Earn on development. The story of a lonely game developer
Today, I would like to share with you a greasy and bludgeoning story about the mental anguish of a dreamer who imagines himself an independent game developer. In order not to be too trite, I will dilute the text with graphs and numbers, as well as summarize a good and life-affirming result under the article.
This article is about belief in yourself, in stories from the market and in the future. This is a text that you need to do what you love, but you also need to set the right goals. This is a story about how not a genius, an ordinary person, not to get depressed after failure, and how to formulate the term “success” in order to finally come to him.
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Creating a world in which everything exists according to your rules is delightfully pleasant and interesting. See how your pictures come to life on your phone - I still feel childish delight and unimaginable pleasure from this. But since I did something, then I - the creator? And since I am a creator, then I need a public who would appreciate and recognize me! And yet, since I like making games so much, could I make this my life's work, my favorite work, and make fabulous money from it? Vaughn, Rovio, Zepto Lab, a Vietnamese young man with the Flappy Bird, did they do it, did I? See how my cubes knock on each other beautifully ...
So, in addition to the obvious motivation for creating “I can!” Games, a no less obvious motivation is added: “I want to gain fame and earn a bag of money!”. By the way, the latter,unfortunately (fortunately) , becomes the main one.
In 2009, I believed that since the button-fake on the iPhone went to the tops, wouldn't I have to make Magic 8 Ball and not swim in the rays of mobile glory? The target was then chosen by the Android Market due to the relative cheapness of the devices and the low threshold for entering the market. The “competitors” were honestly studied, which were recognized as shameful one and all: no application used the Accelerometer, although just for Magic 8 Ball the use of this marvelous sensor suggested itself.
The development was carried out in the evenings after the main work and in 2011 the Magic 8 Phone was ready for release. Advertising? Reviews? Well, what do you ... We set the price at $ 0.99, press the "Release" button and wait for the crazy payments from Google. Seriously, it is impossible to convey, as I was disappointed, that nobody shakes such beautiful software even after I made it free. Then, Google sent me a letter stating that I was violating Mattel’s rights on Magic 8 Ball and wiped the application out of the Android Market.
The most memorable comment to Magic 8 Phone was: “Nice idea, nice app! But Magic 8 Ball ... seriously? .. "
In 2011, the same year I bought and went through Platformer LIMBO from PLAYDEAD. It was delicious. I became a fan of this game, I was impressed with everything in it: physics, animation, atmosphere, gameplay, plot, - everything made me happy and delighted. I got excited about the idea of ​​writing something similar for Android devices, namely, a game about a girl, which he tears to pieces from a collision with a harsh world. A prototype was written, sent to the publishers in Chillingo, the answer was “Oh, great, but something is damp. They drank the sounds, levelers and come with the finished product. And still for the iPhone OS, because Android is poorly monetized. ”I was inspired and ... the development went out. For a long time I was lazily searching for artists, the rules were minor bugs, but in 2012 I bought my first iPhone 3GS. I transported a girl in a wheelchair for ease of development and decided to rewrite the prototype for iOS.
In December 2013, a game called SOPOR was released in the App Store for trial by world gamers. I squealed about it in the thematic forums, declared participation in IGF 2014 (Indie Game Festival), was noticed by the publication IndieStatik, who wrote an article about my trailer. In the first two days of release, the game for $ 0.99 downloaded 20 people! Then two people, then zero. Zero, Zero, Zero. Plus, it turned out that the game crashed after the first death. Everyone has. Updating an application with a bug fix and enabling Game Center brought several downloads, but even more brought one-star reviews: now SOPOR crashed while launching the application on all devices with iOS younger than 7.0.
The Game Center was drank, the bugs were fixed, the game was left to the mercy of free and hopeless. Despite this, downloads per week: 1-3 pieces. A few months later, a very “cunning” move was found for monetization: we set a price of one dollar, and every two weeks we make two days of free distribution. In iTunes Connect, you can customize the price change chart, so once set up and cut the cabbage. For two days of free mass websites that tell users about the pleasant price changes in the App Store, check my freebies for the game, publish this wonderful news, and a lot of fans of sales and distribution. Then the game becomes paid and a couple of weeks by inertia it is bought by good users. It takes two weeks, free two days, and a new one.
So the game lived for more than a year, until at the beginning of March 2015 several dozen Chinese people bought it. Then more and more. Apparently, somewhere in China a review of SOPOR appeared, but I never found it. Now China has a steady income of about $ 2 per day. I have so far refused the cunning scheme of monetization, but I will soon return to it again. By the way, in April 2015, I received the first and so far the only payment from the App Store: 8900 rubles.
