Yes, Virginia, There Is Money In Indie Games
There are lots of questions that get asked by newcomers to indie games like, "How much money can I make making indie games?" or, "How much money does the average independent game make?", or "How much money should I expect to make with my first game?" These are always difficult questions to answer, because it's like asking, "What do animals eat?" There are way too many variables to account for.

Fortunately, Cliff Harris of Positech Games, in a show of company transparency and a willingness to share what he's learned with others, has provided a some great sales data for his games at GameProducer.net. I'd like to offer a big ol' tip o' the beanie to Cliff for providing this data, and to Juuso at GameProducer.Net for posting it:

Positech Games Sales Data

Note that this can also be taken in context with a previous report of sales from last year to get an more interesting picture.

Cliff Harris (AKA "Cliffski") has become something of a hero of the indie game development community of late because he's been relatively successful selling games that are not knock-off casual-game portal-fodder. He's making the games he wants to make - now full-time. He's a "lone wolf" game developer in a world that has told us over and over again that there ain't no such thing anymore. He does most of his sales on his own site, rather than relying on portals for his primary distribution means.

He's doing it his way. And based on the numbers he provided GameProducer.net, he's making a go of it. Going over this and some previous posts, I found that Cliff's story is one getting told my many other successful indies, though all have a few differences. For those new to indie games, here are some points I noticed that rang familiar. And my apologies to Cliff Harris for dissecting his business like a dead frog in science class here, but I thought the commentary might be useful to other new indies.

It Ain't Time To Buy That Private Island (Yet)
Many newcomers to the videogame industry come with the usual streets-are-paved-with-gold expectations, and soon confront the painful reality that the average indie game DOES NOT SELL. At this point, many disillusioned wannabe developers give up. Some continue down the road, and may still be surprised when their game sales still don't meet their (somewhat reduced) expectations.

The Democracy sales numbers shown in this report are certainly respectable. They may even be impressive to a young, single game fan with dreams and cheap rent. It should be noted that out of the numbers presented, Cliff also has to pay taxes, pay for his electronic payment provider, pay insurance or other "benefits" that many enjoy from full-time employment, and of course continue to invest in his company (advertising, content, tools, etc.).

But it's still a success story. Hopefully Kudos will do just as well or even better, and take Cliff from "surviving as a full-time indie game developer" to "getting rich as a full-time indie game developer."

It Takes A Lot of Time To Become An Overnight Success - Start Small
Another thing to note is that it took Cliff several years (and several tries) to achieve this level of success. I noticed that the sales numbers for Planetary Defense or Kombat Kars weren't listed. I'm going to assume it's because they have generated no income worth mentioning. I'm going to make another assumption that these older games never sold in Democracy-level numbers. Based on some old blog posts of Cliff's, it sounds like a pretty safe assumption. Another point of reference: This post states that the "sells loads" means "sold 46 copies so far this year. "

With those assumptions in place, then it seems Cliff has been gaining this momentum over the course of several years (it LOOKS like Asteroid Defense was released in 1999). He's been building momentum, and learning his chops as an indie (he was already an experienced mainstream game developer). Based on anecdotes from other indie game developers, this is a pretty common pattern.

Steve Pavlina wrote in his article, "Going Full Time":
"Be flexible. As soon as you realize your original plans aren't working, change your approach. You'll shift directions a lot in the beginning until you find what works for you. I can't recall any developers whose first release was a hit. I didn't see decent sales until my fifth release, and that seems about average among the successful shareware developers I know. Your first product will probably fail. And when it does, dump it and get started immediately on the next one."

It's about persistence and hard work. And staying alive in the meantime, I guess.

Multiple Streams of Income
Based on Cliff's notes (hey, I relied heavily on Cliff's Notes in high school!), the income that was a "trivial part of the total" each month, plus the sales of Starships Unlimited and Asteroid Miner, added up to almost 25% of his total income for April (note: I'm subtracting the 10% E-Commerce Provider Fee from the direct sales when calculating that). Obviously, the direct sales of a single game are making up a tremendous part of his income right now. Though I expect Kudos will be a big success, and may even eclipse Democracy as his primary source of income.

Those little streams of revenue may be trickles, but they add up. That's not an insignificant chunk!

Also, shortly after he quit his job as a game developer at Lionhead, Cliff did some contract work for Maxis. As related in yet another GameProducer.net article, that helped "fund" his full-time indie development foray. (Incidentally, that article also relates that part of the inspiration for Kudos came from playing the indie RPG "Cute Knight," available here at Rampant Games!)

A lot of time indie game developers pin their hopes and dreams on the single "home run" title. While I certainly wouldn't complain about having one of those, it seems the safest and smartest approach is to diversify, and rely upon a variety of not only game titles but other means of income. In Cliff's case, he had retail deals (some of which didn't work out as well as planned - beware those who pin their hopes on scoring a retail deal with a major publisher), contract work, and sales through portals.

Front-Loaded Sales Versus Legs
Another thing to note - Asteroid Miner was developed in 1998, 8 years ago, and is still generating a (tiny amount of) income. Based on both reports at GameProducer.net, Democracy's sales have stayed pretty consistent for the last year. I'd be willing to bet that while Starship Tycoon's sales may have dropped somewhat since the game's initial release, they've remained in the same ballpark.

This is just based on what I have seen and heard in the indie games community with other games. Indie, downloadable games tend to have long legs. This is the opposite of the retail "AAA" market, which pushes for extreme front-loading of their sales. Their ideal is to sell every copy of the game to 100% of their potential customers on Day 1, and clear the way for the next game.

And A Counter-Case
Compare this to the story of Pyrogon's demise, another indie company. The original article is now missing, but the archive remains! Note - I respect Brian Hook, and really admire his willingness to share that information as well.

While there are undoubtably a handful of "rags-to-riches" tales out there that grab a lot of press, it usually comes down to a combination of luck, persistence, talent, and tons of hard work. Let's not forget that "Doom" came about only after Wolfenstein 3D, Commander Keen, and a ton of games for a struggling subscription-based software company called "SoftDisk."

Thanks And Good Luck!
Once again, thanks to Cliff Harris of Positech and Juuso of GameProducer.Net for providing this data. And I hope my little commentary might be useful to new game developers and answer some of those questions about money in indie games.

And I'd like to wish Cliff Harris congratulations and good luck with his new game, Kudos!

Labels: Biz

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