $27. People are starting to review it more.
+ Sold 1 copy of the $10 game at 25% off... had 2 copies refunded. $7 is withheld. My mind is blown!
+ Less than $2 in card money

+ $22 made on 99 sales.
- $50 for owning a company (next month the bank account will be cheaper as I now have a minimum of $1,500 in it)
-----------
- $30

0 copies sold between the November and December sales.

I finally chased down other projects that owe me money from October's 50 / 50 revenue shares.

+ $200 from cards and sales for the game I made with a friend over a year ago that has been bundled and bulk sold to oblivion.
+ $45 + $250 (bundle) for a game I did the art, models and animation. Its pretty clear now he made the game just to bundle it. I was told I'll be paid after he gets the money from the bundle site.
+ $2 for a game made with a 3 day game jam that the other guy in the jam said he paid $100 for SteamDirect. I did the art, animation and models. He says he's suicidal now after the game is an utter failure. I warned him the game is terrible. He didn't even continue making the game past the 3 days to prep it for Steam.

 

For real?

 

For real, but I only know him online. Maybe its just his idea of a long joke or maybe he was already mentally unhinged and I just never noticed. I don't know him well at all. I paired up with him answering a forum of "modeler needed" in the game jam forum.

All I can do is tell him to pour that negative energy into making the game better, to put in more than 3 days of work. He had an entire month of "coming soon" that he could have kept working. Perhaps he doesn't want to put in more than 3 days of work as I put in only 3 days and he made me sign a 50 / 50 contract. He kept telling me the game looks great and it will sell itself! Even if the game sold itself I think it takes 30 minutes to complete so that's a big risk to refund the game.

 

It is surely not good amount. I have two websites and currently earning very low. When it comes to earning, it depends upon the country traffic. There are many Premium countries which pays you well. If you manage to rank well in those countries, then your earning will be good.
Gamer @ Dino Game

 

learned*

 

Why try to correct a really useful post that is over 3 years old? It was great that SteveJ shared that info.

By the way, you are wrong, learnt is perfectly acceptable in all dialects, although more commonly used in British English than American English.

 

Good post, dumb ass.

 

While I'm here, an updated list (all USD):

Loon (dev time 1 month): approx. $100 (no longer available)
Descend RPG (dev time 18 months): approx. $10,000 (no longer available)
Voids (dev time 2 months): approx. $200 (no longer available)
Requiem Z (dev time 4 months): approx. $1,000 (no longer available)
Coldfire Keep (dev time 18 months): approx. $15,000 (Steam), plus a LOT of mobile (ongoing Steam sales)
The Deep Paths (dev time 24 months): approx. $22,000 (Steam), plus a bit of mobile (ongoing Steam and mobile sales)

 

Out of curiosity, are those listed in the chronological order you developed/released them?

 

Yep.

My only take away, and I've kind of mentioned it before, was that Coldfire Keep did VERY well on mobile where it was released first. It then did quite poorly on Steam where it was quickly labelled a "mobile port".

For The Deep Paths, I then adopted the strategy to release on Steam first, and then on mobile. This seemed to work well in terms of the feedback about the game on Steam (at least initially), but it hasn't really generated a great deal of revenue. I also put that down to just the passage of time though - it gets harder and harder to make money in this industry as time goes by. Plus, my games might just suck - that's a very real possibility.

I haven't quoted mobile figures as I have a publisher for those two games on mobile, but The Deep Paths hasn't done nearly as well as Coldfire Keep on mobile. They are similar games, but The Deep Paths is of a much higher quality. Again - higher quality game does much worse than lower quality game? Is it just that the times they are a changing?

 

My second game was labeled a mobile port, which the irony is that it was developed for PC long before it was on mobile. It had full controller support weeks before it had touch screen controls. Funny thing is when it was on Steam with keyboard, mouse and controller support, people wanted touch screen support to play it on tablets.

I've read a few articles about the quick little games make more profit for small teams because such little development time that can be hit or miss. Bigger games can take months or years and still be hit or miss with expenses over the development time.

 

What would you recommend when it comes to publishers? Do you feel they really bring great value? Do you feel the price is right for what value they bring?

 

If you make less than $500/mo. how are you paying your bills. Second job?

 

December's sales report is here!
+ $65 from the $10 game sold at 50% off.
+ $35 from the $1 game sold at 50% off.
= $100 intake
- $50 owning a company (annual lawyer fees, annual LLC fees, finance software, domain / hosting)
---------------
+ $50 profit... I laugh because of how terrible it is. Don't let my lack of making money crush your dreams.

