For years I made a living as a freelancer, doing game development and general full-stack work for clients. It paid the bills, but I kept thinking the real money was in owning a product instead of selling my hours. So I made the jump.
I've now built and released two military-genre games on Steam. One is a full release, and the other is in Early Access. I funded both myself, and they took every dollar I'd saved from freelancing.
Here's the lesson I learned the hard way: making a game and launching a game are two completely different jobs.
If I could go back, I'd plan it like this: for every $10k spent on development, expect to need around $40k for publishing and marketing. I budgeted almost nothing on that side, and it showed.
Now I'm working on my third title with a partner, and honestly I'm stuck. Without funding for this one, I don't see a way to keep going. I can't afford to repeat the "build it and hope" approach, but I also don't have the cash to market it properly.
So I'm asking people who've been here:
- Publishers: How did you find and pitch them? What stage should a game be at before approaching one, and what should I watch out for in a deal?
- Funding: Have you had any luck with grants, investors, or crowdfunding for a mid-sized game? What actually worked?
- Proving it's worth funding: With two releases that didn't take off, how do I make the case that this one will be different?
- Tough love: If you were in my position, would you push on, or go back to freelancing and fund development more slowly?
I'm not looking for sympathy, just honest advice from people who've been through it. Thanks for reading.