How Much Money Do Indie Games Make? [2021]
Вставка
- Опубліковано 15 чер 2024
- So you are about to release your indie game and all that goes through your mind is: How will my game do? Is it going to sell? How much money will I make?
The best way to get an idea is by following other indie games and learning from their experience. In this video, we'll take a look at several indie game revenues and look at how much revenue the developers actually made - some an estimate and some to the actual dollar
► Check out the Games
► Valheim store.steampowered.com/app/89...
► Loop Hero store.steampowered.com/app/12...
► Hive Time cheeseness.itch.io/hive-time
► Toast Time store.steampowered.com/app/31...
►► • How much MONEY did my ...
► Mortal Glory store.steampowered.com/app/10...
►► • How much Money my Game...
► Stardew Valley store.steampowered.com/app/41...
► WATCH: How Much Do Video Games Cost to Make? 5 Real Examples! ►
• How Much Do Video Game...
► A New Gamedev Video Every Week! Subscribe ► / @askgamedev
► About Ask Gamedev
We're a group of game industry veterans that make videos on games, the game industry, and more! This channel is for anyone that's interested in video game development.
► Check out Ask Gamedev on Discord
/ discord
► Follow us
Facebook: / askgamedev
Instagram: / askgamedev
Twitter: / askgamedev
Web: www.askgamedev.com
#gamedev #indiedev #indiegames - Ігри
![How Much Do Video Games Cost to Make? 5 Real Examples! [2019]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/w37Zes6zlkg/mqdefault.jpg)
![How Much Do Video Games Cost to Make? 5 Real Examples! [2019]](/img/tr.png)
![7 Indie Game Marketing Mistakes to Avoid! [2019]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9nZ2dHtYNus/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi hi! Hive Time lead developer Cheese here. Just wanted to say thanks for featuring Hive Time again and for showing a range of different revenue models/narratives in the video.
One key factor that I think impacted Hive Time's revenue was the onset of a pandemic and global recession, which created uncertainty for and in some cases destroyed many people's financial stability. In that context, optional expenses become more difficult to justify, and that's an important lens through which to view Hive Time's 1.5% downloads-to-sales conversion rate.
That’s super cool! I had just launched my first game on mobile and am interested in hearing other people’s stories! I will probably buy hive time after watching this video because it looks super fun and I love helping out other developers too!
@@redmatter20 Cheers! Hope you find it interesting. Best of luck with your project - Cheese
Thanks for popping by Cheese! We really enjoyed on your article on this!
Thanks for 1 subscribers pls Bhai 💯 subscribers krvado
Congratulations on your games. It looks like a lot of fun.
This channel is a symbol of Quality>Quantity
Thanks for the kind words!
More like quality and quantity
My first Steam game *Super Neat Cat* was released last December, and has made almost 1000 dollars so far :D (I'm just a solo hobbyist and it was my first game + just a simple platforming game) *Now the game is free so everyone can enjoy it!*
not true the second you shipped a game you sir have become a game developer
so it made about 1000 usd in dec+jan+feb+march you say? what marketing strats did you do? that would be interesting to know
@@RedEye761 I guess that is true haha!
@@ONIGAFUCHI_MUSIC Yeah it's cool! I have a UA-cam where I made devlogs for it. I posted regularly on all the sns sites. On release day I posted everywhere I could. And that's about it haha. I should have made my Steam page much earlier I think because wishlists are so important. For the game I'm working on now, I'll have a Steam page up maybe next month~
Thanks for sharing your numbers, and congrats on shipping!
I would call this video "how much money CAN indie games make?" since most of those games still get higher numbers than the average ~300$ mark income on steam.
yes, this is highly missleading
Thanks for the feedback. We will try to address this point in the next video of this series.
Median != Average. But still, let's be real, there's some shovelware in there.
Yes this were mostly the success story’s... vallheim and stardew Valley.... not the average indie game
My game - KingSim - made 20k$ (12k after steam share and taxes) in its first 9 months. I consider it pretty well since I'm a solo dev and this is my first commercial game. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for sharing your numbers with the community! KingSim looks like a lot of fun - awesome trailer!
