Is $42,000 All You Can Make With Indie Games?
Phil Carlisle (Zoombapup) participated in a "So You Want To Be An Indie Developer" blog project this week. I wish I'd known about it, but I doubt I could have said anything that the participants already said. Many of the articles are well worth reading, but I liked Phil's in particular.

Many new aspiring indie game developers ask, "How much can I make on an indie game?" The frequent response is something along the lines of, "That's like asking `How long is a piece of string'." There are too many variables.

Not one to shy away from the tough questions, Phil broke it down to a science. Well, math. How much can you make from an indie game?

His answer (and link): $42,000.

Before sixteen-year-olds with dreams of buying a new car with an Aquanoid clone developed in Flash get too excited, I should interject that I ASPIRE to making that much on an indie game. I doubt it's gonna happen on Apocalypse Cow. It sure didn't happen with Void War. By my understanding, the majority of indie games don't do that well. In fact, most make close to nothing.

Now, one other note is that there are plenty of indie games doing better than that. Some are achieving that via portals, though if portals are a significant part of a game's strategy, it's average revenue per unit (to the developer) is going to be a lot less than $15.

To a point, he's pulling numbers out of the air, and the formula isn't perfect, but I think the basic premise is pretty solid, and based on discussions with other indies (and sales stats provided like the links above from GameProducer.net), it seems to be in the right ballpark for a reasonably successful indie PC games.

Is $42,000 that all you can make? Well, obviously not. Not that I have first-hand experience at this ("yet," i interject optimistically). But some possibilities:

* Make an extraordinary game that bucks the odds
* Release the game on multiple platforms (Mac, Linux, XBox 360, whatever)
* Make more than one game per year.
* Additional revenue streams (such as affiliate game sales, or advertising revenue)
* Alternative distribution methods (OEM, retail sales, unconventional channels)
* Contract work
* Licensing your IP

I wrote a whole article about this once upon a time. But the trick of it is that it all requires a ton of work. My total part-time efforts over the last couple of years haven't yet come close to earning me minimum wage yet. But I believe I've been learning a lot during that time, and in a way it has already paid off. It was my efforts as an indie that got me a new job that I'm much happier in now. And it's presented me with other great opportunities and experiences that I'd hate to have missed.

If you are doing what you love, then dollars and cents aren't the only measure of success.

(Vaguely) related blitherings:
* 20 Ways to Make Money Making Indie Games
* How to Avoid Making Money Making Games
* Profit or Passion?
* The Casual Game Industry Sucks Too

Labels: Biz

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 12:30 PM (Permalink)