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I made 2 $ from an empty app . It was hillarious I just uploaded it to see if anyone dwonlaods.I didn't market it didn't share it to anyone.Still got downloaded.1.5K + times
A tip for every new game dev around here: learn music and audio production. No matter if you game only uses basic forms as graphics, if it has good original music and good sound effects, it will be good and it will sell.
@@ergicela4420 @Ergi Çela @Ergi Çela Depends on the type of monetization your game uses. If its ads, then the online time matters. And, normaly, a player that spends much time playing your game will have more chances of buying something in your game with real money. Theoretically, you can make money using every single monetization method at the same time, but most payed games wont have Ads because the person that already payed for the game wouldnt want ads on it.
It would be much easier and likely have a better audio result, if you hire a composer or a music composition student that also knows production and has good plugins. They have professional DAWs and plugins that will sound better than the free ones.
if you havent made already a video about it i would like to learn about the story why you sold your IP and how you got it back..... thumbs up people if you wanna hear the story
@@SebaCape55 Thanks. I could do that I guess. I bought a camera recently that can do good quality videos and my game engine is practically functional now so I would at least have something to show on the screen. However, my drawing skills are still crap even if my color theory is quite good and my music making skills are simply non existent. A devlog that goes alongside me learning and implementing those things into a game could work. It will have to wait for September though, I still have exams to pass and my uni room is a lot quieter and has better lighting than where I am currently.
I’m about to finish my first game in Unity. It’s a small game, and I don’t expect to make much if any off of it. But I’m learning about how to make a game and what goes into making a game. I’m especially learning about how gaining the experience is what matters most, especially in the first games you build. Thank you for the reassurance Thomas! 😄
As always, great advice. I'm in the baby stages of my first, post college game. My expectations have just been justified from watching your video... Maybe pick up some pocket change, but make something to add to my portfolio, something that can show me that I can take a game from inception to release, and have it be a learning tool to make better games in the future. What you do in this channel is so great for the indie/hobbyist/just-getting-started game development community as a whole. Thank you Edit: grammar errors..
I actually really needed to hear this! Right now my game development progress has taken a huge blow because my motherboard fried and since then I've just been watching videos and stuff on my work laptop until I save up the scratch to get new parts (not allowed to produce on my work laptop as any intellectual property that is produced on it will automatically belong to my employer). This really helped to put it into perspective for me, I've been thinking that I would release a game and then open a studio and start my game studio career but this video helped me to realize that I've got a lot of work to do. I currently hate my job and am very miserable, making games is a fun process for me and I think I put too much pressure on the game to bring me into a career that I enjoy, so I suppose the best thing for me is to have fun with it as a hobby until I can actually produce something that can make me some money, I mean it's fun anyway so why not just treat it like a hobby for now and get serious about it later? In short... thank you... I really needed to hear this!
Being in the learning stage what I've realised by watching your and others' videos is that one just simply needs to finish small projects instead focusing on the success.
I keep getting back to my first big project every year, but I've never felt super serious about finishing it till this year. Hopefully I can afford to make time to get that done because my skills are so much better now and I genuinely feel like I'm capable of releasing something I'll be proud of in the future (:
Great video, but I dont agree that you shouldnt put your emotions to your game. If let s say Toby Foxx didnt put so much love and care to his characters in Undertale, what would we get from it? A walking simulator with battle system. But of course, if your first games are like Thomas s, there is no need for emotios, games like that are for you to learn something about game design
I agree, but I think that he is trying to say to not let your emotions depend from the game. Put them into the game but not let the game affect you if you have bad reviews or a hard time or something like this that can put you down. Or this is what I think! See you!
Honestly, hearing my first game is probably going to flop helps a lot. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so of course I want something I put a lot of time into to do well, but realistically, I have to build myself up before I really start seeing money.
I hate to think that my idea wont make money and wont do well, but the anxiety for getting started on something that i dont have all the knowledge for yet is kiling my drive to create the project in the first place. I trust and thank you for you advice maybe the push i need to just get started with doing projects so i can actually gather the knowledge that i need
I dislike it when people treat that as the only goal though, like it's somehow a bad thing to want to make money making games. Personally I'm at a point in my life where I have an opportunity to change direction - I'm moving countries, I have decent savings, and my living costs are about to drop significantly. I've mildly played around with game dev in my spare time, but between having a social life, a full time job, and limited energy in the evenings, there's just not a huge amount of free time going around. I'm never going to get to the stage where I can release a few games in my spare time and gradually move towards financial independence like that. If I want to ever make games full time, I'm going to need to focus on that as my main goal and not have a job - so I need to have some semblance of a solid basis for thinking I can make money off it, which is why I'm watching these types of videos - not because I think it's a get rich quick scheme, but because I want to do some research into what sort of stats you need to make some money from a game, and how often games of different types hit those stats.
I'm pretty sure this counts, as I have made many many games on scratch, and have built a quite large following on there. I started out with ports of other games that were already out there, mostly those didn't get recognized beside a few views. I was like that for 1.5 years, learning how to make games, not making good ones, or even halfway decent ones yet. Then, one of my games hit trending. It shot off in popularity, and right now has 1.5 million views. That started it for me, but at the time not much changed. I gain some popularity, and I strived to improve my games. They slowly got better and better, but my short popularity was over. That was, until I released my first good game, which got trending again. That started it, and soon after that, I decided to always make my own games with my own ideas. That was one year ago. Ever since my games have gotten better and better, with each game getting tens of thousands of views, and then, I made my first large game. The Orb. This game took me almost 3 months, I drew countless pieces of art. This game performed pretty well, making it to my #4 position. But, now when I look back on it, I see so many game design errors, a few art errors, and a fair bit of coding to be improved. No more than 2 months after finishing The Orb, I already view it as a sort of alpha for what is to come. I am now making The Orb II. This should fix everything that I know of, and if it wasn't on scratch, I could probably sell it. I am already working on other programming languages to get into the game developing community, but I feel as if I have already passed my "first" game. I really know how to make games now. If anybody wants to see a beta of this game, you can reply to this comment. Thanks for reading, and keep in mind that it took me almost 2 years to get anywhere with my games. Just keep going at it and make more and more games, and you will improve.
