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How much money do you earn from your games?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by KaOzz, Oct 2, 2014.

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  1. elmar1028

    elmar1028

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    This might seem small for experienced indie devs, but here it is:

    My newest game, Stick and Circles (link in sig) was one of my first games that I have invested money and time into polishing to the max!
    Money spent: between $100 and $200 (maybe more)
    Money earned: $1.91
    Downloads: 143 (installs)
    Release date: August 31
    Markets: Google Play, Amazon

    I got a huge way to go, but I feel I don't want to make another mobile game any time soon.
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2015
  2. paradyze

    paradyze

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    Hello i decided to upload a school project into the store and implement ads on it, well i got 7.30$ in about 2 months. As i said it was school project and was made 2 years ago i did not put to much effort into it. It has 320 downloads but is increasing and im planning a big update on it, as i now know alot more and develope games as professional for a company now. But i truly believe that we can be successfully as independent developers we just need some luck and patience.

    Link:

    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Vitor.PathOfIchigo

    Cheers
     
  3. Master-Frog

    Master-Frog

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    $0 from my games.
    $140 for doing stuff for other people's games.
    $40 invested in tools.
    ------------------------------------
    $100 made from making games so far.

    I don't have any plans to monetize until I get really good. I feel obligated to create several more games for free before I try to sell one. I think of it as "paying my dues".
     
  4. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    I wish more people had this mindset. It is mind-blowing the number of people coming into this and trying to make money from their first games. Good luck man!

    Heck I am still paying my dues some 30 years after I started. But that is because it has always been a hobby for me. I am ramping up more though looking at a time when I will tackle a bigger game and try my hand at making money. My goal for my first monetized game will be to simply recoup the money I invest into art and so forth.

    Not at that point yet though. I spent $170 for contracted art for my Halloween game (and did about 1/3 of the in-game graphics and of course the quick n easy title screen myself). It was only released to my website. And will be an ever growing game worked on at Halloween each year. At some point a year or three from now it will be something worth releasing on a real marketplace.

    So far I have spent $300 for outsourced graphics work for my Christmas game. Screenshot of current state is my Avatar. I may spend $750 or more for it in full and that will be another game released entirely for free. But again I am investing paying it forward. The idea is my Christmas game next year or the year after will be something worth selling. Basically each year I will invest more $ into it and about 6 more weeks of my time.
     
    Last edited: Nov 28, 2015
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  5. Rajmahal

    Rajmahal

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    Demon's Rise made around $5000 in the first month of release on the iOS app store and makes between $10 to $35 per day now. Seems to have flat lined here. Haven't ported it yet to any other platforms. Just trying to work out bugs and add some polish before putting it on other stores
     
  6. Deleted User

    Deleted User

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    Heres the stats for my first game, Deflect!, after a month (Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.DigiJAM.Deflect)

    Investment: $25
    Money earned: $1.68 (Not able to withdraw because AdMob has a $100 threshold)
    Downloads: 132
    Release date: November 31
    Markets: Google Play

    Right now im trying to grow my user base so when i get to my next game there will already be some players, so not really expecting much money from here. Quite happy with it though since its my first completed and published game.
     
  7. Master-Frog

    Master-Frog

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    Maybe we should take this a step further and show budget and total sales.
     
  8. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    I absolutely see where you're coming from. I just thought it was matching tone (which we often do subconsciously) with the OP, though, who asked:

    To be honest, to me the thread's question doesn't seem to be asking enough. Income figures alone don't paint the whole picture. Some of the answers here clearly understand that and have gone the extra mile to give us meaningful information.
     
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  9. Master-Frog

    Master-Frog

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    You can spend $1000 to make $500. Try it, it's easy.
     
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  10. elmar1028

    elmar1028

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    Looks dodgy. But A for smooth advertising ;)
     
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  11. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    When I see that page I read it as "please enter your facebook credentials into this form so I can steal them. Thank you and have a nice day!"
     
