Do you REALLY make money making and selling these games?

[multi007]

Ive spent about 3 weeks reading over the FAQ, playing with the tutoring, and working on one room of a very simple game.

In my mind, my end goal is to put it up commercially for sale.  $2-$4.   (i think the lower the price, the more you sell)

But also im wondering if its worth it?  To be direct, im not doing this for the "enjoyment" or "personal satisfaction".  I would be doing this to make money. 

I know really good successful commercial games like Lamplight City exist... but are AGS games profitable?  How much? What kind of revenue have you heard of people earning? 

Do people make $$ selling this games?  Id have to spend 2-3  years on making a game and i would hate that only 500 people buy it.  So I wonder how are other people doing ? Are they making money?  Not money like $50 but money like $10,000?  $50,000?  $100,000?   or more??

Its a lot of time to put into these games to have nothing to show for it afterwards when I can work at a  side job and make guaranteed money... 

Please be honest.  Dont be offended either.  Id love to do this, but $$ is important for me.   

Thank you.

[Dave Gilbert]

I've been supporting my family off making adventure games for almost 16 years. I don't feel comfortable giving exact numbers, but we manage to eek out a comfortable middle-class life in Brooklyn, so take from that what you will. I am aware I'm a bit of an outlier, though, and I've been extremely lucky.

Some basic bits of advice:
- Start small. Don't start out by making your big epic game. You don't know what you're doing yet.
- Your first few games will most likely sell badly. Plan accordingly.
- Grow organically. Once you make some small games and gain some experience, make bigger ones!
- Don't undercharge. You sell a game for cheap, the game will FEEL cheap. Plus it's easier to sell one copy of a $20 game than four copies of a $5 one. Save the price drops for the seasonal sales!
- The long tail is your friend. It's not about what you game will earn right now, but what it will earn years from now.

With all that said, if your goal is "earn money" then you are definitely in the wrong line of work! Earning money can happen, but it can take awhile. It took me at least five years before I could call myself financially stable. I love doing this, but I'm the first to admit that there are much easier ways to earn a living. If you aren't enjoying it, or getting personal satisfaction from it, then you are in for a miserable ride.

[Danvzare]

I can't give you any exact numbers or the viability of doing this as a job. Not yet at least. Although I think Dave Gilbert has already answered that part pretty well anyway.

But to give my two cents, you have to keep in mind that the "starving artist" is a stereotype for a reason.
From what I've heard, there's a lot of uncertainty, a little bit of luck, and a whole lot of self-marketing.
If game development is not something you enjoy, then you'd probably be better doing something else that you don't enjoy, but where you're guaranteed to be financially stable.

My recommendation would always be to start off small and make a few free games in your spare time, so you can get a feeling for it all, a bit of an audience, and just general experience.
Also, if you're planning on going into Indie Game development for the money, then maybe it's just me, but I think there are probably more lucrative genres than Point and Click Adventure Games (we're kinda niche).

[Grundislav]

Short answer: Yes, but…

Long answer: As Dave said, it takes time. You mentioned Lamplight City, which was my third commercial game. It’s done well, yes, but it’s the first of the 3 to actually make me a decent living (A Golden Wake still sells, but not nearly enough to live off and Shardlight was 1.5 years of salary) During the development of Lamplight City, I reached a point where I was running out of savings and had to get the game out sooner rather than later to start earning money. That was not fun.

Lamplight City has earned enough to sustain me over the past 4 years (especially with iOS and Switch ports) but sales have definitely dipped recently, which means Rosewater needs to come out within the next 6 months or so. The key is, if you’re a solo dev, you want to build up a catalogue as quickly as possible. Having 3 games that earn you money is better than 1. Dave is an outlier because he also makes money from the games he publishes, so take that into account.

So yeah, go for it, but don’t expect any miracles. And definitely don’t pour all your time and money into your first game, because it’s not likely to sell unless it’s got an amazing hook and gets lots of attention.

[Stupot]

AGS is first and foremost a hobbyist adventure game software. The handful of people who have made any decent money from their games are (above company included) generally people who got plenty of freeware games and a decent reputation under their belts long before they took the plunge and started charging money for their games.

Id have to spend 2-3  years on making a game and i would hate that only 500 people buy it.

For most people, 500 sales would be called a success for their first commercial project, and is not an insignificant chunk of income if they charge a proper price for it. But if you’re looking to actually earn a living you’re going to need people to know who you are, and you’re going to need them to want your game before it’s released. So you’ll be marketing, you’ll be engaging with the community (here on these boards, and in the wider adventure community). You’ll be playing other people’s adventure games, talking about them publicly, entering jams and contests, sharing your learning process on blogs and social media, and hopefully building a network of fellow enthusiasts.

