How to lose money with your first game |
- How to lose money with your first game
- Hi Gamedev, If you are working on a project that requires church bells from the 18th century, I was able to record these sound effects direct from the rooftop of the church here in Malta. Greetings Marcel.
- 3 of us quit our jobs and put our life savings into Medievalian, out on Early Access today!
- (pre-alpha/prototype gameplay) I brought a team together (5 of us) to work on this game. We are now finally able to show a bit of what's about - CARAVEL: SET FORTH
- A tough decision im about to make. Help or information is really appreciated ♥
- The only tutorial you need to watch to make cables in Blender
- What Makes An Indie Hit? Hooks in Darkest Dungeon, Hades and Going Under
- Free pixelart software for mac?
- Random procedural generation: limiting randomness to generate high quality content
- MetaHuman Creator is Insane | Game Dev Reacts
- For the first time I finished making a complete game and put it up online. No one has downloaded it, still I feel so proud!
- Game Jam but it’s masterchef...
- Combining 3D mob models with 2D enviroments?
- Medieval Game Environment in UE4 by Quixel
- Devlog about my own-engine RTS - Improving the Editor; implementing new mechanics
- How to have the gamejam mindset outside of gamejams?
- Hey there devs, If the game that you are working on requires a Dissolve effect, I made this one in Unity. Hope it helps! :)
- Anyone had any luck selling merchandise for game?
- Minecraft free clone
- How I used an algorithm in Notion to prioritize my work
- Tips on starting out on building an audience for my game
- Maya or Blender - Workflow for game assets only
- how to increase sales on steam
- TX High School Sports Game and Copyrights
| How to lose money with your first game Posted: 11 Feb 2021 12:12 AM PST Hi everyone. Below there is a short postmortem of my first game "The Final Boss". TL, DR: I lost about $4,000. I was initially hesitant to make this postmortem because I'm a bit ashamed of myself for failing so miserably. "The Final Boss" is a 2D pixel-art action arcade, unfortunately with flat and boring gameplay. Developed since November 2018 and released on Steam in June 2019. I am only a programmer, so I had to hire artists for graphics, music, and sound. The excitement of finally creating my own video game was so high that I jumped on it without properly informing myself of the costs and issues first. Expense List:
I didn't include my personal development costs even though I should have. The graphics costs are due to the fact that I wanted to implement 6 levels; fewer levels but with a deeper gameplay would have been better. For the soundFX I discovered after the existence of sites with royalty-free music/sound. In general I should have focused on a simpler graphics but enrich the gameplay. Because of inexperience I didn't even do marketing, I released the game as soon as possible. Wishlist on release date: 110 day-1 conversion: 5.5% 1-week conversion: 8.2% Wishlist after one year: ≈ 1000 By November 2020, I had sold about 400 copies, almost all of them on 50% sale. The game was "dead in the water" by then, but I was invited to the Steam Fighting Event. I sold 380 copies in those 4-5 days. I was lucky enough to get featurated in the streaming videos both during the event and on the main page; my stream reached the peak of 5000 viewers. I'm not how come, I simply recorded a video with 45 minutes of gameplay, no speech. So after a year and a half: copies sold about 780, current wishlist 1900, refunded copies 53. Strangely there are so many reviews compared to the copies sold, maybe they wanted to give me moral support :D Total costs: $5,000, net profit $1,000 = -$4,000 loss. Conclusion: I lost a lot of money, but I gained some experience. Also I succeeded in not letting my wife know :D [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 11 Feb 2021 02:29 AM PST
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| 3 of us quit our jobs and put our life savings into Medievalian, out on Early Access today! Posted: 11 Feb 2021 09:40 AM PST
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| Posted: 11 Feb 2021 11:51 AM PST
