LudumData

How to earn £12,000 in one year from game development?

[raw] LD21LD #21 13. Sep 2011 · 20:59 UTC · 25 days after compo start by Arowx · 10

The Challenge:
I have a 365 day runway (until 9 Sep 2012) to earn £20k (about $32k) from games development.

The earnings value is based on a UK minimum wage calculation of about £6 per hour 9-5 job, and factoring in that I will have to pay money to make them, buying in music ect, and overheads for payment providers?

Resources:
Me, Unity, PC, Mac, iPod, Android.

Currently I manage to produce game ‘Prototypes’ like these http://www.kongregate.com/accounts/Arowx/favorites

Hurdles:
Art, 3D Animation, Procrastination, Funds, Motivation, Experience, Marketing

Forfeit:
If I have not hit or exceeded this target by the deadline and proved I can make a living from games I have to dust off my CV and get a job!

So what advice would you give or better still how do you do it?

Comments

Felipe Budinich
13. Sep 2011 · 23:00 UTC
I’m on a similar quest now, so I’m gonna tell you about what I’m planning to do, and it’s based on the extrapolations from the info I’ve got avaliable, the cost of living in my country is way lower than yours, some of it is counter to what digital_sorceress just said, and there is a big chance that I’m gonna be soooo wrong on the long run, so take it with a grain of salt:
14. Sep 2011 · 00:08 UTC
Cool. Next month, I’ll be challenging everyone to earn $1. Might be a good place to start. 😀
notche
14. Sep 2011 · 03:44 UTC
My advice is “Don’t do it!”
14. Sep 2011 · 04:36 UTC
I wish I knew, then I’d do it (well except I’d need 2-3 times more money just to pay the bills due to Switzerland being so much more expensive than the rest of the world v___v)
14. Sep 2011 · 05:17 UTC
Good luck!

My limited experience in game development as hobby tell me one thing: I must eat and live, so a main job, at least part-time job is required.
14. Sep 2011 · 10:02 UTC
Why not? Start a cool project (i.e. innovative and noteworthy*), and after two or three months, if you have enough to show the gameplay and some of the artstyle, put it on kickstarter or 8bitfunding, to get funding for some more months.