I didn't wanna sell shovels for stupid reasons...

[luniac]

Reason 1
I wanted the glory of finding gold.
Reason 2
I didn't wanna sell shovels without a guarantee my customers would find gold.

These are stupid reasons, i'm over them now...

Video game development has exploded. Game engines like Unity and Unreal and distribution platforms like google play, appstore, and Steam have drastically lowered entry barriers to game dev.

Everyone and their mother, and myself are makin games now.
There's a thing called Unity Asset Store, where people sell "shovels" for game developers, aka plugins of all types to assist game developers on their gold digging journeys.

I've personally spent hundreds on plugins.
3 years back i even casually released a game project i made in college for 10 bucks AND for free, and actually earned 100 dollars in random sales over 3 years.

Despite the above facts and despite reading the fastlane my mind never went "hmmm i made 100 bucks with 0 effort on presentation, marketing, and exposure... perhaps this is the gold rush to sell shovels for... there's so much opportunity and so many infinite ways to service game developers..."

but no i was an idiot. rant over.

EDIT:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/
i mean look at this place man!
you can sell anything from code to 3d models to audio clips and music. the opportunities are endless!

 

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[Nily]

The game dev scene evolves just like any industries.

Quite sure there are gaps or underserved markets you can look into, since certain shovels are harder to manufacture than others.

 

[Andy Black]

Nothing wrong with selling shovels... or doing the digging.

There's marketplaces everywhere, especially where a few people are coining it and others rush in. I'm always fascinated by all these ecosystems.

Lol... I do wonder sometimes whether the new gold rush is selling shovels.


Something that resonates from your post is how we can quietly make money from a source and completely discount it instead of growing it.


Oh, and me personally, I want to dig for gold instead of selling shovels.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Oh, and me personally, I want to dig for gold instead of selling shovels.

I'm undecided, and leaning more toward digging as well.

Somehow selling shovels doesn't seem as fulfilling to me (at least so far).

 

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[ZF Lee]

Reason 1
I wanted the glory of finding gold.
Reason 2
I didn't wanna sell shovels without a guarantee my customers would find gold.

These are stupid reasons, i'm over them now...

Video game development has exploded. Game engines like Unity and Unreal and distribution platforms like google play, appstore, and Steam have drastically lowered entry barriers to game dev.

Everyone and their mother, and myself are makin games now.
There's a thing called Unity Asset Store, where people sell "shovels" for game developers, aka plugins of all types to assist game developers on their gold digging journeys.

I've personally spent hundreds on plugins.
3 years back i even casually released a game project i made in college for 10 bucks AND for free, and actually earned 100 dollars in random sales over 3 years.

Despite the above facts and despite reading the fastlane my mind never went "hmmm i made 100 bucks with 0 effort on presentation, marketing, and exposure... perhaps this is the gold rush to sell shovels for... there's so much opportunity and so many infinite ways to service game developers..."

but no i was an idiot. rant over.

EDIT:
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/
i mean look at this place man!
you can sell anything from code to 3d models to audio clips and music. the opportunities are endless!

I think the term 'gold' or 'shovels' is pretty subjective here. Pretty depends on how well you adapt to market opportunity, your skillset and your networks....what resources you have at hand which you can make the best use of.

I rip on video game markets because the 'Need' factor is temporary...lasts at most six months and then it fades away. Gamers typically keep moving on to the latest hits, so I am not counting on banking on 'crazes' for Fastlane passitivity. However, people will keep buying the same good old food, tools, books and other things thye really need to survive and dominate, probably for a lifetime.

But you get lots of free marketing....bloggers and Youtubers go gameplay videos without you paying them...quite a bonus.

But I think that 'selling shovels' for gamemakers has been compromised. There are lots of fans or hardcore nerds who actually develop mods for free, Yup, free. There's a black market for video game accessories. Too easy to scale and distribute without care for payments or royalties....more vulnerable to online piracy

I think the next frontier is VR...found a lot of videos on virtual reality gaming. Looks good...even Amazon desires to tap into that sector. You might have another shot at this, @luniac.

And remember, just because every Tom, Dick and Harry are making games, doesn't means that its gonna be a thriving market. Most of them will drop right out once they see sad sales or run into all kind of tech and bug issues. The others that make it big are more likely to have their own design people rather than rely on outside sources for game crafting. The best target customers would be indies, but even that I don't see them staying there forever to stay as big buyers. At best, if I were into video games, I would supply skins, audio and other stuff as a side channel for just another cashflow funnel besides the main work of game making, extending my range of product offerings.

EDIT: And on glory, glory comes when people pay you cash for your services or products, spread the word about you so widely or you sell your company for millions, as a result of good execution. Not because you went into X industry like everyone else.....

Glory comes from slaying dragons, not from just holding a big sword in your hands like everyone else.

 

[The-J]

Gold rushes come in waves. If you were selling fidget spinners 2 months ago (and you had the capacity), you would have made millions very very quickly. Manufacturers of fidget spinners are making bank right now. Some people make a lot of money making videos of fidget spinners.

There is no 'right way' or 'wrong way'. I make my living selling shovels at the moment. Some people dig for gold. Others prospect for gold. Even others look for newer materials that can do what gold does, but better. Even others spend their time trying to figure out what that new material might be. Even others come up with models for discovering new materials. It goes back far: real far. Everyone in the chain is getting paid. That's capitalism.

Where do you best fit?

 

[SparksCW]

Sell shovels and dig for gold as well?

We currently "dig for gold" but we're moving more and more into "selling shovels" at the same time

Win-Win

 

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[luniac]

You guys are right, i've been looking at it too black and white.
There is glory in selling great shovels, and an opportunity is an opportunity, shovels or gold is superficial.

thanks.

 

[MitchC]

You guys are right, i've been looking at it too black and white.
There is glory in selling great shovels, and an opportunity is an opportunity, shovels or gold is superficial.

thanks.

People need shovels to dig for gold, if you're helping someone do something they couldn't do, do something faster, easier or better, then you're providing huge value, maybe much more than just delivering the finished product. It's all about value not gold or shovels.

 

[broswoodwork]

I spent my 20's digging for shovels with gold... I had it all backwards.

Now I just make and sell stuff, or rather, I sell it first; then, I use the buyer's money to make it.

 

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[Ravens_Shadow]

@luniac i'm in this industry heavily with the unreal marketplace. A number of my friends make upwards of $30k a month doing assets for video games. My software is directly tailored to this market. It's huge

 

[luniac]

@luniac i'm in this industry heavily with the unreal marketplace. A number of my friends make upwards of $30k a month doing assets for video games. My software is directly tailored to this market. It's huge

that's epic(no pun intended)

i have an asset pending review right now, i made it out of my own solution for one of my games. don't know if the market will bite but worth a try.

I also got a bigger asset planned, would be way better than the competition on the store now. But that's gonna take some work.