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| A tough decision im about to make. Help or information is really appreciated ♥ Posted: 11 Feb 2021 11:34 AM PST So im a 20 year old guy currently studying computer engineering but i feel like i dont wont this to be my future job. I started to get interested in game design as i saw some interviews of game designers working at Blizzard and Naughty Dog. I was absolutely amazed by what their job is about at a point where i spent entire nights watching videos of known games being made. The thing is that im about to change my studies from computer engineering to an "animation and videogame" degree where they teach things such as game designing, programming and 3D/2D animation. But it turns out theres only outdated information about my 2 main walls within my decision 1st wall: I dont know if the degree is something i should have or if its irrelevant (some say its useless because you still need experience and others say its worth because you learn the basics + you need a college degree) 2nd wall: I dont know if the demand for game designers is in a good state (or if it will be in future). I've read its very hard to find a job, getting experience as a designer and that the job itself is really tough. If what i read is true i though that i could develop a game to gain experience on my own and study a 2year degree in computer engineering (lower academic lvl, not college) so in case i dont find the job i want, i can work as a comp engineer as a short therm thing (idk if that made sense). The conclusion is that i want to work in something related to videogames or animation/designing and if i finish comp engineering ill be for sure end up just coding, and i dont want that at all. Thank you to everyone replaying or just reading this. ♥ [link] [comments] | ||
| The only tutorial you need to watch to make cables in Blender Posted: 11 Feb 2021 08:16 AM PST
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| What Makes An Indie Hit? Hooks in Darkest Dungeon, Hades and Going Under Posted: 11 Feb 2021 04:20 AM PST I've found the idea of hooks, as put forward by Ryan Clark in his work to be a really useful and interesting one in thinking about creating appealing game designs. I recorded a video chewing over three roguelike games: Darkest Dungeon, Hades and Going Under to think about how they used hooks and how that played a factor in their relative amounts of success. I put links in the description of the video to the article and other talks I'm drawing from as well. Is this a useful idea do you think? Video link: [link] [comments] | ||
| Free pixelart software for mac? Posted: 11 Feb 2021 06:32 AM PST Hey, i am trying to make some stuff, ive tried multiple software, such as Gimp, and Krita, but they dont really suit me. Krita doesnt even work, when im trying to open a 16x16 thing, it just crashes, it does work with bigger stuff. Help would be really appreciated! [link] [comments] | ||
| Random procedural generation: limiting randomness to generate high quality content Posted: 11 Feb 2021 10:55 AM PST
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| MetaHuman Creator is Insane | Game Dev Reacts Posted: 11 Feb 2021 12:34 PM PST
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| Posted: 11 Feb 2021 12:19 PM PST I imagine many of you have published a game or even several. I also imagine many of you are like me (who haven't put anything out there before). My 'game' is a very tiny, not very good, game that I put up on itch.io. 6 people have seen its page, no one has downloaded it, and let me tell you I just feel so happy. I made something that has a beginning and an end! I wanted to make this post because I thought it may help alleviate feelings of stress some of you have voiced because your projects aren't fulfilling conventional terms of "success". Oftentimes posts on this subreddit see success in quite specific terms (that a game becomes popular/many people download it/it sells a lot of copies/is a monetary success etc.). And that is OK! For some that is what success means to them. For me personally something feels successful when I've been enthralled making it (even if no one else sees it/it makes no money).I imagine there are many gamedevs on here who see things in a similar manner, who don't mind the being anonymous creators just doing their thing. I feel honored to be one in a group of game developers who have made games almost no one saw, or who've only made incomplete projects, or developers who didn't make money/lost money on their games. I have seen examples of games that didn't sell/never finished and I've always looked at them and thought they look super cool. To all who read this, I see you! Regardless of the way you define success, I think the stuff you make is really valuable! And that's why I wanted to share my small victory with you! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My numbers: I've worked freelance as an artist/coder in Scandinavia. So I coded and made all assets for my game myself (it "only" cost my time). Below I calculate what my time "lost" cost me (or in other terms what I would have to earn to reimburse my time monetarily in the project). I do this even if monetary gain isn't what I'm looking for (and I don't see this as a loss) because I think it can be good to show how our time is valuable.
