How To Make Money ?

[Yzat]

Good Day Ladies And Gentlemen
I am Here to open a discussion about how to make money through this industry .
I know you can help with programming , translation , testing , drawing or storytelling , And make money .
But a lot of people can't do these things or can't find these jobs online.
You can help by suggesting methods for making money , jobs opportunity or anything you find useful.
So let's work together to rise this thread , and a lot of people will come by helping each other.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

But a lot of people can't do these things or can't find these jobs online.

That's their problem, basically.
This is a brutal dog-eat-dog industry, so better git-gud before you stick your nose here.
Also don't expect the successful people to come here and share their secrets.
No point creating more competition for themselves after all.

 

[Hagatagar]

I know you can help with programming , translation , testing , drawing or storytelling , And make money .

People can make money, yes. But in most cases that's only a meager income, a few extra bucks. There are only a few that are lucky enough that their stuff got enough traction to get caught in machine, so their work can make money.

But a lot of people can't do these things

Well, some things are just not meant for everybody.

If someone isn't capable of doing certain things, then one has to look for something else.
It's just that simple. That's nothing you can force, even if you want to.

And the few menial jobs in this "industry" (that anyone can do) either aren't paid at all or not well enough to make actual money from it.

 

[MissFortune]

People can make money, yes. But in most cases that's only a meager income, a few extra bucks. There are only a few that are lucky enough that their stuff got enough traction to get caught in machine, so their work can make money.

While the luck component is true and probably rules above all else in this sphere, I think there's certainly a skill component to it, as well. You could also say that knowing your audience and hitting it from the beginning can play a role in it. Does that guarantee success? Probably not, but I think it also lends to a longer lasting success than pure luck does.

 

[kintarodev]

Obviously, the quality of the product you present is paramount, but there is always an element of pure luck when it comes to gaining a large following. Few achieve it. The hive mind of the internet is extremely capricious and arbitrary. It cannot be subjected to any kind of pattern IMO.

 

[Meaning Less]

I'll just say that if your goal is simply "to make money" you are entirely in the wrong business, go find something else to do.

Leave art for those that enjoy doing it even during harsh times.

 

[Yzat]

That's their problem, basically.
This is a brutal dog-eat-dog industry, so better git-gud before you stick your nose here.

Exactly , So how they get started that's the question

Also don't expect the successful people to come here and share their secrets.
No point creating more competition for themselves after all.

Fair Point.
But Everybody start at some point , and successful people didn't born successful , they build their success.
At least they can share how they started , or if they are looking for people working with them.

 

[Meaning Less]

Exactly , So how they get started that's the question

A strong desire to create, even if you are being paid pennies and constantly failing, keep trying for years until you get better at it.

Only those that have the willpower to dedicate their lives to what they want to do can have a shot in being successful in it. There is no cheatcode...

 

[Yzat]

I'll just say that if your goal is simply "to make money" you are entirely in the wrong business, go find something else to do.

If you want this industry to be your main stream , then you need to develop your own game and get support by patrons .
But as a side hustle this can be a good income , cause why not to have fun and work at the same time?

 

[Meaning Less]

cause why not to have fun and work at the same time?

cause it will soon stop being fun if you don't actually love grinding it.

 

[Yzat]

A strong desire to create, even if you are being paid pennies and constantly failing, keep trying for years until you get better at it.

Only those that have the willpower to dedicate their lives to what they want to do can have a shot in being successful in it. There is no cheatcode...

That is an incredible advice for everything in life I hope people can take it seriously.

 

[Metal Panic]

A strong desire to create, even if you are being paid pennies and constantly failing, keep trying for years until you get better at it.

Only those that have the willpower to dedicate their lives to what they want to do can have a shot in being successful in it.

There is no cheatcode...

Hmm, constantly failing isn't a good thing, especially when many things don't give you the freedom to fail even once.

Sometimes you have to know when to stop trying and move on to something else. Trying for years? what if they can just do something they are actually good at? instead of wasting years of their lives for something they constantly fail at?

