We made a game in 1 month, here's how much it earned

[@ReadingOcelotl]

Sharing the numbers in the first 5 seconds is such a bitemegames thing todo😆 Awesome video as always and enjoy Japan! 🏯

[@honaleri]

I don't think you need to worry about the market flooding. I think you forget the distance between the number of people with ambition vs the number with skill to execute it. Of 100 people who want to try, 10 will try and less than 1 will actually finish the game, and far far less will succeed at the level you did, on average. So, I don't think there is any concern there. Besides, 8k is good money for a month, but this isn't a day job, this is gambling. Those wanting "get rich quick" arent gonna succeed with this model. I think you guys call yourself EA, but, you care about your ambitions and vision, you just are also very analytical and practical about money (which most visionaries and passionates are.. not admittedly.) You guys did what was need to stay afloat. And I respect you for it. I hope you can replicate it! But dont forget, you have experience, knowledge and skill, those are the qualities that brought you success this time. Very few others, have those things and the drive to execute.

[@6sideStudio]

Was waiting for this :D I'm happy for you guys! You deserved some success with a release after all the grind!

[@suspecm6316]

You know the funny part with this? You will get "only" 4200$ from a month long project. That's life changing money in my country. There is definitely a very important lesson to be learned here for a large portion of the world. Edit: for extra context, I live in Hungary (so not even Venezuela or Africa, literally a central European country, albeit the poorest one). 4200$ is more than what I make in a year in my intern position at an IT company writing Selenium tests for websites. I'm considered well paid for an intern as I make as much as a cashier in Tesco.

[@gameboardgames]

This is a great point. It may be next to impossible to be a solo indie game dev here in Vancouver, BC Canada (where I'm at) but ya, if I was living in Thailand or Venezuela or something, the calculus would be much different.

[@Afreshio]

@@gameboardgames Living in Venezuela and yeah, calculus looks different definitely..

[@l3vi792]

True, it's around 0.5 year of minimum wage in Poland

[@marcomoutinho.gamedev]

Sry guys but the key maps are horrible ! Ah congratulations!

[@FFTVYoutube]

​@l3vi792 wow😮 I hope your rent and and food is free... otherwise how do you still exist? I went to the shop last night and got like 4 things and it cost me $60 something.. $4000 here would be gone in two weeks

[@SharpDressedBear]

Fantastic stats, thanks for sharing! The hard work, patience and strategic decision making definitely seems to be paying off

[@FlandersGameHub]

Thanks for sharing your breakdown guys! You have what it takes to be a successful indie game studio: short release cycles, fast iterations and learning from your previous releases ;) Looking forward to your next games :D M.

[@jokerpb4778]

Your game is so big in Japan!

[@LostRelicGames]

Well done guys, great story and a cool game!

[@KyleDelazy]

25% refund is a lot😮 but congrats on the success of the game made in 1 month totally deserved!!!

[@dankevch.8864]

About country distribution, I surprised that Indonesia got higher score than US on sale because mostly Indonesians have low buying power. But, this kind of game almost popular among the streamer there.

[@bitemegames]

Yeah we priced it pretty low for indonesia, and we also had a few big indonesian KZbinrs cover it (~100k views total). -M

[@dankevch.8864]

@@bitemegames I think there's something else, I saw the trailer of the game and there's a guy wear green helmet and green carrying bag. In Indonesia, they call it "ojek online" (online taxi but with motor bike) that usually delivering food like uber for food. They usually wear green jacket and helmet, so I think you guys just have impact on their culture and give them a relation to it.

[@ProxyDoug]

Congrats on the success, not just on the sales, but the ability to actually set a short term goal and stick to it is much harder than people think, specially when it comes to game development and you guys did a really good job. If you ever feel like doing something like this again, you could turn Songs of Everjade in to a survivor-like.

[@MajesticMindGames]

Gratz on the release of the game and it doing well, and thanks for sharing this info :) ♥

[@Overloaded45]

really cool video sharing such indie info. kudos to you guys!

[@RobertLanard]

Cool thing! Thank you for the interesting documentation, and good luck!

[@Definesleepalt]

i love you guys and the vibe , just no bullshit and try to do your best. you guys are a pillar of the gamedev community :) also why no trains in new game ? shame

[@harneetsingh9420]

Thanks guys for being so open about business sides of things :) can't wait for the next video and also to hear about your future projects. Keep going, I hope to see BiteMe Games turn to be big company in coming years but not like EA though :p

[@dreamingacacia]

congrats on your success.

[@LimitedPerfection]

Awesome. Im happy to see it was successful!

[@vicc8881]

Congrants!!!

[@KabeloRammidi]

I feel so inspired. Nice work guys!

[@oedipesgames4950]

Well done guys! I really feel like small game made quickly makes more money!

