Thread by @MomijiStudios

🧵(1/?) We only talk about successful indie games (the minority). Let's talk about the actual reality of indie development.
I'll be posting fully transparent sales numbers, revenue, etc. in this thread for my game that would be considered unsuccessful by most.
#gamedev #indiedev

(2/?) First, let's look at the actual game I'm discussing for context, "Video Game Fables".

I released it July 15, 2022, so about 5 months ago.

Trailers, info videos, links, reviews, etc.:
momijistudios.net

Accolades trailer / info Tweet:

https://twitter.com/MomijiStudios/status/1565055066884694018

(3/?) One thing to get out of the way - the game is good, so that's not the problem.
Of course as the dev I think my game is good, but if you look at Steam user reviews and critic reviews, the game is undeniably a good game.

Reviews without scores here:
momijistudios.net

(4/?) I've sent out close to 2,000 Steam keys to streamers, review outlets, YouTubers, etc.
I can't show you the spreadsheet because I'd basically have to censor everything out since it has so much private info, Steam keys, etc.

(5/?) Since I'm the only one working on the game and doing marketing, I couldn't get all of those keys out before release.
I also sent follow ups to almost anyone who didn't respond after about a month.
I was working at least full time hours post-release doing marketing.

(6/?) Out of 2,000 people, approximately 150 of them did some kind of content (streamed, reviewed, etc.).
I forget to update the spreadsheet a lot, so that number is probably higher.

~275 people replied but didn't follow through with content.

~40 people replied with a no.

(7/?) So if you break those down it looks like this:
~7.5% created content
~13.7% replied but didn't follow through
~2% replied with a no
~76.8% didn't reply

(8/?) From these articles you can see some data on indie game revenue.
vginsights.com/insights/artic…

gamedeveloper.com/blogs/what-can…

(9/?) You can see statistics about how many indie games are released on Steam here:
steamdb.info/stats/releases…

And here are how many total games are released on Steam:
statista.com/statistics/552…

(10/?) The thing that will really shock people to know is that if you look at the statistics my game is actually "successful" by comparison.
VGInsights said 50% of indie games don't make $4,000 in a *lifetime* and my game did that in 5 months.

(11/?) So let's look at what relative "success" actually looks like for an indie developer.

53/260 (20.3%) of my sales were on launch day. So let's eliminate that as an outlier.

So let's say 207 sales over 5 months. That's 41 sales per month, or 492 sales per year.

(12/?) Sales spikes happen when a game is on discount obviously.

The full price of the game is $20.

If I eliminate DLC and soundtrack sales (soundtrack profits go to the musician), the base game made $3,897from 260 sales.

The average gross from each sale is $15.

(13/?) If I take that data and extrapolate to a full year (assuming sales stay around this same rate) at 41 sales / month, $15 / sale, the game would make $7,380 / year.

(14/?) An important thing here is that I believe this number is *before* Steam takes 30%. I could be wrong on this though.

After that the game would make $5,166 / year.

Keep in mind this is also *without taxes*. So if this was taxed around 20%, that's about $4,133 profit / year

(15/?) I can't even begin to fathom how many actual hours I've put into this game over the years.

I can undoubtedly say though that I definitely was making significantly under minimum wage if you look at it on a per hour basis.

(16/?) Another important aspect is that unless you're working for a company or get crowdfunding, you're literally working for no pay for years, with no guarantee of how much you'll be paid at the end.

Needless to say, that is not good for mental health.

(17/?) Imagine you get offered a job and they say, "You'll get paid after 2 - 5 years of work, and we don't know how much we'll pay you, and on average the people who take this job make less than poverty wages in the end."

Would you take that job?

(18/?) I have always had struggles with depression and anxiety, so I can tell you this was not healthy for me to say the least.

Am I proud of myself for doing it? Absolutely. Would I do it again? I'm really not sure.

(19/?) The illusion of a meritocracy in our society tells us that if you work hard you'll be successful, that's it.

I, along with many devs, work very hard and make a good product, and yet they aren't successful.

I think it comes down to oversaturation in the market and luck.

(20/?) Most gamers / devs are mentally stuck in the early 2000s where indie games were novel and each one stood out.

We think of indie games and just think of Minecraft, Cave Story, Meatboy, etc. We think of the 5 successful indie games out of 6,000 each year.

(21/?) You can count the "success stories" on one hand each year. What did we have this year? Vampire Survivors, Stray, etc.
Let's say there were 10 on people's minds each year. That's 10 / 6,000.

That's 0.16% of the industry that we mentally use to represent the whole.

(22/?) The sad reality is that successful indie games are objectively just the exception. They're the incredibly small minority.

I just think that we as gamers, devs, game journalists, etc. need to stop glamorizing indie development and snap into reality.

(23/?) We also need to stop pretending that luck isn't a gigantic factor. Do you have to work hard? Yes, but working hard doesn't mean success.

Yes, you have to work hard to get a shot at that lottery, but it's still a lottery.

(24/?) I'm not trying to generally discourage people from becoming indie devs, I'm trying to make sure we collectively just start being real about this stuff.

It really just feels like gamers, devs, and journalists are just living in this mass delusion about indie games.

Uh oh, someone posted it on Reddit. Let's see what kind of tea is brewing there lol 🍵

In my experience game dev Reddits are mostly toxic circle jerks, mostly full of people who haven't actually produced a game lol.

reddit.com/r/gamedev/comm…

I just reread this and realized I should clarify I'm not shaming people who haven't finished a game. I used to tell my students on the first day of class they're game devs from that day on.

The problem is when they tell you what you should/shouldn't do with zero experience.

There's a lot of "This is what you did badly" and it's literally just based on their imagination or misinformation. And they'll be really rude and condescending about it in the process lol.

I think people who haven't finished a game yet can and should be involved in conversations. But they should mostly be listening and asking questions in conversations about releasing a game.