So my careers advisor and I had an interesting discussion today. With the majority of my academics and hobbies being computer related, and having a keen interest in games development, she brought up the subject of going self-employed as a games designer.
From what I gather, going self-employed with in any business area is a tough nut to crack, so I imagine doing so with Byond will be more difficult still. The only source of income from an original Byond game would be donations and subscriptions.
So I guess I'd like to hear some opionions on how feasable this would be. Does anyone currently make a comfortable living from creating games here on Byond? What sort of start-up costs would you be looking at?
Discuss.
I think this is definitely feasible. It could take quite some time, and it would be a lot of work, but if you stick with it then it should work.
There are several ways to deal with this. If you release one game, don't stop there, by all means keep perfecting it but as soon as it's far enough along then start work on another project, rinse, repeat, and keep this up; that way if one project starts to lower in profits another can fill its place. You can also make sure it's a lot of simple, and/or small games to make that easier and it is possible to just package them together as well to increase appeal. That's somewhat feasible with BYOND's subscription system, and there's also the subscription improvements they might do which would allow for in-game currency. If they do that, it could help. I know you're pretty familiar with web-based programming as well, and there is plenty of room to use that. Connecting games into websites and making the two run together could make for some really interesting results. Honestly, with the additions of the Flash Client and Standalone client this is becoming easier and easier to do; you just have to find the motivation to do it and the determination to stick with it. I think about this sort of thing on a weekly, and sometimes even daily basis. I have so much written down in documents, and noted in my mind that you would think I'd have headaches from trying to keep up with it all. So, it's definitely something I support and could talk about for hours. I'm just trying to keep it kind of brief here to get to the point quicker, and because a lot of what I have in mind is personal or not ready to be viewed by the public. I'm not counting on it the way you might until I see if I can make it happen, but I'm honestly hoping to be able to make a living off being a independent game designer and doing Most of my work with BYOND. It's one of those things I've thought through enough to know what to do if it doesn't come through, but if it does then I'm all in. There's no telling where BYOND would be, or could go if there were more developers trying to go this route with it, too. The only major downside is how time consuming it can be to try to succeed, heh, but that's likely the case with most things. | |
A certain BYOND game, used to make 3000$ a month, for 6 months in a row, until FUNimation came to BYOND, and wrecked the place.
BYOND isn't suitable for an actual living now unless you are good at advertising your game outside BYOND and have 2-3 popular games. | |
My careers advisor did not suggest this, she brought it up briefly in a discussion. That just got me curious as to the viability of this idea, I have no intentions of contacting HM Revenues and Customs to go self-employed as a Byond Game Developer.
And I've been to college and studied a computer-related field. | |
tl; dr version -> No. Finish a few small games in any programming language that allows widespread publishing (C++, any .NET, any JVM language or similar), and then reassess how you feel about game creation. If you're still good to go, sit down and do some serious thinking about the economical aspect.
I need to earn at least $3500 a month to just pay bills and eat and similar. Thats at least 700 recurring $5 subscriptions maintained, plus however many I'd need to cover server costs etc. Or 3500 $1 game sales per month. The indie game market is tough. Your best bet is to settle on a platform that allows very easy, widespread advertisement of your game - Such as the Xbox live marketplace, PS3 marketplace, Android marketplace or Steam. Consider that Steam currently has between 3.5 and 5 million online users, f.ex. This is completely ignoring the fact that starting any business is tough. I'm part of an IT startup and I love it, but its also the hardest thing I've tried. Ever. | |
Yeah, publishing a game outside of any system is probably the hardest thing to do. I'm currently still planning out a game that will very likely be designed in C++. I plan to handle publishing myself at present, though that is a harder task than anything really.
Hopefully, it will have a cross-platform release where it can be played on nearly any platform. However, that is still under planning. | |
I don't think you could necessarily make a living just making your own BYOND games.
I think the situation is similar to the one musicians face. You can't just start a band and make it big. That happens to a choice few - for the rest of the non-rockstar, working musicians out there, it's really about being able to do multiple jobs. Like teaching lessons, or building/repairing instruments, or having a recording studio. Playing gigs is just not as dependable. Of course you should still play gigs, or make indie games in this case. But have other ways to earn money. Pixel art and graphics in general is a great skill in that sense. In fact I know one byond member who has hired a pixel artist and pays them pretty well. My plan is basically to keep my day-job. I will try to sell my work but I won't be depending on it - it will be more like bonus income. If I start making enough to reduce my regular work hours then great, if not, oh well! | |
So in order to make any sort of decent money from this, it seems that creating BYOND games should be a sort of "side gig" where you would gain some spending money from the subscriptions of whatever games you run. And if you are lucky/good enough you could gain quite a lot (even initially) of money like NEStalgia did.
However it seems the best way would be to use sell your individual skills that are involved in Game Development (Programming, Pixel Art, Graphic Design etc.). As far as I've been able to tell from looking around, it seems there is a particularly high demand (Well, Paid opportunities at least) for Pixel Artists. I assume that outside BYOND, when multiple programming languages come into play, there is a higher demand for programmers? | |
Well, games development (as in, getting hired into a team) is never particularly good money, and unless it's an established house with a good publishing record, it's probably quite unstable work also. Just the nature of the industry really. But sure, it's livable.
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I feel like you're not really asking a specific question here. What you describe as the 'best way', is what I'd describe as... just working, in general. You have a skill set as a human, for which you're hired by a company to.. work. And they pay you for that.
Is programming a viable living? Sure. So is botany, jewelcrafting and being a butcher. Is there a 'best way' to get into game programming or game design? No, other than 'A lot of hard work and effort'. Your Mileage May Vary, depending on what you like as a person and how much money you need / the area you live in / what you can do as a person | |
What I meant was that the 'best way' to earn enough to go self-employed as a game developer is to not just create some games and sell subscriptions, but rather to utilize your skills in the area and look for people to hire you to work on their projects.
Like you said previously, a person can earn considerably more if they used a more popular platform. However with BYOND, the audience is nowhere near as large. In both cases, it would be best to sell your skills rather than rely on subscriptions/purchases of your game(s). | |
Well, there's not much capital floating around within BYOND from a hiring point of view either, so I don't think that's a particularly wise route if you wanted to earn a living off it.
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It's hit and miss regardless of what engine you're using. I would compare making a "BYOND-living" to getting into the NBA - sure, if you can do it, it's a dream come true, but the chances are stacked against you and you might wind up having wasted a lot of your time and money if you develop something that no one wants to play.
I wouldn't advise quitting your day job to develop BYOND games full-time if that's what you're asking. But I do believe that, if designed and executed well enough, you could make a decent amount of money with a BYOND game, it's just that the chances are quite slim of you actually being able to pull it off. | |
However, I think that BYOND would get a lot of players if simple games were advertised outside, whenever the standalone is finished, if there's a way to let them be playable outside, they could get a lot of players, and maybe donations. You should focus on making your game playable by those users.