[@VoylinsGamedevJourney]

I'm sorry, I'm the Arch Linux guy at 17:50 XD

[@bitemegames]

Wear it loud and proud! -M

[@giampaolomannucci8281]

you mean 17:50 it's ok, you're on linux after all... ^_^

[@VoylinsGamedevJourney]

@@giampaolomannucci8281 Woops XD got the time wrong :p

[@vimu1534]

You should redo your poll @16:25 about at what stage of gamedev are people who watch you to see the evolution since last time

[@bandicamnick7903]

I believe rage games are extremely prevalent in Asian countries but I cannot pinpoint the exact reason as to why.

[@bitemegames]

It really depends on the game I feel. Some bomb in Asia and do well in the west (Jump King, The Game Of Sisyphus, a difficult game about climbing). Whilst others bomb in the west and do great in Asia (Stretcher men, lost egg, Unicycle Pizza Time). I can't really find a good pattern though. -M

[@GeorgeGameDev]

22% Refunds is actually ABSURD, you should investigate that

[@VSalgc]

Steam should do also . No Refund if not gamed made a true dessision. and if the card switched in between purchase and refund, then they should close account instant🎉😅

[@GeorgeGameDev]

@@VSalgc i cant understand what you just said. yes steams refund policy sucks for us devs, but when you have double the average you have a problem with your game

[@VSalgc]

@@GeorgeGameDev you can check refunds. and if there are most of payment issues and frauds, you know its not: the game sucks. Rest have legitimal reasons to refund. but buy and sell after 1 day not even tried out by so manny at once is a scam of other dimensions. There is a Reddit article about

[@giampaolomannucci8281]

they did investigate at 12:48 majority of refund players found the game too hard and not fun

[@voon7820]

Interesting take away that Japan is a strong potential market, much more than US. Noticed similar trend with my game wishlist where Japan topped it, with US at far second.

[@JustDaveIsFine]

Gosh dang! I think the combined total of all my games hasn't reached half that lol

[@Paul_Ward]

Proud to be 1 of 6 UK owners of the game lol

[@JesusSVasquez]

Thank you for sharing this info, and I'm glad it was worth the experience. Can you guys make a video or share the info with the marketing strategy just to have an overview of the time spent and with how many people working in the game to be able to release it in one month?. Greetings from Ecuador!

[@greyfireocelot6140]

Upside is, it'll be up until you remove it, so you will slowly gain money from it over time. Some games explode in popularity awhile after they've been released.

[@kyoseoul]

Please react to Jonas tryroller's new video about how to make and market games. I feel like he has a totally different take than you guys and i would love to hear your thoughts on it.

[@bitemegames]

It basically describes this game, short games with wide appeal and a flowstate. There's no different take if you ask me. -M

[@Nobody6146]

I have to say congrats as you guys have finally earned some respect in my book. I could never enjoy your channel for the longest time because you guys “preached” concepts you guys either didn’t follow or had difficulty applying. For that reason I didn’t watch many of your videos nor subscribed because of it. I felt this video was finally the result of putting your money where your mouth is and I feel the subscribe has been earned. Congrats again and hopes to even brighter futures!

[@jonwarnerdotnet]

Going viral == creative levels such as Giant pizza land with pepperoni, candy land, retro 8bit world, space/moon theme. Just my 2 cents, I think you should spend time on building some unique levels and pushing out updates of these with a schedule. These will stand out and draw out streamers. Hit me up if you want to discuss this in more detail, but happy for you guys to run with it too - enjoy 😊

[@LesJeuxDeMilen]

I think the same! I see more than 350 000 views. ~ 50 000 views from japanesse audience and ~ 300 000 views from western audience. In the same time they made 75% sales from japanesse audience and 25 % sales from from western audience. The ratio (japanesse sales / japanesse views) is way way higher. My advice : they can consider more japanesse oriented DLC-s for this game - I think they can make a lot more money with this game, than with their other game in development (the guild-game)."

[@dobrx6199]

Interesting tip about the new and trending on Friday thing, would you recommend releasing on Thursday/Friday for that reason?

[@bitemegames]

It's more risky, because a lot of bigger publisher funded games know this as well, so you will most likely need more WLs as it's a more fought after spot, vs. getting on it during a weekday. -M

[@nullx2368]

@@bitemegames Also want to clarify, You CAN release on the weekend but you don't get steam direct support if something bad happens

[@PentamorphStudio]

Congrats!

[@project_u_gamer5383]

I'll say that it's kinda sad for me to come here to see how much you made or just because of the money, but you are really a big source of motivation for me...

[@PinguinoSod]

I think Japanese people are obsessed with Italy. It may be a factor for why a pizza delivery game with italian music performs well

[@MHG796]

Dang, thanks man i guess i got the next game idea

[@Foolsjoker]

As someone from the US, I will say, this didn't pop up on my Steam feed at all.

