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[Flabby__Fabby]

I've quit my job and I'm trying to just get by making games. My wife makes enough for us both to get by and we are not struggling for now but I don't want it to be like this forever. In the past I have made a bit of money getting flash games sponsored.
I've spent the last 2 months solid making a little shooter game. I've tried to get it Greenlit but I've had no luck there. I've recently put it on Itch for $5. No one has purchased it after almost 200 views.
I just feel like it was a failure. And I'm not really sure why. I think at the end of the day it was just not fun enough. I know 2 months isn't that long to put into a game compared to others but I'm worried about going straight into spending another big chunk of my time on one game again.
I had an idea of going back to work (probably crap temp stuff) and trying to pump out loads of free games. In doing so I was thinking this would help me get better at finding out what is good by seeing people's feedback and also having a lot more freedom to do weird creative things as I'm not under pressure to think of ideas that could make me money. It could also get me recognised more easier as people are more willing to play a free game than paid. If any thing gets popular I could always refine the game and go full time developing it.
But then I'm not sure if I just made a crap game and it's just a lesson I have to learn. And maybe I should stick at doing it full time.
I feel like there a 2 paths I can take. And I really have no idea what one to go for. It's stressing me out and I can't stop thinking about it. My wife has 2 weeks of next week so I was thinking of spending the holiday with her and then making my mind up after.
What do you think?
Are you in this situation?
What would you do?
I have intentionally not posted links to my game because I don't want it to seem like this is some snakey way of marketing it.

[woodsmoke]

I'm guessing your 2 month game was too small to justify the $5.
You should make it free to get some recognition as you said yourself.

[ProgramGamer]

Well, first off, not posting your game prevents us from judging what could have gone wrong in your game creation process, which is pretty freaking essential to helping you, so if you would kindly reconsider your decision to not post your game here, that would be great!

Next, you seem shy about advertising your game to the world. Don't be. Contact people, make ads and talk about your game everywhere for it to get recognition. You can even go to indie game conventions if you have the money. Normal people will not mind and forum people advertise their current projects all the time anyways. Seriously, I dare you to find a user that does not have a link to their game/devlog in his signature. Everyone does it, and for good reasons, including me! The only thing I would recommend not doing is spamming people, but other than that don't be scared about putting your work out there for the world to see!

Finally, about your "small short free games" vs "longer better paid games" dilemma, it depends on the situation. If you want to make a game with familiar mechanics that you understand well, go for the longer project and fine tune it to the max, as it will have greater potential to attract people and generate profit. However, if you have an idea for a new kind of core mechanic that you're not too familiar with, you can always make a small free game to explore the possibilities and experiment with what those mechanics have to offer, and you can always make a more polished sequel later if you really like that. And the sequel will sell more too because of the following the original got you! "Meat Boy" to "Super Meat Boy" is a popular example. So I guess what you want to do is start out by gathering a fan base with free games and then make profits with bigger and better paid games which most your fan base will be willing to buy. Just don't forget to make a few new creative free games again once in a while.

So yeah, I think that's about all I have to say so far. And don't be afraid to ask things on the forums, they're there for that!

[Flabby__Fabby]

Here's the game:

http://flabbyfabby.com/woof-blaster.html

Let me know what you think.

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

epilepsy simulator . my eyes hurt ...

Would be wiser to either put a demo or put it for free and pay what you want. It's risky for a customer to buy a 5$ dollar game from an unknown dev especially when the art isn't even outstanding.
2 month dev is really really short.

[missfacetious]

I'm not in particular going to try to offer what you should do, but tell you I see where you are coming from. I recently also left a lucrative job to jump into my passion, video games. They idea of "just making games is enough" wasn't ever what I thought, but it sounds like you might have fallen into that trap. You are fulfilled with many things such autonomy of what you want to do (making games), but feeling like you are succeeding (which you feel you are not). This is really common here .

If you are making quick, small games, you probably already know you are most likely going to be played in a more quick play space, whatever that may mean, mobile, facebook, pc, small digital download for relatively cheap if not free price. Not always the case, but that's what you seem to be making at the moment. If you want to move into longer dev times and make a masterpiece, it's not only going to be a slog, but you'll have to really really want to do the project you are doing because it will take a nice amount of time. Either way you go, I assume you think "succeeding" is monetary. You might feel like you are succeeding in other ways, the life experience, the conventions, the like minded friends you'll make. As for your autonomy, you might learn to hate the vast projects that take years if you are not really into making something great. So, think about what success is, what control you want, and maybe the answer will be easier to you because it's your life.

One thing that changed totally after leaving a job was I couldn't complain about how much I didn't like my boss telling me what to do, because I was the one in charge. Hope things work out for you!

[Chris Koźmik]

"action packed shooter" and "terrible graphics" don't mix There is no point making these if you can't afford really good art assets. Sure, you can make DwarfFortress with non existant graphics and you will have fans, but for action games it won't work.

I think you have choosen a wrong genre (action shooters are simply too expensive to make for an indie - unless you have some trick). Also you have no unique selling point (at least you have not listed any). You just made "a little shooter game" which in itself makes no sense marketing wise (at least on PC).

What games you like to play yourself? Would you play your own game? Does it give you a thrill? The sad odds are if you don't love your game others won't love it either (exceptions). My advice you be not to make "a game I can make easily so I can sell it cheap", this basicly never works.


I think longer development time won't help much in this case. It's not a problem of polish alone. More of original twist or something.

[VampireSquid]

If you care at all about how many people play or pay for your game then I think you will have to go a lot deeper.  It is probably okay to pump something out in 2 months if you just want to solicit feedback but most indie games seem to take a couple years of effort.   You have the time for that size of project so I would just keep making smaller projects until you find something that seems to excite people and then put the polish time into that title.