Why these weird indie games BEAT the AAA industry

How do some meme indie games blow up out of nowhere and net millions of dollars in revenue? And why do they keep beating AAA games?
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[@samyam]

wishlist my non meme game on steam pls store.steampowered.com/app/2862470/BUMBI

[@iamcdj_]

Wishlisted last week! Looking forward to trying it out.

[@samyam]

@@iamcdj_Thanks!

[@PorkyPatchy]

Plsss respond to my email 😭

[@SangHendrix]

I think the co-op + scary is a trend now. People seem to enjoy it.

[@okee]

Fun > Graphics

[@pianoatthirty]

THIS

[@facelessanon]

Same thing applies for thumbnails. A psychologically attractive thumbnail is superior to a beautifully designed one.

[@WhatDoYouWant000]

Exacly

[@philoxoper]

biggest example is fortnite

[@tnt3t]

​@@philoxoperThe BIGGEST Examples are Minecraft and Roblox

[@TahirHussainMir24]

$100 million is a huge amount. Suppose, if a person saves $5000 monthly, it will take him 1666 years to reach $100 million.

[@PharaohsGameStudio]

But you have to count for inflation, so it would probably take...... 1143 years which is a lot more doable than 1666 years. So yeah go for it bro!

[@quantumoverlord4413]

But prices of items will probably also go up due to inflation so maybe 1300 years which is a bit worse but still more doable

[@TahirHussainMir24]

@@PharaohsGameStudio I know that, i kept the inflation constant lol My only intent was to show what kind of a huge amount is this 😂😂

[@ExpensivePizza]

@@PharaohsGameStudio Inflation doesn't affect math.. $100 million / $5000 is always 20,000 months. What inflation does affect is the purchasing power of the money after it's saved. That's why it's basically impossible to save up to buy a house. By the time you saved even $1 million, the same house would be worth $2 million.

[@PharaohsGameStudio]

@@ExpensivePizza i meant as the time goes by, like in 20 years for example saving 7000 will be as easy or hard as saving 5000 now. but yeah if you'll save only 5000 each month no matter what then you're right inflation wont affect it

[@pagoda_dimensionale9761]

We can say that Lethal Company create a good idea about this type of gameplay that Content Warning use and expand. People have bought it because they wanted something similar to Lethal Company and the price was super accessible. I think this type of experience open ups space for creativity and originality in the game dev community.

[@plasticflower]

I would say what these games also have in common is an easily exaplainable or understandable concept. They're good for the elevator pitch. On the other hand, I bet there's a good number of games that also fulfill all of these criteria while not making it big.

[@uaantonidiusss.7587]

The video creator failed to mention one small but crucial detail: the number of major studios versus the number of indie ones. How many small companies attempt to create games only to end up without funds, compared to the large companies that consistently secure funding and produce games that earn less than these indie titles?

[@TESkyrimizer]

in other words you can't hinge your business plan on catching lightning in a bottle theres been quite a few devs who worked 2 years on their primary game then did a monthlong prototype that caught on like wildfire so they ended up pivoting from their original investment to this new venture. Backpack Battles, Soulstone Survivors being two I know of

[@-Engineering01-]

Startup fail rates are same all over the place, it's 95% no matter what sector you can think of

[@-Engineering01-]

If i wanted to see real world graphics i wouldn't gaming, i'd shutdown my computer and go for biking.

[@MaxIronsThird]

so, use a simple Gimmick, outlandish artstyle and make it land on a streamer's lap, now you're in heaven for a couple of weeks.

[@arcanep]

couple weeks man thats great money for a long time , just gotta be careful not to spend it all lol

[@MaxIronsThird]

@@arcanep true, but that only works if you're a solo dev, can you imagine a 20 person team makes a great game that people love, but bc it looks like an indie game, after one months no one even remembers it anymore.

[@elizabethmonroe2290]

I think theres a little bit more to it than horror coop with funny elements though. Lethal company is about a mysterious company that doesnt care about it's employees and content warning is about making a startup channel in the content creation landscape thats becoming more and more prevalent. Both play with topics that are either very very relatable or prevalent in today's society. Lethal company mirrors the dystopian corporate world that most of us find ourselves stuck in while content warning mirrors the desire of making it big in the vast digital content creation scene thats only growing more and more with each passing year. I very much think you missed the fact that the subject and/or tone of these games resonate with deep rooted feelings within the playerbase of today's society.

[@walterh2113]

Maybe you, but definitely not the average player. Plenty of "deep" games that don't sell *at all*. They're just co-op games that employ teamwork really well and have a tight game-loop so busy adults can play a round or two.