I LOVE the way you say and show things. You are my ispiration and YOU help me not to give up not just for game developing but in every day things. THANK YOU FOR MAKING VIDEOS and i hope you wont stop uploading new.
This is all pretty logical. It should go without saying that you're not going to make a hit right off the bat. But that is why the best ideas should be left for later projects, and make your first game your most unambitious one.
How much money will your first game make, None, probably. Well it depends on a lot of things, first of all being publishers and ddp's. If u decide to work with a publisher that is.
How many indie games have you made? I have made 1 and made 2,200$ my first week of sales. Maybe you shouldn't give advice without any experience to back it up. I never used any publisher.
Wonderful video, inspired me to start this long journey into creating games. I understood that I shouldn't dive straight into the boss fight, but focus more on "character development". Thanks Thomas, +1 :D
In total, I have worked on 3 games. All 3 were from game jams on itch. My advice to anyone who has zero experience who finds this: Start with game jams. Get a small team of people who have experience in different things. My first game jam I wrote the story for a game about a Unicorn tricking someone into committing tax fraud. My second game jam, I wrote a little bit of a story. We didn’t have time to include all that I wrote, so it was simply a short demo. But I’m still proud of the work. For my third jam, I wanted to try something new. I worked on the art. Did I struggle? Yes, a lot. I’ve been trying to learn game art, character sheets, and everything that goes into it for 2 years on and off. But it’s worth it to at least try. I’m slowly preparing myself to work on my own games once I become better at all of the aspects of game development. It may seem impossible at first, you’ll think “I don’t think I’ll ever get on that level of game development”. But what does it hurt to try? Take something that you know how to do, and start there. If you know how to make a little animation, try making a character sheet for a game. Use it for a jam, or a short little demo. If you’re good at writing, write a story you’d use for a game. Start small, work your way up. I hope someone who comes across this takes it to heart, and it motivates them to continue their work on their dream
The very first game i make though is not small, is not a prototype, is not short, it has 10 hours gameplay and is story driven. Home world is dying! You are their only hope! Massive 3-d open world adventure first person shooter. It also only took me 8 months to make. Nothing but positive feedback so far, don't crush my dreams by saying it wont make anything
I agree on this, man. First game doesnt have to be basic! Yours sounds awesome! My first game is extremely epic as well. Retro style RPG with modern features. Open world exploration. Skill based combat system with 9 biomes to explore. Large scale battles and over 90 different random events. 90 sets of interchangeable armor. Awesome storyline And TONS of game lore and history. Writing a book to release with the game as well. We got this :)
@@nickthepersonidk6161 Hey definitely man! No need to self limit yourself or put a cap on things. Thats what ordinary people do. How can i check out your game?
@@UnyieldingVigor Absolutely! We love sharing! We have a facebook page, twitter page, and a discord server of you want big time updates. Facebook.com/guildmaster2017 Twitter@guildmaster2017 discord.gg/Z5sJPz
@@nickthepersonidk6161 ill follow along! and yeah i have a early trailer video on my channel that i threw together in like 3 min lol. official one coming shortly.
Let me make sure I'm following this right So you're saying If i have huge ideas that have more potential to make money Put them as 2nd or 3rd project right ?
What I'm getting from what he is saying is first learn to make a game. Meaning finishing it and releasing a finished game, no matter how small. Create,finish release.
@@Gears2Game Yeah, it's easy to get burnt out when tackling a super ambitious project. So doing smaller less ambitious ones allowfor you to learn and get into the habit of finishing what you start.
You are absolutely right. If you want to make money, you either make a game for fun, and hope that it makes money as a bonus, or you become a full-time developer! Make a number of games per month, something very simple but somewhat additive enough to spread fast. Say 3 games are made per month, and each game averages around $1000 in revenue after a year. You will make about $36,000 per year if you are steady producing. And if you are really steady, that Big Viral Game will eventually come! But even after that, you continue to be steady, but maybe invest in expanding your gaming budget!
Very good remark about people who consider their game to be their baby: it's an incredible and destructive lack of perspective. A game is just a game, a movie is just a movie, even if you put all your passion into it.
I'm 13 and im halfway into my game after a whole year. I started game development at the age of 10 and now I'm seriously into it as an hobby. Thanks for inspiring
I agree a 100% with what you said... I released my first "game" on itch a looong time ago, just a prototype with a free race track, a free car model and a scuffed car controller made by myself, and half of the time you just yeet through the air because the physics are a broken mess. Not makin a single cent with that crap lol, and I've made many bad games after that, but now I'm making an actual game, a mobile game, some bus driving game where you drive from one point to another, really simple, but it's gonna be great :)
I am also in my indie developer journey and I've started with zero money down. I definitely agree with your points and I was scared that I was the only one thinking that way.
