itch.io

I think getting a job is the most reliable way since it’s a stable income. If you choose to get a job, I think part time is satisfactory depending on how much money you want to raise.

If you don’t want to make money off of games because of other people’s free work, that’s fine. I actually don’t think you should make a game paid if it’s a prototype of a small early on game. Only make it paid if you think it actually deserves it. Or if you’re able to contact those people again, you could find a way to split revenue with them.

The moral justification for accepting revenue is that you’ve done most of the work if you’re working individually. But I can see the ethical concept of not accepting money, it’s your choice.

But I think you should accept donations because it’s like tipping a creator for making a good game. I myself am just starting to get into game development and am interested in publishing on Steam. My family has been super supportive financially during my coding journey, one of them is willing to pay my first $100 fee on Steam. But I’m aware that not everyone’s family is going to be as supportive as mine.

You can sell shirts, too. A site called TeePublic makes it easy to do. You just upload a design and they put it on pieces of merch like shirts, hats, mugs, etc. Prices are mostly fixed, but they do all the online marketing for you for free. It took a while for me to start getting sales, but I’ve made almost $100 total so far. So that’s an option, easy income. If you’re good at making things, you can sell them off Etsy. Fiverr is a freelancing service that you can look into where you can give services to people for things you’re good at. Fiverr is a good source of income, but also hard to get your first sales because there’s so much competition. These are a few sources of income. I’m not successful on Fiverr, Patreon, but I get quite a few sales on TeePublic. Especially around the holiday season and as Artemis II gets closer to its launch date. I haven’t tried Etsy.