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How to earn £12,000 in one year from game development?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Arowx, Sep 10, 2011.

?

How much do you earn from games development

  1. $10,000 or Less - Just for Fun

    139 vote(s)
    64.7%
  2. $30,000 or Less it's still a hobby

    8 vote(s)
    3.7%
  3. $30,000 or More making a living from it

    68 vote(s)
    31.6%
  1. goat

    goat

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    Really, I'd like to see your games then. I guess they're under Simian2 in the iTunes App store?
     
  2. flim

    flim

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    I am following this thread, I would like to share what I am thinking.

    I have a wife, 2 kids need to take care, I playing a lot of games in my life, and I have passion in making games. I want to make a living as and indie dev. My day job make me really tired, both physically and mentally, but most importantly, I lost passion in my day job.

    I don't have a GDD, but got some concepts in my mind. I made some game prototype since 2005, starting with J2ME, then 3D Game Studio, but most of the games making are for learning purpose.

    I already made a big investment in Unity, I plan to take a risky route to quite my job next year and become an indie dev. I know I would not able to produce a complete game overnight, but I believe my passion will drive me to finish my first game. I got the tools, machines, books, and the money enough for me to survive a year. I always have excuse that I have commitment to my family, but my wife support me and encourage me to go ahead to start a new venture.

    If eventually I can't make a living by making games, I will reconsider what kind of jobs I can do, because during a year of learning and practicing, I should acquired some abilities which is different to what I have today.
     
  3. appleunited

    appleunited

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    Nice. I wish you best of luck in your journey!
     
  4. justinlloyd

    justinlloyd

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    Just in case anyone missed the posts in this http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/114156-Number-One-Problem-In-Seeing-Projects-To-Completion thread, some good advice over there from various people.



    That is a ballsy move.
     
  5. Ethan

    Ethan

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    I'd first start with small finished iOS games to see where i am going with my concepts/ideas, before i'd quit my job though. At least that's the path i want to go. ;)

    The most important thing i read somewhere here in this thread is, that you have to stop making games for yourself, if you want to make fast and reliable income.
    Go with animals, zombies, cars, restaurants, farms ... all this stuff you already see on the AppStore, and put it in other, new, improved or more casual mechanics. This isn't the most fun approach for you to develop, but the most save i guess.
    And stay away from multiplayer or other complex tasks for your first games ... just get GameCenter Integration and InApp Payments and spit out free apps. If they are successful, well known and bug-fixed you can still put the 0.99$ price-tag on it. Till then, the InApp Payments will give you some cash.

    This is what i got out of the many threads in this forums so far, please correct me if you have another opinion, since i am still about to complete my first iOS game.

    e
     
  6. Ethan

    Ethan

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  7. Social Dinosaur

    Social Dinosaur

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  8. flim

    flim

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  9. n0mad

    n0mad

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    I also quitted my job last April to finish my game at home. Made savings for 2 years, so I can survive until next March.
    This is in my humble opinion the best thing to do when you're started with a big project. It's health destroying to keep 2 jobs at the same time for a long time. I'm a good example : just gained 20 kilos in 2 years when I was cumulating dayjob and nightly indie dev, and was struck with a 2 weeks long severe headache (couldn't barely talk/walk).

    Health is not a game :)
     
  10. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    SOOO happy now the leaderboards are in :)


     
  11. GiusCo

    GiusCo

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    My rush to £12,000 just started last night: Rush_Breaker lives!
     
  12. bug5532

    bug5532

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    Looking nice Charlie :) sooo polished!
    good luck GiusCo, keep us updated on how its going.

    Little update from me, once I get my ad revenue, I should have succeeded this topics challenge by march at a guess :D and thats on the android market, plan on moving to ios in January, its all so exciting!
     
  13. tinman

    tinman

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    Hey Arowx! This is really interesting!!! how is it going so far? I was wondering what type of games are you going for? I assume quite simple ones, just wondering!!!
    well done for going for it!!
     
