Finances about indie developers

zoolax

Somebody sent this article to me,I found this interesting,and I wanted to share it.

http://hitboxteam.com/dustforce-sales-figures

It discusses cost of making a game as an indie developer.
I am sure some people are already married and have extra responsibilities,
which can effect their time and money as an indie developer and make it much more challenging in compare to a single person.
Of course marriage and kids are very precious moments in human life.
I hope you find it interesting as well.
cheers:)

OZApps

It is nice to read about the successful developers making thousands and hundred thousands or even millions, however what about the several million developers that do not make much... for them all these things are also as applicable as any other, the only difference is that they have not made the millions.

One thing for sure, the polishing of an app does make most of the difference, no one can see good solid code but everyone can see the flashy graphics. a majority of the people download/buy aps based on the icon alone if it entices them or not, then many other based on the ratings (which I never understand, friends and family can give you +ve ratings while competitors could give you a -ve rating, most rating on a paid app come from the people that download it when it ever goes free). If the user has not yet made up their mind, then the screenshots help them make a decision. Plus if the app is featured on the app store, that automatically gets you somewhere.

Best example is Gideros itself, it is not very well known, when journalists (if you want to call them that) write for some of the big name/visits sites they mention a load full of frameworks, but not Gideros, even though Gideros is quite powerful and usable. Agreed that it cannot boast of the number of apps as C*SDK can. Still the community that uses Gideros knows of it, similarly there are many apps that might be rough diamonds but are never discovered in the App store mines. So if you are going to release an app, one must definitely make inroads with developers and bloggers that can help spread the word about the app and create a pre-buzz.

BTW, your graphics are amazing, have you used them for any project?

thanhquan1512

An interesting story of success

I am really want to make my own professional studio, but responsibilities to my family and the fear of failure still affect me a lot

My current solution is continuing develop game until ads revenue become a nice income, then I will quit my full time job and push all my power to game development

zoolax

@OZapps
I am developing a project at the moment.
www.zoolax.com -- The site is rough .

I do agree with most of points that you make,
but that is the choice we all make as developers,
1.Go indie risk it all, extreme high risk, uncertain future.
(especially when you have people who depend on you financially, I am in that boat.)

2. Get a steady job, steady income , low risk, lots of people have great financial and happy life .
Of course things might get boring, office politics, you might let go tomorrow.

3. Do freelancing, medium risk ,if you are good,but the risk comes down after you make some establish clients.

Be a realist is great thing , even it might hurts, as you said there are many hidden great apps in app store that myself come across daily, and some of them have great ratings and even being reviewed in great blog sites, but still did very poorly financially .

The point I might disagree with is ,I have come across many apps with not so great icon or graphics(of course that is my point of view, and I am judging base on medium standard in industry),but ok game play ,and they did amazing(sold 50,000 to 100,000 ) and some with great jaw dropping artworks, music and icon ,and great game play which they have done very poorly.
Maybe all you can do is work twice as hard, or 4 times as hard, and leave the rest in hand of mother karma or god.
And as for Corona, I do agree, in most cases the new consumer will buy what is in front of the store or advertised in magazine, I have done It.

zoolax

@thanhquan1512
I am not married but I am financially responsible for my parents and my brother,so things can be scary at times.
So I sort of understand where are you coming from,and I wish you the best.

OZApps

While a lot of developers think that someday they will make it big, it becomes a never ending struggle to balance. Now look at the reality, some apps that were released in 2009 when the iPhone was just released did very well due to the lack of competition (however there were still lesser numbers of buyers as the App store was nascent).
Today I see that every other person is an App developer so this will also create competition that could make it difficult for some who might want to enter the development market at a latter stage. Who knows by then there could be something else.

There are case studies for both types, the greatest mystery till date is what was it that made Bubble Ball hit millions of downloads? The quality of the app, the gameplay, the hype, what was it really?

thanhquan1512

Today I see that every other person is an App developer so this will also create competition that could make it difficult for some who might want to enter the development market at a latter stage. Who knows by then there could be something else.

Yeap, and I am afraid in this race, time is money and if you do not run fast, you will be left behind (with your never ending struggle for getting money)

zoolax

I heard about the bubble ball,from what I remember,It did not make any money,I might be wrong,but the main idea behind bubble ball were marketing,basically if a young kid can use our sdk to get this many downloads ,what is stopping you?
Of course if you are not making any money,and you are learning that is fine,
but the main subject of this discussion is my indie budget vs if the game will be profitable.
when I surf on extremely over crowded Google play ,since Google lets anyone almost publish anything,as apple has a longer review system.
Of course market is crowded,and beside having a great app a bit of luck can take you a long way.

Mells

@zoolax
I believe a game dev forum is not the best place to get that kind of advices (lot of biased comments based on unverified assumptions).
Do yourself a favor and buy this book

zoolax

@ Mells
Thanks for the book.
I check it out.

techdojo

Thanks for sharing.
Ironically it's quite interesting to note the number of game prototypes that has lead to successful games that were made in GameMaker (Desktop Dungeons, Dust Force, Spleunky etc etc). I knew that $25 purchase was worth it all those years ago.