In January 2015, I started developing a new game. This is an endless / finite runner in which a rectangular can of condensed milk moves through the tunnel of the refrigerator to the cherished freedom. The world is directed from top to bottom, a rope is used to move. Well, like a rope ... Remember Worms from Team17? Here is such a rope. I really liked to jump a worm on this rope, it was the most fun for me in the Worms World Party. And so I decided to make a game in which the protagonist under the action of gravity alone seeks to exit the hateful refrigerator. And everything would be fine, the victory is close, but in addition to the dog's cold, there are other residents in the refrigerator who do not at all share the desire of the main character to leave the ice cage.
However, pretty lyrics. Millie (as condensed milk is called) has several lives left, in case of death, he arises in the nearest checkpoint. Each life is restored within 5 minutes. If all lives are exhausted and do not want to wait, the player can watch a short video advertising, for which he will throw an extra three lives. That's the whole monetization of the free game.
The game was released in May 2015, was offered for review 50 different resources about mobile games, most of which responded in the style: “Great game! But we have so many applications, so let's buy an advertisement or a paid review from us? ”, Which is expected.
While talking about the success / failure of this project is early, so I will share my vision of the life of an independent game developer in general.
Perhaps you can say that I have been developing games since 2010. Most likely, this is the same as “I have been in independent game development for five years”. And here are some obvious things I very slowly learned over the years.
Unfortunately, not all people are geniuses. Moreover, not all people are called creative. The global goals “to seize the market”, “create a megapopular application” are good exactly until the moment when you split this goal into subtasks.
Steve Jobs in his sensational speech at the University of Cambridge said that you need to look for your vocation, not exchanging for a boring and uninteresting job, that you need to work and earn money with pleasure. He's right. However, this is not about a game developer alone and this does not mean that you need to quit your job / university and throw yourself into the abyss of developing your certainly brilliant game, selling a car, a cottage, and kidneys. I seem to be a boring gray man in the street, but if you spend half the salary on marketing and development, then to deprive yourself and your game of all this salary is stupid. This will give time, but will deprive of all means. Normal people in life always need a compromise. Including in setting goals. After all, I can evaluate what happened to me with at least two theses:
a) I spent two years developing the game, which for another two years brought me lousy 9k rubles.
b) For a month, without any movements, a long time ago written toy brought me a bonus of 9k rubles.
If you treat GameDev as a “hobby” that is not tied to earning an income, then it’s just psychologically easier to live with. Fanaticism, as a rule, does not lead to great success. No need to rush into the pool before thoroughly probing this pool with a stick.
And further. A good way to make money on the development of games without an advertising budget: rivet clones of popular games. Marketing is already done before you, get on the wave and go. But here I will not even dig deep. Clones are not for artists.
Always include some analytics in the game. Flurry, Google Analytics, your php api on your site. You need to know how the user behaves inside the game. Even if your game fails, you will learn at least some lesson from this thanks to the knowledge of the player's movements in the game.
Do not try to imitate the guys with the success story. The success stories of companies without a marketing plan, without a budget for advertising, with bare ass in the wind are few. Do you believe that you are one of those geniuses who will blow up the market with their upcoming game? In fact, that awesome content will sell itself? Perhaps this is true, but the content needs to gain a critical mass of popularity in order for it to start selling itself.
All these success stories are very similar to the classic script of an Indian film: a simple guy from a province with a middle voice and a mediocre choreography is knocked out “into people”. The public likes such a story, because they project this amazing story of a simple guy onto themselves - just like a simple guy.
Although, if you believe that you are a genius - drop everything, tear up the market. Honestly, I enthusiastically read your success story.
Today is a turning point in my life. From now on, I decided that there would never be a turning point in my life. That moment when I will give up everything and start living at the expense of my games. I will continue to develop games in my free time, post them in the App Store and Google Play, come up with ways to monetize them, sometimes order reviews and advertisements. A good favorite main job, far from game development, no less a favorite “hobby” in the evenings, I roll out fresh releases once a year, update old ones twice a year. Perhaps this path will lead me to complete autonomy from working as a mercenary programmer, but I will not frantically break into this, and spend my time on any one entity.
And if this is the path of many failed games instead of one successful one, well, therefore, be.
On this slightly rainy note, let me finish.
Thank!
This article is about belief in yourself, in stories from the market and in the future. This is a text that you need to do what you love, but you also need to set the right goals. This is a story about how not a genius, an ordinary person, not to get depressed after failure, and how to formulate the term “success” in order to finally come to him.
