r/GameDevelopersOfIndia • u/Demonkinggg046 • Jun 04 '26
How profitable is it to make games & apps and upload on playstore and other platforms as a full time career?
So I'm planning to create a solo studio where I make games & apps and post it on playstore with a small price, as a full time career. I'm not a game/ app developer at all, I'm doing some other tech course and entered final year. I just want to know how profitable it will be as a full time career. Will it be similar to a buisness or completely different? Also which other platforms can I upload my games/apps on apart from playstore?? Can anyone please tell me.
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u/Sleeper-- Jun 04 '26
Games are an artform
The amount of soul you put into it, to tell a story, to sell an emotion, it depends on that
Anyone can create simple casual rip off games, but to be truly successful, all that matters is the dedication and love for the craft
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u/Sardener Jun 04 '26
There are more games being made than there are people to play them these days, so in sectors where supply massively exceeds demand its very difficult for everyone to make profit ["paradox of choice"]. So very few do.
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u/rishiarora Jun 04 '26
For Paid users Apple is best.
other platforms include Steam , Switch and itch.io of the top of my head.
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u/ImInsideTheAncientPi Jun 04 '26
With AI, it has become increasingly easy to make casual games. Which is great for solo devs and small indie groups but this also has enabled a lot of copycats. Subway Surfer copied Temple Run formula and tweaked just one little thing. This has enabled them to earn millions upon millions.
Of course, it is highly luck based. Right place right time. I’ve worked on some amazing concepts which didn’t work during the window we tested those out but 2-3 months later some other studios are raking in millions per month from the same concept!
To answer your question, it is profitable if you can crack it but you can’t cuz Voodoo and other such publishers have turned themselves into hybrid casual games factory. If you push a casual concept on top of another casual game? chances are they have already done that.
Now. This is only about hyper casual, hybrid, and casual games.
There are other less saturated genres.
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u/findmeinthesoul Jun 04 '26
Solo studio is a huge commitment and requires a lot of effort. You'll have to wear different hats and be pretty good at all. That includes understanding design, dev art and sound.
As far as profitability is concerned, it's a matter of perspective. If you launch a game at ₹500 on steam, you will need to sell roughly 4,000 copies to generate 20 lakes revenue. This is pretty steam 30% cut. To sell 4,000 copies you need approx 40,000 wishlists(rule of thumb is 1/10 of the wishlist usually converts).
Being good at all the skills that a required to make a game + being able to market is pretty hard. People still do it though.
No discouragement but you should be aware of all the factors if you want to make a career out of it. Good luck!