Success and scale

I have an interesting idea of how to approach making games for living.

You might have heard that game X is a "commercial failure". That's because the profit could not compensate money spent.

Based on that instance, many pro game creators is going around talking what kind of games can earn money, be it gacha game or match-3 with lives, but in the end your "design" is limited by this kind of situation.

I could not make a simple 2D action game because it would fail commercially. For example.

Then I have an interesting idea, what if I think this way, if I manage to reduce money spent on the game? What if I degraded to working alone so the large cost of salary money for team is going away? What if I does not party every now and then and save money?

Suddenly, I think many possibilities have opened. Many "low money" design is now possible depends on your scale...

Looking at the music game I am working now. To think about it, the game would fail if I did not work alone! The salary cost would heavily outweighs its monetization design. If I want to have teammates I might have to change its IAP model to something other company is doing. But thinking in other way, because I am working alone and cutting cost, a new game design is now possible! Isn't that exciting? A game where a lot of content is free and that is possible because not much money is needed for the devs, the players might be happy and feel refreshing to play, and also sufficient for me alone to live from it..

Someone said, making a game is not a one man show. But that really depends on your game's scale. By reducing the team size, at the same time you can reduce the requirement for your game to become a success. What is a success? Success is when you are happy with your work. That might be you get enough money from it or you are proud of it.

The post does not have conclusive end, just an interesting thought.