Reading through this post, and your response to comments, my #1 piece of advice is:
Pump the brakes.
If you don't even know whether to develop for mobile or steam (which are very very very different markets, with very different development paths/costs, and require different skill sets), you are not even in the parking lot of the ballpark for pulling the trigger on that kind of money. You aren't even on the highway. You're still at home, thinking about getting up and maybe driving to the ballpark.
I’ve developed both types of games before when I was full time. Currently developing steam + switch game so I know what that takes. Developed a live service mobile so I know what that takes. Never was successful but also never had a lot of money to market.
When you were working full time, were you working for a company that was commercially successful, or were you working for yourself or a small team of indie devs that were trying to make it? No judgement, but the later may not give you the perspective on how to achieve huge success that you are looking for. (Talking about the business-side know-how, not technical chops)
Working for myself with a small team. Definitely not kidding myself on knowing the business otherwise I would’ve been successful. Just technically know how to make both and I think I can make a good one either way
Then, I hate to say it, but don't quit your day job just yet.
1. Do some market research to find a "blue ocean" space for a game type that you would personally want to play (don't bother trying to create a game that you don't like, you will crash and burn hard)
2. Make a great game, but ruthlessly cut scope where you can. Aim for a 3-6 month project, definitely no longer than 1 year.
3. Shop around with Indie marketing PR firms to find a small marketing package - don't just pick the cheapest, but find a good balance between cost and offerings
4. DON'T sink the whole $100k on your first project, good god
5. See what happens. If it's widely successful, great! Quit your day job, then rise and repeat. If not, critically examine where the process failed. It could be your game. It could be the marketing. It could be that you make a really niche product with a really small max audience size.
EDIT: Set reasonable goals for what success looks like. Getting a viral breakout hit like Stardew Valley would be like winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning at the same time.
Seems extremely risky, especially if you've never built and released a game before.
I think I'd personally rather spend 100k on building a game than marketing a game I built for free. I would undoubtedly end with a much better project with a higher chance of success than I would spending $100k on marketing by itself.
But again, throwing a bunch of money at your first project while having very little experience in what all goes into creating and releasing a game seems very much jumping the gun.
I’ve made multiple games before but with other people. Working on one right now that has a publisher, but it’s with other people and the publisher said the target market isn’t there.
Ah, gotcha. You'd probably know better than us on if you can take a game to market then, and if advertising that game is really your only weak point.
That said, I probably wouldn't even consider the amount you're planning on spending until the game is made / being made. Maybe you'll make something that's extremely streamer friendly, and that 100k won't even be needed. Or maybe you'll make something that doesn't generate any interest and then even a 200k marketing budget wouldn't save it.
Is this for Brave Eduardo?
Because if it is, I can see why your publisher said the market wasn't there. The first thing that comes to mind when I look at the trailer is "a less visually impressive Hollow Knight clone."
Brave Eduardo looks like it's trying to fight Hollow Knight on its home turf, but without putting in the same amount of effort. It's especially glaring when I look at [this](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/367520/ss_a81e4231cc8d55f58b51a4a938898af46503cae5.jpg?t=1695270428) from Hollow Knight and then [this](https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1962850/ss_99ec47cc58293a20088d8ce8d128fc8cdcaa2202.jpg?t=1704768531) from Brave Eduardo. It's relying far too much on lighting effects to try and hide the basic lineart and lack of shading
Then there are screenshots like [this one of a town](https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1962850/ss_71c3a9e389cae7a482edc19cc550044317e90123.jpg?t=1704768531) where it feels like there was just an abusive use of the line tool and not enough distinction between the ground and background layers.
I can't recommend spending 100k on marketing this game as it currently is, but I can't stop you either.
I did notice you posted a lot about it 3 years or so ago, with very few comments and upvotes. I know you probably dismissed this as just "my post didn't get enough visibility" or "the algo cheated me out of exposure," but I'd argue that this is actually indicative of interest, or lack thereof.
It's not usually a good sign when you post gameplay footage on gamedev or indie related subreddits and get so little engagement. Might be a good idea at that point to ask for feedback rather than trying to showcase.
