This was an awesome presentation. It’s easy to crunch these numbers and dismiss the whole endeavor as perhaps not as lucrative, but if you consider that Eggcelrration was also your first commercial Steam release, and it’s helping you build a following, as well as gain marketing experience, overall it seems it was quite a success.
My first video I found of your channel and haven't watched the rest yet of writing this. But I had to stop and comment that I subbed the moment you said you worked on darkest of days. That game was just one of those tiny golden nuggets you randomly find. Loved playing that game.
I am very thankful that you mention where you are coming from and for how long you have actually been working in the industry before you managed to release a game like this and earn some money. I am doing unity on the weekends now for 2,5 years I released 3 games and I basically earned nothing so far (technically 20€).
Tranparency and honesty is important to me, and people saying they released their first game are often skipping out on the experiences that brought them there.
Great video! As a solo developer, I might suggest looking into procedural tools to help you with the creation of things like levels/tracks. When I was working on my racing game, I built one track in 3 months. I was quite happy with that time until I realized that it'll take 2.5 years to make 10 tracks at that rate. lol. The cost of a procedural level design tool on the marketplace is well worth it when compared to hiring contractors.
The cost of development for your came is 75,000 - 100,000! Someone with your talent can work for $100 an hour at the very least building corporate software. Someone less experienced would earn a lot less but would take a factor more hours and would end up with an ever higher cost or bugged game or risk of never completing the project. Thanks for the info.
You are welcome for the info, but just know that the cost of my game is as stated in the video, around $11,500. By comparing the amount I _could_ make from a salaried gig, $75k-$100k, you are looking at opportunity costs rather than actual cost. Opportunity cost is a useful metric when deciding between different things, but is not the actual cost of development.
Making money as indie dev is so hard, also the chance of covering the development cost is like 2% only, I've seen many solo indie games that rarely break even.
It very much is, much of entertainment business is like this though. I share my experiences as transparently as I can so that others are well informed if they plan to take a similar plunge. I do believe it can be sustainable, but, I've yet to find exactly how to manage that!
Yes, effectively 1/3 of the time and budget was spent on marketing, the timeline of the project was very "crunchy" as I went on, so while I spent 2 months developing the game, it equates closer to 4 months, or more, of a more typical development pace.
Imagine working as Steam Support Steam Support "Good Evening Customer, what are the reasons for refund Eggcelerate! ?" Customer "I drop the egg lol" Steam Support "Ok lol"
This is not the value of my time, which I value MUCH higher. It is what that time actually COSTS me. To survive responsibly paying all the bills that my lifestyle requires takes ~$32,000/year before taxes. I then break that down by the number of hours I strive to work for (40hr week * 50 weeks a year) and get my time cost. Time cost is different than value or opportunity cost. If I was to work-for-hire I'd be charging much, MUCH more.
Can't you creatively put advertising in the game and have the company pay you something? For eggsample; since you game is about eggs, is it possible for an egg supplier to say he wants his logo in your game and he pays you for that? Or an auto mechanic company pays you to put his company in the game. Everytime the truck crashes it goes to that mechanic for repairs. This way that company gets advertising and it's a natural part of the game.
Have actually pitched the idea to several egg companies even, this type of thing requires a bit more than it might seem on the surface level, but is a good plan when established and having plenty of players (eyeballs) to display said product placement.
@@TimBeaudet Yeah, I didn't mean to make that correlation, but it's a wildly successful product as compared to your youtube channel which is easier to manage :D
Hello. Thanks for an insightful video! I personally would love to know more about how exactly you marketed your game. By the by, you can easily create music on your own. It's not for everyone, and you can find free music anyway, I'm just saying that the process is very exciting (you can learn to compose from various sources and use free tools to do it).
For me personally it is easier to hire out music, I sometimes get the urge to learn more, but I don't have the time to get to the quality I'd want; so hiring that out is more cost efficient. As far as marketing, I did the best I could; sending to press/influencers and trying to create as much hype as possible, its hard, I must continue practicing.
Could you do a deeper dive into the issues you had with Unity's input system? I've watched a lot of videos but haven't been able to wrap my head around it. Hearing about your experiences might help. Thank you for sharing your experiences with making this game. I'll definitely pick it up sometime. It looks really fun.
