Become a Gamedev with no Funding

Тәжірибелік нұсқаулар және стиль

For a lot of people, making a game can seem cost-prohibitive. A lot of first-time devs, won't have backing from publishers, grants, or previous game sales, and have to fund it all themselves.
We managed to release our own game for less than $500 (excluding hours, obviously). In this video, Marnix goes over how you can do it, and how you should spend your money if you do have some lying around.
In need of some Unity Assets? Use our affiliate link to support us, it's free, and we get a small kickback: prf.hn/l/wzGa15G
Timestamps:
00:00 Do you need money?
01:12 Spending money vs. time
02:55 All the tools are free
04:08 Team up
05:17 Keep your first games small
06:48 Go hard on free marketing
08:06 Create devlogs
09:27 What to spend money on?
11:34 Closing
---
Get our game now on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/21...
Join our Discord: / discord
Want to reach out to us? send us an email at hello@bitemegames.com

Пікірлер: 62

  • @exiscoming5509
    @exiscoming55099 ай бұрын

    Wait... 150 dollars for that piece of work? I work with artists all the time and a piece like that can easily run you 400 to 600 dollars. You guys got a great deal.

  • @rain4825

    @rain4825

    7 ай бұрын

    @@TombitpNope, can confirm, a piece this detailed and more importantly the rights to use it are worth more than that. They did get a great deal. Maybe the artist they comissioned is a newcommer that is building his clientelle, or his/her process is really fast, I don't know. The point is, having an original piece made for you (in high res at that) for comercial purpose ought to cost you more than that only for the rights to exploit the image.

  • @rain4825

    @rain4825

    7 ай бұрын

    @@TombitpOn one hand I agree with you, but on the other hand I think the work that was delivered was not properly evaluated. I understand the money constraints of an upcoming indy game dev, but as an illustrator myself I fear that the artist they contracted as well as new artists trying to get work fail to properly evaluate the amount they ask for. It's one of the problems with sites like feever, because it forces users to be ultra competitive to remain in the game, an there is so much competition to replace you with that no newbie dares raise their prices.

  • @alexanderkarayann

    @alexanderkarayann

    5 ай бұрын

    outsource to India

  • @teawa_
    @teawa_9 ай бұрын

    I’ve spent so much money on asset bundles - I watch an asset review video and start thinking of all the possibilities then I see the asset is on discount

  • @tobinrysenga1894
    @tobinrysenga18949 ай бұрын

    You time IS money. You could be programming or making art as a 2nd job. Make your decisions based on that kind of thinking so you don't abuse yourself and burn out by constantly working way too much.

  • @KillingSurvival
    @KillingSurvival9 ай бұрын

    Your thumbnails are better, ur tittles have been on point for a while but your video editing is finally catching up, great work, this channel is starting to find it's path 😊

  • @33GammaLLC
    @33GammaLLC9 ай бұрын

    We put over 600 hours into Dixie Ball. If you figure our team could have made $25 an hour doing anything else, that's over $15,000 in labor. We decided to make it free and open source, relying on donations. So far we haven't received a penny.

  • @Lucretia_Rage

    @Lucretia_Rage

    8 ай бұрын

    Why did you waste 600 hours making a game about rolling a racist ball around some boring rocks tho? Have you considered making a good game and not just whinging about cancel culture being the source of all your problems in your promotional material?

  • @MeadlordTheGreat

    @MeadlordTheGreat

    8 ай бұрын

    @@Lucretia_Rage Nice summary. I know this gets to political and off-topic, but otherwise every comment helps with the algorithm ^^' I was pretty shocked about the "Trump gets rid of the liar swamp bullshit" Trump is ass-kissing putin but blames others to sell america to china. How ironic

  • @nuin9937

    @nuin9937

    5 ай бұрын

    Racist ball 💀 @@Lucretia_Rage

  • @Ferenc-Racz
    @Ferenc-Racz9 ай бұрын

    I like your vids so much. I used to listen your videos (as some kind of podcast), when I on the way to work. :) In this way I can learn from your experiences and suggestions. :)

  • @progress_games
    @progress_games9 ай бұрын

    I spent about $237aud on my game. 137 putting it on steam and 100 for the music. it went on to make $2500

  • @flamart9703

    @flamart9703

    9 ай бұрын

    I can't see anything about your game in your channel, what's the name of your game?

  • @progress_games

    @progress_games

    9 ай бұрын

    @@flamart9703 bugTDX, I'll probably start posting videos on youtube soon.