  14. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

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    It's called simian squared. The 2 is a squared symbol, but still takes you to our site. Our other games are for other companies. This one is our second for iOS but first with unity.

    I like it when I'm called out. That means I can promote:

    http://www.physynth.com
    http://www.physynth.com/teaser-01.jpg
    http://www.physynth.com/teaser-02.jpg
    http://www.physynth.com/teaser-03.jpg

    When you tilt the device and see the lighting, you'll probably be forced to agree it has some degree of AAA artwork, shaders and presentation. That doesn't mean the app is fabulous or anything (everyone likes different things), merely I am backing up my claims.

    btw: it's already approved by Apple. The release date is 15th Dec.
     
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2011
  15. dogzerx2

    dogzerx2

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  16. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    It's not a game! but if thats how I do apps, imagine how I do games... ! the next game is about twice as good looking since we were conservative with this app, learning unity and all. Aim high, people :)
     
  17. Arowx

    Arowx

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    Wow looks like there are some good apps and games out so I'm 90 days in and sad to say not even at the £10 mark yet but keen to know how other indies are doing and what their income has been like over the last 3 months?
     
  18. justinlloyd

    justinlloyd

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    I would need to check with the sales team but I think we have sold three units so far. :)
     
  19. Michael16

    Michael16

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    Hi, I have a few marketing questions. Asking it here since I am seeing it’s a recurring theme in this thread.

    I have a game in the App Store and have attempted a few approaches to get my game noticed.

    • I managed to get mentioned in some podcast, although didn’t manage to get a web review.
    • I bought web banner ad space.
    • I have sent a lot of emails to a bunch of websites requesting reviews. (Huge waste of time, dint gets a single review and most of those promo codes went unused.)
    • Released a free edition.

    Nothing in this list has done me much good and I think most of my effective publicity is still due to low priority features in the app store in various countries.

    The shocking thing is that my game is selling slowly, despite being in the “What’s Hot” under games for a few weeks (i take it someone at apple must like it after playing it.)

    I have considered the problem with my title is one of branding. Although catchy for some esoteric gamers, the name does not seem to be descriptive or attractive enough for the masses.

    I have been working this week in re-branding the game. I think that a rename, new logo, and new icon, may help me bring more willingness to try the game.

    My fear is (despite it not being an economical risk, sales are so low that losing them all won’t kill me) am I committing an opportunity suicide? I fear the rebranding may make me lose some support from whoever at Apple is keeping me in some categories, not to mention word of mouth and name searches (am adding the old name to keywords but not sure if that will help, those keywords never managed to make me find my own game.)

    Maybe it's a worthwhile experiment with acceptable losses should it fail, but would like to hear the opinion of some one with more marketing experience: is this a stupid move? Or is it indeed a worthwhile experiment?
     
  20. I am da bawss

    I am da bawss

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    What is your game? Show us the itune link or screen shot so at least we can critique on it (and you got a chance to promote it here) and also maybe figure out what's wrong.
     
  21. justinlloyd

    justinlloyd

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    Michael16 contacted me in private to ask these questions. I prefer to offer free help through the public forums so that it benefits as many people as possible. Michael16 has removed specific details so as not to give away proprietary business intelligence at this time. Suffice it to say, the game is reasonably solid, graphically superior, and only really suffers from a few minor issues, mostly marketing and branding. Let's discuss his questions, and if he feels comfortable in the future, and after he has made his adjustments, perhaps he would be gracious enough to reveal more. :)
     
    Last edited: Dec 9, 2011
  22. justinlloyd

    justinlloyd

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    I am going to tackle the last two questions first, before I do a longer write-up.


    Yes, you're a goddamn moron for even thinking this! It is a brave and ballsy move so I say go ahead and do it if you are willing to take the risks. I would be, given the parameters you have described. Just don't do it all the time. I would say, this should be your first and only time you should ever consider doing this in your entire future product range. Perhaps there will be a second time to do it, but don't make a habit of it.

