Is Horror Indie Game Dev profitabel?

Yomawab646

Hi,

There are a lot of Indie Games some are popular some aren't but i never saw a really popular Horror Game made by 1 single person all the big games which are made by 1 Person are either stylized or survival but why is that so ? Is that because it isn't profitabel for the future because people play games to escape and relax or why ? i hope you know the answer and write it down

Thank you for your time.

Meloncov

Indie game development, as a general rule, isn't profitable. Obviously there are exceptions, but the overwhelming majority of indie games never pay back their development costs, especially if you value your time at or above minimum wage.

Alex_J

if you make a plan to do this I'd consider making a single dollar an unlikely bonus. It's a real crap shoot and you are going in with no advantages.

I think horror is particularly difficult to do (well) as well. Kind of like comedy, a lot depends on timing. Takes skill which you can only develop through practice.

Not meant to discourage, just don't view it as a money-making adventure.

poopipe

If you make something good and enough people like it you can make some money. It's 80% luck and 20% quality. 

Honestly, if you have the time and resources to do it then you might as well have a go.  Even if it doesn't make you a millionaire  the fact you  pushed a game through a full production cycle would count massively in your favour in terms of experience.
It could well make the difference between being hired as a graduate or a full artist if I was doing the hiring and that's a few grand a year difference.

Disclaimer..  I mostly hire material and technical artists so fuck knows what other disciplines see as important

PixelMasher

red barrels are doing extremely well with their outlast franchise, a small studio and super profitable apparently. but then again, it was formed by a small group of industry vets with tons of experience at larger studios. not just 1 person but the initial studio size was a small team. 

sacboi

The fly on the wall documentary "Indie Game" was a fair appraisal most independent developers would encounter - then as now; Over the course of making their particular passion project alongside a perceived goal to generate sustained income which typically regardless of genre, really boils down to experience, timing and a bit of luck, implementing.