Inspired by true events from this morning
I released a game like three years ago and it’s earned $97 in that time.
I feel your pain
Submitted 1 day ago by Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world to games@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/200e6307-711e-40d3-a1ba-b2db30080c9b.jpeg
Inspired by true events from this morning
I released a game like three years ago and it’s earned $97 in that time.
I feel your pain
Buy it yourself, get over 100, cash out
Haha, I’ve considered it. I’d really like to at least be able to buy pizza for the gang who helped make the game.
Whats the game? :)
If you roughly convert your hourly salary, how much money did you spend working on this game?
If we were to compare it to our day jobs, the opportunity cost for the team and me would probably be around ten grand.
If we compare the time spent to the money earned, then we’re each worth several cents an hour.
It’s a good thing I didn’t get into game dev for the money, it seems I’m quite bad at it
I’m sure if you owed them 100 bucks they’d demand it
*$99
Perhaps that’s a $99 discount on the next amount owed?
Fairly certain I’ve bought a game that was like 34 cents or something. I definitely charged me the 34 cents.
I have lots of bills that are less than that every month, and yet somehow I can’t just say they’re not worth paying…
I am guessing you dont have service providers from all over the globe with international transaction fees
If I did I’d probably have lots of little satellite offices in various regions to make that easier.
Hey me too! I released my first game on Steam a month ago and by all objective measures it was a flop, but as a hobbyist I’m still proud of it. It honestly did better than I thought for a small niche game that I did a terrible job of marketing, and my one review so far was quite positive so I’ll count that as a small win as I move onwards to the next game.
you cant just SAY that and then not mention the game name
wow you really are bad at marketing
The eternal conflict between being an indie dev and not wanting to be a shill :'(
Oof, though you’re not wrong!
By the way, here’s the game for anyone interested: store.steampowered.com/app/2792160/SnowDown/
I didn’t expect to see so many replies!
Got it on follow, if I ever get a house with a better Internet connection I’ll give it a shot and leave a review
This is super cute! If I buy these now for my friends and family but set it to deliver the gift near Christmas, would you get the money now? Or not til Christmas?
This looks perfect for when everyone is over on Christmas eve! <3
Reminds me of some of the old school flash multiplayer games
Considering you’re a hobbyist and probably don’t have marketing, it’s too soon to say it’s a flop. Many games like that pop off later once it gets seen.
I appreciate the optimism! I hope it can find an audience over time, but it’s definitely tough to stand out. For now, I’m aiming to just keep making games and improving, rather than giving up after the first try, which sadly seems to happen a lot out there.
What’s you game? Niche games are awesome. And if you made it with Godot I’m definitely interested.
Here’s my game: store.steampowered.com/app/2792160/SnowDown/
It’s a little action party game you can play with phones as controllers (similar to how you’d host a Jackbox game). And yes I did make it with Godot!
I guess I shouldn’t be expected to pay for games until my total is over a hundred bucks then?
If you want to support me, a wishlist of my current game will mean the world to me: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2336120/Do_Not_Press_The_Button_To_Delete_The_Multiverse/
But please don’t spend money on my previous games, I recognize that they aren’t that good I don’t want to burden anyone financially with them (I loved every minute of making them, but I was still a noob back then).
Arhgh missed that! Thank you so much!
But please don’t spend money on my previous games, I recognize that they aren’t that good I don’t want to burden anyone financially with them (I loved every minute of making them, but I was still a noob back then).
You’re not my mum! I bought Be a Rock anyway. Keep going, make games!
I believe in you!
I will advertise this to my friends, they have lots of young people in their circles that go through games at a good pace. This looks right up their alley.
WOW! Thank you so much! Word of mouth is important for small indie dev teams
You know what? Fuck you.
Buys “Be A Rock”
Would you mind explaining how wishlisting a game helps the devs? Is it an algorithm thing? Will it be shown to more people when it is being wishlisted more?
yeah pretty much, if a ton of people wishlist a game it pops up more on the front pages of categories bc that means it’s rlly popular
Does Wishlisting a game help the developer in anyway other than indicating excitement for a game?
