Hi.
I am from Venezuela, I am interested in the development of indie video games, but in my country the video game industry is not developed due to so many problems and some silly laws that prohibit them.
I write for questions about whether video game development is profitable and how sales can become.
I have the knowledge and an idea for some video games that I want to develop and I wanted to clarify those doubts.
Like any business, video game development can be profitable, but there are no guarantees. Even if your games are well received, it will probably take several years until you see any returns. And even then you would probably make more per hour by flipping burgers. If you’re seriously considering game development as a source of income/career I would recommend getting a book or two on the topic. Those can answer a lot of questions in great detail. I remember The Art of Game Design (by Jesse Schell) and Level Up! - The Guide to Great Video Game Design (by Scott Rogers) being quite good, but I don’t have my copies anymore and don’t remember if they go into the financial aspects.
On the other hand: If you want to go into games development out of passion there should be nothing stopping you - including common sense. ;)
And lastly: To get a vague, initial impression if your game ideas would do well, look at some free games from the same genre (here on itch.io and elsewhere). That’s what you would be competing with right now.
I hope this helped you.
Well… There is no such thing as an “average minimum sales in general” when you are starting out making games. You will need to work a regular job to support yourself for at least the first few years. I wouldn’t want to be too disheartening, but your first few (free) games won’t reach more than maybe a hundred people. Even when they are free, people might simply not have the time in their day to check if the game they downloaded 3 month ago is any good or not and then they might simply forget. I would say that, here on itch, a better metric than sales is followers - especially when you’re starting out. Those are the people who would ask “What has Argenis Rodriguez been up to?”, rather than stumbling over your current new game by chance. At this moment in time, there were 60 new, paid releases over the past 7 days and 73 “free” ones (which users could still donate for) on itch.io alone. That is what you would be competing with for attention - at the moment. And in my personal, limited experience, as game development becomes more and more accessible that number will always rather go up than down.
If you want to know about expected income for an employment as a software developer in that niche… That is a question that you should forward to Venezuelan game devs. You wrote about the difficult legal situation, which will probably be a factor. And I wouldn’t know the first thing about Venezuelan taxes. ;)
A bit of advice in that regard: Try to look up interviews with independent developers before you contact them. Even if your questions weren’t answered you might be able to reference that interview, showing (or underlining) that you actually care about what they have to say and didn’t just write the same mail to 20 studios. If you’ve written bug reports or fan mail to any devs try to contact them first. There’s a chance that they would remember you.
The simple pleasure of sharing their work for people to enjoy. :) Sometimes some aforementioned followers… And sometimes donations - if they enable those. Potential support for their Patreon account, if they have one.
Keep in mind that not every game is the new Undertale. Sometimes you just spend a month on something small and then realize it’s not good enough to ask money for. But somebody might still like it enough to offer up a donation or constructive feedback. Or they see something in it that you didn’t and have some wholesome, free entertainment. Either way, giving a game away for free is better than just deleting it.
If you want to make video games, as long as you have an internet connection and a laptop (of any hardware) you can do it.
Profiting however is a complicated matter. Are you prepared to spend years making games with no profit? One thing a lot of new devs miss is that for every game out there with a million downloads, there are a million games with one download.
Regardless on what country you live in, usually selling games is done in an international scale, unless your game has questionable content (violence, religion, politics). Some countries have a bit weird laws when it comes to declaring your income, but that’s something I’m not familiar with in Venezuela.
I think a good question to ask yourself is, do you want to make games because it sounds fun and is something you want to try regardless of profit? Then yeah go for it!
I don’t have much experience in selling assets. There are people that prefer to make everything by themselves, there are people that like to buy as many assets as possible and piece them together to make games and there are people that lie in between. I can’t really speak about numbers or which side is more profitable.
One other thing to consider is that working on your own games can still help advance you professionally even if they're not profitable. I haven't made enough money from my own apps and games to live on, but I think that portfolio has helped get me contract work that pays the bills, and what I learn from my own projects I can apply in work that I get paid to do (and I always learn tools and techniques in paid work that may be useful in my own projects, so it's all good).
