interesting author never considers getting help for art and marketing.
“I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
241–250 of 346 posts
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't seem like a business story really, it seems like an artist / craftsman wanted to practice his craft and ran into commercial realities. It's a starving artist situation. There wasn't any market analysis, financial analysis, etc upfront. He wanted to make a game, and he did, so he should be commended for that. It wasn't really a business venture.
I think it became a business story as soon as the developer quit his job and risked his future livelihood on sales. He could have worked on the game in his free time and released it for free, otherwise.
That is exactly why I'm happy working for someone else. I love to code, solve problems and make things. I do not what to run a business. As soon as you are in your own you are running a business.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
If it wasn't a business venture, then don't treat it like one. Needing sales means it's a business venture.
Unfortunately we don’t live in a society where people who are passionate about art can pursue their passions fully and avoid starving or otherwise risking their quality of life. In our society merely choosing to pursue your art to your fullest extent is considered a business venture and not an artistic venture, and even choosing not to because of money reasons is itself a business decision.
There are plenty of people who are passionate about art and also able to pursue their passions fully and avoid starving. They get grants from the city or private organizations or they sell their work.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#244Just to add my personal data point of experience... 6 years ago, I took a break from doing webdev freelancing and spent around 3 months developing a kids app. At that point the money ran out so I released the app even though it wasn't entirely finished and quickly went back to doing web freelancing in order to be able to feed my family. The app sold in small amounts but it was getting great feedback from the people w…
P.S. https://itunes.apple.com/app/my-playhome/id439628153 in case anybody was wondering.
For what it's worth my daughter has sunk countless hours into that game and its expansions, and loved every minute of it. Even though she now considers herself a bit 'too old' for them, she'll still occasionally fire them up and play.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unfortunately we don’t live in a society where people who are passionate about art can pursue their passions fully and avoid starving or otherwise risking their quality of life. In our society merely choosing to pursue your art to your fullest extent is considered a business venture and not an artistic venture, and even choosing not to because of money reasons is itself a business decision.
True, but now is the greatest time in history to be able to pursue art. It's obviously tough, but people can sacrifice for their art and share it like never before. Just think how many incredible artists have lived but spent their entire lives merely surviving.
> how many incredible artists have lived but spent their entire lives merely surviving.
what you describe is basically the entire human condition as it has ever been since time inmemorial.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#246Just to add my personal data point of experience... 6 years ago, I took a break from doing webdev freelancing and spent around 3 months developing a kids app. At that point the money ran out so I released the app even though it wasn't entirely finished and quickly went back to doing web freelancing in order to be able to feed my family. The app sold in small amounts but it was getting great feedback from the people w…
This is one of my daughter's favorite iPad games. She's been playing it for years and occasionally I play it with her. Did you do the artwork yourself?
:)
A friend of ours does the artwork using actual pen and paper. We scan it in and clean it up in Photoshop.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
P.S. https://itunes.apple.com/app/my-playhome/id439628153 in case anybody was wondering.
For what it's worth my daughter has sunk countless hours into that game and its expansions, and loved every minute of it. Even though she now considers herself a bit 'too old' for them, she'll still occasionally fire them up and play.
Thanks! It's so nice to get actual feedback from parents. I live in the middle of nowhere and very, very rarely actually get to witness the app being used in the wild.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's essentially a doll house. The characters can hold things. Their arms are open so it's easy to put things into their hands.
I see! Makes sense! Thanks for the explanation
It's clearer in the iPad screenshots. Thanks for asking as I now notice none of the iPhone screenshots show the characters holding anything. I should probably change that...
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
Forget 3 months, the rule of thumb is 6 months for an emergency fund
And twice your salary in a retirement fund by the age of 30, and three times your salary in retirement by 35. Basically quit your day job only if your side hustle is already making more money per month (not per hour) because odds are even making more per month is still going to result in not being able to survive much past 57. Side note, how many 57 year old indie game devs are there?
How does the average American put tens of thousands of dollars into a retirement account within 5 years at a point in life where there is a morgage and/or children? That does not seem like conventional wisdom.
Re: “I thought I could ship at least 700 units to stay in business”
#250This guy is overreacting. He didn't fail that badly, he managed to create something that sold hundreds of copies. He said his experience was "soul crushing" and that being an indie dev is some hopeless thing now, yet you got a decent outcome for only a few months work and only a few thousand dollars spent. Just keep hammering out small games, only try to add something slightly unique to each one, nothing complicated, but enough that it would catch the attention of simple minded people enough that they would spend a few dollars for a novelty approach. People bashing the pixel art angle are very very stupid. People LOVE that stuff. The people who post here are generally smart and have high level tastes, which isn't your audience, and it doesn't need to be. You aren't gunning for critic approval or the next hot thing. You must realize that there are millions of people with questionable taste that want to be given the same tropes over and over again. You just need a slightly more novelty approach. You have a good thing going here, with a little tweaking you likely can make enough to survive full time in your country. Get a job for a while and figure out how you can bang out more of these types of games which take a few months to develop. Its probably good to ignore most of the negative advice you are getting here as well. Do not fall into feelings of hopelessness when you almost fulfilled your goal. You will get better which each successive project.