I'm the biggest meanie in indie game development

Screenshot from Queen's Wish. Please note that I use game art that I like. This is necessary, because then you have to look at him for years, and I do not want to go crazy.



A week ago, I posted a blog post, “Why do all my games look so sloppy” ( original ). It turned out to be terribly popular, it was read by many people. Some supported me. Others spent the precious time of their lives telling me that I was a terrible dumbass.



Thanks everyone! When you try to draw attention to an indie game, there is no bad fame.



In fact, the meaning of my post was as follows: “Some people like my schedule, but it is very bad, and always has been. To eliminate this problem, money and time are needed, but I have neither one nor the other. That is why our games look so bad. ”



I got a lot of questions. Good questions. Why can't I afford an art director? How much is the schedule? Why not do this or that? So I decided to write another post. I want to answer good questions.



So, I want to talk a bit about creating and financing video games, and also why I'm dumb and doomed to be forever. In the course of the story, I will explain to you the business of indie games in general, from start to finish. If you like indie games, then the story of how I survive may seem interesting to you.



You see, I'm the biggest press in the indie game market.

I have been doing this for 25 years

Some people get annoyed when I bring this up. As if a lot of experience and a huge amount of work done gives my words some weight, and advice - value.



Actually, it is. Do you realize how few people in this bloody business have made a good income for such a long time? People like me are less common than unicorns made from big feet!



The indie game business is complex, one of the most difficult.

Why is it so hard to make money on indie games?

What do you think is the price of the best indie games?



Did you say “free”? You're right! Visit the Epic Game Store every week and you will get the best indie games, the games are much better than mine, and it's all free!



This is not enough? Sign up for the Humble Monthly Bundle. For only $ 12 a month, you will receive 6-7 games each month, plus you can download more than 60 (!) Games from Humble Trove. And all these are good games.



That is, the competition is strong, and you can never compare with the best rivals in price, that is, you can’t sell cheaper than for free. Therefore it is a difficult business, buddy.









Award winning, critically acclaimed huge hit. It is distributed free of charge . How do you plan to compete with him?

How do you survive?

Very simple. Offer something that no one else can offer. Something cool and unique so that people want to pay money for your game instead of getting some other for free.



Take me as an example. I am a good programmer. Art and graphics are bad for me, and so it has been going on since childhood.



But I can write well. I create good surroundings and stories, everything is in order with my grammar and spelling, I make fascinating game systems that work very well with stories. HERE is the product that I sell.



I do business selling Jeff Vogel's games. And just like Van Gogh could not paint a picture of Renoir, and vice versa, no one else can create a game of Jeff Vogel. Larian Studios is a great company with great resources and great products. However, no matter how she tries, she will never create a game that my fans will confuse with mine.



Fortunately for me, there are people who really like the games of Jeff Vogel, and we sell them only. Therefore, we have a business.



However, this is not enough to stay in business. Yes, I can make people buy my games. But I need this to turn into a profit.



That is why I am forced to be the biggest thrill in indie game development.









A fan base can be found for any imaginable graphic style. This is an indie game, baby!

Let's look at the numbers

I started this mess with what I said about the ugliness of my games, and now I want to return to this. But for now, let's look at budgets.



Our next game will be Queen's Wish: The Conqueror. We spent about 20 months on it. So that we have a chance to pay the time that we spent on its creation, then after Steam, GOG.com, Apple, itch.io and Kickstarter take their share, we should have about $ 200,000 left.



(The game will take years to earn such an amount, but at the same time we earn money from previous games, so everything is aligned.)



Why exactly this amount? Because a lot of experience tells me that most likely we will get exactly that. Low-budget RPGs with a lot of text and the need to think do not become big hits, but we have a dedicated audience, so we get decent sales.



Then we deduct, for example, $ 60,000 for manufacturing costs and insurance. Then we spend X dollars on the schedule (a key factor in our discussion). We spend the rest on our salary (in order to have such trifles as food, clothes and a roof over our heads).



That is, our income for 20 months of hard work is, say, $ 140,000 minus the cost of the schedule. Watch your hands.

Twenty months? Not much to write a game

Of course! Of course not! When I release the game, I immediately start the race against time to have time to write the next game before. than our bank account will be empty. In fact, twenty months is an unusually long time for us, but completely new game systems and an engine have appeared in Queen's Wish. It usually takes me 12-14 months.



By the way, here is the answer to people asking why I myself should not learn to draw graphics myself. To learn how to draw better, I would have to spend at least 6-12 months. (If I say a shorter period, I will offend the artists.) I just do not have time not to write games.









