Triptych Sales Stats From Chronic Logic

Developer site: http://www.chroniclogic.com/
Game website: http://www.chroniclogic.com/index.htm?triptych.htm

Full details: http://www.gameproducer.net/2007/01/11/triptych-sales-stats-from-chronic-logic/

SALES
2002: 462 copies
2003: 147 copies
2004: 159 copies
2005: 143 copies
2006: 60 copies
Total Sales: 972 copies

Price: $14.95 USD

Total sales from chroniclogic.com after fees: $13000 USD
Other sales total: $12000 USD
Approximate total income: $25000 USD

Thanks Josiah for sharing these numbers!

5 years for $25k profit, I take it indys have to pump out quite a few quality/polished titles with proper advertising/marketing each season to be able to afford food for the family?

Thanks for sharing...

Interesting sales numbers considering the game. I took a look at Triptych a few months back and I think these sales are very good because I didn't think the game was all that great (it's no Bridge Construction Set, another game from Chronic Logic). It's surprising what sells and what doesn't. Thanks for sharing.

Are we saying these figures are good, or bad? Because personally I'd be mortified. You get more than that on the dole.

Aye. That's pathetic. If that was their only income, at least.

You dont get that much on the dole, but its not far off.

$25,000 over 5 years is equivalent to £49.82/wk over 5 years. You'd have tax and national insurance to pay on this.

Jobseekers Allowance is £57.45/wk according to www.dwp.gov.uk.

(Yeah I'm bored enough to go and look this up!) :p

Well, it's not that great but at the same time this was a simple game that probably didn't take too much time to make. It's better sales than 90% of shareware games out there.

That's even more depressing news. Why does anyone even bother?

its not a bad game actually if you get into it,
i quite enjoyed it

Because the rewards for getting it right are excellent!

...or because some people (roughly 972) will buy anything? ;)

They just happened to get it right for 972 people, just because their opinion doesn't jive with yours is no reason to fault their purchasing credibility. And, by getting it right, I meant the theoretical game works for something like 972,000 people.

Guys, you are missing the point. The article says it took two developers 3 weeks and cost $200 in art or something. So basically 6 man weeks (call it 1.5 months) made $25,000. Sounds cool to me. Just make a few more like that and you have a nice passive income...

I'm with Grey. Do 4-6 similar items a year and see what the income looks like at the end of 5 years. I would say most people here have never made $12,500 for 3 weeks work.

If I did 3 weeks work and got $12,500 all at once at the end of it, then I'd probably agree. But this is over five years.

OK then, looking at the figures, half the income was in the first year, so 3 weeks work, then over a year you get in $6000ish dollars, fine little bonus if you have another job.

That's about £60 a week which doesn't even cover my rent.

I don't know what it is that irks me so much about this. Fair enough, if you have five games on sale, each making £60 a week, that's great. Maybe its because its just another sodding Tetris game... but with physics? I don't know why tetris would ever need physics. I can't see how its a selling point. I don't understand why anybody in their right mind would pay for it when there are about 40 million Tetris clones available gratis. Maybe its because I've slogged my guts to get games out in three months in the past and I know how many corners have to be cut to get there. It might be because I think any game written in a couple of weeks is going to lack any finesse that would set it apart from the crowd.

God knows. I think its time for a beer.

It's only Monday dude. Mind you I tempted to have a glass of wine now...

Well its more money than what i've made with gamming or probably ever will. I personally would be estatic if those were my numbers now because those numbers aren't paying for my living expense but it would make one hell of a pocket change.



The same reason why there are tons of variations of Zuma which are still selling now. Not to mention the variations of Bejewel that are selling... ;)

Yeah I'd be pleased with that income from a game too, altough I may hit that soon...

Bejewelled and its clones rock eps. seasonal based ones ;-)

I think if you whacked out a framework and codes loads of these say one or two a month then you maybe able to get good money, the only problem here is how many people downloaded it in that time but didnt buy it.

It would be interesting to see the total sales compared to how many people downloaded it, this would give a good indication on how good a title is. Another thing unfortunately most people buy stuff they get instant gratification from, this may not be what the (RPG's dont sell well unless they look amazing and still give instant gratification like FATE for instance).