  12. Rasly233

    Rasly233

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    And same as asking a guy about his length, even if he tells you it will probably be a lie.
     
  13. jpthek9

    jpthek9

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    I hear you brotha. Stopped buying stuff on the asset store except for parts and quick and dirty solutions after wasting my first $500. To this day, the only thing I use is EasyTouch and a handful of other specialized assets.

    Btw I've made $-99 on my games but it was worth it (-99 for the apple dev license). Taught me to stay away from marketing and releasing games unless I know what I'm doing (which I don't).
     
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  14. Murgilod

    Murgilod

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    Including the cost of assets I've bought and general operating costs, $-80,000,000.
     
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  15. Master-Frog

    Master-Frog

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    There was an actual scientific study done on this subject, out of England as I recall. The actual average was 2 inches shorter than the average length that has been compiled from surveys for years. And there was no correlation between foot size, race, height, etc... shocking, right?

    Good comparison, haha.
     
  16. goat

    goat

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    LMAO, it's like when I was in my 30s and suddenly every man on the planet suddenly had bigger shoe sizes than me after my years of embarrassment of having feet and hat size bigger than average. It's like look at me - my pants are 10 sizes too big and my shoes too. And the gals started dressing in clothes so tight like they are cans of pop-and-fresh dough. Ugh!
     
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  17. Deleted User

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    2 years....update on earlier post I created....same game, started working on other things..(I just got tired of it..)...I never expected too much..I just wanted to publish to android, with leader boards, localization, and ads.

    Still.... I call this a test project, that sucked up way too much time..

    60 - 80 bucks a month...better than nothing..but I did have a 60 dollar day!! (what happened??)



    There is a lesson..somewhere in this..I just , have not learned it yet...;-]


    p-
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 22, 2016
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  18. goat

    goat

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    Very cool, more instructive to me than the original OP question of how much did you make. More instructive still would be your total number of installs would be how many visits per month to your game listings, how many installed, and what that percent is? Also, how much, if anything, did you spend on advertising? Although, when the time comes I've pretty much decided against advertising, it'd be interesting to see if a small amount of advertising dollars was worth the expense to you?
     
  19. Deleted User

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    here's the thing...I uploaded the game, created a video...mentioned it here (WIP) once...after that...updated it a couple times, answered some comments....other than that, nothing.I never treated it as a real product.....it is a little embarrassing to admit...I really need to understand capitalizing on this medium.....mo better.
     
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  20. goat

    goat

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    I thought that might be the case. It must be a good game. How many visits per month? At peak and at trough? And how many installed of those visits? It says it's free though (Ace WWII Dogfighter)? I will try it.
     
  21. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    Averaging $70 per month one lesson would be just repeat this 118 more times and you should be earning $100k per year. You've found a base. A starting number. And odds are that if you set out to make & release 118 more games you will find one of them ends up making much more maybe $700 per month on its own. :)
     
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  22. Aiursrage2k

    Aiursrage2k

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    You just need 1 killer app but it might take 118 apps to get there
     
  23. echologin

    echologin

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  24. dogmachris

    dogmachris

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    Rule of thumb: 1% of all games make 99% of all revenue and vice versa.
     
  25. dogmachris

    dogmachris

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    Supercell would say: Oooh, isn't that cute?
     
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  26. SniperEvan

    SniperEvan

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    I feel your pain.
     
  27. imaginaryhuman

    imaginaryhuman

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    I've pretty much quit trying to make games any more. I pursued the Unity `dream` for 5-6 years following on from previous platforms and it has led to nothing, for me anyway. I recently tried my best best effort and made a chunk of progress but this simply revealed even more blankly that its not what I want to do. Sometimes you maybe don't find that out until you really give it a good effort and kind of put everything into it. I kept trying to prove to myself that it was the right thing to do but really it just kept proving back to me that it's not what I'm cut out for. It's kind of like something I learned to do and can sort of do semi-well and yet it isn't where I belong. Probably some other people are like this too. We all want to get on the gravy train and ride the wave of success and all that. There are other things in life. For me I always gravitated toward the artistic appearance of whatever I did as if I was trying to use game development to access the art, instead of going straight to the art. So now that's what I'm doing, no more `dream development` acting as a middle-man. Obviously this isn't how it goes for a lot of people, some people seem to love making games. For me it makes me too much stuck in my head and ignore where my heart is going.

