Comments on: Sales Statistics: Pharaohs’ Curse Gold, $2000 Yearly Sales

By: Maher

Maher — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 15:00:37 +0000

Thanls everyone for the nice words :)

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:43:14 +0000

Maher: Thanks for updating the stats, very nice of you.
Knau: Yeah, I agree, the slow build to solid sales is a nice path if you can stick at it.

By: KNau

KNau — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 18:03:37 +0000

The whole “my sales are poor” comes from the portal mindset where all your sales occur in the first 60 days and you’re told the “average” is in the 1000s of copies a month. What no one mentions is that “average” applies to less than 1% of the people developing indie games.

For everyone else there’s the $2,000 a year model, which isn’t bad if you stop trying to “keep up the the Joneses”. If you look at is as successfully creating a passive income that will extend for years (if not decades) to come- then it’s actually an achievement that you can be proud of.

Plus this type of success increments exponentially with each new release. 2 games on the site doesn’t mean $4,000 a year – it’s more like $6,000 – $8,000 a year. It’s a slow burn to build a successful business this way but in the end you have a business that won’t topple over under market changes so easily.

By: Juuso - Game Producer

Juuso - Game Producer — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:55:56 +0000

Thanks Maher for these numbers – I’ve updated the info.

By: Maher

Maher — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:30:47 +0000

Here is my 2006 sales stats :
Jan. 3 sales
Feb. 8 sales
March 5 sales
April 2 sales
May 1 sales
June 4 sales
July 2 sales
August 3 sales

Total income for the past 4 years (through my site) is USD 7556
No sequel but I am planning for more levels pack!

By the way, I am very poor in marketing and if anyone can help me or point me where to make ads, promotion or whatever, I will be more than happy and appreciate it.

By: Jake Birkett

Jake Birkett — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:10:45 +0000

I played this about 2-3 years ago and it seems well enough done. It’s great that it’s still selling cool. Wonder what the total income over 4 years is? Time for a sequal?

By: Juuso - Game Producer

Juuso - Game Producer — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:08:36 +0000

“PharaohÂ´s Course is a fine game, but itÂ´s only a â€œcomercial remakeâ€ from the MSX classic â€œKingÂ´s Valleyâ€ from Konami, with the same levels and puzzlesâ€¦”

@Raul: Developer mentioned: It is true it is a based of a Konami game but it has a totally original and different Levels. Music and graphics are also original. The concept/gameplay is only like the Konami game.

By: MarkSide

MarkSide — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 17:18:08 +0000

If the monthly sales numbers listed above are current 2006 numbers, then this is definitely something to be quite proud of – $2000/yr worth of sales for a game that came out 4 years ago, and that took only 4 months of part-time work to develop? That’s great!

It would definitely be interesting to see the number of units sold per month over the lifetime of the product…

By: swordfish

swordfish — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:22:39 +0000

On the topic of being proud of your smallest achievements: I remember selling my first shareware unit at the young age of 11 – I was so proud of the $10 I earned. My mother photocopied the check and laminated it and put it in a scrapbook for me. Those were the days.

By: Raul

Raul — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:16:40 +0000

PharaohÂ´s Course is a fine game, but itÂ´s only a “comercial remake” from the MSX classic “KingÂ´s Valley” from Konami, with the same levels and puzzles…