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Is Hero's Realm worth remaking commercially?
kentona- 11/19/2015 05:10 PM
- 21510 views
Posts 
hedge1
862
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Closeauthor=HasversI totally agree that the number of people who live off a big success is very limited. But there's real revenue to be had in selling games. To the Moon sold nearly a million copies, for example, giving it revenue of about $2 million - $10 million. Since cracking $4 million gives you $40,000 guaranteed income for life (assuming 4% safe return with 3% inflation, so 1% real return -- actual stock market results are usually higher), a big success can and does give people that opportunity to pursue game making for a career...assuming they manage their windfall properly and don't just spend it all.
The number of indie people who live off a single game is negligible, it doesn't work even for the big successes (like, say, being #1 on the App Store).
As for the example you cited, note that you're talking about a 99 cent app. Most of the money in apps is in ads, not sales. And most RPG games sell for more than 99 cents too. Additionally, the guy there was making
That all said, even major game studios fail on a regular basis. Frankly, I'm willing to bet that games are among the most competitive industries on the planet. So any success there is a huge success. As Kentona said, he's not quitting his day job over this. I think that's wise.
EDIT: Totally did my math wrong on the guy's income. The more accurate number is probably $150,000-$160,000. Sorry for the mistake.
Don't get me wrong - I would love to quit my day job. (Just in general, not just over this - it turns out that working in IT for an insurance company isn't the high-flying exciting job you'd imagine it to be. ...wait. Scratch that. It is EXACTLY the "high-flying exciting" job you'd imagine it'd be). I am definitely not making $275,000 per year.
I am not expecting this remake to sell a million copies, but I am hoping for 5000. But I really am not sure what to expect, and I don't want to set myself up for disappointment with unrealistic aspirations. That being said, $1000 wouldn't even cover the anticipated costs for music production.
More and more, though, it is evident that I haven't done my homework and don't know the right places to look or start. So I am having reservations.
I am not expecting this remake to sell a million copies, but I am hoping for 5000. But I really am not sure what to expect, and I don't want to set myself up for disappointment with unrealistic aspirations. That being said, $1000 wouldn't even cover the anticipated costs for music production.
More and more, though, it is evident that I haven't done my homework and don't know the right places to look or start. So I am having reservations.
NTC3
5625
Well, let's just say Steam is a weird place. Some really cool games like Technobabylon can be out for 7 months without reaching 10k, while another Early Access crafting zombiefest does so easily a couple months later.
Also,
I've always been quite curious about this, because RoI commercial is apparently owned by circa 60,000 people at the moment, which is actually quite good by Steam/ RPGMaker standards. Were most of these copies free gifts by Degica/IGMC to participants (since that's when the big jump for RoI and Last Word happened) or something?
Anyway, regardless of how they were obtained, RoI is still near the top (at 23rd place, to be exact) when it comes to rmk titles owned on Steam. You can see the full list here: At the top is obviously To The Moon (aka the only good RPGMaker game 95% of gamers know about), with nearly a million owners. (The days where Kan Gao was told to give up making games on here Quintessence review now feel like a glance into the mirror universe.)
Factor in the release date and the price, though, and our friend Sailerius' Skyborn is the winner by far: 430,000 copies distributed in 1.5 years, at the price of 15 $, vs. 910,000 at 10 $ over more than three years for Gao's standard-bearer (although To The Moon is also on GOG.com, where it must've turned enough copies in its own right). It's also a game that, quite obviously, goes for a whole other RPG audience than what Hero's Realm was designed for.
To cut long story short, and ignore freeware like Eternal Senia and horrors like Cthulthu and Labyrinthine Dreams, the only comparable title in top 20 is Memories of a Vagabond, which got 200,000 owners and has quite a few similarities in the way it's presented, though it's obviously quite different as well.
In spot 22, though, Epic Battle Fantasy 4 is quite similar and got 64,000 owners over 20 month timespan at 12 $ price, as well as wholly positive reception to boot. However, it does have some really high production values as well. Then, there's DarkEnd, which has the typical RPGMaker aesthetics, wasn't as good of a game, too, and still got 22,000 owners. It's ultimately difficult to perfectly predict how it'll turn out, but essentially, either one of those titles is now your game to beat. Buy them, play them, see what it did better and where HR is superior, and then apply that knowledge to the commercial release. Barring some unexpected collapse in Steam playerbase, you ought to do fine (and I say this as someone who started writing this comment in a rather skeptical mood.)
Also,
author=unity
My only foray into the commercial world of video games was the Remnants of Isolation post-contest Steam release, which didn't exactly set the world on fire, but it's a very different and small game, so I think something like Hero's Realm has a lot more potential.
