The TRUTH About Making Money as a Game Developer...

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► Description
Chapters:
00:00 - how to make money as an indie game developer
00:40 - method 1
02:47 - method 2
04:46 - method 3
07:29 - Brilliant
08:31 - outro

When starting indie game development, it can be very common to think that you'll strike it rich. But indie game development is largely a business that sees very few high profile successes compared to other fields. Its easy to get caught up in the stories about legendary indie game dev millionaires, but that is not commonplace.

In this video, I try to answer the fundamental question of how to make money as an indie game developer. I've tried to identify 3 main methods for monetization of game dev, and really any side project.

I do think it is important to note that although your indie game, or game development in general made not be a huge financial success, it is a huge accomplishment to release an indie game at all! Regardless, I hope these methods on how to make mondey as an indie game developer are useful!

Comment down below any other methods for indie game dev monetization that I didn't mention!
If you liked this video, consider checking out some other related videos!
ByteOfMichael - I Studied Game Dev for 10 Hours... Here's Why
Thomas Brush - 5 Ways To Make $100,000 By Making Games
Thomas Brush - Why Most Indie Game Developers Don't Make Money
Goodgis - How I Actually Make Money From Indie Games
Yannick - How much Money does my Mobile Game Make? (after 4 weeks)

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This video is sponsored by Brilliant.

► d i s c l a i m e r
I do not claim to own any or all of the pictures/footage that may be shown in this video.
All of my opinions are entirely my own and do not represent any company I work for or am affiliated with.
Any financial topics discussed are not financial advice.

Channel produced by Rainy Sunday LLC.

[litjellyfish]

Problem is not this. Problem is the game itself and marketing.

Many indie devs are simple not good business or product (game) people.

And the competitions today is a lot harder = even more focus on above is needed.

[StrQust]

Diablo 4 isn't free to play. its a 70 dollar game with monetization. Just odd you showed that as the free to play game section.

[joantonio]

The problem is simply that way too many indie game are just bad, look cheap and ugly...

There is a believe in the indie community that your game has to look bad or pixels art... Very few wants to make the effort to actually learn how to make their game look good.... They are simply not entrepreneur... They think they just make a game in 4 months, get some wishlist and money will come. Some said that $40 a month for marvelous designer is too much, ... That show the mindset. I remember one time someone simply asked why indie do not try to make beautiful game on itch because it can be easier to market... They went hard on that guy, they insulted him, trashed him for just asking why they do not try to make better looking games.

So do not blame the sky and the gods for your game failing, just look at the product you released.

[Justin-spkz]

Professional SWE here, starting into game dev as a hobby. Excited to be making games whether or not it makes money.

Fun fact however: Steam allows people to sell Steam keys of their games however they want (humble bundle, for example) and if they are sold outside of Steam, Steam won’t take a cut despite it being in their Steam library and from a Steam key.

[paluxyl.]

That means, for the majority of devs are all the game engines for free, because they will never earn enought that they reach the mark to pay fees to Unreal or Unity.

[yokitosyosko]

The truth about being a soccer player
The truth about being a race car driver
The truth about being an artist
The truth about life - be exceptional...
I hate titles like these on videos tbh
Your mistakes say nothing about the market.

I wish you all the best:)

[xEndless]

Nowadays it is difficult to stand out from the crowd with self-developed games on the modern games market. You should keep in mind that the teams of large companies such as Ubisoft, Nintendo, etc. consist of a team of over 100 people. Of course, they are more capable of bringing us professional and clean games than we as a single person dev taking the matter into our own hands. With experience alone, we need about half a year to a whole year to make the game even functional. With 2D games we now have even worse cards on the market, because the expectations of the players will soon exceed the computing power of my computers. We have to spend a lot of time making the game good enough for people to pay for it. On the other hand, we would otherwise have to do it like other companies: find a small team and divide the profits fairly.

[BLOW_G]

Too bad for you brother keep Going you'll make it one day.

Maybe the problem is us indie dev we are too focus on how to make money but we should be focus on how to make a better or a good game.

I think we makes games now too for money and anymore for the love of making game.

But that love cannot make you eat i know that

But if notch had make minecraft just for the money maybe every would never played at this game.


( excuse my english, in my country we talk french, but because I had watch many English video about indie dev i speak and write a lil bit )

[gameworkerty]

the graph at 2:15 is interesting but a really weird choice, is the Y axis....logarithmic? how does it scale like that? Why is the Y axis dollars instead of the percentages along the X axis?

[mikhailhumphries]

whats better? to make small games on mobile quickly or get more money with longer time developing on steam/console

[kurthunden]

Hi. Do you know if I put a game on a platform like appstore and people can buy it there or people can buy extra things in the game. Will I have to keep the game there on appstore forever? You know, so that people always have access to their product. Can I not remove it again if I five years from now dont want to pay appstore for having it there anymore. Or can i run into legal problems if I remove it later

[slackamacgaming]

I'm gonna make 0 also...I'm just making games I wanna play...cause MOST games nowadays are just BOOTY...

[GibonArt_]

Start search publisher...good publisher.

[Finster-cflr]

could i ask the name of the 3 games at 3:13 ?

[BGMKE]

Could I ask what program what shown at 6:53?

[Chromatic_Gacha]

Just got started with Godot and trying to learn it is not easy (since I’m new to the app) but I am determined to learn it I started by creating small simple games like maybe a ping pong game and work my way there right now I have an idea for a game I’ve been wanting to create ever since i started playing stardew valley it’s basically kinda similar to valley but way different instead of it being a farming simulator it’s more of an adventure/RPG type story were you play as a young vampire who just graduated high school and got accepted into a school full of different kinds of creatures like vampires werewolf etc but I gotta learn that coding first so that’s what I’ve been doing for two weeks is learn to code and I think I’m getting good at it too be honest with you

[denilopereira]

I was about to give a like, but the actual number is "666" and I just don't want to be the one messing with it

[NeonRayn]

Never work with a publisher if you are and indie dev! thank me later