How much MONEY did I earn with my indie game on STEAM?
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- Опубліковано 19 вер 2019
- BUY & PLAY on Itch: blackthornprod-games.itch.io/...
BUY & PLAY on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/11...
The Dreadful Whispers OST: daveallenbpm.bandcamp.com/rel...
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In this video I share with you how much money I've made so far with my indie game, The Dreadful Whispers, on Steam!
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Support me on PATREON: / blackthornprod
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How much MONEY I make as a UA-camr: • How much MONEY I make ...
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Follow me on TWITTER: / noacalice
Join the BTP DISCORD SERVER: / discord - Ігри
Look at the bright side... you still don’t need to purchase the paid version of unity 😁
:D
Hahaha I can't wait until the day I'm forced to do that. It will be a dream come true.
or even need unity!
when you need to buy unity pro?
@@hitoshilxrd4518 I believe it's once you've reached $100,000 in annual revenue.
My man got that bread! Congratz on successful launch buddy!
Hi danii me donut
Hi danny
Hey Dani I am your subscriber too I would love to see your gaming tutorial if you want to teach it on UA-cam cuz you have good physics understanding in unity I thought.
What about your game :(
Good luck for u too dani
can you make a video on the legal stuff of an indie game
copyright
eula
and other stuff ?
This would be so useful!
That would be nice
Yes plssss
plsss
In the process of releasing my first game and this part hit me like a brick wall. I spent so much time learning to program and make games, but after it was done I was faced with the reality that there is more to it than just making a game. All courses, tutorials, and books make it seem like it's as simple as exporting/packaging your game and publishing it. It's far from it.
The real trick is to make a UA-cam video about your game and generate interest for it
dad?! holy shit i found you
Dad why do you always call me a piece of shit
@@topic260 haha
My dad does too 😭
Dad why did it take so long to buy milk
Dad? Why did you milk me and not mom?
Lol when you said day 2 was $20.000 I immediately created a Google Doc to start pitching my new game idea
Congratulations my dude, super interesting to hear this!
8:42
Except it actually comes down to $20,000 after 8 and a half months. He had to make the game first, and like he said, sales massively drop after the initial release.
Sykoo I no you, you are good gamer I am your big fan and subscribe your channel
seems like you can't tell the difference between a period and a comma
@@vurve288 Some countries use commas to denote thousands, some use periods.
BTP, thank you so much for sharing this info!!! I wish more game devs would share this stuff so we can all learn and improve as developers.
Hey Tim! I wish so too :)! You shared your stats for Philophobia which was fascinating, glad I could return the favor!
Literally was going to comment "just watch Tim Ruswick comment about sharing info" 😅 ah Tim ik you too well
i mean 7k is a good amount of money
can buy u a lot of water so stay hydrated
Yeah. Let's think realistically here though.. bills. xD
One day they will go past that amount in total..
Well in the US that's 5.5 month of minimum wage with 8 hour 5 days a week, it breaks even at least but I imagine being paid the same as a waitress when you had to study to even start doing this is pretty bad
in argentina you could live a year with no work
@@andresvalera1430 noone cares about the US
My mans out here thinking economically
6:25 "The game hasn't earned me that much"
Me watching from a 3rd world country who can literally buy a house for 6k dollars: 👀
What is it like the 1950s over there.
@@endofpixel3712 Pakistani Rupees was equal to a Us dollar in the 1950s but the corrupt politicians later f**ked the economy up and now its about 170 rupees per Dollar
@THE REAL KIDO Yeah that's Indian rupee not Pakistani... Search USD to PKR
How is it to live in Pakistan? I've never been there
@@victorrus01 It's nice its pretty cheap for foreigners... You can watch some tourism videos by Chris betzman or others... The tourist attractions are mostly up north near the capital Islamabad and Provincial capital Lahore... Meanwhile I live in Karachi... It's the biggest city of the country and also provincial Capital. It's pretty nice for tourists and foreigners don't let the media fool you about all the terrorism and fuss ♥
Well 6400 USD is pretty good. I mean my mother (a kindergarten teacher) makes the money in 8 months. So well done!
