After a little more than year learning how to make games, there are a few things that don't seem to often be discussed, or I'm looking in the wrong places. One of the big things seems to be "How to start making money" or rather, how to start from nothing and get to a point where my gamedev activity can fund itself. In this devlog I explain the process of how I'm figuring this out and trying to get to a point where I can get a return on my efforts and feel like more than a hobby developer.
This is the first post in what I hope will become a series of posts that can record my progress in formalising my gamedev activities, and I hope that my experiences can help others who have gotten to this point.
This is a long read, if you want to skip to the Tips I can give you, scroll to the bottom of the page.
Over the last year or so I have participated in more than a few game jams, started and stopped many experimental projects, improved my musical capabilities, and started to naturally acquire followers and "dev friends" through the jams. But one big step has, until recently, been a step too far. Not because I feel incapable of taking the step, but because there really doesn't seem to a lot of information out there on how to do it.
That step is moving from a hobby developer to a supported or paid for developer that can try to make a return on the time investment of making games. Now I'm not talking about making the next multi-million dollar AAA game, I'm talking about moving on from relying on game jams for visibility, or only ever offering free to play games that never seem to receive a donation through itch.io
This problem is really two-fold. First you need to set yourself up to be able to receive payments and upload projects to appropriate app stores, all while ensuring that anything you do can be done legally from a tax and business perspective. The second part of this problem is Marketing, ensuring that you can build a following that is willing to download and interact with your projects.
While I've not really started focussing on the Marketing problem yet, I have recently been getting myself set up to be able to really start pushing forwards with this big step.
Over the last few weeks I have been doing a lot of research, and started following a plan to move towards the reality.
After a lot of searching and reading, I was eventually able to get to a point where I could plan out how I would try to get myself from where I am now to where I want to be as a creative developer.
For context, I live in the UK and while Tax and Business rules can be rigid, there are ways of moving forwards without much investment provided that when appropriate financial limits are hit, the correct processes are followed to ensure that everything happens the way that it should.
To put it simply, in the UK, as a sole developer I cannot legally set myself up as a limited liability company without at least 2 other individuals as a company cannot be registered without at least 3 directors.
This leaves me with only the potential to operate as a sole trader at this time. The following list explains what this means:
After figuring this bit out, I now know how the business side of my Game Development activities will be legally considered, meaning that I can ensure that the more practical parts of my activities reflect this position.
For example, the first market place I will likely be using (other than itch.io) is Google Play. I have selected Google Play because out of the three most common market places (Google Play, iOS AppStore and Steam) it has the lowest barrier cost of entry. A £25 one time fee, vs £100 per app or game with iOS or Steam.
On Google Play, there are two options available when creating a developer account. The first is a "Personal" account that is aimed at hobby developers and individuals. The second is an "Organisation" account aimed at registered companies and businesses.
Due to my UK Tax Status of needing to be a Sole Trader, I will not be provided with the appropriate business information to be able to register for an Organisation account, leaving me with the option of a Personal account.
As I will need to operate as a Sole Trader, when I get to the point of needing to provide Self Assessments for tax, all of my earnings from my day job and my gamedev activities will need to accurately recorded and accounted for. To simplify this, I have decided to set up a second bank account for handling the financial aspects of my activities. This will keep my earnings from gamedev separate from my day to day finances, allowing me to keep track of the finances when, or if, I end up needing to provide Self Assessments.
After these considerations, I have also needed to consider where my potential income would be coming from. Obviously I want to make money, but where will it be coming from?
As mentioned earlier, I currently plan to upload an app or two to Google Play, and there is also the iOS AppStore and Steam that I plan to also use in future. But there are other options I have as well:
Overall, most of these options are intangible pipe dreams at the moment, but I hope to work towards this eventuality. I've got to start somewhere with what I can afford, both financially and with time.
Although I plan to eventually offer my games and apps in multiple marketplaces, as I will be starting with Google Play there are a few points to consider about using the Google Play Store to publish my apps.
Recently (early 2025) Google Play changed its policy about the information it displays to users about the developer for accountability and transparency purposes. After doing some reading on the changes, there has been quite a negative response from developers on these changes.
If you create a Google Play developer account, you will need to provide your Full Legal Name and Address, a developer email contact and a developer phone number. With the changes in policy, this information will be publicly accessible to everyone that uses the Google Play store. The negative response from developers has been focussed on the perceived risks of providing this information knowing that it will be publicly available, to the point where some developers have allowed their apps to be removed from the store rather than provide this information.
For myself, in the UK, if I was able to create a limited liability company, this information would be publicly available anyway, meaning that either way I go about formalising my activities, I would still need to accept this risk.
As part of these changes, for Personal accounts, Google Play has also introduced a closed testing policy that needs to be followed before your apps can go live on the store. If you can create an Organisation account, this requirement does not apply (as I understand it).
The closed testing requirement appears to be for 12 people to download and use your app for 14 days. If this is not followed, the 14 days starts again from day 1.
If these considerations initially deter you from using Google Play to publish your apps, I would recommend fully investigating other services, but ensure that you fully understand both the requirements and possible risks of using any market place you intend to use.
I have not yet really considered how I plan to market games and apps. There is also no correct way to market your games and apps. The right way is any way that gets you and your projects noticed. You could try to start with more personal or organic approaches to marketing, or you could try to take a more formal approach by paying for Ads or showcases of your projects.
For myself, at the moment, my current thinking on this is to take a more organic approach because this can be done without much of a cost.
To try to start the process, I have created a Twitter/X account for my gamedev name (@CrazyHoundGames) where I plan to follow other creators and post updates about my activities. When the time comes, I also plan to make Reddit posts and message influencers and YouTubers as appropriate to try to market my apps and games. As things evolve, I might consider other methods of marketing to further raise awareness of my projects.
While I've not really looked into "how to market" my projects, I am already trying to set myself up to allow for marketing activities to take place.
While I have been considering how to do this since before I started making games, over the last few weeks I have tried to research and focus on doing this. Figuring out a plan and setting everything up.
Even though I'm only just starting, I hope the following tips can help other developers and maybe save you a bit of time or stress.
My tips to you are:
Finally my plan, and my journey, will be different to yours, and yours will be different to everyone else's. There is not really a good way to guarantee success, and if I make it, my approach might not be right for you. Do your research, make you own plan and follow it, and you will figure it out.
While I hope to make it, I hope that you do too. Good Luck!
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This was a very interesting blog post, and somewhat relevant to us as well as wer'e based in Ireland so we have fairly similar rules. We recently registered our business name (which is a legal requirement over here) and are hoping to release our first commercial game in a few months (we're hoping to have the demo ready for NextFest in February and if all goes well we should be releasing the full game before Summer 2026). I look forward to following your journey, and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!
Thanks for reading!
Since making the post, things have slowed for a bit, day job has been busy lately, but next week should be a good opportunity to move things forward a bit.
I've got lots of ideas for different projects at the moment but I just don't get the time to regularly focus on gamedev. Always looking into things though.
I see your posts fairly regularly in my feed, so definitely watching your progress as well. Good luck.