Did I Waste ALL my MONEY making an Indie Game? 

Love this video. feels like just listening to a friend talk about something they’re passionate about

Hard to find something more valuable than giving ourselves a chance like this. Congrats man, keep it going!

Thanks for sharing this, it's honestly the most heartwarming and inspiring gamedev video I've seen. I feel like many people don't recognise the value in the experience/journey of a game and focus too much on the end result and/or making a profit, so I'm glad you could see how incredible an achievement completing chess survivors is. Congrats on the release and I hope you continue to find success in gamedev.

I would say the expense of carrying your HUGE balls around should be a factor my man! Imagine how much time you'd have saved not having to carry those arounds?! This game looks like the type I wish I made. Better yet, you've released something from start to finish, you're already a head of 99.98% of "indie devs", I have one game I completely finished which was called 360 video poker for the xbox360 indie section (BACK IN THE DAAAAY) and while it's laughable to what I can make now, it's my most proud project because it's also the only game I truely finished. Money cannot buy that feeling, it also can't buy you the lessons you need and to really understand the dedication. So many people make projects, get to the boring bits like menus or what ever and they start a "side project" and well you know how it goes. Best of luck, a INSTA sub from me.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing your game dev journey, I'm making a game on the side by myself and it brings me joy when I see other solo devs finish and ship their games. So happy for you, looking forward on your next game!

Awesome video as always! Your game is great and what you've accomplished is a huge success. I think it's sane to feel a bit sad about having released a game you enjoyed making. Now it's not yours anymore. Can't wait to see what you'll come up with next ;)

Omg this video is so funny! This past week I found myself thinking about buying a house in PT. And it might also be 20k-25k 😂 you're videos are so relatable. Gotta do what makes you happy! 😁

hey nice video. thanks for sharing your experience and thoughts! hope to see more games and videos!

Really appreciate you breaking your costs down, super helpful and insightful

This video was very refreshing to watch.... :) Thank you very much.

Thank you for sharing this experience. I have often wished to create a game since childhood (only made a couple very simple ones long ago). I appreciate the brutal honesty; especially concerning the risks.

I like the way you look at it. Value is measured in more than just dollars. If you keep making games, eventually you will get a hit, and you will be able to make a living from it. Just keep going!

extremely good to hear that! followed you before the EA release. I am going to check out the full game now. I hope that you new job is going to be awesome and you still make games :)

Just bought it. Please keep making game. I'm going to play it this weekend.

Aarimous, thanks SO MUCH, for doing this video. I quit my job 4 months ago and it took 2 months to realize that I wanted to start gaming development by myself and these 2 months that I lived right now counted every money I saved before to spend right now doing something that I'm discovering I love. But of course there is some fear in my mind if I'm doing a bad career decision at this moment or not, and tough I'm almost pretty sure I'm not, your content was great to get inspiration to keep going. Thanks man, and now I really have to play chess survivors, because these 80hours gameplay are insane!! Congrats on your first game, and I hope hearing from your next projects.

Very good info for small channel managing expectations. You have such a positive attitude about this topic, very encouraging. Also, my wife and I love Thronefall.

Congratulations on your game and success. It's awesome that you're decided to pursue your dreams and passion. More people need to do that. In my motto, sometimes our dreams is our purpose.

I just founded my own game studio with a good friend after 10+ years doing gamedev as a hobby and we're working on our first commercial project since May. I can really relate to your situation and its awesome that you have such a reflective positive mindset about your process and outcome. We just got told we probably need to wait additional 2 months for an answer to get government funding. Gamedev can be a bumpy ride so this video came in the right moment. Also thanks for the transparency regarding your expenses and financial outcomes of Chess Survivor. This is really useful information for any other beginner indie gamedev and more people should openly talk about it. :) Congrats on the release, and all the best for your next project - keep it up.

Inspiring video ! I wish you the best for your next project, it might even give you back the ~16k $ missing XD

$8500 net? Well done!

Well done! I agree, making games is the fun part. I will do it as a hobby even if none of my games ever is a "hit".

It's fun seeing a positive view on game development, and seeing it was all worth it in the end!

You definitely should be proud! In the end it should not matter if 1 person loves playing your game or 10.000 like playing your game. Making a Concept and turning it into a real Game is really fun and challenging and the emotions when reaching milestones in a project are worth so much more than having a hit.

Nice video man

Thanks for sharing your journey, it was an amazing insight! Chess survivors is a big inspiration for me as I'm making a bullet heaven myself too and in a similar way as you. I quited from a very toxic company on february this year and decided to go full indie with my savings, probably will have an EA on december I think. And it is interesting for me to notice that since I'm living in a way cheaper country your net rev from chess survivors would actually pay for all my expenses so far, so in my case it would be a great success! Hopefuly I can get there.

Counting stars, instead if counting money. I liked it, especially the end of the video.

You can add another 5 to the bucket and wish you good luck with the next game aswell. I will try it and check the game once I have more time to play. The most important you achieved is experience, confidence, recognition. If I can give an idea what game would worth to make is a 2d scifi starbase management game similar like sim tower or yoots tower where you need to build a complex tower / skyscraper with functioning services, living rooms, offices and more. This but with a starbase with different alien species and with the option to recruit crew, improving the base and do exploration and space mining. Just an idea, I would make one if I have had the skill set for it.

