Full-Time IndieDev Journey (Original Post Not Updated)

What's that Dead6Hot payment? I thought it was a project you did for yourself. Is that for client as well?

From the publisher.

Great. So did you get a publisher via Steam?

January Report

Unfortunately, I had a few potential clients before the holidays and all of them fell off the grid. I wound up taking most of January off. I just started searching for contracts again this week. It was nice doing my own thing for a month  

$500 milestone 4 (continuation from shooter game)
$155 Tutoring Stencyl

I had a client stiff me for $150. He hasn't responded to my emails in a month. Such is the life of an indie contractor.

Oh, @Bhoopalan, I found him advertising on an outside forum.

Wow, sorry to hear that. Here is a little tip of encouragement, though: Just because it's demonstrated with/by a certain few, that doesn't mean it's always real nor true. The true upside to learning this philosophy is gained when thought carefully through self-defense.

BTW, I read the forum a few times while looking at my posts by email.

I had a client stiff me for $150. He hasn't responded to my emails in a month. Such is the life of an indie contractor.

That is horrible, karma will catch up with them in life somehow.

So, I've got a question Ceosol, (And by the way, thank you for making yourself available and willing to answer questions like this).  It looks in your expenses like most of your contracts out are for art assets.  Am I right in assuming that you feeling more comfortable on the design/coding side of things?

If so, before you really had funds to contract work out to artists, did you just do your best at creating the assets yourself?

So, I've got a question Ceosol, (And by the way, thank you for making yourself available and willing to answer questions like this).  It looks in your expenses like most of your contracts out are for art assets.  Am I right in assuming that you feeling more comfortable on the design/coding side of things?

If so, before you really had funds to contract work out to artists, did you just do your best at creating the assets yourself?

Good questions. For every contract I do, I first try to do the art myself. But I am much better at programming than graphics. If the client wants something more polished, then I need to contract out work. Sometimes it is painful paying out $100 for artwork on a $350 contract. But I would rather have a happy client that passes my name around than an unhappy one. Regarding your other point, I do not know much about level design, either. Luckily I have only had one development contract that relied heavily on level design. My design contracts have been focused on writing the technical documents (e.g. GDD's). None of those have required level design.

Starting out, I was very lucky to find a client that already had a collection of artwork. Since many of my early projects were with that same client, he wanted to recycle and repurpose the artwork for different games - a win win for both of us.

The other unasked question, is whether I pay the artists before getting paid myself. The answer is yes. For pretty much every single subcontractor, I paid them well in advance of me getting any money. In one instance that resulted in the client deciding not to use most of the artwork (going with 2 levels as a prototype instead of 10). If I ever get the motivation, I have artwork for 8 levels of enemies and bosses

The other unasked question, is whether I pay the artists before getting paid myself. The answer is yes. For pretty much every single subcontractor, I paid them well in advance of me getting any money. In one instance that resulted in the client deciding not to use most of the artwork (going with 2 levels as a prototype instead of 10). If I ever get the motivation, I have artwork for 8 levels of enemies and bosses

You do seem to run a perfect business than just a indie waiting for a heavy (viral) rain in his / her forest

BTW, why's the thread still saying 'Updated for Nov'?)

BTW, why's the thread still saying 'Updated for Nov'?)

The first post is not updated for Dec or Jan

I'm not up to colburt's level (yet), but here is my February Report

$50 - Tutoring Stencyl
$150 - Bonus for the shooter game
$500 - Two milestones for a training game
$700 - Two milestones from WWUJD The Game (http://www.wwujd.com/#!wwujd-the-game/c1bvz)

$1400 for February
$2055 YTD

I am finding it easier to get contracts now. I think my portfolio is beginning to speak for itself. My suggestion to EVERYONE STARTING OUT, just get games out into the world. Do demos, do prototype, do little flash games (even if they do not make money), or make streaming development videos like a few Stencyl members do. Anything that increases your visibility is good. You never know when someone will need a game similar to what you have done before. Keep in mind, if the game is not polished at all, it might be better to advertise it as a demo.

I am going to try to get ahead of my $1,000/month goal (I really only need ~$700 to 800/month to pay rent and eat, etc.). I want to be ahead by one or two months so I can take a break and work on my own projects. Contract work is nice, but I would like to cultivate some long term revenue streams. Or it would give me the option to start subcontracting out work and taking a cut since I would be getting and managing the clients.

No revenue share on Dead6hot?  I know you got a lot of sales there.

No revenue share on Dead6hot?  I know you got a lot of sales there.

I sold the game. If any royalties do come trickling in, it will be a couple hundred here and there.

EDIT: I wasn't expecting 50,000 owners at the time hahaha

I decided to split off the revenue reports from the other topic: http://community.stencyl.com/index.php/topic,38536.0.html

$12,149 total for 2015 ($11,283 after subcontracting)
$2,055 total for 2016

Development (all done in Stencyl):
$540 Card Game
$260 2048 Game
$275 Memory Match Game
$275 Picture Finding Game
$260 King's Colors Type Game
$300 Picture Finding Game
$350 Education App
$38 Tap Game
$120 MMO Companion
$400 Brain Training Game
$200 Avoider
$400 Kid's Game
$700 Platformer
$2120 Card Game 4 Milestones
$200 Infinite Runner 2 Milestones
$520 Board Game Companion App
$2650 Space Shooter 3 Milestones
$15 Quick Game prototype
$750 Dead6hot
$500 Training Game
$700 Action Platformer (WWUJD: The Game)

Writing Design Documents:
$100 Tycoon Style Game
$1500 Medical App 3 Milestones
$60 Mathematical Pattern Game

Other:
$180 Advertising Revenue (from my own Stencyl games)
$568 Tutoring Stencyl
$223 Helping out on other people's Stencyl projects

Expenses:
($866) Subcontracted Out Work

This is very interesting stuff! Did you manage to create all of these games throughout the year!?

This is very interesting stuff! Did you manage to create all of these games throughout the year!?

Thanks

And yes, everything except for the new training app and WWUJD were made last year. This does not include the projects that did not make any money (e.g. game jams, demos, or others personal projects).