@ahmed_shahjada
Not really in parallel, I just had started a few and tabled them for various reasons… there will be something either I am not confident about in the app that I want to change; or some where there is art or sounds I want to totally redo or am waiting on. I will then put that to the side and either get a new one started because of a strong feeling to code another type of game, or jump back to one of the other tabled games.
Looks like a popular post so far, my quick response:
a. I am solo now, but have partnered before twice. Once it worked out well, once it did not.
b. I am not seeking a partner at this moment.
c. I have not worked with a publisher for games, regardless, given the opportunity to I would. That is, if the publisher had a built-in audience like Ketchapp, Appsolute, Big Fish, etc. then even if you got 30…50% of the profits it would be way better than what you could do alone.
At the end of the day, the value I see in a publisher is:
The downsides:
PS - I have worked with a publisher for books and that is similar.
Thanks guys for the enlightenment and sharing your experience with me. I am 37 and I do dream of creating fresh content which may or may not make money only future can tell. Going solo is not easy I can see that even with the skillsets one may possess. The most important thing maybe for indies perhaps is to have a small number of games released every year and one may earn some amount of money.
To be honest, I’m not sure if I’m indie or not! I’m coming at this a little differently to most…
I started coding in 1996 when I was 10. At that age you’re obviously only interested in games, so I learned by making simple games. Like the rest of you, most of my projects were never actually completed… I suppose I was writing them more as a way of learning than anything else, and back then publishing anything wasn’t really an option for amateurs so once you’re bored of working on something, there’s not really any incentive to keep at it.
I started in qbasic, dabbled with basic-a, then switched to Windows, experimented with a few languages (they all came as free trials with magazines), and eventually settled with Visual Basic. From there I moved more into software development, probably because VB was terribly slow and games require speedy processing.
In 2001 I moved to web development and although I’ve periodically messed around in my free time with games development again, I ended up building my career in web and on 2013 I set up a web agency.
Towards the end of last year I found Corona and it stuck. This time I’m not just dabbling, I’ve actually returned to games development and even gone as far as rebranding my company.
And this is where I’m in an unusual position. I’ve built up a number of contacts over the years and as a company there are two of us in-house, plus about a dozen designers and developers who work for us as contractors. They’re not employees so on the face of it we’re a tiny agency, but behind the scenes there are some seriously impressive people. They’re all web people though… I’m the only game programmer, and I’m terribly rusty to say the least. On my own I’m indie at best, and as a company we’re basically a web agency with an indie game programmer sitting in the middle, but we have digital designers, print designers, video guys, email campaign designers, SEO specialists, and so on all with skills that can easily be translated from web to game. If a client approaches us with a game idea and some money, I can put together a team and we can do a really good job, but we’re not in a position where we can throw our own money at a project so that’s a less feasible option for our own ideas.
So again, I’m not sure whether I’m indie or not at the moment. Definitely aiming for ‘not’ though.
As for publishers - in a nutshell, unless you just strike it lucky, actually putting something out there isn’t as simple as uploading to the Android/iOS marketplace. Sure you’re in front of an audience then, but you’re not going to be featured in those marketplaces until you’re snowballing and proving to Google/Apple that your game is going to make them more money if they feature it. You’re going to get lost in the vast quantity of other titles now that everybody with the ability to use a keyboard is able to make something and upload. To get your product noticed, you have to throw money into advertising and you have to know all of the tricks to make your game show up under the right searches on all of the right mediums. This is where the risk is - we don’t all have large sums of money to throw at a project without knowing that it’s going to return a larger sum in the end. That’s where a publisher comes in. Firstly they have a reputation to maintain which means that any title they take on and market has to be on par with every other title they market, so having their brand name on your title gives it credibility and immediately puts you in front of that publishers group of followers. And secondly they have the money to spend on huge advertising campaigns knowing that if it doesn’t work out, they’re not going to have to fold. Put simply, if you go with a publisher you’re handing over the risk and the expense of putting your game out there, and you’re giving it a good head start if your publisher is a reputable brand, but you’re doing this in return for a potentially large share of the profits. It’s a fair deal when you think about it though - you’re going to be in profit from your smaller share long before your publisher is, because they’re covering all of the initial expense.
It used to be that you could approach a publisher with a working concept and they’d fund the remaining development etc. I’m not sure that this is the case any more but if it is, I imagine this just replaces the stress of having to cover the expenses with a new stress of being pressured by the publisher to hit deadlines and incorporate design changes you’re unhappy about… I’d avoid such a set-up myself.
@Richard11 : Thanks for giving us an overview of your experience. The fact that you are in a position with the skillset and the team to put a game out there is an achievement in my opinion. Many a times I see partnerships not flourishing as they should.
@ahmed_shahjada,
Don’t expect to make money doing Indie games, the odds for a Indie developer to succeed is about 1% (being generous).
If you don’t have a designer for your project the odds is even lower. Few games survive with low quality design, and most of then are made on propose not because the lack of skills (retro games).
Sound is AS important as design, most negligent this fact and most probably don’t agree with me. That’s my opinion. It will level up your game.
