How difficult is it to get $50 US a month from android store for your game?

As I understand paid games won't really make sense anymore its better to use ads?

But the question is how difficult is it to make $50 US a month on your game? after google tax.

Or lets say maybe $300 USD over the course of 1 year?

What kind of luck have you all had?

 

Depends on so many factors it's hard to tell.
I can tell you my experience.
Made a game, submitted it, had a couple people play it no more than 50 people have tried it in a year.

 

Hey mind telling me what game it is? I wanna have a look at it.

 

$50 a month? You can make that selling shirts on cafepress with practically no effort. Aim higher.

 

People might have better luck selling t shirts and other things in general. I think there are a lot of people (looking at the Showcase forums here in the past) not making anywhere close to $50 per month from their mobile games.

Hard for people to aim higher if they can't even consistently hit $10 per month from their games (each).

 

Its called Test Your Tap! The icon is a star. Its like first mortal kombat test your might lol

 

Well-rated 4.2 out of 5 stars and... 10 downloads. Kind of ridiculous considering the folks who did try it seem to really like it.

 

I would give it a difficulty rating of 70%.

 

I don't understand the point of the post... why would you WANT to aim to make $50 a month, or $300 a year? Why did you pick those figures?

Either way, yeah the question can't be answered. Of course it's possible, but obviously it entirely depends on the game. It might make that amount, it might make less, it might make more.

 

Since release of Hardkour, I've made less than 300...

Not everyone is making games for Disney.

 

True, but was making $XX a month your primary motivation for creating the game?

Just saying, making $50 a month on the internets is less than trivial (the last shirt design I added was like 5 years ago, and still get more than $50 p/m). If you are just going for a revenue stream, there are about a million better ways to do so than making games. Conversely, if you trying to build indie games as a revenue stream, they will probably fail because they are products first.

By "aim higher", I guess I mean shoot for making a kick ass game that will be huge hit because it has great gameplay and people love playing it.


BTW: I usually visit the forums on my phone, so never see sigs... so just now tried Hardkour. Nice! Fun and clever. You should add a video to your IOS landing page, or at least have the first image show gameplay.

 

Hardkour is actually pretty fun and hard as hell...lol

 

I think the only people who ever bought my game were pirates who then uploaded it for free. At least they bought a copy first!

 

Hardkour was intended to be a money maker! It got zero traction on iOS though, which is probably its biggest downfall. Since iOS has never been popular, Ive always been, well un-enthusiastic about improving it on the iOS store. I need to bring the latest version to iOS though, because it looks much cooler after the last update (yay shineys).

Android has gone through several iterations, mainly because it gets constant downloads (50~100/day).

I think the game itself is fun. Its simple (but challenging). Its throwaway (play for a few mins when you have some time).

IDK why it hasnt gone better... people like to give me 1-star ratings for it though, so YAY to that. heh

 

I disagree, if you build games to make money (and by that I mean spend effort on analysing markets, promoting, designing for revenue generation, etc, and throwing aside all other concerns) I'm confident you will make more money than if you don't.

Its just that doing so tends to lead to the type of games that indies don't want to make. EDIT: Although I guess you could argue this isn't really an indie game depending on the meaning of the term.

Make a social trivia game frame work and then bombard the market with well presented and topical trivia games. I guarantee* you can turn around more than $50 a month. Its just not very 'cool'.

* Not an actual guarantee

 

Seriously, add either a video or awesome action shot as your first image in your IOS page. We did some testing a while ago and found that the first image and the icon have a massive impact downloads. (as does the name of the game). People click and glance and if they aren't grabbed right away, it is just as fast to swipe back as it is to swipe for more images.

Google Play:


App Store:


Just saying... even if you don't put a newer version on the app store, you should at least swap the first and second images. If I saw that as is on the app store (and not specifically checking it out because of your post), I would have skipped it. Claim some of that mad app store monies!

 

Agreed, I was specifically referring to the trend of knocking about a bunch of quick crappy games (without doing any of the things you described) hoping that one of them will magically be successful.

 

Yeah, I figured thats what you meant, but poked to get the details

 

@JamesLeeNZ ... sucks that Hardkour didn't make you money. Its a cool little game. Main criticism is I found replayability was low, I had a fun for a while, but didn't want to keep coming back. Keeping users playing seems to be the key to revenue.

