How much MONEY my Game made (and how much it cost!)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- 🎮 Play the game! cmonkey.co/din...
❤️ I really hope you like it! Please write a review with your thoughts, thanks!
🌍 The Assets I used assetstore.uni...
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🔴 RELATED VIDEOS 🔴
Announcing my Steam game! (How I calculate Goals for SUCCESS - Dinky Guardians) • Announcing my Steam ga...
How much MONEY did my Indie Game make? Battle Royale Tycoon (Steam) • How much MONEY did my ...
How to SURVIVE as a Game Dev for a DECADE! (Over $1,000,000 Revenue!) • How to SURVIVE as a Ga...
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💬 My game has been out for a month, here's how much money it made.
I'm going to showcase both revenue as well as what were the costs involved in making of the game, how much I value my time, how much I spent on artists, musicians, translators and assets.
This has been a fun 7 months journey, I hope that by following along it has inspired you on your own game dev journey to complete your games!
🌍 Get Code Monkey on Steam!
👍 Interactive Tutorials, Complete Games and More!
✅ store.steampow...
See you next time!
Website: unitycodemonke...
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💬 My game has been out for a month, here's how much money it made and how much it cost!
🎮 Play the game! cmonkey.co/dinkyguardians
❤ I really hope you like it! Please write a review with your thoughts, thanks!
🌍 The Assets I used assetstore.unity.com/lists/dinky-guardians-assets-used-6872546705418?aid=1101l96nj&pubref=dgfirstmonth
🔴 RELATED VIDEOS 🔴
Announcing my Steam game! (How I calculate Goals for SUCCESS - Dinky Guardians) th-cam.com/video/pUEj6Y51x0k/w-d-xo.html
How much MONEY did my Indie Game make? Battle Royale Tycoon (Steam) th-cam.com/video/e7cwJqvq_Fo/w-d-xo.html
How to SURVIVE as a Game Dev for a DECADE! (Over $1,000,000 Revenue!) th-cam.com/video/sfD4MMFcebE/w-d-xo.html
How the Steam Algorithm Works! (Indie Game Devs NEED to know) th-cam.com/video/myO8OncTgw4/w-d-xo.html
Quick Sales Numbers Reveal! (Steam First Week Revenue) th-cam.com/video/Z8yDFqem3e0/w-d-xo.html
The link to the assets doesn't work.
+1
Hi Codemonkey, I downloaded your project with lobby sample. I tried it remake it myself as well as copy and use yours.
One thing I couldn't implement - is how to auto kick player from lobby if player suddenly looses connection or crashes.
Do you know how to do it? Have you done in your other videos?
It would be really helpfull for my project
@@CODEUM_GAMES Yeah it seems yesterday the Asset store broke down, seems to be working now
the advise you give is great. I just lunched my Kickstarter Campaign way to soon with a high goal but you talk about many points im working out at this moment. - STILL RUNNING -
my game has been free so far.
Id love your feedback and help! -jake
I love how transparent you are with all of your development and life. Thank you for always sharing this information! As a hobby game dev myself, it is great to see how things actually work out vs. the "What if". And your instruction videos have been invaluable, granted my games are both mobile only. Anyway! Thanks again for the great content!
I feel really bad knowing how far every dev has to go in order to sell his game, just after he does insane amount of work. I mean even if you make an outstanding game, it won't just go instantly popular...
Why? You people overrate these games. No offense but a game wont succeed because its just not that good. I am aspiring game dev myself and I have been at it for few years yet I still havent put anything out there because I simply havent developed anything really original or polished. I frequent gamedev and Unity forums alot and majority of the stuff presented is already done rehashed stuff and certainly only fraction is outstanding to you use your word. You should be grateful the market treats these as they do which means if you truly develop something good it will spread and sell. There is no way you develop something outstanding and it flops completely.
Demand for your game genre plays a huge part.
@@outlander234 you do really show your ignorance about the argument, I suggest you to read a post about how to make a hit with your indie game, building just a polished and fun game is NOT ENOUGH.