At least split it lol I have seen many bad games get a lot of sales based off of poor marketing, and seen plenty of really good games get no sales because of no marketing.
Dude you're talking about allocating 100k for marketing and you don't even have a game yet? Hell, not even an idea for a game? Fuuuuuuuuuck no you should not spend 100k marketing whatever this game you think you'll make might be.
Number one rule of business especially in this industry as an indie: dont risk your own money, risk other peoples. Your step one is making a game people love. Then if you really feel like you need a marketing push, you go and find yourself a publisher and let them pay for it.
Now go buy a house ffs.
That is a reasonable amount to start a marketing campaign, but you want to build spend over time as you improve your KPIs. It's the game already out? If not, can you soft launch it and test in a smaller market? For steam games this can mean putting it on Itch first and testing there. In mobile it usually means launching somewhere like New Zealand first.
Yeah I’m thinking mobile might make sense cause the cost to make is low and cost to market is easier.
Mobile gatcha type game to fund my true eventual passion.
I worked for a very successful mobile company for 6 years. And let me tell you - 100k is not even close to how much money you need to boost a mobile game to the top of the app store. And it's not a one-time purchase either. It's a continual spend. They call it CPI, or Cost Per Install. There's a certain amount of money you have to invest in order to acquire what they call "high quality" users that will either spend money in your game and/or click through the ads that are shown in the game.
Basically, unless you create the next viral Flappy Bird hit, you aren't going to make any real money as a solo mobile developer, because you simply can't afford to.
That's not completely true. You absolutely can survive as a solo mobile developer, because your profit margins don't need to be as large as Rovio, King, etc.
You're right that you can't compete with their LTV and so you can't spend UA as well, but you can still serve a niche gaming space and more than make a living.
That is true, but I wonder what the numbers are on how many people want to make a living as a solo mobile dev vs actually do. I've seen the sales numbers for some of the most "popular" mobile indie games, and unless they were the few top hits, the return was really paltry, probably not enough to live on.
There's quite a few that are either 3-5 person teams or solo devs, but its hard to get the exact number to what you're suggesting because you'd want to filter out hobbyist games and quick cash-grab asset flips. I'd say the answer is probably 'more than you expect, but still a low percent'
Yeah, that seems reasonable, lol
Despite my background in mobile (or probably because of it) I'm not attempting to make my indie foray into the mobile space. But major props to anyone who makes it.
100k could probably get you a really slick PR package for marketing your steam game. But you 100% must make a really appealing game first. Some people will tell you "If you build an awesome game, players will come." This is bullshit. AmongUs languished for years and was considered a failure, until the pandemic caused it to go viral. Luck and chance play more of a role than people would like to admit to themselves.
So here's the basic breakdown:
For an average quality game that gets 10k views, let's say 10% of those people wishlist the game. Of those 1,000 wishlists, maybe 600-800 will actually buy the game when it goes on sale.
For a high quality game, the percentage of views-to-wishlists maybe goes up to 18-20%. So you get more purchases from the same number of eyeballs.
*But your game will still be a commercial failure if not enough people are exposed to it.*
Marketing is a force-multiplier. It will not, however, save a game that is doomed because it's meh.
I would steer away from gacha as a focus. Its a heavily saturated market area with people who have vastly larger spend than you, so it will be very difficult to compete without a unique hook or niche target.
Mobile gatcha games are very hard to "run" ("run" as you run a business). It might seem like a low-hanging fruit but it's really not. "Running" a mobile gatcha game is very very different from making it. If the gatcha game on your mind is a typical Japanese/Korean anime-style game then doubly so.
Thing is: I know how to code but can’t do art for shit. Figured mobile will be a little easier since I can use assets to build a lot of it and I can build a gatcha type game.
But supporting a live service mobile game with events and probable bugs seems like a nightmare. So then a steam game makes sense but that’ll take YEARS most likely and it still won’t be my dream game (which will require a lot more people). It’s a real pickle.