You don't know how long did he work on the game
@@asdrubal121 He said 8 months I thik.
Yes it's a good sum :)! I'm glad it went well
6400 dollars would support me for a few years
Andro King™ No it wouldn’t
Thank you for sharing realistic indie game revenue.
This is realistic indie game revenue for someone who has absolutely no idea what they're doing and is nowhere near ready to work in any sort of production environment and relies solely on their UA-cam audience to buy their game. I imagine that interest in the game will taper off in a week or two as will the ratio of positive to negative reviews as people who don't follow his UA-cam channel, therefore are not predisposed to liking the game, pick up the game. This is not representative of the average indie developed game in any way, shape or form. Most people would make next to nothing if they released what could (and probably should) have been a free flash browser game on Steam.
@@mosley3485 While i find the post a bit harsh, overall i agree that most of his sales come from the free advertisement of his youtube channel. While he says that only 1% bought the game, it still did a great deal in spreading the word - something the average indie would have to put a lot of work into, if even possible. The first game, in most cases, is only about getting noticed and building a small fanbase, rather than the profit. I believe his game would have done the same, but since he already had a "fanbase" from his youtube channel the data is scewed in multiple ways. Still, while i would not expect as much money / sales (depends on the game tho) for the first indie release, it definitely shows how _even with a rather big youtube channel for free advertisement_ you wont get rich from it. So for people who plan on doing it for the money, this is valuable information.
@@mosley3485 You are totally right, mate. I am an indie dev myself, and most indie devs would get almost nothing for launching such a game on Steam. So if anyone want to make indie games for a living after watching this video, please count that in mind. I hope you won't get disappointed when trying to do a similar thing and end up with doubt towards your effort and talent.
@@Yamyatos While my comment may have been harsh, I believe that everything I said was true.
If he didn't have this UA-cam channel I do not believe that he would have shipped anywhere near as many units. I also don't think that the game would have been as well received. The fact that this is sitting on "very positive" reviews is nothing short of a miracle. I'd be weary of buying this at 50% what he's charging for it...
Simply put, he's nowhere near ready to be thinking about developing commercial games. This game looks and feels like someone watched his tutorials and then tried to make a game. He needs another ~5 years of of hobbyist experience or a couple of years working in industry, THEN he can think about asking for money for his games.
I think he would also benefit from collaborating with others. The guy has a passion for game dev, I'll give him that, but I'm not sure how many more games with the same art style and theme he can pump out before people start seeing through his BS. You can't make a career out of creating games based around being uninspired and being sad that your game isn't Super MeatBoy.
@@mosley3485 I'm personally not interrested in playing his game, but that's mostly due to me not playing story based games in general. I need some form of progression or i get bored. Anyways, i wouldnt say he is "uninspired". His art style is pretty nice and unique, and the story is, while niche, also rather well done.
It's simply not everyone beer, and again i do agree that most of his sales (not sure about the rating) come from his successful youtube channel.
That said, i'd be happy if i could create some nice art like his.
I cant even draw a proper stickman, so in the game i'm currently working on i plan on procedurally generating.. basically everything. Works good, just takes a shitton of time.
"I spent some weeks procrastinating or not feeling motivated" as a modder I felt that hard bro
As, well anyone, i felt that
As a student with a portfolio due tomorrow and with only 30% of the work done, I felt that.
@@theheadguy1212 damn
As an amateur writer Yí felt that to dawn hard
I love how honest he is. I don’t feel like I’m being lied to or manipulated. I wish more youtubers were like that.
Congrats again for the whole project, you fought the beast well! And see you next week mate! 😄
Thanks man :)! See you soon :D!
i like how the entire gamedev community just joins together for a Blackthornprod video!
A bold move to reveal all that info, but a welcome one too. Thanks for gifting the community like that!
Could you explain which specific details are bold to share. I get its personal and most people or in most cultures people don't talk about their income but.. It's not unsafe to do or anything right?
big black
@@squeakybunny2776 I never understood why it was taboo to talk about your salary even when talking to people that literally have the same job title in the same company you work at
@@gileee i don't know either.. Maybe when you work at the same company people are afraid to reveal they earn more than somebody else with the same job?!🤷♂️
This video is a promotion for his game.
