#Steam Questions

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

ashen pelican
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Steam Questions

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Steam Questions

full gale
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so what were your first steps to make a bigger sale, where did u share your game and how did you build a community for it

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how did u choose the price u think it fitted the games

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this is why i didn't want to ask for someone's freebies bcz freebies grab themselves pretty much

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i guess u understand

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its the paid game that requires some marketing skills

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did u use some publisher?

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and is there any good trustable publisher u could reccomend?

ashen pelican
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1: Self publishing is always no-mans land. it's best to try get a publisher.
2: Self promotion on discord, twitter, reddit, tiktok, and pay for advertising
3: building a community is... self explanitory. Discord, reddit etc

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you cant just "pick a publisher" thats not how it works

full gale
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well how did u find one

ashen pelican
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you do your research. find a publisher that is a good fit for you and your game

full gale
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where should i search for publishers

ashen pelican
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Take devolver. they typically publish games in the roguelike/lite genre

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google?

full gale
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so like " video game publishers?"

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wouldn't that lead me to biggest ones

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?

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by google's algorithm it should

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i doubt activision is ready for my game

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might try though

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haha

ashen pelican
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if you're asking these questions, i feel you're very much not at the stage to be looking to get publishing or releasing on steam

full gale
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why is that?

ashen pelican
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because you should know what research is to be done

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right from the get-go

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it should be in your initial planning documents

full gale
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i believe most of the info comes rather from experienced people then from google

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also how much do you pay publisher

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and what does that look like?

ashen pelican
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you... Dont pay a publisher anything?

full gale
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like i could easily get scammed if someone doesn't tell me some approx price

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how does it work

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how much %

obtuse sail
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It completely depends on the publisher

full gale
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isn't there an average?

ashen pelican
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they take a percentage of sales, and thats defined by the contract you both will sign

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it is entirely negotiable

full gale
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and for that contract do i need to own a company and do it as legal person or i don't?

ashen pelican
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no one here will afford you legal advice

full gale
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wdym?

winged oasis
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What it sounds like giving legal advice is a terrible idea without credentials

obtuse sail
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This is a discord about Unity, not game publishing or Steam

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Just because there are game developers here doesn't mean this is the place to be asking these questions

winged oasis
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Also what is best will depend on how taxes in your region are handled

full gale
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what i believe is Steam is taking the one collecting the taxes

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25% , where im at

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steam is collecting the taxes*

winged oasis
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That is on sales

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If you work for yourself you pay yourself as well and pay income taxes

full gale
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but i dont work for myself if i dont have a company for game developing so i dont pay myself and dont do those , or il have to once i start selling on steam?

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do you guys know a discord about my questions? where i could get more info?

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sorry to bother ya'll

ashen pelican
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no discord will help with this. you need to hire a lawyer

full gale
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Did you hire a lawyer?

obtuse sail
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Or at least speak to an accountant

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Find a local game development community and have a chat to them

full gale
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my accountant isn't much of a knowledge

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okay i guess that could do

winged oasis
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any accountant will know taxes and stuff should be handled for a llc or self employed people

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chances of getting this on a dicord are slim, since it heavily depends on what region you are in

full gale
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yeah but if im not self employed and i just want to sell game on steam , i guess the sales tax is only thing i need to pay ?

winged oasis
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that is still income

full gale
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true but if i could do it without owning a company i dont see why would i need to pay another tax for it, selling ur car on ebay doesnt make u pay taxes for income

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anyways il probably be best off with finding local game dev community if there is any here

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but tnx you all

ashen pelican
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Are you old enough to be liable for taxes and self publishing software?

full gale
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yes

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i do own a company already but its not related to the game developing

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actually small business owner not a company

winged oasis
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income taxes pretty much applies to anything you can do to make a income to live on

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its often best to make a llc and pay yourself out of it, since it gives you some more options especially when it comes to dealing with expenses. but then again it also depends on what country and state/provience you are in

south ruin
ashen pelican
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makes sense. thats why cryptobros buy cars

south ruin
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Crypto "bros" should probably pay either income tax or capital gains tax, but they rarely declare it to the revenue

full gale
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so one more question

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what did you all make from ur biggest titles after removing taxes and so on?

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is it anyhow stable income?

