Is game development a viable source of income for independent developers?

I abandoned my pursuit for learning game development awhile ago for a couple of reasons. A big one would be that I didn't feel there was a market on creating games. You could work for hours and weeks and months on a project - but that doesn't ensure that it will become successful. It could look amazing and perform great and you would still need to market it perfectly. In fact the only games that are developed that are successful look to be done by studios with large budgets and a ranging amount of team members. Something of course, the average independent developer does not have. Since I left game dev I have learned web development and some desktop development. Luckily I have become moderately successful in those meaning now I can now pursue hobbies, like game development.

However not everyone likes devoting a lot of time towards a hobby with no return. This is what I'm going at. What's the market like for game developers? Do small time developers even stand a chance? Of course considering they produce good high-quality work. The only thing I can see as a viable way to make money off game dev is through mobile game dev due to the marketing platform being there already. In fact what got me hooked on Unity3d again was that deal for the free Android/iOS licenses awhile back. But anyways for desktop, and OSx, I pretty much see absolutely no possibility of marketing your game/making it relatively "popular". For web development that's certainly a maybe - but I haven't seen it done yet.

Of course there is selling scripts/prefabs, which I am completely interested in. But that's a different, boring story.

So yeah - what are your thoughts? Have you generated money off developing games? Is the time worth the investment? The results from this thread probably wouldn't stop me from continuing this hobby - however it will certainly help motivate towards finishing top-quality games

Thanks for you time!

 

I wouldn't use it as a primary source of income . Even working in the traditional game industry is really rough .

It could be awesome for some going out money though ( like an extra 300$ a month . )

 

That depends from case to case.
While some people make next to nothing, there are some, that making millions as indie game developer. Those who make not much, are the majority though.
Never put all your eggs in one basket is my advice.

 

That's pretty much what I'm interested in. I figure if I could make a single successful Android game a could make a couple thousand in a good run. Which honestly sounds pretty good. If you can get in the top 500 paid games with a 99 cent app, you're looking at 50,000-100,000 downloads. I'm not sure what percentage Android takes but those stats are pretty good if you ask me.

 

Yeah, but odds are theirs no way your going to get to that point .

Android is crap if you want to make money . IOS is where's its at, even then its dominated by major publishers .
Do this as a hobby , work a real job for rent .

 

Your math is nice in theory, but it is much harder to achieve that goal.

Here is a nice article about the average income of an iOS developer. You should take that with a grain of salt, since it is not representative enough. But I think it gives you a realistic insight about mobile games development.

 

There's a huge market for creating games ... for good, funny and/or entertaining games.
Creating games is like creating music, books, movies or any other creative stuff.

You have to entertain people - and not everyone is capable of doing so.

E

 

I agree to certain extend.
There is a difference between music/movies and games tho. People have to invest more time for gaming than for watching movies or listen to music, which is more a passive entertainment. Thus they will choose more carefully what kind of games they want to play in their free time.

 

Well only the best of the best make any money, but at least its a challenge. Look at ski safaria made with unity, it made over 100k on droid alone and probably at least 10x that on ios.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.DefiantDev.SkiSafari&hl=en

The beat hazard game made over 2 million (made by 1 guy).
http://www.coldbeamgames.com/3/post/2012/11/november-26th-2012.html

 

Most new businesses fail. Game development is a business. I see no reason to think that it would be any different from other businesses.

That's why a lot of developers start gamedev in their free time, while they have day jobs. Unsurprisingly, a lot of startups start like this, too.

No, there's no guarantee of success. But that's true for everything, not just gamedev.

 

I haven't really had experience in selling games yet, but here's my 2c.

Obviously a lot of people are making either some money or a lot of money from indie game development. They must be. It doesn't just boil down to the fact that you're going solo, it also depends on your talent, creativity, artistic ability, vision, efficiency, cleverness, marketing know-how, understanding of the audience, etc....