@@PatrickCreationswell keep in mind there were a decent amount of purchasers who loterally stated they bought the game NOT to play, but to support. this youtube channel is the reason of why it sold over 1k. (which lets be honest, 7 months of labor is NOT worth 14k....you'd be homeless in america and great britian)
also lets be honest, this dev doesn't NEED to sell games. he just does it for fun. the other commentor was talking about doing it for a living etc. you know codemonkey's main revenue stream is most likely youtube. which codemonkey does an excellent job on this channel and is loved. he is a smart business man imo.
@@outlander234 It all depends on the contingent of players...if they are underdeveloped, then they will play the corresponding degenerative games (for example, porn games clearly do not make a person better)!
As a full time programmer in a video game companty, I commend your discipline and dedication to make and release your own stuff from start to finish; and manage to make a living out of it. Cheers.
But that was brutal, even begging on the street with zero skill gave you more money.
even after all of that pocket change earnign, the tax, electricity, utilities, foods, aren't even included yet
having all of that knowledge, degree and skills, yet you're earning less than a beggar.
and i know a lot of worser game than his game
@@jensenraylight8011 Well he makes up for that on income from this channel. Unfortunately he seems stuck on limiting art to what he himself can handle, which is a big limiting factor for getting people to buy a game
It all comes to knowing the audience and current trends. Especially when brainstorming game ideas I always ask myself if I would play it and if it's appealing enough. The game presented here looks more like a mobile game to me. So if CodeMonkey instead released this on android and iOS, maybe it could have gotten a bigger share.
So refreshing to see how transparent you are Hugo on your endeavours. It really helps the community and aspiring game devs with some real and down to earth insights rather than sensationalist videos about success/expectations in making games.
bro, you are far way better than most humans I know, maybe that's not a standard But for me and others as well I think you are an Inspiring role model. Thank you CodeMonkey for doing what you love and not caring too much about money
You are a real human❤❤❤
Right now I can't support you financially cuz I live In a country with an economy that is about to collapse .But When I can I will
Are you from Africa or Russia or South America ? I think so)))
@@arcday4281 yes I am from Egypt
Thanks for the kind words!
I think Turkey :d@@arcday4281
Or Ukraine@@arcday4281
Thanks for making this video! I was feeling quite demoralized after my game got no wishlists but hearing you talk about your journey and goals cheered me up and Im gonna go back at it and keep trying! Thank you for being such a great source of inspiration!
Out of curiosity, did you have adds? Why do you think it had no wishlists?
Thanks and keep ya head up and keep at it. Don’t feel bad. Many folks with tons of success started off with rejections.
@@ThisDoctorKnows Heya, nope, I didn't get any adds or anything like that, just posted about it on some dev discords and the rest of the impressions were from steam traffic but barely any of them converted into wishlists so its probably my steam page that's not as good as it should be :(
Man you're a great source of inspiration, congrats for shipping your game. So happy for your achievement !
Transparency! Thank you very much!❤
It's really cool following the whole journey for your project and finally seeing the tangible results. Thank you for sharing!
I can totally relate with your perspective on money and opportunity costs. I'm also in Portugal, having low costs really helps to pursue careers impossible elsewhere.
Let me know if you ever need a sound designer. Keep up the good work.
Your work continues to be a great inspiration to us all!
Hey Code Monkey I really appreciate the transparency. Especially towards the end where you talked about pure $ vs. enjoyment in life is I think a severely overlooked point. After seeing your day in the life video it looks like you have a great balance, you enjoy life & you get to do what you really want while being able to afford it. Now that is a great goal to strive towards, cheers!
I really love your transparency, it is so inspiring. I hope one day will be able to do as you are doing. Free life, work for myself, and care more about enjoying life, rather than piling money for no reason.
Really appreciate the transparent look into something like this! Super helpful, so thank you!
