Making Games – Page 4

Though such a young media, gaming has taken the world by storm. There’s something about the interactivity of games that has captured the hearts and minds of young and old alike across the globe. And now, with modern technology coupled with the internet, it’s possible to earn actual real money while playing the games you love. Tournaments players earning millions of dollars have sprung up in nearly every country. And streaming has changed average Joe into Martyn the millionaire. We have gaming celebrities. And eSports legends. Gaming’s got it all. Now it’s your turn to earn. Is it possible to earn money playing games? Yes, it’s absolutely possible. There are many ways to earn money playing games, from youtube videos, to game streaming and everything in between. In the following article, I’ve collected together a list of ideas that you can implement today to start earning passive money from the hobby you love. Each one of these ideas are real, and proven to work. All each idea takes to succeed is hard work, consistency, and perseverance. Each idea is just that: an idea. I’ve avoided going into too much depth in this article as it would be the 80,000 words long instead of 8,000. Instead, I’ll link out to more in-depth articles that’ll explore each idea in more detail. So please read on and get ready to find the idea that’ll transform you, with little hard work, into a Career Gamer. 1: Kindle Fiction books based on your favourite game You love playing games, and you love to write. Why not combine the two of them? Why not write a fictional book based in your favourite gaming world? You’re immediate reaction is probably this: who would want to read fiction based on a computer game world? I’ll admit, I too had that thought initially. Would people just prefer to play their games, instead of reading stories about them? Well, turns out, like with a lot of things, I was dead wrong. Gamers are positively desperate for ‘extra material’ to read or watch that is based on one of their favourite games. To get proof of this ravenouse need, you only need head over to Amazon and type in “Minecraft fiction”. Yes, that second Minecraft book, shockingly, has 1,736 reviews. So, if you can write your own fiction about your own favourite games, you can, without doubt make money from playing games. Keep an eye out for our article on how to write Game fiction kindle books soon. 2: Gaming Kindle books for tips and walkthroughs And talking about kindle books… It’s not just fiction the gaming world is clamoring for: they also want hints, tips and walkthrough books. Yes, lots of people might argue that there are fantastic graphically rich walkthrough guides available already. Why would anybody want a black and white walkthrough on a kindle? Well, just as people's tastes in gaming are extremely diverse, so are their preferred methods of consuming content such as walk-throughs. Some people don’t want to read a walkthrough on a blog, or watch a youtube video. Maybe youtube videos give to much away of the game’s story away. Maybe blogs are too inconvenient or poorly written. Whatever the reason, there’s a huge market, and thus huge potential, for gamers to write walkthroughs, guides, and other written tips to help gamers enjoy their games even more. To learn more about writing game guides, check back soon for an in depth guide. 3: Review games One of the best ways to make money from playing games is to review them. You can do this in many ways, including putting reviews on websites, blogs or video sites like Youtube. You may think that reviewing games would be a hard market to break into. Especially considering there are so many games to cover and so many larger websites covering them. And that’s not to mention the fact that you wouldn’t, at first, have access to review copies. So you’d have to buy the games yourself. But, if you can add a unique twist to your reviews, or let your 'born to entertain’ personality shine on video or in writing, you may have a chance of succeeding. However, like all online ventures that start with reviewing games, you have to be committed. This is not a get rich quick scheme. You’ll have to review a lot of games. And you’ll have to review a lot of games consistently, but if you don't mind violence in video games, you should be okay. You’ll have to commit a huge amount of time and effort to growing an online game review business. So take a few days to think about what you are willing to sacrifice for the next two years to make it happen. But, if you can commit yourself to review games over the long term, you have just as much a chance of succeeding as any of the other mega gaming site floating about the internet. 4: Gaming news website Running a game news website such as Eurogamer.net or IGN can be an extremely lucrative game related venture. However, creating a site to match these behemoth websites is surely an impossible task? Well, actually, it’s not. There’s a beautifully simple formula that’ll help you create a successful game related website. It just takes a lot of hard work. Here’s the 11 steps system to get you started: Think of a name for your gaming news site. Sign up for free on medium/wordpress.com. Write, your first news article. Keep on writing until you have at least 60,000 words on your site. Add adverts to your site when you have a consistent 1000 visitors per month. Keep on adding more words. When you start making money, pay WordPress to get a proper unique URL Keep on writing Diversify your content, get on youtube, facebook, Pinterest other content hubs. Keep on making content. It’s the most important