Hi there!
Over the past year since I began freelancing my game development skills, I have been asked multiple times about the route I took to get started in freelance game development. Quite frankly, the process is all relatively simple, and with some simple pointers, I think many more game developers would be able to use the skills they have cultivated to help fund their games or make a bit of a side profit. Freelance game development is a rewarding and flexible career choice that allows you to work on exciting projects and set your own rates. In this article, I’m going to cover some of those tips and talk a bit generally about my own experience over the past year and a half in this industry.
Whether you’re a C++ programmer, a Unity developer, or an Unreal Engine 5 professional, freelance can be a fantastic option to make some money on the side, or even as your full-time job if done right. Sites like Upwork, Freelancer.com, Fiverr, and many others make it easier than ever to find clients and set up your freelance business.
Tips and Tricks for Freelance Game Dev
Freelancing anything can be a daunting experience, it requires patience, practice, and perseverance to consistently find clients that will be willing to work with you on their projects. Luckily, you’re a game developer, we’ve all developed these traits to become great at our passion and it will transfer nicely to your freelance career. Below are some of my main tips on setting up as a freelance game developer, they are based on what personally worked for me in the beginning. Keep in mind, if you don’t find a job straight away, don’t give in. Once you get the ball rolling it becomes much easier.
Finding the right jobs for you
The most important thing you can do during your first-period freelancing is to find initial jobs. There are multiple methods to do this, but it may be the hardest part of beginning your freelance career. It does get easier as you get more jobs under your belt, however, there are ways of mitigating the initial challenge of finding yourself initial work.
One way is using sites like Upwork or Freelancer.com. These sites allow clients to publish their jobs on the site, and then freelancers may send in proposals with a cover letter and their prices. This is where the majority of my work has come from, as they can allow you to reach clients without them requiring them to hear about you beforehand. This can be perfect for your first project, as you currently don’t have proof of your ability as a freelancer already out there, and being able to apply and talk directly to possible clients mitigates this problem.
Sites like Upwork and Freelancer also allow you to search by Experience Level, which would allow you to find specific clients that are happier to work with someone newer to freelancing, although this may come at a lower expected price.
Another route to take is reaching out to friends and family, and asking them if they have any possible work for you. Maybe Aunt Sally runs a florist and could do with a simple accounting app, or your mate Bill is setting up a local car wash and needs a website. As with these examples, the jobs may not even be strictly game development related, however creating something in the tech space, where you can show you have worked with a client can be extremely important when convincing future clients that you’re the higher for them. I personally took this route, creating a bookshop management app for my brother-in-law, and I was able to leverage this in my future proposals, and it also gave me a bit of side money to set up the tobycsmith.com website which I use for freelance projects. Overall, you will probably be working for significantly less than you feel you should be, or doing the work for completely free, but it can be a fantastic way to get your foot in the door, and you get to help someone you know out!
If neither of those options works for you, one alternative I have heard from my research is reaching out to small startups or businesses and offering free or very cheap work. This is in a similar vein to creating a project for a friend or family member, but it would allow you to be pickier about what you take on, along with helping out a growing business, which would look fantastic on a CV or cover letter. While I have personally never gone this route, there are plenty of people who recommend this as an option to get your first initial customer or two and I highly recommend giving this a go if it sounds feasible to you!
Personalizing your proposal and good communication practices
From my experience, possibly the most important skill when applying for jobs is writing fantastic proposals. Sites like Upwork and Freelancer require you to send in cover letters when applying for jobs, but even if you’re applying directly to startups or other companies you will be required to create a cover letter to quickly explain your skills and give examples of what you can provide to your client.
Here is an example proposal template, courtesy of both me and OpenAI’s Chat-GPT.
Dear [Client Name],
I find your project extremely interesting and would like to hear more about it. As an experienced game developer with [insert number of years] years of experience, I am confident that I have the skills and expertise necessary to create a high-quality and engaging game that meets your needs.
My approach to game development is to work closely with my clients to understand their vision for the game and keep up communication throughout the development process to ensure that the final product is as good as it can be.
[Add specific details for their job, talking about your experience with the engine/framework they want to use, similar projects you have worked on, or just why you’re interested in their specific job.]