    Outlay: Over $500 in assets and tools. Return, $0. Experience gaining from realizing that failure is the gateway to success elsewhere, priceless.
     
  28. Master-Frog

    Master-Frog

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    Aha! This makes total sense.
     
  29. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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  30. Olly

    Olly

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    I got lucky in 2013 with Universe Pandemic (Which was the first game I ever made). In it's peak it was around $3000-4000 a day.
    I made Universe Pandemic 2 and launched it recently (Late 2015), 2000 downloads this Sunday but with well, not much profit :p - but there's still time.
     
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  31. dogzerx2

    dogzerx2

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    What? You're behind that game? I loved that game!

    Also Pandemic 2 is out? I'm going to check it out!
     
  32. ammar89

    ammar89

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    And her age lol
     
  33. ammar89

    ammar89

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    And her age lol
     
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  35. shashwatanand

    shashwatanand

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    As I think yes It largely depends upon the number of downloads and the Active users of your game and a good marketing strategy
     
  36. AndrewGrayGames

    AndrewGrayGames

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    Yeah, good luck!

    For my part, I've been busy with keeping a family member healthy this year. I can't wait to get back to working on games as a hobby again. Every time I start one, the family member in question gets sick. Were I superstitious, I'd think the universe is telling me to GTFO making games.

    Fortunately, I'm not superstitious, I'm stubborn. And, 2016 can't end soon enough.
     
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  37. foxache

    foxache

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    Interesting thread. I don't think it's rude to ask. It would be in person, but just putting it out there in a forum is fine. You haven't put anyone on the spot.

    I'm here because I'm interested myself. I made AAA games for 15 years before going indie. As far as I can tell, no one can accurately predict sales. There's things you can do to improve chances but there's no guarantees ever.

    Another thing is that anyone with investors, publishers etc. isn't usually able to reveal their profits. It's sensitive information.

    Like I say, I landed here looking for some sort of reassurance that there was money being made. Unfortunately, the industry and market changes so quickly that trying to keep up with what's worked for others isn't really an option. Do your own thing. Be original. You could make a few dollars following trends, but to hit it big I think you need to be ahead of all that.

    I dunno... I guess we'll see when we release our game:


    https://madewith.unity.com/en/games/aaero
     
  38. MatheusRcDm

    MatheusRcDm

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    Just saw your game "Pandemic Universe 2" on Google Play: 50.000 - 100.000 Dowloads !!
    Wow !!
     
  39. Farelle

    Farelle

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    3 Dollars :D (spontaneous donation from a friend for one of my games lol)
     
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  40. Tusk_

    Tusk_

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    But to be fair lets use me as an example of a consumer. I clicked the link and I saw the game and even though it is free it doesn't interest me. To me it looks like a typical mobile game that I don't like.

    If I saw something like say a Mario game or some platformer shooter I would be much more tempted to download it.

    I have never seen a true modern mario clone the ones in 2.5D I have never seen this except on Nintendo. Even if it uses different graphics and sound as I know you can't copy mario without getting sued but my point is I never seen a game like this that tries to emulate "New super mario bros"

    I have a little sister half sister that is, and I noticed something while she scrolls through the app store she changes from 1 game to the next quickly.

    I then show her a video on youtube of super mario bros and she immediately asked me how to get it she even got her father to buy a Wii just to play it. And it had nothing to do with the fact that it was indeed a nintendo exclusive it could have been literally anything else with similar music, art and gameplay and she would have been all over it.