* Downloading it again

 

You're right, and I know it! Now I just have to do something about it. Shouldnt take too long to belt out an iOS version (who am I kidding, I like to stall)

That's interesting about the screenshot order and makes sense. I guess the main menu just isn't that exciting I do tend to rush through those last bits though (store front/screens/etc)

I'm not sure if its possible to gain traction on iOS once something's been out for ages?

 

Granted, which is why I consider it a bit of a throwaway game. It was inspired by flappy bird (I KNOW I KNOW), but under the same premise that its basic with a fun mechanic. Maybe flappy bird had more replay-ability?

 

If definitely is.
Also, if you do an update with all the shiny that appears in the Play version, there is always a shot at getting featured under Best New Game Updates.

 

Good to know! Gives me a boost of enthusiasm for doing it!

 

I am curious how long did it take you to make Hardkour? Game looks pretty good in all honesty.

 

If I compressed all the time, probably only a couple weeks of work, but I've managed to stretch that out over a long time, so hard to gauge really.

 

ok cool I understand well I guess it probably took you like 200 to 300 hours.

And you made about $250 I am guessing, in all honesty that isn't bad at all. Sure its a little less than $1 an hour but it wasn't like you had to find a job you just tossed up something and got money from your chair. Its not anywhere near making a living but hey $250 USD is a brand new graphics card or even a new monitor.

Not bad I would say my cost of living is around $120 US a month.

 

sure, but my hourly rate (if we're going to put a price on it), is $60+

60 x 300 = $18,000, so to me earning less than $300 barely makes it worth the effort.

Sure I get warm fuzzies knowing over 2,000,000 games of hardkour have been played, but warm fuzzies dont pay bills.

My cost of living is closer to $4000/month... so yeah... I'm doing this for the passion I guess

 

Flappy Bird was out for a long time before becoming successful (Not that anyone should base anything off of an outlier)

 

fingers crossed I can do the same then!

Getting a massive push through Giftiz in coming weeks, so it might change everything.


well, a promotional thing... here's hoping its a massive push

 

What a freaking difference in costs of living. $120 vs $4,000. This is why I think the answer to "can I make a living making games?" is not so clear cut. If you only need to earn a couple hundred dollars per month then certainly you should be able to do that. But then again there seem to be a lot of people making games who are not even making that. The mass of games out there did that I guess.

 

Yeah when I heard $4K USD it really shocked me. My figure of $120 US a month is absolute minimum with the occasional Bar B Que now and then. Mostly through my garden where I get much of my stuff. I don't pay for water or internet as water is free and I just use my brother WIFI password.

I guess my cost of living here is lower than my neighbor. But I will say this, for me to live a very comfortable life here on my own will cost me $300 US A month.
$300 US a month will pay for car insurance, maintain a Honda Civic, pay for Air Conditioning, internet, food, steam games and still have a tiny bit to save for the bank.

If you are talking along the lines of $1200 US a month here you are talking about easily buying a new house on long term loan and driving a BMW or Mercedes Benz.

https://discoverflow.co/trinidad/internet/broadband-rates-packages

$1 US = 6.45 TT so about $300 US for 1 Gigabit Fibre Internet where I live. And nobody needs that speed but we have like thousands of miles of submarine fibre optic lines running on the ocean bed from the Caribbean to Miami.

Lets see we pay $29 US A month for 25Mbps Fibre to the Home broadband which includes 30 Cable TV Channels not sure if the rates are like this in the us for FTTH.

 

Where do you live?

 

Damn. I pay $2,500 a month for a 1 bedroom apartment (not even a fancy one). That's about 3-4x higher than similar back in Oregon or even Seattle. LocalPosition, localposition, localposition I guess.

 

Trinidad and Tobago it says it in the link I posted lol

https://discoverflow.co/trinidad/internet/broadband-rates-packages

$300 US a month for Gigabit FTTH broadband here, how much is it in the US? We also pay $29 US a month for 25Mbps FTTH with 30 Cable channels. But I don't bother to pay as I just use my brother's WIFI but if ever I had to pay I would just split the bill with him so it would cost me $14 a month.