')
Why make games?
Creating a world in which everything exists according to your rules is delightfully pleasant and interesting. See how your pictures come to life on your phone - I still feel childish delight and unimaginable pleasure from this. But since I did something, then I - the creator? And since I am a creator, then I need a public who would appreciate and recognize me! And yet, since I like making games so much, could I make this my life's work, my favorite work, and make fabulous money from it? Vaughn, Rovio, Zepto Lab, a Vietnamese young man with the Flappy Bird, did they do it, did I? See how my cubes knock on each other beautifully ...
So, in addition to the obvious motivation for creating “I can!” Games, a no less obvious motivation is added: “I want to gain fame and earn a bag of money!”. By the way, the latter,
Go!
In 2009, I believed that since the button-fake on the iPhone went to the tops, wouldn't I have to make Magic 8 Ball and not swim in the rays of mobile glory? The target was then chosen by the Android Market due to the relative cheapness of the devices and the low threshold for entering the market. The “competitors” were honestly studied, which were recognized as shameful one and all: no application used the Accelerometer, although just for Magic 8 Ball the use of this marvelous sensor suggested itself.
The development was carried out in the evenings after the main work and in 2011 the Magic 8 Phone was ready for release. Advertising? Reviews? Well, what do you ... We set the price at $ 0.99, press the "Release" button and wait for the crazy payments from Google. Seriously, it is impossible to convey, as I was disappointed, that nobody shakes such beautiful software even after I made it free. Then, Google sent me a letter stating that I was violating Mattel’s rights on Magic 8 Ball and wiped the application out of the Android Market.
Fig. 1. The graph of the current installations of Magic 8 Phone, which clearly shows the extinction of hopes and dreams
The most memorable comment to Magic 8 Phone was: “Nice idea, nice app! But Magic 8 Ball ... seriously? .. "
The boy is growing, but he still believes in Santa Claus
In 2011, the same year I bought and went through Platformer LIMBO from PLAYDEAD. It was delicious. I became a fan of this game, I was impressed with everything in it: physics, animation, atmosphere, gameplay, plot, - everything made me happy and delighted. I got excited about the idea of ​​writing something similar for Android devices, namely, a game about a girl, which he tears to pieces from a collision with a harsh world. A prototype was written, sent to the publishers in Chillingo, the answer was “Oh, great, but something is damp. They drank the sounds, levelers and come with the finished product. And still for the iPhone OS, because Android is poorly monetized. ”I was inspired and ... the development went out. For a long time I was lazily searching for artists, the rules were minor bugs, but in 2012 I bought my first iPhone 3GS. I transported a girl in a wheelchair for ease of development and decided to rewrite the prototype for iOS.
In December 2013, a game called SOPOR was released in the App Store for trial by world gamers. I squealed about it in the thematic forums, declared participation in IGF 2014 (Indie Game Festival), was noticed by the publication IndieStatik, who wrote an article about my trailer. In the first two days of release, the game for $ 0.99 downloaded 20 people! Then two people, then zero. Zero, Zero, Zero. Plus, it turned out that the game crashed after the first death. Everyone has. Updating an application with a bug fix and enabling Game Center brought several downloads, but even more brought one-star reviews: now SOPOR crashed while launching the application on all devices with iOS younger than 7.0.
Fig. 2. Schedule paid installations SOPOR since the release
The Game Center was drank, the bugs were fixed, the game was left to the mercy of free and hopeless. Despite this, downloads per week: 1-3 pieces. A few months later, a very “cunning” move was found for monetization: we set a price of one dollar, and every two weeks we make two days of free distribution. In iTunes Connect, you can customize the price change chart, so once set up and cut the cabbage. For two days of free mass websites that tell users about the pleasant price changes in the App Store, check my freebies for the game, publish this wonderful news, and a lot of fans of sales and distribution. Then the game becomes paid and a couple of weeks by inertia it is bought by good users. It takes two weeks, free two days, and a new one.
Fig. 3. Schedule paid installations SOPOR for the year before an unprecedented jump
Fig. 4. Jump. Or Chinese miracle, if you want
So the game lived for more than a year, until at the beginning of March 2015 several dozen Chinese people bought it. Then more and more. Apparently, somewhere in China a review of SOPOR appeared, but I never found it. Now China has a steady income of about $ 2 per day. I have so far refused the cunning scheme of monetization, but I will soon return to it again. By the way, in April 2015, I received the first and so far the only payment from the App Store: 8900 rubles.