At this point in time it is considered the "old" Input System from Unity, but effectively it came down to a large number of issues in attempting to properly support gamepads/controllers, while simultaneously supporting mouse/keyboard users.
@@TimBeaudet The New input system or Rewired are better choices than the old input system. Make sure to experiment with them for your next game prototype. I practice repeating the code several times until I understood.
@@MrJBRPG of course in hindsight there are other solutions, it was a late decision to add full gamepad support as I expected it to slide in without much issue. I don't think the new input system was available for LTS version of Unity until JUST the last moments and I vaguely looked into refactoring the entire project but was only days before the development freeze - same with refactoring to rewired. I typically write games in my own engine, but of course I'll use the new input system should I play in Unity again now that it has LTS.
So, in the end, do you feel your time would have been better spent focusing on building your skills through something like exercises and prototypes (deliberate practice), or do you feel like overall you learned more by going through the full journey of releasing the game?
Considering the game took 3 to 4 months in total, I don't think it could have been made any faster or better. If you want to build a new skill, make a toy prototype using it. Or two or three. There are times to go for smaller projects and times to go for larger ones. Getting stuck on only small things you toss to the side, or only things you intend to see through release is not a good way to approach games as a *business* ; If you don't have a solid fun idea as you prototype something, find another idea and prototype it, don't spend a large amount of time releasing it anyway. On the flip-side if you are making small prototypes and magically find something fun, like I did for Eggcelerate!, perhaps consider pivoting it to a releasable project.
I switched back to my own tech, which I believe in the long run will be the best decision for me and my adventure. But I will use Unity and other engines for prototyping ideas and/or for a product here or there. Currently for February 2022 I am back in Unity to give Eggcelerate! a major update for Easter.
@@thehambone1454 Will do, you can also stop by my stream (at www.twitch.tv/timbeaudet )any time if you have questions how things are going; there have been a few more sales since this video but nothing earth shattering, and perhaps this Easter update might help.
Any place to start is a good place to start. Starting with a few videos, articles or tutorials is good when you have no other experience, however don't keep just blindly following tutorials; make sure to challenge yourself and try solving problems for yourself. It will be very challenging, it will feel slow, but this is the process of learning - stick with it and you'll get there!
Looks like such a simple game to create, surprised it took so long, also Unity isn't that bad to work with, it's a lot easier than Godot 3d or Unreal which is mainly structured around creating Third and First person shooters.
It basically starts with the research to know your budget to make a profitable game, I did a video on that: ua-cam.com/video/Q9MIUu95k4A/v-deo.html and during development of the game constantly keep researching places to contact, where are your players at and who talks to them? And when you get close to release contact those places to cover your game. Depending on the game, reach out to streamers / lets players for more coverage.
@@avon8794 do they count the revenue of the game made with unity only or the revenue of the entire company (including other stuff not made with Unity)?
Besides it being really neat to see my own game on a console, I don't think there would be much more value than that as it would take some serious efforts to make it happen. Maybe one day, as this game or others build a larger and larger audience.
@@TimBeaudet I have heard that development on the new gen consoles is much easier than the older gen, similar to PC. In any case I'm following your journey and I hope to one day release my own game as well !
You don't fell like 'yourself' in this video. Perhaps ditch the script and go with a bullet point list instead. I think it just feels like you are reading to me too much.
@@TimBeaudet And it is awful that it is so hard to make a livable income making indie games. Especially because it takes so much work to make one. You can't really go anywhere doing it part time as a hobby. Meanwhile regular jobs are terrible with bosses and coworkers. The AAA companies are utterly terrible places to work, even by the standards of regular jobs. Also, I watched We Are Alright. It's about two people who put in a huge amount of time and effort to make an indie game that got good reviews, was well received, and ended up losing money.
Thanks for sharing exact sales stats and how much you lost on VAT etc., a lot of people overlook how little the dev will get from what the buyer pays
This was an awesome presentation. It’s easy to crunch these numbers and dismiss the whole endeavor as perhaps not as lucrative, but if you consider that Eggcelrration was also your first commercial Steam release, and it’s helping you build a following, as well as gain marketing experience, overall it seems it was quite a success.
