Make Money By Creating Video Games
Earning money by creating your video games is possible. You can use several sources of income. Precisely, I have already tested different methods, and it turns out that some are little known to developers.
Living from your
passion is a dream that many people covet. This is an entirely achievable wish.
I am proof of this since it has already been more than 12 years that this is
the case for me. I have created several independent video games that have
allowed me to make the most of the months of development spent on each project.
There are different
ways to monetize your creations and different approaches such as rights
transfers or different business models. But it will all depend on the
business objectives and the type of game you are developing.
Here
are 10 ways to make money from your indie video games:
1. The premium model
To summarize simply,
the Premium model is a marketing term that means that the purchased service is
then acquired “for life”. The player pays the displayed price only once to
obtain a game.
I invite you to read
the article: How to define the price of your independent video game?
Examples: The
Witness, Super Meat Boy, Reigns, etc.
2. In-App Purchases
Additional content is
purchasable within a game. This can be gameplay elements, cosmetics, a
subscription, "consumables" such as boosters, or
"non-consumables" type purchases such as level unlocks. A standard
generally utilized in Free to play.
Examples: Candy Crush
Saga boosters, Fortnite skins, or all loot boxes.
3. Additional content
(DLC)
Additional
downloadable content is also called DLC or Download Content. The principle is
to sell additional content to the basic game sold in Premium to improve the
duration of the gaming experience. Examples: characters, weapons, additional
stories, etc. When additional content is sold in a boxed version, it is called
a.
Examples: Liberty
City Stories from GTA IV, Left Behind from The Last of Us.
4. Subscription
(Subscription model)
The player accesses
an open temporary service as long as he pays regularly (every month or every
year). For example, users pay for access to the game or exclusive items.
Examples: the World
Of Warcraft subscription or a premium subscription allows you to gain
experience points more quickly in a Free play game.
5. Early Access
If the game is not
yet finished but playable, it is possible to sell an alpha or beta version
before its official release.
Example:
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS, Gladiabots.
6. Advertisements
(Ads)
The principle is to
display advertisements inside the game to encourage the player to download
another game other than yours.
There are different
types: fixed screens, videos, playable advertisements, banners, etc.
Examples: Snake VS
Block, Fire Rides.
7. Sell white-label
licenses (sponsorship)
In the same way as
sponsored content on YouTube, a brand, website or company buys visibility in a
video game by displaying its logo and a link to its site in the game. a game,
one sells a specific version of the game for a customer by modifying or adding
content. This framework is broadly utilized for web games.
Examples:
Armorgames.com sponsors many web games.
8. Revenue Sharing
Platforms
The principle is to
share the revenue generated by advertising or paid subscriptions. The more the
game is played, the more money the developer earns.
Example:
Kongregate.com shares up to 50% of advertising revenue.
9. Donations or
crowdfunding
Developers can
directly ask players to finance the development of their video games through
crowdfunding platforms like KickStarter.com.
On Tipeee.com, for
example, players can give small or large donations to creators.
10. Assign the rights
to his creations
Truth be told, all
that makes up a game is attractive.
It is possible to
transfer all the rights of its creations. These rights can then be exploited.
In this case, a publisher holds, among other things, the distribution and
exploitation rights to distribute and promote a game.
Other examples:
transfer the brand, the IP, the universe, the characters, the story, the source
codes, the plug-ins, the game engine, the graphic and sound assets, etc.
Besides, they tried
to buy me the IP of EnigmBox for 70k€, but I refused.
Conclusion
It is not the means
that are lacking, but it is still necessary to analyze its game, its target,
and its commercial potential before setting out on an economic model and
thinking about how to make its creation profitable.
If you want me to
analyze your project to give you the best solution, contact me.
Finally, if you know
of other ways to monetize your creations, add them in the comments.
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