@@AskGamedev I think that not a lot of people share their numbers mainly because not everyone knows that they are allowed to do that. Developers private steamworks page explicitly says that the sales and income numbers are considered confidential information. I had to specifically ask Valve support in order to know if I'm allowed to say my numbers out loud on the internet. The short answer is: yes, it is YOUR confidential information and you can share if you want... I've also heard from another developer that there was an official Valve's post on the matter somewhere around 2018 that allowed developers to share that info (so it means that before 2018 it was somehow prohibited to share your numbers openly on the internet). PS: thanks for the compliment of my trailer; the game got overwhelmingly good reviews but I think that a lot of people dislike the chosen 8-bit art style.
I have no knowledge of such but it was always my dream to make a game .I am great at writing stories and character development have a lot of cool ideas.would be glad to talk to you
@@haitotolud5152 to talk to me about what, exactly? Making a story for a game is a different thing than writing a book.
I have a lot of friends who suggested their help in writing, but, first of all, it takes A LOT of time to make a nonlinear storyline (you need to basically work on that like a fulltime job). Secondly, I can write funny and pretty interesting dialogues myself. If I’d need someone to help me in development process - I would try to find a game developer I can trust, simply because I don’t know programming myself and it takes a lot of time to code in the story.
@@fuzzypixel1338 Oooh, I'm one of the people who bought it on impulse after seeing it in the queue! I was quite interestged in it and liked the graphics a lot, but ended up not playing it much because I've found it too confusing in the early game. Any minor changes I'd make would lead to massive unpredictable events so during every restart I'd be stuck wondering what to do during any event (and there's LOTS of events), and I ended up getting a negative feedback loop with a total paralysis where the more I restarted the less I knew what to do (exploring alternative options didn't give me more understanding of how my decisions affect the world, but rather the opposite, making me more clueless with every playthrough), and in the end I placed the game on the indefinite "I'll play it and understand it one day" shelf.
Good to luck to all indie game developers! 💪
Thx
Same to u!
Same bruv
Much thanks comrade
Besides from yanderedev
Can someone teach me how to be motivated in learning code. I want to try to make some games in the side but i need to learn code
Not only do I like seeing the games that people make, I enjoy hearing people's success stories from making games. It's an inspiration to all of us.
Thanks for the shoutout! I was wondering where all the new subs were coming from :)
Thanks for popping by! We loved your video on Mortal Glory!
What coding Language did you use
Finally, something to motivate me for my new project which will never finish
I released a pay-what-you-want game on itch in 2018 and that's made £21 from at least two months of work.
It's not really about making money but the 7 times I got a notification knowing someone chose to send me money always left me feeling complete.
Nearly impossible to make any decent money through services like Itch since 90% of what they have are free to play games.
Hence why he said he didn’t care about the money. Thanks for repeating what he said it was helpful.
Please continue to make content like this. You are amazing and really inspiring to those of us on the beginning of our journey. Thanks!
I'd say this video represents the odd success rather than what regular indiedevs make. I think if anything this gives false hope to a lot of people who think they will be the next Valheim or Stardew valley. I mean sure, it's possible, it's just extremely unlikely.
If you make a good game and let people know, someone will buy it.
true, but this video is just an example, it shows the potential of what you can do,
Most indie devs are filled with copium. It's like wannabe actors
11:11 It's a flat fact of human biology that working 15 hours a day is extremely unhealthy, both mentally and physically. It's highly irresponsible to not point this out, while appearing instead to congratulate such practices.
And that is why the game is so successful. It is a ridiculous amount of sacrifice and sitting down all day will shorten the life of your heart
@@ph-vf5hx I hear what you're saying, but I'm highly skeptical of the idea that we need to work 15 hour days to make successful games.
Regarding this game in particular, the Stardew Valley developer said they started working 15 hour days after the game released. Since a large portion of game sales come soon after release, the developer was likely putting in long hours in response to high sales, not in order to save a failed game.