thing. When visitor numbers grow to over 100,000 visitors a month approach bigger companies for specialist advertisements. Keep on making content. It’s the most important thing. And that’s it. You can set up a successful gaming news website easily. You just have to be committed to producing content, and lots of it. Keep an eye out for our in-depth guide about starting your own gaming news site 5: PC hardware news Another type of website you can set up is a PC hardware website. PC enthusiasts love to hear the latest and greatest news about upcoming graphics cards and other PC hardware. They're all about teraflops, shader units, and Frames Per Second. If those are the type of terms that gets your blood pumping, PC hardware could be the niche for you. Ok, you won’t be playing as many games directly. But why else would you build a PC graphical powerhouse if not to play games? Yes, early on you’ll have to buy your own hardware to test which could get expensive. But this type of website need not be expensive. Why not be a little creative with your content? For example, you could you buy an older generation fan favorite graphics card off eBay and attempt to mod it. Or, you could attempt to squeeze even more performance out of the people's GPU such as the GTX 970. The possibilities with pre-owned hardware are endless. Just be sure you could document your results on Youtube and your own website? There are so many options open to you. Don’t think a hardware website has to be about testing the latest and greatest graphics cards. If you can approach this niche from a creative point of view you could be on to a winner. 6: Handheld gaming news If you love your handheld gaming, why not set up a Handheld gaming news website? Setting up a handheld gaming website is just like setting up any other website: it’s all about the content. You have to produce high-quality content and you have to produce a lot of it. There is no shortcut and no easy way to create a successful website. But again, if you love to write, and you love to play handheld games, then this could be the ideal choice for you to make money from playing games you love. 7: Patreon for streaming and game video creation So, you love to stream your games and/or create game videos. You’ve built up a sizable following and you’re making a decent amount of cash from adverts and donations. But you want more. That’s where Patreon comes in. Patreon is a website where creatives, such as game streamers and video creators like yourself, can get users to become a patron of your ‘brand’. Users who really love your content can head over to Patreon and subscribe to you. By doing this they enter into a contract with you and pay you a subscription fee each month. In return, the patron will get unique benefits. These can include pretty much anything, from never before seen footage, to a chance to win a gaming session with you. You can also offer multiple tiers of subscription. For example, If somebody subscribes for $1 a month, they might just have access to your Patreon board. But if they subscribe to the $100 a month tier, they may get 1 gameplay session with you each week. If you're looking to grow your income from your channel, check out Patreon here. 8: Youtube game videos Youtube is now the second largest search engine in the world after Google. And over 5 billion videos are watched on it every day. A disturbingly large proportion of which are game related. Making money on Youtube is all about constantly outputting value-full game related videos. If you can do that you’re already onto a winner. Keep putting more videos up on Youtube and eventually, you’ll have a sizeable audience. Once you’ve hit 5,000 plus subscribers it’s time to monetize them. And there’s no easier way to monetize your audience than with youtube ads. You literally only have to click a button in Youtube’s options to enable ads. And once you’ve opted in, you’ll be making money almost instantaneously. Another way to monetize your channel is to promote gaming related products such as hardware or paraphernalia. This way you can earn a commission on each sale. Finally, you can also make money on Youtube through sponsorships. You’ll recognize these as the product call-outs that many seasoned Youtubers make in every video they post. They actually get paid just to ‘advertise’ the sponsored product in their vids. So Youtube is a great way to to monetise your love for gaming. Yes, it’ll take a lot of hard work to consistently create great videos. But it’ll be worth it. 9: Youtube and Twitch game streaming If you really want to make money from playing games, there’s no better way than to do it than with streaming. But first, a quick explanation of what streaming is... Streaming is when you play your games, on console or PC, then broadcast your live gameplay over the internet to viewers anywhere in the world. There are hundreds of thousands of streamers. Most of which do not make a lot of money or do not have any intention to make money. However, if you take streaming seriously, if you approach it as a business from the beginning, you’ll have every chance of succeeding. Most gamers jump into streaming thinking all they have to do is play games and they’ll make money. But that’s a dangerous oversimplification that often leads to quick failure. But you’ll be different. Why? Because you’ll approach streaming as a business. You’ll learn what market you wish to target. What type of brand would best appeal to your potential viewers. And, you’ll have a plan to promote yourself and build awareness. In other words, you’ll pay just as much attention to the business as the game play. If you think that streaming is right for you, check back soon for our in-depth article on how to start a streaming business. 