First of all, congrats for the release and the success so far! I bet in sales it'll manage to get more sales.
Secondly, It is really nice of you to share that info.
Lastly, I have to say that from my point of view it is a little bit discouraging. I find that the money the game has made so far (and will make) is pretty great! But I cannot stop thinking that if 138K youtube subs didn't manage to make a bigger buzz, what chance do an unknown indie has?
Is the game simple enough to be played on mobile? Would love to see a comparison between Steam and Apple App Store.
If he would port them into mobile it would be most likely for Android because apple has very many restrictions
Congrats on the launch! Steam is a very tough market and making a Platformer even more so.
Your art is excellent and the reviews are positive so I believe you will do well in the future as you continue to grow as an Indie Game Developer!
OMG CODE MONKEY!!! BUT WHY AIN'T THERE ANY REPLIES FOR YOU EXCEPT ME ON THIS COMMENT?!?
Sabotage Warrior no idea DUDE
I'm sure one day u will comment on my video and say the same thing
lol I have a refund rate over 20% for Under Pressure - you're doing just fine mate xD
I plan on buying the game soon too - keep up the badass work!! ^o^
Thanks man :)! Yeah 8 percent is okay! Hope I didn't sound too ungrateful haha ;D
Cheers dude!
mine is about 23%
what do you mean by Under Pressure? Could you explain it ?
@IndieAustin hahaha , ok thanks
Honestly Steam's refund policiy isn't that great and way to many companies work around knowing it's limitations. I wouldn't suggest doing it if you want a loyal fan base but way to many games these days just focus on making the first 2 hours of a game great, sort of like a demo. Then the rest falls apart once they know you can't refund it any more. Or they fill the game with unstoppable cut scenes that pad the run time so you don't touch actual game play till past the 2hr mark.
The results are actually higher than I imagined. Feeling a little inspired to take my animation work into game making maybe.
It took me close to 8 years to make $1,000 off youtube afterall.
I wonder if adding a reallycool in game reward like a costume or something just for playing for more than 2 hours would bring down that return number ;P
You are too honest,you talk about fantasising becoming a millionaire your honesty is what this industry needs
I really appreciate the transparency you've shown. Super helpful. I'm looking forward to seeing what you make next.
Thanks for sharing BTP! You are a GEM in this community! Cheers!
Total respect to you.
You travelled the path and finished the journey and got sales.
Let this be a spring board for bigger, better more creative games next time.
To your success.
Dude don't beat yourself up. It was your first release. The fact you make videos like this and your openness will bring support in. I'm looking to move over to game development and your videos really help so keep it up. 👍
Agreed :)
One thing you didn't cover in the video is that you now have a fan base. In theory, when you launch your next game it should be a little easier because existing fans will be there to buy the next game.
It's an often overlooked, but very important point. In my opinion, the entire purpose of your first game launch is to build that ever so important fan base.
Well done mate
Thank you so much Noa, this was the video I was waiting for!!! This is very interesting & helpful to up coming indie game developers, keep up the good work!
Thank you so much for making this video! I've tried to calculate these numbers in the past but transparency is really hard to find with these topics. You are amazing!
Well done, man. Thanks for sharing all this information and experience. It is good to know that we shall not make game for money. :)
All huge game dev channels have made a comment. What a beast 😂
i think your channel has a huge impact on this. otherwise alot less people would have known about your project.
everyone trying to recreate your success should keep this factor in mind. Great work Noa and thank you for sharing these stats. highly appreciated
Would be interesting to see a lot of game devs with similar experiences just come together and try find out cool things. You definitely learn a lot from hearing these great stories about game dev journeys, and more of that would be amazing! Great video mate!
I haven’t looked at developing a video game for a couple of years, and it’s because of your videos that I’m interested in giving it another shot. Thank you for the inspiration, and I hope your game gains more attraction on steam and I hope you enjoy making the games you develop in the future
Nice work Noah, keep it up.