I’d love to know if there an any incentive to interacting with a game’s store page other than buying a game, obviously.
If Steam gives a bonus for that kind of thing, I’m going to be a lot more generous with my clicks.
It definitely helps. Every dev I’ve heard talking about releasing a game stresses wishlisting. I forget why, unfortunately. It might make it more noticable, sort of like likensub on YouTube.
The screenshots sell it well. That’s some funny stuff. I’ll plan to check it out.
Thank you :)
One of my friends has your game wishlisted. That’s one more than I expected to see based on your post, so shoutouts to you for exceeding expectations! Hope you keep making better and better games. :)
Wish listed! Also bought Be a Rock, I look forward to being a rock later tonight, it sounds fantastic!
I love that the Lemmy workshopped toaster has made it to the Steam page already.
Wish listed!
Funnily I saw the playthrough of your game in YouTube and it really looks like a labour of love. As the guy who did the playthrough suggested, still need to buy it as a thank you.
Or is that another game with a red button? The maker of the game I’m thinking about wrote a comment on YouTube
My bank: “We have a new valuation on your home! Open your app to see it!”
…
“It’s down 2%!”
hah same energy
I’ve had Google charge me $0.01 before for firebase usage.
They really should have waited until I owed more since that cost them money.
Once a month I’d have to pay a few pennies to Google for our cloud use at a school district I worked for. It always baffled me!
itch.io once sent me 4$
If a game gets lost in the steam store and no one ever plays it, was it ever a game at all?
I feel you, on Twitch is 50$.
They don’t seem to have an issue sending $10 refunds to my bank account, I wonder how much it actually costs them
I used to make mobile apps as a hobby and I still get the weekly report of my dwindling numbers.
Do they just keep your earning in your account until one month your total outstanding earnings breach the 100$ threshold and you’ll receive all your earning in one transaction or does this money get swallowed by steam?
Policy schmolicy. Withholding even one cent you are owed is fucking shitty.
Happens to me almost every month. Good think I didn’t quit my day job.
I’ve been waiting like 20 years for my money from NewGrounds. I was at $80 last time I checked a while ago.
Seen your meme during my lunch break doom scrolling on another site. Happy to see you are here on lemmy too!
if this is true I’d recommend sending GamersNexus an email with the details as they might be able to help considering their past actions to hold companies accountable
don’t make shitty asset flips then
Jesus. This makes it reasonable to just buy $100 worth of your own game every month, just to make sure. Yeah, that’s a non-zero opportunity cost for you, and additional float for Valve, however petty it may be. But for a small developer, maybe that makes sense.
Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 1 day ago
For context: I make indie games and have released two so far and I’m currently working on the third one which is weird as fuck. So the way that Steam works is, they don’t send you money anytime you make a sale, but they send all of it at the end of every month. Now September is almost over and I got an e-mail titled “Steam Payment Notification” and I get all hyped up. I open it and read it that the Payment Notification is actually that there is no Payment since I didn’t make $100 in sales. Way to hype me up and bring me down, Steam.
Zoot_@lemm.ee 1 day ago
Youtube and twitch work this same way. When I was starting there were months where I didnt make any money because I didn’t meet the minimum. Hoping next month meets the requirement for you boss 🙏
IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Does the balance at least accumulate until you do hit the threshold, or is the money just gone?
SirDerpy@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Does Steam take a cut for distribution?
Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yes, their cut is 30% which is a lot, but they are pretty much the only big platform out there. Epic games has been trying to get in the game but so far they are not close. Their cut is 15%.
reshuffle6655@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Other games include “be a rock” and “pizza synthwave” and this is the weird one.
Wish listed.
crimsoncobalt@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I see you settled on a design for the toaster. Love the mustache.
Road_Warrior_10@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Thank you : )
moody@lemmings.world 1 day ago
You raised my hopes, and dashed them quite expertly sir! Bravo!
indomara@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Whats the game? :)