I absolutely see this as a huge success.
Loved how pragmatic the rundown was
Thank you for seeting realistic expectations in your video, and telling the full story
you mean eggspectations
Great rundown, highly appreciated.
My first video I found of your channel and haven't watched the rest yet of writing this. But I had to stop and comment that I subbed the moment you said you worked on darkest of days. That game was just one of those tiny golden nuggets you randomly find. Loved playing that game.
Link the game page in the description so people don't have to look it up themselves. Congrats on selling 1000+ sales!
The game can be found on Steam here: store.steampowered.com/app/1535490/Eggcelerate/
Thanks for pointing out my oversight.
@@TimBeaudet But you still didn't edit the video description to include the link :)
@@dxsaigon Didn't feel necessary when it is in the top comment already?
@@TimBeaudet id say do it
@@TimBeaudet well its only a reply to the top comment
I am very thankful that you mention where you are coming from and for how long you have actually been working in the industry before you managed to release a game like this and earn some money. I am doing unity on the weekends now for 2,5 years I released 3 games and I basically earned nothing so far (technically 20€).
Tranparency and honesty is important to me, and people saying they released their first game are often skipping out on the experiences that brought them there.
Congrats to complete your game it's already a victory, i'm trying to finish mine i'm doing because it's fun and i love it just like i think you do
Thank you very much for you sharing!!! Very very helpful.
Super interesting to hear how it went from your perspective!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Congrats Tim, and thanks for the breakdown!
really incredible video! you deserve way more subs
They come with time, the best way to support is sharing my videos with others that would be interested in the content.
Interesting, havent heard of you until searching for dev vids on youtube. I have now subbed
superb quality video , very well made and informative
Thanks for sharing this! good luck!!!
insightful... hope you achieve many more milestones ..
Thanks!
Great video! As a solo developer, I might suggest looking into procedural tools to help you with the creation of things like levels/tracks. When I was working on my racing game, I built one track in 3 months. I was quite happy with that time until I realized that it'll take 2.5 years to make 10 tracks at that rate. lol. The cost of a procedural level design tool on the marketplace is well worth it when compared to hiring contractors.
Great video Tim!
The cost of development for your came is 75,000 - 100,000! Someone with your talent can work for $100 an hour at the very least building corporate software. Someone less experienced would earn a lot less but would take a factor more hours and would end up with an ever higher cost or bugged game or risk of never completing the project. Thanks for the info.
You are welcome for the info, but just know that the cost of my game is as stated in the video, around $11,500. By comparing the amount I _could_ make from a salaried gig, $75k-$100k, you are looking at opportunity costs rather than actual cost. Opportunity cost is a useful metric when deciding between different things, but is not the actual cost of development.
great speech !!
it really is a good motivation for beginner !!
tks u !!
Making money as indie dev is so hard, also the chance of covering the development cost is like 2% only, I've seen many solo indie games that rarely break even.
It very much is, much of entertainment business is like this though. I share my experiences as transparently as I can so that others are well informed if they plan to take a similar plunge. I do believe it can be sustainable, but, I've yet to find exactly how to manage that!
Amazing how you made this robot so human like. :D
Great video Tim. So, 1/3 of your project time was marketing... that is a huge deal.
Yes, effectively 1/3 of the time and budget was spent on marketing, the timeline of the project was very "crunchy" as I went on, so while I spent 2 months developing the game, it equates closer to 4 months, or more, of a more typical development pace.
Nice content, subscribed!
Great calculations!
this really looks fun to play tbh haha
thank you
Imagine working as Steam Support
Steam Support "Good Evening Customer, what are the reasons for refund Eggcelerate! ?"
Customer "I drop the egg lol"
Steam Support "Ok lol"
Did you release this on mobiles? With some rewarded ads it could do really well.
You are WAY undervaluing your time! Based on your figures you're only valuing your time at around $20/hour. Even a junior developer would make 2-3x.
This is not the value of my time, which I value MUCH higher. It is what that time actually COSTS me. To survive responsibly paying all the bills that my lifestyle requires takes ~$32,000/year before taxes. I then break that down by the number of hours I strive to work for (40hr week * 50 weeks a year) and get my time cost. Time cost is different than value or opportunity cost. If I was to work-for-hire I'd be charging much, MUCH more.