We also know that crunch is unnecessary in AAA studios. Prior to the release of Cyberpunk 2077, it was discovered that the studio was mandating crunch. Many people defended the practice, saying that it was a necessary part of game development. However, a developer who worked on Crusader Kings 3 noted that they had not done ANY crunch, and they had just shipped a very successful game.
Finally, think about it in regards to sleep. Few people disregard the necessity of sleep, so if a dev said they were working 18 hours a day (leaving less than 6 hours of sleep), people would rightly point out that this is counterproductive since sleep deprivation lowers productivity. But there are many other human needs besides sleep that must be fulfilled, or negative consequences are guaranteed to ensue. Humans are biological organisms, not robots.
sorry @p h if I'm spamming your inbox, but I'm trying to figure out why my comments keep being deleted. Is it just saying the word twitter?
Exactly
People tend to confuse passion with discipline, resulting in destructive work ethic and resentment over game development as a whole. If he really did work on his game 15 hours a day, the guy must've had alot of passion for his project; which is admirable. Does not mean he would want to spend 15 hours a day working for a game studio, totally different drive.
This is some great insight into what can happen with Indie developers. Enjoyed the video!
I really love this channel man it's design is so satisfying and professional and amazing
To all the game devs, I wish you the best of success in all areas of your game development.
Time management seems to be an equally important assest for game development
This channel is definitely going to blow up in the future! I'm subbing before it hits 1 million subscribers!
I loved the video, but I think there might be some 'survival bias' at play here. The video title gives the impression that these games are representative of indie games in general, but these are all fairly successful games. (According to ArsTechnica "~80% of Steam games earn under $5K in first two weeks".) Anyway, thanks for the stellar content, as always! 🙌 The video was very helpful in painting a mental picture of financial success.
Yeah, the title should represent "highly successful" games. I hope to one day hit that mark, but I know getting to that point will have a lot of crappy releases.
I like the fact that game developing is an industry that u can make tons of money not only working in studios but also by yourself. And It's super fun. One of the best industries out there for sure.
It is also an industry where you can lose your shirt and not make a fucking dime too. Don't forget that! There is no magic formula for success in video game development. For every 1 person that hits it big there are 1000 people behind them that get nothing for their hard work. You're basically just throwing your game into a pile of 20K other games and hope that somehow enough people buy it to make it worth while. It doesn't help either when services think they deserve a 30% cut for doing absolutely shit for you.
Excited to see the results
I would love to one day make the retro FPS game I’ve had tucked away in my brain for a decade. I’ve been writing ideas down for years now and and turning them into game design document. I don’t even want to make it for the money. I want to create something I’d love to play over and over again just for the fun. If others also want to play it that would be a cool bonus.
Yeah can’t wait to make this channels lists in general
In other words, you'll spend a metric ton of time and effort making a game, and you'll have to be super duper lucky to make almost any money from it!
Yes that goes with everything other than your basic 9-5
100% and I'm speaking from a dev of over 20+ years.
It's always interesting watching indie game devs that post these figures.
Ok but your primary objective in gamedev should NEVER be money
That takes the #2 spot lol
@@mellstardust2782 you have to enjoy making a game, whether you enjoy the process or like me just love designing something for people to enjoy. Without that, quality will suffer
@@mellstardust2782 first should always be creating the game itself
I like this channel and all the videos that you make.
Best information ever I have received
I love this channel, and the content produced is usually fairly flawless but I think this video is painting a very success biased picture. There were a couple mentions of slightly more realistic expectations but even those were doing fairly well. Valhiem and Stardew value are extreme outliers and should not really be mentioned except for in passing of "you could dream to hit big"... Even Loop Hero and Mortal Glory are doing fairly amazing for most indie games.
This is failing to consider the 100s of games that didn't do so well with their developers pouring loads of effort into. My own game for instance has sold less than 700 copies, covering not-quite 10% of development (including time at minimal cost of living rates) and even with that low amount it is doing better than I expected! I think a better picture would be to have 8 games getting $3,000 to $5,000 each, 1 or 2 games doing as well as Hive Time (90% costs recouped) and then mention the rest in passing as possible, but I don't think these should be expected.
