Selling my unity games source code as a business model - what do you think?

Unity Engine
,
1

Hey everyone.

As we all know it’s getting tougher and tougher to make any decent profit with apps / games on the app stores. My personal revenue has been squeezed so much this past year and I find myself at the whim of every app store algorithm change. So I’m thinking more about different business models.

I’m considering licensing my unity projects to other developers so they can create their own games from it. So for example, I would provide the full unity project to another developer, they would then change the art work on their side and any other parts they wished and then publish a new game on either iOS or Android.

For this I would charge a license fee of $1000 for example, and also receive a small percentage commission once the game is live of all generated revenue (~5%). For this I would support and update the project to include new features such as new ad networks, social networking etc (depending on the demand).

The games are not very large but are quite addictive and easy to pick-up, and so the licensing price would vary.

For other developers it means they would have a game complete fast that they can then publish, as opposed to paying an expensive team to develop the game from scratch.

I’m thinking about testing this model with one or two developer clients first to go through the process, and then opening it up to other developers, but I’d like to know what you all think. Good, bad, stupid etc :slight_smile:

Here’s the list of games on iTunes, google play, and amazon:

Google:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Run+And+Gun+Free+Android+Games&hl=en

iTunes:

Amazon:
Amazon.com Play&node=2350149011

Thanks for any feedback
Martin

1 Like
2

I think the chances of running into a developer that would take you up on this offer of licensing is pretty slime. A developer that can afford the risk of $1000 dollars or so to make an app is likely to be an already successful developer that is not in need of this.

Those that would use a model like this look to the asset store in the form of start kits or examples projects. And there you would need competitive prices of $50 to $100 maybe.

3

I think anyone with half a brain is going to think 'If this game template is so awesome, why in the world would this person be selling it and diluting their holdings?".

It’s just like those idiots who buy ‘make money quickly’ books by some author who claims to be giving you the secret formula - yea, guess what, the secret formula is getting suckers to buy his books! If he was any good at using his own so-called secrets he’d be richer than needing to peddle books.

Same goes for this ‘asset’ I would think - plus the commission thing is completely out of the question. Only a moron would do this deal…guess i need to count how many morons there are before I jump to conclusions!

4

Many developers are bad at marketing, so games can fail to meet their sales potential by a massive amount. Someone else might be bad at making games, but good at selling them. A marketing person can get a finished game for much less than it would cost to commission one, while the developer gets something back. If that marketing person sees a game that could make more money than it is available for, why not give it a shot?

5

Stop right there: most marketers are bad at marketing. It’s strictly down to wallet or good fortune and good product. Say no more.

There is a reason many don’t watch TV, listen to the radio, try and get legislation passed regarding billboards and public advertising and it ain’t because marketers are good at what they do. It doesn’t matter if you blame the product or the advertising: the end result is failed advertising and so bad advertising.

6

Don’t many developers already do this in the form of Starter Kits on the Unity Asset Store?

7

And most of them can’t touch the free Unity Tutorials anyway…

8

It’s all a waste of time. Either the product is a such a watered down simple generic version of a game that it’s only worth a couple bucks for 50 or so dreamers on the asset store, or it’s so fleshed out and specialized that there is only going to be that one golden customer who even wants stand might pay a couple hundred. Either way it’s not going to be worth you time imho, but luckily it’s only your time you are selling…up to you if it’s worth it.

9

@Bridin - Thanks for the feedback. It’s good to get an idea of prices.

@SouthernCoder69 - I think a developer wouldn’t be diluting their holdings. If they have already built their source code then why not may revenue on it by selling to other developers. It depends on the source code quality. It’s not morons who would be involved in this. I purchased some source code about 2 weeks ago and it’s already made 50% ROI. A moron would be someone who purchases bad source code.

@Moonjump - Exactly. Other developers may have better skills in choosing keywords, or even cross-promoting with their current library of games / apps. I’ve done 2 games with 1 source code, one did bad and other good, just because of an art change and a different title.

@Goat - It depends on the goal I think, not all down to money. A good marketer will know what keywords to use, what to name the app / game, know how to create a good icon and screenshots to achieve quite good downloads. If the goal is 2000+ a day then yeah marketing money is needed.

@Anthony - I’ve seen some starter kits on the asset store which allow you to build your own game yeah. The solution I’m offering though is a complete finished game which doesn’t require any extra design or monetisation (in-app purchase / ad SDKs). It just requires a change of art work to be published as a new game. I’ve just started buying other source code which is going well so far. If I was to have built that game from scratch it would have taken me over a month.

@SouthernCoder69 - No, I think it’s not a waste of time. I’ve re-skinned games and they’ve done well. Other also focus on re-skinning good games that do well too. It all depends on the source code and the re-skin job.

By the way all, here’s an update on the source code. I’m looking for developer partners to publish a version for themselves but no need to pay any upfront costs, just do a 50/50 revenue share on the game. I’ve put some overview details below. If you’re interested you can email me on martin@cobaltplay.com

Merry Christmas all :slight_smile:
Martin

I’ve been thinking more on this business model the past few days. Another way I plan to do it is that I handle the code work for the reskin and we have a 50/50 revenue split. For example:

  1. I now have the Accelerate X source code now which I’ll be constantly updating. Here’s a link:
    https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.money.boss.run.beat.the.rat.race
    E3Jy8F7pBGvdiq_SzgaOQ14GLjJWbRF_YKSliLKCZ_sRcYjl4fXjz3JVaGoCUmtErZk=h310-rw

Games can built with it for iOS, google play, amazon, or any other android store.

  1. Other developers don’t have to pay anything for the source code, and don’t have to take the effort to add art work / music to the project, I’ll do all that. All the developer partner needs to do is provide the art work, sounds, and music files to be added.

  2. I’ll then build the project and send to the developer partner the apk / ipa file which includes all their ad network IDs, in-app purchase IDs, and can published on their own iOS / android account.

  3. For this the developer partner has 2 choices. They can either pay for the work to be done, for example $200, or pay nothing and we just have a 50/50 revenue share on all generated revenue.

10

There are a lot of bad marketeers, but that doesn’t mean it is strictly down to wallet or good fortune and good product, because there are also some good marketeers out there, who can make a difference. I know that because I have worked with some.

11

I can’t help but wonder how this went. I’m guessing not well, but I guess there are people out there that think they can reskin a game and make a fortune, despite the mountain of other games that they’d have to compete with. Plus, most of these games seem to have trouble getting more than a 3 star rating…

1 Like
12

Sorry to say but this is generally out of touch with reality. Nobody is going to bother licensing a few pixels and paying 5% on top. It’s just not happening.

You also wouldn’t be able to afford to chase anyone up constantly for the 5%. It’s just an awful business plan. The fact is, if you can’t earn 100k with it, why would anyone bother paying 1k for it?

TLDR: development is easier than selling it.

13

How do I buy your source game?