OVERALL SALES

20 sales for the $10 game and 150 sales of the $1 game made for a mere $35. Russia and Brazil love cheap games with expensive cards. So expensive no one will buy them or sell them. The cards are worth more than the game at full price let alone full price. I think if people are buying a game for cards, they only buy for cheap cards and not laughably high cards. The $10 game hasn't sold a card in 6 months since the cards are worth two or three times as much as the game at full price.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

I should point out one interesting thing I noticed is 20 copies of the $1 game sold to Russia in 1 hour. Then the next day, 20 more copies sold to Russia in 1 hour. So I assume a pro idler has found the game.

0 COPIES SOLD OFF SALE

Since the Steam winter sale ended I've sold 0 copies of each game. In total 888 copies of the $1 game have been sold and 225 copies of the $10 game. I notice more and more $10 games on sale every month or two at $1.

THE REVIEW BALL IS STARTING TO ROLL

The cheap game is getting more reviews, but not enough to get me to a level where it can sustain itself. The reviews are starting to get to the level of nonsensical gibberish like "F***ing boop on the nose," and "why can't my meal be as good as this game?" My Twitter is getting random followers rather than having a post get hundreds of likes and then I get a hundred followers.

TOTAL SALES TO DATE

I think in total made from Steam its $1,150. So from just owning a company for 2 years I've just about broke even. Unless you count the thousands of dollars I spent on composers, modelers and animators. Then I'm still a few thousand dollars in the hole.

As for the 3 other games I made with other people... usual routine of having to chase them down.

 

Absolutely. If you can get yourself a GOOD publisher, they make a world of difference. I've had a couple of games published with Crescent Moon. They're awesome to work with, and the games have done far better than they would have if I'd released them alone. As I always say:

"x% of SOMETHING is better than 100% of NOTHING"

Especially these days, and especially on mobile, I wouldn't even consider releasing a game alone. On iOS, without a publisher, you've got no shot unless you're VERY lucky.

All just my opinions of course. Other people may have other experiences.

 

Is there some minimum quality of product you have to bring to the table? There are a million mobile games out there, many of them very simplistic. Obviously not all of them (or most?) would catch a publisher's eye.

 

Here are the numbers - we are all fighting the same battle.

First we have 3 small companies - but only 2 people - most of the games are 2D and simple and made using Coco2DX and now we are working with unity. We are in China but my partner is Chinese and I am Russian Canadian. Yes there are some communication hurdles.

The first cash came from building for others like many developers.

Then lucked out with a game called Do Not Crash which was partnered with the famous group (history - who on the verge of starvation came up with the game Do Not Touch White). They took on DNC and in the first month a generous 50% share came to about 700,000rmb.

We started making a little money when Apple gave a thumbs up but that mainly was a China thumbs up

1 game of Stickman made about 5,000 to 3,000 RMB per day.
followed by a few others with moderate returns but encouraging

Then our 2nd small company came out with Piano Jump and Own the Circle. Very simple games and they made about 20,000rmb and still making some cash

Our other small company just came out with Cube Chase which we though would be ok but nothing yet and that has to do with Apple not thumbing it up which gives it a flat line.

We have some other games coming out very soon using unity and will through our line into the water hoping for a win like we all do. I hope this helps. Good Luck with your games.

 

The publisher that can help with publicity is worth it. Look at their Twitter, see how many followers and more specifically retweets and likes their stuff gets. With my small amount of Twitter followers, I get far more likes and retweets than publishers with 10,000 - 100,000 followers.

There are a lot of "publishers" out there who will publish anything. It used to be a card rake scheme on Steam. Without cards, they just get bundled to oblivion. I play a lot of terrible games on Steam that have publishers. Some games are unplayable. Like after a few seconds you die or the first level is so impossible there's no way to play the other 99.

I'm starting to get a lot of negative experiences with publishers.
- Publisher of shovelware wants to give me $2,000 per game I give them 100% rights to. Card system on Steam changes, publisher backs out. The 2 games I made are mine now, just sitting on a proverbial shelf.
- Publisher wants me to make a game with an IP for the Switch... then grants 2 other developers the same IP for the Switch. What the F***? Are we competing? One of those situations where I should have gotten an exclusivity contract. I confronted the publisher about it and he said oh those 2 other games won't be out for another year... really? Because they look like low budget shovelware that can get released in less than a month.