Jake Birkett`s idea of 50% of the wishlist resulting in sales is an average of games that had a more "organic" wishlist audience. Since you've asked your youtube audience to wishlist it to help you even if they didn't intend to buy it in order to improve the odds of getting it featured, the conversion proportion naturally dropped down compared to games that had 100% of the wishlist of people already leaned towards buying it.
If I were to give it a shot at saying why it didn't sell as expected, I would say that it's not because of your craft, but because of the type of game. It looks great, but by looking at the gameplay footage, in addition to being a platformer (which doesn't help since there are too many platformers), it doesn't seem to bring anything unique to the table beside the art. You play with some interesting ideas but none of those seems to be the identity of the game, I think that games that have a unique and appealing core gameplay feature tend to do a little better out there.
Soooo... avoid being more white noise in the gaming market?
@@jacobsc2866 actually, no. You want to be as noisy as possible, just don't expect that a large portion of the people that found you through this kind of "marketing" will end up buying your game, it's still better than nothing though.
Based on the statistics I can find online, it looks like 7-10% of wishlists converting to a purchase is the average.
Great Job. :D Congrats on the game.
hey! It finally came out! I've been waiting for it. Congrats! I'm headed to download it now :)
Great to see your game having success! Good luck with the next project, whatever that may be! I'm in the middle of a 2d platformer myself!
I think it's worth noting that this game, between the simplistic art style, bizarre color palete, and innovative platforming mechanics, would definitely count as a niche game. As such any people with ideas that have a bigger audience to resonate with might want to take this into account. Alongside this, it's worth noting that your videos gave you a really big marketing boost, what a lack of such a marketing platform would do to your sales, and the potential to employ other means to potentially better market your game.
(For an example I've been thinking about a lot, many gacha games have a weekly, bi-weekly, or seasonal 1-3 page manga short that focuses on showing off the characters and their quirky traits. It's proven to be effective in bringing in new players who try the game after reading it online, so maybe a similar strategy could be used for non-gacha games as well?)
thanks, this was a great insight into the dev business on steam
Hey, congrats on your first game, I was surprised it was your first. I am an old guy starting on video games and your tutorials are the best. Your game is like a fashion show to see so many ideas on action, very clean art and the best is that you are on stage, I know thats not easy. I will try to follow with my first game, thank you for the inspiration!!
Hey thank you so much for the transparency!!
It's rly rly interesting to get a in depth insight like this!
You earned my respect for that :D
Thank you!
Our first game ... maybe $25k lifetime, then moving to our first mobile game : maybe $35k lifetime. Our second big mobile game (with a publisher) earned me $500k to date ( in approx 3 years)... and latest game is doing $1,000 / day and has the potential to be much higher.
HOLD YOUR HEAD UP AND KEEP LEARNING!! This can definitely become your full time, and very successful, career :D
SHD Games is your latest game a mobile free to play match three game?)
How did you guys market your first few games without a publisher?
Seems like a decent success to me, I've had my game on steam for almost 2 months now and people seem to like it, worked on it for 4 years and only sold 25 copies so far :x I've done some paid ads and sent it to every game reviewers/steam curators/youtubers/streamers that I can't think of so it's really not easy.
Yeah it's hard man, but that's awesome that you have a steam release! Are you working on another game right now?
@@TonsOfHunStudios mostly advertising and bug fixing for now, just did a game jam this weekend and have plans to work on something new.
@@leonalchemist Ok nice! I should do another game jam soon as well.
What is your game about? Which genre?
@@explosivfurret3007 it's a tough 2D platformer called Deathless Dungeon on steam :)
I really want to work on a new idea but gotta fix a few things 1st :x
Great video Noa , you are so clear cut and honest. Always encouraging others and enjoying your journey as always which is as you say what counts the most!! I am absolutely loving playing this game with you, such an honor to discover this amazing world with the creator himself! For sure I am pretty slow and really get stuck in parts, a real laugh but this game really makes me want to keep trying and having fun. Your art work, atmosphere , sound effects, colours are all so amazing, you shine!!! I am so proud and really just want to say that this big first step has been a total success for you, it is only a first on steam, you are certainly on your way to more hype and success but definitely keep what is the most important part, the pure pleasure and fun!!! You rock and I love you loads!!!!! Xxxx
That's awesome, such kind words!