    I don't think you can compare a tap game on mobile to a full platformer on Steam that tries to emulate something like Metroid or Mario

    All those games I have seen that has tried to emulate Metroid etc has been a huge success on Steam. Well atleast Gamespy says they have like 100,000 owners that is who knows what the profit actually is
     
  41. Tusk_

    Tusk_

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    Incredible!!!

    That is $3500 after the steam cut?

    Where I live I only need around $170 a month to survive on.

    If I made $2000 in the first year of a game release it would be considered a financial success.
     
  42. peterk1968

    peterk1968

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    Hopefully, some encouragement for the original poster:

    I got laid off by my employer 2 years ago (they shut down the entire office). I was in my late 40s and was increasingly unimpressed with how unstable working at large engineering firms had become. I decided to use the severance pay to support me while I tried to make a living off of game/app programming.

    Taught myself Unity starting from zero and C# starting from a strong Java base using my first product as the learning project:

    Time to working prototype - 3 months.
    Pitch to intellectual property owners successful.
    Time to market - 5 more months

    After slightly less than 1 year in the stores, the results of my first app are:
    Sales: ~10000 units
    Revenue: ~50K $ (split 3 ways - Me / Apple + Google / IP Holders)
    Expenses: ~2K

    Not that great, but not that bad either as a foundation. :)

    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/baseball-highlights-2045/id1003138996?mt=8
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.PeterKossits.BBall2045&hl=en
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2017
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  43. GarBenjamin

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    You will almost certainly be doing this for a living if it is what you really want to do. Averaging $200 per month is a very reasonable expectation.

    Just make a very good and very small scope game. Release it and spread the word about it everywhere you can. Then reuse as much or the codebase, graphics and audio assets as you can to make a second game (perhaps a direct sequel or simply another story in the same game universe) and do the same.

    Just don't get caught up in the trap of laboring for many long months or even years on making your first game.
     
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  44. Tusk_

    Tusk_

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    Thanks for the motivation dude, and yeah I guess sometimes we forget to mention where we come from, most people will tell you earning a living making games these days is largely hopeless but they are thinking maybe you live in NA or EU where cost of living is high.

    In stark contrast my cost of living is under $200 USD a month where I live. And I won't create a tappy click app if I created a game it would legit be fun and I would try my best to make it in such a way to be talked about. Like for example making a metroid clone the closest is Axiom Verge, because it was created so much like super metroid it was talked about in all game sites etc.

    I wouldn't bother creating a boring game with no real direction what would be the point it wouldn't get a single download.
     
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  45. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    Yeah where you live (cost of living) makes a HUGE difference in how difficult & realistic it is to make a full-time living from game dev.

    Oh yeah still make a good game. Just the longer it takes the more likely it will never be finished and can get caught up in trying to perfect every single thing, etc.

    Also I mean for your first game you intend to sell. Certainly you should make at least one or two tiny games before that which you either never release or release for free on web game portals.

    Reason being you will learn so much. If you tackle your first game intended for release out of the gate many weeks or months down the road you will look back at the stuff you did in the beginning and likely end up tearing it all out and redoing it because it now looks bad or otherwise seems poorly implemented to you.

    But if you just focus on a tiny game you'll get the same basic learning benefits and have something completed. Do that a couple of times and then you will be much better prepared for tackling your first for sale game. And heck you can certainly make tiny games that share some of the same stuff your "real" game will need. That is actually the smart way to do it. Think of the tiny games as test runs trying out ideas.

    Also keep in mind Axiom Verge is a huge project for one person. He spent 6+ years making that game as I recall.
     
    Last edited: Jan 16, 2017
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  46. Rachzella

    Rachzella

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    At this point (with 1 app) I earned in the first 7days 13,45 USD hopefully it will been more soon so I can buy more assets at the store
     
  47. CarterG81

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    edit: Didnt realize the OP was from 2014.

