Discussion Do you make money off your games?

Z

Ziphold

Guest
This is a pretty straightforward question. Lately, I've seen a lot of Game Maker games spread around the markets. From Steam to Google Play store and Appstore. A few years ago I got into mobile game development and made some casino-like simulators that became popular a few months ago.
I've earned some money from them, but nothing much. It's mainly ad revenue which doesn't really pay well.
So I'm interested if other community members turned their creations into profit.

Share your story!
 

woodsmoke

Member
I unintentionally made €0,10 at Gamejolt with a HTML5 game. I plan on selling some of my next games in the future though. (via Steam, itch.io, and maybe Gamejolt too)
 

COWCAT

Member
Yes, nothing amazing but enough to make a small living. I've released a game on Steam and consoles, and currently porting another dev's title to consoles :)
I haven't tried mobile yet but I might do it to test waters - though with no visibility at all, I have no expectation.
 

Niels

Member
Yes, nothing amazing but enough to make a small living. I've released a game on Steam and consoles, and currently porting another dev's title to consoles :)
I haven't tried mobile yet but I might do it to test waters - though with no visibility at all, I have no expectation.
Nice! Curious to what games you made. Can we have a link?
 
F

Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
Sooner or later just using a different engine instead of game maker studio 1 and 2, it would violate the rules if I told you the name of the engine here but if you really want to know just send me a PM and I will tell you in the PM.
 
G

Guest User

Guest
Sooner or later just using a different engine instead of game maker studio 1 and 2, it would violate the rules if I told you the name of the engine here but if you really want to know just send me a PM and I will tell you in the PM.
I don't think engines are responsible for your earnings. @True Valhalla is a GameMaker veteran and he makes living out of HTML5 games, even if he uses other engines I'd be sure he would still make living out of it.
 
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Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
I once thought to myself ("game maker studio is the best and easiest tool") but it turns out I was convincing myself to believe a lie, for I have found a great engine cheaper and more popular and more powerful and requires 0% code.

Don't fall for the same lie about game maker studio 1 and 2 that I fell for. Those whomever believe the white lies that are about game maker studio 1 and 2 being great, know now that I respect your choice of engine but note that I have moved on to the newer and better not to be named engine as I respect this community and you already know what engine I am talking about.
 
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M

MishMash

Guest
I once thought to myself ("game maker studio is the best and easiest tool") but it turns out I was convincing myself to believe a lie, for I have found a great engine cheaper and more popular and more powerful and requires 0% code.

Don't fall for the same lie about game maker studio 1 and 2 that I fell for. Those whomever believe the white lies that are about game maker studio 1 and 2 being great, know now that I respect your choice of engine but note that I have moved on to the newer and better not to be named engine as I respect this community and you already know what engine I am talking about.
In my opinion, when it comes to making compelling games, at some point you're going to need to write some code for yourself, otherwise you run the risk of having generic feeling gameplay. One thing I hate about Unity is that so many games just feel the same, as people just plop in the same physics components, and what you get is movement that feels identical as 100 other games.

From my own experience of 11 years programming in a wide range of environments and languages, and having a computer science degree, I can say GameMaker is the easiest game development environment I have worked in. It is very easy to prototype in and get things working quickly. It also offers a lot of depth for gives you room for advanced use should you choose to take it. The main thing that GM does well is that it integrates game development at its core. The entire event system is based on games, the style of scripting actually hands itself to a more component-oriented style of programming, given that general purpose scripts can be re-used for multiple objects, without having to rely solely on inheritance for such behaviour.

GML is also just simple to the point where you can bash out code very very quickly. Other engines either have more verbose languages, or just require more set-up to get to a point where things work. Conversely, other engines that do all the setup for you can become awkward to work with if you want to do something a little unconventional. In my final year at university, our projects were based on building games and so many people struggled to use other engines simply because when it came to doing complex tasks, they had to fight the engine to get things to work in some cases (specifically with networking).

If you have found something useful for you, then that's fair enough, but I definitely wouldn't discount GM as a viable option for 2D games. (Whilst I love 3D programming, GM isn't really that practical for actual 3D dev, in much the same way as writing your own engine in C++ from scratch wouldn't be practical)

---------
On the original topic, i've made a bit of money off games. A few years of ad revenue followed by a venture into the commercial game market. I'm still working on my game atm, however we'll be selling it on steam next year. Currently, the only money i've made directly off games has been from Kickstarter and Alpha demo donations, however all of that money has been re-invested into the project ;)
 
I once thought to myself ("game maker studio is the best and easiest tool") but it turns out I was convincing myself to believe a lie, for I have found a great engine cheaper and more popular and more powerful and requires 0% code.

