How many of you makes unity games for a living?

[GMM]

The majority of my work consists of making Unity powered products, but each project is made using tools that make sense for the task at hand.

[zombiegorilla]

Chance, “luck” and “lottery” are all in the area of hobbyist’s dreams, and not really something that actually happens. While it is possible to have some good fortune in terms of timing and market, that will only happen if the game is good in the first place. There aren’t any cases of crappy games “getting lucky” and hitting it big. The inverse is mostly true as well, and more importantly, a missed lesson. You often see developers offering a laundry list of things out of their control as to why their game failed. Which pretty much ensures they will continue to fail. Devs have to take the concept of “luck” out of thier planning.

[Kiwasi]

@imaginaryhuman_1

Here’s a premise. If you are failing, it’s because you’re making mistakes. That only means you need to be corrected, and then you will find success. The industry or market has nothing to do with your success or not. When you get your S*** in order and stop making those mistakes and learn from your failures, you’ll be much closer to success.

One common mistake is being in the wrong industry.

[roger0]

@zombiegorilla

I make games for a living, currently using unity. My last game : http://www.starwars.com/games-apps/star-wars-commander

My next game is set to soft-launch in 12 (very short) weeks. Also in Unity.

Did you make the game yourself as an indie? Or are you part of the company working on the game?

[zombiegorilla]

@roger0

Did you make the game yourself as an indie? Or are you part of the company working on the game?

About as far from indie as you can get, we are the first-party studio. A little over 30 people on that team counting product, qa & producers.

[infinitypbr]

@zombiegorilla

About as far from indie as you can get, we are the first-party studio. A little over 30 people on that team counting product, qa & producers.

Do you do anything on your own as well? I’m guessing you may be burnt out by doing it at work, that getting home and doing it more isn’t so appealing.

[zombiegorilla]

I do quite a bit. But it is complicated. I have a couple of projects that were excluded from my initial contract, but pretty much anything else falls under my non-compete. So my ‘side’ projects are mostly for fun or pitches to our studio. The upshot is that I never have to bother with marketing or releasing. ;). I’m builder, I don’t like having to deal with other, less fun parts.

[ippdev]

They key is to get a business model that works doing what you love or have a skillset in that doesn’t make you wish you did something else for a living. I like Unity because I can do my art schtick and then program it to jump through hoops. I did Flash for the same reason for 9 years. My personal projects brought the paying gigs in the door. Since I like Unity and intend on sticking with it I have recently made a deal with a great businessman who takes my gamification of various industries and establishments core products and I get paid for what i like to do, be creative and get a cut of the final deals made by him. No marketing, no direct interfacing with suits unless I am relaying info, procedures and game plans to them. I will have a lot more free personal time, be making a steady income and have the ability using my brains and talents to turn it into a multi-million dollar venture quickly.

[Kasko]

@zombiegorilla

Which makes sense. If someone was employed full time as a character artist or modeler, they would would be continually making new works. I don’t know anyone who develops for the asset store, but I do know several artists to who work independently (on a contract basis), and they make good livings primarily because they constantly have work. I would guess that to make a living off selling 3D assets you would have to either have to far above the curve in efficiently, speed and quality or simply be constantly cranking out the assets and after time build a deep enough catalog to even out the hits and misses and make a consistent revenue.

For example your dragon is pretty high quality, and as a rough guess would be somewhere between 2-4 weeks to develop?

To take an example outside the gaming industry, the artists working for the DAZ and Renderosity marketplace are constantly pushing new products. Some dedicated people like “Ironman13” have build up their own catalog over the years and she keeps working at it. Same with composers making music tracks meant for licensing.

BTW, @infinitypbr => with some adaptations, I could totally see your type of stuff on the DAZ/Renderosity market, as you have the modeling skills it’s a good way to expand your business.

[zenGarden]

@imaginaryhuman_1

That only means you need to be corrected, and then you will find success. The industry or market has nothing to do with your success or not.

I agree that your success is what you are able to make , how much love you put in it also, and your ability to stop listening to all articles talking about what is good or bad games or what orientations are the best.
Some examples like Shovel Knight , just prooves that making some appealing with solid bases and lot of love in it is one of the ways to do it well.

But sometimes people fail because they just don’t listen to players feedback for example.
This happens in the industry also, Bioware failed with Dragon Age 2 because they made their own game decisions without listening to players. So they learned and corrected that with Dragin Age Inquisition.

