Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Agreed! Some serious talent.
There is an awful lot to be said about working your own hours, being your own boss and making what YOU want (to a degree). The freedom to be home with my family rather than off at a job is a major factor for me. So that is why I put in all the extra work to make this as much of a success as I can.
This makes it sound easier than it probably will be for one jumping on just now with no game development knowledge. From what I see it's getting rather crowded with games of this kind. I'm not sure how many new ones appear on average but from a quick look it could be around one new game with that exact setup every day. Producing high quality, doing things different or being skilled should help to stand out in the crowd. On the other hand just doing the same like all the others might make it quite difficult to get enough followers/supporter.
Exactly.
Not sure if links to SFW Patreon pages would be allowed, so I wont give any, but as an example for a successfull start there is "Long Live The Princess" by Belle, which managed to gather 600 patrons (giving ~ $ 3000.- a month) in the last couple months, which purely owes it's success to great storytelling and nice pictures. Belle states herself that she is "a professional software developer with experience in creating and delivering products, and I am also able to create art, sound, and music. I have semi-professional writing experience and take great pride in my ability to tell a story. I have developed and released story-based mods for popular games, to great acclaim" and it shows, right down to extremely clean code in the renpy files.
And yes, it's more about the game's concept than the pictures. Bringing up just the "same old, same old", the umptieth version of stuff that already can be found, won't bring a crowd to throw money at you. And of course you have to deliver... if there's no regular updates coming, people will stop supporting you quite fast.
It also might help not to live anywhere, where cost of living is high. From what I've seen, quite a few of the game designers at Patreon are from Russia or some eastern european countries, where $ 1000.- or even $ 500.- a month have a lot more shopping value than in the USA or western Europe.
I'm supporting one Patreon product, it's not a game product but a 3D clothing creation product and already one supporter from the few supporters garnered has dropped out even at the low monthly rate we are paying because there hasn't been an update in 2 months. So it's doesn't matter how much potential you promise if you aren't delivering supporters will drop out quickly. Smarts and reputation don't matter.
Well personally, my ambition is to earn enough to get rid of the day job; I don't need a fortune. Although a forune would be most welcome!
I have just started developing such a project. I love Renpy and storytelling, so it's a natural fit for me.
If you are good and consistant at making poses then you should do fairly well. Dont worry about the overlap. It really cannot be avoided with poses. Just do what you like and go with it. Start with your strong points and when you have built up enough of a back catalog, you can start looking to other areas if you wish. If you are not making poses for a specific character such as Aiko or one of the teens then I would simply suggest that you stick with the base shape and Victoria/Michael.
Something we all must learn to do with any product we want to sell, is to decide when its done. We all have to fight off the "thinking like a customer" where having a 1000+ options would be so cool but you have to consider your time and the return you want for the product. Some things that have taken little time have sold well and some things that have taken quite a while have not sold well. But that can go either way.
Lots of interesting info guys, thanks a lot.
Interesting reading this thread. Sometimes I have wondered how much they
How much they what?...
Damn, now I'm wondering what they... and of course how much that they.
This thread was originally from 2018, lets just say the market has changed. But offering quality products on a regular basis is still a good strategy.
that's what "they" do, don't they?
Yeah, I noticed that... in fact I apparently read this thread back then... but that last post brought up a very important question... well to me... but what you said only answers the what they, but not the how much they... is it quantitative or frequency related?... I'm actually hoping it's frequency related, like how often they shower with a capybara or how often they consume a bucket of paella... I hear published artists can get pretty freaky, so my money is on the capybara thing.
Do you know how hard it is to find a capybara in this part of the world. That's about how hard it is to think stuff up regularly and offer it for sale on spec.
Have you tried capybaradotcom... admittedly it's an odd name for an international capybara franchise that sells exclusively through brick and mortar shops, but they are a reliable unusually large rodent vendor and they offer a standard 2 year or 7,000 mile warranty with each capybara... that only solves the capybara acquisition problem... the other part I can just imagine about... unfortunately I have a wild imagination so it's kinda freaky already and I haven't even gotten to the part with the pudding... but regardless, I wish you the best of luck in all your endeavors... be it capybara or three dimensional electropolygonal related.
