How realistic is to fund a trip with a videogame?

[zhed]

Hi,

I always worked on game engines as an hobby, in hackathons and for studying, but never really worked on commercial projects, so I would like to know what you guys think about this.

It may sound stupid, but I was thinking about funding my late-summer (end of September) holiday trip developing a game in these 5 upcoming months.
I've been thinking about some PC game concept for quite some time, and I thought it might give me a good motivation to get me started on this project.

My goal is $2000 by the end of September. Considering we are a 3-man army (so ~700$/each, not 2000$/each!), and we've no 10-year experience in developing games, how realistic do you think this goal is? Assuming the game is released by the end of August/start of September, do you think the goal is realistic?

I know it depends a lot on what kind of game I'm building, etc., and I'm giving very little details here, but would be nice to just consider the...statistics (treat it like the average PC indie game developed by a very small team in 5 months)

I'm looking forward to read your opinions

[LexLuthor1]

(treat it like the average PC indie game developed by a very small team in 5 months)

About $10 each

No, seriously - the analogy I'd use for your question would be, "is the Universe infinite" and the answer I'd expect is ???????????????????????????????????????
In other words, an impossible question to answer, (unless of course you're telepathic)

[fighter5347]

"is the Universe infinite"

the unisverse isn't infinite, it is just expanding into infinity

2000$ is hard to reach, but it is possible

You just need:

-a very very good game ^^ -> e.g with a normal shooter you wont reach your goal
-a youtube channel with adsense -> even with not so many views you can earn pretty much money for doing nothing
-plenty of friends and time -> for promotion
-luck

But as LexLuthor1 said, it nearly impossible to give you a good answer to your question. We would need more informations.

[zhed]

No, seriously - the analogy I'd use for your question would be, "is the Universe infinite" and the answer I'd expect is ???????????????????????????????????????

lol, yeah I understand it sounds like a very weird question :P it was worth giving it a try, though! Actually, I was hoping somebody had a similar idea sometime back in the past and wanted to share their experience or stuff like that

[zhed]

the unisverse isn't infinite, it is just expanding into infinity

2000$ is hard to reach, but it is possible

You just need:

-a very very good game ^^ -> e.g with a normal shooter you wont reach your goal
-a youtube channel with adsense -> even with not so many views you can earn pretty much money for doing nothing
-plenty of friends and time -> for promotion
-luck

But as LexLuthor1 said, it nearly impossible to give you a good answer to your question. We would need more informations.

Thanks for the answer! This is the kind of wisdom I was looking for: I for one didn't even think about Youtube

More wisdom (maybe about publishing!) is more than welcome!

[fighter5347]

I for one didn't even think about Youtube

to reach your goal you have to look for every kind of getting money

[FrankieV]

Yes and no.

Anger Birds made something like 2 million bucks in about three days but the unknown X factor is how long it would take to get to market and how many have-to-fix-bugs you have to deal with.

I guess the way to look at it is the actual release is in the middle some place as to be considered done.

So the logic is 1) make game 2) release game 3) fix game 4) game is done 5) go on vacation.

NOW if the Marketplace was open and you can make a really cool, must have, pluin solution then $2000 bucks would be totally do able.

Oh and just as an after though to get the $2000 in pocket your game would have to generate at least twice the goal so you would need to have a game that returns $4000 bucks depending on your choice of distribution.

When there is money involved there is “always” the middle man on one side and the tax man on the other (yes you have to pay the taxes )

I doubt even Epic would let you sell stuff in their markertplace with out a cut of the profits.

[Bajee]

If you need money, don't gamble with an own project. Do some freelancing. A couple of websites or a simple mobile app and you got your 2k.