[@elizabethmonroe2290]

​​@walterh2113 im not saying its the only reason (nor am i saying Sam is wrong), but rather in conjunction WITH the reasons Sam talks about Its like having a game with good gameplay but a terrible storyline vs a game with good gameplay AND a good storyline Also the 'deep' sentiments i mention are actually pretty commonly held sentiments. Maybe not for you, but for a vast majority of people. If something resonates with someone emotionally, its undeniable that that will at least contribute to how much someone likes a game or media.

[@notteaart]

I think this also explains why speedrunning took off and why the current Deep Dip 2 streams are doing so well. Take a simple concept and make it something you can do with friends and just have fun. Speedrunning was all about the community of "hey I beat this game this fast" and now it's a major past time for many gamers. Deep Deep 2, let's take a car and make it climb a tower and no check points. Not sure if it's selling more copies of trackmania, but it certainly is an interesting challenge and I would not be surprised to see other people just make a simple game based on it.

[@r6scrubs126]

Also content warning took the already successful formula of lethal company (first person co op horror game with funny janky enemies and proximity voice chat) and got their game out quickly to catch some of lethal company's hype. Not saying there's anything wrong with that but I think that is also a big factor in their success EDIT: Oh nvm you mentioned that later in the video lol

[@samyam]

😁

[@bob_obba]

I'm a total armchair critic here, but I would caution against chasing current trends. Unless a dev is _lightning_ fast in getting something out the door, they may just miss the wave.

[@TESkyrimizer]

my philosophy as well though the wave for Vampire Surv has lasted like 3 years so far... and I heard it about it after year 1 thinking it was late. lol. just like stocks

[@lejodev]

Great video, really enjoyed it, the explanation to why those indie games whent viral and managed to make a lot of money was great, thank youu

[@samyam]

😁

[@1actose]

This is a really good video idea (studying viral games and trying to replicate their success in a month or two), remind me to do this and become a multi-millionare sometime soon lol

[@samyam]

thank you, will do 🫡

[@TacticalProgrammer]

All of these games have a certain charm to them, like the devs just wanted to create something to play with their friends. And I think that adds a lot of personality to the games.

[@happyfish9692]

Games are all about fun gameplay. Even with vast sums of money that gets thrown at AAA titles, they're more than often dull, not fun or just re-hashing of old ideas, although looking visually stunning. So.. make the gameplay fun and addictive, and the sales will follow

[@bazyt1]

Oh, I saw your new game in a reddit post, didn't realise it was yours! Looks great.

[@ColeWithAGoal]

Wow Bumbi is really coming along! Looking forward to your future updates there :)

[@samyam]

Thanks!

[@Allonsy_TZ]

Time to make another game with a similar formula and a totally different name~ I present to you!! Content Company! 😎😎😎😝😝😝

[@Luluskuy]

Lethal warning sounds very dope though!

[@Allonsy_TZ]

@@Luluskuy Oooooh, I agree!! I’d buy Lethal Warning hahahah

[@pianoatthirty]

It's called the "Law of Least Effort" or Wu-Wei

[@TheMeanArena]

Back in the old industry days we called that "shitting in a box and shipping". That's what a lot of people do, they do not care but somehow reap the financial rewards not deservingly so.

[@pianoatthirty]

@@TheMeanArena if people are having fun making and playing this stuff then it’s all fair. Fun is all that matters. More power to those making money off less effort. People try too hard to impress these days anyway.

[@TheMeanArena]

@@pianoatthirty I don't think any devs are trying to impress anyone, they're just wanting to put out quality out of respect for the gamer. Those that put no effort into their games, riddles with bugs etc. that they never bother to fix do not deserve to make money.

[@GabrielAguiarProd]

This is nice Sam, very well approached. Great video!

[@samyam]

Thanks Gabriel! 😁

[@AnulAgarwal]

Amazing breakdown :) Thank you for sharing Sam!

[@CrabKingFish]

Hi SamYam, I love your video , and I have always been curious as to how coders like dani and yourself manage to learn all of these networking concepts. For me personally, when I open any documentation, my mind just explodes, so i guess do you just push through and read all of the documentation or do you utilize any other sources? oh and what about how you learnt the concept of client-side prediction?

[@windums560]

The name of the game is Bumbi. It was so fast to read 4:10

[@rameshdevasi6720]

my little game "square bird" had 100 million download, for week it was 1# in U.S charts

[@maxwell_edison]

Good evidence that creativity, charm & fun often beat polish - Though I wouldn't necessarily say 'worse' More just 'Lucky' and 'Marketable' lot of the times

[@inunekonanita]

Thank you for your analysis!

[@SuPeRNinJaRed]

I found this to be so true with my game jams games the less serious I made them the more response I got it was a sort of opposite effect of what you would expect!

[@IsmoYliviiri]

They do think about marketing too, we just ain't good at it and haven't learn the skill before finished our game, thats why no one plays our games (maybe).

[@suicune2001]

Thanks! This is invaluable.