You’re gonna have to be enthusiastic about the genre if you want people to believe that you made a game for them and not for the money. If money is your main motivation, that’s fine, but I don’t think it’s wise to admit that to your potential customers.

Others have said “start off small”. I would add to that “start off even smaller”. Things will take much much longer than you think…. no, longer than that, especially as you’re still learning the software. I recommend starting off with a little one-room escape game, as they contain all the elements of a classic adventure game (puzzles, items, dialogue, menus, maybe a couple of animations, if you’re able).

Best of luck. I see you’ve already been around the forums with questions . Keep doing that, everyone round here is pretty friendly.

[multi007]

Thank you to everyone here.  (I wish i could give a thumbs up to members who replied). 

@Dave Gilbert -  Your post was very helpful.  I guess it just comes down to come much time am i willing to put into this. 

@Stupot - Funny you mentioned a one room escape room.  That is what im currently working on as I try to learn the engine.  Ive decided to take this one room game to the end as a freeware and see how it goes.  Im not adverse to criticism so id be curious to hear the comments.  That's how I learn.  And yes - I agree with you 100 regarding marketing and blogs etc.    Thanks!

@Grundislav - As an aside: I love your Lamplight City game. Havent played the others - because life gets in the way. I see that you need to continuously churn out high quality games to make a living.  So I'm guessing that this *IS* your career and you live, breathe, eat, and sleep AGS games creation.  I need to question myself to see if i have that time to do this also. Otherwise it will just be a hobby to me.

@Danvzare   I didnt think about the "starving artist" perspective.  That is - imo - spot on for making these AGS games (as I have come to find out).  Looking back at all of the forum posts, there ARE many who are serious in making a quality product, but there are also far more people who started a project, then it just died - ghosted the forums with no further updates.  Im guessing these are instances of "they tried to do it - and found that it actually takes much more time and commitment to see the project through."  and again - real life gets in the way. 

As I said above, im working on a one room escape to see if this is something I "CAN" do and if if I can get it to the end as a finished project.  Before, I was thinking "I have a great idea for an 80 room game. Got a notepad, started writing down ideas, themes, character names etc.  a few puzzles.  Then I saw the "they tried to do it but then ghosted the forums" posts.  As i dove into the AGS engine, I understood why many people stopped.  There is a learning curve, I know so little that I would have to make a full freeware game just to get the experience, to learn, and get feedback.  Then ask myself "is that what I want to do?"...

Thank you all for your posts.  VERY helpful. 

[CaptainD]

Just to add my two pennies, trying if possible not to just cover the same ground as others...

- It is *possible*, but that doesn't in any way mean it is likely that you will make a decent amount of money even if you make a really good game. I know of indie devs who are commercially successful, but they are very much in the minority (and I don't include myself in the "successful" category even though technically I have made a small profit, if I count all of the time and effort from myself and others as free).
- If you want to make any money at all, you need to make sure you that start building your audience from day one. Be active on social media, forums, etc, and mention your game often. This is more difficult than it sounds - maintaining motivation to keep plugging your game, perhaps after months of hard development without anything really new or "wow" to show for it (in terms of your marketing efforts), can feel pretty soul-destroying. What Dave said about making small - possibly free - games first is a great way to start to find your audience, but you really do have to keep plugging your game(s) all the time.
- Ind devs are famous for under-pricing their games. I've never really seen any convincing evidence that "cheaper games sell more" - and I did kind of start off with that impression myself. Bear in mind that for the vast majority of devs, after launch week, your game will seldom sell apart from when it's discounted. So if you price your game low, you give yourself very little scope to offer a decent discount and still make anything.
- You absolutely need to be on Steam to sell decent numbers, but being on Steam will not in itself generate sales. You still need to do it all yourself unless you are very fortunate. So whatever price you're looking at, you need to factor in the $100 Steam Direct fee (albeit you will get this back if you hit $1000 in sales) and the 30% cut Steam take.  I think there's also a small percentage taken as payment processing fees which may vary depending on the country of purchaser.
- Once you create your game, if you have established relationships with reviewers / streamers etc, you can get a few reviews pretty quickly. However review sites and steamers are constantly bombarded with new requests so long waits are common; non-responses from people you don't already know even more common. A dev I know recently spoke of sending out a couple of thousand review requests and receiving less than a dozen responses.


Anyway hope you find these comments of some use. I look forward to seeing what you create, whether commercial or free! 

[multi007]

Just to add my two pennies, trying if possible not to just cover the same ground as others...

Anyway hope you find these comments of some use. I look forward to seeing what you create, whether commercial or free! 

Thanks! 

[newwaveburritos]

I've only released one game on itch as a pay what you want and it was a jam game (about a 20 minute playthrough) and it made $20 almost immediately and then nothing since.  My plan is the keep building in the game world and develop some small following to make beer money eventually.  And then finally release Kola Queen and retire.