I've always been quite curious about this, because RoI commercial is apparently owned by circa 60,000 people at the moment, which is actually quite good by Steam/ RPGMaker standards. Were most of these copies free gifts by Degica/IGMC to participants (since that's when the big jump for RoI and Last Word happened) or something?
Anyway, regardless of how they were obtained, RoI is still near the top (at 23rd place, to be exact) when it comes to rmk titles owned on Steam. You can see the full list here: At the top is obviously To The Moon (aka the only good RPGMaker game 95% of gamers know about), with nearly a million owners. (The days where Kan Gao was told to give up making games on here Quintessence review now feel like a glance into the mirror universe.)
Factor in the release date and the price, though, and our friend Sailerius' Skyborn is the winner by far: 430,000 copies distributed in 1.5 years, at the price of 15 $, vs. 910,000 at 10 $ over more than three years for Gao's standard-bearer (although To The Moon is also on GOG.com, where it must've turned enough copies in its own right). It's also a game that, quite obviously, goes for a whole other RPG audience than what Hero's Realm was designed for.
To cut long story short, and ignore freeware like Eternal Senia and horrors like Cthulthu and Labyrinthine Dreams, the only comparable title in top 20 is Memories of a Vagabond, which got 200,000 owners and has quite a few similarities in the way it's presented, though it's obviously quite different as well.
In spot 22, though, Epic Battle Fantasy 4 is quite similar and got 64,000 owners over 20 month timespan at 12 $ price, as well as wholly positive reception to boot. However, it does have some really high production values as well. Then, there's DarkEnd, which has the typical RPGMaker aesthetics, wasn't as good of a game, too, and still got 22,000 owners. It's ultimately difficult to perfectly predict how it'll turn out, but essentially, either one of those titles is now your game to beat. Buy them, play them, see what it did better and where HR is superior, and then apply that knowledge to the commercial release. Barring some unexpected collapse in Steam playerbase, you ought to do fine (and I say this as someone who started writing this comment in a rather skeptical mood.)
Hasvers
1298
author=hedge1Definitely! But for every Kan Gao or Jon Blow, there are dozens of Aldorlea and Wadjet Eye living off a catalogue of moderately-selling games. Plus, it's the model that allowed someone like Jeff Vogel to survive before indie games were even a thing, so I think it's a better bet to get you through the wild fluctuations in visibility the market is likely to undergo (not saying the -pocalypse word because people say stupid tings).
a big success can and does give people that opportunity to pursue game making for a career...assuming they manage their windfall properly and don't just spend it all.
Still, kentona, I'm quite sure that given the community and the interest in your previous games, you'll get 5 digits out of it (eventually, not sure how fast, though success is rather often decided pretty soon).
As for the 6th digit (or whatever is enough to quit your day job) I don't know - though as others point out, it's not impossible if stars align, and you don't mind being back to cup noodles for a bit (or you have savings, or a good Kickstarter).
NTC3> Interesting points. It would be great to have the real numbers - Skyborn was in at least two bundles as far as I can remember, from which it can expect more like 15 cents out of every purchase. And it was there before there were bazillions of RM games on Steam, I think. But still, that doesn't quite invalidate your point, even if the effective price is much lower it is still a success - though it would be at least as interesting to understand what happened to games that did not succeed as well.
Anyway lots of data and stories to be found around the interwebs (if you look in the later pages, there's even an ASCII roguelike that made 30k, so everything is possible I guess?)
Hasvers
1298
Haha well one of the benefits of being an all-around swell guy is that you've got a threadful of people willing to do data mining for you just because we like you and your games, so I'd say it bodes well for your crowdfunding and viral marketing prospects.
That's the indie magic: crowdsource parts of your production cycle! (like Aedemphia managed to have a pretty darn decent crowdsourced OST; compared to that, marketing and management shouldn't be too hard??)
That's the indie magic: crowdsource parts of your production cycle! (like Aedemphia managed to have a pretty darn decent crowdsourced OST; compared to that, marketing and management shouldn't be too hard??)
"you need to make sure your game contains something that an inept videogame blogger can make an edgy point with."
truer words
truer words
Kaliesto
583
The only input I can say if this game is going commercial is that everything will have to be customized considering the circumstances with this game. It will take a lot of work...I would say around 3+ years or more depending how competent your team will be with this game if it is a simple 2D JRPG.
I think I will take a more conservative stab at this and see where it ends up. Ara Fell development and release is an inspiration!
Imagine if 31,000 people spent $10 for this game. Like, damn, it already has a lot of success for RPG Maker standards.
I'm confident you could turn this into something profitable somehow.
I'm confident you could turn this into something profitable somehow.
