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Geek Culture / Making a living off of Flash game development?

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Izzy545
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Posted: 15th Jun 2009 07:38
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Hi there, I'm mortally sick of my day job and am wondering how feasible it is to consider doing flash game development full time as a replacement.

Considering that I only make about 1000 a month from about 35 hours of work a week (after taxes), is it possible to make about that much putting in 140 hours a month of work to freelance flash game development? I see on Kongregate you share ad revenue with them from your games, and will sponsor some games also, but I'm not sure what kind of income I'd be looking at with that.

I'm going crazy working in fast food full time, so if anyone has any experience with this sort of thing, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks in advance.

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Van B
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Posted: 15th Jun 2009 14:01
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It's hard to say, and even harder to say how things will go in the future. It's a risk - but as your working in fast food, why not reduce your hours a bit, make a game in this time, then see how it performs.

If your not confident after making 1 game then you could take more hours, really your flash game development should take over as your livelihood over time. I say ease yourself into it, get some basic engine stuff worked out and then consider going full time indi if your games demand it and the game sites can support it financially.

It would certainly be a nice way to earn a living though, haphazard but there's a lot to be said for legally going to work in your underwear.


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Fallout
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Posted: 15th Jun 2009 17:21 Edited at: 15th Jun 2009 17:22
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I think Van is right. I would imagine to make a living from Flash games, you'd need a very large amount of them in circulation. Say, 20 or more (complete guess), regularly being played, in order to generate enough advert revenue.

The only way to get there is to build up that game portfolio while in your current job, as there's no way you could make 20 successful games quickly. Doing it that way will also give you an insight into how much money there is to be made. My personal guess is, very little, unless you're the sole beneficiary of the ad revenue (i.e. the website owner). All speculation on my part though!

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Jeku
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Posted: 15th Jun 2009 17:57
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Check out Richard Davey's blog for some facts and figures he disclosed from sales of his game Kyobi:

http://www.photonstorm.com/archives/431/the-further-adventures-of-kyobi-updated-sales-figures

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Megaton Cat
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Posted: 16th Jun 2009 04:38 Edited at: 16th Jun 2009 04:41
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Well you're only 16, I think you should put priority on finishing high school first and not waste all your free time working a dull minimum wage job so you have time to build your portfolio. Maybe even go to university and get a degree in case the freelance thing doesn't work out so then at least you can get experience doing flash dev with other companies.
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Dragon Knight
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Posted: 16th Jun 2009 05:13
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http://www.nitrome.com/ <-- perfect example of success, but those guys are AMAZING!!!!


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Data
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Posted: 16th Jun 2009 07:52
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Quote: "Well you're only 16, I think you should put priority on finishing high school first and not waste all your free time working a dull minimum wage job so you have time to build your portfolio. Maybe even go to university and get a degree in case the freelance thing doesn't work out so then at least you can get experience doing flash dev with other companies.
"

I would agree with Megaton!

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Izzy545
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Posted: 16th Jun 2009 09:53 Edited at: 16th Jun 2009 09:53
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Megaton> Where did you get I was 16? Oh, maybe my LuLu page... That actually hasn't been updated, I'm actually 20 and am going to college for an MIS degree, it's just summer break right now,

Jeku> Thanks for the link! Great info there.

Thanks for the advice all, I'll definitely have to take it slow until my name is out there and I can get some more experience and such under my belt. I made a basic game I plan to extend on for a more advanced sequel or two and it's made me a few bucks since yesterday, but I'm sure that will quickly taper off.

If anyone is interested, I also found this cool "experiment" a guy did seeing what kind of $/hour he could make with flash game development, here's a link: http://www.emanueleferonato.com/2008/03/04/experiment-monetizing-a-flash-game-part-8/

Anywho, thanks again.

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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 16th Jun 2009 09:58
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Baker College Online has a Game Software Development Degree that includes flash game development, XNA game dev (with c#), C++ courses and Visual Basic. It also has a lot of game design classes. I just completed an associates degree in computer animation there, and I just enrolled in this program for the fall.

Baker is pretty cheap too compared to other school's. I think it's around $190 per credit hour now, roughly $3000 a semester for four classes. However, each Online semester is only six weeks, so really every semester you'll be doing double.

Van's advice is really good, as is Megaton. Finish High School first. Pay your due's in fast food/retail and then gtfo. You don't want to stay there forever.

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
Current Project: http://strewnfield.wordpress.com/ (Last updated 06/11/09)
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Deathead
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Posted: 16th Jun 2009 10:23
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Those blokes over at newgrounds are doing quite well, after making Castle Crashers. Also, Castle Crashers what I can see so far from their videos is that castle crashers was made using Flash.



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Zotoaster
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Posted: 16th Jun 2009 13:53
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My mate is getting paid $6000 so that Armor Games can sponsor his next Flash game, and he's not even really a game developer! He's a really good animator who figured out a couple of ActionScript commands, lol.

If you can get a lot of people playing your games, just try and find sponsors.
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David R
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Posted: 16th Jun 2009 15:47 Edited at: 16th Jun 2009 15:54
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Quote: "Well you're only 16, I think you should put priority on finishing high school first and not waste all your free time working a dull minimum wage job so you have time to build your portfolio. Maybe even go to university and get a degree in case the freelance thing doesn't work out so then at least you can get experience doing flash dev with other companies."


Doing freelance stuff does not prevent you from continuing education. Whilst this guy wants to go full time flash dev, but that's just his long term aim - and anything he does in the mean time is still useful. If anything it helps you get your foot in the door education-wise (and the job is useful cashflow). I did freelance software stuff for nearby charities last summer, and although obviously it didn't get me any cash, it was a massive help when I applied to universities - something to talk about etc. Initiative of working outside of school + charity = Epic win.

If his flash game stuff gets a decent outcome, it can also do the same to help his education (obviously not the charity part, but just as a boost in terms of education/how universities see you) - or he can go full time. Either way, he wins, provided he does keep in school/keep studying as well

EDIT: Oh wait, day job. I thought the job was just part time, which would have been useful. As a full time job though... yeah, without education, your options are seriously constricted. Have you actually left school (permanently) or is this full time during holidays etc.?

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Izzy545
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Posted: 16th Jun 2009 18:48
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Once again, I'm in college right now, I'm only working there part time during the school year, and full time in the summer.

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Megaton Cat
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Posted: 17th Jun 2009 00:07 Edited at: 17th Jun 2009 00:07
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Yeah sorry your web page threw me off your age since I was wondering why you'd be working full-time at that age. If you're already going to college in sept why would you wanna try to do flash dev full-time now? You can still work on it on the side.

As Sid said, once you do your time in your crappy job you can maybe get a paid part-time internship closer to your field. I used to work retail my first year of college for about $9/h and was miserable all the time, but was luckily able to land a gig in an accounting department with a company for $16/h working 20 hours a week. Makes paying for living arrangements much easier while in school.
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Izzy545
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Posted: 17th Jun 2009 02:58
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No worries. The reason I'm looking to do it full time is because I can't afford to go to school without working a full time job so I'm just looking to get out of fast food.

Yea, I'm hoping to get a good internship next year, I'm required to do a 225 hour internship my junior year anyways, but I'd like to do something more fulfilling in the meantime.

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