 

Approximatly -1,000 USD in game assets. Zero return.

I am pleased to have finished the project, and I was able to get about 4 downloads when giving it away as free.

 

You fib - I found them all except Decend RPG.
Wonder why you pulled them from iOS? Was it related to your quality bar increasing over the years?
Either way - thanks for sharing. I've picked up your latest two - but have yet to get into them yet.

 

Steam reports came out, so its time to give an update for January sales figures. January had the tail end of the winter sale and I did a 50% off on my $1 game.

+ $70 = $1 game at 50% off around 200 copies sold
+ $12 = $10 game at 50% off from the winter sale 3 copies sold
+ $3 = card money for the $1 game with 250 transactions.
= $85 intake
=======
- $50 = monthly fees for annual LLC, domain, lawyer, accounting software and other stuff
=======
+ $35 profit

Turned a profit this month unless you count the cost of artists, modelers, composers and animators to make the games 2 years ago.

REVENUE SHARE GAMES

Its been a while since I've mentioned the 3 games I helped on. Don't do revenue share, you need to chase people down. Even people that are online 24/7.

The card farm game made $400 for cards in December. I have no idea what it made in January until I ... chase him down.

The second game I did the art, models and animation for flat out told me he won't have money for me until the end of February, start of March. This is for the December money I may add. He says he just doesn't have the money. Now he's churning out shovelware left and right.

The third game made for a 3 day game jam supposedly made $0 in December. I find it hard to believe considering its the winter sale, but whatever. The programmer on the project said he's retired from game development and went back to the real world. He's also giving me his 50% and says I can keep everything from the game. So once I transition over to having control of the game on Steam, I'll see how much it made and confirm things, because he never gave me a screen shot like the other 2. I will also see if I can make the game from scratch using my stuff from the game jam and hopefully salvage a bad to terrible game.

INTEREST FROM PUBLISHERS

For whatever reason 2 publishers came to me, not to publish games, but to make games for them on the Switch. One offered $24,000 over 6 installments and sent me an extensive laundry list of things they want for the game and which feature is required for which installment. They had plenty of fake screen shots how they want the game to look and concept art, so that's good. They seem to be the most professional publisher I've dealt with. They said the game absolutely has to be done by September, because they want it available to the public in October for the Christmas season.

The other said $32,000 per year salary and they wouldn't tell me about the game. So I have to assume they want someone to make shovelware or something. The publisher does have 6 previous games that look like mobile casino / gambling / farming games.

Neither one mentioned how they found me. So it could be a scam, something like I give them my social security number thinking its a real job. Most publishers want to publish and not hire or contract.

I would say wow a salary sounds great, but I have a job that gives me enough money to do stupid things like make games.

 

I'm really sorry that things are going so poorly. You're confirming my general attitude towards revenue share deals and collabs with strangers. I still read your reports with great interest, thanks a lot for continuing to share all this information with us!

 

Again I feel the addition of an upvote which is not a "like" would benefit the forum.

 

You need to be super careful. I've been doing apps full-time self-employed for 3 years now and I just released my 2nd app a few weeks ago. I get about 3 emails every single day of the year (appx 1000 per year!) from people who want to publish/translate/market or otherwise leech/attach themselves onto my work. Many of them are super-persistent and will send follow-ups if you fail to respond, sort of mimicking an actual professional who cares about your project. You will start noticing the same gangs appearing over and over with each product you release.

As you said, no one mentioned how they found you and that is a huge red-flag.

 

It depends on what type of game I am playing.

 

Great advice - Marketeers are the most annoying - even if you've only released a prototype product! I get the feeling most who approach - which is equivalent to cold calling - are individuals who at one time might have been into game development - but found it to be more difficult, or realized they have no talent. So instead of blood, sweat and tears - they 'lend' there hand at marketing efforts.
IMO - most of these approaches do not offer anything beyond what any indie developer could do alone, time permitting, except possibly they have 2-4 journo contacts who will write a 3-4 paragraph initial write up about the game.

 

It always seemed like a conflict of interest to be a publisher and marketeer. I could mention names, but I won't give them the publicity. They charge flat fees for publicity, then again some argue giving a percentage would be worse, but I'd give 50% of what I take in for a publisher or marketeer that gets me actual sales. If they gave me enough sales I'd go 90%... better to have 10% of a hundred thousand than 100% of one thousand.

