Should be on sale right now for say 4.99€ in the current black friday sale to get some exposure
“I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
21–30 of 346 posts
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#22> All in all just getting the business prepared ended up costing me about 550 more dollars than I was expecting. That's one month out of the 4 taken out.
Either I'm misunderstanding this statement or he really calculated $550 for a whole month. How or in which country is that enough to survive a whole month?
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#23There are few things come to mind: 1. Is it necessary to setup a company and accounting procedures before you even make your first sale? 2. I think this is a great game, however the failure to launch is rooted on marketing: not enough marketing research, tweeting and emailing publishers are not enough. Who is your ideal customer? Where do they spend their time at? What features distinguish you from other competitors?…
I am very sure that you don't need to setup a company before releasing a game.
Especially if it's just a single dev working on it. You can just sell it without making a company.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#24I don't understand how people still think that just creating and publishing a game is enough to sell enough copies or make a living from it.
Maybe a few years back, that barely worked, but even then, if you didn't have an audience, your game never sold as much.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#25The country he mentions is Romania.
Well, bureaucracy is high, but like other said, no need to setup a company in advance. But, he saved anyway way to little money ( I found strange that he is counting in USD, since euro is de facto currency, besides the RON ) to be able to sustain him and an apartment.
Lessons learn: don't quit your job until you have some sale volume.
However, since he's in Romania, he will get a job in no time, there's a chronic shortage of good developers.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#26> All in all just getting the business prepared ended up costing me about 550 more dollars than I was expecting. That's one month out of the 4 taken out. Either I'm misunderstanding this statement or he really calculated $550 for a whole month. How or in which country is that enough to survive a whole month?
Romania - without paying rent - 550 USD will suffice for 1 month of daily spending. He mentioned that he has a low mortgage which probably splits with his girlfriend and for a 1 bedroom apartment can be as low as 250 USD per month.
750 USD is the average gross monthly income (before taxes ). Usually software developers earn double that.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#27First save up for at least a year, or better two. Then go down to half time on your regular job or ask for unpaid leave, in some countries the employer must say yes and then let you back, unless you're starting a competing business.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#28Quitting your job with only 4 month worth of savings, with a new mortgage, to enter an industry known for its oversaturation, extreme competition, and high luck element for indies ? That's insane. Maybe I'm just risk-adverse.
That said, I think he actually succeeded, despite appearances. Managing to release a working game in 3 month, that actually got sales, is a feat in itself. The game will keep trickling sales, if he's a developer he can probably find a job in a few weeks and enjoy the now-passive income so I'm not too worried about him. Keep cranking out games like this one and the income will pile up.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#29> No one I've sent the game to wrote, mentioned or even played the game. Shouldn't you pay to get your game reviewed? With all these paid posts in instagram i doubt someone big will want to review your game for free.
Paid posts on Instagram are advertising and need to be disclosed as such in many countries. Reviews are generally not paid for because it presents a conflict of interest between the person reviewing and the product they are reviewing which is detrimental to the people who want to know if they would like a product.
That said you can definitely pay for advertising through 'influencer' coverage. Probably out of the budget range of all but the most well funded individuals though. Which is part of the issue as most people assume making a good game is enough rather than looking at the business holistically and properly budgeting for marketing.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#30In your country do you have to register the business if your business does not make any money? In UK you can make money for 3 months before registering... I feel for you, I can only give you an advice to try to turn your mind into anything positive. You are lucky you don't have kids to feed, or pregnant wife to look after. Robert Kiyosaki has written in 'Rich dad poor dad' book, that it's good to default before 30 so…
If like me you are from the UK it can be hard to appreciate how well aligned our country is to starting businesses, the origins of protection for companies originates with corporate activity around the 13th Century with the http://www.merchantsofthestapleofengland.co.uk/ and since then, with corporations holding large amounts of wealth and power, UK law has developed in step with the demands of corporations, coupled with historically low corruption in government and civil service, beneficial tax arrangements for new businesses, a tax system that helps recoup losses on investments and high level of security we are well supported in starting businesses and should appreciate that others are not so fortunate.