Because of our culture we tend to split many things, buy food in bulk cheaply and split it, split internet bills etc. Its really different from the North American and European countries. We also don't pay taxes under a salary of $1000 US a month and we don't pay property taxes and water is unlimited most parts here, all medical visits are free, medication is free, dental surgery is free, if you have a school pass then you use the bus for free also, but I heard that in Europe or America if a kid reaches 18 years his or her parents forces them out of the house to go and pay rent somewhere. I can't believe something like that is true?

My guess is that we are oil and gas rich. Trinidad is the 3rd richest country per capita in the western hemisphere after USA and Canada according to the World Bank

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Trinidad_and_Tobago

So maybe that also explains why cost of living is so super cheap here. But then again India is very poor and their cost of living is much cheaper than us. In India you can survive on like $50 US a month just fine.

 

seriously? Why so high?

$1000 US here will buy you a house easily on loan or if you want to rent, well $800 pays for an entire house with all utilities paid for 5 bedrooms etc with cable tv, internet, air conditioning, swimming pool you name it. But what most people tend to do is just build houses on government land, because of the squatters right act, people are entitled to free land. And we are not the only country, have you heard of those Gulf states? some OPEC countries? over there in the Gulf, free broadband internet is a human right and stuff.

So I guess it really all depends on where you live. I have heard stories that in the US you have to pay for everything, things like paying money to cross a bridge a toll I think its called or something. I also understand you need health insurance in the US also. Nothing like here where all surgery is free including dental.

 

I make around $US50 a month from my YouTube channel. Its a real casual thing. Put in some hard work and you could easily make the channel cover your cost of living. You can do the same thing with casual free lance jobs, web portals or iOS games. The threshold you have set is really, really low.

The article says in the Americas. Beating out South and Central America really isn't that big of a deal. By this article you are bottom of the top.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita

Its often the other way around. Kids choose to leave in order to establish some independence from their parents.

But you do raise an interesting point. Much of the cost of living difference relates to the differences in cultures and living standards. If you were to raise the living standard and cultural expectations up to the level others are used to, I would imagine the differences in costs would be less pronounced.

 

Yeah I suppose another reduction in cost of living here is that you can do even an Engineering or Medical Degree for free

Tuition for BSc Degrees i free here but if you are going down the path of private British degree like me you have to pay the exam fees in pounds which is costly. But if its local University its free, too bad I didn't have the A scores in A levels to do a CS Degree in University of the West Indies.

Here
http://www.e-gate.gov.tt/gate-app/faq.htm
GATE Program where you can do any degree even a Medical Degree for practically free. I guess all of this contributes to the whole cost of living with the additional bonus of the Island being quite small. Meaning no matter where you are employed its relatively quick and easy to go to any point hence building house in more rural areas means no property tax and free water.

But you guys make a good point, I am going to aim for a quality game to make much more money rather than aiming for $50 in a month or $300 a year.

 

SoCal.

 

Ha! Tell that to my son who is well over 18 and living at home. lol Honestly, most parents don't force their kids out but most kids are ready to leave after high school and/or college.

 

Surely that depends more on the family than the country?

Personally I wanted to move out because I saw it as an opportunity to grow and gain experience.

 

Yup, the heart of Silicon Valley. The rent and house prices are ridiculous, the other expenses aren't so bad (comparatively)

 

Because it is different country. They pay more and everything cost more. Living cost go hand in hand with wages. When everbody earns 10x times more, then everything costs 10x times more.

By the way, is $120 per month a "living" or a "survival"? Just curious.

I don't live there, but judging by the info, moving out is more or less a cultural tradition. You're a "success" if you move out and get your own house or apartment.

 

I got ya!

$120 a month is a living so long as you are not renting, few people here rent because they live with their parents well over the age of 18 lots of folks are no longer having kids or interested in kids so they spend a lot of their money on their vehicle, night clubs and video games etc. Offcourse nobody actually works for $120 a month the average person here makes $650 USD a month, you can make up to 5000 USD a month but you would need to hold a senior position in Engineering or have to have a medical degree.

I live in the country side classed as farming area we own 5 Acres of land with Coconuts and Citrus. So under agriculture classification yeah $120 a month is a living and you can save the rest int the bank if you want. When I worked American Airlines a few years ago because I only worked a few hours a week my salary was actually $130 a month. But because I went to work on a Bicycle the $130 was a good living believe it or not, my other co workers? nah not so much since they preferred to take a taxi. But regardless a comfortable living here can range from $120 to $300 depending on if you own a vehicle, travel or cycle. This even includes buying Subway and KFC they have these $3 special now because of local fast food competition.