In addition to game development, I can also provide services such as game testing, optimization, and post-launch support. I am confident that my expertise and dedication to creating exceptional games will make me an asset to your project.
Please find my portfolio here: [Insert itch.io page / GitHub or personal website] and my freelancing website here: [Insert website here].
Thank you for considering my proposal, and I look forward to the opportunity to work with you. If you have any questions or would like to discuss the project in more detail, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Personally, I try to write my proposals as if I’m talking to someone in person. Keep it relatively formal, but you’ve got to remember, the person on the other end is just that, a person. You’re not applying to a robot, and a lot of the time, most people would like to spend more of their time working with someone “normal” to talk to, than someone who talks like Chat-GPT. This obviously all depends on who you’re applying to, a large company will quite often want a more CV-style proposal while a single client who wants a quick game will likely respond better to a less formal cover letter. This is a skill in itself, and finding what works for you is something that comes with time, but focus on your proposal and make sure to remember, it’s another person who’s going to read it!
My final tip is to keep a set of proposal templates in a document. I add a new one to my google docs document every time I change it drastically and this has helped me develop a very good proposal that I modify for every job I apply for. Don’t be afraid to try lots of different styles of proposals, if you lose out on a job by trying a new style, so be it, there will always be others to apply for, and you will have learned how to apply to them better.
Creating a freelance-specific portfolio/website
If you’re looking into freelancing your game development skills, likely, you have already created multiple personal projects. And that this fantastic, you can use these projects to show off your skills and enthusiasm to potential clients. If you haven’t created any personal projects, or even if you have and would like more projects to show off specific skills, I would highly recommend taking part in a few game jams. Not only is this a quick way to create different projects, they’re also fantastically fun to take part in and can create highly important time and project management skills that will help you with your freelance projects!
However, creating these projects isn’t simply enough, you need to publish them online for people to see! I would recommend publishing your game projects on places like itch.io or Github. You can then show these to potential clients where they can look at the games you have made and get an understanding of the skills you have. Having some, even just one or two, simple projects on Github can be fantastic as well. Make sure your code is well commented and works well, as this is an example of what you can write for your clients.
On top of this, having a website specifically for freelancing is extremely helpful. First and foremost, it’s a very professional thing to have, you can explain on your website your specific skills and give your contact information there. You can link to your games, GitHub, and other portfolios from this website as well, so you only need to send one or two links during your proposals. Finally, you can create a portfolio section of previous client projects on your website, which new clients can look at when you apply for jobs to see a history of what you have done. Of course, if you do this, make sure not to give any information about your client projects that they haven’t told you you can. Use your best judgment and ask where necessary!
Finding your niche to find initial freelance jobs
My final tip for getting started with freelance game development is to find yourself a niche. Even within game development, there are hundreds of smaller subcategories that you can focus on. By specializing, at least at the start, you can make sure clients know what you’re specifically good at. Here are some quick example subcategories you could focus on to gain a reputation in that specific field:
- Web games
- VR / AR games
- Mobile games
- 2D RPG games
- Multiplayer games
- Games in a lesser heard engine (Godot for example!)
These are just a few examples, and you can begin to see the advantages of focusing on one niche. Not only will the competition in certain areas be lower, like VR or using smaller engines, but by specializing like this you can prove your experience in one specific field before branching out.
I started by creating VR games specifically for the oculus (at the time, now meta) quest. This coincided with oculus quest 2’s launch for me which acted as an extra advantage, but I also have quite a lot of experience in this topic as it’s something I’m very interested in, I may write a post on it someday! I am now working on a text-based MUD game (another interest of mine), but by focussing on VR games in the beginning, I was able to gain much easier traction than if I had just applied for everything under the sun without much thought or care.
What sort of Money can I expect from Freelance Game Development?
Onsite and offsite payments
As this article is aimed at people who are looking to use tools like Upwork or Freelancer.com for finding their freelance game development jobs, it would be bad to miss out on talking about payments. Both of the mentioned sites and most other freelance sites, use a company called Escrow (which was in fact acquired by Freelancer.com in 2015) to handle payments. This allows clients to put the money in, Escrow then holds it, and then the payment is released when you have done the work. This is oversimplified and it’s more complicated for hourly payments, but this is an abstract view of how things work.
