StudioEres (Rinkuhero) has sold 385 copies of Immortal Defense in an eighteen month period, receiving revenues of $7,449.69.
The space-themed tower defense game, originally priced at $22.95, now sells at the lower price of $14.95.
From the ‘Going Commercial’ feature I wrote for MarkUp 7:
Immortal Defense was released with a very open approach to sales. Statistics of the number of downloads; site hits and purchases have been posted in a topic on the StudioEres forum to enable other independent game developers to learn from RinkuHero’s experiences.A month after its release the game had achieved 56 sales out of 4600 demo downloads – a 1.22% conversion rate. This gives is a very transparent insight into the amounts of money which have been involved so far. A retail price of $22.95 multiplied by 56 gives a total of $1,285.20. However this would only be true if every copy was sold at full price which hasn’t been the case as there is a half price offer available for people who feature the game on their blog or website. The Immortal Defense demo is included on the cover DVD of the October 2007 issue of PC Advisor magazine in the UK.
Bear in mind that as Rinkuhero stated in an interview $1,285.20 in a month is below the minimum wage in many states, although of course you can choose how much time you spend promoting your game. In effect you are left with two jobs – first making your game, and second selling it.
The openness with which this game has been released may be useful to people who are interested to see the effect different promotion methods have on downloads and sales.
The game’s current rating at YoYo? 3.4
The seemingly-low rating is probably because YoYo Gamers expect something free.
Oooh. I wouldn’t mind $7500. 🙂
Good to see something like this happen, Immortal Defense also appeared in an Australian PC gaming magazine ( PC Powerplay ) a few months ago ( though for the life of me I can’t remember what issue ).
Wow I didn’t know this could happen with a game made with gamemaker. It sure gives me more inspiration to make a commercial game.
I’m glad to hear of its success. It’s a great game and he deserves every penny. There was such depth even in the shorter demo version that, if I had the moolah, I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase it.
He’s also quite right about the minimum wage. I’m actually a few dollars above the minimum wage in Michigan and I still make less than $1000 per month.