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i know its generally very unstable

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but still a question is made

ashen pelican
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99% of people: No
its mostly luck, and having a good game

full gale
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so you all dont really earn from it?

winged oasis
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high failure chance, most stable way to work in games is for a existing studio

ashen pelican
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even then, game dev isnt where the money is

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if you want money, go into web dev 🤢

ashen pelican
tacit nova
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If you want good money, go into DevOps

full gale
ashen pelican
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How do you know I don't have a ferrari?

full gale
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i kinda do

full gale
ashen pelican
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having a portfolio, and doing interviews/code tests

winged oasis
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networking being good at what you do as well

full gale
full gale
ashen pelican
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Yes, currently

full gale
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is the sallary okay?

ashen pelican
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Well, i have just left a studio, and starting at a new one next week

full gale
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i really like game developing tbh im not even bad at it and would like to start earning some money from it as side hustle for a start thats why im so full of questions

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i hope you all dont mind

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this is stuff im working on right now some skills for my game its going pretty good imho

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its combining shader graph,vfx,particle system animations all from scratch except textures

ashen pelican
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thats typically how it's done yep

full gale
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cool 😄

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im like 1 year into this i still got alot to learn though but im getting into it and would love getting a side hustle gig for it just to evolve a bit before getting full job

tardy bear
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The moment I've heard "try games as a hustle" I can tell that you will never make a game that will be successful enough to be a commercial success let alone a hit.

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If that's what you're looking for.

ashen pelican
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rightly so

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if you're doing it purely for the money, it's not going to get a success imo

full gale
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no its not like that

ashen pelican
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you need the passion, to add the little details money grubbing wont

full gale
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and u johnny oficially cant read well

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where did u take try games as a hustle quote?

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its not even there in a sentence let alone in a context

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i just dont want to be someones burden as a begginer thats why i'd love the gig to just kinda learn more on it

ashen pelican
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you wouldnt be a burden

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you're hired if you're deemed good enough

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if you're not. you get sacked

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simple

full gale
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well i could possibly fool someone into being better then i actually am it's quite possible scenario

tardy bear
ashen pelican
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this is why probationary periods exist

full gale
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i said i'd like to earn money from it as side hustle, not to do it 30 min daily without any passion or love to it

tardy bear
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You do you and I do hope you find success it's just that I am very certain you won't if you go at it with that mentality.

full gale
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You dont know how stubborn i can be

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untill i make something happen

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😄

tardy bear
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We got something in common then.

full gale
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it's all about being humble

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and going for it

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so are salaries in game development any good?

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i see alot of you actually do some of those jobs so just wondering how's that going?

ashen pelican
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define "any good salary"

full gale
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well can it keep you living

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can u eat pay the rent live a good life

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and so on

ashen pelican
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As someone who has left junior role and starting at the starting point of a mid role, yes, I can do anything i want within reason

full gale
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so like where do you drive a line, snorting coke off someones girlfriend on a ferrari, or like cruising to the gas station in your 2005 renault megane for a sandwich, which one is closer?

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btw how old were you when u left junior role? if ur okay with sharing that?

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also dont get triggered by the up sentence it was a joke obviously

ashen pelican
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I am 25

winged oasis
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it starts pretty low compared to to other dev jobs, but over time it can be ok like i make 120k and been at it for a while

full gale
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120k a year right?

ashen pelican
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these values are also entirely dependant on your location

winged oasis
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yeah heavily depends on city

ashen pelican
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for example. for me in my country, 120k a year is in the top 1% of earners country wide

full gale
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and are we talking dollars or pesos?

winged oasis
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its like 40k lower then a other dev job though for my area

full gale
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Passerby u could move to his country and be one of the top 1% richest which is kinda cool right?

tardy bear
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I'll give you a clue, money works alot like chicks. The more you're obsessed with them the less of a chance you have of getting your hands on them.

full gale
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don't wanna see it at all!

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anyways it does feed you unlike chicks , unless we talking about baby chickens, those feed you too ngl

winged oasis
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i do as well as i do, because i focus on the work and my life not the money

ashen pelican
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the money is a bi-product of your usefulness

winged oasis
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also quality of life counts for a lot

full gale
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I do understand what you all saying but ur not focusing money because ur getting money from what u love and im currently not so its easy to just kinda talk about it lol

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i too, want to make money out of what i love and that is this

ashen pelican
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the money part is easy

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you provide a service. you get paid for it

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the higher quality of service, the more payment

full gale
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we kinda switched planets we not talking about same stuff anymore but its okay

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thank you all

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for this convo

ashen pelican
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I am glad it's coming to an end

full gale
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never forced you into the conversation im sorry if u had hard time here wasn't intentional

ashen pelican
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this is true

tardy bear
full gale
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just dont wanna open to complete stranger, but my path wasn't easy either, wish u best luck cuz i know how hard it is so keep up and I hope u suceed

tardy bear
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I did not sell any games yet as I am still working on my first game but I'll give you a piece of advice because I can see that you are driven. If you want to make money in this industry you have to make something people will truly enjoy, something that makes them forget about their issues and have them enjoy spending time in the world you've created. It doesn't have to be AAA because that's not what makes a game good or bad. If you manage to do so then you will find success. How do you do that is where you will find out if you got what it takes, that's where things like vision, passion and out of the box thinking come into play. That's my piece of advice.