 

This is true if you do anything online, even if it's not an app. Start a business, promote it, provide contact info - you will be contacted.

 

Amazingly I haven't been contacted yet about my business. Having a business meant giving up my physical address to the public, even when I have a PO Box. Looking up my company on a government website, you can see my physical address. I see that as a worrisome issue, but no one has sent me junk mail or come to my door yet.

The Steam and Android games still get a lot of silly spam emails like give us 10,000 free copies of your game for "promotion." Pay us $1,000 to get your game played by the biggest Youtubers. "We'd like to bundle your game." A few actual fans have found me through my website's contact form. Youtubers sift through my site for the game jam games.

I mentioned the partner with that 3 day game jam game was going to give me control over the Steam product and 100% of the game shares. He gave me control and now I have 3 Steam games that are 100% mine. He told me if the game makes a lot of money... to remember him. Yeah if the game makes a lot of money I'd still give him something, but I'll literally remake the entire game so he has zero part int he game itself.

The lawyer wanted me to get him to sign something. Well... by sign, apparently an email is a legally binding document as long as specific people and a deal is specified and the "I agree" "I disagree" is there. Email keeps the time stamp and everything is backed up on the server... but then maybe its not the other party to agree. Anyway... somehow its still legal as a contract.

Then again I could just flip it to someone looking to buy 100% from terrible Steam games, because they are out there. Yeah I should do that instead. Well I'm happy I talked out loud about that. It would be great to remake the product, but even then I doubt it would sell more copies without being a grander game or having better art and models than I was able to make.

 

Can anyone recommend such a government website for the US? I need to find out where exactly a certain US company is registered from something that the German tax agency will count as an "official source".

 

That is a nice place to be. It might not last though...

I have patents and all kinds of business activities. I've learned that there attract all kinds of illegitimate solicitations from scammers. I get email, snail mails, and calls all the time .

 

State government website for me. That's where they charged me $300 to renew my annual LLC... and tacked on a $50 convenience fee. So if you don't know the state, just search all 50 state websites? They could also have a lawyer's address as their own to get away things like cheap LLCs such as Delaware without actually living in Delaware.

 

Zillion dollaro?

 

Its that time of the month once again where Steam reports have come out for the month of February. Keep in mind that February contained the lunar sale with both games on sale at 50%.

+$50 on the $10 game sold 20 copies at $5.
+ $10 on the $1 game sold 35 copies at $0.50 with 5 refunds. Seems odd, but whatever
+ $1 market transactions (card money)
======================
= $60 ish intake
- $50 monthly fees owning a company
======================
= $10? Profit. Hurray.

With the 2 games being well over a year old, they've started to bleed wishlists at about a loss of ten per week. This is probably why I see a lot of good looking $10 games on sale for $1 quite a lot.

Its interesting that my $1 game sold 200 copies in January on 50% sale, while in February it sold a mere 35 with the same discount. No store wide sale giving out cards for cues, means no visibility. The $1 game has returned to selling a copy a week when its full price. I don't think its sold a full price copy since October.

MARCH & APRIL SHOULD BE A DRASTIC LOSS

No discounts, no store wide sales. I won't be allowed to have a discount until late April / early May, which is completely fair. 5 months of "profit" vs 2 months of drastic loss.

I HAVE A THIRD GAME I SHOULD MENTION

Now that I own 100% of the 3 day game jam game I can clearly see it made $0 in January and February. Proof people don't buy trash. The guy I made the game jam with is trying to get me to pay him $100 for the SteamDirect fee as I now own the game, but he's the idiot that thought hey 3 day game jam, let's put it on Steam!

REVIEW FOR REVIEW?

While this isn't revenue information, I might as well mention that over the past 3 weeks I've had 2 offers for reviews. Another developer claims he will buy my $1 game if I buy his $1 game and we both leave glowing reviews for one another. I checked out his game and honestly it would be something I'd be interested in playing. The game had 150 non key reviews, so apparently it must be working for him. He was even willing to go first to prove he's real.

The other offer was from a real review site. Well real in terms that its a LLC with a staff of 4 people. They bought my $1 game and wanted to do a review in exchange for my website linking their website. I assume that's how review sites get publicity... any review website likes a game so much that the developer / publisher brags about how "this site said this" and sometimes they even put it in the trailer or on the box. That way the the review site doesn't have to pay for their own advertising. I just thought it was strange they'd ask and not just do it.