  • @seancstudio
    @seancstudio9 ай бұрын

    Pick two things out of these three for every project. Time, Money or good. The third is the cost. A good game in short time will cost alot of money. Don’t spend any money and a good game will take alot of time. An asset flip is a good example of bad game made in a short time.

  • @gamedevjourney4231
    @gamedevjourney42319 ай бұрын

    I once bought the UI Menu Asset pack for mobile games. It was really necessary and made my game Tetros look much nicer. Although I didn't make a single Cent from this game it was worth the money. Maybe one day I fix the last problems/bugs with the game and try to make marketing for it. But currently I have another game idea I want to make a reality.

  • @ElianeGameDev
    @ElianeGameDev9 ай бұрын

    Thanks for your video !

  • @Li0nSword
    @Li0nSword9 ай бұрын

    Nice vid. Total spend for me so far is $400 and 4 months of my time. I spent about $300 on art for the steam capsule art and sprites. And of course $100 for the steam fee. I'm currently struggling to gather wishlists though so I fear that I won't even break even at this point.

  • @durma77

    @durma77

    2 ай бұрын

    What game are you making?

  • @koplaklegendz3121
    @koplaklegendz31219 ай бұрын

    Hi, thank you for this. Could you share with us where you got your music/sprite from? I know I can google some free sites, but what I'm curious about is your story. Maybe make a video of it so many people can learn also

  • @NitramiuZ
    @NitramiuZ9 ай бұрын

    For my game I made everything myself and therefor I've only spent $100 on it (steam fee). It really helped that I were already experienced in making music and editing!

  • @SlumberousSnorlax

    @SlumberousSnorlax

    9 ай бұрын

    link?

  • @malgow
    @malgow9 ай бұрын

    another banger upload

  • @DestinedDotCom
    @DestinedDotCom9 ай бұрын

    IF I only have $500 first thing I would do is buy the steam page. I would then spend small amounts on marketing and try to figure what works for you in getting wishlists. It will also tell you how popular the game will be and let you know if marketing will work for you after release. If you can get to the point you are spending less on marketing than the sales it give you, then you have a money printing machine.

  • @IzFanArt69
    @IzFanArt699 ай бұрын

    i like watch devlog

  • @mate1_dev

    @mate1_dev

    9 ай бұрын

    Then make one

  • @brazenzebra9581
    @brazenzebra95819 ай бұрын

    What you pay for in game development is experience and time. You can easily make "a game" for free, but you'll be limited by your isolated experience and your finite time. The cost of one's game, will only be as high as one needs it quickly and of a high quality. You can pay for higher quality, in your own time...or in someone else's. But the cost will come from somewhere, just remember you cant earn more time.

  • @VSalgc
    @VSalgc9 ай бұрын

    Finished a game spending for the PGMMV engine and well the steam 100 bug. but time is also money❤.

  • @Dailyfiver
    @Dailyfiver8 ай бұрын

    My budget has always been $0 so I have had to spend my time hahaha. I have learned a lot!

  • @Arab_GameDev
    @Arab_GameDev9 ай бұрын

    AWESOME VIDEO🤩 , I PUBLISHED A 11 WEEKS GAME AND GAINED 0.4$ WITH 0$ SPENT , IS THAT A SUCCESS 😂

  • @flamart9703

    @flamart9703

    9 ай бұрын

    Haha, seems like a success.

  • @markguyton2868
    @markguyton28688 ай бұрын

    I'm a guy just currently trying to learn an engine (Godot), but hope to make a full game out of it. I have not placed any money, but about 2 days worth of time over a 2 week period. Currently trying to build the basics of a shmup, I have the character working and am planning on learning how to make enemies soon.

  • @kyle-carpio
    @kyle-carpio7 ай бұрын

    When is the right time to do a Devlog? At the moment, I am leading a small team that is going to the Pre-Launch Phase to release mid-November with our upcoming game ‘Kthulhu Wants Me!’ and we are just started sorting out the promotional materials. The problem is, that our game is still in a blockout look that still doesn’t feel presentable. It makes it hard for me to do my first Devlog between as it takes a lot of my time at the weekends and I want to focus more on the development side as I feel like I am falling behind. I am finding a hard time to balance them and keep up with the workload. What is your advice?