You continue to inspire me to work on my own projects! Thanks as always for not only the valuable tutorials, but for the real life insight. Early congratulations on 500k, you certainly have earned it :)
Thanks for being transparent about everything, really helps those interested in the field to have grounded expectations
Showing off which assets you used was a hidden gem in this video. I always use your promo code when I get assets too. The 10% off is nice
Awesome and inspirational video. I like your approach. I've been developing professionally for 30 years in the corporate world - it's a secure paycheck but one has to deal with endless BS, a lot of clueless but empowered decision makers, and more.
Takes guts to be an indie and especially and indie game dev - much respect to you and those like you.
Thank you for being so transparent and willing to share your experience to cast out any speculation or wild dreams that might be around us indie devs. I'm so happy for you to know that you are doing what you like and you can afford a living. Not only professional but you seem like a healthy and happy person. Much respect and admiration. Saludos y gracias!
Its rare to find this level of honesty and transparency on youtube so for that alone, thank you. Interesting to hear that the pick and shovel principle alive in the game industry as well. I wonder if it would be more or equally profitable to make assets than to make actual games
The asset store is just as crowded as Steam so it's pretty much the same.
If you make an excellent asset that everyone finds useful (Odin, Text Animator, Feel) you will make tons of money (like making a hyper successful game) but most assets don't really make money since there's so many of them already, especially if you just make "Yet Another Low Poly Pack".
This is so useful, thank you for being so transparent!
really enjoyed how much you went in depth of every cost and gains, not only money but also your happiness about the thing you wanted to do. this is what i'm kind of struggling with but the points you made were very understandable. great video as always ❤
Dude, congrats. If you manage to sell additional 800 units in the next two month you hit ROI phenomenally fast.
Hitting ROI in a year is already an achievement, you are speed running it.
Considering the time spend on it and your additional revenue streams as side products you made the right call.
Nice to see you succeed, there are a lot of people with different stories. Good luck with whatever comes next 😉
Usually games get much cheaper on Steam as time goes by. The crazy part is that Steam takes a 30% cut out of all the sales. Some players use VPN to buy it cheaper, other just torrent it for free to try it out 1st.
First, Thanks for showing how your game is doing! To me as a solo indie dev Its amazing to see the numbers in action and what you should do to hedge your bets.
Just seeing that you can make 2k a month is amazing since I'm pretty much living on nearly that in the UK so this makes my dream as a VR developer even more interesting (I know VR is a niche but growing industry).
I miscalculated my release date by almost a year. However, just getting it done and out on Steam was a significant personal success.
Nice! Congrats!
@@CodeMonkeyUnity Thanks!
Thank you for sharing your insights so transparently! Watching your videos recently makes me actually feel like I might have a grasp on what to expect from my game - even though I do know that it's impossible to actually calculate it.
Also congrats on reaching your goals with Dinky Guardians! That's big & very well deserved!
Thanks as always, your videos are a big pillar of indie game dev YT in my opinion. Mad props for also disclosing how much money you made with the game dev courses! :)
Wow! 🤩A very deep and honst explanation of all the financial stuff around your game. I really do love these kind of videos. Keep on going!
Thank you for your honest opinion and game development feedback. I agree with your opinion. Please continue your amazing work.
Transparency and the honesty is why I like you , love the channel in 2023 like the first time I found it ❤
Very humble guy. Much respect to you.
Thanks for being so transparent! Also, seeing your perspective on money and making games was refreshing, you reminded me that you don't have to make a hit, you can just make games!
Thanks, another excellent video. Your clarity and honesty about the realities of Game Development are truly inspirational. I think you do an exemplary job of keeping your costs down. I make educational 'games' for children, they can cost me £10K to £20K to make and sadly only 1 in 5 actually makes a profit in the first 2 years! I too have learned that using selective assets can help reduce costs. Good luck with your sales.
Hugo! Hugo! Hugo! Thanks for being so transparent about your journey. I bought your Course with GameDevTV when it launched on their. I hope you do more course, because you have an audience. Even if just shedding light on what it really takes to develop a game.
Thanks! I hope the course helped you a lot!
I always love these breakdowns and you did a great job of going through it bit by bit. Thanks!
I'm happy for you man, you achieved your goals and kept your life balanced. Another profit that you have is the impact that you make in many people's lives.