@@TimBeaudet OK good. Don't undersell yourself
Can't you creatively put advertising in the game and have the company pay you something? For eggsample; since you game is about eggs, is it possible for an egg supplier to say he wants his logo in your game and he pays you for that? Or an auto mechanic company pays you to put his company in the game. Everytime the truck crashes it goes to that mechanic for repairs. This way that company gets advertising and it's a natural part of the game.
Have actually pitched the idea to several egg companies even, this type of thing requires a bit more than it might seem on the surface level, but is a good plan when established and having plenty of players (eyeballs) to display said product placement.
Crazy, half the amount of your youtube subscribers purchased the game, pretty neat!
While that is true, most of the sales was not from UA-cam subscribers. Just don't want anyone correlating those points.
@@TimBeaudet Yeah, I didn't mean to make that correlation, but it's a wildly successful product as compared to your youtube channel which is easier to manage :D
Release this game on mobile. The graphics and gameplay are more suited for phones than PC. Could be a nice money spinner for you.
Hello. Thanks for an insightful video!
I personally would love to know more about how exactly you marketed your game.
By the by, you can easily create music on your own. It's not for everyone, and you can find free music anyway, I'm just saying that the process is very exciting (you can learn to compose from various sources and use free tools to do it).
For me personally it is easier to hire out music, I sometimes get the urge to learn more, but I don't have the time to get to the quality I'd want; so hiring that out is more cost efficient. As far as marketing, I did the best I could; sending to press/influencers and trying to create as much hype as possible, its hard, I must continue practicing.
@@TimBeaudet Thank you for answering. I get your point:)
Catch up with the metaverse trend with DeFi Warrior now! The metaverse is coming to this game very close
I want to help people market their game. I don’t have much experience but I think I can bring value and will work for just experience alone.
Contact me on the Discord in description.
Wait, Tim Beaudet - the guy that used to do the Motel 6 commercials?
That's a cool game. Maybe look for a publisher willing to put it on Switch. Or willing to back a sequel.
Very insightful. Thanks for sharing. How many wishlists did you have when you released the game? That would be very interesting to hear
Would you like to wager a guess before I tell you, I have the data just need to look it up!
@youssifpro 340
Unity is hell to work with. Congrats on making this game so fast! I'm afraid to even calculate the hours I put into mine. Please don't ask.
How many hours
Could you do a deeper dive into the issues you had with Unity's input system? I've watched a lot of videos but haven't been able to wrap my head around it. Hearing about your experiences might help.
Thank you for sharing your experiences with making this game. I'll definitely pick it up sometime. It looks really fun.
At this point in time it is considered the "old" Input System from Unity, but effectively it came down to a large number of issues in attempting to properly support gamepads/controllers, while simultaneously supporting mouse/keyboard users.
@@TimBeaudet The New input system or Rewired are better choices than the old input system. Make sure to experiment with them for your next game prototype. I practice repeating the code several times until I understood.
@@MrJBRPG of course in hindsight there are other solutions, it was a late decision to add full gamepad support as I expected it to slide in without much issue. I don't think the new input system was available for LTS version of Unity until JUST the last moments and I vaguely looked into refactoring the entire project but was only days before the development freeze - same with refactoring to rewired. I typically write games in my own engine, but of course I'll use the new input system should I play in Unity again now that it has LTS.
MONEHHHH AND TAHITIIIIII......
So, in the end, do you feel your time would have been better spent focusing on building your skills through something like exercises and prototypes (deliberate practice), or do you feel like overall you learned more by going through the full journey of releasing the game?
Considering the game took 3 to 4 months in total, I don't think it could have been made any faster or better. If you want to build a new skill, make a toy prototype using it. Or two or three. There are times to go for smaller projects and times to go for larger ones. Getting stuck on only small things you toss to the side, or only things you intend to see through release is not a good way to approach games as a *business* ; If you don't have a solid fun idea as you prototype something, find another idea and prototype it, don't spend a large amount of time releasing it anyway. On the flip-side if you are making small prototypes and magically find something fun, like I did for Eggcelerate!, perhaps consider pivoting it to a releasable project.