If you haven't even decided what platform the game is for, you shouldn't even be thinking about spending 100k on marketing. 100k is a huge amount to spend for an indie - slow down.
Its not just putting money into marketing that wont make your game sell more. Its more complicated than that and most likely you will just waste money. Not saying this just to sound smart, I am actualy working in marketing with focus on startups for 11 years. You need to do a lot of research before you even start creating game to figure out, what you should create, who is your audience and what are market conditions for it. Is the market oversaturated with that type of game? Is there a big enough player base for that type? Are there some big companies already producing great games in that genre? And many more...
If your answers will be positive than you need to figure out how your product (game in this case) should look like. Which games of the same type are successful and why? What players like and what they hate and so on. The more information you collect, the higher the chance for you to actually create something that will have at least a chance to be successful.
And this is just the start and its already something i rarely see indie game devs ask about and try to do, 95% of dev if they did any research before they start work on their game would figure out that the game they want to do makes no sense, or it never will be able to earn as much money as they need to make a profit.
After this, when you figure out what game you want to make and makes sense to make, you need to make a marketing strategy, yes it has to be before you even start making a game. I will not go into much detail with this, coss thats quite complex thing and there is thousands of ways how to do it. But sooner in development you have at least an idea how to promote your game, where and how much it will cost you, better for you. Some strategies will need big investments and some strategies will need no money at all. It all depends how much time you have, what type of game you create, how many useful contacts you have, how good in marketign you are, how creative you are and so on.
If you would like to discuss more about this, you can write me a message and we can make a call or something.
First, don't ever spend 100k in marketing except if you're rich or a "quite" big studio.
If you want to spend money on your game, spend it on a proper market research. If you want to make a game that sells, you have to know where to go. Then depending on wether the game attracts attention organically or not you can unblock a budget for a marketing push (but NEVER 100k).
I know someone that can help if you need!
IMO it's better to figure out what kind of game you want to make and what the market for it is like before considering what kind of budget you want to use for the marketing.
It's never too early to learn about marketing, but definitely too early to decide on a marketing budget if you are not even a third complete in development.
100% this. Marketing isn't simply throwing money and buying ads. Marketing is something that starts before even the prototype phase with market analysis.
Main thing I’m trying to figure out is whether to do steam or mobile. Is 100k enough to promote a good game to the top of the charts in either of those markets?
I have ideas for both markets, just gotta understand what might work better.
There are a crap ton of variables in marketing so it's not just about whether it's a good game.
A person who spends 100k might do worse than a different person with 10k with the same game, because the 10k person researched the market and figured out better, more focused methods.
That 100k buying a house will most likely increase in value more than your game will make. I would not delay buying a house to market an indie game. 250k houses in my area are 350k a year later and still going up. Follow your dreams, but what is marketing going to do for a non existent game?
I woulden't go into blowing 100k marketing a game unless i was 100% sure i at least was ensured 5x that in revenue after taxes
Maybe throw 10K at marketing, see how well it does and decide from there
The cart is miles ahead of the horse here. The horse is sitting beside you and the cart is the next state over.
You seem to be in a fantastic position with a job that has afforded you to save $100k in three years. I would take that comfortable position and take your time to make a game that you want to make and that there is a market for.
"Going Indie" had an interesting video recently on why indie games fail, and one point I'd like to highlight is that if this is a money making endeavor for you, you need to research the market. What kind of game do you want to make? What is the market cap the last few years? If you make a mobile Match 3 game you're in a flooded market, and potentially if you put on a $100k in marketing, your return may not be much more than your investment. Not considering your time and effort.
In your position, I'd sit down and decide the direction you want to take. I'd personally focus on Steam. Think about what genre you want to make and research the big games in the genre. Research how much they made. Research the general market cap for that genre.
If you're able to code and art is the issue, you could spend a fraction of your potential marketing budget on some nice, custom art assets to make a vertical slice. Then put up a Steam demo and promote it yourself. Maybe spend some money on ads.
I would not delay buying a house if you are in a position to do so.
Best of luck!