This is an outstanding video and really helps give more of an insight into the mindset and experience of an indie developer.
I wish you the best of luck on your future projects and even if they don't become successful, I hope you had fun making and learning from them.
Gotta learn how to be positive from you man! It's a good start :) loved the game and great video, congrats 😄
Congrats, Noa! It's just a beginning! Keep going and Lomborghini is yours :-)
Alexander Zotov hey Alex. Love your tutorials :)
Wow are you hanging around here :)
Thanks man! :)! I wanted to buy a Tesla for every family member. Oh well, next game haha ;DD
@@Blackthornprod Just stick with schedule. That's the key :-) 2 months for a game. It's important. 8 months is too much.
Yall don't act like you didn't read that in Alex's voice. :)
Very interesting video. I just found it randomly but I must say that I really appreciate the insight and your overall straightforwardness and honesty about how you feel, how much money you make and what you think in general.
It's also nice to hear you working out the"postmortem" of your first "big" title with logic and objectivity.
Keep up the good work, as I can see that you are doing something you are really passionate about, and I hope that one day you will reach those thousand dollars you desire (and probably deserve ;) )
I’ve been pretty down today and your drawings are making me unreasonably happy right now :3
The quality of this video is INSANELY WAY TOO GOOD. You've come a long way from where you were a year ago and I can't think of many people who've come this far so quickly, Your dedication level is way way above an average game-dev considering you don't need to make so much money & enjoy game-dev in general, I don't know if i'm the only one but I'm sure your name will be on the big screens in the future! :) Cheers.
right?!? game looks like something belonging up there on the leaderboards
@@GabrielCarvv you're delusional man
Hello, my suggestion could sound unrealistically but can you port the game to phones? Because it fells like that this game would be liked by phone owners. 4.99 for a game and everyone’s happy
The controls will probably take a while but that will get the game a lot more sales, especially since you would be able to play the game offline, so people would download it and play it anywhere
@@idleisidle controls are super easy to make for a 2d platformer like TDW. It would be so cool to get it released for Androids and iOS!
Incorrect. Paid games on iOS make money. Android is another deal.
It's a possibility yes :)!
@@Dfjs427 for android you need to make 2 versions: paid and freemium. Paid on its own likely wont sell very well on android. On Apple, people are more willing to spend money on games, which you can tell by the fact that they got an apple in the first place.
Congratulations man! this is awesome an from what ive looked up such a fun type of game, ive watched tons of your tuts and think you've done amazing
Well this puts me on a relief for my game aswel, thanks.
Very informative and helpful!
Congrats on realising your first game through steam :) In my opinion, the puzzles (at least the ones showcased in this video) didn't look all that challenging which can turn off a lot of potential customers. A game with a price tag of 10$, in my opinion, should on average last around 5 hours for one playthrough, or have enough variety to justify multiple playthroughs :) But that's just my thoughts. Wish you the best of luck ^^
I've never been on this channel but, Congrats!
@Zoro Cali _who_
Just watch your video and bought the game, probably not gonna even install because i dont play to many games anymore but im glad i can help even little! Good luck with your new games bro !!
Also launched around some other things going on in gaming: Ghost Recon Breakpoint beta, and Code Vein just came out too. So that's something to consider. But really good job, congratulations on the launch! Thanks for sharing this.
Great job,congrats, and thanks for sharing. This is a big step forward, one that I hope to take soon as well.
One point of data for you:
Personally I follow you and wish listed the game to support you, but the game doesn't appeal to me enough to justify buying it. Not to say that I think the game isn't good! - I'm just not very interested interested in story/emotion driven puzzle platformers (I still haven't even finished Braid after 5 years owning it!). I can't say how much of your audience is in a similar boat, but one data point is the best I can offer.
