We’ve been building our indie studio, Cosmic Trinity Games, for just over two months now. It's been exciting, chaotic, and honestly… a bit scary.
Recently, my co-founder and I hit a point that made us stop everything and ask:
Should we just stop? Is this really going to work out?
Here’s why we even asked that.
Reality Check: Our First Game’s ROI
We’re close to wrapping up our first mobile game. While prepping for launch, we started digging into user acquisition (UA) and marketing. We watched GDC talks, read post-mortems, and tried to figure out how much it would cost to get real players into the game.
Eventually, we created a spreadsheet with all the projected costs and returns. We also ran those numbers through a couple of AI tools — just to double-check our logic wasn’t completely off.
Turns out, we weren’t wrong.
We were just looking at some very harsh maths:
- Estimated cost: $5,000–$7,000 for ~50K installs (Tier 3 countries)
- Estimated ad revenue: $1,200–$2,000
- Net result: A clear loss, unless retention and monetisation are much better than average
Seeing that data honestly killed our vibe for a few hours.
We sat in silence for a while, just staring at the spreadsheet, wondering if this was what our future looks like.
So… What Now?
After that gut-punch, we talked. A lot.
Yes, the numbers look rough.
Yes, we’ll probably lose money on this first launch.
But here’s what we reminded ourselves:
- We’ve learned a ton already — in design, dev tools, Unity workflows, and player behaviour.
- We still have full-time jobs. We're not betting rent money on this.
- We’re not just making “a game”. We’re building tools and systems that we’ll reuse, polish, and expand across future projects.
If we quit now, all of that progress disappears.
If we keep going, we keep getting better.
Our Takeaway: This Is Normal
This isn’t failure. This is part of the process.
For us, Cosmic Trinity isn’t a one-hit-wonder studio. We’re in it for the long haul. Even if the first few launches lose money, the goal is to build something that compounds over time — better tools, better UX, better LTV, more insight with each game.
It’s not about avoiding failure. It’s about not wasting the lessons it gives you.
If You’re an Indie Dev Reading This…
You’ll probably run into this moment too.
Where the numbers say: “This is a bad idea.”
Where spreadsheets and projections look bleak.
And maybe they’re right — for now.
But if you’ve got a plan, a long-term mindset, and you're learning as you go… don’t stop.
This isn’t advice. This is just where we’re at.
And we’ve decided to keep going.
If you’ve been through something similar, we’d love to hear how you handled it. Reach out, share your story, or just say hi.
Let’s build better games — together.
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