Making Money: The Future Proof Games Approach

Given to a local Charlotte Unity meetup group on 7/13/2015 (http://www.meetup.com/Charlotte-Game-Dev/events/222467356/). To get clickable links, download the talk as a PDF, or use the following:

* Daniel Cook's "Minimum Sustainable Success": http://fpgam.es/MinimumSustainability
* FPG website: http://futureproofgames.com
* FPG on Twitter: http://twitter.com/playfutureproof
* FPG on Facebook: http://fpgam.es/FPGFacebook
* FPG on G+: http://fpgam.es/FPGGooglePlus
* Ossuary: http://fpgam.es/Ossuary
* Exploit: Zero Day: https://exploitzeroday.com

Transcript

1. Making Money The Future Proof Games Approach Melissa Avery-Weir @PlayFutureProof
2. Approach Overview • What’s the Goal? • Strategy #1: Diversify • Strategy #2: Increase Fan Base Caveat: We aren’t a profitable venture yet! This is just our approach.
3. Goal: Minimum Sustainability • Daniel Cook’s “Minimum Sustainable Success”: http://fpgam.es/MinimumSustainability • If a game breaks even, where’s the money for the next game? • Some games will flop, some will be successes • Earnings from successful projects need to cover for the unsuccessful ones • Thus, success looks more like 5x break-even, or 10x.
4. Goal: The Metrics • We keep a “Dev Costs” spreadsheet per project Dev Hours Hourly Rate Dev Expense 2200 $45.00 $99,000 Server Count Monthly Rate Server Expenses Thus Far 4 $15 $1,000 Complete Total Expenses 10x Return $100,000 $1,000,000
5. Strategy #1: Diversify • One game: too high risk • If it’s a financial success, then your clock is ticking • If it’s not a financial success, then you’re digging deeper into “debt” • Two games: some cushion, but not much • What if both of them flopped? • If one was a success and the other wasn’t, that clock is still ticking… • A multitude of games: better! • A multitude of games and tools: best! • A multitude of revenue streams within a game: ethically complicated
6. Strategy #2: Increase Fan Base • Build a brand: “This is a Future Proof game.” • Earn fans and followers • Players: good/interesting games • Other developers: games, tools, writings • Press: games, writings • How to do it? • Make games and tools • Dev blog: write about dev status & processes, game design, and how-tos • Social media: be on it, talk on it • Release games on multiple storefronts • Embrace small press (reach wide!)
7. Summary • Define financial success as earning 5x-10x dev costs for a game • Diversify what we’re selling and where we’re selling it • Increase the number of folks who like something we make enough to follow our work
8. Questions? • Minimum Sustainable Success: http://fpgam.es/MinimumSustainability • Future Proof Games: • @PlayFutureProof • http://fpgam.es/FPGFacebook • http://fpgam.es/FPGGooglePlus • http://futureproofgames.com • Our games: • Ossuary: dark underworld adventure where sins are your inventory items: http://fpgam.es/Ossuary • Exploit: Zero Day: browser-based cyberpunk hacking game: https://exploitzeroday.com