How One Developer Earned Over $300K From Games Made in 30 Minutes (theguardian.com) 70
An anonymous reader shares a report: "The first one, I'll be honest, probably took seven or eight hours," says TJ Gardner. "But the subsequent ones -- Stroke the Beaver, for example -- would have taken about half an hour." Gardner is the creator of the "Stroke" video games, available to download from the PlayStation Store for $4 a pop. Each one features a different animal -- cats, dogs and hamsters, along with less cuddly creatures such as snakes and fish -- and they all follow the same blueprint.
When you start the game, an image of the animal appears against a plain blue background. In the top left-hand corner of the screen are the words "Strokes 0." You press X to stroke the animal. The animal flashes briefly. The number in the corner goes up by 1. After 25 strokes, you are rewarded with a bronze trophy. Keep going until you hit 2,000 strokes, and you will receive a platinum award. That's it. There is no animation; there are no sound effects. Just a picture of an animal under a Creative Commons licence from Wikipedia, and some lo-fi acoustic beats looping endlessly in the background. No running, no jumping, no guns, no baddies, no special moves or power-ups or puzzles. Are the Stroke games even video games at all? The Stroke games, launched in September 2022, have been downloaded more than 120,000 times, amassing nearly $350,000 in sales. Sony takes a 30% cut for hosting the game in the PlayStation Store, leaving Gardner with a pre-tax profit of about $240,000.
When you start the game, an image of the animal appears against a plain blue background. In the top left-hand corner of the screen are the words "Strokes 0." You press X to stroke the animal. The animal flashes briefly. The number in the corner goes up by 1. After 25 strokes, you are rewarded with a bronze trophy. Keep going until you hit 2,000 strokes, and you will receive a platinum award. That's it. There is no animation; there are no sound effects. Just a picture of an animal under a Creative Commons licence from Wikipedia, and some lo-fi acoustic beats looping endlessly in the background. No running, no jumping, no guns, no baddies, no special moves or power-ups or puzzles. Are the Stroke games even video games at all? The Stroke games, launched in September 2022, have been downloaded more than 120,000 times, amassing nearly $350,000 in sales. Sony takes a 30% cut for hosting the game in the PlayStation Store, leaving Gardner with a pre-tax profit of about $240,000.
Midjourney makes sprite sheets now. Look out. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I think that was Louis XV, at least according to the popular attribution.
Re: Midjourney makes sprite sheets now. Look out. (Score:3)
There's a fun way to level up in my game. Give me $399 and I'll give you a golden sneaker worth $2.50 on Aliexpress. That is all. There is nothing more to know. Ah yes, and your sale keeps me out of prison. LOL. Come on and lets play my game! /sarcasm. May affect democracy by playing. Offer void in Colorado. Proceeds may go to E Jean Carrol and NY. Void where prohibited.
Re: (Score:2)
Can I trade my original trump NFT for a shoe?
Funny, the shoe is priced at almost the exact same amount as the first trump NFT cards are trading for now. Coincidence? LOL, probably.
Re: (Score:2)
Just spent 8 hours debugging my code (Score:5, Funny)
It's time to go pet my snake.
It is utterly F***ED (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: It is utterly F***ED (Score:3)
AI would have made a better "game".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I mean... it still requires people to pay money for these things...
This is sort of akin to the crazy money people used to make off of ebay years ago with joke/meme "products".
It's great for the first couple of people that do it, but people will lose interest or wise up and the platforms will tighten things up.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:I'm pretty sure that this all orchestrated (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Correct, it garners no competitive advantage whatsoever in any games. These are people that just like collecting things: ducks, plates, guitars, PSN trophies. Earning trophies increases your level on PSN and doesn't do anything other than confer bragging rights over your friends: "I've got more trophies than you, nyer nyer!"
Ultimately trophies are Sony building in stickiness: it's a psychological taunt for those vulnerable to FOMO to keep them playing and spending money on the network.
Re:I'm pretty sure that this all orchestrated (Score:5, Interesting)
In a PC, yes. For consoles I think there's actual cash value in the form of discounts, or free games (not good games mind, but...).
I have seen a console player acted like I was utterly evil and stealing because I used mods in Skyrim. That was the first time I learned that achievements were a big deal on consoles. Recently I saw a youtube video thumbnail for something like "platinum these 5 games in an hour!", which seems like an utter waste of an hour on a PC...
