In this article I would like to share my experience launching my first browser game. For those that aren’t familiar, Nevergrind is a browser RPG that I have publicly developed since September, 2012. Starting last month, on April 20th, players could save their character data on the server. This was a huge step for Nevergrind since this allowed players to reliably store their data on the server instead of saving character data locally in their browsers, a highly unreliable and inconvenient method of data storage.
This was the most significant development milestone in the history of the game. Not only did I launch a custom account authentication system, but I also launched an integrated e-commerce system that allowed players to purchase a Never Crystals, a premium currency for in-app purchases.
So did I make any money? Did anyone create accounts aside from the Kickstarter backers that generously supported you? Is it even possible for a coding cowboy indie developer like myself to make money with a browser game? After all I am competing against the entire world of entertainment with my small niche website! Let’s dig into the numbers and see what happened.
First Month’s Revenue Report
The first month performed a hair above even my own expectations with $630. Not bad, though I won’t be quitting my day job quite yet! I received $551 via Stripe payments and $79 via Paypal. Customers using the integrated Stripe payment system were successfully charged 70 times to 49 unique customers. Considering that Nevergrind is a newly monetized property, this is a considerable achievement since I am still developing customer trust in the Neverworks brand. Check out the day-to-day graph below:
Account Data
I had no idea what to expect in my first month, so I was eager to see how many people would sign up for server accounts. At the end of the month, a total of 793 user accounts were created. Since we know that users spent $630 in that month, that means that the average server account user spent $0.79 last month! I’m not sure how I feel about that. I suppose that’s reasonable!
A total of 1,922 characters were created in the first month. The average character’s level is 17! At the time of this writing, you must be at least level 22 to crack the top 300 on the leaderboard. According to my estimates, players have accumulated 480 days of playtime, which means that the average character has roughly 6 hours of playtime.
And how about some data on popular race/class combos? The top 10 most popular race/class combos are as follows:
Mid-Month Adjustments
As a result of launching my first browser game, there were several considerable changes that I made throughout the month. One key change was to increase the number of free features that I included with each account, which I fully detailed in another article. I made all difficulty modes available, I added a free second character slot, and I even made talent resets free.
On the other side of that equation, I also nerfed the daylights out of local mode accounts. I only did this after I saw that server accounts were performing as expected and it seemed that players were pleased with their performance. I will probably only leave local mode so that players can check the game out without forcing them to sign up for an account. Local mode is now limited to one character and nightmare and hell difficulties are not available. It’s notable to mention that Nevergrind on Kongregate is still pointed at local mode only to reduce the possibility of users bouncing the instant they see a signup form.
Endless harassment for playing local mode!
Another major mid-month adjustment was a major adjustment to my database’s design. With my old design I was inserting way too much data, so I decided to use more updates instead to avoid having so many events tracked using separate insert statements. Nevergrind currently runs on a VPS, so it can become very painful when performing imports and exports with such a large database. The old design was driving my database upwards of 260 megs! The new design is sitting at a much leaner 25 megs.
By the way, if you absolutely must track game events using separate insert statements, as a sort of log to keep track of what’s going on in your game, I’d suggest storing it into a separate table that only keeps track of log-style events while using updates on the game data itself. That way you can use your database as a log, but also retain the ability to import and export a much smaller game database. This can be really important if you don’t have a dedicated host because phpmyadmin has a low import limit depending on your web host (mine is 105 megs). Of course, you could always just upgrade to a dedicated host. You’re making enough revenue to justify that, right?!
Final Musings
The first month was a great success in my estimation, and I’ve only a few battle scars. I have a lot of planned improvements on the way. I even have more “totally reasonable” monetized features that I plan to unveil, so I am optimistic for the future. Over the next month, the Nevergrounds, a Nevergrind character profile page, will be increasingly functional which will be an exciting addition to the website.
The Nevergrounds in its infancy
If I made $630 every single month that would put me at $7,560 for the year. This would also mean that I’d finally start making profit in October! As long as I continue to generate consistent revenue I will consider upgrading to a dedicated host and adding other exciting features that provide value for players.
Now… do I actually think I will make $630 every month? It’s hard to say and I don’t want to sound like a pessimist. I think the first month may stand as a high-water mark for a long time. I figure that Nevergrind’s niche supporters, who have been following the game’s development for months and even years, are to thank for its first successful month. I suspect that attracting new players will be a struggle from this point forward, so, in my conservative estimation, I project that Nevergrind will make about $4,500 in its first year.
What do you think?
