How much money can you really make?

My take on it is to make the 'dumb' apps first and place them on the market. This will get you hooked. I made my dumb apps using Java /Eclipse and made 'OK' money - approx $25 per day / 7 days per week. However, I reached a certain level of skill-set and to jump to the next technological level would mean a lot of work and time studying java. That's when a workmate sent me the link to read about Construct 2. At first I was hesitant as the price was expensive when compared to the free Eclipse IDE. What finally sold me was the integration of AdMob.

I can now move my apps to the next level and add fun and features to them that would take weeks to code in java. Yes, C2 is clunky in areas (such as the android/crosswalk scenario) but I have already earned my license fee back in C2 apps on the market.

However, $ to be made doesn't really rely on the tool, but more the uniqueness of the idea.

Good luck.

I only use Construct 2 for Wii U games right now. Nintendo doesn't allow us to share sales figures but I can say that I've made about 50% of what I make from my full time yearly salary in only 6 months on the market. I currently have 4 games published with another 2 in various stages of publishing right now. I am forecasting making MORE than I make in my day job starting in 2015.

But results do vary depending on the developer, games, and effort you put into promoting your brand.

-Mike

+1 Valerien

i want to say ... im using c2 as long as 2 years almost now so .. there are multiple ways to make money with the engine itself, either crete a game as a freelancer and take jobs from guru /elance/freelancer, and anyother platforms like this or find your platform you may like , those are just a few to help u understand better the market out there, how ever if u choose to go solo developing way, im telling you now, its gonna be a long run, and dont quit you day time job if u have one ... i did... dident went well... well ... i guess im a lucky case, got an investor from USA a few game studious that i can work with sometimes, and definetly the scirra forums is always helping finding more jobs, as long as money? i did around 3500 USD by now, with the free version only i know i should upgrade but i cant yet.... just because my life is a mess... and continously stress... so definetly not quit your job, youl have less time to do games yes, but you will have more peace of mind and stability ... as long as making money for yourself ... not gonna work in the way you imagine.... you have to do surtain steps in order to get a 10$ game revenue a day from ads and sales from IAP ... those are :

1 ) do a game any game u want can be simple advance doesnt matter but be sure u do have good graphics and gameplay in it .

2) research some ways on how you will market your game store link ... since no gamestore will advertise for you .... you need to invest money in advertising or have a website that brings u daily traffic and young people that can pay (the rate of people payng for stuff will be 1% if u have 100 people traffic 1 will buy if u have 1mil people traffic eh... then u have a great sale )

3) using ads or IAP its a though choice since admob and chartboost where not existent in Construct 2till latest version . So it was a pain to have a greate game engine and a bundle of games but without a posibility to generate income. now i guess its ok , admob u have the plugin in c2 u can do iap (in app purchases - selling items inside the game ex:" crystals, upgrades, potions, etc " the good part is that u choose the price set it and wait , the downside of it, you need a merchant account on paypal, or amazon or anyother platform for that u need a bank account (visa card only dont try with mastercard wont work unless u use some options like skrill , or other platforms like it that dont require bank accounts )

4) publish it and maybe u get lucky i know for a fact if u have enough games, onl;y with ads in them u can do around 50$ a day but must be good games, and consistent, if u dont want to have that pain on you back, then just create games, and sell the template on scirra store or on opera store i guess it is they let u sell ur game and license for android ios games, as FGL but not sure how big it is .. another way to make games and make money get involved seriously in FGL community , and i mean serious not eh il check it, u need determination, knowledge and alot of patience, if u have those then u ok to go . and ul be making a living from ur games.

a small indie game developer this days can do from 0-1000$ a month if he works well, a medium one up to 10,000 and the pros we dont talk about them cause they do millions

and as Tylermon say's your game is as good as your graphics are so u seriously need an artist, or prepare some cash for Royalty 2d graphics unless u have skills in that category, i have, but i mostly buy my graphics, or clone it from google and redo it in photoshop , so ... yes my answer to your question , i did around 3500 $ by now in 2 years 1 year will be learning c2 front to bottom, another year spent time doodling around and researching on markets and communitys, and lately i just started making cash out of freelancer works, and custom projects, i dont have a website yet, i did but closed it, maintanance was to big (around 200$ a month with a VPN ) so definetly possible money making machine is The Brilliant Engine construct2 created by Our dear C2 Working cute little monekyz

P.S il release a new game this days i was working on last night half done hope youl check it later after i finish it .... damn i forgot need to buy the merchant account... ok see you later

This is an old post, but anyway..someone might read it in the future.

Like gamecorpstudio said: don't quit your day job, for 2 reasons :

1. As a beginner you will not earn enough

2. You will loose interest and focus if you work on your games everyday, all day long. Instead hate your boss and your job and this will keep you motivated to get home, work on your games until 3 AM, sleep 4 hours, go to your job, hate it more, go back home after office hours and you will be even more motivated to work on your games and learn new skills

There are 2 kinds of game developers

1. The type that creates 1 game avery 1-2 weeks and get a small return from each game

2. The other type that expect to earn $$$ with every single game they make...developing month and months on each game

I think you should start making number 1 until you get a a decent earning to pay your bills, then when you have more experience go to number 2 and create the next Angry bird or whatever

[Edit] I am the type 1, I use only Android + AdMob at the moment and get $0.75-$1.5 /day from each game, but I know this is not the best way of being a game developer since this technique will saturate te market quickly with poor quality games

I mean... I'm only 19, so I'm still in college and living with my parents. Trying to make money off of this isn't an issue for me, at least for the time being because of where I am in life. I honestly want nothing more than to make great games that people will talk about and enjoy playing; it's never been about the money for me. Money would be nice obviously, but that's never been my primary goal.

