Congrats! This game looks amazing.
Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
21–30 of 379 posts
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#22what engine did you use? anything you would you have done differently in hindsight?
Godot 4.2 with C#. Done differently? Hmm. It was an intense duration of work and I set a firm deadline for myself of EOY 2024 to avoid it dragging out into a longer-than-it-should-be project. Gaining design skills along the way, I could make better use of the same amount of time now, just by being a better designer. But that's not hindsight. There were trade-offs in that aggressive schedule, and a lot of triaging. One of the things that probably could have used a little more time in the oven, perhaps trading off against content, was the meta progression. I wasn't in love with what shipped, and it seems to be the main criticism of the game, besides RNG. It's something I may still potentially address in a patch though.
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#23Out of curiosity, what kind of margins do you get when you sell a game on Steam? Like, what percentage of a sale ends up in your bank account (pre-taxes). Also, how do Steam sales affect that? Congrats on making a game to completion, and doubly so for making something that gets fairly popular. Making a real game has been on my bucket list for about as long as I've known how to program, and I haven't completely given…
Generic steam fee is 30%
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#24I haven't played your game but I've watched a ton of Real Civil Engineer's videos on it. It looks like a blast and I love watching his videos. How did you get into game development? Congratulations on the success!
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#25Oh neat! I wishlisted it when it came out but was heavy into balatro, slay the spire and the diceomancer demo but I will pick it up soon.
Curious if you would be up for recording a podcast about the project? I love to pick people's brains about stuff like this. I recorded one with Ange the Great about his creation of Engine Simulator, for example.
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#26Out of curiosity, what kind of margins do you get when you sell a game on Steam? Like, what percentage of a sale ends up in your bank account (pre-taxes). Also, how do Steam sales affect that? Congrats on making a game to completion, and doubly so for making something that gets fairly popular. Making a real game has been on my bucket list for about as long as I've known how to program, and I haven't completely given…
Steam takes 30% and the publisher ( https://rawfury.com/developer-resources/ ) takes 50%, so the dev should end up with 35% of revenue (which then needs to be taxed etc.).
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#27Out of curiosity, what kind of margins do you get when you sell a game on Steam? Like, what percentage of a sale ends up in your bank account (pre-taxes). Also, how do Steam sales affect that? Congrats on making a game to completion, and doubly so for making something that gets fairly popular. Making a real game has been on my bucket list for about as long as I've known how to program, and I haven't completely given…
Game Maker’s Toolkit did a breakdown of publishing a game on steam for a general view of the expenses.
Starting around 6:35
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#28Out of curiosity, what kind of margins do you get when you sell a game on Steam? Like, what percentage of a sale ends up in your bank account (pre-taxes). Also, how do Steam sales affect that? Congrats on making a game to completion, and doubly so for making something that gets fairly popular. Making a real game has been on my bucket list for about as long as I've known how to program, and I haven't completely given…
Between returns, taxes, and other stuff, I think you can model at ~55% of gross Steam sales. Then, whatever your split w/ your publisher is, on top of that. So I think it's easy for ppl to severely overestimate how much a dev is actually earning by just multiplying units times price :)
I think in general the uptick of sales volume more than offsets the discount during a Steam sale. There's a reason Steam sales have a cooldown, they generate marketing emails to your wishlists. So sales are always good, from what I can tell.
Thanks for the congrats, and all I can say is: don't give up, I'm an old-ass man and made it happen. Don't get stuck on art or music either, IMHO. Total distraction. You can make a game fun without that stuff. At least, fun enough to be sure the investment into the next stage is wise.
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#29Congratulations! That's a huge accomplishment, and not something I'd call "minor."
When I think about game development, these are the skills and types of work that come to mind:
- software development
- game design
- graphical art
- musical composition
- writing
- marketing and promotion
and I'm sure there's more that I'm missing. I'd be very curious to know how you navigated through all of that...like did you start on one end, like with a game engine, and then fill in the rest, or was it more of a holistic iterative process? I hope that's not too broad of a question, but frankly I'd appreciate any insights you can share.
Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam
#30Out of curiosity, what kind of margins do you get when you sell a game on Steam? Like, what percentage of a sale ends up in your bank account (pre-taxes). Also, how do Steam sales affect that? Congrats on making a game to completion, and doubly so for making something that gets fairly popular. Making a real game has been on my bucket list for about as long as I've known how to program, and I haven't completely given…
Steam takes 30% and the publisher ( https://rawfury.com/developer-resources/ ) takes 50%, so the dev should end up with 35% of revenue (which then needs to be taxed etc.).
Maybe a dumb question but... in the age of Steam, what does the publisher do these days? Advance funding? What do those numbers look like?