[@Carcerian]

Great vid, hope your game is a smash hit!

[@samyam]

Thank you!

[@ThousandairesClub]

*by 2030, Rockstar will be the only AAA developer left standing so I'm definitely in support of the little guys rising up and making fun games* 👍

[@billy6427]

I already had a Feeling Indie Games were going to be the Next Big Thing in Video Games BUT I had No idea the Amounts were this Huge, even though most devs won't see that much $$$

[@samyam]

But it's definitely possible now more than ever!

[@Synersty]

Hi, on your tutorial on AR Foundation, there is a section of the video surrounding Build Settings - where you either need to select Ios or Android, My Question is if I wanted to create an app for both IOS and Android, is there a way i can do this perhaps simultaneously and without having to pay for plans etc..

[@TheShelfman]

Great video! Landfall is really good at making awesome new things

[@samyam]

Thank you! Ikr :D

[@Alireza_Egh13]

Same with youtube videos, make a shitty karlson replica and it gets more views than making an entire soulslike game

[@soralazammoa1770]

love the videos

[@JoeSondow]

This video, as is, should be a GDC talk.

[@samyam]

thank you!

[@kccreationsgaming]

7:20 AAA companies have the most money and largest teams, yet typically take the fewest risks, leaving us with many identical copy/pasted "popular" games which get incredibly boring playing the same safe format often. These AAA teams also tend to make their content more bland by always targetting the largest demographic. Indie devs are the solution, as they add creativity, which is why such games can occasionally outperform AAA titles. The big flaw with indie games, is the fact they have significantly fewer resources (time, money, team size, experience). You often see a couple amazing ideas or systems in overall mediocre games.

[@woodenfences]

Good vid! People are attracted by what is fresh and full of life - and that's often missing from the triple A productions, not only in video games, by the way.

[@mothvideo]

landfall games is peak!!! 🔥

[@GrahamOfLegend]

Consistency + Trying new things = Profit!

[@UnderdogDen]

Indie games make money? @_@ This is super insightful

[@TheMeanArena]

No, some do, the majority do not. Look at it this way. You're throwing your game into a pile of games. Hope someone picks yours from the pile.

[@TheMeanArena]

No, some do, the majority do not. Look at it this way. You're throwing your game into a pile of games. Hope someone picks yours from the pile.

[@-Engineering01-]

​​@@TheMeanArena Majority of games that are being uploaded to steam are already garbage and asset flip, if your game is fun and good it'll be sold and played. Maybe you'll not earn millions out of them but you can definitely build your own indie company

[@darkoblivionmaster]

WHEN DID BUMBI BECOME DOG!?!

[@KugleeKuglee]

You forget to mention that lucky period when a big influencer picks up a game and presents it to their audience in a very good time window. Without influencers, there is zero marketing.

[@learninglearning2]

07:04 godot spotted!!

[@samyam]

That's Gamemaker lol

[@learninglearning2]

@@samyam 🐷

[@DylanBurke]

Woah, what did you use that embedded est. revenue right into the store page?

[@samyam]

chromewebstore.google.com/detail/steam-revenue-calculator/gjhejidajnchnadcangcodljgdmenipa?pli=1

[@suryakamalnd9888]

I literally searched for this video for 2 hours and finally found it when I painfull scrolled through 12 daysvof my watch history (i watched like 34 videos on a day.. I was in holidays..)

[@watercat1248]

It may be wrong but I think one other reason many Indie game's found sucsse is. 1.The fact that it's cheaper to to buying 2. The developer make with pation and care's about the player's and for the game. 3.the developer take the nessery time to make the game. Of course what you said it's true as well I don't argue with that I don't know for other indie developer's but as indie developer my self I have the freedom to spend as much time as it needs to make this project. Yea it may take forever to create because I work on my own but I don't have dead line or boss that have to listen 😅.

[@Karthick18143]

Can you make a video about accelerometer control in unity?, I'm novice to Game Dev & Unity help me pls

[@thebigdawgj]

I'm miffed, I didn't get the notification about it being free until the day after the free run ended. I'm not paying ten bucks for a free game.

[@TESkyrimizer]

from an artistic pov it does bother me if many indies are going the direction of "streamability" which seems to mean there will be a lot less diversity in the indie market idk tho. thinking about marketing is annoying as hell. most of us are just in it to fill this creative urge inside ourselves.

[@samyam]

Not all, there's always been people making hypercasual games, but a lot of indies are making their dream games and spending years on them.

[@AboElmdameed]

Sorry for the weird question but when you were young did you share a computer with someone and what was your age when you bought your own computer?

[@Justme-forreal]

worse games is crazy, they aren't worse, just indie.

[@billyfighter6945]

Good video 😎

[@coalescence]

Your game is looking great btw

[@samyam]

Thank you!

