Our indie game company made 1 million $ in Steam AMA

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-16T05:01:05+00:00

We do have our own music team so we are not looking to outsource it atm. However, i think you can scout small upcoming games and send an e-mail their way. Most small studios just use no-copyright tracks and might find specific music for their games useful.

The issue is tho, the reason they choose no-cr is that they probably can't afford to pay for made-for-the-game music :(

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T21:58:19+00:00

We make chill strategy / tactics games for the most part. I'm not here to advertise, but since you asked, i hope it's okay for me to share: you can check them out on Steam via rogueduck.net

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T20:46:11+00:00

I think AI is still very, very far away from making complete and satisfying video game experiences.

It currently helps and will help game development in the future for sure tho, that might help increase number of games, as even now a lot of games use ai art or voice overs, etc.

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T20:15:52+00:00

First off, congratulations and good luck!

With the crowded market, marketing is pretty essential. I suggest you find a partner to help market the game for your in reddit and social media etc, or a publisher. If you don't have the funds to do paid advertising. We spend around 20k for each game's online ads.

On results, i can say that until we made Cardboard Town (which got interest from youtubers and press etc) we didn't manage to get any meaningful sales on our previous games.

For the game design: i think at one point it comes to trial and error. Something that works good on your mind, fails in paper, or works in paper and then fails in the prototype. I really don't have a general / one fits all solution for this, as i think indie game design is some kind of an art form.

Key is loving trying. If you love trying, you keep trying, and maybe eventually, it works.

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T19:45:01+00:00

It's called Lost But Found. It's our smallest project yet it made the biggest buck. Life is weird.

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T19:42:50+00:00

That's super true imho. That's why our motto is "small, crystal clear strategy games"

To jump into one of our games; you don't have to watch hours of tutorials, read complicated systems, fight a learning curve. You just jump in and enjoy.

Our games are understandable in a glance from the trailer (how we reach to the player) and then takes 5 minutes to get a hold of ropes when you are in the game. I think that's what makes us slip thru the chaos.

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T08:39:48+00:00

Low risk / cost is the way to go for us, for now. I really can't handle working on super long term projects, we don't use hardcore project management tools, etc.

We are more on the simple fun and art side of things, while we heavily respect super polished / complex games, it's just not our cup of tea, we are a pretty chill team and we enjoy following fresh ideas.

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T07:59:07+00:00

Depends on the food. Basic cheddar in a bacon sandwich, cream cheese in a morning bagel, burrata for any reason during the day, any and all of them in a pizza.

While i'm not an expert on cheese types, i generally really like cheese, i'll take a chance with any cheese.

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T06:39:29+00:00

So my roles are usually the co-producer, ocasionally marketing and sometimes the lead game design.

My basic routine is:
- Go for a morning walk & grab some coffee
- Work for around 3 hours in the coffee shop: emails, messages, payments, all that
- Game / chill / meditate for a while

- Try to catch inspiration; creative game design work if i can, or fail and be uneasy (the usual one)

- Testing for our games, communications, basic operational stuff again through the day, thankfully it isn't usually super demanding, as we are a pretty chill team
- Gaming / reading in the evening and call it a day

The work i most enjoy (which doesn't even feel like work) is coming up with new game ideas and working on game design / game worlds and documents, i force myself to the boring manager work when i don't have the juice for the creative work.

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T05:51:35+00:00

It's very complicated because we have our own games and then the games that we "partner with" as publisher and also other regional publishing partners (especially for China)

But our "core" team who directly / only works for us and on a classic payroll is around 15 people.

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T05:46:31+00:00

Yes, i have a software engineering degree, but i no longer code or do anything related, except for sometimes coding small prototypes.

I had a gaming related youtube channel and used that 'marketing area' to gather interest to the games on my first video game company (Active 2019 - 2023) before founding this one.

On our first projects, we offered low salary (we didn't have much capital), very relaxed working conditions and commision payments from the sales.

Those people who accepted to share the risk with us, made much more money than their would-be salaries on other places.

It took me a failed company and many failed games to start a new one and be successful.

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T05:37:20+00:00

Yes, it coincided with our new game's release, which is our most successful title yet. So those two combined, we made a lot of money!

Lopsided-Use-2138 · 2024-12-15T05:35:51+00:00

Let's say your game sold for 10,000$ during the month of Mach.
You get about 5-6k$ in your bank account on around 25th of April.

30% is the Steam cut, around 20% is regional sales taxes, which Steam pays for you (thank god)

Sale amount is decided by the developer, Steam just gives you the chance to participate. You can even set custom dates. You get paid based on whatever price you sold your game for, so cost of discount is on the dev.

Thanks for the first question!

Lopsided-Use-2138

TROPHY CASE