But reading through these posts, man...

This is kind of depressing... Is this what it's like?

Still, though; I wish you all the best of luck! c:

AySquirrel What can I say...until you will work for a living and you will have bills to pay every months .."This is kind of depressing... Is this what it's like?", Yes, it is.

I can contribute here. I am 27 years old. I was working as a manager for a large e-commerce store in Sweden and had a good income. But I hated my job and everyday was like the day before. The problem was that I hated my job so much that it sucked all my energy and creativety out of me so when I came home I couldn't work on my games because I kept thinking that I was going back to work soon next day.

Things got worse and I couldn't sleep. I slept 1-2 hours a night at most and things didn't get better during the weekends. So finally my body gave up of exhaustion and my doctor told me I have to rest because my body was really messed up after months without sleeping.

So after this I decided to quit my job and start doing things I like doing. This was in March this year. So even before I had a plan or a game in mind I quit and started working on ideas. It was tough in the beginning and if you live in a country like Sweden like me where an average salary a month is about 2 550€ or 2 800$ you have to work really hard to afford to live here. So I freelanced and made websites and logos which kept me floating.

But even if it was rough I was a much happier person. Life finally feels fun and I got creative again. So when I had the idea for 8Bit Fiesta I just went for it and started working. I believed in the project and knew I would get it on Steam.

So here I am now, 5months later. With my own studio working with unity, unreal and C2. And will be releasing my first game on steam soon. So don't feel depressed AySquirrel The game industry is one of the worlds largest and if you make a quality game you can make good money. Nobody can say you'll make this and that. It all depends on so many different parameters.

So keep working hard and by experience I would recommend (just my opinion) working towards PC and consoles instead of mobile. The mobile market is overflooded with clones and low quality garbage that it's really hard to make any real money there as it is right now. You can but it's really hard.

I got tired of seeing all the same developers releasing a new boring casual game every week (ketchapp) and hit the toplists all the time. So that is why I quit doing apps and targeted steam instead which feels so much easier to earn money from.

Anyway, I wish everyone a great developing career and a big success with all your games

Anonnymitet Thank you for your insights. I am too disappointed with how bad the mobile games are doing, getting harder and harder to be discovered. Is good to hear success stories like yours, that keep us moving forward.

When you say working towards PC and consoles instead of mobile do you mean browser games or just the usual steam games with an installer? Creating for consoles like Xbox and PS I think that C2 is out of the question at the moment and this is a job for Unity or Unreal.

Good luck

Cipriux I felt the same when working with mobile. And if you finally would make an awesome game there will be hundreds of clones of it within days it gets popular and a clone finally becomes more popular than your original game

C2 works really well for Steam but as you say not for consoles atm. Maybe Wii U works well? But I believe we will be able to atleast work with xbox one in the near future as they promised to make it possible to submit html5 games on their platform. And I've heard that if you make a windows 8 game you should be able to post it as it is? Might be wrong though.

But Steam is great and I must say that platforms like itch and kongregate is much better than I expected. You can actually earn alot there if you have a fun game and get some exposure. Desura really suck in my opinion. Trying to remove my game from there but they won't answer my emails

So there's alot of ways to make money with C2 but you have to have a good game first

Cipriux Where do you have your games published?

mobile is dead unless you are ketchapp or sitting on the next Boom Beach

Iolva , this is my Google Play account https://play.google.com/store/apps/deve ... SynapseOne

If you are into game development for money, do not depend on any single IDE/WorkTool/Engine. To get anywhere you need to be flexible. It also helps you learn whats capable and you can actually apply the same knowledge and view alot of source code this way.

Oh yeah, don't waste your time with Desura. They died, bankrupt.

They owe me heaps of $$. If they paid up, I would have bought the C2 business license. Lesson learnt. Don't waste time with trash stores that are financially insecure.

Go Steam or go home.

Just wanted to add for those interested, Android is the killing fields of a thousand small-time indie gamedevs. The reason is simple, they DO NOT have a proper NEW GAMES (Category RPG, Action etc) listing. They only have TOP New Games list. To be on that TOP list, you have to have a ton of downloads, reviews and +1 on your game.

On iOS, they do have a real New Games list, sorted by release date. If your game is good, it has a chance to fly.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of apple and currently use android but apple users are more willing to pay for apps because they are used to have to pay for everything And the app store is miles ahead of google play with an actual quality control. Google play is sadly just 99.99999% crap and broken games.

So if you go mobile then target iOS and you can release a android version as a bonus later.

This is how I see the stores atm:

Appstore Pros and Cons

Pros

• quality control
• users actually spend money
• genre listings and functional top lists

Cons

• complicated submission process
• looooong review time (3days-weeks) for every single update

Google Play Pros and Cons

Pros

• simple submission
• super fast update time

Cons

• no quality control at all
• too easy to release rip off clones
• almost no users pay for anything (if you're not already a well known studio)
• Worthless translations of game descriptions to users local language even if you don't want it as a developer