I've paid like 33 dollars so far but 21 was for aseprite and 12 was for a course on how unity works and how to use visual scripting (I suck at regular scripting) But I definitely agree on spending the least amount possible
You absolutely need to release the first one, especially the first one. I was super attached to my first game, I thought it was going to be the next Color Switch. I needed that reality check. Also know that there are over 900k games released each year, by people far better than you, the odds are not on your side. I have reached a point where I enjoy the process of making games rather than stressing about whether it will workout or not. But my best advice, put that first one out there...it will help you a lot. My first game is called 'Sone Star' by the way, I am not sure if it's still on the app store. Haven't updated it in years....
I honestly would be so so happy with making even 20 dollars off my game, the idea that I can do something I love and make money while doing it motivates me like none other.
Not gonna lie, I needed to hear this. I have been struggling with the graphics on the game I'm currently making, and I might just say f it and literally make a game with potato graphics, or even circles and squares. The issue is, I really wanted a story driven game, and it is so hard to make the "player" fall into the story and not want to climb back out with circles, squares, and triangles. My experience justisnt great enough, but I know, because of you, that I need to step back, and revisit it another time.
When you said that your first game will probably flop anyway, something popped in my head what my parents used to say when I was a kid. You'll never be flawless when you're just starting out. You'll definitely make a bunch of mistakes at your first whatever, and that's okay. You need to make mistakes in order to learn from them. I think that applies to games too.
I want to learn how to code and do some art and make some games. I'm 17 at the moment and I'm definitely not doing it as a full time. More like secondary stuff(or income potentially). Like making a game will Cost nothing and I could do it on my downtime. Ill always have love for games. I hope to make some money off of it also because my dream job makes a bit money but not the amount that's going to cover my dream assets. Thank you for this video.
I've made 4 games! Each one I think of practice, but i make sure they are completed practice. :) Good advice! All done during gamejams, 5th one coming in 5 days haha.
hey thomas, can you make a video about how you create your own music? what type and version of instrument did you use and what instrument did you think good enough to be promoted to indie game developer
You made coma? I LOVE this game. I have shown it to many people or at least told them about it and it's story. It is just great. Still listening to the red wind theme once in a while. Thank you for this game and it's music.
Your first game is like your first unit in a real time strategy game. While you are happy that you can finally play the game and assign some tasks to the unit like gathering food, wood etc... you know inside that the 1st unit is cheap, low and will be replaced shortly afterwards by a better unit who is stronger and more efficient. However, after realising this, you shouldn't pay less attention on the 1st unit just because you know that he will be replaced. The more value you can get out of your first unit, the better your start will be. Once you have a good start, the journey will be easier and less stressfull. The core message is: Don't focus too much on the first project because you know it's not the end of your journey; while keeping in mind that the more effort you put in your first steps, the more you will learn from your start and the easier the upcoming journey will be. *200/200 population reached. Delete villager, need more swordsmen. IIAAAAAAAAOOO*
Would you say it's a good or bad idea to save a game concept for later if I want to do the concept justice, with skills and experience I might get later? (From making simpler games) I'm not thinking too much about possible revenue of the game concept at the moment but I'm still curious
6:54 THIS ! Finishing a game is hard ! You need to learn how to fix bugs, do that thing you've been assigning to "futur you", wrap this thing up. Every body can find the motivation to start that "new exciting idea" but you gonna know how to finish it. That's how you learn to scope, so one day, when you'll do an actual good game (we all know your first games will suck), you will have learned from those previous projects that you completed. Tutorials, courses, mentoring, that's all nice learning tools to start, but the best way to learn is from experience.
in the middle of a game jam right now and just found your vids while searching for tech stuff but these are quite motivational to just let play in the background while i'm working lol, thanks! (ive finished three or so games but theyre nothing crazy)
What about mine? I spent 3 years writing every single detail of it, every button, every unit, i can practically play it in my head. Im almost a year into developing it and have many more to go. Im not disagreeing with anything you said, but it did seem specified to people making their first game on impulse without a real plan, while there are many new developers out there that are building a specific vision. Would love to see a video giving us some advice on marketing it to the right people to get it publicity.
My first game earned me around 200€, invested 6 Month called Tower Miners. Your first game is probably not that good but more important: Exposure is everything xD Going for round 2 now, 3 years of part time dev (bad idea I know), Lab 7: Cold Nights... lets see...
I agree that a first game should be something small to learn how it all works. I made a small 2D game that I only showed friends. But my second game is a 3D platformer with huge scope. It IS my baby! Why? Because I’m not making it for money, but rather for the enjoyment and journey of its progression ;) Although if making games for a living is your plan, he has a point. It shouldn’t be your baby as that’s gonna stop you from ignoring negative criticism, and moving forward with the next game, and the next etc. You’ll make many more, so just take the lessons learnt and move on :D
You know, I agree. I leaned quite a bit even just finishing a MVP for a game. I scratched all designs, switched it from an RPG to a VN, updated character profiles, timeline, world, even a bit of the plot. And I finished it. But I really cant just not care about a project, I need to put forth a good effort. So does anyone think I could achieve the needed knowledge for creating a good game worth someones time by just making a MVP, frequently updated writting&code, multiple demos, then finally an ens product im proud of thats worth someones time?
I would like to make game but I am not a computer expert. Maybe should sit in a director chair and have a team of programers and graphics designers to help me make games. I have so many good ideas in my mind.
Statements in the video, so very true. I made two games earlier before (using game Studio), they were fun to make, finished them, released them on itch io and forgot about them and kept moving forward.
Hi thomas! question about Steam: I´m trying to define a price for my game, but Steam suggested conversions are....... CRAZY, for example, if i set USA dollar to $29.99, the suggested price for Indian Rupee Currency is 699, if i convert it to USA dollars: $9 buks.... from maybe 40 currencies, i would need to increase at least 20.... and some even to 300% wich means lots of red flags at Steamworks, how did you solved this puzzle? why prices are so low for some countries, even Euros are lower when converting to dollars? what to do?
