Fellow game developers, do you believe that marketing for indie games pays for itself, i.e., generates more additional profit than it costs? Do you have data to back up your belief? #gamedev
@lumpn 95% of games from steam dont make even $100 for year.
I do not believe you can make any money with "real indie game dev".
I mean - where you dont have investors on behind or government grands.
This days even $20 million game count as "indie", and Epic says - "you need minimum $200 millions to start even thinking about developing games".
Data - general observation and many blogs where "indie game dev who invested 5-10 years to develop game - they burnout because not even 10 sels on steam".
@danil @lumpn
Good take Danil. 100 percent correct, in indie dev especially - you are a mere piece of driftwood lost in the sea of games most times. As you said without investors or grants its nearly impossible to attain any real userbase/player count. It's crazy to me that 20 million is considered indie these days; the term 'indie' has become so common place that I think its really lost its initial meaning.
@jimmakes @lumpn from "general consumer perspective" - you have battlepass in Fortnite and ranked in Valorant/League - other F2P AAA+ games just consume consumer time - consumer need "extra motivation" to find and play indie - small fraction of percent does it.
It exact same as in Hollywood-cinema - small movies become just "episode in Star Wars universe".
In game-industry - your "cool game mechanic/concept" - will be part of content in seasonal battlepass in Fortnite.
@danil @lumpn Exactly right, the average consumer will never play a true indie game unless said indie game has a freak stroke of luck that makes their indie game mainstream - which isnt impossible as many indies have done it, but it is INCREDIBLY rare. Just like opensource software, many consumers just do not care to take the extra time to seek things outside the mainstream out.