The Harsh Reality of Indie Game Development: A Survival Guide

Let's have a real conversation about the most asked question in game development. This article won't sugarcoat anything, as numerous publications already sell the dream. Instead, this piece will explore what awaits you at the end of your journey if you manage to perform the miracle of finishing your game.

The Unspoken Aftermath

If you're lucky, you might break even or even make it big, with your game popping up on wish lists left and right. However, if you're average, you'll likely end up like the vast majority of indie game devs: several years later, in debt, with maybe a handful of copies sold and bills piling up. This is a common story for many developers. If you find yourself in this situation, here’s a look at a potential way out, offering a chance to fix things earlier.

The Disconnect Between Effort and Value

First, you must understand that there is no correlation between how difficult or how much time you spend on something and the customer's perceived value of it. If someone spends a decade making a subpar product and then insists it's worth five bucks because of the effort, the customer will likely refuse. Nobody is obligated to buy something just because it was difficult to create.

Second, video games represent one of the most challenging returns on investment of any commodity.

The Staggering Costs of Creation

Imagine a small team with two programmers and one 3D artist, sourcing all other assets like special effects, music, and sounds from a marketplace.

• Average Game Programmer Salary: ~$92,000/year
• Average 3D Modeler Salary: ~$77,000/year

Let's unrealistically assume the project takes only one year. Your starting labor cost is already approaching $261,000. This doesn't even account for software licensing (e.g., Substance Painter, Fruity Loops, ZBrush, Photoshop), food, or rent. You're beginning your journey with a significant financial deficit. A year later, assuming no setbacks, a small indie game might sell for five, maybe ten dollars per copy—a tiny fraction of its production cost. Even then, some players might complain about the price, comparing it to free-to-play titles. The disconnect between what you can charge and the cost of creation is ridiculous.

If you're making games for fun, this may not apply. But if you're trying to make money, you must be aware of these dynamics. For some, this realization comes too late, after the best years of their early 20s are gone, college is over, and professional experience is lacking. All there is to show for it is a game that isn't selling. It becomes clear that no miracle is coming—no big streamer will feature the game, no random sales spike will occur. The harsh reality is accepting that several years of life were spent for less than a month's rent.

After a monumental failure, a natural response for a 3D artist is to take some time off and create art. Character design can be a calming hobby, even if it's not a primary skill. While 3D modeling and browsing ArtStation for character assets, a realization can occur that changes one's entire perspective.

The Epiphany: Assets Are More Valuable Than the Game

While practicing making fantasy 3D characters, one might look for typical fantasy weapons: swords, shields, axes, bows, hammers, and other usual RPG gear. On an asset store, you might find a pack of 100 medieval swords for $12. For a 3D modeler, this is an incredible deal. The process of designing, planning, and modeling a single sword can easily take 2 to 4 hours, meaning the pack represents months of work. The value is clear.

Then, the epiphany hits: an entire game might sell for five bucks, yet this pack of swords costs more than double that. Just the swords—no textures, programming, music, UI, or sound. Literally just a collection of obj files. While the asset pack took significant effort, it likely didn't take as long as an entire game. This is the moment of realization: the assets used to create the game are, separately, worth more than the game itself.

A New Strategy: Sell the Parts, Not Just the Whole

This insight leads to a complete change in strategy. Instead of bundling everything into a final product, it's often much easier to sell the individual pieces of your game as you create them. For example, after finishing a small game, you could test this by separating the assets into small packs to generate extra revenue.

• The guns made for the game could become an Anime Sci-Fi Weapons Pack.
• The enemy weapons could be bundled as an Alien Weapons Pack.
• The enemy models could be sold as an Alien Enemy Army Pack.

Pricing can be set based on what other creators are charging online. The idea is simple: if these assets were useful for your game, they might be useful for someone else's project. Unsurprisingly, these separate asset packs can be far easier to sell and generate more revenue than the game ever would.

Therefore, the recommendation for those who want to create and survive financially is to sell the pieces of your game during development. This isn't a get-rich-quick scheme, but it is a way to potentially generate some income to stay afloat while your main project is still incomplete.

Not Just for Artists: A Programmer's Path

You don't have to be an artist to do this. Programmers can adopt this strategy too. If you create a useful piece of code, like a script that displays an enemy's health bar, many developers would gladly pay ten bucks to quickly integrate it into their game.

A great real-world example is purchasing an aiming system that calculates how to hit a moving target. For someone who isn't a math expert, figuring out that formula and code is a massive hurdle. But when a developer on the Unity Asset Store sells it for fifteen bucks, it's an easy purchase. That small investment can become the core of a game's entire weapon system. Without that code being available on the marketplace, certain gameplay features, like an AI hitting a moving target, would be impossible for some developers to implement.

This applies across various disciplines:

• Environment Artist: Finished a beach level? Create a beach pack with sand textures, palm tree models, rocks, and water materials.
• Sound Designer: Created gun sounds for an alien army? Release an Alien Army Sound Pack.
• Programmer: Wrote code for a radar showing enemy positions? Sell the radar code as a standalone asset.

Whatever you create—be it environment art, characters, special effects, sound effects, or code—if it's good enough for your project, it might be good enough for someone else's. If an asset you post on a store doesn't sell well, it's not the end of the world. You can always revisit and improve it later. The key is to think small, organize the assets you were already planning to make, and optimize them to a quality where you would consider buying them yourself, knowing the time it would save.

A Personal Case Study: Ornamental Curves

Here is a real example to conclude this article. One of the most tedious tasks for a 3D modeler can be creating ornamental curves for armor. It's a common feature on many characters, but designing and fitting them quickly is a pain. After purchasing and trying numerous ornamental curve brush packs from various stores, none seemed to fit the exact need, often leading back to the same few classic designs. So, after taking a few days to create a pack of ornamental curves tailored for classic medieval fantasy designs, it was released. To this day, that ornamental curve brush pack remains more consistently popular on asset stores than any full game ever was.

To prove the point, here is a breakdown of top-selling assets from a recent month:

• Belt Curves
• Anime Hair Curves
• Ornamental Brush Curves

This might not be what a developer expects to be their primary source of income, but it reflects how the market works. When you bundle all these assets into a game, it might be valued at five bucks. When you unbundle them and sell each item separately, they can be worth $20 to $30 apiece.

As stated, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme; it's a practical way to earn extra income that can help pay off student loans or cover development costs. Whatever you do, create your best work, clean it up, optimize it, and make it available for other developers who might need it. Good luck out there, and remember you're not alone on this journey.