Hi Thomas thanx for the video i bought some courses about making games by unity at Udemy is that good? I mean is udemy good enough so i can learn to make games from it? thank you
Thank you so much for this video. You told me exactly what I needed to hear. I am going to stop worrying and just release my game on itch then move on to the next game. I am so grateful and thankful for the content in this video. Thank you so so so very much!!!!!
The main reason why I'd really wish to get paid for my first games is to prove my mom that I'm not gonna starve by making games so she won't worry that much :(
I think u should just keep it simple and make multiple small games rather than making one huge one. The chances are, your game isn't going to get noticed. If you make a lot of simple games, your chances of gaining players and money is much higher in my opinion. For example, flappy bird was very simple but the creator earned $50k per freaking day. So I think I'd just create a bunch of original and simple games.
@@pixelraven7460 Couldn't find arcade surfer, but downloading Synthewave run for a little look now.. Can I ask, did you use Unity to create this? nvm, just saw on the loadup that you did use unity lol. How well is your C# knowledge? I'm desperate to learn C# for my first language
@@pixelraven7460 Also ich will ja jetzt nix sagen, aber dein Spiel "Synthwave Run" hat mehr als 10.000 Downloads, ich bin mir ziemlich sicher du hast mehr als 0$ verdient 😉 Rein von den Bildern her scheint das Spiel auch ziemlich gut zu sein. Viele Kommentare hier sind zu pessimistisch. Solange die Qualität stimmt, kann man mit so Spieleapps eine Menge Geld verdienen. Darf ich fragen, ob du irgendwas studiert hast? Informatik vielleicht?
Mate, you've really put things into perspective for me. I have an idea for a game but with 0 experience making one. I think I should put it on hold while I develop those skills through other mini games. Would love help where possible.
developing skills is super important, I've been learning for over 5 years how to make games, even now I still look at it as developing skills... it takes time man, just go for it!
Thanks for watching! Hope you learned a ton.
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i would be honest even earning 1 $ from your first game should be considered a achievement
Bro give me some tips I am going to engineering college. How you learn animation
@@gamex5014 there are plenty of utube tutorials i chose one and started , download adobe cc and start
Before that stanrt sketchinglike practise it
I made 2 $ from an empty app . It was hillarious I just uploaded it to see if anyone dwonlaods.I didn't market it didn't share it to anyone.Still got downloaded.1.5K + times
@@rohankumarpanigrahi7475 what's app.it??
@@Alessandro-lx1ug that's autocorrect for you. I wrote two different words app full stop and it.
"...even just $100,000..."
Just? I couldn't even imagine making that much on my tenth game...
I would be happy if I just get 1000 dollar
heh i read this as soon as he said it
Taxes?
but u have ten games. I would be happy and screaming if I complete my very first game :D
@@saratchandramv1886 Who has ten games?
A tip for every new game dev around here: learn music and audio production. No matter if you game only uses basic forms as graphics, if it has good original music and good sound effects, it will be good and it will sell.
Much agreed! Custom music is key. The tools available today enable really anyone to compose good quality game music.
If a player spend 300 hour per month on a online game , how much a game creator will earn? Or dosnt matter , you can make money only from downloads?
@@ergicela4420 @Ergi Çela @Ergi Çela Depends on the type of monetization your game uses. If its ads, then the online time matters. And, normaly, a player that spends much time playing your game will have more chances of buying something in your game with real money. Theoretically, you can make money using every single monetization method at the same time, but most payed games wont have Ads because the person that already payed for the game wouldnt want ads on it.
@@PorthoGamesBR and for pc games works the same? And if you want to take ads for monetization you will not take money from downloads?
It would be much easier and likely have a better audio result, if you hire a composer or a music composition student that also knows production and has good plugins.
They have professional DAWs and plugins that will sound better than the free ones.
HOLY MOLY YOU MADE FLASH GEOMETRY WARS! I played the crap out of that in middle school, that’s crazy.
...wait so why didn't it make money?
he probably published for free.....
And I made Centeron
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.xlise.centeron
Crazy?
He made the flash version not the original one. thats what he said prototyping.
He made the copy
My first game made 0.14$...
My first free game made $4.00 lol
I will make my first game now
@M prauraa.itch.io there is only one game here you may also rate the game, its a game for a jam and voting for the jam is going on!!
Im making mine now
200 here on steam, what platform did you guys use to publish?
I’m going to make my second game and if it gets atleast like 20€ I will consider it a success honestly
if you havent made already a video about it i would like to learn about the story why you sold your IP and how you got it back.....
thumbs up people if you wanna hear the story
I want to learn HOW you sell your IP
I want to know what made him think he couldnt reuse the ip without the company knowing
mmm... "Once upon a coma" changing its name to "Neversong" now sounds suspicious... 🧐
"...or even just 100,000$"
"JUST 100,000$" ? I just hope it will cover the development/production cost, by that I mean about 500$ XD
Or if u make it for ios 100$ per year
Boi my budget is 0$
@@SebaCape55 Time investment in marketing will have to do because I don't have much money to spend in it.
@@SebaCape55 Yep I'm planning on using Twitter mainly. The content just isn't good enough to be shared yet though.
@@SebaCape55 Thanks. I could do that I guess.
I bought a camera recently that can do good quality videos and my game engine is practically functional now so I would at least have something to show on the screen. However, my drawing skills are still crap even if my color theory is quite good and my music making skills are simply non existent. A devlog that goes alongside me learning and implementing those things into a game could work.
