How cliché.

YoYo Games have just announced their biggest competition to date, with cash prizes valued at $35,000, and additional software prizes worth up to $85,000.

More info » http://gamemakerblog.com/2013/05/03/gamemaker-studio-win-big-competition-announced-prize-pool-120000/

To celebrate the New Year, GameMakerBlog.com is giving away a free copy of GameMaker: Studio Professional.

More info: http://gamemakerblog.com/2013/01/03/gamemaker-studio-giveaway-1/

http://forums.indiegamer.com

I've heard from people here that "indiegamer" is a better forum for casual game makers (people who are more into the business than the art).

I find it interesting that the business-orientated devs would be considered "casual game makers"

Sorry, yes when I said traditional model I was referring to simply slapping a price tag on a game.

- flash / browser games, which can make money through the sponsorship model

- mmo's, which do best with the subscription (pay per month) model

- multiplayer competetive games, which sometimes do better with the free to play and selling in-game items model (like league of legends) but often do just fine with the selling games model too (starcraft 2, etc.)

- facebook and iphone games, which can do well with free to play

This combination of platforms make up a very large portion of the gaming market today, possibly even the majority. When I think of monetization, single-player desktop games don't even come to mind.

Developers looking to make money without relying on "that one big hit" that so few manage to achieve will find more realistic success with Flash games, browser games, or apps, and much quicker than they will with single-player desktop games.

So sure, if we're looking from your perspective - I'd agree - spend more time making a better desktop game and stick to the limited monetization models that actually work. But these other platforms are where the real money is for indies, where the playing field is more level, and where the monetization of your game is extremely important.

I work on my desktop MMO, Myriad Online, which will be free to play with a cash shop.
I work on my HTML5 games, and license them to publishers across the world.
I work on my apps, which let me experiment with all sorts of monetization methods.

All of these projects require me to think very specifically about how I will monetize them.

But I don't work on a single-player desktop game. Because the monetization options are so very, very limited, and because it is not an attractive option for indies looking to make money.

While I understand what you're saying, our comments were made from two very different viewpoints.

I know from your previous posts that you're very set on the traditional model Paul, but the traditional model is not the best grossing one. If you're trying to make a living, why bother making an amazing game if you can't monetize it to the fullest?

Monetization deserves as much attention as crafting a game worth selling. It's just another cog in the machine. I tend to think taking the traditional route is the lazy option in today's market.

I'd love to make a hardcore perma-death MMO someday, but I wouldn't monetize it the way you're suggesting. As already mentioned, monetizing on death is probably the worst time to try and do so. Players will not be in a good mood after dying in a game like this.

Make games not war.

I guess it's a place to put non-commercial games. They're actually getting a surprisingly high amount of plays given how awkward it is to actually access them.

I understand their motive for wanting to populate Workshop with quality GM games but the way they've disguised this as a competition is misleading. There's no challenge here. The winner will be whichever developer that ports the best existing game. That's not fun, and since I already know I don't have the best existing game there's no incentive for me to enter.

Porting games from GM8.1 or lower to GM:S is hellish, but people have a month to do so and as a result I expect to see popular games ported, and ultimately take the prize pool.

This announcement has been a disappointment for me.

After hints of upcoming official GameMaker competitions and the recent addition of Steam Workshop support, YoYo Games have announced three competitions in collaboration with Valve. The series of competitions, to be held between October and December, will award USD $1000 to the sole winner of each event.

More info

I think there will be some controversy over the rules, which don't seem to limit entries to games created within the month.

Still beautiful as hell.

True Valhalla, I wanted to ask: did you start going full indie with a project started and? If yes, what was the state of the project? If no, then you started a new project when you quit your job?

Well, I had a major project in development called Myriad Online at the time, but it wasn't making enough money to sustain me so I had to look elsewhere. That project went on hiatus while I worked on my HTML5 games, but I recently resumed work on it now that I have some financial stability again.

Wow, that's really inspiring!

Hahah, I'm basically reading through your whole blog now.

Since I'm still graduating in college, I have no way to go full-time indie right now by any means, but do you think it's possible to achieve similar success as a part-time indie gamedev?

I think so, definitely. Obviously it's going to take longer to see a pay off, but if that was my only option I'd still be working on my games part-time (in fact I did for several years, just without a commercial focus). I happened to be in a fortunate situation when I started this (with no mortgage to pay, family to support, or tuition fees).

It all depends on your time management. But it may not be appealing to work or study all day, and then go home to work more on games. It's exhausting whether it's part time or full time.

Thanks for the comments everyone

That's a pretty good start - I think I made around $300 my first month, not very good!

Since I've already explained that in other posts before I try not to repeat myself constantly so my frequent audience doesn't get annoyed.

But you're right, for clarity what I do is create HTML5 mobile apps and license them to publishers for a fee. That's my main source of income, anyway. Check out earlier income reports for a full overview, or some of my earlier posts.

I wanted to try and avoid giving a life story with this post, since I've done enough in other blog posts. Thanks for your comment.