Thank you for being transparent with your steam data, and i wich you mor success in your upcoming games 🎉❤
Thank you for your complete transparency, this was a great video :) best of luck with all your future games
I didn't notice you were recording with facecam, really cool!
heh yeah I've been using it for a few videos lately, still feels pretty weird!
So much clear and transparent information dropped. Thank you! And am happy that you are satisfied with your results.
I've been watching your videos for a long time. I'm really happy to see that you're working on things you like, and making a living that you're happy with. It's really inspiring to see that.
Congratulations on your success! I love Dinky Guardians. Thank you for all the details and your transparency. It is very inspiring to me but I can't help myself but think that damn, that's a harsh reality. Somehow, I am glad that my first motivation that put me into gamedev is just having fun making a game, not the money. But a little return on investment doesn't harm.
Yeah sadly this is a really tough business, most games don't really make money. But if you have a good hook and have some success with marketing you can get a decent result.
And of course there's always the chance you might make the next Thronefall and make $1mil in one week!
Congratulations on 500k subs 🎊 👏 💐
We are always with you ❤
Thanks!
Awesome video, and as usual, thank you for always being so open and transparent with videos like this! It really is helpful, can’t wait for your next game.
Thanks for being so transparent, very insightful! Keep up the good work!
very inspiring video, that's very rare to see an indie dev speak about numbers so openly
Congrats Man!Succes is subjective.For me you did a great job developing this game for only 7 month.
U deserve a break
Thanks!
Thanks for developing this game and sharing the journey. Best wishes. 🎉
I follow your channel for a few months now, had no idea you were Portuguese. Great to see an awesome game dev channel from a fellow Portuguese. Congratulations!
Obrigado!
Glad to see you hit your numbers CM!
Love how frank and honest you were. Really eye opening. As someone who decided to do software for a bank instead of game dev. I still feel like the grass is greener. But now I have a family I dont think we could afford for me to become a game dev now :(
Keep doing it on the side just for fun, then as you grow your skills maybe one day your side-game will be a hit! Best of luck!
Great video, thank you for sharing!
Another aspect that I think works in favour of choosing to make a game is to diversify your income sources. You have a good mix of youtube, courses, and games, so if any of those streams starts under performing you still have the others keeping you going.
Hello code monkey. really detailed overview and thank you very much for the infomarionts. it was very interesting! amazing video :)
This was great, no waste of time, pure content. Thx
Thank you Code Monkey! I appreciate the transparency! You are the best!
What the best part imho of indie game developing is that you are your own boss, you can anytime take the money you make and put them into a different kind of business and still be your own boss - which at one hand is an amazing thing, on the other hand it shows how sad a full time job is, not because full time job is sad in its own core, but how all of its aspects and factors are kind of bad - I mean one can have a great job and amazing colleagues and fantastic boss, but from a couple of years of experience one gets to know that such conditions are a dream come true.
Personally, if I finally push myself and become a self-sustained or self-provided indie game dev, I think that I will stick to a part-time jobs for at least a couple of days per week, and what I find crazy is that if you have the income to be independent, then I think it might even be worthwile to try something insane, like going to a different country and do some part-time job there.
For instance I find myself a lot during my full time job to think about games or game features and sometimes even drifting away so much so that I do couple of mistakes but uh... fuck the job anyway 😀🤷♂
This was a great video mate, I loved each topic that was discussed here.. very informative and helpful thanks!
Congratulations on the successful project! Super interesting to watch.
These videos have become some of my favorite to watch, keep up the good work! Wishlisted forsure.
The fact that you make games makes that your tutorials are actually usable in making games rather than the cheap and quick tuto badly implemented that some people post daily and can’t even explain what they are doing
i love you wtf, you are doing things with PASSION
Considering the number of subscribers and views on your videos, I am surprised by the small number of wishlists, even knowing that your audience is mostly other devs, for the simple fact of helping to boost the wishlists I am surprised that they have not done it. Personally my wishlist and purchase was assured from the beginning :)
So I comment all the time that I am working on a game. I am pretty brand new to game dev but I knew if I kept putting off making a game I would just keep finding excuses to not do it. I would love to see a video on when you should start trying a commercial project or what milestones you think it may be valuable to hit before working on a commercial project.
