Ask HN: What makes indie game development so brutal? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What makes indie game development so brutal?

I have always wanted to make some games as a solo developer, but every time I evaluate the idea I simply can't justify it (financially).

This past week I tracked a number of solo developers and recorded the time it took for them to get to market and their profits and it's pretty abysmal.

I always thought the SaaS world was brutal (which is where I make my money as a solo founder), but the game market seems far worse. Is this a tainted view or the general consensus?

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My research led me to believe there are a few factors that make the indie gamedev world particularly brutal. I'd love to get people's opinions on them.

1. The stores (Steam, Google, Apple) take a large cut of profits (~30%).

2. Taxes take another large chunk of the profits.

3. Tooling, like Unity (Unity Pro, etc) can take a chunk of the profits.

4. Price sensitivity of gamers is a problem. Most wish-list a game and wait for a sale (so your $9 game is actually worth like $4, before #1-#3 are factored in).

5. Gamers/collectors heavily buy into one market (Steam, Switch Store, etc). It doesn't seem like publishing yourself is much of an option. Itch is an option, but very little profit gets reported from what I have seen in my research.

Making a game is a ton of work, especially on your own. Making a game that is marketable and people enjoy playing is even harder. Making it beat out everyone else in the market is even harder than that, and making it something that people talk about, share and respond well to marketing is boss mode.

The amount of time and effort it requires paired with the very high chance you never make that back monetarily is a large reason why.

I think the indie games world, particularly amongst solo developers tends to attract a lot of idealists without a lot of experience. So you tend to get a lot of products made that don’t take a lot, if any time to work out if it’s something people want and don’t allocate time to telling them about it. Then a lot of games get made as developers first projects which is a terrible point to be learning how to do it. That so many make it to release and a few hit big hides a pile of corpses left behind on the road.

Games as projects are also more complex and more mass market so harder to make and market in comparison to small SaaS businesses. At least in my poor knowledge of the latter.

Indie game devs are extremely passionate about their work and art. They don't really think about the financials or how many man-hours they're investing into their project since they're doing it out of passion and love for their vision and game.

They're like artists and it's best to think of them like this. And artists can be idealistic and stubborn about their work and vision.

Marketing, finance, target audience, time investment, scope of work— These are after thoughts to indie devs.

I think that's a romanticized view of gamedev. Yes-- making games is a form of art (like any form of development, really).

A majority of indie game developers do want to make money. It may not be their primary driver, but the drive is there.

I think the main factor while it is more difficult than SaaS is that a lot of people want to do it regardless of financial sense. It is a passion project.

It is like one of those jobs that so many people want to do out of passion (fashion, brand advertisement), or identity, that the pay becomes much lower.

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