Requesting some Developer info
by Cippyboy · in General Discussion · 04/04/2007 (1:20 pm) · 7 replies
Being a fellow programmer, trying to make a 3D RPG, I was wondering how the developers that make casual games are doing ? . And because I have my own game engine and I feel like I'm never going to finish my game, I'm also considering making a game just for the profit (I have to live) so I was wondering about how much money can casual games get you ? And what would be the minimum profit for these kind of games (I'm considering the lowest odds here).
#2
04/04/2007 (1:26 pm)
Well I imagined the minimum to be 0, and I read somewhere that certain games can make up to 1 million in a year so the average of those 2 is still a big number and I have no idea about how much an average game makes. Plus, I don't really like/believe rumors :D
#3
The reality is that many make 0, and few make a million, so the average is a whole lot less than a whole lot.
Go look on the shelves of your local computer game retailer and you should be able to judge how many of the games on sale are 'hits'.
It's probably something like 1 in 100 make it big, 90 in 100 never make it to market, lose money or just break even, and 9 in 100 make some sort of profit.
04/04/2007 (3:06 pm)
The average is a whole lot if half make a million and half make zero.The reality is that many make 0, and few make a million, so the average is a whole lot less than a whole lot.
Go look on the shelves of your local computer game retailer and you should be able to judge how many of the games on sale are 'hits'.
It's probably something like 1 in 100 make it big, 90 in 100 never make it to market, lose money or just break even, and 9 in 100 make some sort of profit.
#4
04/06/2007 (4:46 am)
Ok, so only 10% of all the games get into the market, not too much of a chance, I wonder if it's the presentation method/graphics or the idea of the game that makes it better/worse.
#5
:)
If you want to make a successful casual game you pretty much have to arm yourself with information: www.igda.org/wiki/index.php/Casual_Games_SIG/Whitepaper
makeitbigingames.com/blog/?p=20
makeitbigingames.com/blog/?p=29
and loads of others. Don't start with the assumption though that one "small" casual game is going to bring in a significant amount of income. The best approach is really to have a number of games on the market that are all relatively good as the "long tail" for casual games means that your game will continue to move some number of units for as many as 4 years. So if you can produce a number of titles in the span of say 4 or 5 years you'll have a very healthy and relatively stable income.
04/06/2007 (5:15 am)
Quote:I wonder if it's the presentation method/graphics or the idea of the game that makes it better/worseYes.
:)
If you want to make a successful casual game you pretty much have to arm yourself with information: www.igda.org/wiki/index.php/Casual_Games_SIG/Whitepaper
makeitbigingames.com/blog/?p=20
makeitbigingames.com/blog/?p=29
and loads of others. Don't start with the assumption though that one "small" casual game is going to bring in a significant amount of income. The best approach is really to have a number of games on the market that are all relatively good as the "long tail" for casual games means that your game will continue to move some number of units for as many as 4 years. So if you can produce a number of titles in the span of say 4 or 5 years you'll have a very healthy and relatively stable income.
#6
04/07/2007 (6:08 am)
Well, I don't want to make large profits, I want to survive, and being that in my (poor) country (Romania) a part-time job is around (maximum) 300 euro/month, I was wondering if I were to make a casual game and start selling it, would it make me 300 euro / month for a few months (so I can concentrate on my BIG project) ? 
#7
01/06/2008 (1:28 pm)
Look at http://www.gameproducer.net/ , it has some sales stats. 
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
David MontgomeryBlake
Most likely you'll fall somewhere in-between.