A lot of people will laugh and say that it is extremely difficult to make money as an indie mobile games developer. This depends on how you approach the problem.

If you decide that you want to create the next blockbuster game - You will probably fail.

On the other hand if you know what you are doing you can work on a few average games and clones and also offer your work for freelance and you can make quite a comfortable living (more than you'd make working for a full time AAA studio).

Bare in mind you do need to know how to develop for these devices already and you need to prepared to work on crappy games that you wouldn't play yourself rather than some grand vision. Also the things that you hear people complaining about such as advertising, In App Purchase, pay to win are the only sure fire ways of making money from your own games unless you have a massive blockbuster success.

Now although I'm saying to just release average games, I'm not saying you should skimp on quality, you will need to purchase quality assets. Your game should not look like a 90s Geocities website. You can't just say "I'm gonna learn Blender/GIMP/Inkscape and produce my own assets". Unless you are already an expert with these it is just going to take too much time. You are going to be doing the programming, packaging the bundle, uploading to the various app stores, making youtube videos and social marketing. All of this takes time. You can't spend ages producing mediocre assets as you need to get your games developed, released and then move on to your next project.

Once you have 10 - 15 games out there you should start seeing a return on investment and if you have a decent enough web presence you should also start to get people offering you work for hire. Providing you can work out a decent contract and not get ripped off this is where you can make a pretty decent living.

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AlexNichiporchik/20151106/258662/Dont_develop_games_fulltime.php

Well written article, and while being a very personal opinion of the author, does raise a lot of points people like the OP should take into account.

Why put everything on one card and quit your day job when you have the luxury of a job paying your bills while you learn a new trade and do the first initial trial-and-error experiments?

Does it suck to work two jobs and have little free time left? Yes, it does, even if one of those jobs is a "labour of love" thing. Will it considerably slow down work on your games when you can only spend 20 hours a week on it even with all free time spent on it? Of course it will.

On the other hand, getting into debt because you play the Indie-Dev-Roulette for too long without hitting the Jackpot sucks just as much. Depending on how you handle different types of stress, it might actually be MORE stressfull to work on it fulltime, instead of working two jobs with little free time left. In the second case at least you know you will be able to pay the bills at the end of the month.

A lot of Indies seem to take on paid gigs and freelancing works to support development of their own games. Granted, that might be related work that brings them valuable expierience they can also use for their own development. But the net effect is the same, these paid gigs tend to slow down development of their own games considerably.

I will not go into the "can a lone Indie survive on games" discussion... I have little personal expierience with that, and I still don't know if I ever will.

Point is, you shouldn't have to ask the question. If you aren't already able to live off your own games, don't gamble on it... I know some people think it is necessary to starve as a start up to make it big. It is possible they are right, that a second job will always slow you down.

But, we are talking about a high risk business where even earning 500$ a month seems to be a rarity... this article on gamasutra tries to prove this "Myth" wrong, but when you compare the numbers it presents to the total of games submitted to the app stores, the sad reality is still that most game devs must be way below it:

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MartinMacmillan/20151106/258718/The_Millionaires_Index.php

45161 devs made 500$ per month or more... including non-game apps. How many devs did release apps in this timespan? How many have given up their app development in this timespan?

TL;DR:

Don't give up hope yet, but don't - ever - quit - your - job - without - a - paying - alternative.

The story of the starving artist doing whatever he wants sound attractive until you are the starving artist yourself. Build your games and your business in your free time, show your devotion by moonlighting. Maybe find a better paying or better suited day job if you can (going part time is a good idea if it still pays enough).

And cut the cords to your day job when you are damn sure you hit the motherload, not when you THINK you could hit the motherload in the near future. Debts are no joke, and the stress of having a badly paid, boring or awful day job is not comparable with a struggle for survival when your plan doesn't work out in time.

[snipped]

What you can take from this is learn to actually create the apps first. If you can't program you are off to a no starter.

Buy in assets. You can buy complete game asset sets from sites like GraphicRiver for around $100.
Don't aim to make waves, the extra effort is not worth it.
You need to have several games making you money before you start to see a return on investment.

While I see where you are coming from, and would support the "many games" strategy especially for the mobile sector where average price per game has been raced to the bottom, "mediocre" games do not sound like a good strategy long term. Maybe not even short term.

It is certainly a way to get you started and get the needed expieirence in finishing and releasing a product. But there are literally millions of mediocre games on the app stores already. How many downloads can you expect from a mediocre game? How big is your chance to hit the discoverability jackpot?

While I do think spending too much time and effort on building assets is a dumb idea for a lone dev, especially if aiming for a quick RoI (you can do that if you are a hobbyist spending years developing your games), I would be careful when buying stock art. If something looks good and sells at a good price, many other game devs will use it too... your mediocre game now has also mediocre assets, it looks and plays like dozens of other games on the app store. How do you stand out against this competition?