Don't fall for the same lie about game maker studio 1 and 2 that I fell for. Those whomever believe the white lies that are about game maker studio 1 and 2 being great, know now that I respect your choice of engine but note that I have moved on to the newer and better not to be named engine as I respect this community and you already know what engine I am talking about.
Let's see what you've made in the new engine, then. I've checked out all three major engines, and I guarantee you've barely done anything in the new engine you keep mentioning. If you did, you wouldn't think it's so easy.

We've all tried Unreal, Unity, and GM. Anyone here is here because we know GM is still the best option for the games we're making. :p
 
F

Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
Clickteam fusion 2.5 has made games only game maker studio 1 and 2 users could dream of making, it has made chat boxes, docks, 3d games, games that use the Nuerosky mindwave headset all without code, even RPGs and platforming games and match 3 games and games like Tetris. Not to mention clickteam fusion 3.0 is on its way allowing export to all consoles including the switch and html5 and flash and Xbox and PlayStation and iOS and Mac and Linux and android.
 
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Clickteam fusion 2.5 has made games only game maker studio 1 and 2 users could dream of making, it has made chat boxes, docks, 3d games, games that use the Nuerosky mindwave headset all without code, even RPGs and platforming games and match 3 games and games like Tetris. Not to mention clickteam fusion 3.0 is on its way allowing export to all consoles including the switch and html5 and flash and Xbox and PlayStation and iOS and Mac and Linux and android.
I'm making an RPG with text boxes (wow!) in GM right now. With GameMaker. :p

Fusion doesn't even export to consoles, so I'd never use it. I think most serious developers are most likely the same, which probably is one reason why I've never seen a Fusion game worth buying in my life.

I don't know how good the actual engine is, but I've never been impressed by anything that's come from it. If the engine works for you, that's great, but without console exports, it's useless to me and a lot of others.

Again, though, I don't think you actually know how good or bad the engine is, because I don't think you've actually made anything with it. :p
 
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Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
Not yet, until I buy the standard edition which has all the exports that game maker studio 1 and 2 pro edition has and more, except if I wanted to publish to Xbox and PlayStation and switch and other consoles I would need clickteam fusion 3.0 but hey, it's cheaper than the master edition of game maker studio 1 and 2 also it allows for more export modules. It's also cheaper.
 
Not yet, until I buy the standard edition which has all the exports that game maker studio 1 and 2 pro edition has and more, except if I wanted to publish to Xbox and PlayStation and switch and other consoles I would need clickteam fusion 3.0 but hey, it's cheaper than the master edition of game maker studio 1 and 2 also it allows for more export modules. It's also cheaper.
Do you have a link saying Fusion 3 exports to consoles? I can't find anything saying that anywhere. :x

Also, does Fusion not have an option to program at all? It looks like it just uses GM's drag and drop system for everything, which is a huge pain in the ass and super confusing when you try making anything actually complicated. I think you're going to be very disappointed in Fusion once you use it more. I hope not, though. Good luck. ):
 
F

Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
They mentioned on it their YouTube channel and blog and forums and it's coming out in 2018 price has yet to be announced but for 2.5 it's $99usdollars($130 Australian) and 2.5 has a free version with limited features and it's not at all like drag and drop its more like a ten times more powerful click & play with more features.

As to your question about consoles I think you should find this link below very informative <LINK REMOVED>

Looking for the specific quote about consoles in that topic the post can be found here
<LINK REMOVED>
To save you the trouble of going through the entire topic
 
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They mentioned on it their YouTube channel and blog and forums and it's coming out in 2018 price has yet to be announced but for 2.5 it's $99usdollars($130 Australian) and 2.5 has a free version with limited features and it's not at all like drag and drop its more like a ten times more powerful click & play with more features.

As to your question about consoles I think you should find this link below very informative
<LINK REMOVED>

Looking for the specific quote about consoles in that topic the post can be found here
<LINK REMOVED>
To save you the trouble of going through the entire topic
Thanks for the links, but I don't see any consoles confirmed in those. Just one random forum member saying he *thinks* Fusion will have PS4 support one day. That doesn't really mean much. ):

Anyway, good luck with Fusion. I hope it's awesome and works out for you. Cheers. =)
 
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Yes I have made money. Barely. I lose far more money making the games.