Marketing your game is more important than programming skills, design or sound all together (what’s the point of having a great game if no one knows it, and getting someone to knows it, it’s harder than you think)
Usually 1 person team only focus on his Idea and his skills in programming, neglecting the others areas. That’s a rookie mistake that costs time. You said you didn’t spent any dime on it…well…time is money in my book. If you spend 1 year in a project and then says at the end if it fails…“Well at least I didn’t spent any money”…well…you did. That’s 1 year you could do anything else that will not come back.
Saying this, doing a game while learning a language is always fun and making your dream game come true is even funnier. Just don’t expect to earn money with it. If at the end you win, that’s even better, but don’t count on it. Don’t quite your day job for it, that’s my point 
Have fun in your project.
I don’t like to say so, because I don’t want to discourage people, but I agree fully with Carlos Costa.
The vast, vast, vast majority of indie games have low-quality art, low-quality sound and low-quality game design. All this while “consumers” are getting more and more used to high quality and high production value content everywhere they look, even in friend’s social media feeds.
99% of the games I see posted here on the forum, created by hobby programmers, are pretty bad. But that’s perfectly okay, because it’s a hobby for most, and people enjoy making them. But when it comes to making money with the games created by Corona developers, I think even less than 1% are viable candidates, and in my opinion almost always because the quality is too low for graphics, sound ànd game design.
Yes, that’s harsh, but I stand by it.
Well, as you say while less than 1% of indie developers will make any money (probably nearer 0.01%), if you make a unique, quality product, your chances increase hugely. So your chance of success is mostly dependent on your skill and determination, not a roll of a 100-sided dice.
If you made the next Minecraft, Prison Architect, Stardew Valley or Designer City (made in Corona), you will attract publishers and are highly likely to make money.
Whether or not you have the ability, time, desire, and crucially, the million dollar idea, is another matter!
I am not discouraged by this. I will have fun learning corona sdk and even if there is one download I will be happy at this point.
The next thing I need to look into is how to upload game to android store.
Learning from this discussion :
Although graphics and sound are important, nothing is more important than good ideas and good game design.
Many games are quite successful with rather simple graphics, simply because they are fun and often bring something fresh to the market.
2048 (if thats what its called) comes to mind.
I would not use “number of apps” as a target. Quality matters over quantity.
garbage will always be garbage, be it a single piece or a bucket load 
What I’d add instead is “get familiar with and study the documentation”. It is well made and you will find the answers to most of your questions right there.
Don’t forget to kiss your other hobbies and interests goodbye! 
Happy coding!
Not a game but a support app for people that use spotify
My biggest tip for non-artist coders:
create a unique experience, instead of duplicating existing stuff. You will always be the copy with worse art if you duplicate.
look for art styles that are really simplistic but good looking. Try to understand what makes it work. Pixel art is easier than lush 3D environments, in other words. Coloured abstract blocks is even easier. Look at “Thomas Was Alone” for the best example, and an AWESOME game.
learn what colour grading is, and apply it. This is a very simple trick to tie your graphics together and add atmosphere.
be really critical of the things you do master. There are excuses for not having killer art. There are no excuses for having game mechanics that don’t really work well.
just have fun. If you have a day job, you don’t need to make money with your apps.
I am alone, as a graphic designer and looking for programmers that do not cost me 800 dollars a day I decided to program. And I believe that little by little I am acquiring knowledge.
I have always thought that the most experienced developers in this forum could make a small team, understand 2 or 3 (3…mmm think to much) people no more, discuss the ideas and decide if they want to work as a team or not. Here there are talent, good programmers who have no talent or time for design, good designers who also have no talent and time to program and programmers and designers who know more about marketing than what they do.
That said, “Corona SDK” has the potential to reach Google and Apple store any idea. There are plenty of ideas, what is missing is the spirit and the desicion that want to unite to reach far and trust a person who has vision.
And believe me I made a thorough study in the stores and I realized that there are good mechanics with poor graphics, good graphics with bad mechanics, but let’s talk clearly, you may wonder if Angry Birds would have been so famous if it had not been for the characters , some annoying birds that look funny flying … I always said that the first impression is the one that counts, perhaps you go in t shirt and flip flops to a job interview? Well how are you going to enter Google and Apple with bad graphics or bad programming …
Thanks
DoDi
In this whole discussion, let’s not forget that one of the ugliest games made in recent history is Candy Crush! But the mechanics of that game were true perfection.
…but on the other hand no better than loads of match 3 games that came before it. It helps to be able to spend millions on user acquisition. 
Very true. There seems to be something new around as well, with video ads starring Ryan Reynolds (from Deadpool). Can’t remember the name, but with marketing budgets like that, you can bet it’s going to become massive as well.
And of course, as indie devs, there’s no match for this scale of exposure.
Now I am really curious to hear about money making stories from Indies, who could make money with corona games? I want to hear about their struggles and light at the end of the tunnel.
From my point of view it was a lot easier to make money from mobile games 5-6 years ago, before the big boys moved in and click-per-install advertising became a thing.
The market became really saturated with clones alongside games with big advertising budgets, and new games weren’t getting any traction, so I sold my portfolio and moved into desktop games.
It’s still possible to be successful though if you stand out from the crowd, for example SGS on here has done really well with Designer City.