I am about 70% complete with a very indepth GDD for a game but I just realised that while the game would be unique and uncontested market (no one else has made a game like it) I'm unsure how much players it would attract really, Because the game that inspired me to create this game design has an extremely low playerbase, but I think it has a lot to do with their marketing too.
I will probably complete the GDD and create the game still since it's not too complex game.
But I wonder now what's the best type of game to create as indy if you want money?
And I don't want to read a lot of replies saying "indys don't make money, they just create games to gain reputation in the game dev biz."
So what kind of game would you think is best to make?
A singleplayer RPG? Can be cracked and torrented on torrent sites. Games really need a multiplayer feature now because that makes it extremely hard to make a cracked version that's always up to date and playable online. I also am not a fan of one time purchase of a game, specially if it's indy with so low price tags.
A coop PvE game (ex: Trine 2)? That's a possibility, Not sure how much money those games bring in though, I would prefer creating a f2p game with a cash shop system because I believe that is the best way to make money out of games but I have a hard time seeing a cash shop being implemented to a coop game unless it's for DLC's.. Could work.
Zombie survival multiplayer? This has what I reckon a big player market and I can easily see indy's competing in it. Cash shop could easily be implemented.
MOBA game such as Lol/Hon/dota/blc? Indys don't stand a chance in that market, I doubt even a pro studio would manage stepping into that already dominated market.
Terraforming/crafting multiplayer games such as minecraft, terraria? BIG market. easy to implemented cash shop. But would have to be a unique game idea if minecraft and terraria players are going to move over to your game.
MMORPG (theme based, not death penalties, only rewards, pvp, pve etc like tera/wow/rift etc) Forget about it if your indy.
MMORPG (hardcore, death penalties, open pvp) ? Very possible for indy to compete in. Big enough market to make some serious money. But it must be perfect game, Make any bad game designs or mistakes around release etc and you will have a big hit to reputation and lose so many potential players.
FPS shooters like COD, BF3, MW ? Too dominated market already.
RTS like starcraft, age of empires ? Too dominated market.
Ok, I'm tired of writing more suggestions to get the thread started.
Comment on my suggestions and what I thought of them and let me know of any more I missed out, I can edit this post later.
What kind of game to create if you want "decent" money out of it?
Simple answer:
You have lot of many => take any game, polish it like hell and make a huge marketing campaign.
You have no money => let your passion drive the game, when you will like it , other will like it too.
You have no passion => look for an other job when you like to make money.
You have lot of many => take any game, polish it like hell and make a huge marketing campaign.
You have no money => let your passion drive the game, when you will like it , other will like it too.
You have no passion => look for an other job when you like to make money.
As an indie your best bet really is the casual/social market, you stand a much better chance competing against games like angry birds or farmville than you do competing against Starcraft, Left 4 Dead and Mass Effect.
Now it all depends on what you consider "decent" money though. If you want to make millions then you're in the wrong field, indie game developers don't become rich unless they're insanely lucky and good but making a living is perfectly possible if you work hard. (As you build up a code and fanbase it will become easier but you should be prepared to have to put in 50-60 hour weeks to make ends meet on your first few games)
Now it all depends on what you consider "decent" money though. If you want to make millions then you're in the wrong field, indie game developers don't become rich unless they're insanely lucky and good but making a living is perfectly possible if you work hard. (As you build up a code and fanbase it will become easier but you should be prepared to have to put in 50-60 hour weeks to make ends meet on your first few games)
Author
As an indie your best bet really is the casual/social market, you stand a much better chance competing against games like angry birds or farmville than you do competing against Starcraft, Left 4 Dead and Mass Effect.
Now it all depends on what you consider "decent" money though. If you want to make millions then you're in the wrong field, indie game developers don't become rich unless they're insanely lucky and good but making a living is perfectly possible if you work hard. (As you build up a code and fanbase it will become easier but you should be prepared to have to put in 50-60 hour weeks to make ends meet on your first few games)
I think Decent is at least 100,000 usd within a year.
But I think it's also important to create a game that can keep generating content and make the players keep spending money more than just once.
It's much easier to keep working on a succesful game than to start working on a new game.
So if you do the above and can get 100k usd first year (total amount before split to team members) and can keep pumping out money form the game next year then that's decent money if you ask me.
Edit: "at least" might be better replaced with the word "around".