There is no guarantee of them being successful in it. You can dedicate your life to something and still suck or fail at it. These are all just words anyways. Nothing is fact, just people's opinions.

 

[Meaning Less]

Hmm, constantly failing isn't a good thing, especially when many things don't give you the freedom to fail even once.

Good luck learning even basic programming if you don't have the patience to fix your own mistakes.

Being humble is important, failing is part of the process, if you can't fail you can't succeed.

 

[Brosewood]

You've got to nut up and do it. That's the secret.

Either you have to make a game with what you know or learn enough so you can make actually make a game.

This site has graveyards dedicated to people who thought AVNs were some sort of get-rich-quick scheme. Even as a 'side hustle', this can be a lot of work and most would be better off doing something else.

If you go down this road, you will doubt yourself every step of the way. You'll spend days wondering why you do this? You'll spend days trying to fix bugs. You'll have days ruined by some person who took time out of their own day to say 'your game sucks' without elaborating. Sometimes you'll realize those people were right and decided not to tell you about a bug that you could've fixed and made a hotfix for, but now instead have to continue on with your current version.

The high points are there too. The excitement of releasing a new build, positive comments, new patrons, but none of it comes easy. If your only concern is to make money, you're in for a bad time and truth be told, it'll most likely be a short time if I haven't deterred you. As mentioned above, you have to be willing to dedicate yourself for the long haul.

 

[kintarodev]

Exactly , So how they get started that's the question

There are many ways to start, but I believe one of the right approaches is to do it humbly, being aware that you are at the bottom of the well and with INDUSTRIAL amounts of patience.

In this sense, you can count on the fact that you will never know what the silent majority thinks, but the vocal minority will almost always be there to point out what they don't like. That's when you must be prepared to accept criticism, knowing how to separate the ones that are deserved from those that are simply gratuitous.

Both Brosewood and Meaning Less have expressed it very accurately.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Good luck learning even basic programming if you don't have the patience to fix your own mistakes.

Being humble is important, failing is part of the process, if you can't fail you can't succeed.

Near to 40 years, more than 25 professionally, and I still fail way more often that I'm ready to admit.

I'm good at what I do, but being good doesn't mean that you never fail. No, what it mean is that you know where to starts, then how to react when you'll hit an obstacle that will make you fail.

 

[coffeeaddicted]

Good Day Ladies And Gentlemen
I am Here to open a discussion about how to make money through this industry .
I know you can help with programming , translation , testing , drawing or storytelling , And make money .
But a lot of people can't do these things or can't find these jobs online.
You can help by suggesting methods for making money , jobs opportunity or anything you find useful.
So let's work together to rise this thread , and a lot of people will come by helping each other.

My impression is that most devs that are super successful aren't even on this board talking.
This isn't opensource either. Because everyone strives to make money of what ever he or she creates.
Personally, i think it's futile in that you won't make a dent for yourself to actually live off that earning to sustain a living.
It's like hollywood. You burn out eventually and be gone.
I'll gave up on the idea making a game (VN) because it takes a lot of work and there is not story that wasn't already told and its getting kind of boring.
The best way to make money is probably the blueball theory. Create a story that has no action but hint's it will have one, one day. Player just need to patiently waiting for years. Have create characters, that make men super horny.
And make good renders. Maybe the story you are telling makes sense but doesn't reflect average Joe but who wants to see a story about average Joe anyway.
So by hinting what may happen, you can stretch and prolong and therefore have income because you build a fan base.

I think i became somewhat disillusioned by a lot of games. Dev cycle is in decades rather than a year or two. You start out in your 30s but the game will be havings its climax when you are in your 50s.
In that time i rather play a real game and be done with it.
In fact, i Soma that made me actually think. It was more joyful than playing a porn game.

I may sound disgruntled but it's more that you have to put a lot of love and spare time into this for the long haul. Is it or will it be worth it, depends only on you.

