How to make money as an indie game developer
Let’s be honest. We all wanted to make money from our indie games at one point. We spend hours making games, only for them to not make any money. At the start, you’re not sure how you can make money. That’s what I’ll talk about today. How you can start making money in indie game development. But making money as an indie game developer is challenging. My goal is to teach you about it and help you get started.
There are several ways of making money as an indie game developer.
I’ll be going through them and explaining them. But before that, the most important thing is making a good game. You have to be able to make a fun game that people would play. If you don’t know how, check out my articles about Getting started with game development and How to make your game more fun.
Now let’s get into it.
Selling your game
Probably the most straightforward way. There are many platforms for you to publish your game and sell it. But some are better than others.
If you are getting started, I recommend publishing your games on Itch.io. It’s a free and easy-to-use website. Even though most of the games there are free, and not a lot of people will buy your game, you can still use Itch to build your profile and market your games. You can make a great portfolio with Itch. If you’re not worried about money, publish on Itch. We all start somewhere, and you can also get some donations. But if you expect to make a lot of money, Itch isn’t for you.
The best platform is Steam. You will have to put some work into your page, but it will be worth it. Games with good-looking pages are more likely to sell. You do have to pay 100$ to publish your game. And Steam also takes a 30% cut of your revenue. But if you spent a lot of time making your game and believe it will be a success, publish it on Steam.
You can also publish your game on a console. It isn’t very competitive, but it can be expensive. I would only recommend this if your game is doing well on Steam.
If you’re making a mobile game, you can publish it on the mobile market. It is competitive, and getting people to play your game won’t be easy, but there are tons of successful games on there. And they aren’t all paid games.
That brings us to the next way of earning money.
Free-to-play games
Publishing a free-to-play game, you have a bigger chance of people downloading and reviewing it, which can help with the game’s popularity. But how do free-to-play games earn money?
The first way is in-game purchases. Offer the player various characters, skins, coins, lives, etc., which they can buy using real money. For example, if the player runs out of lives, they can wait for another hour or buy it right now.
The second way is with advertisement. It is the largest source of money for free-to-play games. You can show them to the player now and then, or they can choose to watch an ad if they want a reward. For example, they can watch an ad for some coins. Every time the player watches an ad, you get a small amount of money.
Freelancing
You can offer your services on websites like Fiverr or Upwork. It can be a great side hustle, but you must stay consistent if you want more customers. In the beginning, lower the price. Once you get enough good reviews, you can increase it. But remember, your first reviews matter a lot, so try your best.
To make money, people have to know about your game. You have to spread the word. There are many ways of doing this. You can use social media. I recommend YouTube, Twitter or Facebook. This way, you can build an audience and anticipation for your game.
You can also use crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo. They can help raise money for your game, and you can offer rewards for backers, such as early access to the game or exclusive content.
Making money won’t be easy at the start. But if you stay consistent, you’ll get the hang of it. Do as much research as you can. Never stop learning. It won’t do you any worse. The only thing that can happen is you start making money. I hope this article helped in your journey. Good luck!