Neat - thx for shearing

Currently releasing my first game and "spend" similar amount of money when creating my game. I would be super happy if my game succeeded as well as yours did!

Only one in ten games are successful, so its hard, and you are way on your way to make it happen :) It's a very nice result with your first game, and you might break even with it in one year. Gratz.

Ay man you totally rule, Ive always wanted to quit my job and just focus on my game but I've never been financially stable enough to do so. Seeing someone that has the same passion for game dev like me is so refreshing. Can't wait to see your next game!

so inspirational 👍

Aarimous: *wastes 25k $ on a game* Also Aarimous: "I'll Fuckin' Do It Again"

Good spirit here ! I hope you will be able to continue and make a living with making games. And, who knows, maybe a hit one day ? :-) (Do you know how many hours you worked for you game ?)

Hey. I'm 45 and kind of in the same boat. I could make loads more money doing the work I've grown really negative towards over a 20 year career. However, I'm choosing to do as little of that as I need to support my family (4 kids!) and spending the rest of the time on developing a game (and, hopefully, some day, more games). I'm in this for the long haul so, although Early Access game has not paid me handsomely for my time, I love making it, learning more skills and setting up for creating more games. Hopefully one of them makes it big enough to completely support us financially one day...

Awesome video! I definitely think it was a good investment of both your time and money. The amount that you learned, the community you grew, and the clout you earned are well worth it in my opinion. When you develop your next game, I bet things are going to be that much easier and that much more successful for you.

Time is so valuable. I did the same thing. Left my job as a network engineer (Toxic small ISP. I actually did the work of 3 positions. I HATED it there) to pivot into cyber security. I saved enough money to quit my job and work on certifications. Best decision ever. Glad to see others with this mindset. Started learning game dev just as a programming project and really liked it. Love your channel

I have to say: I love germany I quit my job and took a few month off to start making my game...but in Germany we get 80% of our last salary for a few month. This is enough time to play around for a bit 😁

Hell yeah, dude

Make sure to update newer engine version from time to time to improve performance and battery life which will help out handheld also make it steam deck compatible,, the steam deck can make he game more visible to players.

You practically made a no budget game and profits will not shrink to zero. Very honest to add the cost of living to your calculation because most don't do this. Yes the freedom is something you will not forget. 5 years ago I made an iPad game after I got fired. Completely flopped. But I felt I never wanted to do anything else anymore if possible. I'm finally in a situation where I have enough time to work on a new game. Honestly folks expect too much profit from their first game. The value is in learning and in the joys of creativity. Life is short but don't give up for good after the first failure.

You didn't just build a game. You built yourself.

Dude. I have played it, a solid seven out of ten. It is really complex, the systems work and get really wacky and are clearly not just a copy paste of the "Survivors" genra. I had my first broken run and I don't know what I synergised into but I had playing cards that just killed everything.

any chess youtubers/streamers made a video about it?

Journey before destination.

Just curious, how long does it normally take steam to approve a game? I know they say leave at least 5 business days but does it usually take longer?

Would be nice if you would mention that you made this game in Godot. 😊 Because we don’t have this many games being finished and commercially released right now. Congratulations to your, as it seems, mostly positive release!!! 🥳 And I hope you will break even in the long term. Anyway, for the first game, it is more then solid! And I’ll by it.

I’m an old retired network administrator who just broke ground on my first game. I think you got far more than $25k in value for the past year. Your game looks tight and well marketed. You don’t just stumble into that. You used your time well. Question for you. You said you use Godot with gdscript but you had C# experience with Unity. I am settled on using Godot. But not sure if C# or gdscript is better. I am an adequate (not awesome) C# developer with 5 independent business software titles to my name. Would you still go gdscript or stick with C#?

im planning to make my first game and im scouring fiverr for voice actors and music artits and maybe even character creators

Awww bro, you should've made a soulless Pay2Win game. You'd be a zillionare by now.

To be fair your game should make back it's dev cost during it's life oof let's say 5 years... So you should be very proud you make a successful steam game which to me Gaming press of over years 10 Steam games have less then 40% successrate which if you don't count paying yourself like most creatives don't you made a massively successful game congrates! Edit: Also that 18k or or so just call it a fun vacation and let your hobby game be massively successfull.

Can be your best investment ever. Do it again.

You scared me with the $25k cuz I'm making a game too but I wasn't anticipating that much

you only had one life saving? that's rough

Yes you waste your life saving by making a game you should spend that money on colonizing the mars!. Joking aside i'm currently making my first game called Hell Runner that early access on steam and i'm also spend way more money than i make for the game XD But i can't complain yet because game not even finished so

1:03 wait why didn't you just generate it using AI?

what about YT revenues though?

i spent over 4 years and a lot of resources developing a video game i would be happy to send you a free steam key if you are interested on trying it. would you be interested?

If you spent some of that money on the game art maybe it would have sold better

Or you can not quit your job or just gind a new one and work on your game part time everyday for at least 5-6 hours….

lmao i thought 2500 is only for game development

-life savings 25k/ lmfao

Similar background here, but unemployed for 2 years instead and finished game developing course just this year, gonna start making project but it will be a serious one to be monetized cuz i need the money as there is no income and game developing companies dont want beginners...

how is this games budget 25000 lol

:D

well you could spend money in a lot of worse ways.

?? you're an indie dev, how did it cost you 25000??

Gosh, next time, just ask me for help. For 500$ you will get 5 capsules with the same quality from Polish artists :)