Introduction:
You might already know about several ways of making money online, but I guarantee you don't know about this one. Not because it's a secret, but because you thought it was too difficult for you. Let's discover the world of indie game development together.
Definition:
Indie game dev stands for independent game development. We all know about big franchises like GTA or Elder Scrolls, with big budgets and teams of hundreds of developers and graphic designers. But actually, you don't really need all of that to make your own game. You can literally make a Counter-Strike 2 game by yourself, or a PUBG or a Fortnite – franchises that started with indie game dev!
Requirements:
In order to make your beautiful and lucrative game, you need a bunch of tools to help you achieve your project. First of all, you need to choose a game engine – it is the heart of the whole process. A game engine is the one thing combining all the others. Now, you might think that such big software must be expensive or something. Guess what? Absolutely not! You have the choice between many free game engines like Unity, Godot, and Source, and the most performant one, Unreal Engine 5 from Epic Games. This engine was used to create big franchises like PUBG, Jedi Fallen Order, and many more. It combines a whole collection of assets and technology to make your game look like a AAA game with features like Lumen, material handling, modeling, physics, and many more. Also, you are not obliged to know any programming language to use it. You can learn Unreal Engine and develop your game using a logic system handling the events and assets of your game, called Blueprint. The most advantageous thing with Unreal Engine or Unity is that they both have a huge community ready to help, and there are many YouTube channels offering tutorials from scratch to pro learning.
That's for the game engine. Now, you also need 3D models like characters, weapons, vehicles, etc. All of this can be found for free in the Unreal Engine Marketplace or on other platforms like Sketchfab, Mixamo, and more. There, you can download the assets and import them into your game engine to be used. Even if you want to make your own 3D models, there are free software for that. Of course, I'm talking about Blender, the most famous 3D software on the web. Here, too, you can find a lot of tutorials on how to use it on YouTube.
Other stuff like soundtracks, sound effects, videos, images – all of this can be found on royalty-free websites. All you have to do is devote yourself.
Development:
As I said before, you can find a lot of tutorials on how to make your game. YouTube channel showing how to make FPS or RPG games on Unreal Engine. But one piece of advice is to start with small projects first, like Snake or Tetris or Flappy Bird. Take the time to learn the basics of the game engine, and then you can move on to a full AAA battle royale game with zombies and multiplayer features.
Monetization:
Game development can be lucrative in many ways. Of course, you can sell your game on different marketplaces like Epic Games, Steam, Google Play, Itch, etc., even on your own website. But you can also monetize it by offering the game for free and adding in-game purchases like skins, weapons, special characters, and maps. Also, for mobile games, you can add advertisements to your game and earn every time players watch your ads.
Conclusion:
Indie game dev might be a bit difficult or, let's say, new for a new developer, but it quickly becomes exciting, fun, and very lucrative. If you don't believe me, just see how many new indie games you can find on game stores or Google Play Store. Remember, if everyone is doing it, it's because it works!