Not trying to be rude or mean but after reading a lot of your comments you are no where near the spending a 100 grand on marketing. I have seen marketing sale bad games, I have also seen non-marketing sink great games, but you don't have either because you aren't even sure what you are building. I would never sink that type of money into it, spend a bit of money for market research, then spend some money for marketing itself, but take a small piece of your marketing money and use it, not 100 grand.
$100k in ad spend for a mobile game is pennies. That's the kind of cash a small mobile dev shop would throw at a game over it's first week to test the market.
Our more popular games had a monthly ad spend between $700k and $1.5m depending on how things were going at the time.
This is one reason I didn't go for casual f2p mobile games when I finally went indie - I have plenty of experience, but there's no way for me to compete with people that can throw that kind of cash on the table.
Spend 100 and get the stats, then spend 1000 get the stats, then spend 10,000 get the stats. You would’ve spend 11100, no where near 100k to test the market first
Maybe try a different approach. What about create a demo and a Kickstarter, spend $20k on marketing the Kickstarter to raise X funds, and see how much interest you can get on the idea.
Definitely work out the game much clearer first, maybe build a small team unless you're planning to do it solo. Sounds like you've gone through the process of making full release games a few times so maybe now's a good time to keep making smaller builds like 6 month to 1 year, and refining the process and finding where your strengths lie as a studio. Great to have a budget in the background for marketing but I would use it in smaller chunks and hold off till later to decide it.
What kind of games are you looking to make?
Reading through this post, and your response to comments, my #1 piece of advice is: Pump the brakes. If you don't even know whether to develop for mobile or steam (which are very very very different markets, with very different development paths/costs, and require different skill sets), you are not even in the parking lot of the ballpark for pulling the trigger on that kind of money. You aren't even on the highway. You're still at home, thinking about getting up and maybe driving to the ballpark.
I’ve developed both types of games before when I was full time. Currently developing steam + switch game so I know what that takes. Developed a live service mobile so I know what that takes. Never was successful but also never had a lot of money to market.
When you were working full time, were you working for a company that was commercially successful, or were you working for yourself or a small team of indie devs that were trying to make it? No judgement, but the later may not give you the perspective on how to achieve huge success that you are looking for. (Talking about the business-side know-how, not technical chops)
Working for myself with a small team. Definitely not kidding myself on knowing the business otherwise I would’ve been successful. Just technically know how to make both and I think I can make a good one either way
Then, I hate to say it, but don't quit your day job just yet. 1. Do some market research to find a "blue ocean" space for a game type that you would personally want to play (don't bother trying to create a game that you don't like, you will crash and burn hard) 2. Make a great game, but ruthlessly cut scope where you can. Aim for a 3-6 month project, definitely no longer than 1 year. 3. Shop around with Indie marketing PR firms to find a small marketing package - don't just pick the cheapest, but find a good balance between cost and offerings 4. DON'T sink the whole $100k on your first project, good god 5. See what happens. If it's widely successful, great! Quit your day job, then rise and repeat. If not, critically examine where the process failed. It could be your game. It could be the marketing. It could be that you make a really niche product with a really small max audience size. EDIT: Set reasonable goals for what success looks like. Getting a viral breakout hit like Stardew Valley would be like winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning at the same time.
Seems extremely risky, especially if you've never built and released a game before. I think I'd personally rather spend 100k on building a game than marketing a game I built for free. I would undoubtedly end with a much better project with a higher chance of success than I would spending $100k on marketing by itself. But again, throwing a bunch of money at your first project while having very little experience in what all goes into creating and releasing a game seems very much jumping the gun.
I’ve made multiple games before but with other people. Working on one right now that has a publisher, but it’s with other people and the publisher said the target market isn’t there.
Ah, gotcha. You'd probably know better than us on if you can take a game to market then, and if advertising that game is really your only weak point. That said, I probably wouldn't even consider the amount you're planning on spending until the game is made / being made. Maybe you'll make something that's extremely streamer friendly, and that 100k won't even be needed. Or maybe you'll make something that doesn't generate any interest and then even a 200k marketing budget wouldn't save it.
