When I first got into game development, I really was wondering if it was something I could do. It seemed like there was so much to learn! After learning it, which seems to take months in its own right, you have many more months of development. It was different and was slow to see a return and there are so many other games being released daily.
So, is being an indie game developer worth it? Being an indie game developer is worth it for those that are passionate about the industry. A lot of learning has to take place to get into it and then following that are projects that may take years to complete before seeing a return.
How much money does an indie game developer make?
According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary is $79,943.00 per year. The median household income is $68,703 as of a few years ago according to the United States census. Therefore, it is safe to say that the average indie game developer makes an above-average income.
How many indie game developers are successful?
Success looks different for many people, but when it comes to why you likely found yourself at this article, you are wanting to know if game developers are generating an income that can sustain an average life.
It is possible and quite common for indie game developers to make a livable salary. The median income for games on Steam is $3,776.00. This is clearly not a livable wage, but we also know that 57% of games released on steam are less than $5.00 sale price. This tells me that they are smaller games, and likely have lower commercial value (Source).
If you take these games out of the equation and you release a game with commercial intent at a sales price that might assist a livable wage, you will have a far better chance of being within the top quartile of income on games which is $34,983. Again, not a great salary or reaching the median income of an indie game developer.
I highly recommend that you look at indie game development for the long term. We know that most video game sales occur early when the game is initially released. However, with some marketing and updates, you may find a project being downloaded for months and years later. This means that an indie game developer is making an investment that may last for quite some time past the release date or even the few months following.
How much education does an indie game developer need?
I recently polled a group of independent game developers about whether they had degrees or not. What I found is that 58% of independent game developers had some type of degree. However, only 40% had degrees that were related to the game development industry.
In my personal experience, and as someone who teaches game development as a career, you would think that I would highly recommend getting all the education you can find. I believe there are only certain types of people that can benefit from game development degrees.
1. It shows that you have the ability to learn and meet deadlines
This is an important skillset if you want to be in the field. Software is constantly changing, you have to have the ability to do the research to apply those new technologies.
Additionally, college has plenty of deadlines. Not only the classes, but meeting enrollment deadlines and simply getting in can be a major feat within itself. That being said, indie game developers who want to be successful commercially will establish deadlines and work to meet them on a regular basis.
2. It shows that you have some form of base knowledge about game development
There are a lot of students that walk through the doors that talk about game development. However, the vast majority know very little about operating the software, writing lines of code, or marketing a game. I think classrooms can help with this, but the best knowledge you will receive about these areas will be actually doing them. For this reason, I think these skills can be learned in or out of a classroom.
The benefit here in terms of a degree is that you at least know that the person applying for a game development position has at least some knowledge in these areas, hopefully.
There are many people who have entered into indie game development without a degree. It may help you land jobs at larger studios. Education backing a game developer will help open up further opportunities if you wish to work in a studio. It has no impact on those that want to own their own company.
Is being an indie game developer stressful?
The reason that indie game development can be stressful is because of the amount of competition in the market, the length of time it takes to develop a game, and placing strict deadlines on employees or yourself to ensure there is a profit on time.
With readily available tools such as Unity and Unreal Engine making game development more accessible than ever, there is no shortage of games being released. The number of games being released is continuing to increase (Source). We know based on the data of sales that the quality of those games, however, is quite low. Only 7% of games released on Steam have financial success that is capable of leading to a second project for studios.
From an indie game developer standpoint, this means that you have to work to stand out of the crowd. There is money to be made, but quite a bit of market research should be done through the development process to ensure it is financially viable.
In my class students have roughly 1500 hours between their teams to complete game development projects. The vast majority of their projects are shooting for 5 to 10 minutes of quality gameplay. The idea here is that you would have enough gameplay to approach a publisher if you wanted to (although our games are not commercially released).
You can see that building a full game would take significantly longer, and we are not at all worried about marketing our projects since they have no commercial intent. This would take additional time. You can see just how quickly a game project can turn into years if you are doing this by yourself. Keeping this time spent on projects down is important to get a return on your investment when looking at it from a commercial standpoint.
Ultimately, I feel as though with all of the uphill battles that game development has it, it is worth it if it’s something you really want to do with your life. It isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. You will spend quite a bit of time educating yourself or getting a degree that will teach you only half of what you need to know. However, the opportunity to be creative, tell stories, and doing something I am passionate about isn’t about the money. It’s about the journey.
