Idk Stardew Valley is a passion project if I’ve ever seen one. Sure, concernedape is making extraordinary profits, but it has to feel way better to have a decent size of the planet’s population playing and connecting with the project they poured their heart and soul into.
But at the same time there are plenty of indie devs that sell games for $30 and then have a few $15 DLC on top of that after a few years. Not throwing shade at those other devs, more just saying that the dev for Stardew Valley could have sold DLC and nobody would have questioned it but chose not to. You could be like Stardew Valley and keep the game cheap, free updates, and frequent sales or you could be like Factorio and refuse to ever put your game on sale and up the price every couple of years and come out with a $20 DLC. And I’d be shocked if Stardew Valley has made less money than Factorio in the long run, especially with it being the in number one place right now.
I think it’s fair, and sometimes good. I’ve been playing Stationeers recently and it’s fantastic. It’s priced reasonably, and it’s an amazing game. They have a few DLCs, which are purely there to give support, not new content. It’s for you to pay the devs more if you have the money to give them and want to.
However, they’re also losing money on the game and have said they never expect it to be profitable*. Most games aren’t Stardew Valley, and they’re struggling to survive. Stardew doesn’t need to make more money. Most small/indie studios do.
*It’s the studio making Kitten Space Agency, which they’ve said they want to be free, with the option to donate. I think they’re allergic to making profit and only like making cool games. I’d highly recommend checking out their games, if only because they seem to be doing development for the sake of the games.
And yet those small studios are one flop away from bankruptcy. Stardew Valley is a one in a million success story and should not pose as a benchmark. Barone decided to continue as a more or less single dev, but you can‘t blame talented young designers to expand their team to realize more ambitious projects and sacrifice economic safety for that simply because they now employ people. Barone can do updates ten years later and postpone Haunted Chocolatier for that, you can‘t do that if multiple people depend on their salary.
Mate, it’s one man, Self-published, pulling in the proceeds of a game that has sold 41 million copies. Even if he has made $5 per copy, that’s over $200 million dollars. The profit margin on his time even after 10 years is insane.
I didn’t realize it had sold quite that many. I knew he spent a lot of time working on it, like 70 hours per week for 4.5 years, but that still works out to at least an enormous $12,000 an hour! Even if he kept at 70 hours/week for all ten years, it’s still only half that number, far greater than you or I will likely ever see.
Steamcharts showed about 150,000 concurrent players playing the game when I saw a few days ago; I’m shocked at just how popular it is as well. I think he could basically just work on it 70 hours a week for the rest of his life and it would still be a great hourly rate.
Not that it should be expected to dish out free content and never charge for DLC. Not every game has the kind of profit margin Stardew Valley has.
Idk Stardew Valley is a passion project if I’ve ever seen one. Sure, concernedape is making extraordinary profits, but it has to feel way better to have a decent size of the planet’s population playing and connecting with the project they poured their heart and soul into.
It‘s a passion project alright, but we won‘t see many games if only those are getting done.
Less AAA trash fires and better access to actual passion projects because they aren’t being drowned in a sea of mediocrity?
This is an absolute win on all sides
Passion projects like Stardew where the devs get paid nothing for years? That’s not sustainable.
If there were 100x less games but they all had the passion of stardew behind them I think we’d come out ahead
But at the same time there are plenty of indie devs that sell games for $30 and then have a few $15 DLC on top of that after a few years. Not throwing shade at those other devs, more just saying that the dev for Stardew Valley could have sold DLC and nobody would have questioned it but chose not to. You could be like Stardew Valley and keep the game cheap, free updates, and frequent sales or you could be like Factorio and refuse to ever put your game on sale and up the price every couple of years and come out with a $20 DLC. And I’d be shocked if Stardew Valley has made less money than Factorio in the long run, especially with it being the in number one place right now.
I think it’s fair, and sometimes good. I’ve been playing Stationeers recently and it’s fantastic. It’s priced reasonably, and it’s an amazing game. They have a few DLCs, which are purely there to give support, not new content. It’s for you to pay the devs more if you have the money to give them and want to.
However, they’re also losing money on the game and have said they never expect it to be profitable*. Most games aren’t Stardew Valley, and they’re struggling to survive. Stardew doesn’t need to make more money. Most small/indie studios do.
*It’s the studio making Kitten Space Agency, which they’ve said they want to be free, with the option to donate. I think they’re allergic to making profit and only like making cool games. I’d highly recommend checking out their games, if only because they seem to be doing development for the sake of the games.
And yet those small studios are one flop away from bankruptcy. Stardew Valley is a one in a million success story and should not pose as a benchmark. Barone decided to continue as a more or less single dev, but you can‘t blame talented young designers to expand their team to realize more ambitious projects and sacrifice economic safety for that simply because they now employ people. Barone can do updates ten years later and postpone Haunted Chocolatier for that, you can‘t do that if multiple people depend on their salary.
Considering how much time he spent developing it, I doubt the profit margin is actually all that good.
Mate, it’s one man, Self-published, pulling in the proceeds of a game that has sold 41 million copies. Even if he has made $5 per copy, that’s over $200 million dollars. The profit margin on his time even after 10 years is insane.
I didn’t realize it had sold quite that many. I knew he spent a lot of time working on it, like 70 hours per week for 4.5 years, but that still works out to at least an enormous $12,000 an hour! Even if he kept at 70 hours/week for all ten years, it’s still only half that number, far greater than you or I will likely ever see.
Steamcharts showed about 150,000 concurrent players playing the game when I saw a few days ago; I’m shocked at just how popular it is as well. I think he could basically just work on it 70 hours a week for the rest of his life and it would still be a great hourly rate.
Personally I play Stardew a lot when my anxiety gets bad. This year has been pretty good for the game’s Steam statistics.
Good enough to not release a new game in ten years, what small scale studio can say that.