It's funny because im eating eggs while watching.
Blink twice if you have been kidnapped and they are making you read a script.
Congrats! Do you think you will continue to use Unity or will you switch back to your tech?
I switched back to my own tech, which I believe in the long run will be the best decision for me and my adventure. But I will use Unity and other engines for prototyping ideas and/or for a product here or there. Currently for February 2022 I am back in Unity to give Eggcelerate! a major update for Easter.
@@TimBeaudet sounds great, keep us in the loop on the long tail success of the game if you do not mind, often indie devs don't share this!
@@thehambone1454 Will do, you can also stop by my stream (at www.twitch.tv/timbeaudet )any time if you have questions how things are going; there have been a few more sales since this video but nothing earth shattering, and perhaps this Easter update might help.
Shouldn't it be "Setting you EGGSpectation"? ;)
GJ!
what is the best way to learn unity and create gaming apps for android/ios and maybe eventually steam? is Unity's free training course good to begin?
Any place to start is a good place to start. Starting with a few videos, articles or tutorials is good when you have no other experience, however don't keep just blindly following tutorials; make sure to challenge yourself and try solving problems for yourself. It will be very challenging, it will feel slow, but this is the process of learning - stick with it and you'll get there!
Considering what's going on with unity right now
I don't know about this
I wouldn't exactly start a new game in Unity, but, I'm not terribly concerned, at the moment, about my game even if it were to get popular enough.
Looks like such a simple game to create, surprised it took so long, also Unity isn't that bad to work with, it's a lot easier than Godot 3d or Unreal which is mainly structured around creating Third and First person shooters.
This would make a great party game if it has split screen
Nice game sir where did you created 3d car
Please can i known more about youf technique marketing
It basically starts with the research to know your budget to make a profitable game, I did a video on that: ua-cam.com/video/Q9MIUu95k4A/v-deo.html and during development of the game constantly keep researching places to contact, where are your players at and who talks to them? And when you get close to release contact those places to cover your game. Depending on the game, reach out to streamers / lets players for more coverage.
Hi Mr Tim I want to know can we make 3d game like this with blender with 0$? Please let me know
Godoy/Unity (engine)
Blender (3d)
GIMP/ Krita (2d)
Audacity (sound)
Social media (marketing)
get an offshore account so you wont pay any taxes ever...
Money
Is possible sell game with unity free versio?
Yes, but you have to upgrade once you reach a certain yearly revenue limit
@@avon8794 do they count the revenue of the game made with unity only or the revenue of the entire company (including other stuff not made with Unity)?
@@leezhieng It's for the entire company, to cover cases where they use Unity just for internal stuff
I recommend a console release
Besides it being really neat to see my own game on a console, I don't think there would be much more value than that as it would take some serious efforts to make it happen. Maybe one day, as this game or others build a larger and larger audience.
@@TimBeaudet I have heard that development on the new gen consoles is much easier than the older gen, similar to PC. In any case I'm following your journey and I hope to one day release my own game as well !
if your game can´t get a good profit, well fuck!
You don't fell like 'yourself' in this video. Perhaps ditch the script and go with a bullet point list instead. I think it just feels like you are reading to me too much.
Well that's bullshit. So little revenue from selling the game. People need money to pay costs of living for things like food, energy and shelter.
Well it is what the numbers are, which I think people should know before they assume they can pay for those cost of livings!
@@TimBeaudet And it is awful that it is so hard to make a livable income making indie games. Especially because it takes so much work to make one. You can't really go anywhere doing it part time as a hobby.
Meanwhile regular jobs are terrible with bosses and coworkers. The AAA companies are utterly terrible places to work, even by the standards of regular jobs.
Also, I watched We Are Alright. It's about two people who put in a huge amount of time and effort to make an indie game that got good reviews, was well received, and ended up losing money.
So monotone..
Game looks bad and medicore bro...get some good modellers ...
Bro y is ur delivery so robotic. Also the price was low. Its useless to give a price even if u sold for 10usd u would have around 1k sales
Love how pragmatic you are. Subbed.