my AI-generated game earned $25,000. here is how it happened:
back in 2023, i made a game with ChatGPT 4, that reached 60 million+ players globally and earned me $25,000+ in profit revenue till date.
in this post, i cover:
-the game itself
-how AI was used (for complete code & 2D art)
-tech stack
-distribution strategy
play the game:
brief intro
i was laid off at the end of 2022. i was working as a game producer in Germany.
racism + internal management issues bought me to this.
i was happy to come back to my country (India) and to work on my own ideas/games.
in 2023, i started building my own games - for mobile & web-browser platforms.
AI tools like ChatGPT (3/3.5) had just been slowly taking over and as a curious dev, I started to experiment with those.
>my theory was web-browser games can be profitable as they provide free distribution in front of millions of players if you have a decent enough game.
more on this theory in my video on how to make passive income with games:
riding a trend
in the middle of 2023, i saw a trending game rising: Watermelon Suika Game.
it is a highscore based game, with MILLIONS of views on YouTube and other socials.
the gameplay was pretty straightforward - you move left-right and drop fruits in a box. same fruits if touched, evolve into a bigger fruit.
art was a constraint for me as I suck at creating art - and this game needed specialized fruits.
i thought okay let’s try ChatGPT (DALL-E) to create images.
and it gave me what i want! i polished a bit in photoshop - removed the sparkles and cleared the background.
now I had 11 fruits all generated with AI.
i used ChatGPT again to write ALL the code for me - in C# as Unity codes in C#.
i had to manually copy-paste code, bring back any bugs or changes I did - unlike today where Claude Code/Codex can do this 100x faster.
mechanics i coded:
moving the controller to drop fruits
dropping fruits
evolution
win/lose condition
new game modes
i took inspiration from some other variations of the trending game and added some VFX in Unity to make it polished.
the game was completed and i think i did a pretty decent job with development. now time to distribute!
when it hit $10,000 in revenue, i created a video showcasing how I used AI to make this game:
FREE distribution strategy
up until now my belief was only mobile games made money. but I was so wrong.
web game-platforms are websites where you go and play games online: CrazyGames, Coolmath Games, Poki, etc.
and these platforms always require more games from developers on their website.
I distributed my game to various platforms such as:
GameDistribution
Coolmath Games
GamePix
....and many more
now there are 2 ways to earn from web-games:
ad-revenue: you integrate their SDK in your game, call ads, earn revenue
license-fee: you ‘sell’ your game’s license to these platforms for a one-time upfront fee. and no earnings on future revenue.
some platforms only do license-fee, and others do ad-revenue only.
i did a mix of both with various platforms.
on average for license fee, i was charging $1500-$2500.
and for more changes in the game, there was an additional fees!
now there were various variation of the trending game - but mine was of the highest quality for some reason.
my game:
top #1 on coolmath games mobile (20 million MAU)
top #3 on coolmath games desktop
GOTY on coolmath games
700,000+ reviews
50 million+ players across all platforms
$20,000+ revenue from web-platforms (license fee + ad-revenue)
mobile version
i had also ported the game to mobile and the engagement data was INSANE.
D1 retention: 42%
D7 retention: 13%
Daily playtime: 50 minutes
proving that the game was indeed a high quality game.
I made some mistakes for mobile - I did not move fast enough. I was testing with a publisher and they did not seem very keen on publishing it - I should have moved fast with another publisher.
I would have added another $40-50k easily if published with a mobile publisher.
but organics got me ~$4,000 revenue (ad-revenue).
vibe-coded games can earn $$$
if you are vibe-coding games, consider reaching out to these platforms to see if they can distribute your games - it is a very lucrative approach as they provide free distribution!
connect with me
do subscribe to my YouTube where I am sharing latest update on my games/apps:
https://www.youtube.com/@Anoool1
my X: