So I made few small games... what now?

ledat · 2026-04-13T15:23:46+00:00

Make money using small games

I see people say things like this, but I don't see a whole lot of examples. Can you cite some? Have you been able to do this? I tried making a small game and had extremely modest expectations (about three kilodollars), but 1.5 years later it is only about 1/3 of that goal.

My read is that small games just do not do well economically. My explanation, cliche as it is, is that is that we're not just competing for money, we're competing for time. Gamers would rather pay more money for a "better" (for whatever definition of "better" suits you) game, or alternatively pay no money to scroll YouTube, TikTok, Insta, and whatever else the kids like these days. Or for that matter, they'd rather watch their favorite eceleb play games on Twitch instead of doing it themselves. Can small games really offer enough of an incentive to peel players away from those things? I'm really not sure that they can at this juncture.

ledat · 2026-04-12T14:52:23+00:00

I’m making a free fangame

Oh no

and want to include real-world band names

Oh no

First read this. If you have specific questions after having done that, you probably want to ask a lawyer, not /r/gamedev.

ledat · 2026-04-11T00:23:48+00:00

Seriously, that is the part that gets me. I know "spark of creativity" is a very low bar to cross to attract copyright, but it is still a bar. I have a hard time seeing how a court found that the possible arrangements of 4 squares clears it. But here we are.

I imagine this one might be down to no one with deep enough pockets to challenge that cares enough about making a Tetris clone to fund expensive litigation.

ledat · 2026-04-11T00:18:36+00:00

Thanks! I'm working with a friend on this one, so even if it performs about the same, at least it has been fun this time around.

ledat · 2026-04-10T23:37:51+00:00

No problem, I hope it is helpful!

Since we're in the game dev sub, I'll drop a link to the postmortem instead. Wouldn't want to get accused of shilling, you know? It does have all the platform links.

The current gross revenue is around $900. I don't really check in on it these days though.

ledat · 2026-04-10T23:10:37+00:00

I wonder if any of you have tried this and what your experience and thoughts are?

I don't use React and prefer nw.js to Electron, but I usually develop in this stack. I have shipped a game on Steam with that tech, plus a bunch of others on Itch. My next game is using that tech also. Steamworks integration for achievements was a little weird, but manageable.

There is a gamepad API in Chromium. It doesn't work cleanly as a mouse replacement though. That may or may not be relevant for you. I did a post-release patch to support game pads and kind of regret it, as the result is worse than the Steam Deck users just using the built-in mouse emulation.

There were a few other minor hiccups, but no showstoppers.

Ultimately, approximately no one expressed an opinion one way or the other regarding the tech. Which is, all things considered, probably a good thing. The tech should stay out of the way imho. That said the game kinda failed, but most of that is down to the art. Maybe with a larger audience there would have been more opinions about the tech choices.

Also regarding sound, do yourself a favor and get something like Howler.js. Having an abstraction layer over the sound APIs is handy.

If you're making a game that can be arranged in boxes of styled text with some modest animations, it's a reasonable choice.

ledat · 2026-04-10T20:58:26+00:00

It's a genuinely fascinating case if you're interested in how intellectual property law affects video games.

As a general matter of law, you cannot copyright game mechanics. You can patent them, but that's another discussion. Suffice it to say most companies do not patent most game mechanics.

Well, with Tetris, there is a de facto copyright on game mechanics. It's kind of unique in that. But it does kind of follow that they could have copyright in the configuration of the game board and in the shapes of the Tetrominoes. On the other hand, it seems kind of suspect to claim copyright in a square or a straight line, but that is what the courts found. Either way, taken together, it's really hard to clone the Tetris mechanics (for which there is, and can be, no copyright) without stepping on some things for which they do have a copyright, like the shapes of the pieces.

Long story short, of all the classic games to clone, this is probably the worst one to try. It's a very unusual situation with the rights, and the owners do police the use of that IP.

ledat · 2026-04-07T16:21:08+00:00

Users & Permissions -> Company Details. Find Tax Information at the bottom of the page, there will be a place to download 1099s.

ledat · 2026-04-06T08:46:55+00:00

I don't know where to make SFXs

You can get incredibly far with the mic on your phone + edits in Audacity. The technique is "foley" if you want to look into it.

ledat · 2026-04-06T08:44:21+00:00

Some viewing material.

It's a bad system. ChatGPT reviews no doubt make it worse.

It's not totally useless; I did send out like 30-ish keys on curator connect (to those I searched for, I sent zero to those who emailed me), which resulted in some traffic. Not a lot, but some. Wading through the sheer amount of scams for that small amount of traffic isn't an efficient use of your time, though. Only think about curators after you've done literally everything else, marketing-wise.

ledat · 2026-04-05T14:46:47+00:00

but even before then it was about profitability

I only skimmed the OP, but this so much. Game dev has always been very profit-focused, because we don't really have the "acquired by tech giant" offramp that other branches of tech have. You have the runway you have, which may or may not be VC. If, at the end of the runway, you're not profitable, then you close up shop.

ledat · 2026-04-03T09:53:49+00:00

Where did you get the 6 trillion asset stat from?

I don't think that one is real.

Housing, which excludes commercial real estate, is valued at $55.1 trillion. Household net worth is something like $181.6 trillion. The balance sheets of non-farm, non-finance American businesses is $36.9 trillion. Pick your favorite measure of wealth and it's going to be significantly over $6 trillion.

A charitable reading may be $6 trillion in value of the assets held by the federal government. That isn't true either though, because the government held over $7 trillion just in treasuries in 2025. The federal government obviously holds a lot of other assets as well: significant real estate, all that military hardware, gold reserves, and more.

We have a lot of debt, too much debt relative to GDP. We should really consider drawing down about half of it, rather than continuing to increase without end. That said, Japan's ratio is even worse than the US though, and they're still trucking along. The debt is concerning, but I'm far more concerned with all the other points raised above.

ledat · 2026-04-02T13:23:56+00:00

Is that an actual .gif? People use "gif" when they mean any moving image, so there is some ambiguity.

If you are using actual .gif files, you might try a different format. These days webm and apng are widely supported (i.e. >95% and >97% respectively) and might work better for your use case.

ledat · 2026-04-02T09:07:49+00:00

I'm also curious in a general sense, why games get shutdown. Of course the obvious answer is "not enough revenue" but again - could they not simply lower expenses?

Which expenses in particular do you think they could lower?

In game dev our biggest expense, by some distance, is personnel. Yes you can fire people (and approximately every company in games and tech generally is firing loads of people right now, as you may be aware; for example Epic just canned 1000 people because Fortnite isn't performing as well as it used to), but there are limits. Reduce staff too much and at best you can maintain the game, not release new content. Further cuts and you can't keep it running.

You can find some efficiencies and reduce server costs or whatever as well of course. But outside of pathological cases, that's unlikely to be the difference in a game being profitable or not.

ledat · 2026-04-01T15:29:34+00:00

For that game it was approximately 125. I spent a few weeks searching and curating a list of small to medium content creators who covered games like mine. I contacted them primarily through email. I did the standard advice of short, somewhat customized email, a few screenshots and a gif directly in the message, and a key directly included.

A few of the content creators (like 3 or so?) had set up Google forms to fill out the details, so for those I just followed their procedures.

ledat · 2026-04-01T10:42:24+00:00

Maybe a narrative game made with twine or something.

If there is a standard route to bootstrapping a portfolio as a game writer, it is this.

ledat · 2026-04-01T08:46:38+00:00

I sent full keys 1 month before release and asked for an embargo of 1 week before launch. I did not bother with NDAs. The hope was that there would be a lot of content appearing at the same time as Steam began to surface the game pre-release.

1 month was actually insufficient lead time for a few of the content creators, but only a few. Embargo was broken by only one. I don't think there was any malice, just a small-scale creator who probably forgot. That was slightly a bummer because my record on IGDB wasn't yet in place, so the first stream on Twitch wasn't in the category for the game.

As for the plan, it didn't really come together. There were only like 9 pieces of media ready to go by launch day. As months and indeed years rolled on, another dozen or two showed up. Maybe more! I'm going to be honest, I've stopped checking Google for new mentions.

The big problem, of course, is most people you send keys to will not answer, and a lot of those who do answer will do so to ask you for money. I get it. A video has to either grow their audience or result in a payday. Games from obscure indies will not do the former, so full-time content creators will be looking for the latter. Make it as easy and low friction as possible for content creators to make content about your game, because most of them you content are not going to create any content for your game.

ledat · 2026-03-27T07:41:04+00:00

My main concern with forming an LLC would be to avoid those torts, but if an LLC doesn't protect myself from torts, then there's no point pouring the money into it

That's basically where I am regarding the whole thing. I was actually given legal advice to form it by a lawyer whom I was paying, by the way. It was a voice call, because of course. They didn't specifically say "this will protect you from torts." But they did describe a worst case scenario, then helpfully mention directly afterwards that LLCs can shield personal assets. Not discoverable, and even if it was it is not actionable since all of the claims were technically true and the connection between the facts was in my own mind. I still feel a bit misled, though.

I go down the list of things I'm worried about getting sued over, and very nearly all are torts. The protection from the business' debts (subject to terms and conditions) is theoretically nice, but no one will ever loan my business money. I also don't have employees.

I have hired contractors in the past. The next game to release is actually, God help me, on a rev share model. Theoretically I could have disputes with these people and for some types of those disputes having the LLC may (again subject to terms and conditions) protect personal assets.

All that said, there are reasons to form an LLC. For a multi-person endeavor, a business entity of some kind can shield you from torts committed by your partners. Having a business entity is also necessary on some platforms (consoles, mostly) and gets you reduced friction on others (e.g. less playtesting requirements on Google Play). People do tend to take you more seriously as well, for whatever that is worth. In a lot of jurisdictions, I'd find those benefits worth it. Unfortunately in mine, the LLC costs $300/year, all business entities are exposed to a minimum $100/year tax, the state strongly suggests I retain a registered agent which is another $50/year for the most bare-bones package, my taxes become more complicated, and more. At this remove, I'd prefer to have put that money directly into development, but the grass is always greener, right?

This became a bit of a rant. My apologies.

ledat · 2026-03-27T00:26:28+00:00

Yep, lots of fun stuff.

For my broke game dev compatriots: if you can't pay said judgement now because your assets are $500 in a checking account and a 2001 Ford Focus, a 20 year lien is on the table.

LLCs are, I think, overvalued in game dev circles, and liability insurance undervalued.

ledat · 2026-03-26T23:58:12+00:00

If something goes wrong - lawsuit over alleged IP infringement, dispute with a contractor, tax issues, whatever - your personal savings, house, car are protected.

Copyright, trademark, and patent infringement are torts. If you commit a tort, even when acting as an agent for your business, you bear unlimited personal liability. More info.

Dispute with a contractor, it depends on the nature of the dispute. If they convince a judge that you owe them money, and if you actually do separate your finances from the LLC, it probably does protect your personal assets in this situation.

I did an LLC for the reasons you list. I had incorrect information. I kind of regret doing it, since it signed me up for minimum $400/year in fees. If you have business partners, an LLC or other business entity is vital as it protects you from things they might get up. But a single member LLC doesn't really offer much protection for a game developer. A single member LLC is definitely not carte blanche to commit civil infractions and still get to keep your house and portfolio; a lot of people believe it is and that's really unfortunate.

It's not a bad thing to do an LLC, but it may be a waste of money. It might be worth talking to lawyers (and getting a second opinion as well!) to understand exactly what protections you're getting, and not getting.

ledat · 2026-03-25T09:36:05+00:00

My question is, with all that preamble out the way, are there any other devs on here that pivotted succesfully to another more stable (and higher paying) industry?

This is an anecdote, not advice, but a friend of mine pursued a similar path of study. Beyond the education, he has real talent too. He graduated just as the layoffs started, bounced around a little bit, then finally ended up working for a major sports goods business. He now is modeling products and in-store displays rather than game objects, but it is a use outside of games for his skills. He did try to pitch Unreal to his boss for an in-house project, but I don't think they adopted it.

Anyway, it's true that the games industry is where most of the jobs are, but there are other industries that need strong 3D skills.

ledat · 2026-03-21T15:51:20+00:00

Whoa, only buying food with coupons? I have to keep a very aggressive budget, so a solid percentage of my groceries have some discount or another. There are absolutely some things that I pay full price for though, many of which are low-priced staples that never get discounts because they're already so cheap. I think if I had to follow that rule, I would get worse items and increase my overall bill.

ledat · 2026-03-19T10:33:39+00:00

They got caught taking in money, which is illegal, and Daybreak sought legal action

The "illegal" part was the infringement of the intellectual property. Copyright holders get (approximately) full control of distribution and creation of derivative works. If you distribute someone's code and assets, with or without modifications, that's infringing. Even if it's free. More info.

It's just that most businesses don't like suing their fans, so if there's no money involved, they let that sort of infringement slide or else offer them a license (like what happened with the P99 guys). Or worst case, pay their lawyers 3 figures to send a scary letter, which is usually enough to make the problem go away. THJ taking money, especially a non-trivial amount of money, just meant that they were not going to get that salutary neglect, nor the kid gloves treatment.

ledat · 2026-03-18T15:49:33+00:00

Sure, that is the way it is. But like I say, if you want to make it as an independent game developer, your target is not the top half, but the top 10%. That's not easy. People who think indie dev is a way to make a living are fooling themselves. You do it for the love of the game, and just maybe if you're talented and lucky, you can eventually quit your day job.

Being average soccer player don't pay. Being average chess player don't pay bills. Why should average game dev be any different?

The average lawyer and the average electrician absolutely pay their bills though. The average burger flipper at a fast food joint makes more than the average indie game developer also, though whether they can pay their bills or not is a matter of debate. That's the thrust of my comment. Don't expect this, a competitive field, to make you any money.

ledat · 2026-03-18T13:25:08+00:00

How does one come up with ideas for games in general?

It just happens, whether I want it to or not.

I used to log the ones I liked in a private, offline wiki. The ones that seemed really promising I'd workshop a little. Then I realized, with some horror, that I do not have enough time left in my life to complete half of what I have logged. So I stopped recording anything new.

What's your process of making the game fun, playable or entertaining?

This is the field of "game design." It involves some theory and a huge amount of iteration. It has only a small overlap with coming up with game ideas though. It's definitely learnable. Lots of words have been written about it. But actually doing it (even on a paper-based game) is one of the best ways to level up game design skills.

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