Oddly enough I've made far more money making games for other people.

I could make more money making tutorials on Youtube and going to the Patreon route. Even just making free and premium art via Patreon.
 
F

Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
Well they did say eventually they would have support for other consoles not at launch of fusion 3.0 but eventually they will, but they are definitely supporting PlayStation and Xbox as for Nintendo switch consoles we will have to wait a bit longer but unlike game maker studio 1 and 2 fusion 3.0 will have support for the Nintendo consoles eventually next year.
 
Well they did say eventually they would have support for other consoles not at launch of fusion 3.0 but eventually they will, but they are definitely supporting PlayStation and Xbox as for Nintendo switch consoles we will have to wait a bit longer but unlike game maker studio 1 and 2 fusion 3.0 will have support for the Nintendo consoles eventually next year.
The links you posted didn't say any of that though. ):

Also, YoYo has "other exports" listed for this year. Unless they're trolling us hard, we should have Nintendo support soon.
 
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Sam (Deleted User)

Guest
I feel like it's a lot easier to make money from assets and extensions, and it's much less work involved. I've tried selling my games on Android and OUYA, with next-to-zero success.

@Falconsoft-Industries Didn't you just go from saying it is against the rules to mention the engine you'll use and you won't do that out of respect to this community, to saying the name of that engine AND why you think people should use it instead of GameMaker?
 
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Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
Well master edition with game maker studio 1 and 2 doesn't allow PlayStation export and fusion is easier and cheaper the first post of
<LINK REMOVED> Clearly states that it will support PlayStation and one day(emphasis on one day) support other consoles in the future. Oh ohohoho lets not forget about how game maker studio 1 and 2 does not support neurosky mindwave headset.
 
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M

MishMash

Guest
Well master edition with game maker studio 1 and 2 doesn't allow PlayStation export and fusion is easier and cheaper the first post of
<LINK REMOVED> Clearly states that it will support PlayStation and one day(emphasis on one day) support other consoles in the future. Oh ohohoho lets not forget about how game maker studio 1 and 2 does not support neurosky mindwave headset.
Masters edition with GMS1 does allow for PS3, PS4 and Vita (https://help.yoyogames.com/hc/en-us/articles/216753738-How-do-I-develop-a-game-for-PlayStation-). However you need a sony developer license in order to develop for the platform. The same will be true when the functionality comes to Fusion:
GameMaker: Studio now has the capability to export to PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The export modules require that you are a licensed Sony developer to get access to them.
The cost debate is valid, however I think it is naive to think that the new version of Fusion will be as cheap as the current, similarly, when you factor in the cost of a console development kit (~$2500), the cost of the engine

Also, fusion doesn't natively support the Neurosky headset, someone just made an extension for it.. That's quite significantly different. Someone could make a GM extension for it (as we concluded in your other topic), however it's so niche that not many developers think it worth their time to develop for it.

Again, if the engine works for you, that's all fine, just don't post mis-information as that isn't helpful to anyone else who may be reading this article whilst considering gamemaker.
 
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Bingdom

Googledom
I am extremely lucky with the amount of money I've made in the mobile market. Nearly enough to pay back GMS1's Master's collection when I bought it half price.

Quite recently, I've been earning next to nothing. Probably due to the lack of updates.
 
0

0.Bytes

Guest
Would be cool to have a marketing related post, so we could share the marketing stuff that we did to help the games we made to make money.

Almost 99.999999999% of the games made make almost no money at all, for a number of reasons of course, there is a lot of trash out there,

But would be cool to share experience about making money on selling games or assets
 
F

Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
Yeah that’s all well and good but in clickteam you can do 3d easily without code using a $80 extension called firefly, oh and remember game maker does not have neurosky mindwave headset support. Oh one more thing see in the replies of my post on this YouTube video below
<LINK REMOVED>
This confirms evidence of export modules to other platforms including PlayStation 4 in clickteam fusion 3.0 have a awesome day. :)
 
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True Valhalla

Full-Time Developer
GMC Elder
Thanks for the mentions. I have been making money off my games for over a decade now, but only enough to go full-time for the past 5 years. I have been earning an average of $80,000 USD per year since I started making HTML5 games with GameMaker in 2012.

