Revenue from the sale of their own games is the main source of income for most indie developers. The second most popular is personal savings. This is reported by the results of a study conducted by the Indie Megabooth organizing team.
The main question of the study is: “How exactly is your work in the gaming industry funded?”. It turned out that the income from the sale of games allows 54% of respondents to continue working in the industry; 36.1% live on their own savings. Another 34% of respondents finance their own work through the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform. An almost equal number of respondents receive money from investors or publishers – 19.7% and 18%, respectively. The same number – 18% – live at the expense of a partner or family, and exactly the same number of respondents exist for grants or prizes. 13% of respondents work for a salary in a position related to the gaming industry. And in a position that is not related to games – 11%.
Indie developers estimated their average annual income per family at $72,520 to $78,826. Of those who answered the income question, up to 80% called themselves full-time indie developers. Note, in a note, the Gamasutra resource, which posted information about the study, reports that annual family income and income per person are not the same thing. According to the resource’s research, the average annual income of an indie developer in 2013 was $11,812.
Respondents were also asked how satisfied they were with sales from games.
The majority – 30% – were “very satisfied” with the income. Those who were “completely dissatisfied with their incomes” turned out to be only 5.6%.
Most of the respondents also managed to recapture development costs. – 77,8%. Failed – 22.2%.
The study was conducted among the participants Indie Megabooth is a conference for indie developers, which is held every few months in the USA and Western countries Europe .
A source: http://gamasutra.com