I wish I were wrong here, I hope perhaps to be wrong - but it is dismal. I understand motivating and encouraging others, but also be honest about the risk.
Thanks for the kind words and feedback, and for also sharing your numbers! In our next video in this series we'll address this and also have a wider variety of examples :)
Same thought, Hive Time and Mortal Glory were good example on average 'practical' sample. While Valhiem and Stardew is top
If i start making money at any point, i will definitely share the numbers!
you again
@@fernandobrandt7230Seems like we are both addicted to gamedev videos.
@@PlayWithFurcifer yea
WOW loop hero's music is awesome!!!
sorry the video is not bad but its highly missleading in my opinion... you guys took some of the most successfull games on steam ever (Valheim, SDV) and another one that was a huge success (loop hero)...
Most games on steam sell far far far far less than those... My first Steam game made about 700 bucks and from that some goes to steam, some goes to the tax and i had in the end something like 200-300 euro which was the expanse of the music and the fee to sell your game on steam... it took me hundreds of hours to make this game and most indies actually end up like this, just to be less illusionary
I used to work in a big game development company. My first game as a solo developer, Partition Sector, was released on Steam in January. If it sold 100 units I would have considered that as a success, but it is nowhere near that so far. Fortunately I do not rely on game development to earn money. It's a Bomberman style game, not exactly a red hot genre, but has some original ideas. It does not look very good in screenshots. I spent 3 weeks making a trailer that I am fairly happy with, but it's a trailer which builds in intensity over time, and many viewers will only watch a trailer for a few seconds before making a judgement. If I discount the time I spent working on the game (treating it as a hobby), the game has made a profit, but only because my experience of working on it gave me material to write two magazine articles about the game's development. Of course, I might have made vastly more money if I'd spent all that time writing magazine articles instead of the game! For my next game I want to make sure it looks good in screenshots as early as possible, and base the amount of effort I put in on how much positive feedback I get. One final thing regarding crunch. Excessive crunch is the main reason I had to leave my old job in the games industry, due to the health problems it caused. By far the most lucrative thing for me would have been to stay healthy and keep working in that job (without pushing myself to the limit).
I see what you mean. The trailer made me feel like it was sort of like a meme game, especially with the MS paint like characters and goat bleeting, and if I had seen it without this comment's context, I probably would have only given it a few seconds of attention. But I'm also more of a single player game type, so a multiplayer-centric game wouldn't hold me, regardless.
this is amazing inspiring!!!! thank you
I'm trying to build a good game design portfolio as I already have a pretty decent 3d art portfolio. Can we get a video about building a good game design portfolio?
This was very helpful! Thank you!
I think we need to know exactly how much marketing these devs put in, as that and word of mouth is what can help decide if a game will make money or not.
question: is there a website where you can browse various game request for a price from people the you can take it and develop it for them?
I wouldn't say Loop Hero was a failed attempt for Ludum Dare 45, as I remember people praising the game from the comment section. Sure it wasn't completed as it had high ambitions, but it was playable and it did fit the theme well with starting from nothing.
I am currently working on a video game. And I acctually don’t care about the numbers of course it would be nice to make some bucks with it. But I just develop games because I love it.
I feel like taking hits such as Valheim and Loop Hero isn't representative
nice to see a new video been a while
I can't wait to be on one of these lists next year
Are you making a game currently?
@@henryboianimations4869 yea, but its not the game that will help me make a name for myself. I only just started using unreal because I can't code
@@kb470 Just an advice: don't be over ambitious, you will probably take years of failure until you make a game like those in the video
Bought Hallowknight digital and 2 physical copies. That is how much i loved the game and wanted a sequal.
How much of a success of an indie game has to do with good advertising/marketing vs how good the game is? Might a game be more successful if indie devs offered a part of the profits to a marketing professional if the marketing professional boosted sales?
vast majority : in the red
high-end : all the money (mincraft)
like literally everything
April fools? No? Good, this was giving me some hope. Even a 500 bucks would be great from my first game. :D
I think the hourly wage would be something like 0.01 dollars, but if you get that by having fun then it’s all just a plus.
