How $900 turns into $12000 with just 2 months part

Crystal Cave & Crystal Cave GOLD sales statistics are now available: http://www.gameproducer.net/2006/04/27/sales-statistics-crystal-cave-and-crystal-cave-gold/

Time of development (all version together): 2 months (not fulltime, only 3-4 hours/day). 2 weeks programming + graphics, 3 weeks levels design, 1 week testings and one month creating level hints (due to customer requests, because some levels are really hard).

TOTAL SALES: US $11000 - $12000
TOTAL EXPENSES: US $900

Thanks to Pavel at http://www.300ad.com for making it possible to share these numbers!

These little sales statistics have really been motivating me. This is very nice.

That is motivating, Indeed.

Woah, nice!

I was going to say...

Win at the Horses.

The figures (at least, the way you've posted them here) are misleading.

The $11,500 is gross income. The portals that sell it are going to take a hefty cut before the developer gets anything.

That aside, the figures on gameproducer.net don't add up anyway. They claim sales of 334 units at $12.95 per unit, which is $4,325.30 gross income. I can't work out how they get $4,649.84. Likewise with the other two versions.

Sales tax?

I thought the portal sales where a seperate accounting item?

However I do feel that 900USD is not an accurate account of all the expenses, and even if it is, the gross profits only make up an average of about 25USD an hour (depending on how many days where 4 hour days, and how many where 3 hour days).

I suppose you could live off it tho' if you like spagetti and ketchup.

No, I think the $11000 is net (excluding $900 expenses) because the sales from their own sites add up to about 7.5K net, then the portals (it doesn't say if it's net or gross) but I'm assuming net because a) it's been added onto the total with the other net figures, which wouln't make sense if it was gross, as mixing gross and net is dumb, and b) if the portal $4000 is net, the portal gross would be around $11500 (based on 35% going to developers) which at $20 each (excluding special offers) is 575 sales. Sound a lot? Not reall, as if Xmas Bonus can do over 200 sales in 2 weeks with a 0.5% CR, they could do 500+ with a 1% CR easy, esp. if it's on several portals.

However, I'm quite prepared to be wrong on this.

I make some good money from BB-programming from time to time
but if I count all the endless hours of playing with Blitz
it would be a poor deal. I consider Blitz my hobby and ANY
money produced from it is really pure bonus :o)
Not everone can be John Carmack. You have to accept that!

On the other hand, if you want to make it big as programmer,
you have to be exceptionally good or work in a team where
everyone have their speciality and push/help eachother forward
to fight low motivation all the time...

well...


Expenses:
- press release: US $100
- porting the mac version: US $150
- other (download.com, google adwords, etc.): US $650
TOTAL: US $900



The expenses do not include the programmer's time - do they?

IPete2.

whatever the hard and soft expenses may be, and the cuts taken by the various coutlet agents and such might amount to... $12000 in sales, in just 2 months, is nothing to sneeze at...

all you guys trying to instill a lil reality here outta stop for a second and ask yorself...

1- am i sitting here, really thinking that i'm gonna make some money at this...

2- would i like to be in their shoes, making $6000 a month, regardless of the extenuating circumstances and expenses...

to be honest, if i ask myself those 2 questions... i'd have to answer YES to both of em...

hey, i see this as a chapter in a success story... actually, as the beginnings that chapter... they still have a ways to go before it's all said and done with this product...

... and at the current rate they are moving, assuming no change in rate of sales, either up or down... in 12 months they'll really have to worry about filing a tax return...

thx for the info guys... i'm with the people here who find this sorta news a lil motiviating....

continued good luck...

--Mike

Red: It is motivating and good news, I already posted this on the actual blog. It's not mega money but it's pretty good.

I have asked Pavel and got some updates:


Sales tax is there.

Different price: There are tax included in the gross revenue. F.e. EU countries have special taxes and the prices are 12.95 for USA, but 15.22 USD for United Kingdom, 19.27 for France, 21.35 for Finland etc.


$4K is NET. I've confirmed & edited it now.


No.

But if you do the math... you can find out that if 2 guys do 2 months part time, that would be same as 2 guys do 1 month full time. $10K (what's left after expenses) divided by 2 is $5K.

Not bad monthly salary for indie game developer ;)

5k/month is definately more than what an average programmer would make! Atleast more than any junior to midlevel programmer would make. At the rate i'm going, I'll probably achieve 5k/month within 4-5 years from now....unless I do some serious job hopping.

Thanks Polycount, I'm glad my suspicions were correct as it means they made GOOD sales on the portals. Also, expenses as listed shouldn't contain programmer time imho as they are "real" expenses. The programmers are just paid from the profit. Fix price art or music should be included if any is used (it obviously wasn't for this game). Also I included compilers and IDEs in my Xmas Bonus expenses.

Honestly, I found this to be a much more useful tidbit than the sales figures. I mean, it's somewhat obvious, but it is very important to point out how spending a bit upfront on promotion pays off big time if the game is any good.

@Grey Alien: no problem.

@Neuro: The only problem might be that this money was done only *once*... you have to continously invent new ways to keep that pace...


Excellent point. It's obvious - but it's worth noting. There's always the chance to lose that $900 (and your money) rather than make any money. But let's not get into too much negative thinking :)

This is why having a day job is so important (as opposed to trying to make it as an indie game developer while still in school, or depending on it as your source of income.) A year ago I was a grad student, and $900 would have felt outrageously expensive for promoting an online-sales game, but now I have a job and $900 feels like remarkably little for an important investment in your work. I almost wouldn't care about losing the money if the game flops; I'd be a lot more concerned about the game itself.

And that is ONE game... most of you guys have three or more ideas in the works... what could it be if you got three or four ideas on the ball at about the same time? Maybe more? Maybe less? Maybe a spot or interview in PC GAMER and many more hits to your site and DLs than you thought... I prefer to remain optimistic. I sold my whole game... models and code to Bally.

yeah thats true. but hell, just the fact that i would make any money on the side making a simple fun games like that makes me all giddy inside.... :D

It's one job to create a good game, but it's a completely diffrent job to make it popular and sell it. If marketing specialists and artists are (truely) working together, there's a lot they can achieve.