How Profitable Are Indie Games?

[Epifire]

This has been some good stuff to hear. I will likely be searching this out more in the future to go through the hows and whys of setting up and managing a small company too. Dang it's to bad Hourences didn't wright a book about that too.

[marks]

Dear Esther's total development costs were in the £170k region I think. I believe they secured separate funding in the form of a loan or grant though to pay for the Source engine license. I remember Dan saying that after all the profits had been distributed out, there was about enough left over to fund a prototype of their next game. I'm reasonably sure both Rob and Dan made a fair wad of cash from it (as they should) but it doesn't sound like there was much left over after that. And this was one of the indie darling runaway-success stories...

[Idolon]

Here's an article Hitbox wrote about Dustforce's profitability. It's a good read.

[Stormy]

Great link and really good info. I feel a little let down though since they got 100k in prize money to fund it, but perhaps that means that a 100k loan is less prohibitive, provided you have a solid prototype and everything sorted out before quitting your job. My offer still stands for getting a 100k loan and working on a game full time for a year or two.

[SM Sith Lord]

Good articles, thanks for the links. The IndieViddy service looks awesome. Takes WAY too much damn time to send emails and try to promote your stuff all day.