In the game industry, many people may be familiar with the phrase "nine deaths and one life", which means that behind many games, the winners are often only one in ten.
With the advent of the stock era, developers face more intense competition. However, for more of your peers, perhaps a more effective way to understand what the successful people do is something different than to worry about their game's success.
Recently, industry analysts counted 44,000 game developer accounts on the Steam platform, categorized them according to the game revenue of these teams/individuals, and summarized the "secrets of success" for successful independent game developers for their peers.
Here's the full content of the GameLook compilation:
Only 10% of Steam game developers are able to earn more than $100,000 in revenue. This article mainly explores what the head developer has done that other developers have not done, including self-release, category focus, the number of games developed, and so on.
5 categories for indie developers
There are 44,000 developers on the Steam platform who have released games, the vast majority of which have only released one game, and fewer than 500 have released more than 10 games. Of these developers, there are only 1,622 with a total revenue of more than $1 million, but perhaps more important to know is what sets these top developers apart.
We can divide all developers into five categories based on their accumulated revenue on the Steam platform:
Newbies earning less than $1,000: This group of developers usually only releases one game and doesn't perform well.
Hobbyists who earn between $1,000-10,000: These developers sold more sets of games, but never performed very well.
Indie developers with revenues between $100,000 and $100,000: This is a core component of indie games, and they make some money from their own games, but are usually not working on games full-time.
Full-time developers with revenues of $100,000-$1 million: These indie developers earn enough income to support them to become full-time indie game developers.
Successful people with more than $1 million in revenue: These independent developers have successfully made a hit, they have a total income of more than $1 million, usually a team rather than a single developer, at this time, and then remove the Steam share, cost, tax, development time, etc., in fact, there are not so many, but this part of the developers have a good performance, they are a minority of the indie game community.
We've also removed hundreds of AAA and 2A developers, such as Ubisoft, Sega, and THQ Nordics. The result is that 1600 developers have more than $1 million in Steam revenue, and in order to give readers a clearer picture of the current situation of the unique developers of the Steam platform, we may wish to show it proportionally:
That's right, only 3% of indie developers earn more than $1 million, and that number still exceeds 1500, so let's take a look at what makes them different.
The head developer never gives up and continues to release the game
In terms of average game revenue, the income of successful people is much higher than the average revenue of the rest of the independent developers. This isn't surprising news, with successful indie game developers earning an average of more than $3 million per game on average.
More importantly, however, successful indie game developers have also developed (published) more game products.
Newbies and hobbyists usually only release 1-2 games on the Steam platform, and these games don't succeed anytime soon, so the vast majority of novice developers eventually choose to give up.
Successful indie game developers release an average of 4-5 games, and in fact many developers make far more games than that, and not all of their games are successful.
Reiza Studios, a Brazilian game development studio focused on real racing, released their first game, Formula Truck 2013, in 2013 and grossed less than $100,000. Since then, every game they've released has grossed more than the previous one, with Autombilista 2 released in 2020 earning millions of dollars.
Unfortunately, sometimes it goes in the opposite direction. There are also cases where game developers who initially released successful products have not been able to achieve the same success with new works. So what's the most critical lesson? You don't know which one will be a blockbuster, especially when marketing budgets are limited, and successful developers continue to work on the game to increase the odds of success.
Head developers are more likely to leave the distribution to someone else
Knowing what you're best at and then handing other work off to someone else seems to be one of the common lessons learned by top indie game developers.
The majority of small indie game developers choose to publish their own games (internal distribution accounts for 70-75%)
More successful indie developers seem to be in both self-publishing and finding publishers.
Of course, both publishing methods are feasible, and good indie game developers are more focused on game development and looking for publishers, and good games are more likely to attract the attention of publishers.
It is undeniable that the right good publisher can be of great help to indie game developers, especially when the indie developers have very limited marketing experience.
Top developers prefer specialization
There is a strong synergy in the development of similar categories of games.
Accumulate resources: Developers can use some elements of previous games, whether it's code or art, which can greatly simplify the future development process. If a game comes from a different category, or even a different style, then this approach is difficult to work, and it takes a lot of effort to go from third to first place.
Accumulate knowledge: Specialized studios only learn more details about specific categories, remember Malcom Gladwell's ten-thousand-hour rule?
Accumulating Relationships: Focusing on specific types of games allows you to build a support network in the space, from co-publishers to like-minded developers.
Accumulate fans: Your players know what they're experiencing, which is a big advantage. No matter what new games Paradox studios release, I know I'll love the macro strategy experience in these new games.
Top developers are well aware of these factors, and if we look at all the head indie game studios, we will find that they have strong characteristics and styles between their different games, from categories, art styles, to the use of cameras.
At the other extreme are novices and amateurs, who are still developing their own styles, exploring a lot of categories and genres before they can find the one that suits them best.
Top developers pick the right category
Some people say that the head independent game developers do 2D platform games, but in fact, they don't do this kind of game.
Head developers have found that Steam players like strategy, simulation, and perhaps sometimes FPS games, and we can see more top indie game developers focusing on these categories.
It's worth noting that these charts don't add up to 100%, because some developers publish games that cover multiple categories, and each percentage refers to the average percentage of a developer's game that belongs to a certain category.
Successful people prefer to do strategy and simulation games (50% of the games of these head companies belong to these categories, compared with only 36% of games for novices and amateurs in this category), and successful independent game developers are less likely to do casual games (17% compared to 38% of amateurs).
That's why it's important to do market research before you make a game, knowing in advance whether your niche is popular or not can make a big difference.
Head indie developers adapt to changing player preferences
If we look at popular categories and sub-categories, it is important to consider the current Steam head list. For example, the high-revenue games in March 2022, we can see that the action games are very successful, and 7 of the top ten indie games in the best-selling list have action elements, and many have also added co-op or multiplayer elements.
In addition to overall platform category preferences, recent trends also need to be taken into account.
It's important to know that this doesn't mean that top developers are always making games that they think are the next hot category, and specialization is still important, but they can adjust some elements of the game to meet player expectations.
summary
What can we learn from the head indie game developers in an analytical way?
There is no "magic formula" for becoming a successful game developer, but the trend is very clear. Like what:
Successful developers make a lot of games; successful developers look for publishers so they can focus on what they're good at; successful developers have their own areas of expertise; successful developers focus on the categories that perform better; and successful developers adapt to changing player preferences.
····· End ·····
GameLook Daily Game Industry Report
Global vision / depth is material