Next, I'm expanding into multiplayer HTML5 games with my casual MMORPG Kingfall which has been in development since the start of 2017. I'm expecting this to open new doors in terms of monetization and growth for my studio.
 
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True Valhalla

Full-Time Developer
GMC Elder
Is it a 2d mmorpg or a 3d mmorpg?
Let me know when you’re done I love both 2d and 3d mmorpgs.
In fact I am making a 2d horizontal side scroller hack and slash class and job changing at any time in game in my mmorpg for PlayStation 4 with Clickteam Fusion 3.0 called star storm story.
It's a 2D MMORPG and you can get updates by joining the mailing list on the website: https://kingfall.com

 
F

Famine

Guest
This is just my opinion.

I've worked on many AAA projects as my signature suggests. I just now snagged GM 2.0 and have not developed nor worked on a team using it. My intention is to make a game for profit and hopefully have some success at doing it. While the game engine is critical to certain projects (i.e.: single player RPG versus MMORPG), I do believe anything can be overcome by good solid fun gameplay design. All it takes is the right idea, the right execution of that idea, and passion to be successful in any engine you choose.

We are in a time now where game development is easier than ever to make happen. We have so many great tools like GameMaker to help anyone make a game and push it out to a number of different platforms with or without a publisher. In return, you have a flood of good and bad games where I could honestly say, there are more bad games than good ones out in the market from a indy perspective and even from a AAA perspective (as AAA studios use these tools too).

Thus, don't put too much emphasis on whether or not if there are working examples of successful and or profitable games out there with this tool. It does help to understand if the tool seems to be successful in that arena, but it should not be your limitation. Pick whatever tool makes sense for the job and if you have a good idea with the means to execute on that idea, it will all work itself out in the end. But it won't be easy. If there is one thing I know, many people believe they are able to become master chefs (make a good game) simply because they eat food every day (play video games every day).
 
If there is one thing I know, many people believe they are able to become master chefs (make a good game) simply because they eat food every day (play video games every day).
I've been curious for a while about the statistics on the difficulty of becoming a successful game designer; how much is because being a game designer is a hard field to succeed in no matter how good you are (competition) and how much being a game design looks like a hard field to succeed in just because of the sheer number of people trying to do it that don't actually have any idea how to do it, and because of that makes it look harder for everyone else.

I guess the question is: if I am confident in my game-making abilities and am determined, will I definitely be able to succeed as a game designer for my career? Or are there too many factors outside of my control to reasonably hope for that. (Or better, because those factors inevitably exist with any job, are there more risks to game design than other careers, based on the assumption that I am prepared for the job?)
 
F

Famine

Guest
I guess the question is: if I am confident in my game-making abilities and am determined, will I definitely be able to succeed as a game designer for my career? Or are there too many factors outside of my control to reasonably hope for that. (Or better, because those factors inevitably exist with any job, are there more risks to game design than other careers, based on the assumption that I am prepared for the job?)
In your career? Sure! But, the aspects of being successful in your career change depending on what you define as your career. You take me for example, I've worked for a business that sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into their projects. Some have received critical success, others not so much. If I had zero critical success, I would still consider myself successful in my career because I worked on something that went from an idea in someones head to a game in some players hand.

The unfortunate reality is there are many high risks in developing a game. Most of this comes from the fact you are creating something from nothing and struggle to get off the ground with zero money in the bank when are still in the nothing phase of your project. Hence why funding the digital slice / prototype / demo is an absolute must for any product--video game or not--to receive funding or resource investment from anyone. Other major pieces obviously come from the intense competition in the market today (i.e.: lots of games, lots of ideas already done, etc) and how expensive it is to make a game that is profitable let alone if you can even bring it from a prototype to a finished product.

So, it really just depends on what you decide to do with your career. If you just want to work for someone else, I think success is highly achievable if you're passionate about the trade. If you just want to work for yourself or become a c-level / studio head for a new project, then it's going to be a lot harder. The progression I would recommend is working for someone else first (along with continuing your side projects if you can), learn the trade, then decide if working for yourself makes sense later on down the road.
 
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Over the past 2 months, I did the art for someone's game. The game released early this month and well... $25 later, I know not to accept rev share again. At least it was with someone I knew would finish and release the game, rather than abandon it or go to Kickstarter with the game, get the money and just disappear.