Now, this makes things both safer for you and the client, but it does come at a cost. For Upwork, that cost is 10% of your earnings (As of next May), for Freelancer.com it’s a bit more complicated but has a minimum of 10% as well. Personally, I have found Freelancer.com to be the most predatory of these options with there being multiple hidden fees sometimes, and payments taken upfront from the freelancer before work has started. Both Upwork and Freelancer.com will punish freelancers and/or clients for taking payments offsite. They say it’s for your safety as a freelancer, which yes, it is, due to Escrow and the site’s relative policy it means you will get paid if you do the work, even if a client screws you over. However, it is also very much in the interest of the websites that you stay on-site, as they want to take a cut of your profits. You can trust these sites to do what is within their best interests, just like with any company, but in this case, it can be used to your advantage, by paying that fee you’re paying for extra protection.
Depending on the project, your personal opinion on the risk, and your experience with freelancing you may choose to take your payments offsite. This is often done by asking your client for their email and contacting them offsite about making payments, do not mention things like Paypal on Upwork’s or Freelancer.com’s chats, it has been known to flag the conversation and get people banned from the sites. If you choose to take payments offsite, your client may already have a system set up for paying invoices. If this is the case, do things their way and you will have no problem at all! Alternatively, my preferred method is to use Paypal’s built-in invoice system, which you can do using their business app. This allows you to send an invoice via email, which clients can pay using their PayPal, or otherwise directly. Paypal’s invoice system will take a cut of 3.49% and a conversion fee depending on the currency you invoice with, however, the cost of using this is often less than a freelance site’s built-in fees.
Which option you choose to use is up to you. I can only recommend using freelance sites’ built-in options or otherwise looking for a way to protect yourself from possible scams. All of my experience has been great, and the clients have paid in full or more, albeit sometimes a bit later than expected, however, I can not recommend going offsite unless you feel you are happy with the risks it poses. Freelance Game Development is already a complicated topic, a 10% cut is often not seen as too bad to remove the additional hassle.
Expectations and setting the right price
Unfortunately, like with much of what I have said, for this subtopic, I can only point you in the right direction and this is something you will need to feel out for yourself. However, setting the right price when applying for jobs can be the most important part of gaining a job, as it is what many clients look at, just like you or I would if we posted a job!
Depending on where you live, it can be hard to create a competitive price against people from other countries. In the UK for example, the minimum wage is around £10 / hour (About 12 USD), while in Pakistan, a place where I have seen many freelancers apply from, their minimum wage is around 150 USD per month. This works out to less than 1 USD / hour assuming full-time hours, and as a result, freelancers from countries with a lower cost-of-living can offer a lower price. This can make it seem hard to compete if you live in a higher cost-of-living country, but if you offer the right skills, and the right attitude and apply to the right jobs, you will be able to find clients.
Another important thing you can do is remember who your client is. I touched on this earlier in the proposals section, but a company will respond differently to your price than a single-person client likely will. Someone wanting to make a game for fun will often prefer a one cost fits all system, where they know exactly how much they’re going to need to spend to make their project. This kind of client will also likely be more receptive to a lower price, as capital is often smaller for them. On the other hand, a large company will likely be happy to pay a higher price for better, more reliable work and may be more open to hourly payment systems, as it’s likely these are more standard in that field.
I personally find hourly payments to be preferable, especially for projects I can’t be certain of the scope of. However, learning to effectively estimate a good price for a fixed-price project can be a very important skill to have. My recommendation for this is to get a fixed hourly price and estimate the hours that will be required for this project. Add about 10% (this is game dev after all!) and that will be a reasonable fixed price to offer a client. Remember that just with hourly-rate projects, you can modify your fixed-price based on the opinion you get of your client.
As with most things in life, it is important to start off small. Your first project wont be at a rate of 50 USD / hour. However, I started off with projects for less than 0.50 USD / hour, but am now currently working at around 25 USD / hour, and that will likely continue to go up as I get more evidencable experience under my belt. Set your expectations early and you will be in the perfect position for applying to jobs.
Final Words
And that’s all I’ve got to say today. I hope this article helps you push towards creating your own Freelance Game Development business. Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the article, I’m extremely interested to hear what you think!