It's good to see someone pounced on the capybara opportunity lol, what with markets changing and constantly in flux, the 3 dimensional electropolygonal related field was certainly more lucrative a half decade ago.
I always thought this quote said it succinctly.
GREAT SCOTT! If SteveM17 were paying attention he would start on the Capybara Pose Set vol 1 straight away! CLEARLY an untapped market exists!
And that may be the actual problem, how many people are still paying attention?
I don't care how many people are reading this, but I DO care about the number of Capybara reading it.
If the number exceeds zero, I'm officially worried. If it exceeds 1, it's official I'm officially worried.
Regards,
Richard
Very much the same here, thank you PAs for sharing your experiences and letting us get to know you a little bit better!
One thing I would add to this conversation about becoming a PA that I did not see mentioned specifically is labour time and materials.
A craftsperson can make a great work of art out every piece they craft, but a successful craftsperson puts in the time necessary to create the work they need to create at the quality necessary and not more. I would consider being a PA as a piece work labourer in the digital age.
To make your labour as a PA successful you need to keep track of the time, and materials, consumed making your product. As RawArt mentioned you have to be disciplned about your work and timelines since you are the boss of you.
When I had my first job working from home, about 15 years ago, going to work in my home office was the biggest lesson I had to learn.
The commute past the cats was the worst since they never stay in their lane. :-)
I always wonder about how much external support is required. Or does everyone deal with taxes, and whatever other business rules apply, themselves? Do you actually form a business and pay yourself including Social Security taxes, unemployment tax/insurance/whatever, generate your own W-2/whatever? Or do you hire out that part of it. What resources did you check (local business organizations, accountants, seminars, etc) before taking the plunge. Different business and tax rules depending on where one lives of course. But there seems to be so much more than succeeding at the task at hand when it comes to starting a business. All those extra expenses need to be considered.
Yes, PA is an independent contractor running their own small business. File taxes and cover all expenses. then hire your own accountant or lawyer if necessary.
I'm 67 years old, and been an entrepreneur most of it (often in perishable goods, but since the late ninties in digital art). I took a few courses on accounting, ROI and how to predict future earnings accounting etc, but I always hired a third party to do my taxes. I managed to buy and flip several houses as a single parent without alimony or support, but the success I knew was earned from a ton of sacrifices and long, long, long, hours. Self employed people and people who are sub-contractors, wear many hats and it is never a cut-and-dried 9-5 job and at times it is defficult to accurately predict earnings. Deadlines dictate hours. The truth is one never knows what their income will be unless they are a salaried employee. The easiest money I ever made was as a salaried employee. There is such a thing as a starving artist, and other times when everything touched turns to gold. At times robbing Peter to pay Paul becomes habitual. At times it seems 24 hours is never enough. Sometimes the effort has nothing to do with a fantastic financial acheivement. Sometimes it's the luck of the draw,r who you know, how popular you are, or the mood of the buyers. But it's always about how good you are. I often made huge amounts certain months but knew I had to spread it out to cover the dry months. It really can be a roller coaster ride depending on trends and the economy (and unexpected things like covid). But in all industries new production does promote sales of older merchandise so the key is new production and not giving up. The more you produce the more you will earn.I do remember nail biting months, especially in the first year or so. And everytime I started a new business, after selling the last one, it still took 3 years to break even and five to feel fortunate no matter how well I did in the past. Professional photography proved to work the same way as digital art and owning flowershops.Every business that succeeded,took three years to break into, and make a decent living. It took five years to make a great living, and know the days of robbing Peter to pay Paul, were a thing of the past. But no matter what one's time is deemed to be worth, if one divided the hours by the income, one could feel underpaid. The trick is to do what you love, do it full time, and the money will follow.
So true.
Interesting stuff guys, sadly I never started trying to sell stuff, life got in the way (day job and bills and so on). But information is always good, because, who knows...?