

How much will your first indie game make? - bemmu
http://ramiismail.com/2012/07/how-much-will-your-first-indie-game-make/

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dsirijus
It is interesting to note how the biggest earner (High Vaultage) is a straight
up generic launcher game clone.

The general fault of indie game developing is the lack of proper motivation.
Most just try to grab some money without real development team, and hope to
live of it. Now, that can work, but rarely. Succesful attempts at that are
succesful under many conditions: being meticulous with development, aiming for
lowest common denominator gameplay, not trying to innovate and preferably
clone popular mechanics, and having discipline to ship it. Examples:
Cyclomaniacs, Burrito Bison, Kingdom Rush.

In my book, that's not indie, it's built on monetization from starting game
design. And that's precisely why it fails.

The process at most sucessful indie games was actually quite opposite. Let's
create something we want to play, and meanwhile or even just at the end of it,
try to monetize. Or not even bother with it. Examples: Braid, World of Goo,
Meatboy.

EDIT: Added some reference game titles.

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seagaia
Thank you for bringing this up. I would still draw the "indie" label at a
small dev team, but those games you mentioned - at least Burrito Bison - while
fun, and it has some interesting bells and whistles but at the end of the day
isn't particularly meaningful - just press a button and sit back, maybe have a
few interactions with it in-game, buy a few things, wash and repeat. They're
still "indie", but perhaps in a whole different level of games, compared to
Super Meat Boy or Braid...there is no way the intention wasn't to make
something addictive that would monetize well. But, it is the Flash game market
and to make a living off of that, that's what you have to do, I suppose.

Thanks for reminding me why I even do game development. Occasionally I get too
wrapped up in marketing and the like...trying to think how I'll make any money
off of it, and while important, what's the most important is the actual game
itself (who would've thought?). Although to reiterate, I do understand why
Flash games tend to usually be different in terms of intention - it's hard to
deviate a lot from the formula and still manage to have food on your plate.

To add to stats, my first game sold for less than a thousand :P

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dsirijus
I'm not trying to be judgmental. Like you said, you need to put food on the
plate.

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seagaia
I know you're not - I just wanted to point it out for the audience who isn't
as familiar with the Flash game market.

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pliny
Beside the point: why do the pictures lean when I mouse over them? Who thought
this was a good idea? What does this accomplish?

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MSM
This really tripped me out the first time I did it, I thought I had too much
caffeine already!

Actually, I kind of liked it.. though I have no idea why. Gimmicky.

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shangaslammi
Selling the game to a single, publisher-like entity through negotiation seems
like a pretty old-fashioned way to do it and an especially bad fit for a low-
budget indie game.

It would have been interesting to compare numbers if some of the teams would
have thrown their project to e.g. Kickstarter or sold it directly to consumers
via Steam or similar service.

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zaguios
If all of their other games are flash games like High Vaultage then it makes
sense to use the normal sponsorship model. The only other real ways of
monetizing in the flash industry include ads and non-exclusive licenses which
generally both make considerably less than a primary or exclusive license of
the game.

There is no way first time game developers could get their games on steam. If
High Vaultage was their best game then they would be laughed away pretty
quickly judging by how it scored on the popular portals such as Kongregate and
Newgrounds. As an experienced flash game developer myself I have managed to
make a game in a day that scored better on both those sites and probably also
received more plays overall. In order for Kickstarter to work properly for a
game you need to have a pretty huge following. First time developers have no
following; so unless they strike a chord with the gaming community, it would
be fruitless.

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talmand
I find it interesting that a portion of their grade is influenced by factors
somewhat outside of their control. Just because they were unable to
successfully negotiate a deal during the seminar doesn't necessarily mean it's
a game that won't sell, they may just need another round of negotiations. Plus
if the motivation was to complete negotiations for a good grade, then why not
just offer the game for $1? Was there some kind of threshold they had to meet
to be considered a "success"?

But it is an interesting concept. I've seen similar thoughts with web design
courses; teach web design/development while building a website for a paying
client.

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dsirijus
On wholly another level, you're great.

The most awesome thing to do on that semester would be to create a game you
love, and if it doesn't sell, sell it for a buck. Creative on so many levels.

~~~
talmand
Well, many people make games that they loved making and then release them for
free. Money is not always the only factor involved.

But my comment is about the course itself, not the games they make during the
course nor their emotional attachment to said games. The purpose of the course
was to learn something about business and that hopefully results in a good
grade. My question about the threshold is because, from what I read, it might
be possible to learn something, make a good grade, and not make any money. So
was making a certain amount of money a requirement to be considered a success
to get a good grade? I see nothing wrong with my question or comment.

Your sarcastic response is not helpful.

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dsirijus
Haha.

It wasn't sarcastic at all, I just applauded idea of passing the course by
selling for a $1.

~~~
talmand
I apologize then, I totally misunderstood your post.

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debacle
Shouldn't the answer overwhelmingly be $0?

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espinchi
The median of the revenue of an indie game is definitely very close to 0.

What they've done here is pretty impressive, congrats to the organizers and
students involved.