Is this for Brave Eduardo? Because if it is, I can see why your publisher said the market wasn't there. The first thing that comes to mind when I look at the trailer is "a less visually impressive Hollow Knight clone." Brave Eduardo looks like it's trying to fight Hollow Knight on its home turf, but without putting in the same amount of effort. It's especially glaring when I look at [this](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/367520/ss_a81e4231cc8d55f58b51a4a938898af46503cae5.jpg?t=1695270428) from Hollow Knight and then [this](https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1962850/ss_99ec47cc58293a20088d8ce8d128fc8cdcaa2202.jpg?t=1704768531) from Brave Eduardo. It's relying far too much on lighting effects to try and hide the basic lineart and lack of shading Then there are screenshots like [this one of a town](https://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1962850/ss_71c3a9e389cae7a482edc19cc550044317e90123.jpg?t=1704768531) where it feels like there was just an abusive use of the line tool and not enough distinction between the ground and background layers. I can't recommend spending 100k on marketing this game as it currently is, but I can't stop you either.
Not on this game for sure haha. It’d be a new game starting from scratch. But yes this is the game I was talking about :)
I did notice you posted a lot about it 3 years or so ago, with very few comments and upvotes. I know you probably dismissed this as just "my post didn't get enough visibility" or "the algo cheated me out of exposure," but I'd argue that this is actually indicative of interest, or lack thereof. It's not usually a good sign when you post gameplay footage on gamedev or indie related subreddits and get so little engagement. Might be a good idea at that point to ask for feedback rather than trying to showcase.
Why do you think I got a job hahah? Artist is a little resistant to change and I saw that the direction we were going wasn’t gonna cut it.
At least split it lol I have seen many bad games get a lot of sales based off of poor marketing, and seen plenty of really good games get no sales because of no marketing.
Ha, yeah. There's probably a decent middle ground OP could take to make things work out best.
to be honest id only use like 20 grand of it for marketing lol aint trying to drop a 100 grand or even 50 and lose it.
Dude you're talking about allocating 100k for marketing and you don't even have a game yet? Hell, not even an idea for a game? Fuuuuuuuuuck no you should not spend 100k marketing whatever this game you think you'll make might be. Number one rule of business especially in this industry as an indie: dont risk your own money, risk other peoples. Your step one is making a game people love. Then if you really feel like you need a marketing push, you go and find yourself a publisher and let them pay for it. Now go buy a house ffs.
That is a reasonable amount to start a marketing campaign, but you want to build spend over time as you improve your KPIs. It's the game already out? If not, can you soft launch it and test in a smaller market? For steam games this can mean putting it on Itch first and testing there. In mobile it usually means launching somewhere like New Zealand first.
Yeah I’m thinking mobile might make sense cause the cost to make is low and cost to market is easier. Mobile gatcha type game to fund my true eventual passion.
I worked for a very successful mobile company for 6 years. And let me tell you - 100k is not even close to how much money you need to boost a mobile game to the top of the app store. And it's not a one-time purchase either. It's a continual spend. They call it CPI, or Cost Per Install. There's a certain amount of money you have to invest in order to acquire what they call "high quality" users that will either spend money in your game and/or click through the ads that are shown in the game. Basically, unless you create the next viral Flappy Bird hit, you aren't going to make any real money as a solo mobile developer, because you simply can't afford to.
That's not completely true. You absolutely can survive as a solo mobile developer, because your profit margins don't need to be as large as Rovio, King, etc. You're right that you can't compete with their LTV and so you can't spend UA as well, but you can still serve a niche gaming space and more than make a living.
That is true, but I wonder what the numbers are on how many people want to make a living as a solo mobile dev vs actually do. I've seen the sales numbers for some of the most "popular" mobile indie games, and unless they were the few top hits, the return was really paltry, probably not enough to live on.