If the answer is "don't even try", what do you do when somebody DOES try and is successfull, now attracting all the money that is spent on this genre and platform?

There is always someone doing things better, being able to invest more money and having more luck. But instead of aiming at the biggest market with the least effort and trying to pick up enough breadcrumbs the big hitters leave behind to survive, aiming for underserved niches and trying to find a community is a better long term strategy for an Indie dev IMO.

In the end your plan sounds too much like "fill out the lottery ticket and hope for the best" to me at least... only that you spend a month, maybe two filling out the lottery ticket, and maybe even spend multiple 100$ worth in assets and tech on it.

It is certainly a way to get you started and get the needed expieirence in finishing and releasing a product. But there are literally millions of mediocre games on the app stores already. How many downloads can you expect from a mediocre game? How big is your chance to hit the discoverability jackpot?

In the end your plan sounds too much like "fill out the lottery ticket and hope for the best" to me at least... only that you spend a month, maybe two filling out the lottery ticket, and maybe even spend multiple 100$ worth in assets and tech on it.

Also once you have a dozen or so mediocre games out there you will be earning. It may not be millions but you should be able to achieve the 500 euros that the OP is asking for.

I don't see it as filling out a lottery ticket. I'd only see it that way if I were somebody expecting to be the next app millionaire but, that is not what the OP is asking for. He simply wanted to know if it was possible to make a living from being a mobile index dev. The simple answer is yes it is possible and a lot of people do it.

There is always someone doing things better, being able to invest more money and having more luck. But instead of aiming at the biggest market with the least effort and trying to pick up enough breadcrumbs the big hitters leave behind to survive, aiming for underserved niches and trying to find a community is a better long term strategy for an Indie dev IMO.

This does seem like it would be obvious but, look at the games that have made it big on the app store. Angry Birds was a clone that had polished graphics, Doodle jump again was just another clone game, Flappy Bird was a learning to make games experiment by its developer, Even Candy Crush is just another Match 3 game.

Mobile is no man's land now. Don't even try. Pick any platform if you must, just not mobile.

The problem is the big money doesn't come from your own games (unless you hit the jackpot). It comes from other companies paying you to make their game. You need to have a few games to actually get some of these clients. Most of clients out there do not understand what a quality game is and simply ask for Candy Crush but with christmas food and their companies logo. If your mediocre game looks polished they will see it as a quality game no matter how formulaic the game play is.

Also once you have a dozen or so mediocre games out there you will be earning. It may not be millions but you should be able to achieve the 500 euros that the OP is asking for.

I don't see it as filling out a lottery ticket. I'd only see it that way if I were somebody expecting to be the next app millionaire but, that is not what the OP is asking for. He simply wanted to know if it was possible to make a living from being a mobile index dev. The simple answer is yes it is possible and a lot of people do it.

While I still have trouble believing mediocre games adding all that much to your bottom line on mobile app stores, the part with getting external clients on board makes sense. Certainly a more stable option to create mediocre games for paying clients and asking for a fixed price than releasing the same mediocre game unto the app store yourself and hoping for the best.

I do see the point with a lot of small time profits turning into a decent profit... I just question how many mediocre games you need to put out (most of which will not make anything at all) to have enough that do make some money (which will not be enough until you have multiple "hits")....

But then again, I guess these questions are almost impossible to answer. Is it possible? Yes. Is it hard to do? Yes. Will you be able to do it? Try and find out -> Gamble. Or play it safe and never know.

This does seem like it would be obvious but, look at the games that have made it big on the app store. Angry Birds was a clone that had polished graphics, Doodle jump again was just another clone game, Flappy Bird was a learning to make games experiment by its developer, Even Candy Crush is just another Match 3 game.

Erh, okay... you are now grabbing for the lottery winners and want to show them as the big earners who made it to the top with hard work. Don't get me wrong, all these games had a lot of work poured into them. Most have quite good production values, for mobile games.

All of them are inherently completly mediocre, because they are clones of other games. The graphics does not, in any way, stand shoulders above other titles on mobile devices. The games are slightly above mediocre in production values, that is all.

If they are an example for anything, then it is for the theory "put out enough mediocre games and one of them must become a big seller at some point".... which is again "buying the lottery ticket", as you had to produce 100'000 games to get a good chance at creating a hit.

If you create something that doesn't stand out from the masses, your chances for an angry bird like sucess is pretty crap. If you create something that is more than mediocre (in its niche), your chances are not much better, but at least you might have made something recognizable. If Candy Crush wouldn't have, by some strange twist of fate, gained the popularity it has had, would anyone have been able to tell it apart from other Match 3 games? Would anyone have said "Do you remember that Indie darling Match 3 game some years back, that didn't mad much money but made its dev famous, whatwasitsname"?

Now, if that increase in community appeal and chance to sell is really worth the additional work you have to put in IDK. I guess it also depends on your longterm goals with your gamedev business.