Most successful indie developers focus on smaller casual games (puzzles, arcade games, match-three, etc.), produce some particular niche product where there is some demand but not much competition (Minecraft), or produce simpler mainstream style games with a quirky theme (Binding of Issac, Fancy-Pants Adventures, etc.). They might also create a common type of game for a platform where that type of game isn't yet widely available (Angry Birds). In the overwhelming majority of cases they produce simpler rather than more complex games and avoid competing with AAA titles or even bigger casual games such as Farmville, which tend to already be very entrenched and have a large team and budget to quickly adapt and push out new content.
Only the rarer smash-hit indie titles (Angry Birds, Minecraft, Braid, World of Goo, etc.) would usually expect to make the sort of money you've mentioned in a short period of time -- as much as you apparently don't want to hear it -- and putting aside the overwhelming majority of indie developers who don't make any money -- most successful indie developers usually survive on much smaller incomes from multiple smaller titles rather than having a smash hit game, and will often supplement their game-based income with other sources such as freelancing, a monetized blog or a part-time day-job.
You might expect to make more money once you've built a large catalogue of back-titles that are still bringing in income to supplement your new releases, and are able to grow your business through simpler and cheaper expansion/add-on releases and have a loyal fan-base to get your products quickly selling. That being said, it's very possible to live quite comfortably on an annual income that is much lower than US$100,000, assuming of course that you avoid living anywhere with a prohibitively high cost-of-living.
It might be a useful exercise to examine some of the existing indie success stories to see what types of games they produced -- particularly if you also consider the competition at the time they chose to make those releases. Some examples you might consider include Minecraft, Braid, World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, Steam Birds, Realm of the Mad God, Angry Birds and any successful Flash games amongst many others. The common theme seems to be relatively simple games which offer a highly polished experience, often very casual (able to be played in short sessions, low barrier to entry, etc.).
Only the rarer smash-hit indie titles (Angry Birds, Minecraft, Braid, World of Goo, etc.) would usually expect to make the sort of money you've mentioned in a short period of time -- as much as you apparently don't want to hear it -- and putting aside the overwhelming majority of indie developers who don't make any money -- most successful indie developers usually survive on much smaller incomes from multiple smaller titles rather than having a smash hit game, and will often supplement their game-based income with other sources such as freelancing, a monetized blog or a part-time day-job.
You might expect to make more money once you've built a large catalogue of back-titles that are still bringing in income to supplement your new releases, and are able to grow your business through simpler and cheaper expansion/add-on releases and have a loyal fan-base to get your products quickly selling. That being said, it's very possible to live quite comfortably on an annual income that is much lower than US$100,000, assuming of course that you avoid living anywhere with a prohibitively high cost-of-living.
It might be a useful exercise to examine some of the existing indie success stories to see what types of games they produced -- particularly if you also consider the competition at the time they chose to make those releases. Some examples you might consider include Minecraft, Braid, World of Goo, Super Meat Boy, Steam Birds, Realm of the Mad God, Angry Birds and any successful Flash games amongst many others. The common theme seems to be relatively simple games which offer a highly polished experience, often very casual (able to be played in short sessions, low barrier to entry, etc.).
One approach to making good money in the indie market that has emerged with the mobile revolution is producing lots of small games. Rather making 1 game over 2 years in hopes that it turns a decent profit. You invest your resources in reusable frameworks and assets and launch a new game every month or 2. if you produce 6 small games a year sell them $4 each then you can make a good returns off a fan base of only a 5000 people. If you produce fun well polished games then most of your fan base will buy the next game you release especially if the has small price tag. Producing a lot of small games also should gradually increase your fan base and new fans may buy items from your back catalogue. Also it increases your chance of getting a smash hit.
Also it worth noting that smash hit indie games are virtually never a for a first game.
Rovio who make Angry Birds probably one of the best know successful indie companies had been in business for over 6 years and released 51 games before angry birds.
Angry Birds itself initially cost [font=arial, sans-serif][size=1]€[/font]100,000 to make but then its also generates over [font=arial, sans-serif][size=1]€[/font]50,000,000 in revenue. Even then the game was a flop for the first 3 months after is was released.
I'd aim for turning out lots of fun polished games that turn a profit and hope that ones becomes a smash hit.
Also it worth noting that smash hit indie games are virtually never a for a first game.
Rovio who make Angry Birds probably one of the best know successful indie companies had been in business for over 6 years and released 51 games before angry birds.
Angry Birds itself initially cost [font=arial, sans-serif][size=1]€[/font]100,000 to make but then its also generates over [font=arial, sans-serif][size=1]€[/font]50,000,000 in revenue. Even then the game was a flop for the first 3 months after is was released.
