Indie Paths To Fortune And Glory? Not So Easy.
Six Months.
$32,000.
Solid Reviews.
Innovation within a popular genre.
A coveted, positive review on Kotaku.
And of course, a relatively new platform - the iPhone, where the streets are paved with gold and you hear stories of developers turned millionaires overnight.

Total return on investment: $535.19

I'd call this an unsustainable business venture. Serious suckage. And as I Whine About Games points out, an excuse for pirates to rip off the software. Since pretty much anything is an excuse for them to rip off the software.

Granted, the story's not over yet. But since people like to ask, "How much does the average indie game make?" and "Can't you make a lot of money writing games for the iPhone?", I figured this is a useful data point.

And it's also a spectacularly unsurprising one, for anyone familiar with console development. The first "generation" of games for what proves to be successful console tends to do very well. The second generation often does just as well, or even better - due to an increased install base. Around the third generation of software, things start maturing, the venue gets crowded, and the streets seem less and less paved with gold. Near the end of the lifecycle of the platform, game sales begin to resemble...

Uh, they actually resemble PC game market. Shock! Horror!

Jeff Tunnell, an experienced vet in both indie and mainstream game development ranging all the way back to when the "platform wars" meant Atari vs. Apple vs. Commodore, has this to say about the challenges facing iPhone game development.

And on an almost unrelated front, we have GamePro - one of the few remaining (and thriving) print gaming magazines - getting into the publishing business. Dubbed GamePro Labs, they are taking on the role (theoretically) of marketing and publishing low-budget, indie titles for iPhone (there's my connection), PC, XBox 360, and even the Zune.

But the question has to be asked - and has been (see the comments) - what value-add will GamePro Labs really offer for indies? This is an important question for all "indie" publishers (and there are quite a few out there). The idea is that you can focus on what you love / enjoy best... cranking out the games... and let them worry about marketing and sales. You just collect the royalty checks.

Good in theory. IF they do a really good job of it. And IF their royalty offer is truly fair and worth giving up ownership and control of your IP. Those are extremely substantial "ifs." And there are a great number of unanswered questions. And by the time GamePro Labs answers those questions and resolves the "ifs" for their initial group of developers, they could be changing their terms.

So it's anything but a slam-dunk. It could be a golden opportunity for some indie game developers --- or not.

Contrary to the opinion of some, I do not believe that having a publisher makes you a "non-indie." The difference is really about who is in the driver's seat, in my opinion. If you are doing a game on contract for someone else, that's probably not indie. If you are shopping around to find the best way to sell a self-funded game, then that's probably indie.

The bottom line is that in spite of a handful of the stories of "getting rich quick" with indie games, there is no easy path to fortune and glory. Somehow, like everything else in life, it usually seems to involve hard work, skill in several disciplines, and a dose of good luck.

Labels: Biz

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:39 AM (Permalink)