It's been 8 months, how did it end up now? Consider doing an update at the 1 year mark! 👍
Wondering the same. I feel the amount of views on this video probably converted in some sells. I feel this game probably have the same problem than 99% of indie games: nobody knows it exists. This video must have helped.
Congrats! The first step to success is finishing something and it may not be what you expected, but it's a milestone. Enjoy it and keep creating content.
Thanks for sharing this with us! It's rare to be able to see actual numbers, very inspiring!
And congrats on the successful game! :) Would be great to know how things are now that 4 months have passed, maybe even a comparison of sales between itchio and steam on a future video.
"Buying and installing is easy on steam"
Me:I'm not sure about the buying part
You have subscribers and more important thing: TALENT. Your Cartoon style looks very interesting. I hope you find what you wish.
Just a single voice in a sea of voices but here it goes - You're my hero Blackthornprod. I hope you DO get rich making your games. I got into programming to be a game dev but now I'm just a programmer at a company writing code to calculate revenue. Keep on keeping on, cuz you give me hope. All WE got to do is keep doing it, and you got the head start. Go get 'em, cuz you got the stuff to make it as a game dev!! As for me, its time to learn about creating character controllers, but wait, 2d or 3d? hmmmmmm...?
Congrats on your hard work, and thanks for sharing this story as a source of inspiration to us all!
I really appreciate the transparency you've shared throughout your whole indie game dev journey. It's great to watch, and very helpful for aspiring indie devs. Keep at it, and thanks!
My pleasure man :)!
That is much more than my project Graviturf is earning. Congrats buddy!
@UCP8jJg23UAbD_vDYDr-guEw ye, you're right, good luck Man!
You're game looks fun but I don't have a PC I'm saving for one thoufh
Good luck with your next project. It's all a learning experience and I'm sure you've learnt a lot.
Thanks for the info good luck and keep on keeping on!
"What inspired you to build a second TDW right next door to the original?"
"Money."
Money is a completely valid motivator. Money makes the world turn.
@@Dfjs427 BTP doesn't call it his first commercial release for no reason
Did any of you realize it was a joke? A line from the spongebob movie, don’t take everything so seriously.
I just made my first game build a couple of days ago... It's small and lame but it's a step forward :)
I could imagine that being to ambitious as a beginner kills all motivation
Start small dream big and with enough practise and experience you can pull off bigger projects
What finnaly helped me make progress were game jams.
It unbelievable how productive you can be when perfection is not an option
I'm so proud of you!
Did you release it somewhere?
@@jekkey no... Its more of a practice game to help me get familiar with coding, but I plan on making more until I'm good enough to possibly release one. I also plan on taking part in a jam soon
Good work! It takes a lot of dedication to finish a full game and put it on steam. I bet it feels nice now to watch people download and play it! I might need to go get your game. :)
Even though this is this first video i see on this channel, i just wanted to congrats you on launching your game
I have to say, changing your setting from default 10% to giving itch.io a 0% cut is a dick move, especially considering they are good enough to host your free games.
You've achieved loads, dude! If my little RPG make $7000 in a lifetime, let alone two weeks, I'll be thrilled! Good luck.
Your game looks awesome!
he worked on it for a year though...
@@jonnyincomox thank you! I really appreciate that!
@@TheLegendsOfTynedale I subscribed too, so I can follow your progress. How long have you been making games? I just started taking tutorials and learning Unity myself.
@@jonnyincomox honestly so grateful for your subscription. Started 2015 but with Android Studio (definitely avoid!). I have a few releases but then moved to Unity which is awesome. Self taught though so I hope you feel you can too and keep going! Its frustrating but so rewarding!
Congrats with a great launch! Thank you very much for sharing the numbers, not many people do that.
Congratulations! I think you'll do even better with your next games. Looking forward to seeing that!
Downloaded it on steam but my pc ain’t that good and I’m experiencing frame rate dips, hope you put it on switch
When it’s Christmas your probably going to get more sells
Congrats on your launch and thanks for sharing numbers! 👍 My initial launch was nearly non-existent since hardly anyone knew about my game. I released at early access then a year later full release. Currently the bulk of my revenue comes from week long sales and all the dlcs. Wishlists are an asset at launch and have a good impact on initial sales. After launch many don't purchase until a steep discount.