[@michaelslattery2273]

2:52 the text says "if your game doesnt support Japanese, you wont show up for the Japanese new and trending" is it enough to just have the steam page translated to each language?

[@bitemegames]

No, you also need to have the game itself localized (otherwise Steam will also display a big warning "this game is not available in your language"). -M

[@toddkronenberg4126]

Oh wow, over $6k after refunds for a game that took a month. That's gotta be a nice feeling compared to the revenue from Forge Industry (I just watched your Forge Industry financials videos!).

[@whiletrue1-wb6xf]

great info , can you share which computer you are using for game development ?

[@bitemegames]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/gnmafXyhf5Wkg5Y -M

[@DennisJ42]

You have to understand how it appeals to certain demographs. Walking and biking around the city is big in Japan, so the interest naturally is there. Makes sense to me.

[@bitemegames]

By that logic, countries like Netherlands and Denmark should also be big sellers but they are near zero. What's the difference? And Korea is #2 sales wise, but biking isn't nearly as popular there. -M

[@DennisJ42]

@@bitemegames right, but there's also things like KZbin algorithm. How many KZbin videos are from people walking around in nice Japan? And that sort've on foot? I'm thinking KZbin algorithm has a big part, and especially since I believe they said in the video a streamer in Japan talked about it? It'd be nice to know steam statistics of conversions from KZbin.

[@LesJeuxDeMilen]

@@bitemegames I think in Japan there are many tv shows with a host and with participants. The participants make something ... falling and etc. ... and the host laughts. Maybe in your game the bikers are falliong a lot and making the players laught - like the tv shows, don't know. Watch the streamers and find what they find fun in your game.

[@serbrighterunagainst9231]

Hi, are you going to make the player models with animations etc. available so people can make their own unicycle spinoffs? Isn't that the way to maximize profit from non-IP centric quick games such as this one? You could even publish with a licence requring mention of your game, so both money and marketing? Then you can make a video about how much you earned additionally with this model

[@flymacseamus3474]

What's your background music toward the end?? There's a California Soul ring to it that's really catchy

[@DasEt-hw7ly]

You guys look totally exhausted. Think of your health first guys and do not burn yourselves out.

[@houseofstud]

Awesome video guys. Reallly appreciate the insights! how did you create the YT game tag for people to be able to tag your game when they upload it? Maybe this will be in your marketing video but where did you get the data on localised pricing for the countries you applied that for? And what's the range Steam allows you to localise your price?

[@karamoni7926]

I've heard that Steam doesn't give back its share if the game is returned, but rather that the developer has to refund the entire price and therefore loses money in a refund. Is that really the case?

[@bitemegames]

Pretty sure that's not the case. That's why Steam pays out only a month late, since it's past the 2 week refund period, after which the final cut is calculated. -M

[@matt1871]

Serious question, do you think if you spent 6 months in this game, added more content/polish etc, that you'd have seen a proportional increase in revenue? It's difficult to gauge the quality required (investment) to revenue ratio with indie games..

[@bitemegames]

No, 6 months would have not been worth it, perhaps 1 month to add 2 extra maps, but I don't think you'll get double the revenue. -M

[@MxzStudio]

2:20 Ho ok I undertstand more. In this case is good.

[@subomiayo8938]

How do you know how to price for different countries and know if people those countries have the money to buy it?

[@nathanfranck5822]

Make new character that has intense physics you have to control with dual stick and paddles for movement, balancing, and crouch/extend jumping (ref. Decenders) if you wanna really piss people off

[@SteveDFM]

Did Update 2024/09/11 fix the bins? I love challenging, I don't like broken. When the bins are fixed I'll buy it again.

[@bitemegames]

The bins? 2024/09/11 fixed some later-stage issues with bad colliders on fences/rocks, but I'm not sure what you mean with bins. -M

[@SteveDFM]

@@bitemegames It was highlighted in the launch video. There are two bins with a ramp on top - but you can jump and jump to try and get to the ramp but there's an invisible collider. Way above the handle of the bin.

[@bitemegames]

The bins were fixed in update 2024/12/21. -M

[@SteveDFM]

@ Thanks, I'll buy it again.

[@SteveDFM]

Bought, and can confirm. I got up the bins twice. Thanks for getting back to me. I'll play it again when I'm less tired and feel like getting my ass kicked by a game :)

[@KirbySamaDesu]

500 wishlist believe it or not it's really hard to achieve, this youtube channel helped a lot I think, if you didn't have that wishlist push it would just sink like 99.9% of games

[@ardaozler631]

Is it? For this game, it certainly would be very hard to hit 500 if there wasnt this yt channel imo. But if you make a good game that people would like to play, 500 shouldnt really be too hard, i will launch my steam page in about a week hopefully, with some tiktok content i am hoping to hit 100 wishlists in the first week, 500 in the first month, and in 6-12 months i hope to to publish. Ill come back and update you on it. Remind me if i forget.