I'd aim for turning out lots of fun polished games that turn a profit and hope that ones becomes a smash hit.
Author
One approach to making good money in the indie market that has emerged with the mobile revolution is producing lots of small games. Rather making 1 game over 2 years in hopes that it turns a decent profit. You invest your resources in reusable frameworks and assets and launch a new game every month or 2. if you produce 6 small games a year sell them $4 each then you can make a good returns off a fan base of only a 5000 people. If you produce fun well polished games then most of your fan base will buy the next game you release especially if the has small price tag. Producing a lot of small games also should gradually increase your fan base and new fans may buy items from your back catalogue. Also it increases your chance of getting a smash hit.
Also it worth noting that smash hit indie games are virtually never a for a first game.
Rovio who make Angry Birds probably one of the best know successful indie companies had been in business for over 6 years and released 51 games before angry birds.
Angry Birds itself initially cost [font=arial, sans-serif][size=1]€[/font]100,000 to make but then its also generates over [font=arial, sans-serif][size=1]€[/font]50,000,000 in revenue. Even then the game was a flop for the first 3 months after is was released.
I'd aim for turning out lots of fun polished games that turn a profit and hope that ones becomes a smash hit.
I agree about the iphone games being a good market atm.. might have to look into it.. I don't even have an iphone tho and never played any iphone games hehe.
I don't agree about just pumping out mass small fun games though, Every game you make has to be as good as it can get and has to have a solid game design that makes sense and logic not just the gameplay but marketing as well.. So if you're just making games that you don't think will make a lot of money then you're not making good games imo.
To be fair, TechnoGoth didn't say the games shouldn't have a solid, sensible design and good marketing; just that they should be smaller, fun titles. You should absolutely try to make each release the best you can, and market them as good as you're possibly able to; preferably you should try to automate and set up re-usable systems for these tasks as well so that you can minimise the time spent (and cost) on these tasks.
You can (and some people do) concentrate on pushing out smaller unpolished games in the hopes of finding those designs that are worth improving upon, but you certainly wouldn't make much (if any) money on the unpolished titles; this can however be a good model for people who are developing in their spare time whilst holding down other unrelated full-time work, as it allows them to trial a lot of different game-play demos without having to spend time polishing those that are less effective.
You're correct that if you want the best chance of making money from all your titles they should all be as good as they possibly can be and should be marketed to the best of your ability; there's absolutely no reason you can't do that and pump out a series of smaller titles though.
You can (and some people do) concentrate on pushing out smaller unpolished games in the hopes of finding those designs that are worth improving upon, but you certainly wouldn't make much (if any) money on the unpolished titles; this can however be a good model for people who are developing in their spare time whilst holding down other unrelated full-time work, as it allows them to trial a lot of different game-play demos without having to spend time polishing those that are less effective.
You're correct that if you want the best chance of making money from all your titles they should all be as good as they possibly can be and should be marketed to the best of your ability; there's absolutely no reason you can't do that and pump out a series of smaller titles though.
Somebody plzz tell me which languages are the best for learners (first time game developers) , maybe small game or large game doesn't matter but want a language that can b used to develop from small games like angry birds to big games like mmorpg like Ragnarök , rune scape ,world of Warcraft etc.
plz do help me as i am interested in developing games and i do know basic programming in C and am trying to learn C++ ,C# for the above purpose.
i am planning of developing the games in India (my home country) 'coz low labor costs.
can you plz give me an estimate for runescape type game how much money is needed for every aspect of developing like servers, softwares , how much hours of developing , what are the per hour rates for developers in Europe , U.S. and also the currency.
i do have some concepts in mind though but am thinking of developing small games (coding wise) and then go for the big ones !!!
plz do help me as i am interested in developing games and i do know basic programming in C and am trying to learn C++ ,C# for the above purpose.
i am planning of developing the games in India (my home country) 'coz low labor costs.
can you plz give me an estimate for runescape type game how much money is needed for every aspect of developing like servers, softwares , how much hours of developing , what are the per hour rates for developers in Europe , U.S. and also the currency.
i do have some concepts in mind though but am thinking of developing small games (coding wise) and then go for the big ones !!!
...
Seriously, you should create your own Thread in the Beginners section instead of hijacking this one.(well, it your case it would be better to search for other threads with the search field on the top right).
http://www.gamefromscratch.com/post/2011/08/04/I-want-to-be-a-game-developer.aspx
http://www.gamedev.net/topic/284756-development-cost/
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