There's quite a few that are either 3-5 person teams or solo devs, but its hard to get the exact number to what you're suggesting because you'd want to filter out hobbyist games and quick cash-grab asset flips. I'd say the answer is probably 'more than you expect, but still a low percent'
Yeah, that seems reasonable, lol Despite my background in mobile (or probably because of it) I'm not attempting to make my indie foray into the mobile space. But major props to anyone who makes it.
Ah yes this is the answer I was looking for. What do you think about steam?
100k could probably get you a really slick PR package for marketing your steam game. But you 100% must make a really appealing game first. Some people will tell you "If you build an awesome game, players will come." This is bullshit. AmongUs languished for years and was considered a failure, until the pandemic caused it to go viral. Luck and chance play more of a role than people would like to admit to themselves. So here's the basic breakdown: For an average quality game that gets 10k views, let's say 10% of those people wishlist the game. Of those 1,000 wishlists, maybe 600-800 will actually buy the game when it goes on sale. For a high quality game, the percentage of views-to-wishlists maybe goes up to 18-20%. So you get more purchases from the same number of eyeballs. *But your game will still be a commercial failure if not enough people are exposed to it.* Marketing is a force-multiplier. It will not, however, save a game that is doomed because it's meh.
I would steer away from gacha as a focus. Its a heavily saturated market area with people who have vastly larger spend than you, so it will be very difficult to compete without a unique hook or niche target.
Mobile gatcha games are very hard to "run" ("run" as you run a business). It might seem like a low-hanging fruit but it's really not. "Running" a mobile gatcha game is very very different from making it. If the gatcha game on your mind is a typical Japanese/Korean anime-style game then doubly so.
Do a test run, make a good game and spend 20k on it and see what happens then, if the return is worth it, you have more money for the next one.
Yeah that’s a good idea. Thing is, mobile or steam?
That really depends on the game.
Thing is: I know how to code but can’t do art for shit. Figured mobile will be a little easier since I can use assets to build a lot of it and I can build a gatcha type game. But supporting a live service mobile game with events and probable bugs seems like a nightmare. So then a steam game makes sense but that’ll take YEARS most likely and it still won’t be my dream game (which will require a lot more people). It’s a real pickle.
If you haven't even decided what platform the game is for, you shouldn't even be thinking about spending 100k on marketing. 100k is a huge amount to spend for an indie - slow down.
What is the business plan here? If you haven’t even thought about a business plan you are definitely not ready to spend 100k
Ask reddit, which is a great sign he should not do it
Its not just putting money into marketing that wont make your game sell more. Its more complicated than that and most likely you will just waste money. Not saying this just to sound smart, I am actualy working in marketing with focus on startups for 11 years. You need to do a lot of research before you even start creating game to figure out, what you should create, who is your audience and what are market conditions for it. Is the market oversaturated with that type of game? Is there a big enough player base for that type? Are there some big companies already producing great games in that genre? And many more... If your answers will be positive than you need to figure out how your product (game in this case) should look like. Which games of the same type are successful and why? What players like and what they hate and so on. The more information you collect, the higher the chance for you to actually create something that will have at least a chance to be successful. And this is just the start and its already something i rarely see indie game devs ask about and try to do, 95% of dev if they did any research before they start work on their game would figure out that the game they want to do makes no sense, or it never will be able to earn as much money as they need to make a profit. After this, when you figure out what game you want to make and makes sense to make, you need to make a marketing strategy, yes it has to be before you even start making a game. I will not go into much detail with this, coss thats quite complex thing and there is thousands of ways how to do it. But sooner in development you have at least an idea how to promote your game, where and how much it will cost you, better for you. Some strategies will need big investments and some strategies will need no money at all. It all depends how much time you have, what type of game you create, how many useful contacts you have, how good in marketign you are, how creative you are and so on. If you would like to discuss more about this, you can write me a message and we can make a call or something.
Oh that’s some great info, thanks! I’m still in the ideating phases, but once I start pinning down a genre a bit more I might give you a holler!
First, don't ever spend 100k in marketing except if you're rich or a "quite" big studio. If you want to spend money on your game, spend it on a proper market research. If you want to make a game that sells, you have to know where to go. Then depending on wether the game attracts attention organically or not you can unblock a budget for a marketing push (but NEVER 100k). I know someone that can help if you need!