I made a game jam game in 8 days back in June. I decided to release it this week. It made $11 from donations. The painful thing is I discovered from that $11, I've only kept $6. Paypal and itch.io have the rest. That transaction fee is a bit much on such few dollars. I've changed it around now so I should make more money on the free games.

In other news, someone bragged to me today that his asset flips on Steam made him $800 in this week alone. He and others have recommended to me I go with the $1 game and just make 1 game each month and just throw it on Steam. Psh I could make a game in a week and do that, but it doesn't mean anyone would buy my games.

There was someone on Reddit last week that said he was disheartened as his game only sold 37 copies in 2+ weeks. He felt every game on Steam sells 1,000+ copies. I can only imagine he saw Steamspy and just assumed "owners mean sales." Nope.
 
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Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
Well it’s all about advertising your finished product, if it is out there that is all well and good but without advertising it appears as though it does not even exist, even when it exists you must advertise it or the product gets hardly any attention.
 
Well it’s all about advertising your finished product, if it is out there that is all well and good but without advertising it appears as though it does not even exist, even when it exists you must advertise it or the product gets hardly any attention.
You advertise long before the project is finished. I miss Greenlight, it was good exposure. Steam alone is fantastic for exposure, but talking to people makes sales happen.

In other news, someone wants to publish one of my older games with modifications, so I should / could make money as the publisher is larger than me. They can hopefully take care of publicity, but it will be interesting to see if a publisher can do anything for me in terms of making money.

Plus I think I have the opportunity to make a sequel (or at least the cousin) of an existing popular, yet simple game.
 
F

Falconsoft-Industries

Guest
Well let’s face it there are no free to play 2d games like maplestory for PlayStation and Xbox and it’s not going to be sold for money like terraria so considering it’s free and uses my own 2d art and audio I see not a single problem with it, besides are you going to sue elsword or Latale or terraria because they have similar mechanics and game play, take yooka laylee for example they did almost the same as banjo kazooie and donkey kong 64 and Mario 64 and spyro, yet nobody sees those games being sued.
 
You cannot copyright gameplay mechanics/concepts. ;)
You can patent them as patents are for inventions. You can't patent a concept as a concept doesn't exist. Copyrights are something different that dictionary defines: the exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same.

Here are some patents in gaming:
Sega had a lot of patents including an overhead arrow guiding you to your destination and the ability to transition a camera from trailing your car to being in your car rather than snapping from one to the other. Midway has a patent on ghost cars with time trials. I think the Dynasty Warriors game has some odd patent on fighting more than 5 enemies at once. There's a patent on having a game on a loading screen. EA has the patent on the dialog wheel. Tetris is protected.

These patents all expire in time or they can take money for allowing things to happen or they can go after them in courts.
 
T

The Sentient

Guest
You can patent them as patents are for inventions. You can't patent a concept as a concept doesn't exist.
Actually you can, as ridiculous as it sounds.

Boeing patented 'Plasma shields' even though no such thing exists.

https://www.sciencealert.com/boeing-has-patented-a-plasma-force-field-to-protect-against-shock-waves

Along with their 'Nuclear laser fusion jet engine', for which there is no working prototype invented yet.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/energy/nuclear/boeing-patents-laser-nuclear-fusion-jet-engine

Goes to prove you can very much 'patent an idea'. Which is absurd.
 
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Actually you can, as ridiculous as it sounds.

Boeing patented 'Plasma shields' even though no such thing exists.

https://www.sciencealert.com/boeing-has-patented-a-plasma-force-field-to-protect-against-shock-waves

Along with their 'Nuclear laser fusion jet engine', for which there is no working prototype invented yet.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/energy/nuclear/boeing-patents-laser-nuclear-fusion-jet-engine

Goes to prove you can very much 'patent an idea'. Which is absurd.
Well that's odd. It literally goes against the rules of the Patent & Trademark office. Then again there's an exception to every rule.

Perhaps they have a working prototype? Plus, patents expire over time, so it might expire before its truly invented to do what it says it does. It could also be a dump truck full of money.

To derail the conversation even more... on one of the earliest Shark Tanks a woman sold her turkey baster idea / prototype. There was no company, nor patent if I remember. Then after that they have a rule that they can't buy into things that are just ideas. 8 years later, there's still nothing from it.
 
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