Is it even possible for hobbyists to make money from UE4 anymore?

[Jezcentral]

@scottlee38;303485

Hello. Yes you can make money with ue4 but you just have to make a game or tools for game development that are highly sought after. Single player story games dont usually make a ton of money for long periods of time, but mmorpg games will maintain a constant cash flow as long as you continue to make DLC. Think of popular single player games that would be fun if made massively multiplayer, such as super mario galaxy or kingdom hearts. That should send you in the right direction.

I think you missed the fact that the OP is a hobbyist. MMOs are NOT the way to go.

[anonymous_user_0e7d575f]

I gotta say that if you are doing games as a hobby, money should be the bottom of your list of needs. If you’re doing it to make money, it shouldn’t be a hobby If it’s really just a hobby you should make whatever you want without a care in the world about income, fame, or whatever. That said, I’d never work on a game without a financial end goal. I work with games because I love them, but I don’t work for free.

Finally, you don’t have to work full time to be a developer. You can still be in it for the money even with “hobbyist hours.”

[ambershee]

@Errvald;302489

Where did you get those numbers?

FYI, this is pretty well known and hundreds is actually an understatement. On Steam you see between 50 and 100 new games per week, which is already insane. On Android you get around 250 per day and on iOs you get around 500. Personally I don’t get why people even bother with the mobile market any more, it’s just ludicrously crowded.

[anonymous_user_138c2332]

@ambershee;303650

FYI, this is pretty well known and hundreds is actually an understatement. On Steam you see between 50 and 100 new games per week, which is already insane. On Android you get around 250 per day and on iOs you get around 500. Personally I don’t get why people even bother with the mobile market any more, it’s just ludicrously crowded.

He should’ve defined those numbers are not UE4 games.

[WalkingDead]

@ambershee;303650

FYI, this is pretty well known and hundreds is actually an understatement. On Steam you see between 50 and 100 new games per week, which is already insane. On Android you get around 250 per day and on iOs you get around 500. Personally I don’t get why people even bother with the mobile market any more, it’s just ludicrously crowded.

Yeah the amount of games on android market is insane. And all of them are like free…

I guess though once you can make a game thats fun and unique with time and effort put into it, you should be able to make some money yeah?

I have a question would it just be better to make a UE4 game for a PC rather than Android? and buy a steam greenlight pass?

[WalkingDead]

@masterneme;303454

I think is quite the opposite, it’s the best time to make money from games.

But to succeed you not only need a good game, you need to be a good marketer and provide something that is interesting to the market.

The truth is that the majority of people is focused on selfish needs and that includes developers, we fall in love with our concepts and creations but if they’re not valuable to the market you won’t get any money in return.

You need to find a balance between creativity and market “wants” and that’s accomplished through massive testing.

There’s not been a better moment than now to test stuff, you can make a protoype with promotion material in a matter of weeks, share it all over the Internet and get feedback very quickly, and the cost is almost zero.

And if you can spend money advertising you can accelerate the process massively through ASO and PPC.

Yes, on average there is no much money, but that is simply because the marketplace is saturated with uninspired clones and with shameless creations using default assets.

But think about it, that is good news! because if you’re a little bit smart you can stand out very easily.

Hey yeah when I look at the market there are a million different temple run games and flappy bird games. Its never ending all the same cloned ****.
The real question is, is it possible to market your game and get the word out there without the funds.

To me I am thinking of focusing on the PC alone and trying to get a game on steam market. I want to build a ARPG top down game kinda like Diablo / Grim dawn. And sell it for $5

If I could make $300 USD a month on games, I am golden. Thats a ton of money where I am from

[theonecalledtom]

There’s a second way to get money. If you learn to make a good product in unreal you become obviously valuable to companies that will pay you top wages as a professional games developer. I started coding as a teenager. I was lucky enough to live in the UK and get a free education but during university I was having difficulty making ends meet and went looking for a job. Based on the games I’d already made I found that companies were prepared to pay me! Ironically perhaps this gave me the confidence to go back to University and finish things up but when I again went looking for jobs it was the demo’s I’d created in my own time (little changed during my Uni years for that matter) that got me in the door.

Over the years (that was early 90s) I’ve interviewed hundreds of programmers and the ones with good looking demos - either demonstrating solid technical skills or the ability to write code to support imagination - always stood out.

As said above, don’t look for the money initially, look for the product and the skills, the money will come.

[ambershee]

That’s great and all, but that isn’t related to the topic at hand.

The thread title is Is it even possible for hobbyists to make money from UE4 anymore? - if you make it your profession, it’s not exactly a hobby any more.