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Most indie devs make games just for the sake of it but, what if you have goals of making money with the game you're gonna make?
This question sounds stupid as there are a lot of successful indie games out there that made a ton of money. Examples like Hollow Knight, Minecraft, Terraria and some indie companies evolved into industry monsters, i.e. Mojang.
Even decently popular games have good cashflow
The CENTS framework has all of the components ticked off:
Control? You're developing your game with a team - you can choose - so obviously you have a lot of control. A 3rd party game publisher is optional as examples of indie games with no 3rd party game publishers include Hollow Knight and Vampire Survivors. You or your team can be the publisher.
Oh and the Unity game engine disaster? Yeah, just choose a different game engine. And there's nothing stopping you from making your own game engine or hiring a programmer to make one for you.
My only concern with this is the platform in where you choose to sell you game i.e. Steam takes a cut with every purchase of your game
Entry? Finding a person that's a good artist, music composer and a programmer at the same time is near impossible, so this is obvious. And a reason why most indie devs are teams.
Need? Now this is where stuff gets tricky. Making a good blend of genres is hard ngl. Every game has it's own flaws. Hollow Knight is designed for the Try Hards or the people that just want an experience when playing, Minecraft is for the creative/hard working people itching to build an empire and Vampire survivors is "Dopamine simulator" said by one review. You got to cater to certain group of players that don't have a game to play yet and I have seen that happen before my eyes with Dome Keeper.
Time? Obviously people can buy your game anytime of the year, and providing new content/dlcs keeps the fanbase throwing money at you, as long as the content you provide is 10/10, Hollow Knight is an amazing example of this.
Scale? Share it on the internet or some platform and market it, BOOM scale.
So what are your opinions on developing a game as a path to make money?
This question sounds stupid as there are a lot of successful indie games out there that made a ton of money. Examples like Hollow Knight, Minecraft, Terraria and some indie companies evolved into industry monsters, i.e. Mojang.
Even decently popular games have good cashflow
The CENTS framework has all of the components ticked off:
Control? You're developing your game with a team - you can choose - so obviously you have a lot of control. A 3rd party game publisher is optional as examples of indie games with no 3rd party game publishers include Hollow Knight and Vampire Survivors. You or your team can be the publisher.
Oh and the Unity game engine disaster? Yeah, just choose a different game engine. And there's nothing stopping you from making your own game engine or hiring a programmer to make one for you.
My only concern with this is the platform in where you choose to sell you game i.e. Steam takes a cut with every purchase of your game
Entry? Finding a person that's a good artist, music composer and a programmer at the same time is near impossible, so this is obvious. And a reason why most indie devs are teams.
Need? Now this is where stuff gets tricky. Making a good blend of genres is hard ngl. Every game has it's own flaws. Hollow Knight is designed for the Try Hards or the people that just want an experience when playing, Minecraft is for the creative/hard working people itching to build an empire and Vampire survivors is "Dopamine simulator" said by one review. You got to cater to certain group of players that don't have a game to play yet and I have seen that happen before my eyes with Dome Keeper.
Time? Obviously people can buy your game anytime of the year, and providing new content/dlcs keeps the fanbase throwing money at you, as long as the content you provide is 10/10, Hollow Knight is an amazing example of this.
Scale? Share it on the internet or some platform and market it, BOOM scale.
So what are your opinions on developing a game as a path to make money?
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