Re: (Score:3)
"Socially useful labour" is the notion which I'm most familiar with. Unpaid care work or voluntary work is real work, a tyrant making a good thing illegal doesn't stop it being real work.
So I think this would depend on whether he's actually helping people out with some real psychological need (or boredom issues), or whether he's playing on addiction responses or providing a system-breaking mechanism (unless it's a bad system which it's socially useful to break).
Re: (Score:2)
It's more like hitting the lottery.
Stroke the Beaver (Score:5, Funny)
Each [game] features a different animal ... You press X to stroke the animal. The number in the corner goes up by 1. That's it.
Honestly? I expected something different. :-)
Re:Stroke the Beaver (Score:4, Funny)
You should be allowed to press Y to stroke in the wrong direction, in order to initiate combat mode.
"Nice beaver!" (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
From what he says, the first iteration took about 8 hours, and from there he just kept changing the animal asset and rebranding it. Considering how the "gameplay" is just pressing a button to make a number go up. Am actually curious how HARD it is to make such a simple concept for it to take 8 hours.
Re: (Score:3)
From what he says, the first iteration took about 8 hours, and from there he just kept changing the animal asset and rebranding it. Considering how the "gameplay" is just pressing a button to make a number go up. Am actually curious how HARD it is to make such a simple concept for it to take 8 hours.
I'm more curious about the people who (a) buy these and (b) get to "platinum" level (2,000+ strokes).
Re: (Score:2)
idiot clicker (Score:5, Funny)
I should knock out a game called "give me a dollar" [slashdot.org], every time they click, then send me a dollar, with special exclusive awards when you buy me a coffee, a pizza, a Mercedes Benz, a house, and vacation cabin on the moon. I promise (some miniscule portion of) the proceeds go to support people so dumb they have to work for a living.
Re: (Score:2)
This sounds like the dumbest possible iteration of a clicker game [wikipedia.org], with the only point is to make number go up and collect experience medals.
I should knock out a game called "give me a dollar" [slashdot.org], every time they click, then send me a dollar, with special exclusive awards when you buy me a coffee, a pizza, a Mercedes Benz, a house, and vacation cabin on the moon. I promise (some miniscule portion of) the proceeds go to support people so dumb they have to work for a living.
That industry is already thriving. During government-enforced shutdown of business during covid, it exploded from previous niche obscurity into a major player in monetizing performative content. Its workers openly say they are there to drain your money from you so they can spend it on themselves. In fact, that is the entire point of the psychological hook -- voluntary exploitation.
Do a search for: twitter findom
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:"Nice beaver!" (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Low effort (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Have you heard about this thing called AI that can filter large content into useful summaries...? :-)
Pretty soon, it's AI all the way down.
App shitpost / cat video crossover department (Score:2)
These things don't happen by magic (Score:3)
The story makes it sound like this clueless guy came up with a dumb game, and a bunch of people randomly bought it. I don't believe it was random.
In 2015, I worked with a guy that came up with a tungsten cube, started a Kickstarter campaign, and brought in half a million dollars. https://www.yahoo.com/news/mak... [yahoo.com] It seemed like random luck, but it wasn't. He spent a lot of money with a marketing firm to promote his product, to place it everywhere and talk it up.
I'm guessing there's a back story on this dumb game too.
Re: (Score:1)
Not necessarily. Dumb algorithmic luck actually exists. No need to market anything. If a few people at a lucky time download the right thing it gets promoted to other people's page who in turn download it making it promoted to other people's page etc.
Some things actually are just dumb luck. The reason this is news is because of how rarely it happens to a single person.
Now if on the other hand you were talking about those game farms that crank out nothing but shit from China cloning one mobile game after ano
Re: (Score:3)
It's a nice fantasy, isn't it! Striking it "rich" through nothing but dumb luck! Yes indeed, it happens, just as some people do actually win the lottery. But both are very, very rare, and news story or not, I've learned not to take these things at face value. My coworker's tungsten cube also made the news, and it was not dumb luck in any way.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe - there's likely observation bias at work here. You'd need to be able to estimate the number of people who came up with an idea functionally identical to 'simple tungsten cube', put in an equal amount of effort and skill at marketing, and got nowhere. It could just be the specific day or time that your coworkers story hit the news that caused a highly-connected person to catch it, be interested, and spread the word. That would indeed just be random chance at work.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course, marketing doesn't always work, even if you do spend money on it. The real comparison, is with the number of people who come up with a tungsten cube, and try to sell it *without* marketing. And yes, there are a LOT of those, and most went nowhere.