I don't know of many indie games (not an expert really) that have been huge successes that were done by one person alone, except perhaps for the likes of VVVVVV/SuperHexagon etc. Doing all the code and design and graphics and artwork and music etc yourself can be tuff, especially without any $$$ to put into it. But that doesn't stop a LOT of people from trying.

From what I've heard, the casual games business on desktop (mostly Windows) is still experiencing growth and can be quite lucrative provided you can cater to that audience, which does require a certain level of graphical quality, ease of use, appealing to women somewhat, etc.

Another option is creating tools/assets for everyone ELSE that is trying to compete with you to make successful games. Even if it's insane to keep making games with no hope of success, people keep trying (for the love of it?), and that's something you can capitalize on by providing picks and axes for those gold diggers. Again you have to come up with something pretty special/in-demand to make a living off it but it can be supplemental. Part of my strategy at present is making a large number of small and fairly self-contained assets/tools that don't need much maintenance or support, yet provide genuinely useful services, selling at a fairly low price, and letting those build up as multiple threads of income over time. Some other people take the strategy of making one or two big assets/tools and going from there (I'm trying that too now).

There is also always opportunity of being first-to-market on new platforms, such as the Ouya game console (android based) which comes out next year ... when there is a limited supply of games/content on a new platform and lots of people rushing to it you can really capitalize from the profound reduction in competition, or so I hear, because many very early iOs apps made a tonne of money this way even though over time they didn't prove to be `the best` of their kind. People are much more willing to overlook shortcomings when the range of offerings are limited, and get much more picky/discerning when there's a lot to choose from.

As a solo developer like yourself I aim to be very ... mmm... clever? ... and careful about how I use my time and what kind of projects I take on. You just can't spend your time doing `whatever` project you like.... many projects just aren't feasible to do alone, not just because of scope but also if you're doing things part time (like me) then you need to take on strategies that produce as much `game for your time` as possible .... e.g. procedural level generation perhaps, using pre-existing assets, that kind of thing. Make yourself act like a compression algorithm - you need to squeeze as much productivity/result into as little time as possible, and that means maybe that project with 100 hand-drawn levels is out of the question.

There absolutely is money to be made as a solo indie and you CAN do it but only with the talent, ability, foresight, innovation, risk-taking, and perhaps some luck. Experiment with something small, test the waters, see what sticks and takes on a life of its own, because ultimately you do not know exactly what's going to work - there's probably nobody here who really really really KNOWS an exact formula for gaming success.

I have noticed thought, lately, that while there has been a lot of ongoing growth in casual/easy games, there is also now a trend forming toward `hard` games.. VVVVVV/SuperHexagon being examples, games which really test your abilities and provide a lot of challenge/difficulty ... actually can make for much more interesting gameplay. Also casual games are shifting to what they're calling `mid-core` ie not just totally wishy-washy easy but somewhat more challenging (but not hard-core). ... and while that's happening the previous mid-core crowd are maybe shifting more to hard-core difficult games, which is perhaps why tuffer games are making more of a comeback. Make something that's really challenging - it seems to give a game more of a reputation.

 

Even on AAA field, IGDA have data stating that almost 85% of professionals work on games industry for around 5 years at max and then quit.
Only 5% or so still doing it after 10+ years. For indie field these numbers I am sure are even worse, most indies try a project or two then quit.
There are easier ways to make money and after you have a wife and children, your love for them is for sure stronger than your love for games, thus you go after what is better for them, not only after what you want to do...

 

That's a good point about the values in life, and the bigger picture. There probably are better ways to make money - games are more a labor of love, which can turn into a much more profound source of income if you get it right. Sounds to me the OP has time on his hands and plenty of cash from other successes to dabble freely in this area though.

 

Let's be realistic Unity has over 300 thousand monthly active users and 1 million people have downloaded the engine.

Yet there are probably only a few hundred successful developers?

What would be great to know is the business/work statistics of the successful developers.