In this interface, I drew frames and backgrounds for the buttons. And only a few years later someone asked: "Jeff, do not you think that they are too green?"

Back to the chart

After the previous post, many wrote to me: “Come on, buddy. Yes, no matter how you draw, it is MUCH better graphics in the game. " Most often complained about the lack of a single style and color palette. The graphics in my games look as if they were cobbled together from the works of 20 different artists, somehow connected using my missing Photoshop skills.



I have bad news for you. The graphics are REALLY cobbled together from the work of 20 different artists, somehow connected using my missing Photoshop skills.



Here's the thing: many people don’t notice it. Some notice, but it does not bother them. But experienced artists and people with a trained eye in this regard, having seen the icons used by me, will do like this ...









Hello darkness, my old friend.



Forgive me for this.

About my "Art Guide"

When I do what, by mistake, can be called “art design,” I begin by connecting together more or less suitable floor / relief objects. I cut graphics from old games, from opengameart.org , from sites with cheap icon licenses, wherever I can find suitable icons. To keep the style as uniform as possible, I use Photoshop magic.



Sooner or later, I reach a point where I cannot use online resources when I need something created specifically for the game. Then I go to freelancers.



I pay for the graphics of different types of terrain, which should correspond to the engine, for example, at tables and statues. I also buy a relief that needs my own unique formats, such as walls, doors and gates.



My artists are working hard to ensure that the icons they create fit well together and look beautiful. They do an amazing job. And then I spoil it, mixing it with other strange things I found. If something in my game looks bad, then blame me on it! Really!



About $ 40,000 can go on schedule. That is, I have $ 100,000 of income left. For 20 months of work, this is quite small, but I can live. I will make up for them with the next two games in the series, which will take much less time to write. (Plus, over time, remasters will appear. I will squeeze cents from Queen's Wish in the literal sense for decades.) Therefore, this is normal.



That's where the weird mix of style comes from in my games. Suppose I would like to create a unified art, with one standard of style and appearance, to do everything from scratch to give the game a holistic and clean look. I'm not a complete idiot. I know this is possible. But that’s why I don’t do it ...









This is a real screenshot from the first computer game that I had.

And now a few cruel numbers

Queen's Wish is a great game! Five peoples and biomes! Traveling on the surface and the underworld! A lot of furniture, all kinds of environments. At the moment, the game has a lot more than 1000 relief icons to create a unique look. (Here, by an icon, I mean a 48x48 tile. Some reliefs require several icons. For example, each type of wall is made up of 60 icons.)



Let's say I do it all from scratch. I need to hire freelancers. That is, I need to assemble from them a team that works in the right style so that they create a well-combined schedule, are accessible and reliable, want to invest in work in such a volume, and at the same time are not too expensive. (If you think it's easy, you have a lot to learn. It would take a lot of time to assemble such a team, which I don’t have.)



Therefore, I hire Frederick Freelancer (FF). FF takes $ 25 an hour.



(And this is a very good price. If you pay less, someone else will “buy it out” from you. On the other hand, many freelancers charge $ 50 per hour or more, but I like FF and it gives me a discount. Perhaps she lives in a country where the US dollar is valued higher. If you live in Brooklyn, then I can not afford you.)



I ask the FF to create, say, a stone column, approximately 20 pixels wide and 70 pixels high.



She builds it in a 3D program. Textures it. Obscures. Fits to the desired size. Render Sends to me. I ask for changes. She brings them in. (It’s very easy to work with me. I almost never ask you to make changes more than once. You may not believe it, but freelancers usually like working with me very much.) I get the schedule. Let's say it took about two hours.



That is, if I'm lucky, I will get this column for $ 50. Hurrah! One type of terrain is ready.



999 left.



But for Queen's Wish, I want to make 4 different columns to give a unique look to four different cultures. Suppose I find on opengameart a set of public domain icons that more or less suit me. They are imperfect, but will do their job. If I download them, I’ll save $ 200.



200 dollars!!! This is a ton of money! Do you know how much it is? You can buy 200 donuts on them! WITH BATTERY!

But that's not all!

Perform some simple calculations to understand how much I need to spend on creating all 1000 relief icons from my 140,000 dollars. And do not forget that this is only a relief! I will need creature graphics, an interface, portraits and paintings, special effects, item icons, ability icons and ...



RPG games have a lot of graphics!



Do you understand why I save everywhere I can? Freelancers take money because they DESERVE it. These are talented people performing complex work. But they sell their art to order, and a dumbass is too big to afford too much of it.



