• lemmelemmy@feddit.org
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    17 hours ago

    Barely make anything compared to multi million companies

    Solo dev games can make a fraction of what those giant games and the dev can live a very comfortable life. Etc: balatro

    Very pointless article.

    • HereIAm@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      But that’s the thing. It’s incredibly rare that a indie game becomes successful enough to sustain even a single developer. It’s like with every other entertainment industry. YouTube, OF, Twitch, TikTok, you are competing with millions of other people in exactly the same situation as you. I think it’s OF where you need to be in the top 25% to earn $1k per year.

      Hard work and clever marketing can improve your chances of a success, but you still need to be extremely lucky to be noticed enough to make a living out of it.

      I remember this talk about a developer making a living as a game dev. Not by making inspiring or “good” games, but by pretty much endlessly reskinning solitare games.

    • creamfresh@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

      Talking about statistics is not pointless, it’s quite interesting sometimes even.

      Games like Balatro or Stardew Valley are absolute unicorns. Most smaller teams and solo devs that have a constant stream of some revenue through Steam need to work on the side to earn a living.

      • lemmelemmy@feddit.org
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        12 hours ago

        The point they’re making is pointless. Should have clarified my self better. I think this is an issue of behemoth companies are eating the big chunk of market and not leaving anything for the smaller creators to make a living. Same like McDonald’s is everywhere squishing smaller burger shops.

        This a market problem not steam. The article points it like it’s steam’s fault. IMHO steam does its best to support indie devs. they even patch their games so they’d have a smooth release (sorry its a Reddit link)