Ropes are great
In January 2015, I started developing a new game. This is an endless / finite runner in which a rectangular can of condensed milk moves through the tunnel of the refrigerator to the cherished freedom. The world is directed from top to bottom, a rope is used to move. Well, like a rope ... Remember Worms from Team17? Here is such a rope. I really liked to jump a worm on this rope, it was the most fun for me in the Worms World Party. And so I decided to make a game in which the protagonist under the action of gravity alone seeks to exit the hateful refrigerator. And everything would be fine, the victory is close, but in addition to the dog's cold, there are other residents in the refrigerator who do not at all share the desire of the main character to leave the ice cage.
However, pretty lyrics. Millie (as condensed milk is called) has several lives left, in case of death, he arises in the nearest checkpoint. Each life is restored within 5 minutes. If all lives are exhausted and do not want to wait, the player can watch a short video advertising, for which he will throw an extra three lives. That's the whole monetization of the free game.
The game was released in May 2015, was offered for review 50 different resources about mobile games, most of which responded in the style: “Great game! But we have so many applications, so let's buy an advertisement or a paid review from us? ”, Which is expected.
While talking about the success / failure of this project is early, so I will share my vision of the life of an independent game developer in general.
Results
Perhaps you can say that I have been developing games since 2010. Most likely, this is the same as “I have been in independent game development for five years”. And here are some obvious things I very slowly learned over the years.
1. Right goals
Unfortunately, not all people are geniuses. Moreover, not all people are called creative. The global goals “to seize the market”, “create a megapopular application” are good exactly until the moment when you split this goal into subtasks.
Steve Jobs in his sensational speech at the University of Cambridge said that you need to look for your vocation, not exchanging for a boring and uninteresting job, that you need to work and earn money with pleasure. He's right. However, this is not about a game developer alone and this does not mean that you need to quit your job / university and throw yourself into the abyss of developing your certainly brilliant game, selling a car, a cottage, and kidneys. I seem to be a boring gray man in the street, but if you spend half the salary on marketing and development, then to deprive yourself and your game of all this salary is stupid. This will give time, but will deprive of all means. Normal people in life always need a compromise. Including in setting goals. After all, I can evaluate what happened to me with at least two theses:
a) I spent two years developing the game, which for another two years brought me lousy 9k rubles.
b) For a month, without any movements, a long time ago written toy brought me a bonus of 9k rubles.
If you treat GameDev as a “hobby” that is not tied to earning an income, then it’s just psychologically easier to live with. Fanaticism, as a rule, does not lead to great success. No need to rush into the pool before thoroughly probing this pool with a stick.
And further. A good way to make money on the development of games without an advertising budget: rivet clones of popular games. Marketing is already done before you, get on the wave and go. But here I will not even dig deep. Clones are not for artists.
2. Analytics
Always include some analytics in the game. Flurry, Google Analytics, your php api on your site. You need to know how the user behaves inside the game. Even if your game fails, you will learn at least some lesson from this thanks to the knowledge of the player's movements in the game.
Fig. 5. Events in the game. Gentleman's set
3. Faith and success stories
Do not try to imitate the guys with the success story. The success stories of companies without a marketing plan, without a budget for advertising, with bare ass in the wind are few. Do you believe that you are one of those geniuses who will blow up the market with their upcoming game? In fact, that awesome content will sell itself? Perhaps this is true, but the content needs to gain a critical mass of popularity in order for it to start selling itself.
All these success stories are very similar to the classic script of an Indian film: a simple guy from a province with a middle voice and a mediocre choreography is knocked out “into people”. The public likes such a story, because they project this amazing story of a simple guy onto themselves - just like a simple guy.
Although, if you believe that you are a genius - drop everything, tear up the market. Honestly, I enthusiastically read your success story.
4. Quantity or quality
Today is a turning point in my life. From now on, I decided that there would never be a turning point in my life. That moment when I will give up everything and start living at the expense of my games. I will continue to develop games in my free time, post them in the App Store and Google Play, come up with ways to monetize them, sometimes order reviews and advertisements. A good favorite main job, far from game development, no less a favorite “hobby” in the evenings, I roll out fresh releases once a year, update old ones twice a year. Perhaps this path will lead me to complete autonomy from working as a mercenary programmer, but I will not frantically break into this, and spend my time on any one entity.
And if this is the path of many failed games instead of one successful one, well, therefore, be.
On this slightly rainy note, let me finish.
Thank!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/291236/
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