It's certainly on my radar now. Great work, man!
I'm pretty sure the net sales are before Steam's cut. (this has been my experience) The difference between gross and net is mostly refunds and VAT taxes. So he probably made about $4500 after Valve's cut.
Gross sales are before steam's cut, according to the video. So that's why his net is around $6,000
This is so motivational
Actually, your honesty is so much encouraging :) Thanks
Congrats on the launch!
I may look into supporting you in the future-
You should consider the Epic store for future releases or if you want to port the games there to earn more from your games. I believe Epic store has a 12/88 cut from games.
Epic store is heavily curated, and many games don't even get a look. Their criteria for selection are heavily obfuscated, so even when you submit a game for review there's no telling whether it will be even considered. In short, Epic want big sellers. The greatly reduced fee is part of their marketing to encourage big name developers to move to the platform to release their huge blockbuster hits. More sales means more profits, so the reduced fee won't hurt their bottom line at the end of the day.
For indie developers however, this presents a problem. The idea of the split being lower should be enticing, but their high standards make it difficult for many indie games to make it onto the platform. They have even said outright that they choose 'quality over quantity', a sentiment I can understand, but one which doesn't bode well for smaller developers who may not have the marketing clout to get easily recognised in the industry.
It would be interesting to see how much Equilinox made
That would be fascinating :)! I think Karl made quite a lot if Steam Spy is to be trusted :)!
It would give some basis for comparison; however Equilinox seems to have a lot more depth with regard to game play ... and as Noa mentioned ... the problem with TDW might be replayability and this also seems hugely different.
I would also think that Equilinox has taken up a lot more man-hours but no way to determine for sure.
My guess is that if you really want to see big numbers you would have to come up with something very unique - and if you ask Tim I suspect that you would also have look into marketing VERY much... talk about your game, find it's highlights and hooks, tickle peoples curiousity, make them have fun (wow that sounded strange🤣)
Nice job on your game, and thanks for posting this information for all of us little Indie Developers out here. These videos give us real information from Indie Developers that we truly need!
Good luck brother! Hope you're able to find the optimal motivation to launch the best/next one.
Best ones are the hardest to get but with enough motivation and consistency, you'll get there! See you at Maldives soon! Don't Stop contributing 👍
Games Are ALL About Expression, Just As Movies, Animations, Art, Music... Expression... If You Express Truly From The Spirit (Temple) For Your World... Then You CANNOT Fall... It Will Be A Gem... Considering You Truly Expressed Accordingly!
Congratulations On Your Game Launch!
Please Don't Type Like This
3zk1I_
Like What... I Have revealed The Truth To Guide You For Your Purpose... Your World..
@@3zk1i_93 this guy is pretty cringe xd
@Blackthornprod i have a suggestion that realy would be helpful so bare with me and read to the end realy it was pure rng of the algorythm that i stumbled on you right now and im sure you put a lot work in it and your game aint bad (even there is always room to improve) but how much you sell is 90% marketing 10% code/product... most recent example fallout76 just a buggy mess no refunds and what so ever i like people that actualy realy try to get there stuff out there and youtube obviously is the way for promoting but only on your channel nah wount cut it but there are youtuber that even specialized on indi games like GrayStillPlays just look for some that your game would fit to get them a free copy they make a video and instead of 100k you get a couple milliion potential viewer. thats the big tip i would definitly advice to try it,
here some further thoughts about your retailer
it realy bothers me there are tons of talented people out there you might never will hear about cause they just dont get the marketing done.... the 30% that steam takes basicly is for marketing and the paysystem/server... without get the exposure of beeing front page or what ever i feel its kind a scam... but there are some other options
1. Patreon maybe even i think it might be not the ideal platform cause it relys a bit on a constant output would only make sense if you combine it with your youtube channel ( there are quite a lot doing this so),
2. if you have a bit old hardware and just a bit of money you can invest for a own homepage/ own server... like this you could use it as a portfolio/ additional exposure...
