As a fellow indie dev, I can definitely say that the money does not go directly in your pocket. Steam spy doesn't include refunds (often for meta reasons), chargebacks (douchebags), platform % cut, and publisher cut (if publisher).

Looking up at the top of Google for public information, it seems that the average publisher cut is 30%, and platform (steam, itch.io, etc) industry average is 30%. Steamspy is less reliable these days, but let's take a glance: $20 at 0 to 20k owners. With 7k followers, let's say 5k players: Pretty conservative. 5 * 20 = $100k. -8% refunds/chargebacks = $92k. Taxes/VAT, say conservatively 8% = $84.6k. Minus Platform fee 30% = $59.2k. Minus publisher fee = $41k. Income tax is minimum 15.3% = $35k is what his TEAM Gets GROSS income.

Now deduction for a couple years of expenses. Dev payouts. Art assets. Legal fees (trademarks, etc). Reinvestments back into the game to cover negative feedback.

Suddenly that's less than mcdonalds wages that goes towards rent.

I can see it.

Throne of Lies :)

How is it compared to Shadowverse? Can I play it competitively and earn new packs without being too pay2win?

Wtf cancel the entire thing? Why not just lower the scope? You have 1 mil+ $$ come on, as an indie company there's no way that's already gone. Hire some colleges kiddies that are low budget, do it what it takes -_______-" people would work for you for free. Starting to look super suspicious after that leaked Twitter post about what happened to Pantheon. Pantheon only need 200k and lasted a couple years, but this "eh" gfx game needed 1 mil+ and bombed that fast? Something just isn't adding up

@Fetseroony: and that game is based off a 1986 Russian game :) there's so many branches that it's become a genre called Social Deduction

@FallenOneX: there actually is a similar genre 3D game coming REALLY soon outside VR: Look into "Throne of Lies: The Online Game of Lies & Deceit".

@RaveNRolla: you can't always be with friends to do this. Time zones, jobs, significant others, etc.