10: Become an indie game developer You love to play games, but what about making games? Every single one of us has a core of creativity. We innately want to make things. Whether that’s making children, legacies, art, or other, we are driven to create. So why not put your creative talents to work by making games. Well, making games can seem a little daunting at first. It’s not like writing a book are making a short film. But why? Probably because making a game is a multi-talented undertaking. When writing, you just have to be good at writing, the same with taking photos or shooting a short film. But games are different. You have to be able to program, do sound, animations, level design, gameplay design, 3d art, 2d art, and so on. Yet, making a game can still be achieved. There’s a massive amount of resources available to learn how to make games. And there’s no better place to start your game development education than on the great self-education website Udemy. Here, you’ll find a mass of courses dedicated game development and design that’ll walk you through every aspect of the game making process. Here are my picks for courses I’d take. Learn Unity 3d with this course. Check out this FPS course here. And finally, learn Unreal Engine 4 here. All these courses, if you wait, can be had for as little $11.99. A bargain considering the value they offer, and the doors they could open for you. 11: Become a freelance game tester Game testers are vital to the success of modern games. Games have become so complex that bugs and problems can be hidden away from the development team. These bugs lay dormant in wait of their victim: the unsuspecting gamer. But you can help stamp out some bugs by becoming a freelance game tester. As a freelance game tester, you’ll get to play Indie games on every conceivable platform way before they are officially released. But what does a freelance game tester actually do? Do they really just find bugs? Well, freelance game testers also help to refine gameplay. Making games is what game developers call an iterative process. This means that ideas are first explored, then they are created. Once these ideas are created they are then tested to ascertain their value and validity for the project. Finally, the data from these tests are used to develop new ideas. And the whole process starts over again. The reason games are made like this is because a lot of the time, developers do not know if a gameplay mechanic or graphical style will work before it’s made. So they have to make it first, then test it, then decide if they want to keep it or not. So there’s a lot of testing involved. And that’s where you’d come in. And it’s actually really easy to find game tester jobs. Just check out freelance websites like Upwork.com or People Per Hour and search for 'game tester'. Here’s just a few I found on Upwork. If you’d like to become a freelance game tester check back soon for our in-depth article. 12: Create a game coaching business You love games and you're desperately trying to get into the industry. The only problem is your day job revolves around coaching people. But is that really a problem? Have you ever thought about combining the two? Well, you might be surprised to learn that there’s a growing market for game coaches throughout the world. Additionally, you don’t have to be super skilled at playing games to become a coach. Let's take football as an example. Most coaches were never as skilled as the players they coach. Look at Cristiano Ronaldo. He’s one of the best soccer players that has ever lived. Yet he is coached every day by people who never approached his ability. So how can he be continuously improved by people with inferior skills? Well, it’s not the coach's past skills that help the player. It’s the coach’s ability to observe that drives improvement. A coach has a keen ability to observe a players skills, such as his kicking technique, then formulate a plan to address deficiencies. That’s what a good coach does. They spot skill areas that can be improved then create training drills to improve those areas. And you can do the same as a game coach. You can learn to observe players who are looking to improve their game, point out areas that need improvement, and then devise methods and drills to improve their game playing. But this sounds impossible, right? Who in the right mind would pay good money to be coached for a game they play? Well, again, you’d be surprised. Check our Gamer Sensei. They are just one of many game coaching businesses that have gained success. And if they can do it, you can do it too. Check back here soon for our comprehensive guide on starting a video game coaching career. 13: Game Podcast Do you like to talk about games? Do you like to chat with your mates about what makes a game fun, or what games are good and bad? Then podcasting might be for you. A podcast is essentially like an episodic radio show. Except instead of having to wait for each episode to come on at a certain time of day, you can download episodes as soon as they are released. Additionally, podcasts are easily accessible. They are available on all PCs, laptops, and Macs. And they can be downloaded to any type of phone or MP3 player. And if that's not enough, podcasts are also easy to make. Just download some free recording software on your phone and start recording your conversation. However, like all game related ways of making money, you need to treat podcasting like a business. You can’t expect to be successful if you just flip the switch of the mic and start talking. You have to respect the business side of your operation. Build a valuable brand. Have a marketing plan. Developed a content strategy. But if you can do all that, if you can take the business side seriously, podcasting can offer you a seriously good game career. 