 

0

I'm creating free games without ads or IAP

 

Here's a new financial horror story, but first to summarize things, I'm involved with 5 Steam games:

#1 my own $10 game
#2 my own $1 game
#3 A game I made with a friend that was bundled to hell and back I own 50%
#4 Another game made 6 months ago I own 50% on from a guy that's churning out shovelware left and right
#5 3 day game jam game that I now own 100% since he gave me his 50%

NOW FOR THE STORY: GAME #4 TURNS INTO A HORROR GAME

Now for the story and the reason why I've listed everything to make it clearer. Game #4 was sold out from under me. As I mentioned before, I had not been paid for the game in a while. The guy last told me more than a month ago he just didn't have the money to pay me. I was cool with that. When I asked him about selling the game out from under me (and all his other games made with other people). He explained there's just no money and no sales. He never backs that up with proof and he always had proof. He had proof with the first 2 months, he had proof with the third month, he had proof with the IndieGala bundle.

The guy he sold to was nice enough to tell me the game was sold, otherwise I'd never know it was sold.

However, that's where the nice ends and he's quite a dick. Saying I'm unprofessional for not getting back quick enough. Well he's the one contacting me on Steam and not say via email? I asked him for his email. He refuses to give it. He also demands me to make choices right then and now.

He threatens to have my models, art and animation pulled. Good luck with that. Took me a long time to make them and I was efficient from doing that sort of thing over-and-over for game jams. From the look of it, there are 400 models and pieces of art with a surprising 100 animations. Those numbers blow me away. Plus, try to explain to the people who bought the game. "Hey I'm the new owner and uh remember all those grade B- / C+ models and animations? Well we have new ones, because the previous guy got screwed over and so we have new art, models and animations!"

According to the contract I own 50% of the game's revenue after initial cuts from Steam and bundles are taken. It doesn't mention anywhere that "I lose my 50% if my art, models and animations aren't used." I get 50% on whether its sold on Steam or off Steam (the original contract called for Steam only, but I know about bundles) and more than that, its the SKU. So our game can't be replaced and turn into a different game since the SKU would stay the same.

GET READY TO GET SCREWED

I'm sure many people will say "lawyer up" and "time to DMCA this guy!" Good luck to me! An American taking an Englishman to court for selling a game to a Spaniard for what's most likely $200? I have a lawyer as I've mentioned... I know how much he charges just to read a contract, let alone get an attorney to see this thing through. Plus who do I go after? The guy that sold my 50% without paying me or the guy dumb enough to buy it.

He offered $50 for the exclusive rights to use the art, models and animations. His offer and stance keeps changing. His current offer is for $40 and a request, "Hey so my idea is i give you a payment for the exclusive rights to the artwork, and you sign a paper to drop any claims, including the 50% ownership claim although it is a misinterpretation" (notice the lack of punctuation and capitalization, but hey its a Steam conversation, you would have to be a person like me to include such things in a Steam conversation). I told the new publisher I acknowledged his offer. He felt that meant yes. I told him no, that means I acknowledge your offer, and I'm not ignoring you. That was a big issue to him. I ignored him on the weekend. After all, it was Easter weekend and I was stuck doing family festivities.

I've told quite a few friends and they all scoff / laugh at the $50. One friend that laughed at it, started thinking... you're likely to get nothing out of this, so you better take it. This is all on the Internet so he's probably right. If I'm unwilling to get a legal case going, the worst I can do is have a big Youtuber back me up or something to shame both the developer and new "publisher."

The easiest course of action might be to step back and watch it fail.

Looking at the new guy's games, they all have terrible reviews. Looking at the developer's games who sold me out, they all have bad to fair reviews. Our game has 30 positive and 5 negative (mostly key reviews). Chances are most people will see this new guy as the publisher and automatically hate the game. Let me know what you think.

SHOVELWARE STILL DOESN'T PAY

The other interesting thing to note is the developer I made game #4 was his first game. When he published the game, he started finding artists and modelers that would do the 50% thing and he churned out a game each week or so for what's now 6 months. Yet he didn't do well enough with 20 shovelware titles on Steam and bundles so he sold off all the games. Now I wonder if it was truly his first game and maybe he'll start up the process again.

Then again maybe shovelware is big money in lesser economies. This new guy claims to be from Spain. He also claims he has a company out of Poland that works through Hong Kong to avoid taxes so he can keep more money. Well now that sounds shady and what for? Why would he even tell me that?