For example I know that Quickfingers and Sophie Houlden both talented UK indie game devs are doing OK but when I asked them about the business side of things most (this was a while ago) of their income came from winning online game development competitions or having one game after many attempts take off on a portal.

PS I think Quickfingers ended up getting a day job as a game developer.

Personally it's hard graft, you will need a good support network of friends and family interested in games and play-testing them lots. Funds or a part time/daytime job until you get off the ground. Ideally you will start-up after a few years in the industry and with a few friends/colleagues with the right drive motivation and skills (art/music/programming/game design/marketing/business) to get you going after the indie holy grail of financial independence through game development.

Good Luck

 

If you are willing to work 24/7 with minimum breaks for sleep/food/drink/toilet or without, if you still live with your parent and never plan to move out, if you don't have yourown family and never plan to get one, if you don't mind being homeless and using library computers and internet one hour at the time, and if you manage to find whole team as dedicated as yourself and willing to work in such conditions - yeah. It's awesome.

 

These are all amazing responses! I guess I really do just need to go out and test the waters myself. Of course I'll probably start on Android but if I could get some bigger and better idea's I'd expand.

As for making money off of tools/assets, I am very interested in that. Serious game developers are a much better target audience than teenagers with smartphones

Again thanks for all of the responses and excellent clarification!

 

As a teenager with a smartphone... Maybe this is why people fail. They don't take their audience seriously. It's just trying to earn a "quick buck off dumb teens that'll buy anything".

 

I don't think it needs to be as dire as that you're practically barely alive, scrambling for extra minutes and having absolutely no life in order to be successful with your game development. If that's what it takes then you're just not cut out for success in this business, you shouldn't have to sacrifice everything to make at least some headway here. Having family/friends to spend time with and support is an asset that can influence and support your development.

 

I'm a teenager too. You can't ignore the fact that adults are the ones with the most money to spend. And people trying to get a "quick buck off dumb teens that'll by anything" pretty much applies to everyone. For the most part anything you buy is because you are too "dumb" in that area to make it (or because you don't have the time - either way they have the abilities and you don't).

Oh yeah, I'm definitely not planning on using this as a way to support myself. It's just a hobby that I'd like to possibly generate some side income with. If I end up being rather good at it I might consider it, but from what I've heard the game development industry is very cutthroat, and I'm not sure if that's something I'd want to base my career off of. This is definitely a no-pressure/stress type thing.

 

I definitely agree with this answer... I have a day job that gets me money to travel, eat, and live... not only that, but I am also writing a novel that I am going to publish next year, and on the side, I do my graphic and web design work to try to make some extra money. But game dev in my house is something I do as a hobby. I don't have kids to worry about, so this makes it easier for me. Game Dev is my Passion, but the other S*** pays the bills... I am treading carefully... if I make money off one of my games, cool... but this is more of my range and passions

 

I meant with games. I'm not sure I'm dumb enough for clones of Angry-Bird and the 99th clone of Slender. I am a student. I have little money. I have to motivate spending £5 on something. If people can motivate why I should spend that fiver on a game instead of buying a beer with the mates, they'll automatically bridge the threshold for people with much more money than me.

But that sort of require doing something fresh. No clones of Angry-bird or Slenderman. It was fresh the first time. It's not fresh now, and I've already got it and moved on.

I think the key to anything is to be fresh. Don't derivate, innovate. Don't do trends, stand out from trends. If you follow a trend, you'll always be chasing a minority of the buyers of the original, and even those buyers will complain about nobody coming up with fresh stuff these days. Most of the rest will move on to the next thing that's fresh. Maybe your new fresh game? Who knows.

 

And being fresh is harder now, because everyone is copying everyone and the lack of innovation hurts...

 

That's been true since the second caveman painted on his cave walls.

 

Not really the thing to get into if your only goal is to make money off it in my opinion.
Not the best "get rich quick" idea.

 

Nothing involving art is.

