Guys, question - has anybody heard or read anything regarding what are (were) the total sales numbers for the Faster Than Light game, at any point since it was released? Any info on that would be highly appreciated. I know it has sold very well, but unfortunately I couldn’t find any particular numbers.
I am very curious about it because I am seriously considering possibility of leaving commercial software development (and occasional game development) after 17 yours of doing it, and trying my hand as an indep game developer. And FTL is what I consider an example of excellent indep game design and implementation.
I heard over 400,000 copies but can’t place a link. I believe it was based on number of beta testers and a sales factor of x100 above that. They had 4,000 beta testers.
I seem to recall having read it did over 500k. The average take was probably a couple of dollars per unit across all channels.
FTL, though, is not where you want to set yout expectations. If you do that well, AWESOME. But most games don’t do that well.
Also, I don’t really know your situation but you ordinarily wouldn’t want to leave you job and just do this. Many of the successful indies do games on the side until they a hve a “breakout” (for an indie) hit. Breakout means “I can now do this full time”.
I believe there’s some good stuff on Cliffski’s blog, somewhere, about the question of whether you can make money making indie games. And the spiderweb software guy wrote something a while back about numbers. There’s a really interesting post-disaster analysis by the person who created Empires of Steel, which is an example of a well-made game that took a huge effort to make and yet totally failed to make money. It’s a good corrective to the success stories.
I think the short answer is, though: it’s a gamble. You can do very well or you can spend a lot of time and money and come out with nothing. If your circumstances in life will allow you to survive making that gamble and losing, and you want to do it, I’d say go for it. But think hard about what failure will mean for you before you take the plunge.
Ooo, I just googled ‘Empires of Steel’ and it sounds kind of neat. But I don’t have enough (any) grognard friends to entice me into buying fiddly TBS games that seem focused on multiplayer.
Ultratron took 24 man months to develop, or if you want to put a financial figure on it, about $120k at ordinary salary rates. Ultratron has so far made a loss of $100k.
Titan Attacks took approximately the same amount of time. Titan Attacks has just broken even after 7 years, so that’s cause for a can of lager in celebration.
Droid Assault took quite a bit longer – about 36 man months, or $180k ish. Droid Assault has so far made a loss of about $120k.
Revenge of the Titans took about 7 man-years to develop, or about $420k. It’s only just broken even. Sandbox mode took 12 man-months and has so far cost us $56k. It is unlikely to ever break even.