It will have to wait for September though, I still have exams to pass and my uni room is a lot quieter and has better lighting than where I am currently.
I’m about to finish my first game in Unity. It’s a small game, and I don’t expect to make much if any off of it. But I’m learning about how to make a game and what goes into making a game. I’m especially learning about how gaining the experience is what matters most, especially in the first games you build.
Thank you for the reassurance Thomas! 😄
Howd did it go...being 2 years later
How is it now
Hey! Other people have asked, but what’s the name of your game? I’m really curious and want to see how it worked out!
Welp 4 years later, i hope you made it 👍
Loved this. Thanks for keeping it real, Mr. Brush!
"the first game you will realize ..."
AD:
"This is you , your in a pile of poop"
As always, great advice. I'm in the baby stages of my first, post college game. My expectations have just been justified from watching your video... Maybe pick up some pocket change, but make something to add to my portfolio, something that can show me that I can take a game from inception to release, and have it be a learning tool to make better games in the future.
What you do in this channel is so great for the indie/hobbyist/just-getting-started game development community as a whole.
Thank you
Edit: grammar errors..
I stopped my 9-5 thanks to, *2OnlineJobs. Com*
I actually really needed to hear this! Right now my game development progress has taken a huge blow because my motherboard fried and since then I've just been watching videos and stuff on my work laptop until I save up the scratch to get new parts (not allowed to produce on my work laptop as any intellectual property that is produced on it will automatically belong to my employer). This really helped to put it into perspective for me, I've been thinking that I would release a game and then open a studio and start my game studio career but this video helped me to realize that I've got a lot of work to do. I currently hate my job and am very miserable, making games is a fun process for me and I think I put too much pressure on the game to bring me into a career that I enjoy, so I suppose the best thing for me is to have fun with it as a hobby until I can actually produce something that can make me some money, I mean it's fun anyway so why not just treat it like a hobby for now and get serious about it later?
In short... thank you... I really needed to hear this!
Being in the learning stage what I've realised by watching your and others' videos is that one just simply needs to finish small projects instead focusing on the success.
I keep getting back to my first big project every year, but I've never felt super serious about finishing it till this year. Hopefully I can afford to make time to get that done because my skills are so much better now and I genuinely feel like I'm capable of releasing something I'll be proud of in the future (:
Did u earn money
thank you for video and insight! It was informative! ❤️
Great video, but I dont agree that you shouldnt put your emotions to your game. If let s say Toby Foxx didnt put so much love and care to his characters in Undertale, what would we get from it? A walking simulator with battle system. But of course, if your first games are like Thomas s, there is no need for emotios, games like that are for you to learn something about game design
I agree, but I think that he is trying to say to not let your emotions depend from the game. Put them into the game but not let the game affect you if you have bad reviews or a hard time or something like this that can put you down. Or this is what I think! See you!
I think he meant is not to get too emotionally attached to your game.
Honestly, hearing my first game is probably going to flop helps a lot. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so of course I want something I put a lot of time into to do well, but realistically, I have to build myself up before I really start seeing money.
I hate to think that my idea wont make money and wont do well, but the anxiety for getting started on something that i dont have all the knowledge for yet is kiling my drive to create the project in the first place. I trust and thank you for you advice maybe the push i need to just get started with doing projects so i can actually gather the knowledge that i need
My first game made $ 780 in sales on Steam.
1570 units sold.
It wasn't worth it for the time it took. But I learned a lot!
God thats a good quote for beginners, "I wasn't making games for money, I was making games because I wanted to."
I dislike it when people treat that as the only goal though, like it's somehow a bad thing to want to make money making games. Personally I'm at a point in my life where I have an opportunity to change direction - I'm moving countries, I have decent savings, and my living costs are about to drop significantly. I've mildly played around with game dev in my spare time, but between having a social life, a full time job, and limited energy in the evenings, there's just not a huge amount of free time going around. I'm never going to get to the stage where I can release a few games in my spare time and gradually move towards financial independence like that. If I want to ever make games full time, I'm going to need to focus on that as my main goal and not have a job - so I need to have some semblance of a solid basis for thinking I can make money off it, which is why I'm watching these types of videos - not because I think it's a get rich quick scheme, but because I want to do some research into what sort of stats you need to make some money from a game, and how often games of different types hit those stats.
I'm pretty sure this counts, as I have made many many games on scratch, and have built a quite large following on there. I started out with ports of other games that were already out there, mostly those didn't get recognized beside a few views. I was like that for 1.5 years, learning how to make games, not making good ones, or even halfway decent ones yet. Then, one of my games hit trending. It shot off in popularity, and right now has 1.5 million views. That started it for me, but at the time not much changed. I gain some popularity, and I strived to improve my games. They slowly got better and better, but my short popularity was over. That was, until I released my first good game, which got trending again. That started it, and soon after that, I decided to always make my own games with my own ideas. That was one year ago. Ever since my games have gotten better and better, with each game getting tens of thousands of views, and then, I made my first large game. The Orb. This game took me almost 3 months, I drew countless pieces of art. This game performed pretty well, making it to my #4 position. But, now when I look back on it, I see so many game design errors, a few art errors, and a fair bit of coding to be improved. No more than 2 months after finishing The Orb, I already view it as a sort of alpha for what is to come. I am now making The Orb II. This should fix everything that I know of, and if it wasn't on scratch, I could probably sell it. I am already working on other programming languages to get into the game developing community, but I feel as if I have already passed my "first" game. I really know how to make games now. If anybody wants to see a beta of this game, you can reply to this comment. Thanks for reading, and keep in mind that it took me almost 2 years to get anywhere with my games. Just keep going at it and make more and more games, and you will improve.