Like, with novels. Everyone thinks they can write, and since all you have to do these days to get "published" is to press a button, the indie publishing market is awash with utter rubbish. You need a gas-mask and a rubber suit to browse most of the catalogues of ebook publishing. It's the same with games, I suppose.

And of course, you'll have people come in and say "But X made millions!" when X is just one of about 200 million that have done it.

 

God bless the caveman...

 

I am with you on novels too... I have been writing one for 15 years now (i know, crazy right) and there is so much rubbish in it... it's sad.

 

I have to say I'm kind of surprised to hear (so far) that not many people are optimistic about making any money from games. It sounds much more dire than my impression of it. Either what you're all saying is true or the people who actually in the business of making money have better things to do than reply to forum threads about being downtrodden?

 

I'm very optimistic... and I am still learning more about it daily... S***, I need to continue working on my first package for the asset store

 

Idk it's not that I wouldn't be optimistic I just enjoy doing it and don't think about making money off of doing it

Also there is nothing I have made so far that people would pay for LOL

 

People get too hung up on the overnight success stories, like Minecraft and Super Meat Boy. You will most likely not become a multimillionaire like those people, but there are tens of thousands of people you've never heard of who are making a comfortable living off their games. They own homes, new cars, take vacations, etc.

Just get your game ironed out, build up your own little fanbase and continue to cater to them.

 

A lot of guys I worked with quit the industry and completely gave up on making games. They could be a huge asset for indie developers if they worked part-time but the big guys burned them out. They are all happier now so I can't blame them.

 

Well we have seen guys spend 2 years on a game and it doesnt pan out, living on almost nothing with almost no pay day. How long can you keep doing that, but if you are not willing to risk it all you cant win big.

 

I thought the graph from the blog posted from the first page was extraordinarily insightful. According to it, the median single person company only makes $500 in lifetime revenue. Using this number as an accurate data statistic, it seems incredibly unlikely it would be possible to make at least 30k per year alone. And 30k is not going to do it if you need to raise a family in the US. In fact, it seems you would need to be in the 80th percentile of lifetime revenue to even make 100k per year. So is it really that feasable a job for a adult trying to establish a family? Probably not. Could it be an awesome side job or a source of income for a retirement fund? Definitely, I would simply not get your hopes up if you want to become a millionaire from app development working alone.

 

I think you have to find a nice niche like hardcore RPGs or Point Click games to not play the casual-clone-lottery.

My last game "Highway Run" and my next game aren't really niche games, too. That's why they are kind of risky somehow.

Always ask yourself :
"What makes my game stand out?"
"What makes my game different to all the others?"
"Why is my game better than the others?"

If the answer is "It's a fast paced endless runner where you collect coins", then you fail (moneywise, but not experience-wise).

Find one thing, one feature which makes your game unique and focus on it when you show it to the world later.

E

 

Well this is a question that gets thrown around every month or two, so ill give you my generic response which you would have gotton if you used that special little search bar in the top right.

Yes, 'indie' game development is a fine source of income. You could happily create a piece of shovel ware every month, re-skin it next month and keep releasing under a different title for 69p, or free with iAds/Premium.

I know first hand, I have plenty of friends making a living from this method and I intend to do it if I ever find the right programmer partner, so far no luck. another method is to freelance ASWELL as create your own stuff, I create an income where I can support myself if I so wished from freelancing.

These people saying 300$ a month is stupid, if you are only earning 300$ a month from game development, you are doing something wrong, very wrong.

 

Then again , their are other niches . Linux for example , even if you make a clone , if you do it right and target a platform like Linux you might shine .
My plan right now is to focus on making very small games, since then at least I enjoyed making them .

Even a bigger niche game is risky since your spending far more time and money on them . Plus more things can go wrong , people might leave the team , ect

 

Do you have a source on that statement or is it based on asumptions?

That very much depends on what you would consider "good high quality work". Even small games can be good high quality while games with a rather large bbudget can turn out to be bland and unsuccessful.