In some ways it has been easier than I thought it might be and some things have been much harder. It seems like there is never a "perfect" time to start making your first commercial game so I would be interested in hearing your take
Great video, keep them coming!
Dont forget there is always a chance that a game goes viral. so the more you make the higher the chance for that to happen.
Very interesting breakdown, thank you! I was interested in the opportunity cost estimate and I found the Glassdoor figure low (it usually is). Due to your experience, you would not be a in junior role for long and so would be earning more than the medium. With so much remote working, you'd be able to get a remote web dev role at 30K+ without too much trouble. Starting web devs in the UK are around 28k GBP, which is about 32K EURO and most businesses here hire internationally. That said, don't stop doing what you love, just so you know that the opportunity cost might be skewed.
The tricky thing is I never finished college and here in Portugal that is something that pretty much every big company requires, so even though I do have quite a lot of knowledge I think with my lack of degree and previous work experience it would be hard to get anything more than a junior level
But you're right today's world is very remote so if I really searched for it perhaps I could find a US/UK company that would pay much better than what I could get locally.
@@CodeMonkeyUnity I understand that - attitudes in the UK have shifted in the past 10 years. A degree is nice but only because it's a shortcut to "this young person can think beyond specific instructions". With your experience and flawless English, you'd have no trouble picking up a remote web job in the UK. Your YT channel is essentially a superb CV.
But don't do that. Keep doing what you're doing while you can still support yourself! We'd all miss you terribly if you stopped. 👍👍👍
Interesting approach. Thanks for sharing your insights.
Have you ever considered working with an art director? That is something that your end product might benefit from. In that regard, scaling up your studio could be risky but would also give you a chance at a more breakthrough game.
That would indeed help me make much better looking games, but like you said making a studio massively increases the risk amount and I really don't know how to work alongside other people since I've always been solo.
So perhaps one day but not planning something like that anytime soon
@@CodeMonkeyUnity I suppose you could always work to level up those skills within yourself as well. Lots of good courses and TH-camrs sharing their knowledge and insights. 😃
Thanks for showing how well it went. Totaly agree that game sale revenue it self is not indication of total project revenue. Thanks for motivation and transparent.
Fingers crossed for your future revenue. 🎉🎉
I've also been experimenting with paid ads and wish Steam would give us more tools to see if it's actually working! Steam encourages us to send outside promotion to them and build interest on their platform but sometimes it feels like throwing money into a dark pit and hoping some gets thrown back out.
My understanding is Steam supports the Industry Standard for tracking these things called UTM (Urchin Tracking Module), you just need to add the UTM string to the end of the Steam URL in your adds and you can track it under UTM Analytics... just be aware like 60%+ of people are viewing on Mobile and won't be logged into Steam so wont be able to wishlist anyways.
You said "I've never had a real job"??? This is a REAL job! Keep up the good work!
heh yeah that's a good point, I have been paying my rent/food for many years making my games so this is definitely a real job!
Great video, thanks for all that info! Can always rely on you to make videos that are straight to the point!
anooooother point is, the current game was a filler for the other game you have planned. Excited about the next game journey ahead of u.
Tnks for sharing it!
One way to test ad effectiveness through Steam would be to pick a time after launch when sales have settled down, and then run a week of ads and see what sort of boost to sales you get from it compared to the week prior and the week after the ad run. If there's no other boost happening elsewhere (some huge TH-camr streams the game or something) then it's safe to assume any spike in sales was the result of the ad run.
Also I think Facebook Ads are hugely overlooked. Facebook has the largest userbase on social media and you can easily set up A/B testing there. Your game seems like it's meant for a wide audience, so Facebook would actually not be a bad place for you to advertise. I get that FB has a reputation for being only used by grandparents/parents or whatever... but you'd be surprised.