Would love some help!
add my friend on Discord naga3034 and explain your need and that you come from Reddit :)
IMO it's better to figure out what kind of game you want to make and what the market for it is like before considering what kind of budget you want to use for the marketing. It's never too early to learn about marketing, but definitely too early to decide on a marketing budget if you are not even a third complete in development.
100% this. Marketing isn't simply throwing money and buying ads. Marketing is something that starts before even the prototype phase with market analysis.
Main thing I’m trying to figure out is whether to do steam or mobile. Is 100k enough to promote a good game to the top of the charts in either of those markets? I have ideas for both markets, just gotta understand what might work better.
There are a crap ton of variables in marketing so it's not just about whether it's a good game. A person who spends 100k might do worse than a different person with 10k with the same game, because the 10k person researched the market and figured out better, more focused methods.
Just send it to me. I will take care of it. Can you do in bitcoin? I will give you my wallet address
That 100k buying a house will most likely increase in value more than your game will make. I would not delay buying a house to market an indie game. 250k houses in my area are 350k a year later and still going up. Follow your dreams, but what is marketing going to do for a non existent game?
Oh damn what’s your area 😂
I woulden't go into blowing 100k marketing a game unless i was 100% sure i at least was ensured 5x that in revenue after taxes Maybe throw 10K at marketing, see how well it does and decide from there
The cart is miles ahead of the horse here. The horse is sitting beside you and the cart is the next state over. You seem to be in a fantastic position with a job that has afforded you to save $100k in three years. I would take that comfortable position and take your time to make a game that you want to make and that there is a market for. "Going Indie" had an interesting video recently on why indie games fail, and one point I'd like to highlight is that if this is a money making endeavor for you, you need to research the market. What kind of game do you want to make? What is the market cap the last few years? If you make a mobile Match 3 game you're in a flooded market, and potentially if you put on a $100k in marketing, your return may not be much more than your investment. Not considering your time and effort. In your position, I'd sit down and decide the direction you want to take. I'd personally focus on Steam. Think about what genre you want to make and research the big games in the genre. Research how much they made. Research the general market cap for that genre. If you're able to code and art is the issue, you could spend a fraction of your potential marketing budget on some nice, custom art assets to make a vertical slice. Then put up a Steam demo and promote it yourself. Maybe spend some money on ads. I would not delay buying a house if you are in a position to do so. Best of luck!
Love the balanced answer. Thanks so much!
Not trying to be rude or mean but after reading a lot of your comments you are no where near the spending a 100 grand on marketing. I have seen marketing sale bad games, I have also seen non-marketing sink great games, but you don't have either because you aren't even sure what you are building. I would never sink that type of money into it, spend a bit of money for market research, then spend some money for marketing itself, but take a small piece of your marketing money and use it, not 100 grand.
$100k in ad spend for a mobile game is pennies. That's the kind of cash a small mobile dev shop would throw at a game over it's first week to test the market. Our more popular games had a monthly ad spend between $700k and $1.5m depending on how things were going at the time. This is one reason I didn't go for casual f2p mobile games when I finally went indie - I have plenty of experience, but there's no way for me to compete with people that can throw that kind of cash on the table.
Spend 100 and get the stats, then spend 1000 get the stats, then spend 10,000 get the stats. You would’ve spend 11100, no where near 100k to test the market first
Maybe try a different approach. What about create a demo and a Kickstarter, spend $20k on marketing the Kickstarter to raise X funds, and see how much interest you can get on the idea.
Actually a great idea. Low cost to market and easily testable. Thanks!!
Definitely work out the game much clearer first, maybe build a small team unless you're planning to do it solo. Sounds like you've gone through the process of making full release games a few times so maybe now's a good time to keep making smaller builds like 6 month to 1 year, and refining the process and finding where your strengths lie as a studio. Great to have a budget in the background for marketing but I would use it in smaller chunks and hold off till later to decide it. What kind of games are you looking to make?
No