Personally I'd think there are a lot of examples how a rather simple game can be successful and a lot of other stories how good games - no matter the budget - were not successful at all.

The thing you will just have to be aware of is - it certainly is possible to make a succesful game with very few people (Minecraft or Terraria). BUT you are entering a pretty much satureted market. The novelty of being new and fresh just because it's a video game certainly wore off a long time ago. To stand out from the crowd you will have to make *something* special and/or be lucky. Just have a look at the rise and fall of the "Slender-Genre".

 

I dont think anyone is working to make 30k or 100k they are trying to get a big hit and I think that is what they are working towards anything else is a failure.

 

This is an interesting Gamasutra article on one studios first game http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/173068/congratulations_your_first_indie_.php?print=1

 

Nope, just assumptions. I'm not sure how easy it'd be to release on Steam but I think if you could... then it'd certainly be much better. But other than that you'd have to release on your own website and create a name for yourself and a bunch of other things I think are already taken care of on mobile platforms.

As for the quality of games... I can't create the next triple-A title that looks exactly like real life. However saying that, I also wouldn't say I would just ditch attention-to-detail and stop trying to make things more visually appealing.

 

In perhaps many cases "dumb" teenagers may be the majority of the target demographic- so it would behoove of the developer to make it more friendly to that demographic. I imagine many phone game apps are developed by sellouts who quite literally want to make a 'quick buck off dumb teens'. I remember when Zynga started making millions.

 

Err what?

If you look into disposable income I think you'd be surprised.

 

No way... adults are just used to having more money and are tight.

Also noting that you need accounts, credit cards etc to buy games from app stores I think adults would be buying the most (not by a huge amount though)

 

The people with money are college students , right before you have to pay bills and right when you can get a credit card .

At least in the states you can get a debit card at like 16

CREDIT CARDS ARE BAD, DON'T SPEND MONEY YOU DON'T HAVE !!!!

 

Orrr, spend money you do have on a credit card getting frequent flyer points then pay the credit card off because you had the money all along... win!

 

The real question isn't "Is it viable?" The real question is "Can I make it work for me?"

Some people made millions selling paperclips - because they have passion and work hard - the only two ingredients needed for success.

 

Interesting statistic (and someone correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm probably wrong), but the last time I checked, only about 4% of games are ever commercially successful. That leaves 96% that are not so much.

Long made short, as posted above, you can make great going out money or a few extra dollars to stick in a savings account for a rainy day. But living entirely off it? Probably not so much.

Then too, to me at least, indie gaming is something you do for love of the medium and the spirit of creativity; not necessarily because of the financial rewards. Heck, even the AAA-gaming industry is notorious for frequent layoffs, low pay, and poor working conditions. You're probably better off as an indie (until the AAA-gaming sector gets their act together, but that's a debate that's been long-running.)

 

Do you guys have any examples of mobile games that are very well polished and decently marketed, yet still could be considered failures (barely breaking even or not even that)?

 

Looking at the app stores, most games look like they're not worth paying for, even at 1$. It will take large publishers to come in an mature the marketplace and raise the bar. That, or experienced developers.

Working for Ubisoft for over a decade (and still there), I can say that it depends on where you work and who is running the joint. Ubi has a good work ethic and only does crunch when necessary. Epic used to crunch constantly but gives a big payout. All companies are different and it's unfair to paint the industry with such a large brush.

My advice to the budding indie developer is:

1. Strive to get a job in the gaming industry. You will learn more in 3 months than a year doing it on your own and looking up answers on forums and google. Stay there for a couple years, get some titles under your belt, then transition to developing your own products. They'll be better polished, designed, and focused. That's a tough pill to swallow, I know, but I could not have attained the knowledge I have now without having the career first.

2. Write a business plan. When starting, you have to think about dollars and cents. How will you fund your software and computer needs? Will you have a recurring revenue source as you develop your game?