We’re continuously blown away by all the original, imaginative, and often ridiculously fun games created by independent developers using Unity. And we thought it could help creators to learn about how fellow indie studios tackle financial and operational challenges to deliver the goods. So we put together the Unity 2018 Game Studios Report, to share relevant benchmarking data with emerging studios, and help them understand how fellow creative teams operate and make successful games.
The report is based on a study with the leads of 1,445 small and medium independent creative studios (ranging in size from 2 to 50 employees) from around the world, with a focus on their primary project in 2018. This group includes both studios using Unity as their main game engine, and studios using other game engines.
Despite the challenges, the report shows that many independent game studios continue to establish themselves and persevere with their creative goals. As Jen MacLean, Executive Director at the International Game Developers Association (IGDA), writes in the foreword to report, “not only do (independent developers) bring their creative vision to life, they do so with ingenuity, flair, and lots of bootstraps, overcoming challenges posed by constrained resources with imagination, moxie, and dedication to their love of creating games.”
Here are a few highlights from the report:
We found out that 91% of the surveyed studios are fully independent and the majority are developing their own IPs.
40% of studios are developing for VR/AR, which indicates that these platforms are becoming more established among independent creators. Traditional platforms, such as PC and mobile, are still the most popular choices.
The majority of studios are choosing to publish their project themselves, with Facebook and Twitter the go-to channels for marketing and promotional activities.
Fifty-three percent of studios will monetize their primary project via premium payments, while 36% plan to monetize with freemium model.
In addition to their game engine, the majority of studios use both team collaboration and cloud storage solutions (69%), while less than 40% use analytics to analyze players’ behavior.
Approximately 60% of the budget for all studios comes from freelancing and self-funding. Despite limited financial means, they still spend a small percentage of their budget on employee training, indicating the importance of keeping people’s skills up to date.
To highlight the human story behind the report, Unity colleagues Will Goldstone (Product Manager), Ciro Continisio (Technical Evangelist) and Peter Pimley (Developer Relations Engineer) sat down for a chat with Dr. Jo Twist, CEO of Ukie. You can watch their discussion on our YouTube channel:
Note: If you have a Unity ID and want to download the Game Studio report, you need to have given Unity permission to send you communication. If you have not yet done so, you can opt-in with these steps:
1. Click here to go to your Permissions page.
2. Check that your ID information is correct and up to date.
3. You will see a number of content categories to choose from. Choose one or more categories of interest and click Submit.
4. Go back to the Game Studio report page, fill out the form (with the same email address as in your Unity ID), and you should receive the report in your inbox shortly.
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