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By Mark Damon Hughes <kamikaze@kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu>

   The games industry is a nightmare. Basically, it's almost impossible to get an independant game published through a current publisher - maybe 1 in 1000 get that far, and almost none of them will make any money.

   The way the games industry works is, you get a CS degree, join a company, work your way up over many years from QA and testing to junior programmer to senior programmer and finally designer, and eventually you'll be allowed to make a game of your own. Then the publisher takes most of the money, and you get, on average, $50-60K/year + maybe a tiny bit of royalties on the net profit ("net" is after costs, "gross" is before costs) if your game breaks even... But the publishers have rigged the finances just like the music and film industries, so almost nothing makes a net profit. Lather, rinse, repeat.

   I spent far too much time and money trying to survive in the games industry, and it is incredibly unpleasant.

   Indie game developers don't really make any money - I've made enough off Hephaestus to keep me in lattes and eating out the last couple months instead of digesting my own cooking, but not enough to pay the rent. But then, that's how all shareware is.

   If you self-publish, you will have to do everything yourself. Finding a box manufacturer. Getting the manuals printed. Burning the CDs. Finding the distributors and convincing them to ship your game to games shops. And then someone will pirate it to translate it into Japanese.