It has been almost 1,5 month back that I announced my dream. Since then a lot has happened. At Indienamic I have posted a blog post that reflects back on te past 1,5 month to see what has been achieved. I also look ahead for what the goals are for October (and beyond). If you’re curious, just go to Indienamic! 🙂
Author: stefanhendriks
bookmark_borderIndienamic: Added the power resource!
On Indienamic I’ve posted a new Development blog about my Real-Time-Strategy game. The power resource feature. A demo, along with some code can be found here.
bookmark_borderAnnouncing Indienamic & being realistic about earning money of your games
TLDR; I started a new company called Indienamic to build awareness for that brand so that I can build a community around the games I’m building. And, if you want to earn money from your games you have to cultivate that community, make high quality games, make people happy and do the number game. 15K visitors a month is not enough.
A while ago I said I decided to kickstart my dream to become an independent game developer (indie game developer).
In the incubator week I took a step back and reflected on how I wanted to achieve this seriously. I figured that in order to achieve this it would require me to build the game (of course) but also start with marketing right now.
So I introduce you Indienamic – a new identity where I’ll sell my games and blog about the journey building these games. A place where I hope to build a nice community of people who like the journey I am on and also like the games I’m selling. I strongly believe in a good and vibrant community in order to make anything you build successful.
The number game, how much do you need to earn a few bucks with selling games?
So lets get into a number game for a bit. Suppose you have a dream to build games and live from them. You’d need to earn money from your games. How much would that be? Well lets suppose you sell games from your website. A safe assumption is that 1% of your visitors will buy your product. Given that you can calculate how much traffic you would need in order to sell an amount of games. (this is excluding things like In App Purchases, this example is simply buying the game from your website)
Concretely…
Lets say, you earn 5 bucks a game and you get 15.000 visitors a month. This would result into (0.01X15.000) = 150Â sold copies times 5 bucks == 750 bucks a month. 15K visitors may yield into 150 copies sold. You might want to ask more money, but I wager you equally need more visitors and even better a vibrant community.
Oh btw, 5 bucks is excluding any taxes. This alone would not cover all the bills to do full time game development.
Of course you also need good games, in fact you also need multiple games. And there might be other ways to get financially things in such a way you can make a living out of it.
Like I said before: My dream is build my own games and live from them. I want to do full time coding, making game music, graphics (learn, or buy), game design, blogging. On my own terms, creating cool games and making people happy!
And yes, this will take time, dedication, effort. The first step, Indienamic, is taken. I have a plan and I intent to stick with it. Part of that ‘plan’ is to let you know how it goes, and to be very transparent about it.
With that out of the way…
What is next?
What about the incubator week? Don’t worry, I’ll blog about that within a week – on Indienamic of course. There are still a few blog posts in the pipeline to share you the progress so far!
It would not make sense to set up a website if there was nothing to blog about right? 😉
If you are interested in my journey in game development – keep an eye out for Indienamic!
bookmark_borderHarvesting resources added to my Real-Time-Strategy Game
Note: Further development blogs are to be found at Indienamic
I am glad to say that the basic mechanics for harvesting resources, and thus a basic economy system, is finished. I have created a demo, this time with audio where I explain how it works + a bit behind the scenes! For Patrons I deliver an in-depth video about the source code for this feature in the coming weeks.
If you have any feedback about the video, ideas about game mechanics or questions about how this is coded… just get in touch!
Watch the video here:
bookmark_borderRTS Game: Incubator week started!
Today I have begun an ‘Incubator week’. This means I have allocated a whole week to work on my game. One week without any distractions, at a separate location. Focussed to work on the game.
And even more awesome, I have some help from Arjen van der Ende for a few days.
In this week we’re going to work on:
- Merging the Harvester logic
- Minimap
- Power Resource
- AI
A lot of the things to get the Minimal Playable Game finished!
I am very grateful that my family supports me to chase my dream and give me the opportunity to work on my game like this! Thanks! Also, thanks Arjen for helping me out!