I don't have any answers for you, but I know exactly where you're coming from. I've had this same thought haunt me for a while now. I'll definitely keep my eyes open for any replies.

I wanted to create a topic that's directly to the point. Making a game to sell for $1.00 - $5.00 appears to be a very sad reality in today's game market. I've been programming for over ten years as a hobbyist, and I'm not sure if this is even worth pursuing anymore. I wouldn't mind selling a few games, however it appears people have low balled the value of games, thus killing the money potential for all developers.

I'm looking for responses from people who've successfully sold their own games. I'm finding it extremely hard to believe the time investment is worth the $40.00 I can make from 40 sales before a better game hits the spot light. I'm also looking for people who've branded themselves first, not people making money off some ads or sponsorship to share their experiences.

I just find it really sad how anyone can expect to work months or even years on a project, to receive $2.00 for a good quality, fun and unique game.

Any other developers find this a sad truth, and very depressing?

The trick is to not work more than 1-2 months on such a cheap game and then to sell far more than 40 copies, once you get a reasonably successful game you have to milk it for all its worth, make sequels using the same engine and art (just make new levels, possibly add a few minor features), if a game isn't successful enough to be milked you can and should still reuse as much of the code as possible for other games to reduce their production costs, make free to play web(flash/unity/java/whatever works on your primary target platform + atleast one large web game portal) versions that is supported by ads to get extra revenue and promote the mobile versions, living in a country with low living costs helps alot aswell. (You'll be competing with well educated and skilled people who consider $1500 per month or sometimes even less to be a great salary)

If you are targeting the PC market then you can sell the games for far more than $5 (PC indie titles tend to sell for $10-$25 quite frequently but mobile quality games won't do that well on this platform so development costs are higher aswell).

Basically it all boils down to keeping your costs down and your quality up, your first game probably won't be profitable but if you're smart and reuse large parts of the work your 2nd, 3rd, etc games can be made at a much lower cost and still be of a higher quality.

You should however forget about becoming rich by making games, simply making a living or keeping a company alive in this field can be considered a success.

If you want to get rich, do something else.

If you want to make games, who cares if you make money off of it?

Selling games is a business.
If a company can sell a game for $1/copy and make a profit, then they will. If they can't make a profit that way, they wont.

I just find it really sad how anyone can expect to work months or even years on a project, to receive $2.00 for a good quality, fun and unique game.[/quote]Who is expecting this? You sound as if this is a reality that's been forced upon you, like you're in a sweat-shop, churning out games year after year and only being given a dollar for your efforts.

Plenty of indie games sell for much more than $1.
If your game is worth $1 then sell it for $1, if it's worth $20, sell it for $20... Honestly, if something has taken years of development time, I'd expect it to sell for more than $1, unless it's so brilliantly great that you expect to sell 100 million copies anyway.

If you want to get rich, do something else.

If you want to make games, who cares if you make money off of it?

Making money is essential if you wish to make games full time though, I think quite many of us here would love to be able to quit our ordinary jobs and just make games. (To do so you need to generate enough revenue to cover your living costs plus a buffert to survive a unsuccessful release)

I hear ya.

I actually gave up with games and programming in general...now I'm pursuing a bachelors of pharmacy.