I should also point out I would have bought the developer's 50% of the game, even if it would be tough trusting a snake. I feel the game looks good and can be easily enhanced with bugs smoothed out for a better product, even if that means it wouldn't sell any more copies.

In closing...

STEP 1 OF REVENUE SHARE: NEVER DO REVENUE SHARE

Thanks as always for letting me make this thread my own anonymous venting ground.

 

I think it's as your friend says--if you don't intend to lawyer up (and I definitely would, but that's just me), you're unlikely to get much out of this new guy.

It sounds like you have a contract. if you do, it should be pretty simple, right? Honestly probably the only reason the new guy is offering you anything at all is because you have proof of your ownership. And if you have proof, the case is pretty much closed.

Though that does sound like a huge mess either way.

 

You can send a cease and deceit letter to stop using your artwork. Also you can ask Steam to remove the game, since they are violating your copyright. Of course, you may have to prove that you're the source of such artwork.

 

I have a contract yes and its third party verified by whatever service he used. I haven't shown off the contract to the new publisher yet, but I've let it be known I have a contract. He would need to honor it, and not dispute it with "you've misinterpreted it" or "you forged it." Plus, is it the publisher I should be mad at for buying the game or the developer for not giving me my 50% of the money he sold the game for? One of those things a lawyer can figure out. Yes its a huge mess. I do have a lawyer that charges me $180 per year to retain his services. Well I guess there's always TV court for petty cases like this under $500.

Oh yeah. I have proof I made everything. I record everything and upload it to Youtube. Even if these are unlisted videos, they're still there. On one account I have 800, on the other I have 2,000. Unlisted Youtube videos are also good to show other team members progress. I'm not in the credits or anything, because there are no credits. I even made the developer's logo that he then used on all his future games. Then again, I suppose a screen capture isn't exactly a film of me creating the art, models and animations.

 

Afaik steam has a revenue share system for joint effort things like Dota skins, is it maybe possible that you prove to valve that you are the creator of these assets and have a 50% revenue share contract, that they unlist the game till the new "owner" accepts a 50% split deal that is paid out directly by valve to you?

Good luck to you in getting it sorted out!

Great example how even contracts don't really protect you from this bullshit if you can't enforce them in a reasonable manner.

P.S.: Don't rely on youtube keeping that stuff online forever, always keep local backups of such videos.

 

I thank you for your comments. Steam pays one bank account. Once you get into splitting revenue like that it gets messy and Steam might not want any part of that. Plus there might be issues with say $100 payouts that are suddenly payouts to 4 people of $20, $30, $50. Steam stopped doing payouts less than $100 about 18 or so months ago.

Its always good to have a contract as proof you're not lying about something or the details of something get a little fuzzy over the years.

You're right about the Youtube thing. You never know. It would be a pain to store the videos, because I've had one to five a day for the past few years. Maybe the important ones like this I will download from Youtube and keep backups.

 

Forgotten Memories iOS: Around 400 000$ since it’s launch on April 2015.
Heading now to Nintendo Switch.

 

Wow! Well done! What's the application process for Switch? (obviously up until the point of an NDA being signed)

 

@QFSW
Contact Nintendo through their contact page and pitch up your game idea or project, if it's a port or game you are already working on, enumerate your past experience as a game developers (and those of your team if more than one developer), goals, etc. Beyond that it's NDA.
They are very picky with developers and games.

 

You say that, but supposedly Turbo Pug ($1 shovelware infinite runner) is coming to the Switch. Maybe that's just what the developer claims and Nintendo will block them.

 

Thanks! Do they require a legally registered business entity like ID@Xbox does?

 

@QFSW
Yes.

@justanobody
Yeah I cannot speak for what Nintendo folks chose or if the developer is telling the truth or not.

 

What about Turbo Pug makes it shovelware?

 

@justanobody
Keep in mind that Switch is not really a hardcore gaming platform not at the same level of PS4/X1. To me is more the "casual/mid-core gaming platform" now. Smaller premium games makes sense on it and it's probably what Nintendo is looking for.
But again, they are picky and obviously don't want the current mess of mobile market. Nintendo always have been a "fun games first" and the rest is secondary with the titles they let in. If a particular game has an audience and it fits well their platforms, they will welcome it open arms.
PS: We are kinda getting a bit offtopic btw. ^^