were people can see all your work you did for gamejams and so on, you aint need a to big server n stuff unless you get fame then you be able to afford the bigger server.
well you did all the work and give 30% to such a big company just for selling a datapacket via internet... with no marketing they did its a rip-off at least as far your at this scale.
hope you get to read this and hope it got you some helpful ideas. good luck with your stuff mate,
Thank you for this video! It actually gave myself a little bit of inspiration to make a game too!. Congratulations for your middle succes on your game! Keep learning and getting better and maybe your next game could be a great succes!
I haven't planned a big game or nothing, I'm just a student that has made simple c++ games. But I really think I should be considering making a real game.
Congratulations, man! I'm inspired : D
keep scrolling, and you will find your favorite tutors
7:20 "Maybe running a pretty successful YT channel isn't enough for marketing."
8:26 "The average player will need more hype, intrigue and desire before willingly spending his cash."
These are the money quotes, because they show us where you went wrong. You made the same mistake the majority of creators (not just gamedevs) do. There's a Wikipedia page for the "List of most expensive video games to develop" and it's quite instructive to look at it. Compare the costs for development and marketing. That is what so many creators, including you, get wrong. It's something I see with every indie dev I know and talk to. When talking about their jobs, nobody talks about promotion. It's all just programming, art, gamedesign and maybe playtesting.
Big, professional studios pay teams of people to do nothing but promotion. They pay those people half or even three quarters of the entire budget to do that. This isn't bad spending, this isn't a waste of funds and this isn't cynical manipulation. This is them understanding just how big the world is. There are ~8 billion people in the world and the number of people who know you or your game even exist rounds down to zero.
There are easily a hundred thousand people out there who would love to play The Dreadful Whispers, but letting them know it even exists is your job. It's an extremely time consuming one, too, which is why the professionals pay others to do it for them in the first place. It sucks, but such is the life of an indie.
Can't afford a legion of artists? You need to make do.
Can't afford a team of full time senior programmers? You will have to make it work on your own.
Don't have $100 million to pay a marketing team? Why would that be any different?
I heard a successful author say something along the lines of "Writing the book is 10% of the work, the rest is promotion."
I hope you'll have more success with future projects.
I think you are right on every point you make. But I would suggest to think again about the term „indie“. Since depending on a third party for marketing would render this term as just a marketing term. Which I‘m aware most indie games with a certain amount of success have to do it in some form. From the perspective of the gamedev to run your own successfull YT channel to advertise your game seems to be the most „indie“ move of them all, don‘t you think? I know I‘m rather naive here and I maybe trolling the indiedev-community by it, but if you want to go all the way with the term... I know, I‘m sorry.
@@cooloutcoexist I didn't suggest indies should go around and hire marketing teams. For starters, how would they be able to afford them? I was saying that they really have to do more promotion themselves.
Would running a successful YT channel where you advertise your game count? It could be a part of your marketing, but it shouldn't be all there is. Because as this very channel has proven, it's entirely possible that there is little to no overlap between your subscribers on YT and the people who are interested in buying your game. And why would you assume otherwise? For starters, subscribing to a channel on YT doesn't cost you anything.
You're one of the few people that are open about their finances. There's such a stigma on talking about how much you earn, but it is so insightful. Thanks for this vid!
Congrats on your launch! Any amount of money made doing something you enjoy is a win! Time to start on the next one!
In my first day sold 2 copies of my game! Yeeey :'(
I suck at marketing.
Btw, it was released today.
I'm sorry to hear that. How long have you been working on it?
Marketing is the only way to survive as an indie. You need to be on every forum, every social media platform, you need trailers, you need to go all out. With everyone's dependence on social media, marketing is easier than ever (still time consuming though, but you can easily make a program to post the same post on each social media platform).
nobody:
EPIC: "heavy breathing"
Your videos are so essential for finding out some really cool basic information on game design. Thank you
Omg I love your art style it's so unique and creative Keep up the good work man