Between returns, taxes, and other stuff, I think you can model at ~55% of gross Steam sales. Then, whatever your split w/ your publisher is, on top of that. So I think it's easy for ppl to severely overestimate how much a dev is actually earning by just multiplying units times price :)
I think in general the uptick of sales volume more than offsets the discount during a Steam sale. There's a reason Steam sales have a cooldown, they generate marketing emails to your wishlists. So sales are always good, from what I can tell.
Thanks for the congrats, and all I can say is: don't give up, I'm an old-ass man and made it happen. Don't get stuck on art or music either, IMHO. Total distraction. You can make a game fun without that stuff. At least, fun enough to be sure the investment into the next stage is wise.
Related to this: is there any kind of contractual language that keeps Steam creators from saying how much money they made on the platform? Please note that I'm not asking how much you made on this game, that's none of my business! Just wondering if there's an NDA or something like that. I've been curious about it for a while.
I don't think there is such a legal obligation, because videos like this one exist where devs do share the exact financials of their Steam releases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPMfcaUulYU
I think in general the uptick of sales volume more than offsets the discount during a Steam sale. There's a reason Steam sales have a cooldown, they generate marketing emails to your wishlists. So sales are always good, from what I can tell.
Thanks for the congrats, and all I can say is: don't give up, I'm an old-ass man and made it happen. Don't get stuck on art or music either, IMHO. Total distraction. You can make a game fun without that stuff. At least, fun enough to be sure the investment into the next stage is wise.