I actually went to your youtube channel to check your game! I loved the concept of it, please keep going and creating stuff ^w^
@@deboraaurora9376 Thanks! Just tell me if you would like to see the one I am working on.
I LOVE the way you say and show things. You are my ispiration and YOU help me not to give up not just for game developing but in every day things. THANK YOU FOR MAKING VIDEOS and i hope you wont stop uploading new.
This is all pretty logical. It should go without saying that you're not going to make a hit right off the bat. But that is why the best ideas should be left for later projects, and make your first game your most unambitious one.
Love the honesty Thomas.
How much money will your first game make, None, probably. Well it depends on a lot of things, first of all being publishers and ddp's. If u decide to work with a publisher that is.
How many indie games have you made? I have made 1 and made 2,200$ my first week of sales. Maybe you shouldn't give advice without any experience to back it up. I never used any publisher.
@@GroundbreakGames what is the name of your game?
@@triis8643 click on his name and go to his TH-cam channel. You will see it is called "Age Of Omens".
@@ravenofcode8072 probably because your games are shit
Wonderful video, inspired me to start this long journey into creating games. I understood that I shouldn't dive straight into the boss fight, but focus more on "character development". Thanks Thomas, +1 :D
In total, I have worked on 3 games. All 3 were from game jams on itch. My advice to anyone who has zero experience who finds this: Start with game jams. Get a small team of people who have experience in different things. My first game jam I wrote the story for a game about a Unicorn tricking someone into committing tax fraud. My second game jam, I wrote a little bit of a story. We didn’t have time to include all that I wrote, so it was simply a short demo. But I’m still proud of the work. For my third jam, I wanted to try something new. I worked on the art. Did I struggle? Yes, a lot. I’ve been trying to learn game art, character sheets, and everything that goes into it for 2 years on and off. But it’s worth it to at least try. I’m slowly preparing myself to work on my own games once I become better at all of the aspects of game development. It may seem impossible at first, you’ll think “I don’t think I’ll ever get on that level of game development”. But what does it hurt to try? Take something that you know how to do, and start there. If you know how to make a little animation, try making a character sheet for a game. Use it for a jam, or a short little demo. If you’re good at writing, write a story you’d use for a game. Start small, work your way up. I hope someone who comes across this takes it to heart, and it motivates them to continue their work on their dream
The very first game i make though is not small, is not a prototype, is not short, it has 10 hours gameplay and is story driven. Home world is dying! You are their only hope! Massive 3-d open world adventure first person shooter. It also only took me 8 months to make. Nothing but positive feedback so far, don't crush my dreams by saying it wont make anything
I agree on this, man. First game doesnt have to be basic! Yours sounds awesome!
My first game is extremely epic as well. Retro style RPG with modern features. Open world exploration. Skill based combat system with 9 biomes to explore. Large scale battles and over 90 different random events. 90 sets of interchangeable armor. Awesome storyline And TONS of game lore and history. Writing a book to release with the game as well.
We got this :)
@@nickthepersonidk6161 Hey definitely man! No need to self limit yourself or put a cap on things. Thats what ordinary people do. How can i check out your game?
@@UnyieldingVigor Absolutely! We love sharing! We have a facebook page, twitter page, and a discord server of you want big time updates. Facebook.com/guildmaster2017
Twitter@guildmaster2017
discord.gg/Z5sJPz
We want to check yours out as well
@@nickthepersonidk6161 ill follow along! and yeah i have a early trailer video on my channel that i threw together in like 3 min lol. official one coming shortly.
Let me make sure I'm following this right
So you're saying
If i have huge ideas that have more potential to make money
Put them as 2nd or 3rd project right ?
What I'm getting from what he is saying is first learn to make a game. Meaning finishing it and releasing a finished game, no matter how small. Create,finish release.
@@Gears2Game Yeah, it's easy to get burnt out when tackling a super ambitious project. So doing smaller less ambitious ones allowfor you to learn and get into the habit of finishing what you start.
Thank you for advice! I just started with my first game.
You are absolutely right. If you want to make money, you either make a game for fun, and hope that it makes money as a bonus, or you become a full-time developer! Make a number of games per month, something very simple but somewhat additive enough to spread fast. Say 3 games are made per month, and each game averages around $1000 in revenue after a year. You will make about $36,000 per year if you are steady producing. And if you are really steady, that Big Viral Game will eventually come! But even after that, you continue to be steady, but maybe invest in expanding your gaming budget!
Very good remark about people who consider their game to be their baby: it's an incredible and destructive lack of perspective. A game is just a game, a movie is just a movie, even if you put all your passion into it.
Thanks Bro.....much needed advice......Highly appreciated
I'm 13 and im halfway into my game after a whole year. I started game development at the age of 10 and now I'm seriously into it as an hobby.
Thanks for inspiring
How did it go ?
How did it go?
how did it go?
I agree a 100% with what you said... I released my first "game" on itch a looong time ago, just a prototype with a free race track, a free car model and a scuffed car controller made by myself, and half of the time you just yeet through the air because the physics are a broken mess. Not makin a single cent with that crap lol, and I've made many bad games after that, but now I'm making an actual game, a mobile game, some bus driving game where you drive from one point to another, really simple, but it's gonna be great :)
I am also in my indie developer journey and I've started with zero money down. I definitely agree with your points and I was scared that I was the only one thinking that way.