Re: (Score:2)
Now if on the other hand you were talking about those game farms that crank out nothing but shit from China cloning one mobile game after another, yes they invest in actual marketing - or rather the gaming market equivalent of SEO to promote their games.
Today I am proud to introduce the Toilet Flushing Simulator. Oh, wait. Its happened. https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com] and https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com] and https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com] and https://store.steampowered.com... [steampowered.com]
Seriously, why do I work for a living?
(For those not wanting to hover over the truncated URL descriptions, those are "Toilet Chronicles," "Toilet Simulator 2020," "Great Toilet Simulator," and "A Dump in the Dark.")
Re: (Score:3)
It was deliberately targetted at a subculture of people who shared tips on the games with the easiest achievements to obtain.
Re: (Score:1)
Thank you, was looking for a reason. This thread is most valuable, itch scratched, next article.
U still didn't beat Elon Musk (Score:2)
You need to up your game!
Bernie Sanders says billionaires should not exist, here is a case of a guy hitting a one-shot lucky amount of easy money and still falling short.
Twitch (Score:4, Funny)
Bullshit (Score:2)
If it was possible to make money from stroking I would be a billionaire by now.
Re: (Score:2)
It depends on who you stroke.
Lesson learned: (Score:2)
Enough people are too lazy/dumb to apply for refunds
Pet rocks (Score:2)
Every generation has a few "pet rock" crazes, where stupid shit gets popular, and someone (hopefully the creator, but not always) gets rich.
Then 20 years later, VH1 does a special on "remember this decade" featuring the stupid crazes and everyone gets a nostalgia boner and says "oooh, I 'member! I one in highschool lol."
And the cycle continues. It has almost been long enough for a historical throwback fluff entertainment show to be made featuring fidget spinners.
Tamagotchi (Score:3)
There's always a market for a simple, mindless bit of entertainment. The equivalent of a fidget toy for neurotypicals.
Re: (Score:2)
Fidget spinners were mass produced and became almost worthless immediately, because there was no way to put IP protection on them.
Has this guy been able to prevent people ripping off his game with clones? Maybe on the Playstation game store, but I doubt that would extend to other app stores unless he is willing to try to enforce it with a lawyer.
ClickQuest (Score:5, Informative)
This (*cough*) game was essentially invented almost fourteen years ago [youtu.be] by Alex Steacy of LoadingReadyRun -- as a joke.
And then someone actually wrote it. [clickquest.net]
Probably big in Japan (Score:2)
This gives new meaning... (Score:2)
This gives new meaning to a joystick.
JoshK.
This is why I don't make games (Score:2)
While an asshat like this can shit something low effort like this in 30 minutes.
Why even bother.
I love it. (Score:2)
The concept. I haven't bought the software.
But honestly, this is a really, really good idea. When you pet an animal, you receive a burst of chemical happiness that is purely based on being the provider of positivity for something else. It's a direct line to a very old part of the brain, and a positive one at that.
Or, to put it another way, simple petting is as rewarding - and possibly more so - than complicated 3D shooter head shots.
Good one, Mr. Developer. Well played.
Stroke my Pussy? (Score:2)
Cow Clicker did it first (Score:2)
Cow Clicker did it first. Or at least, earlier.
Probably right that it's just catnip for people hunting Chevos or whatever the kids are calling them now.
The real point of this "app" is the TROPHIES (Score:3)
A lot of people here are missing the "actual" point of this app. It's not about any dopamine of petting an animal, it's literally about the trophies.
PlayStation has a trophy system that they use as their achievements. These trophies are categorized by bronze, silver, gold, and platinum, with the platinum trophy usually being the "you got all the other trophies" trophy. People brag about how many games they "have Platinumed" and look for games that are "easy to plat"
So, $4 for a platinum trophy you can get in less than 30 minutes is a bargain. Sure beats having to spend 80+ hours "getting good" in a game to get a platinum.