If I’m lucky and I will collect a lot of charitable contributions, then to create all the graphics from scratch in a single style and a coherent, pleasant color palette and with everything that the artists love, it may well go for 150,000 dollars. I repeat - I can not do it myself. I am a screenwriter, not an artist, and in the RPG certain graphic resources are absolutely necessary.



Let's make calculations: creating graphics like stingy, I will spend 40 000 dollars. Doing everything in a good way, I will spend about $ 150,000. 150,000 - 40,000 = 110,000



That is, to justify the additional costs of art, I need to sell games for another 110,000 dollars, and this is in order to go to zero. Remember this number.









We should be grateful that indie games have expanded the boundaries of what can be popular for the appearance of games. Ten years ago, this has not happened.

Or can I hire an employee

Of course, I am not obliged to use the work of freelancers. You can hire a full-time artist for 20 months. Suppose I did a good search and found someone whose style I like, ready to work with me. How much will all this cost, given the social package and taxes?



Many strangers to this industry are surprised by the fact that artists are one of the highest paid specialists. Good reliable artists are rare! Approximate salaries can be found on this site: careerexplorer.com/careers/games-artist/salary/ .



If I’m lucky enough to find a good artist who needs this job, with all the bonuses, the social package and the rest, then I can hire him or her for $ 150,000.



If I’m lucky to find a good person who needs this job, with all the bonuses, a social package and the rest, then I can hire him or her for 150-180 thousand dollars.



(But most likely this will be too little, especially if I want this person to live in Seattle for personal communication, and I want this. With this salary, I will pay him below the median.)



I do not want it. I am an introvert, and one of the reasons that I started this business is that you can work alone. But I will do it. For the sake of Art. You, oh buyer, deserve it.



I repeat, my stingy graphics cost 40,000. If I hire a full-time art director / artist, then I have to increase sales by 110,000-140,000 dollars.

But first, where does the extra money come from for buying graphics?

How can I even spend an extra $ 110,000 or more?



I don’t have that much cash, not even close. To start this project I would have to take a loan from a bank or ruin my accumulative pension fund. Then if I fail to cover the costs, then I will have big problems.

So, I need to increase sales by $ 110,000

I understand the post was long. Here is its climax! As you remember, most indie games are on sale today at a huge discount. After the store takes its share, you most likely will receive an average of $ 8 per sale.



To earn the 200,000 I am counting on, I need to make about 25,000 sales. For an indie game, this is MUCH. But give me some years of luck with discounts on Steam or in the Humble Bundle, and I can handle it.



To cover the costs of my project with completely new graphics, that is, to earn an extra 110,000, my still low-budget turn-based retro indie RPG with a lot of text should sell for approximately 40,000 copies.



This increase in sales may not seem very large, but it is MUCH. You can ask any indie developer - 40,000 copies is a HUGE number. (Like 25,000, but again, I have an established fan base. To get each new sale will require more work than the previous one.)



And this is just to recapture the costs. And if we do not reach this figure? Then you can easily lose the whole business: bam! - We sacrificed everything for the sake of a beautiful, uniform graphic style.



That is why I have to be the biggest hunks in the indie industry.









Best of all, I manage to engage in artistic guidance when I close my eyes with a cucumber mask.

But ... But ... I thought indie games made you rich!

Yeah. Sometimes a hit happens. Then you get a ton of money. And you hire a bunch of employees and create a real company. Then one of two things happens. You write a new expensive game, it turns out to be a mistake, the game fails and everything goes to dust. Or do you continue to write good games and grow until the Giant Megacorporation offers millions of dollars for your company. You gain freedom, take a big vacation, buy Tesla and realize that you don’t know what to do in life further.



However, most indie developers are similar to most small business owners. We are modest guys, we earn little and do what we can.



That is why I am writing such a great post. If you want to have a small business or make a living as a modest artist, then I have kind words for you, because I want you to succeed.

Inspirational completion!

In a previous article, I was criticized a lot. In fact, it was a massive discontent that I was pleased with the writing of such ugly games.



(And if you want to yell at me , then go ahead. The main thing is to have fun.)



But this is the point! If you want to become a game writer, or creator, or small business owner, then my story should inspire you!



I write so ugly games that they greet me with contempt, but still I manage to make money! And I will have a full life career! If someone can have so much and still succeed, then you can do it!



Understand what you can do well. Sell ​​it. Make your dream come true. Do it, no matter what the cost, whatever corners you have to cut. If you are better than me (and who is not better than me?), Then you have a chance.



Good luck