I have spent 3 years in making 2 android games .. they are free games and with ad revenues.. total revenue i got is just 10 $ but i spent almost 140$ for marketing.. thats my story.. my games may not be good..
@@empty8537empty your 3rd game will be incredible 😊❤
@@BrawlerDoge thanks mate.. may be u can check out my old game or its trailer from my this youtube account.. game is called outbreak19
@@empty8537empty what are your games? I'm interested!
@@mohammadazad8350 hi md azad.. u can find my games in the below links
1 play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.maddytroupe.outbreak19
2
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.maddytroupe.aliensandangels
3
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.vcreate.resorts
Hope u will check them out.. thank u
A bit weird the revenu of Stardew Valley isn't mentioned.
Can we make big and unique games in core open alpha
Keep up the awesome content!
I have starting moving in this stream since 09th July (my 25th Birthday) learning C# along with 10hrs Job (joined sep 2020) Gurugram India 🇮🇳
I will be a Game developer very soon
I’m going to assume you cherry picked only the most successful developers and left out the hundred of games that get uploaded by random indies everyday and don’t even get touched
Very inspiring 😊😊😊
Check out Hellish Quart - an indie game about realistic fencing developed by only 2 people.
Will do - thanks for the recommendation!
Nice !
I make nothing from my indie games! LOL! I make money from a day job! It is rare for a developer to be big enough to support themselves. I recommend investing yourself in an education or trade school so that you can get a job that pays the bills. Game dev is a big gamble, where maybe 1% make it. Keep in mind you are living real life where you can easily fail, and that life is not a Hollywood movie! (There isn't a guaranteed happy ending!)
3:22 whoop that's a bingo.
Hi guys, I think it could be useful to give some insight on some numbers.
The first game from "Force of Habit" says that has £16k development costs... I am a senior game dev in London so let's break down the programming costs supposing that figure would have been for a single programmer only (which I don't think it's the case here since they were a team of two).
8 months are roughly 176 working days so 16k / 176 = £90.9 per day or £11.3 per hour.
This is the equivalent of £23k gross year salary (as a permanent employee earning £90 per day) which you get as a junior dev, fresh from the University. Even a year or two later, this is a very optimistic estimation of the costs.
Just to give you an idea, I pay my cleaning lady £14 per hour.
This calculation is done based on 5 working days per week and 40h per week.
It is very important to consider at what point of your career you will make an indie game because the cost will go up with the seniority.
If I would do something similar, with similar earnings, I would lose tens of thousands of pounds in dev costs.
short story long...make games because you love making games and never expect to break even, just like making music or running a UA-cam channel. Never stop...most of us will die as nobodies, but what else are you going to do??? You will never be a champion watching from the stands! Sad video but great to hear the truth...thank you for the video! :D
Thank you
have you been the voice actor of a youtube channal called sta studio
Amazing Video! guys i have A SERIOUS QUESTION i am currently developing a game called Nekros a Metroidvania, the intention is to sell it for 15 dollars, my question is: how much does the game developer gains per dollar charge? ,i know there are several variables,such as publisher deals,discounts, people you gotta pay,royalties.... but i think there are a lot of people with that same question
I Hope you guys see my message and hopefully make a video of it,if you already have,please link it,i will love to see it.
Hi, It's different with every store steam takes a %30 cut , Itch on the other hand let's you decide whether you want to pay them anything at all so you can keep all profit. Epic games takes %12 but if you use Unreal Engine which I highly recommend "if you want FREE 8k textures DLSS 2.0 , Ray Tracing and recently the coolest 3D character creator ever and I mean ever", they take nothing until you make over $1 million USD only then they'd take a %5 cut.
@@bassemzammeli1553 so i should just hard calculate things like 15$ x 100.000 = 1.5million less those percentages? i mean not saying i will sell a 100k units,but like wouldn´t a lot of game devs be stupid rich?
@@OMIBR yes if you make $1000 on steam you get $700 on epic you get $880 or $1000 if you use Unreal Engine. And mobile platforms are worse usually people sell much less units on Android google takes %30 and if you run ads they take %50 , IOS is really hard to put apps on so I don't really know what they charge.
