Has anyone in here made money in game dev? Is it harder than crypto?

making money game devving is arguably harder than making money streaming or on youtube. do it for fun, and the money might come if others enjoy your passion projects. if you try to chase trends and make what you think will sell, you'll fucking hate it.

>>60553310 (OP)
it's a ton of work and you have to be very good at it on top of that

Want to do all the work while I tell you the idea for a game that's more complicated than star citizen?

I have an awesome idea for a game and started developing it on Roblox. Game design is so freaking tedious if you’re doing everything yourself. Modeling and animation being the worst. I’m using AI for scripting which has allowed me to do anything I’ve wanted. I just need to stop being so lazy.

>>60553342
Not if it’s Roblox you can still make something that goes viral even if it’s pretty shitty. I hate having to design game mechanics for micro purchase slop though.

>>60553310 (OP)
if you have to ask, you don't have what it takes.

>>60553310 (OP)
No, but it helped me become a better coder.

>>60553342
Even being good isn't enough these days. Game development has gotten a lot easier so there's a ton of competition. You also have to be very lucky now.

>>60553310 (OP)
look at schedule 1 that's made millions. Forgot 2d sidescrollers and all that you can't get rich off those. Build a 3d game with simple style graphics, ad focus on a fun game loop, something not too intense. Schedule 1 has that, he also streams whilst he codes, so people saw the game from super early.

I'd say if you're building something now, build a "job simulator", something that scratches part of the GTA itch. Maybe a game about running a mafia crew, or a game about stealing cars or running a chop shop.

Use premade assets initially for animations and models. change them later after you have a fun game loop.

>>60555661
Here's another idea, it's the zombie apocalypse and you are in charge of building, defending and feeding a settlement. Has it been done before? Probably but who cares. I can imagine a fun game loop there.

>>60553310 (OP)
If you don't have money for marketing your game it doesn't matter how good it is

>>60555682
Not true, it really does matter how good your game is, people will want to play a good or interesting game, it's just about building the audience. Start streaming the development, that's your zero point, once you have something worth selling, reinvest the small revenue into getting streamer to play your game. A thousand dollars in this space can go quite a long way. Although again this is all pointless if your game is shit.

>>60553310 (OP)
there's enough entertainment already, there's zero money to be made here for newcomers, and the market will crash probably

>>60556158
What are you talking about, Games are fucking terrible right now, Movies and TV are total slop. People want games that are actually fun that don't actively try to fuck their players.

>>60553341
This.
When something trends, there's a shitload of copies within a week all trying to chase the hype, making it harder to make any meaningful profit, unless you are very talented and bring something original to the table. Failure is more likely, and sucks the life out of you eventually with little or less than nothing to show for it.

>>60556107
The market is overcrowded
It's not an exaggeration to say HUNDREDS of new games are released by aspiring indie devs every single day
You are competing with all those to be SEEN
It's not as easy to get a streamer to pick up your game and infinitely harder to get them to play more than once
I worked for a game company
You NEED marketing

>>60556595
Hundreds of extremely shit games, with boring gameplay loops, that's are knockoffs of other better games.

I'm talking about success with a good game. Mindseye paid for every streamer in the world it seems like to play their game and nobody bought it because it was obviously garbage. Nobody got paid to stream schedule 1 yet it's sold 10s of millions of dollars. The common factor is game quality. Mindseye is trash, schedule 1 is good.

If you build something good, you will find success with time, hardwork and self marketing.

>>60553310 (OP)
Only if you're making a porn game

>>60553310 (OP)
DO YOU EVEN PROGRAM????
HAVE YOU EVEN DESIGNED ANY EXPERIENCE???
HOSTED A BIRTHDAY PARTY?
HOSTED A TV SHOW WATCH?
COMMANDERED AN ESCAPE ROOM???

>>60553310 (OP)
I am basically planning on gambling it all by pooling all my money, renting a small place in some forgotten town and sitting there till I manage to make a game I really want to make. If I manage to make money out of it, cool maybe it can become a career, otherwise roping is a good alternative. I have already started, but having to work 6 days a week really slows things down.

Yes. There are several ways to make it in the game dev world:

1) Make a porn game that doesn't look like shit (Art focus)
2) Be innovative and make an addicting phone/indie game (Creative focus)
3) Be talented and make a dynamic game in some way (Engineer focus)
4) Slow crawl your way to fame by herding a following based on previous game releases (Long game)
5) Get really lucky making a viral game (Short game)

1,3,4 Require time.
2,5 Require experience in the industry.

You need to love making games which can initially be a massive timesink. Do it in your spare time after work.

t. 6 figs indiedev (multiple successes)