895
Inspired by true events from this morning
My experience every month.
For context: I make indie games and have released two so far and I'm currently working on the third one which is weird as fuck. So the way that Steam works is, they don't send you money anytime you make a sale, but they send all of it at the end of every month. Now September is almost over and I got an e-mail titled "Steam Payment Notification" and I get all hyped up. I open it and read it that the Payment Notification is actually that there is no Payment since I didn't make $100 in sales. Way to hype me up and bring me down, Steam.
Youtube and twitch work this same way. When I was starting there were months where I didnt make any money because I didn't meet the minimum. Hoping next month meets the requirement for you boss 🙏
Does the balance at least accumulate until you do hit the threshold, or is the money just gone?
It accumulates, so there is no money lost. It does kinda suck though that as you start, even though you can make money and did make a bit you don't get to see it yet
It does make sense from a payment processing standpoint. It doesn't make sense to spend more money on creating the transaction than is actually being sent.
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Does Steam take a cut for distribution?
If not, while this emotionally sucks, they've a solid operational policy.
Yes, their cut is 30% which is a lot, but they are pretty much the only big platform out there. Epic games has been trying to get in the game but so far they are not close. Their cut is 15%.
I want to note that you'd need about $143 in gross sales to meet the threshold of $100 in net profit.
On the surface that sounds like a lot. But, they're providing a service without any guarantee of any income. Epic can only compete because they've few users and are willing to operate at a near loss in attempt to garner market share.
This will be a difficult one for others to understand as a "good deal". Gamers are usually correct when they pull out their pitchforks. This should not be one of those times.
While I'm no fan of Epic Games for bribing companies to keep games off of Steam for a year or more, Valve's market dominance in PC game sales isn't a good thing for developers or consumers.
Competition in capitalism is always better than a lack thereof. But, we've not busted monopolies in a significant way since Ma Bell. And, even if we were, at 75% of the global market share they'd not warrant any action yet.
There's going to be a dominant organization because late stage capitalism sucks. And, I'd rather it be Valve than some alternative trying to fuck me over at every opportunity.
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I released a game like three years ago and it's earned $97 in that time.
I feel your pain
Buy it yourself, get over 100, cash out
Haha, I've considered it. I'd really like to at least be able to buy pizza for the gang who helped make the game.
Which game is it?
@KeefChief13@lemmy.world @Amanduh@lemm.ee @indomara@lemmy.world Thank you all so much for your interest! :)
The game is called Shoot Your Friends. It's a death match couch game for 2-4 players who share a screen and pilot tanks around an arena.
Please be aware that it is somewhat niche, it's only compatible with controllers and local multiplayer. But if you ever get the gang over for game night it can be a fun way to spend the evening.
shoot your friends
Done. Will you now tell me what it's called?
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Whats the game? :)
Tell us the game now.
Concord
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I'm sure if you owed them 100 bucks they'd demand it
*$99
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Fairly certain I've bought a game that was like 34 cents or something. I definitely charged me the 34 cents.
Hey me too! I released my first game on Steam a month ago and by all objective measures it was a flop, but as a hobbyist I'm still proud of it. It honestly did better than I thought for a small niche game that I did a terrible job of marketing, and my one review so far was quite positive so I'll count that as a small win as I move onwards to the next game.
EDIT: Here's the game because my reply is getting harder to spot below - https://store.steampowered.com/app/2792160/SnowDown/ - It's a small Jackbox-inspired party game (using phones as controllers) but with real-time action and physics as you throw snowballs around and destroy structures.
you cant just SAY that and then not mention the game name
wow you really are bad at marketing
The eternal conflict between being an indie dev and not wanting to be a shill :'(
What is the game? It's not being a shill to answer questions.
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By the way, here's the game for anyone interested: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2792160/SnowDown/
I didn't expect to see so many replies!
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Considering you're a hobbyist and probably don't have marketing, it's too soon to say it's a flop. Many games like that pop off later once it gets seen.
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I have lots of bills that are less than that every month, and yet somehow I can't just say they're not worth paying...
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My bank: "We have a new valuation on your home! Open your app to see it!"
...
"It's down 2%!"
hah same energy
If you want to support me, a wishlist of my current game will mean the world to me: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2336120/Do_Not_Press_The_Button_To_Delete_The_Multiverse/
But please don't spend money on my previous games, I recognize that they aren't that good I don't want to burden anyone financially with them (I loved every minute of making them, but I was still a noob back then).
FYI you have a typo in your last screenshot (This sign m[a]y not...):
Arhgh missed that! Thank you so much!
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But please don't spend money on my previous games, I recognize that they aren't that good I don't want to burden anyone financially with them (I loved every minute of making them, but I was still a noob back then).
You're not my mum! I bought Be a Rock anyway. Keep going, make games!
I believe in you!
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I guess I shouldn't be expected to pay for games until my total is over a hundred bucks then?
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I've had Google charge me $0.01 before for firebase usage.
They really should have waited until I owed more since that cost them money.
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itch.io once sent me 4$
If a game gets lost in the steam store and no one ever plays it, was it ever a game at all?
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I feel you, on Twitch is 50$.
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They don't seem to have an issue sending $10 refunds to my bank account, I wonder how much it actually costs them
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this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
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