I've paid like 33 dollars so far but 21 was for aseprite and 12 was for a course on how unity works and how to use visual scripting (I suck at regular scripting)
But I definitely agree on spending the least amount possible
Im Working on Dwerve a top down tower defense dungeon crawler! Its not my 1st game so its money time!
lol good luck!
5:10
How many Dead Baby games can one man make until they create Binding of Isaac.
thanks i really needed that
Thomas is the best marketer... always starts his video by talking about his games
I'm releasing my first game TONIGHT and I'm really freakin nervous
What's it called?
@@Nordbish it's a vr game called "time travelling navy seal ninja warrior". it's coming out on steam and the oculus store
Congratz man!
Us too :)
@@fletcherst-germain6608 how much did you made?
8:11 that's what cyberpunk thought 😋
loved this video,I soo needed to hear that "don't treat your game as baby" part.
Thomas:"No game should be your baby"
Edmun McMillen: "More dead babies"
were do you publish these games????
Thomas : How many games have you quit?
Me : Yes!
You absolutely need to release the first one, especially the first one. I was super attached to my first game, I thought it was going to be the next Color Switch. I needed that reality check. Also know that there are over 900k games released each year, by people far better than you, the odds are not on your side. I have reached a point where I enjoy the process of making games rather than stressing about whether it will workout or not. But my best advice, put that first one out there...it will help you a lot. My first game is called 'Sone Star' by the way, I am not sure if it's still on the app store. Haven't updated it in years....
What did u make off of Pinstripe???
he probably made a bit over 300k on it
@@jackyboy3025 I checked steam stats and it says he sold over 200k copies, which should be around 3million dollars 💀
@Skepz that's still a lot, at least 1 million dollars he earned.
I honestly would be so so happy with making even 20 dollars off my game, the idea that I can do something I love and make money while doing it motivates me like none other.
Not gonna lie, I needed to hear this. I have been struggling with the graphics on the game I'm currently making, and I might just say f it and literally make a game with potato graphics, or even circles and squares. The issue is, I really wanted a story driven game, and it is so hard to make the "player" fall into the story and not want to climb back out with circles, squares, and triangles. My experience justisnt great enough, but I know, because of you, that I need to step back, and revisit it another time.
Good luck!
You can literally just buy tons of different assets on Unity market.
even couple hundreds? i'm happy with 10 bucks thank you
When you said that your first game will probably flop anyway, something popped in my head what my parents used to say when I was a kid. You'll never be flawless when you're just starting out. You'll definitely make a bunch of mistakes at your first whatever, and that's okay. You need to make mistakes in order to learn from them. I think that applies to games too.
I want to learn how to code and do some art and make some games. I'm 17 at the moment and I'm definitely not doing it as a full time. More like secondary stuff(or income potentially). Like making a game will Cost nothing and I could do it on my downtime. Ill always have love for games. I hope to make some money off of it also because my dream job makes a bit money but not the amount that's going to cover my dream assets. Thank you for this video.
I've made 4 games! Each one I think of practice, but i make sure they are completed practice. :) Good advice! All done during gamejams, 5th one coming in 5 days haha.
mark browns jam?? 👀👀
@@ravenofcode8072 I'll do his GMTK Jam too! Think that starts in 11days~ Right now I'm doing GamesPlusJam2 on itch
@@Neekoolos dang you're doing em all! I wish I had that kind of time, good luck tho, link em here when ur done and I'll check em out
My favorite video of yours so far!
hey thomas, can you make a video about how you create your own music? what type and version of instrument did you use and what instrument did you think good enough to be promoted to indie game developer
You are totally right
You made coma? I LOVE this game. I have shown it to many people or at least told them about it and it's story. It is just great. Still listening to the red wind theme once in a while. Thank you for this game and it's music.
This is some really good advice.
Wooohooo!... I made two games, so my third, which I finishing right now finally will bring me some MOOOONEEEY !! :) ... or not ...
probably no :)
6:09 no my baby is my cat
Your first game is like your first unit in a real time strategy game. While you are happy that you can finally play the game and assign some tasks to the unit like gathering food, wood etc... you know inside that the 1st unit is cheap, low and will be replaced shortly afterwards by a better unit who is stronger and more efficient. However, after realising this, you shouldn't pay less attention on the 1st unit just because you know that he will be replaced. The more value you can get out of your first unit, the better your start will be. Once you have a good start, the journey will be easier and less stressfull. The core message is: Don't focus too much on the first project because you know it's not the end of your journey; while keeping in mind that the more effort you put in your first steps, the more you will learn from your start and the easier the upcoming journey will be.
*200/200 population reached. Delete villager, need more swordsmen. IIAAAAAAAAOOO*
Cool screensavers : where did you get it?
Would you say it's a good or bad idea to save a game concept for later if I want to do the concept justice, with skills and experience I might get later? (From making simpler games)
I'm not thinking too much about possible revenue of the game concept at the moment but I'm still curious
6:54 THIS ! Finishing a game is hard ! You need to learn how to fix bugs, do that thing you've been assigning to "futur you", wrap this thing up. Every body can find the motivation to start that "new exciting idea" but you gonna know how to finish it. That's how you learn to scope, so one day, when you'll do an actual good game (we all know your first games will suck), you will have learned from those previous projects that you completed. Tutorials, courses, mentoring, that's all nice learning tools to start, but the best way to learn is from experience.
in the middle of a game jam right now and just found your vids while searching for tech stuff but these are quite motivational to just let play in the background while i'm working lol, thanks! (ive finished three or so games but theyre nothing crazy)
I loved the line when you said your first game going to probably flop anyway.