    But...

    Nobody said you cannot sell the same piece of old rope several times over by just cutting off different chunks and painting them a shiny new colour that is acceptable to a different market. Atari, in their early days, did this *all* the time. They even copied their own ideas and sold "pirated" versions of them to get around contracts, exclusive licensing issues and to appeal to different market segments. Some people like purple. Some people like yellow. I won't buy a purple leopard print piece of rope but I'll pay attention to something a monkey motif. I know someone who would buy the purple leopard print rope in a heartbeat even if it is tattered and worn.

    Let's take a look at a business case example, you know this game?
    $132616_2.png

    Okay, some of you are probably screaming that whoever created the game in that screenshot ripped off Popcap's graphics from this game...

    $Bookworm_%28game%29.jpg

    In which case, you'd be wrong. The second screenshot, of Bookworm, was created after the first screenshot, of a game called Bespelled. Popcap decided that Bespelled, for whatever reason, wasn't a suitable name for their game and re-branded it as Bookworm. And the rest, as they say, is history.

    I do not know why Popcap re-branded their game, poor numbers, trademark infringement, a necessity to get around an exclusive licensing deal, ownership of rights, who knows! But they did it, and the re-branded title of Bookworm went on to great success.

    It couldn't hurt so long as you do not lose focus on what you are trying to achieve. Well okay, it will hurt, but pain can be a useful tool.
     
  23. Michael16

    Michael16

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    Thank you for the Bookworm story, Justin. It's encouraging to know I'm not jumping into uncharted waters and at least one person survived it.

    I also definitively don't plan to do this again. It's a huge effort and time sink that's taking resources away from future games.

    To elaborate a bit more on how I jumped into this conclusion:

    I been listening to other developers, reading postmortems, paying attention to success stories, etc etc. I noticed one trendy tip coming often: Have a great product AND a descriptive and catchy name. Given the nature of the app store, that name has to work as a pitch line, after all. After seeing this recurring tip I went back and paid attention to the top selling games, and behold: "Doodle Jump", "Angry Birds", "Cut The Rope", "Where Is My Water?", "Tiny Wings", "Fruit Ninja"... it also seems like almost all exceptions have franchise recognizable names or big budget studios pushing them (like Chair or GameLoft)

    My game has a name that sounds akin to an untranslated Japanese game. Perhaps why I happen to be the most successful in Korea, at least charting wise...

    I could just forget it and accept what the game makes, but I spent so much time making this game that now I feel I sort of owe it to myself to try to correct this mistake.

    If this does not work, I may consider a freemium treatment next, sometime after my next title (or perhaps next two titles) are finished.
     
  24. justinlloyd

    justinlloyd

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    The start-up I am currently consulting for is called SonoSim and we have gone through three company names in just under two years. Pelagique was the first one, which was nice, but not very descriptive but it fit our needs at the time. Then SonoSimulation, which was descriptive, but locked us in to a "simulation" market. And finally, SonoSim, which says enough about what we do, but not so much that it is restrictive.

    There is no rule that says you cannot keep your current game name for a certain market, especially if it is getting some traction in that market, then release it under a different brand for another market. This happens a lot.

    The name is as important as the game unless you have the staying power to build a franchise without concern to the name. The name of your game is... well... hmmm... non-descriptive at best. Until you approached me to look at it I just went "meh!" and moved on. I honestly thought you were a well educated Asian or American Asian game developer. You might well be, and that isn't racism, it was just assumption on my part based on your game's name. You made the mistake that many Anime fans make, "that's a nice name but nobody outside of Anime fandom has any clue or interest to know what those words mean." Most of your Western audience will be "Uh... what? Will that there doohickey work on my iPip thang?"

    Due to the subject matter I would have personally gone with some alliterative and clever in a pun sort of way name.

