A bit about me first: I develop under the name Ruxar but it's just me. I've got a full time job and a couple of kids, so game development is very much a part-time thing. From start to finish iZBOT took around a year and a half — though that wasn't flat out. I had a couple of extended breaks in there where I was either playing or making other games.

I do believe I have a tenacity about me, in that I really want to finish things I start. This can be good (I finish games), but bad as well (I end up binge watching The Walking Dead along the way).

The Game

What iZBOT is — and isn't

iZBOT is a fast platformer, but it isn't breaking any new ground in terms of originality or mechanics. This was mostly due to a combination of things: my naivety of the marketplace and my limitations as a part-time developer.

When I started I'd just watched Indie Game: The Movie and knew I wouldn't be able to make something at the quality of Super Meat Boy — but if I could put out something similar, I might be able to grab some sales within the hardcore platforming segment. In hindsight, I didn't really differentiate it from the rest of what was out there.

Dev Process

How the time was actually spent

While working on iZBOT I'd usually do 2–3 hours a night. This was a mix of programming, art and marketing through dev blogs and social media. If I had to divide up my time roughly: the majority went to programming, a solid chunk to art, and a meaningful slice to marketing and community work.

The split matters because it's easy to spend a huge amount of time on things that ultimately don't move the needle on sales — a lesson I learned the hard way.

Marketing

What I tried

During development I tried to be as open and engaging as possible: progress GIFs on Twitter, #screenshotsaturday, a devlog on TIGSource and my own blog. Closer to launch I ramped it up — press releases to gamespress.com for major announcements (Greenlight success, release date, etc.).

I also ran paid marketing on Google Adwords and AdDuplex. I struggled with this — the CPA was too high and I didn't want to throw more money at it when I wasn't seeing results. Paid ads for a sub-$10 game with a niche audience is a tough equation to make work.

Expenses

Where the money went

The biggest single expense was an art refresh I commissioned from Shawn — who was awesome to work with. Combined with ads, licences, and platform fees, the total expenses for iZBOT came to around $1,000 USD.

I didn't account for my own time. I shudder to think what my hourly rate calculates out to be.

Revenue

The actual numbers

This covers aggregated sales across Steam, Humble Store and Itch.io. Steam made up the vast majority. I love Itch.io — the platform and its focus on indie devs — but I only got a single sale from there even when offering bigger discounts than on Steam.

At the time of writing, iZBOT had made just under $4,000 USD.

iZBOT is still on Steam

The game that started it all. Fast-paced precision platforming — one nimble bot, infinite ways to fail.

Play iZBOT on Steam – $9.99

Pricing & Discounts

Where I got it wrong

iZBOT is priced at $9.99 USD. In hindsight, I got this wrong. When the game went on sale initially I tried to maximise revenue in that first period — but I quickly ended up in a heavily discounting cycle. It now goes on sale for 80–90% off.

The game just doesn't sell when it's not on sale. I'd still like to experiment with a lower base price and shallower discounts, but that experiment hasn't happened yet. If you're pricing a niche genre game, think carefully before anchoring too high — you may be training your audience to wait for sales.

Final Thoughts

Would I do it again?

Probably yes. I love the fact that I made something — people actually buy it, play it, and sometimes even like it. But if I were to do it again, I'd optimise the process a lot more. There are things that take a huge amount of time but make no real difference to total sales. Focus on the things that move the needle.

I hope the data in this postmortem helps someone else in their game development journey. If you're a part-time solo dev building something — keep going. Finishing is rarer than you think.

Originally published on Game Developer in January 2017.