How MUCH will a GAME DEV MAKE off their FIRST INDIE GAME? - My REAL Indie Game Sales AT LAUNCH

In this INDIE GAME DEV video, I break down the real number of sales I made for my first indie game, Toby's Topsy Tale, at launch. This includes a detailed breakdown of my social media following stastics, the number of wishlists on Steam I had when the game came out, and the overall state of my indie game marketing and how that relates to the actual money my game has made.

Here's a little bit of detail about the game itself:
I use Unity, Playmaker, and Blender 3D to make my indie game, called Toby's Topsy Tale which was funded on Kickstarter. It is a psychological horror 3D platformer with Lovecraftian elements (which means inspired in part by the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Super Mario).
The dev logs I made were meant to serve as a way for me to track progression as I work towards my dream of being a solo indie game dev. Game design is hard but it's easier with such a great community! The game is now available on Steam (Obviously)
For the record, I make my games with no coding (using playmaker which is similar to Bolt) and with no school or formal education in game design, meaning I'm entirely self taught. I only express this because I'm hoping it makes you realize that no matter what YOU can make video games as well!This is hopefully of interest to people who play games as well as those actively pursuing their indie game dev journey and those who have an interest in someday learning how to make games!Keep up the motivation!

Speaking of which, make sure you LIKE and SUBSCRIBE!

Here's the link to my Discord if you're interested!

WISHLIST or BUY NOW on STEAM!

[dragonmagicstudio]

Thats the reward that is the most important, you finished a full game and released it, most indie devs even dont reach this point.
Congrats

[robat]

As a budding game developer I'm glad to see this kind of video exist I've seen a lot of people believe that if the first game they make isn't successful then they shouldn't do game development anymore even if they have high potential
Even though the success of your game is a mix of skill and luck(skill with making it high-quality and luck with having the right people play it and spread word of it)
The first game I'm developing I do not want to worry about it making money so I am right now planning on making it free for now

[sventomasek]

I've been making games since I was 13 (20 now) and have made a total of $74 from them, which is about $50 after tax. I would love to turn this into my job some day but I primarily make games because I love making them and it makes me happy when someone leaves a comment that they enjoyed my game.

[quincyisrandom]

Firstly, congrats on the release!
Secondly, great video! Nice to know what your opinions on this are, a summary of the experience you had and your feelings going forward.

[SuperDutchrutter]

Congrats on the release! I remember watching devlogs before it took the horror twist—if I’m not confused.

[vidvad]

Congrats on releasing a game! Hitting a homerun on a first try is incredibly unlikely and I think no indie dev should ever aim for that. Dream big, but dream realistically!
I love your attitude, you seemed pretty down to earth and it's inspiring. You earned a new sub! I hope you go on and do another project 🙏

[name]

huuuuge congrats on the release! as someone who has done, and wants to work in game development, it is such a high effort process and i have mad respect for anyone who manages to finish a game, let alone one they’re proud enough to sell.

this was a really nice and encouraging video! i hope some day i can finish a game and be as proud of it as you are of Toby’s Topsy Tale. also it should’ve made ONE GORBILLION DOLLARS this game looks so fun im gonna wishlist it right now!

[EZHNO]

Congrats on the release! I had a pretty similar experience with my first release. Got overwhelmed with how much was needed to complete the game and barely did any marketing. I posted 3 videos, a few shorts, and did a few streams, I had maybe 5k views total across all platforms at the time of release and I had not sent a single email out to anyone. I managed to get 300+ wishlists by release and have gotten 54 sales total, with most of those being in the first month of release.

The financial results are underwhelming, but after seeing videos like yours I am more grateful for what I did get. It's really not that bad considering I had no marketing, did no market research, was self taught and only ran 1 playtest during development. Money or not, Its still a valuable experience that I will always have in the bag. I am a way better developer, artist, etc. than I am when I started and now I have a way better frame of reference for how and what I need to do. There is so much to learn in game dev and it requires a huge investment of time to get into (especially when solo), that it is unlikely anyone's first game is going to be worth it financially.

[TheGonzaDev]

Congrats! and I'm glad to see you enjoyed the process, looking forwards to your future projects :)

[porterbrown]

oh it released
heheh... *oops* (could've sworn steam notifies you directly when something releases on wishlist but not for me apparently)

once again, good job

[gnastygames]

Your devlogs inspire me every time I see them come up, and this video really helped me to feel like it's okay if my game never makes it big, I'm doing it for me.
I haven't had a chance to play Toby's Topsy Tale yet (haven't had much time for gaming since my son was born 7 months ago), but the christmas break period is coming up and I should have some free time then so I will be sure to buy it and maybe no life it before I have to go back to work lol.
@8:56 I hope to be able to say this too some day

[Visnii]

a real inspiration for me now, I'm about to release my first game, that I made in four months with 75 wishlists, never expected profit, but its a personal goal

[jom]

I think having sold a game for 30 or so people is actually a pretty impressive achievement

[ManaCoder-hy]

Not too bad, I made a banana clicking game in 4 days, and sold 35 copies. It wasn't bad it was just a trial to see how releasing a game is like and the results. I think if you already have marketing steam will push u further if not steam algorithm will just drop you most likely. My advice would be to find a game idea that garners a lot of interest first then start developing the game, or do market research in what people like, unless you just wanna make whatever you want and not care about sales, either one works.

[Pixelkabinett]

I do wonder if some marketing would have helped!

[noisecrime]

Thank you for publishing your sales data and providing your thoughts.

If I may though, I cannot understand why you've hidden your game behind this white shroud in the video. I mean I understand the need for having an interesting background and due to presenting information you'd need to fade it out to push it into the background. I can even understand not wanting to be seen to use this video as a promotion of the game, albeit I would find that an odd position. However it appears the YouTube algorithm blessed this video and put it into my feed ( and hopefully many other viewers), and while the information is great, I actually have no idea what your game is as I can barely see it!

Something that may have worked is to have the video exactly the same, but shrink the character on the left and place a small box out of the game video that is playing in the background also play there but without it being faded away.

[Nashfanfl]

Question how long did you have your steam page up for? Only reason I ask is because 300 wishlist's is pretty low.

[euducationator]

Does the number of copies sold include people who got the game as a kickstarter reward?

[kreenbopulusmichael]

Ill keep it real, I always assumed everything in the devlogs was placeholder and you would one day overhaul it all.

it just looks very low effort, not low quality, it looks low effort.

and I wish I had a nicer way to make this criticism

[milkyywayyyy]

Why did you release the game with only 300 wishlists? You pretty much doomed the game to failure.