  • @ArseniyShved

    @ArseniyShved

    3 ай бұрын

    I'd say talk about your game all the time. Gameplay trailer is nice, but the expectations from trailers != expectations from devlog. Even though you have the 'work in progress' mark it's hard not to judge it as a 'that's how it's going to release more or less'. The way I think about it is you want to have a vector of the development, not the snapshot of how it is at the moment.

  • @Tankerbox
    @Tankerbox9 ай бұрын

    starting my first devlog at -1… then i get three first devlogs 😅

  • @bitemegames

    @bitemegames

    9 ай бұрын

    Yes! This is big brain time! -T

  • @ultimaxkom8728
    @ultimaxkom87289 ай бұрын

    Nice thumbnail

  • @opxv
    @opxv9 ай бұрын

    What would a 7-8/10 game be? What do you rate your game as a reference point?

  • @Decoding_Master

    @Decoding_Master

    9 ай бұрын

    You don't have to build what you exactly thought just release it when it's playable

  • @Ferenc-Racz
    @Ferenc-Racz8 ай бұрын

    Hi. During your development and publishing, is that crossed your mind to find a publisher? Could you create a video about it, why you need or don't need a publisher? What are the traps what you need to be careful? I heard some horror story about publishers which literally stole the game Intellectual property (IP) (and the developer had to buy its game IP back) or the company itself (for 10K asked 40% of the company(!).. not the game revenue) , even prohibited the developer to release its game because it did not crossed the publisher expectations in some way. So I heard that there is a lot scam regarding publishers. Could you clarify it in a video? Thank you in advance.

  • @bitemegames

    @bitemegames

    8 ай бұрын

    It's a pretty easy answer. We didn't work on our game full time. No publisher would fund a game where there is no full-time commitment from the team, as we couldn't guarantee availability, what if we suddenly got a busy period at our main job,... This was also a problem for getting government grants really, if you can't show full-time commitment, a lot of people aren't interested. There are also some other issues I have with publishers, but I'll get to those in a longer video at some point probably. -M

  • @Ferenc-Racz

    @Ferenc-Racz

    8 ай бұрын

    @@bitemegames Thank you for the quick answer. :) I will wait for the longer version which may touch the other problems / questions. :)

  • @Tymon0000
    @Tymon00009 ай бұрын

    Don't bite me!

  • @theraven1232
    @theraven12329 ай бұрын

    starting your numbering at 0 is standard for devlogs, I imagine because most game devs are programmers and we start counting at 0. that doesn't make it dishonest by any means, in fact when I see a new devlog start at 1 I assume they are inexperienced.

  • @quackywhackityphillyb.3005

    @quackywhackityphillyb.3005

    9 ай бұрын

    Omg its shaun white the pro snowboarder

  • @abdullahk0405

    @abdullahk0405

    9 ай бұрын

    That's stupid

  • @jamiiedev
    @jamiiedev8 ай бұрын

    just 25 dollars for google developer license

  • @SoldierBol
    @SoldierBol9 ай бұрын

    Releasing a game on steam requires 100$ which is more than my budget what do I do?

  • @LorneDev

    @LorneDev

    9 ай бұрын

    Preferably work for it. If you dont want to work for it, Ask a friend, family or significant other.

  • @opxv

    @opxv

    9 ай бұрын

    Release on itch

  • @goragarxgamedev

    @goragarxgamedev

    9 ай бұрын

    There are other platforms than Steam that you can release on, but let's be honest: everyone who is not willing to spend the 100 bucks Steam fee is not that serious with their project. You can always work/ask for it.

  • @VSalgc

    @VSalgc

    9 ай бұрын

    you get it back from steam after revenue reach 1000😂

  • @r1ce0919

    @r1ce0919

    9 ай бұрын

    My plan is to release on itch for early access and/or demo. Then migrate to steam if it earned enough.

  • @griffitaj
    @griffitaj8 ай бұрын

    3:20 did not age well 😂

  • @khaelz
    @khaelz6 ай бұрын

    You still need money to buy a computer that can be used for game dev. So no, 0$ is not a possibility.

  • @LucRio448

    @LucRio448

    4 ай бұрын

    yeah and you need money to buy food and water to power the person doing the development, and electricity to power the pc, and someone else to spend money ahead of time to make sure the person doing the dev is capable of reading and writing aand one could go on about the most obvious stuff there is

  • @TennessseTimmy
    @TennessseTimmy9 ай бұрын

    I don't really agree with the devlog thing.

  • @MoisesConejo
    @MoisesConejo8 ай бұрын

    i came from future and unity is not for free now! and is worst than you think, run away from that engine