Thank you for your video. Your videos are always inspiring me a lot to keep working on my solo gamedev journey.
thank you for not wasting my time, i indeed came for numbers, but i gave you a like because you respected my time
Wow this video was amazing. Thank you so much for this valuable info. I would love to have a course step by step on how to create a Valheim-like game. Congrats on your success
I love seeing all of the guts and mechanics. Thank you for sharing.
Great video. Many thanks for the honesty and complete transparency of your whole project!
I love that you talk about opportunity cost, but when you mention how much you could make at Google/Facebook, those salaries are incredibly inflated compared to other places.
Thank you for those updates, it helps to see what should I expect from being a solo game developer 😊
How do you choose what game to make? Where your ideas come from? Do you take inspiration from existing games? If so, do you play them to get the inspiration? Does the inspiration come from indie games?
Im 29 and always wanted to be a game dev but never got the oppurtunity to study it as colleges teaching it does not even exist in my country. Everytime I start learning I end up quitting half way through because of thoughts like, "whats even the point? I won't be able to do anything with this in the end, i'm wasting my time." Im just so scared, i dont even know why. But time and time again i find myself back to watching game dev videos and back to dreaming. Anyway, I can't thank you enough for what you do, very few people are this transparent with their lives and this video has relit a spark in me that i did not think existed anymore. Whats the point to money if i keep wishing i did something else all the time. I will try again, thank you.
Yup it's up to you to define your goal, it can be money or it can just be enjoyment, both are valid options. th-cam.com/video/C215WJYFAAw/w-d-xo.html
If you're looking for a guided path then definitely check out my Kitchen Chaos video, a lot of people have found that really helpful th-cam.com/video/AmGSEH7QcDg/w-d-xo.html
Best of luck in your learning journey!
I don't always share your views on some topics but I have ton of respect for your professionalism and dedication, being open like this is a great insight into the Indie Gamedev Industry. Thanks!
I love your work a lot, and your personality even more! Thank you for sharing such valuable information!❤
congratz and thanks for sharing this data! indie gamedev is not a piece of cake
Thank you for being so transparent and sharing your opinion with us!
The Great explanation of your project, thank you for share it with us. Best wishes and good luck in future projects.
Unsure if you'll see this but regarding the ads..
Total Cost = $2,800
Total Clicks = 32,000
Sales to net $2,800 = ($15 price * 0.7 steam cut) * 266 units
Therefore breakeven conversion = 266 units / 32,000 clicks = 0.8% click conversion
So, in the absence of other data the question is will 0.8% of the people who clicked on your storefront buy the game?
Depending how targeted the ads were.. eg. If it was just "anyone" so a click could be a 70yo Grandma who doesn't have steam and thought it was an advert for childrens toys she could buy as Christmas presents.. even 0.8% might be a stretch, but helps to visualize what the target looks like without hard conversion data.
Hope you're well dude. Keep up the top content!
Good job! Love the transparency!
Nice video dude! Congrats on the project success.
I think you were 100% right to use the ads and likely your wishlist wouldn't have got close without it. Based on what showed I think the majority(more than half) of your wishlists came from that.
Thank you for sharing all these details. One thing that would be interesting to find out is if the translations paid off. Compare the cost of localization per language against the revenue from the target country.
Thanks a ton!! Do you have any video covering the business part such as having a LLC, best way to deal with taxes and such?
I really can't make a video like that because I'm not a lawyer and every country is going to be wildly different. I have what I believe is the equivalent to an LLC and I pay regular company tax, I assume every country has a similar structure
Thank you so much for all details provided!
Thank you for the video. It will be cool to know more about your advertisement actions.
thank you for sharing this :) probably about 90% of devs this would be the feasible outcome and not something like the big success stories like stardew. I really like seeing the realistic look at all this from such a helpful and transparent creator. Thank you :)
The only thing I like about you is that you like to live the way you want and your goal is to be happy and make this world a better place ❤❤❤
👏 Great video and congrats
Man, huge respect! very inspiring!
good stuff, good luck in the future :)
Thanks for sharing this "behind the scenes" info with us