What about mine? I spent 3 years writing every single detail of it, every button, every unit, i can practically play it in my head. Im almost a year into developing it and have many more to go. Im not disagreeing with anything you said, but it did seem specified to people making their first game on impulse without a real plan, while there are many new developers out there that are building a specific vision. Would love to see a video giving us some advice on marketing it to the right people to get it publicity.
True... your game is 3d or 2d?
@@vitor6245 3D, top down perspective RTS with roguelike elements.
I should of found this bout a month ago; very much needed, thanks mate
What kind of games did you comment section folks make? What platform did you use to publish? What programming language and/or engine did you use?
You rock bro you explain everything clearly thanks
Thanks Thomas,Your videos really help me to keep going and learn code and create games. Congrats on 200K and Have a Great Day!
My first game earned me around 200€, invested 6 Month called Tower Miners. Your first game is probably not that good but more important: Exposure is everything xD Going for round 2 now, 3 years of part time dev (bad idea I know), Lab 7: Cold Nights... lets see...
Where did you released your first games.
Amazing video. You have a new subscriber
I agree that a first game should be something small to learn how it all works. I made a small 2D game that I only showed friends.
But my second game is a 3D platformer with huge scope. It IS my baby! Why? Because I’m not making it for money, but rather for the enjoyment and journey of its progression ;)
Although if making games for a living is your plan, he has a point. It shouldn’t be your baby as that’s gonna stop you from ignoring negative criticism, and moving forward with the next game, and the next etc. You’ll make many more, so just take the lessons learnt and move on :D
"even just a hundred thousand dollars"
I'm ok with like $10
You know, I agree. I leaned quite a bit even just finishing a MVP for a game. I scratched all designs, switched it from an RPG to a VN, updated character profiles, timeline, world, even a bit of the plot. And I finished it. But I really cant just not care about a project, I need to put forth a good effort. So does anyone think I could achieve the needed knowledge for creating a good game worth someones time by just making a MVP, frequently updated writting&code, multiple demos, then finally an ens product im proud of thats worth someones time?
thank you!
Id be happy if the game i make would make enough for me to buy a candy bar, it honestly would make me happy cause someone liked it enough to buy it
I would like to make game but I am not a computer expert. Maybe should sit in a director chair and have a team of programers and graphics designers to help me make games. I have so many good ideas in my mind.
Good talk man! Nice to see someone instilling a little humility into the masses :)
You know what, I dont normally do this but im subscribing lmao.
I wasn't even expecting my first game to make any money.
Statements in the video, so very true. I made two games earlier before (using game Studio), they were fun to make, finished them, released them on itch io and forgot about them and kept moving forward.
I needed this video
Great man! I appreciate your hard work...you went so far! Well done!
Hi thomas! question about Steam: I´m trying to define a price for my game, but Steam suggested conversions are....... CRAZY, for example, if i set USA dollar to $29.99, the suggested price for Indian Rupee Currency is 699, if i convert it to USA dollars: $9 buks.... from maybe 40 currencies, i would need to increase at least 20.... and some even to 300% wich means lots of red flags at Steamworks, how did you solved this puzzle? why prices are so low for some countries, even Euros are lower when converting to dollars? what to do?
Hi Thomas thanx for the video i bought some courses about making games by unity at Udemy is that good? I mean is udemy good enough so i can learn to make games from it? thank you
I would assume not much without good marketing.
Thank you so much for this video. You told me exactly what I needed to hear. I am going to stop worrying and just release my game on itch then move on to the next game. I am so grateful and thankful for the content in this video. Thank you so so so very much!!!!!
This actually motivated me. I'm gonna make a list of simple games I can make. Thanks. 👍
The main reason why I'd really wish to get paid for my first games is to prove my mom that I'm not gonna starve by making games so she won't worry that much :(
thanks
I know Pan's Apples is going to make a comeback like Minecraft did for 2019.
For almost 2 years I have been developing a mobile game. I will get 0$ cuz 0 marketing for now. But do you know what? I am fine with that...
Goodluck!!! Message me when ur done woth it ir comment in one of my videos and I'll make sure to check it out!!@
I think u should just keep it simple and make multiple small games rather than making one huge one. The chances are, your game isn't going to get noticed. If you make a lot of simple games, your chances of gaining players and money is much higher in my opinion. For example, flappy bird was very simple but the creator earned $50k per freaking day. So I think I'd just create a bunch of original and simple games.
@@JakeNore Yes, I actually released two games :) The first one is called Synthwave Run and the second is Arcade Surfer
@@pixelraven7460 Couldn't find arcade surfer, but downloading Synthewave run for a little look now.. Can I ask, did you use Unity to create this?
nvm, just saw on the loadup that you did use unity lol. How well is your C# knowledge? I'm desperate to learn C# for my first language
@@pixelraven7460 Also ich will ja jetzt nix sagen, aber dein Spiel "Synthwave Run" hat mehr als 10.000 Downloads, ich bin mir ziemlich sicher du hast mehr als 0$ verdient 😉 Rein von den Bildern her scheint das Spiel auch ziemlich gut zu sein. Viele Kommentare hier sind zu pessimistisch. Solange die Qualität stimmt, kann man mit so Spieleapps eine Menge Geld verdienen. Darf ich fragen, ob du irgendwas studiert hast? Informatik vielleicht?
Thanks for the reminder.
Mate, you've really put things into perspective for me.
I have an idea for a game but with 0 experience making one. I think I should put it on hold while I develop those skills through other mini games.
Would love help where possible.
developing skills is super important, I've been learning for over 5 years how to make games, even now I still look at it as developing skills... it takes time man, just go for it!
@@ravenofcode8072 Nah yeah, definitely refreshing to be a part of a highly supportive community.