    I think comparing it to asking about women's weight is accurate.

    NOT that it is rude. Because it isn't always rude to ask a woman her weight.

    Both are the same in that asking is only rude if the person is embarassed to answer.

    You don't ask fat people how much they weigh, and you don't ask unsuccessful how much they make.

    However if you ask someone who is proud of their weight maintenance, they will gleefully answer. A woman who used to weigh 300lbs but now weighs 100lbs will answer proudly, "I weigh 100lbs! Hell yea! :)"

    Just the same, I believe if more people were more successful, especially after being unsuccessful, we would see more transparency.

    Either way, I find it absurd that asking this of anyone is considered rude. In fact, science teaches us that it negatively affects one another to NOT tell your peers your salary.

    The reality is that when peers become transparent with their salary, breaking this neanderthal cultural norm birthed from your grandparent's awful generation, then people learn what they SHOULD be making.

    In fact, bad employers use this to harm their employees. It allows them to pay some employees, especially women, less. I wouldn't be surprised if this cultural norm was birthed from bad employers convincing people it was "rude" to talk money.

    I remember reading a scientific study which showed better equality and satisfaction in the work place when employees were transparent with their pay. You know when someone is getting screwed, so the employer has to be more fair (or lose the employee). The alternative is you find out later, or hear office rumors, creating discontent & bitterness between peers/employer.

    On a positive note? Millenials dont share this cultural norm. They talk salary openly & dont see it as rude. They benefit for this. Grandpa's archaic culture of harmful practices once again fall to the wayside, bettering society.

    Anyway, I'm with the philosophy that it is indeed like weightloss and successful or proud (self-confident) people, like GiGi, are more likely to share their secrets. Anecdotal, but he is very self-confident and was the first in the thread to share. Backs up my theory well.

    So your answers will be few, bc most who post here are novices yet to release their first, or make too little to brag about it. Of course that doesnt mean millionaires will share- they may not even if they want to because they feel it embarasses everyone else or endangers them in some small way. (typical reasons ppl dont go around bragging theyre rich). I think insecurity goes a long way to encouraging the culture of "It's rude to talk money"
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2017
  48. carking1996

    carking1996

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    To answer the thread, around $110k+ doing client work.
     
  49. CarterG81

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    I always found this to be really interesting.

    Some of the most successful games around have no clones, or only have clones which are far worse than what they attempt to iterate from.

    Platformers are a great example. Super Mario Bros. MegaMan X. But there's also games like Starflight which have mever even seen a clone, let alone an iteration. Games like Ultima Online which only get iterations based on the least popular mechanic that actually destroyed the game's success (FFA Full Loot).

    These games are beloved, high quality, and very successful. Yet they have no/few knockoffs. Of the knockoffs or "inspired by" they pale in comparison. The few breakout successses are usually original works (ex. Fez, Braid) which have nothing to do with mario (dont play like it at all).

    Even Klei's Don't Starve, an extremely successful title with sales numbers which rivals that of Valve games, saw absolutely nothing similar until Crashlands was released a bit ago. And although they werent as successful, they were still very successful. Contrast this with the infinity of Minecraft clones in the works. Speaking of Valve, no one seems to want to clone Left4Dead or Portal. Only TF2 seems to get that honor.

    In fact this just goes with all Nintendo. You don't see many attempts to knockoff their popular titles. There are a few "Mario Party" knockoffs, "Mario Kart" but nothing like Zelda or New Super Mario Bros (unless also nintendo).

    But maybe this is about popularity. There's no short of WoW clones by AAA's in the last decade. Voxel games galore. TF2 similars. All the most successful titles get their clones. But there still lie so many very successful, but not omega successful, games which see nothing similar for years.
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2017
  50. Xaron

    Xaron

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    Finally my 9th game was kind of a break through. I only did mobile games so far. The last one made was released in December 2016 and made about $8k in December alone, followed by $4k in January and $3k in February.
     
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