    "I'm Justin Lloyd, I am the CEO of a software development company I started that is called Infinite Monkey Factory, or IMF for short, which is funny when you read in the news that the CEO of the IMF is having an affair. Also, sometimes, we're the Impossible Mission Force, saving projects in trouble."


    When you think about the name Infinite Monkey Factory, you think lots of monkeys in a factory working on various projects, http://www.imf.la/About_Us.html. Lots of monkeys attempting to create the works of Shakespeare.

    I am working on two side projects that have nothing to do with my client's work at the moment, which inch along each day, the first is a user interface component that will eventually be for sale on the Asset Store. It is called the "Radial Gauge Gadget." Some people will go "huh?" But then you see what it does and you think "Ah! Yeah, radial gauges, like speedos, and compasses, and pressure gauges. Anything that can be represented as in a radial fashion as a gauge with a needle of some sort." It's descriptive, but you get the description after you figure out what it does but it is easy to connect the two concepts together and then it will be connected for a long time afterwards. I have a second project, a small game similar in style to Bookworm, called "Safe Words" where you make words to crack a safe. The title is as descriptive as it needs to be, "words" some kind of word game, "Oh yeah, there's a safe in the screen shot and something looks like Bookworm, Safe Words, ohh, Bookworm, I loved that game, and I am going to get me some more of the same. I just hope that there digital doohickey that I liked so much the last time around will run on my iPoop thang." You want to know what the game almost got called? "Dragon Tiles." Yeah, there's this dragon, you see, and you have to steal it's treasure by making words and... "wut? I don't like dragons boy, I don't live in a fantasy world made of no dragons and stealing treasure. I just want a brand new and exciting and flashy word game with all new features and game play that is exactly like the Bookworm game I used to play and I want it to work on this here expensive iPee thang."
     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2011
  25. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    haha cool read :) The CEO of IMF will never be able to live it down.
     
  26. Social Dinosaur

    Social Dinosaur

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    Guys, first day on the Apple Store, 13 units sold, is this good, bad or resonable?? Have no idea...alread sent several e-mails with promo codes to hopefully get a review. Is it worth to publish a Lite version with iAd or just waste of time??

    Plz check my game out, any comment, good or bad is apreciated

    http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cannon-boy/id485369299?mt=8
     
  27. GiusCo

    GiusCo

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    Your game seems fun, well done!


    I got just 1 sale from my first day (not to a relative, lol) ... my target are children and kids but we are all fighting for exposure out there
     
  28. Social Dinosaur

    Social Dinosaur

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    Thanks mate, only 5 units sold yestardy, 3 downloads with promo codes, hopefully one of the game review websites i've sent to.
    This is hard work for sure :p
     
  29. goat

    goat

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    There was a very nice picture 15 years or so ago in National Geographic of a Library filled with monkeys.
     
  30. goat

    goat

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    Nice, is that your wife in the commercial? I don't have an iPad. I wish I would have brought my keyboard home but I didn't what to pay to have it shipped overseas.

    I'm trying to figure out where I'd film a commercial. Suppose I could chase the chickens off the porch and film it there...
     
  31. Jarlaxe

    Jarlaxe

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    Hello all,

    New here but I'm living since 6 years from gamedev (Addons for a simulator but I've almost 20 years coding 3d modelling experience)

    I've read a good part of the thread and I must say it's very encouraging and full of great advices and feedback I never saw elsewhere, sometime I feel like a lonely alien when speaking about my job (lol) :)

    Sales are dropping slowly as my products goes outdated so I just discovered unity and feel very excited because I knew a full game engine writting or using an amateur engine like irrlicht wasn't an option at all.