@@bassemzammeli1553 50% on ads is tough,though i understand if it a F2P game
@@OMIBR yea google is tough like that and you need a lot of ads in order to make any money you can end up with 20 cents for 10 thousand ad views depending of views location. So you are better off just selling the game for a couple of bucks.
Damn, that's a lot
The chances of getting rich with your indie game are still better than becoming rich with your indie album, movie, or novel... but not by much.
Everybody's making games now ...
Nowadays already impossible to success to indie developers with zero marketing, especially in Google Play store. To be featured on a store it's like winning a lottery. From my experience in a puzzle & board indie game development.
Great
your title is misleading, you said indie game. but the first game you know is from a studio that has a publisher. come on people. CLICK BAIT !!!!!
Well, there are more profitable businesses. But there's freedom and creativity.
survival bias
In the case of Stardew Valley, how did he have the money to work 10 hours a day on a project that didn't bring in any money for four years?
Wife
Jason Schreier actually interviewed him for his book "Blood, Sweat & Pixels". His wife supported him through the entirety of the development, even working 2 jobs. Schreier's book is actually a pretty entertaining read.
he worked as an usher part time maybe
"Not enough" - Could have been a much shorter video.
I wouldn't get into it for money if I was you.. Get into it because you love games... That's my advice...
Exactly, that's where most ppl do wrong... You do it because you like it, in your free time
@@Asky_ i think i know a lot more about it than you do...so buzz off...
Nice ! Now give us the "not cherry picked data" ! You know the real average across the platforms...
Why does the narrator sound like the guy from the infographics show
they dont make that much but they make very beautiful games at very low cost ..i love indie developers ,truely fun and new ideas
Check out Bright Memory, it's somehow made by one dude and it looks amazing
Stardew: Working 10 hours a day for 4 years
No mention of how he covered his living expenses during this time.
Google says 4000$ median.
Yeah this is definitely a concern for me, I’m close to finally releasing my first game on mobile, but the closer I get the more anxious I get about how it’ll do.
Money isn’t the issue since I have a full time job and I’ve been working on it when I can (for my next project I’m definitely going to schedule my development process out lol). However I do hope it gets some attention even though it’s more of an arcade game instead of a big budget mobile game.
Best of luck to you. Hollar the title so we can watch for it?
So what's your game and how did it do?
what’s the game title?
I'm surprised people selling dollars make money at all.
+1sub
I am in the process of making my 1st open world game by myself at moment to proceed with my dream of owning my own studio.
Hows it going ?
How u earn
Starving artist is a cliche for a reason…
A little one sided eh?
I dont think people should count their time as a cost
Than you can't find proper cost of anything.
If time is not valuable for you , then what is?
nice ;D
What is indie games is it from American
Independent, usually a smaller studio.
So these games outside of the Viking one have made less than the views that you have 😂🤷🏼♀️🤔
Can someone tell me why almost all indie games are 2d?
2D graphics are easier/cheaper to make.
I'll spoil this. 95% of Indie games make ZERO dollars.
brotato made around 11 million dollars
But usually, indies make zero money!
How Much Money Do Indie Games Make? Answer, how long is a piece of string?
You can make for a living as indie developer only if you are really successful...
No! That is not what is going through My mind! So greedy! Lame of you to assume I am that down! I do that because I enjoy it!
well, this isn't a fair sample of how much indies win normaly, valhein is a extreme exception
So what I learned making games is not profitable for the majority,
This video is really irresponsible. Most game only sell 500 copies. Marketing and a publisher might push that to 10-50 thousand copies. Telling people they can make 100 of thousands of dollar off there indie game is like telling them they can win the lottery. A better message is dont make indie games to get rich bc your going to be poor. If your lucky do everything right and the stars align they maybe you have a chance.
Self publish, +3 years, $10,000 ish dev cost, steam 464 units , itch.io
What is your game bro?
So much FUD in the comments lol I take it as motivation
To earn, make hypercasual games
ONE HUNDREDTH COMMENT, YEA BOI