 

[Nunu312]

Good Day Ladies And Gentlemen
I am Here to open a discussion about how to make money through this industry .
I know you can help with programming , translation , testing , drawing or storytelling , And make money .
But a lot of people can't do these things or can't find these jobs online.
You can help by suggesting methods for making money , jobs opportunity or anything you find useful.
So let's work together to rise this thread , and a lot of people will come by helping each other.

There has been a lot of advice going on about how to be a game dev here. And it's solid advice for being a game dev, stuff like passion, patience and just doing it.

The actual answer to your question though is a lot simpler than that. You asked how to make money by helping and that's simple:
Make more money than you cost.

Production jobs like you outlined certainly can help towards that, but as you say they are often highly skilled jobs and what's more, you can't just add them to a project and have it make more money. As much as we might like it, just producing more or producing 10% better work isn't generally going to translate into more money. Of course producing 200% better work, that's going to turn heads, but that's really just not an option outside of exceptional circumstances.

All that is the development side where so many of us don't do this for money. Even if we are getting paid enough for a full time wage, this isn't a job you do just for money. As it's been said, the people who do this just for money, never made it that far.

Outside of the development side though...

I make enough to work on it full time, but I do believe my time is worth more than that. While my patreon has not plateaued yet, it's not exactly an amount of money where I'll be able to buy a house some day. I'm not going to sit down and whine about that though, I'm not going to gouge my fans for money or work less hard. Quite frankly, those are all ways you lose money. The question for me is how do I make more money?

The answer is I need someone to do marketing and social media stuff. There are enough people out there who already want to support me, they just need to know I exist first. Sure F95 is the biggest place around, but it's not exactly the only place in town. Even then, being able to increase visibility here would also help. Keeping thread activity going, producing banners and other pieces of advertisement that people can use.

This is the kind of thing that Wendy's twitter roasts are for. People get paid to shit post that stuff, but they make their money back and then some, because here I am, on a porn forum, talking about Wendy's. And next time you go get fast food, you will remember that they are an option.

Some people say that success is a matter of luck, and that's not entirely wrong. The quality of what you're making is the chance to succeed every dice roll, but visibility is the number of times you get to throw that dice.

 

[Chalker]

Bro, if someone had the golden ticket to make money, he wouldn't be giving it out to everyone who asked, since that would impact his ability to make a profit.

But here are some general rules of thumb:

1) Scratch an itch no one else has scratched. If you can't think of something like that, scratch an itch that hasn't been scratched in a while or in a way YOU could scratch it

2) Realize that first impressions matter and that people judge books by their covers. Your story could be winning Nobel prizes in literature, but that doesn't matter if no one even plays it because what they see on the cover is a couple of doodled stickmen and shitty handwriting. Or if your story doesn't have an interesting enough hook, a lot of people will forget about it before it gets good or drop the story in the first chapter. If you initially fucked up (back peddling, a controversy went wrong, abandoned projects, lied about goals, objectives and future of the project) the consumers will be weary of that and might be more apprehensive about playing the game, or more importantly, opening his wallet.

3) Create a strong, loyal core of fans or a cult following... how you do that is fucking anyone's guess, but such fans are EXTREMELY beneficial to your growth since they'll sing the praises of you and your project, bringing it into the attention of other people.

4) Actually put in the work and effort, practice until you're good and then practice until you're better. Once you're better, practice until your even better than better.

5) realize everything, including this post, is bullshit, forge your own path or die trying.

 

[kbkhan]

Not everyone has programming or translation skills. Luckily, there are various ways to earn online! One idea that's gaining popularity is trying out

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. It's a fun and potentially profitable way to spend your time. You can play games you enjoy and, at the same time, have a chance to earn some extra cash. It's a win-win situation, right? Additionally, exploring freelancing platforms like Fiverr or Upwork could be a great option. You don't need to be a tech guru to find gigs there. People offer all sorts of services, from writing and graphic design to social media management and more.