Total: -2100 - 0 - 1680 - 0 + 0 = -$3780 That means my game would have to earn $3780 for me to have a regular Scandinavian salary while making it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Anyhow, I hope this is meaningful to someone. I'm proud of all of you, please be kind to yourselves! Edit: grammar [link] [comments] | ||
| Game Jam but it’s masterchef... Posted: 11 Feb 2021 10:06 AM PST Hey so does anyone know if anyone has put together or tried to put together a YouTube series or something that is a game jam but in the style of shows like masterchef or similar "competition shows" cause I would watch the hell out of that. [link] [comments] | ||
| Combining 3D mob models with 2D enviroments? Posted: 11 Feb 2021 12:12 PM PST Hello. I'm working on a strictly top-down (like GTA 2, Darkwood, Hotline Miami) game. I can't decide whether I want to make it in 3D or 2D. I was thinking of drawing the enviroments on 2D, and rotoscoping some free 3D animations on a dummy I bought. Pros of 2D:
Cons:
Pros of 3D:
Cons of 3D:
Considering this, could there be a way to combine the best of each by using 3D mob (player and NPC) models, and 2D enviroment art? Can 2D art be given enough feeling of depth to not contrast heavily with the 3D mobs? Are there any examples of games that do it like this? [link] [comments] | ||
| Medieval Game Environment in UE4 by Quixel Posted: 11 Feb 2021 09:18 AM PST
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| Devlog about my own-engine RTS - Improving the Editor; implementing new mechanics Posted: 11 Feb 2021 06:31 AM PST
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| How to have the gamejam mindset outside of gamejams? Posted: 11 Feb 2021 08:55 AM PST I'm a solo gamedev, but I have these creative blocks unless I'm working on a gamejam. Whenever I do a gamejam I can do good productive work. But if I'm not in a jam then I can't do anything. At best I'll force myself to setup a new project, work on it for an hour or two and then lose all focus, can't decide what I'm even making and quit having not achieved anything. I've tried setting my own limits/time schedule like a jam but I guess because there's nothing to keep me honest it doesn't work. [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 11 Feb 2021 12:13 AM PST
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| Anyone had any luck selling merchandise for game? Posted: 11 Feb 2021 05:42 AM PST This is something I have been thinking about for a long time and that is if it would be worth selling merchandise for your game or at what point it could be something to consider. Have anyone tried it and had any luck with it? I am mainly thinking of things like 3D printed models, plushies, tshirts and mugs etc. I would think it would be worth it for really big games like Minecraft, Terraria and Stardew Valley etc. But I am curious if it can also be viable for smaller games. Curious if anyone here have any experience in this area? [link] [comments] | ||
| Posted: 11 Feb 2021 12:46 PM PST hi i make clone minecraft if you want to try my game you can click this link link : http://motriael.com/1UlT [link] [comments] | ||
| How I used an algorithm in Notion to prioritize my work Posted: 11 Feb 2021 08:41 AM PST
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| Tips on starting out on building an audience for my game Posted: 11 Feb 2021 08:39 AM PST Hello Everyone, so i am working on a game, called Amira. TLDR; i want to get started building an audience, but i do not know where to start/what to do. Small Intro: my game, is targeting the middle eastern (arabic) audience, as well as western audience, currently, my plan is basically, sharing weekly, on most arabic platforms that i know of, but i want to well, share and spread the word about my game in the more western side of things. The Problem: A.Blog i do have some experience, in wordpress, in fact i created a sort of page for the game (that sadly, uses a somewhat of an outdated photos/screenshots of the game) so i can manage creating a blog, but i am split on that, i hear they're out dated, and sometimes see some successful games, that had blogs like stardew valley, so no idea what to do on that end, but on the other side, i did create a blog and shared it on the middle eastern side of things, and it found, very little success/interactions. B.Discord for this, i have learned the technical side of creating it, but how to gain members/keep them engaged, and like, what to do is just, massively beyond me any and all ideas are helpful [link] [comments] | ||
| Maya or Blender - Workflow for game assets only Posted: 11 Feb 2021 12:20 PM PST Which one will give me a quicker workflow combined with Zbrush and Substance Painter for making game assets (edit: which then would be imported into UE4) if I get a solid grasp on, Maya or Blender? I'm having a big dilemma because I know that in the future I will have to go into the Maya anyway for animations but I'm not sure if prior work with game assets would somehow help me with animations in the future, ie getting familiar with ui and the way Maya works. [link] [comments] | ||
| how to increase sales on steam Posted: 11 Feb 2021 12:20 PM PST hello everyone i have released my first game ever on steam 10 days ago and it did better than what i expected for a 1.99 $ short indie horror game on steam i got 200 $ in the first 6 days and some positive reviews but suddenly sales dropped down from 20 units a day to 5 units only and that's expected for sure . is there is anyone here can help me and tell me how can i increase my steam sales if you have any other advice on marketing with a shoestring budget lol then i will be really grateful thanks and i hope that we can help each other [link] [comments] | ||
| TX High School Sports Game and Copyrights Posted: 11 Feb 2021 12:01 PM PST Hello everyone. I am getting my feet wet in developing my first game and I know I want it to target the High School Sports environment but I am not sure how things go as far as legality and copyrights when it comes to utilizing school names and player names. I wanted it to possibly be true to life but I don't mind an audible if it would help me avoid any issues. I thought it would be cool to have an ode to some of the greatest high school players some folks will never know because they either never played in college or didn't go to college. I know the kids would love to have their names a part of something like that. Any advice or ideas anyone can offer would be awesome and appreciated. [link] [comments] |
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