Here this was from Yesterday, Carnival has just ended here. This is another one of those things people waste money on, costumes for carnival

 

Depending on what you do - if you submit yet another pong game, $50 is the stars already. But if you make a somewhat unique game, that among other things is fun to play and if you do your homework in terms of marketing on top of that, well then $50 is nothing.

 

Well I think part of the difference may just be in the culture. Over here in the USA everything is money oriented. Truly basically everything is about money, money and money. For example, most of the people I have worked with in IT over the years had houses that ranged in price from $160k to $350k. And that is here in Missouri which is not nearly as high as places such as NYC, California and so forth. On the other hand, I paid $80k for my 4-bedroom house.

The reason simply being I don't need a $300k house or even a $120k house. The house I have is fine. It doesn't have the latest & greatest this and that except for those bits I upgraded (such as putting in central heat & air). But at the end of the day I've always looked at it like a house is a house. This one is currently appraised for $110k which for the specific area I live in is a bit on the high side. I live in a small town (population about 4,000). Now, I could certainly have bought a house that cost a quarter of a million dollars. But my thought was always... why? I don't need the latest and greatest. I don't live "high and mighty". In fact, most folks are shocked when they find out my job and status (clearance and so forth) because I very much appear like the guy who is working the night shift at a factory (which I have done before).

So, it is basically there are a lot of options over here. You can spend as little or as much as you want to spend. When colleagues take vacations they stay in Sheratons and other such places in suites. The few times I have taken a vacation I stay in a Super 8 or local budget family place. Give me a bed and a shower and I am content. So really yeah it just depends on what you want. If you want bright & shiny and so forth you can certainly find it available and spend to get it over here. If you want to live humbly you can also do that.

EDIT: Oh I forgot to mention this mindset goes beyond personal income into credit. Over here everyone is continually bombarded to spend more money than they even have. You do this by taking out loans and / or getting credit cards.

Truly every week for years I received "You've been approved for a credit card and line up to" $25k, $50k and even $100k or more for some platinum cards. They all went straight into the trash can. But still this stuff is just common.

And this mindset carries over to your personal credit rating. Having a good credit rating over here seems to be a big deal. I've always questioned this thinking "why is the ability to get into debt such a big deal to people over here?" If you are investing in a business or buying a house on a loan things like that then yeah it can be a big deal.

Unfortunately, a lot of folks over here literally live beyond their means actually relying on credit cards to live from month to month. I actually got a credit card a few years back just because it gave me cash back bonuses. I use it constantly (I mean use it for the bulk of my purchases) and pay it off in full each week so I never lose money and instead I see it as a discount card.

But anyway, I think all of this will show you how the American "world" works.

 

^Ha yeah I guess same thing with me I am pretty comfortable with my current house its an old design but everything is intact, it was refurbished a few years ago has nice Aluminum glass windows so it always looks clean as aluminum can't rust. Our houses here is also made from concrete so they can probably last hundreds of years who knows.

This pic is a house here of a typical middle class family, as you can see its certainly different from American houses and often if people have kids they just give them the entire downstairs as the houses are built in such a way with stairs outside rather than inside the house unlike American houses. So it can essentially turn into an apartment system. And as you can see its completely concrete. If you look to the left you see an outside staircase leading to the upstairs. I noticed in the US the stairs are built inside the house.

 

Where do you live that $150 can pay for a whole month?
It costs $1500 a month to rent a cheap ass apartment thats not including food, electricity, etc. You could easily make enough money just selling stuff on the asset store a few hundred bucks a month

 

Trinidad and yes $150 is quite a lot here when you convert that money. $150 US = $1000 TT yeah thats a good bit of money here where everything is practically free and you don't pay tax. (This is assuming you own your own house)

BTW I have been thinking about the Unity Asset Store, would you say the Unity Asset Store is a realistic way of earning $300 US a month? selling scripts, 3D models and environments etc?

 

yeah for sure

 

Yeah, and it gets worse the higher income bracket you are in. The pressure to have that fine house and fancy car really gets bad. Our neighbors were so happy when we traded in our 12 year old cars for new ones. lol

We use our extra money for traveling, which we all enjoy. Not everyone here is into money, but it all depends on your social circle I guess. Ours is pretty diverse.