[@albiceleste101]

Big streamers play it = success

[@MrNybbles]

When I saw the title "Why worse games make more money" I first thought this would be on modern AAA games vs older AAA games before they could be patched. Now they all need to be patched. Well, at the very least I can say the Indie hit games might have as many bugs as AAA games, but at least the Indie games are priced right. Now I miss the days when games came on cartridges and you never even noticed the occasional bug.

[@tobey_maguire_]

You have a soothing voice 😇

[@tomaszdecker5862]

My queen, your twitter account on patreon has a typo.

[@Subfightr]

I feel like these new AAA games have the hands of big wigs cramming their demands into a game, and they ruin it.

[@user-lb4oi4sr2o]

Gooood

[@sekim4660]

this game crash is brazzzy

[@hansfritz6026]

Your game looks really fun but polish the art a little more with some nice assets also you should definetly port this to mobile as well

[@Firestorm-Peter]

Did everyone forget that Phasmophobia pretty much inspired all of these? XD

[@SilentFox_Prod]

Lucky and genious devs

[@thanatosor]

100M but 30% taxes on Steam 30% taxes outside US 10% other fees Still 30M back to that 21 years old boy 😂

[@samyam]

Here it says gross is around 124 gamalytic.com/game/1966720 After 30% around 86, after 30% on 86 around 60 without other fees 😄

[@thanatosor]

@@samyam Hey thanks for the link !

[@davdev793]

Feels like coop goofy simple games are having great times since among us and phatasmofobia, that is where I would bet. For a developer it is great to have all the income but all those cited arent they momentary sucess? If so it's hard to reproduce it intentionally and the formulas gets old easy. Despite all th crap AAA games trows on us nowdays, people still comes back to those frachises with their over explored and copied formulas even when they are copied by indies or low budget studios.

[@Ranger8744]

3:29 HAH "full STEAM ahead..."😀 You didn't notice the pun🤣🤣

[@ReverseFlash.]

What people care about is fun ngl

[@rakurobot]

hi

[@nathanielblairofkew1082]

it's nice to lecture me here lol

[@popay0163]

#1❤

[@fogcomign]

Content warning is not an indie game

[@samyam]

Landfall Games is an indie studio

[@Shiffo]

Reason : innovation + risk taking, a lot of these projects simply fail. Triple A is not able to take the sale risks with triple A budgets.

[@neozoid7009]

💌💌💌

[@Luckysury333]

hey except for only up both content warning and lethal company are fantastic games. Your title that says "worse games make more money" is straight up false

[@funlabsdesignstudio]

"Buggy Games with 400 DLC's" 🤣🤣🤣 no shhhh lol it's bloody ridiculous. COD is now a mutated toxic fish swimming down the 💩 filled wasteland. 🤣🤣🤣

[@davidpak271]

People will pay money to be stupid

[@HopDodge]

This comment will be in the video about how I blew up.

[@BadBanana]

Yes there is It's called social norms destroyed the attention span of the young so they want a game that lasts less than 3 minutes

[@samyam]

Or adults that want a quick fun game that doesn’t last 2 hours because they are busy

[@NorthstriderGaming]

People that make shitty games make fun games. People that try super hard to make good games forget to add fun to the game. Developers often treat their games as 'their baby' and completely forget, that they don't make games for themselves but for others to play. And if the game is not fun for others and instead it only tickles the developer's autistic spectrum, it is no nobody's surprise that it failed. That's the only pill many devs have to swallow - don't make games that please yourself, make fun games that everyone enjoys.

[@MaticTheProto]

Content warning honestly shouldn’t have managed to be successful

[@TimAyro]

Among Us, Content Warning, Lethal Company, and now Abiotic Factor. I cannot stand these games. It's simple co-op gameplay that are cheap and made quick. It's like H&M for games.

[@plasticflower]

Except they're not made in a sweat shop :P

[@walterh2113]

Except it's *literally* the opposite. They're hand-crafted games by individuals and small teams with a vision rather than mass-produced by a megacorporation and designed via committee with the only goal being making money.

[@gghhoosstt1233]

Go play sucide squad then....oh wait its trash nvm go try skull and bones......oh wait its hot garbage as well um...go play redfall!......NO no no no i take it back don't. Go play latest cod mw3.....sorry that game sucks horseshit as well play Starfield.......FUCK! sorry about that i almost comitted murder um um um oh yea! go play battlefield 2042...... You know what? fuck it modern AAA games sucks....oh wait i meant to say QuAdRuPaL A games.

[@GnuChanOS]

indie games = just fun AAA games = no soul no jiggle no bitches more LGBTQC++ and more bug not finish more SJW

[@lockyaw]

Gooner spotted

[@GnuChanOS]

@@lockyaw gooner ?

[@lockyaw]

Dictionary says: "A person who whines about not having enough bouncing bazongas in games"