I asked this on twitter too, but if I made a little year-in-review/income review post as a smaller solo gamedev, would people be interested in reading it?
I think I did one of these last year, mostly talking about my income from the year, and I'll probably talk about that here too, but this year has actually been pretty good for me (in contrast to the wider industry at large, and the world in general).
First, a general recap of the year:
So, first and foremost, I released two games this year! Elephantasy: Flipside came out (🏳️🌈) in late February/early March, but I also put out a smaller project, Grapevine, in June. Flipside was a whole Thing, having taken a year to complete, which makes it the longest developed game I've released in years (Elephantasy, in contrast, took about half that time). Flipside had a lot of hype (relative to that I normally deal with, anyway) prior to launch, and afterwards I got kind of caught up in a mindset of bugfixing/post-launch stress that I still haven't really recovered from. That said, the game has been pretty successful, both monetarily and in terms of notoriety (again, relative to my other work), though some players have mixed feelings about it, which I can understand in hindsight. Grapevine, on the other hand, was more of a side project. It's a mostly free arcade/puzzle game, with a paid "full" version featuring extra levels and a high-score saving feature. It was a nice little thing to work on after Flipside sort of consumed my life for a year, but it wasn't very impactful financially.
I also worked on a few projects throughout the rest of the year (some various pixel art concepts for an unnamed WIP RPG project, the "Gunship" prototype in GMS1.4.9, and then the Multiple-Player-Character/"Polymates" project and my current "Exopoloro" project in Godot 4.1). I found it really hard to justify working in Game Maker on the Gunship project, and I switched to Godot in order to hopefully future-proof my ability to work on games, and remove the fear of my tools becoming imminently obsolete. I also wanted to move away from combat-focused gameplay, which is why the two Godot projects I've worked on have been more puzzle-oriented. I feel like I had a similar sort of kick-ideas-around-and-see-what-sticks phase after releasing Elephantasy, where I finished/released Kiss the Stars Goodbye and then messed around with some burner projects until Flipside popped into my head. Hopefully I've settled on an idea moving forward, because I'm getting anxious about not releasing something next year and jeopardizing my main source of income. We'll see though.
Apart from releases, there have been a few other notable moments this year! I did a bunch of art for Roto Force, which is the first game that I've contributed to in a meaningful way that I wasn't the lead (or only) developer of! I was a finalist for the Astra Games grant earlier in the year (didn't end up getting it, which sucks, but there's always next year I suppose). I was on Indiepocalypse Radio again, which was fun as always. I bought a new laptop to replace my old one from 2015/2016. And finally, I got PR status in Canada, which has been years in the making! No more work permit anxiety for me!
Now, onto the financials:
From Gamedev and Gamedev Related Endeavors (i.e. the Roto Force commission work) this year to date (12/13/2023), I have made $18,522.85 CAD in gross revenue, which is a lot of money!!
It's certainly more than I made last year! I attribute much of that to participating in the Trans Witches are Witches bundle early in the year (which we'll talk about in a bit more detail later), the subsequent release of Flipside on itch and Steam, and then participating in the Queer Games Bundle for the second year in a row.
However, note that I said gross revenue; minus all the costs (itch's cut, Steam's cut, payment processors' cuts, bank fees, RENT, the aforementioned computer purchase, and paying Polymute's wonderful composer, pqqq/Izzy) I made far less. I also had a few issues with past tax returns (who would have thought that the CRA doesn't like you claiming worker's benefits for the year you graduate and start working, which also happened to be 2020, when the COVID-19 Pandemic started), which further complicated things.
Thus, I've ended the year with about $4,807.40 CAD in net earnings, a lot of which has gone back into other living costs that I don't keep as accurate records of, such as buying food, as well as the costs associated with getting Permanent Residence in Canada. That said, I'm very fortunate to have been able to cover my expenses at all, and I don't expect to be able to do it again next year. A lot of my financial success this year was purely down to luck; if I hadn't been able to join the Trans Witches are Witches bundle early in the year, for instance, I don't think I would have broken even at all.
I'll also note that I'm not including some of my income from non-gamedev sources, or the ~$25 I get from my Patreon every few months. I try to do work related to my degree during the year, which gives me some other income (mostly in the summer). However, even with those alternate sources of income, game sales are still the main way I stay afloat.
Here's some graphs/data for those interested:
The above data entry includes losses from payment processors, storefront cuts, currency conversions, Steam refunds and automatic taxes, but NOT rent or other business expenses/losses I experienced during the year. Basically, the numbers here are what I actually got from the stores after any transfers were made and before spending any money on anything.
As you can see, itch has actually been my biggest source of income this year by a wide margin, a fact that's only exacerbated by Steam's refund policies and larger pay cut. This difference can be noted when comparing the pie-charts showing gross revenue and net revenue. Notice how Steam's slice makes up a smaller percentage of my net revenue than it does my gross revenue. And this isn't even taking into account the $100 USD that Steam has you fork over to have the privilege of putting a game on their storefront in the first place! In addition, you see how I don't list any Steam payments from before April, despite Flipside releasing in February? That's because my bank ended up holding/delaying the Steam payout for Dec 2022/Jan & Feb 2023 for a month!! What the hell!!!
Also, notice how I made ~$6-7000 CAD from itch in March? A lot of that is from the Trans Witches are Witches bundle; it bears repeating that without that bundle, I likely wouldn't have broken even at all. As an aside, I ended up making a donation to the UK charity Mermaids with some of that money (~$800 CAD). Most of the other charity/aid bundles I've participated in over the years have been raising money for specific causes/charities, so I felt weird being in a bundle that made so much money that I ended up directly profiting from. I also always feel a bit weird an a nonbinary/gender non-conforming person lumping myself in with other trans folks, especially when it comes to mutual aid; I'm masc-presenting and white, and I don't want to be taking resources away from anyone who needs them more than I do. I also feel like I'm not trans enough, if that makes sense. I don't know. I would have given away more, but again, this is my main source of income, and I try to save whatever I can for when times get particularly bad.
I don't really have a good way to wrap this up, but I want to reiterate that I've been very fortunate this year, and I really appreciate all the support I've received, both verbally and monetarily. Because of Flipside, I've had the privilege to meet/talk with a lot of people whose work I find really inspiring, which has been very cool as someone who feels like a weird hermit most of the time! I'm hopeful that next year will also be a good one, though I don't think that I'll make anywhere near as much money as I did this year. I have a very supportive partner with a somewhat more consistent job, and I also have some savings, so even if I don't, I'm not very likely to wind up destitute in the future. But with the cost of living being what it is right now, I'm definitely nervous about the future.
As an aside, I do have a Patreon if anyone reading this has any money to spare and wants to throw a buck my way every month. I don't really do much to make it worthwhile (despite my repeated and futile attempts to revitalize it), but it's a decent way to consistently support my work if you enjoy it! And, of course, buying my games on itch (or Steam, if you'd prefer) is also hugely impactful. Anyway, that's all from me! Thank you for reading, and being interested in my work/games!