    Just to say thanks for good advices. (and so I'll also keep an eyes on this thread)
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2011
  32. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    No, they're actors in the UK. We're lucky to partner with Film Creatives who do uk films and advertising, as well as music vids. They help us from time to time :)
     
  33. flim

    flim

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    This test can evaluate you should quit your job or not.

    http://www.mycareerquizzes.com/quit-your-job

    here is my result


    Your Result
    Quit

    The problems you have at your job are causing enough emotional, spiritual, and even physical damage that you should consider quitting your job. You're obviously not happy, and if you've already considered the alternatives and have deemed them unsatisfying, it may be time to give your notice. Ideally, you'll have something lined up. Only you can decide if you should leave whether or not you have a new job to go to.
     
  34. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    Submitting my app tonight! press release to hand out, two day game competition starting tommorow night O.O; I'm an insomniac D:
     
  35. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    SUBMITTED. now we play the waiting game..
     
  36. Rush-Rage-Games

    Rush-Rage-Games

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    Good luck!
     
  37. Ethan

    Ethan

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    Very clean design and game! I wish i would have been that far at your age. ;)
    Keep us updated if you gain new insights. Good luck!
     
  38. c-Row

    c-Row

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    The only problem I had with the commercial was that it really didn't tell me anything about the product you advertise... ;)
     
  39. vdek

    vdek

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    The #1 rule for a commercial like that is to show the product, ignore the actors ;P Look at all of Apple's iPad commercials, all they do is show how the device is actually used and the apps/interface of it.
     
  40. mt4

    mt4

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    Depends on the product I guess. Look at Wii commercials
     
  41. Starsman Games

    Starsman Games

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    Got to agree with this. After watching the commercial I was puzzled as to what the app does at all, other than make couples happy...

    Maybe some one with a knoledge in the specific field would get it, but for some one that is not familiar with it, it's just going to pop up a big question mark over their heads, where Apple's Garage Band's commercials would make anyone thats not even into music think they can make something cool.

    The presentation is cool and professional, makes it look friendly, but what is it making look friendly?

    (Not saying I can do a better job, i think my trailer sucked big time.)
     
  42. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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  43. rik338

    rik338

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    Congrats on your app!
     
  44. bug5532

    bug5532

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    Nice one, good luck with sales :)
     
  45. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    will have sales figures later on today.. looks like I didn't do good enough to scrape into the charts.
     
  46. Starsman Games

    Starsman Games

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    Give it a bit more time. Your sales should spike a bit up around Thursday when Apple editorializes their featured page.

    You had amazing timing too; your app should stay there all through Christmas. At the very least you should make it into the New Noteworthy section under games. That’s when you see a spike in sales.

    Also, use this webpage to track your ranking (once the app shows up, should happen late today or early tomorrow.)

    Here is an example app so you can see how it behaves world wide:
    http://www.appannie.com/misu-misu-kaboom!/ranking
     
  47. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    doesnt look like my app is on there :L
     
  48. Starsman Games

    Starsman Games

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    Not yet. It usually has a 24-36 hour lag on the reporting. You will always see about 2 days back on your ranking, and, due to the same, your app will show up a day or two after release.

    Check it again tonight to see if it’s showing. Else check tomorrow. Or you can be like me on my first week and reload the page every 5 minutes :3

    Also check Appfigures.com, your app is not listed yet on that one either (not publicly anyways) and they will give hour by hour ranking updates once it gets there.

    Tangent: it’s interesting to look at successful games and try to figure out what made them spark. For instance, Angry Birds was just an "OK" seller at launch, and took a huge spike to #1 spot February 17 2010, a Wednesday and 5 days after their 1.2 update (I think that was their first free content update.) They also oddly increased the price to 1.99, something that obviously did not hurt their ranking. But the App store was a lot different 2 years ago in that respect.
     
  49. CharlieSamways

    CharlieSamways

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    The awkward moment when your mum wants to share your game on facebook. lololol
     
  50. Starsman Games

    Starsman Games

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    Their page actually allows you to register events for the app, if you want to track their impact. So yes, "embarrassing mom Facebook post" can be added. :)