[Kasko]

@imaginaryhuman_1

remember, indie means independent which is really an egocentric standpoint, which makes us AGAINST success or being like the crowd in any way, which includes not having anything to do with evil money)…

While I fully agreed with your message, I’m dropping my 2 cents on this as language can be tricky depending of your culture or your nation. Sure the whole “indie” thing accounts for the whole (not so)“underground” culture in the English language but the term “independent” still gets its full business meaning in French (“indépendant”) and in Dutch (“zelfstandig”). If you work as registered business (in sole proprietorship), you’ll say “I’m an independent” (wether you’re a plumber or a game dev) and as such you work for money. Otherwise you would be called an “artist” with all the connotations it implies (like the stereotype of the “misfit starving artist”).

[infinitypbr]

@Kasko

To take an example outside the gaming industry, the artists working for the DAZ and Renderosity marketplace are constantly pushing new products. Some dedicated people like “Ironman13” have build up their own catalog over the years and she keeps working at it. Same with composers making music tracks meant for licensing.

BTW, @infinitypbr => with some adaptations, I could totally see your type of stuff on the DAZ/Renderosity market, as you have the modeling skills it’s a good way to expand your business.

Hmm – I never considered DAZ to be a real option – like, I kind of look down on it. Am I just being prejudice?

[zenGarden]

@Kasko

Otherwise you would be called an “artist” with all the connotations it implies (like the stereotype of the “misfit starving artist”).

For me independant means that people can make games wich big companies will not make.

[Kasko]

@infinitypbr

Hmm – I never considered DAZ to be a real option – like, I kind of look down on it. Am I just being prejudice?

I guess so As a marketplace you’ll get way more exposure for your 3d models (the regular sales puts a good spotlight on the products) than on the Unity asset store. I saw recently an item like your “gargoyle” which was directly featured on the top of the store frontpage. The selling prices are surely not in the same range but as the assets there are only meant for rendering primarly… (you can do some pricey “game licensing” but I doubt many DAZ users take this option). Also, DAZ has been updated a few months ago with a brand new render engine from Nvidia (the iRay) so all the PBR stuff from Unity5 can be adapted for more “realistic” renders in DAZ.

Bonus: you won’t have to care about numbers of polys, textures size, optimization, etc: bigger is better

PS: as most of the stuff is generally divided between sci-fi, present times and fantasy so you can already cater to roughly 1/3rd of the market

[aksh2143]

i have created a game like “Block it”

[ippdev]

@infinitypbr

Hmm – I never considered DAZ to be a real option – like, I kind of look down on it. Am I just being prejudice?

As an accomplished artist as well I was prejudiced about using such but as a marketplace a good artist can make a buck in it. The talents we have are actually quite rare and in demand in the right venues.

[Kasko]

I found back an interesting article in my bookmarks about the use of 3D renders for 2D artwork (the thread is going off-topic but well )

Blogs recent news | Game Developer

[jpthek9]

@zenGarden

I agree that your success is what you are able to make , how much love you put in it also, and your ability to stop listening to all articles talking about what is good or bad games or what orientations are the best.
Some examples like Shovel Knight , just prooves that making some appealing with solid bases and lot of love in it is one of the ways to do it well.

But sometimes people fail because they just don’t listen to players feedback for example.
This happens in the industry also, Bioware failed with Dragon Age 2 because they made their own game decisions without listening to players. So they learned and corrected that with Dragin Age Inquisition.

Dragon Age 2 made millions of dollars.

[Acissathar]

@jpthek9

Dragon Age 2 made millions of dollars.

It all depends on how you define a success / failure. The game itself seems to be the one many fans of the series dislike (note: not “like the least” out of the three, but actually dislike).

Does making millions of dollars but being dislike by fans equal a success? I’d argue it doesn’t, especially since you won’t know how you feel about the game until after you buy it. The publisher can still make millions of dollars even if the player base absolutely hates the game.

[jpthek9]

@Acissathar

It all depends on how you define a success / failure. The game itself seems to be the one many fans of the series dislike (note: not “like the least” out of the three, but actually dislike).

Does making millions of dollars but being dislike by fans equal a success? I’d argue it doesn’t, especially since you won’t know how you feel about the game until after you buy it. The publisher can still make millions of dollars even if the player base absolutely hates the game.

So it’s nothing comparable to an indie’s experience.