[@KirbySamaDesu]

@@ardaozler631 I wish you good luck

[@gameboardgames]

Ya said something similar on a biteme video last week. This channel helps a great deal. For the average dev without a yt channel, can take many months to even possibly get 500 wishlists. It's not entirely the full reason though, (as they said in this video) this channel doesn't account for Japan at all, and that's where they got 75% of their sales. Seems like luck plays a big part, and most of the heavy lifting is having streamers play your game (as the Japanese streamer did).

[@KirbySamaDesu]

@@gameboardgames The truth is there are probably lots of japanese devs following them and they shared their videos, so not mathematical perfect but having a channel helps a lot.

[@Gemwielders]

@@gameboardgames I would say 500 whishlists is quite achievable. I made a basic steampage and didn't do any marketing yet (I plan to do that before the demo launches) - and I get a little less than a whishlist a day organically. If the game looks appealing and with some marketing collecting 500 whishlists or so seems very doable. Unfortunately more would be better ;)

[@DiogoCasado]

Congrats guys. Now release a DLC. /s /yolo

[@I.mAlicia]

Out of curiosity, did Valve/Steam give a reason why they don’t want analytics shared?

[@I.mAlicia]

Also, was this 100% asset store and free assets? Anything custom art?

[@VSalgc]

12:51 540 gross unit returned- unreasoned issues. frauds and payment issues😢

[@Maingame86]

do you know MANU Video Game Maker ? what do you think?

[@arw000]

If you have steam deck support you have linux support. Their problems are with arch and not your game lmao.

[@AdmiralSamStarcraft]

Will you be going to Tokyo Game Show?

[@ataberkylmaz4285]

You should try reaching out to Ludwig if you didn't already. He plays games like UPT such as Jump King, Pogostuck, Getting Over It etc. while streaming and uploads to his channel

[@bitemegames]

Of course we attempted, but you get blocked by his agency basically if you don't have a bag of money. -M

[@amlan9120]

Someone keep emphasizing it was an skill issue, trying to guilt trip the customer, like they could never build a bad game.

[@lcax8804]

If you make the game for 2.98 realistically I'd not even bother refunding, even if it's horrible.

[@The_Hambone_88]

Wow, one month?! I actually thought the game made a lot more than that but still an impressive amount for one month; if you made 8K a month from a game every month, would be pretty amazing, ha. How many hours did you all spend making this game, was it 40 hours a week for two people or more/less?

[@MystMagie]

You’re comparing numbers to the average game, or to the amount of time it took to develop. In reality you should compare it to the goals you had for this game, which let’s be honest, due to the nature of the game, the goal is to go viral

[@gameboardgames]

Well done! sidenote, Wonder why the game did so well in Japan.

[@madthijsgames]

They talked about this before. Apparently Japanese kids learn to ride unicycles in school. So it resonates with them

[@gameboardgames]

@@madthijsgames Huh, that's really interesting. Never wood-a guessed. Thanks

[@ElbiAdajew]

It's rude to call it skill issue. Like you yourself said, the game mechanics can be learned within an hour. When people refund it due to being too difficult it means "it's not fun enough to be worth spending an hour learning it". When you say skill issue, it means "you're too bad to enjoy our game".

Skill issue seems correct. Design skill that is.

[@donkeykong315]

The draw of games like this is the mastery of simple controls in difficult circumstances. It may be disingenuous to attribute it all to skill issue but that’s definitely a factor of it.

[@ElbiAdajew]

@@user-uq2ko4jq2v dumbass take

[@pieflies]

⁠@@user-uq2ko4jq2vit’s not about being a ❄️ or having a thick skin. If you dismiss users’ “skill issues” with your game you risk missing an opportunity to use that feedback to improve your product so that more people like it, which means your game ends up being more successful. Being successful is required to make it in the games industry. Even if you want your game to require time to get skilled at, you might be able to tweak things to satisfy that while still being less frustrating for users.

[@FFTVYoutube]

I really hope you can replicate this and end up with even more success. Try finding a meme or something that is viral and build something based off that? Something that can standout to the ticktok crowd.✌️

[@VSalgc]

the refunds 😮 did they at least tried to play the game or did they just purchased and refund it? Sometimes these may be card hunters and thats all they wanted.

[@CloudlessStudio]

Tbh seeing reviews I really expected more.

[@lukajk]

biteme stays winning 🥰

[@IrishZOMBIE117]

Dunking on Concord as a dev is definitely a bad look. As someone who makes games you understand how difficult it is to bring together a complex vision. Just something worth thinking about.

[@MxzStudio]

So you made 6,068 - 30% = 4247$ in a month. Minuse taxe in your country... Here in canada is 33% x) Not alot. .... 2845.89$ :/ Not realy good