I certainly wouldn't want to say one is more likely to succeed than the other, if we are serious, both will not work out well for most devs for quite some time. IMO it is more important to not expect quick RoI no matter what strategy you follow and always keep a plan B ready for paying the bills.

Mobile is no man's land now. Don't even try. Pick any platform if you must, just not mobile.

My opinion exactly.

But, there is still some merit to going mobile over PC or Consoles. All stores are getting more and more crowded lately, Steam or the Console Digital download stores will be no exception.

Best thing is to stay agile and be ready to release for any platform where you have the chance to. Releasing on multiple platforms at once is said to be very stressfull, using tools and an engine that can build for different platforms and being ready to jump ship and board another should the winds change between the start of your project and your release can make a big difference.

Don't develop for iOS only, or for Android today. Develop "mobile friendly", but be ready to soup up your game enough to be able to also sell on Steam.

If you create something that doesn't stand out from the masses, your chances for an angry bird like sucess is pretty crap. If you create something that is more than mediocre (in its niche), your chances are not much better, but at least you might have made something recognizable. If Candy Crush wouldn't have, by some strange twist of fate, gained the popularity it has had, would anyone have been able to tell it apart from other Match 3 games? Would anyone have said "Do you remember that Indie darling Match 3 game some years back, that didn't mad much money but made its dev famous, whatwasitsname"?

But that is assuming that you want to aim for Angry Birds like success. All I am saying is if you aim to be the top of the pile on mobile you will most likely fail. However if you just want to earn enough to pay the rent and bills then it can be done.

I read all comments, thank you very much for spending your time. I'm not leaving my day job, and won't leave it any time soon, I can only quit after I start making money.
I know how to communicate with people, I'm not one of these anti social persons, who lives in basement lol. English is not my first language, so that might cause some minor problems.

I mention mobile games, because as a one man team, I'm not aiming for huge game, and on PC, Xbox, PS, there are a lot of competition from huge games. Why would some one play little indie gime, while they can spend they time on games like GTA, CoD and thousand others. While mobile marked is way different, there are some visually impressive game, but most popular games were really simple, as mentioned Angry Birds, Candy Crush, Floppy Bird etc. I think that is why flash is dying.

I read all comments, thank you very much for spending your time. I'm not leaving my day job, and won't leave it any time soon, I can only quit after I start making money.
I know how to communicate with people, I'm not one of these anti social persons, who lives in basement lol. English is not my first language, so that might cause some minor problems.

I mention mobile games, because as a one man team, I'm not aiming for huge game, and on PC, Xbox, PS, there are a lot of competition from huge games. Why would some one play little indie gime, while they can spend they time on games like GTA, CoD and thousand others. While mobile marked is way different, there are some visually impressive game, but most popular games were really simple, as mentioned Angry Birds, Candy Crush, Floppy Bird etc. I think that is why flash is dying.

Unduli already made a very good post about it above, but just to strengthen his position:

1. There is a huge market at the moment on PC and Consoles for GOOD Indie games. These do NOT need to be AAA in production values. Some of the most successfull Indie games of the last few years actually have rather simple graphics and started on PC (see "Thomas was alone").

They DO need to be very innovative and fresh though. Don't try to create a mediocre clone or you will drown in the flood of clones that is already present even on these platforms.

The cost to develop for these platforms, at least for PC, is not higher than developing for mobile. You will most likely target a much smaller niche than on mobile (because the graphics are lower tier when used on PC platform that can support much better graphics), and the amount of Gamers on PC is less than on mobile, BUT:

- The total amount of developers on steam is still nowhere as high as on the app Stores!

- the price you can ask for a small Indie game is around 5-10$ on steam... whereas you will have difficulties even asking 1$ with a mobile game... people expect things to be free on mobile.

2. The mobile games you are naming are all rather simple games, true. The most probably didn't cost a lot to make true. And they are also just one of thousands of very similar looking clone games.

They simple had a lot of luck to get the success they have had. meanwhile for every one of these games millions failed.

You want to take these bets? You feeling lucky today?

I am NOT saying it isn't possible to create a breakout success on mobile, or that you cannot make a good income with just a moderate success.

But google "Survivorship Bias"... the post up there is suffering from it.

3. The same devs and publishers that pumped millions into GTA and other AAA titles like that on PC are now starting to flood the mobile app stores with their wares.... most of it will be AAA shovelware just as most Indie titles are Indie shovelware on mobile. If you have to sell your game for 1$ or free with iap, you have to cut every corner you can. Which more often than not results in the wrong corners being cut.

BUT: this is shovelware with still pretty good production values... the kind of graphics, sound and brands you cannot match with your own Indie title.

You are afraid to take on GTA V on PC with your small Indie title? Have fun taking on Hearthstone, World of Warcraft Mobile and Nintendos mobile crowd with your small Indie Title.

At least on PC, you can CLEARLY distinguish yourself from the AAA titles... on mobile, most big publishers went the "scrappy agile" route Indies have to take themselves to cut cost and manpower.