14: Review games on Amazon Amazon is the largest retailer in the world. Shipping millions of products to millions of shoppers every day, they are reliant on one key ingredient from their patrons: Product reviews. Amazon hosts millions of buyer written reviews on their site that influence the purchasing decisions of consumers every day. These reviews are big business. And companies will do whatever it takes to get the positive reviews they need to succeed. So how does this help you make money from your gaming? Well, companies often send out free copies of games to select reviewers on Amazon. If you consistently write high-quality Amazon reviews, you’ll very quickly find games companies sending you free games to review. And then, to make it financially worth your while, you can sell the games. This can very quickly escalate from reviewing games to reviewing much more expensive products such as PCs, TVs, or consoles. So give reviewing games on Amazon a go. Check back here soon for our guide to making money reviewing amazon games. 15: Run a gaming blog One of the easiest ways to start making money from your gaming is to start a game-related blog. You’d be shocked at how interested people are in hearing about other people’s gaming exploits. And it’s really easy to set up a blog. Just head on over to Medium or Wordpress, signup and start writing. It’s as simple as that. However, before you start, here are a few words to the wise. If you do start a gaming blog, consistency and volume is everything. If you're going to blog your way to earning money from games, you’ll have to write often and write a lot. If you can't commit to writing 20,000 words a month on your blog, save yourself the time, and try another way to make money from your gaming. I know this sounds harsh. But Google demands a consistent and high volume of articles to rank on their search engine. However, if you can output 20,000 words of volume consistently, you will make money eventually. 16: Sell game-related goods Gaming paraphernalia is big business. From T-shirts with Sonic slapped on them to Mario maker mugs, there’s a gaming trinket to fit every gamer’s desire. And there is massive evidence to suggest our thirst of gaming goodies is growing and growing fast. And there’s no bigger evidence to support the growth of gaming goodies than the rise of the Uber special editions of games. For example, just take a look at this Bioshock special edition ‘Big Daddy’ figurine. To get your hands on this rather handsome looking 6-inch plastic monster you’d have to burn off 600 of your well-earned dollars. Now most of us would think spending that much cash on some plastic would be a little bonkers. Yet this special edition sold out within 11 minutes of going live! So if you want to make money from gaming, have a think about selling gaming-related gifts. 17: Start a gaming eBay business One of the best ways to make money from games is to sell used games. Now I’m not suggesting you slide on over to your local property listing site and open a brick and mortar store. That’s going to put your business in a downward financial spiral before you even sell your first game. Instead, you should focus on creating an online store. In this case, an eBay store. eBay offers the ultimate gateway into game retail. It’s easy to set up: all you need is a product to sell and an eBay account. It’s accessible to non techies: If you’ve got a camera on your phone to take photos, and a basic ability to write to create descriptions, you’re good to go. And there are millions of people buying off eBay every. You can literally have an eBay game focused business up and running in a single afternoon. But what should you sell? After all, gaming is a rather big theme. Well, with games going digital, your going to need to specialize in something other than mainstream Triple-A titles. Fortunately, there are a number of windows of opportunity for you: Game collectables, retro games and PC hardware. If you can get hold of just a small set of collectibles, a handful of retro games, or a graphics card or two, you can start your business. This small selection of products will be the seed from which your business will grow. In the meantime keep an eye out for our up and coming ultimate guide to starting a gaming eBay business. 18: Make a retro gaming Youtube channel If you're anything like me, you’ll be old enough to have lived through the formative years of gaming. I was there when the SNES changed the world with Mario Kart and Donkey Kong. I was playing when Metal Gear Solid made jaws hit the floor across the world on the PlayStation 1. And I was there when SSX Tricky made us all fall in love with snowboarding. Gaming has an exciting and profound history that many younger gamers don’t even know exists. You could be the one to walk them down nostalgia lane. You could show the millennials the wonder of Mario World, the tenderness of Final Fantasy 7, the graphical wonder that was Gran Turismo. And there are so many ways you could start a retro-focused Youtube channel. You could do some of the following: Review games. After all, you’ll never run out of them. Walkthroughs. Help people new to the retro gaming scene get past tough sections Speed runs. Everybody loves a speed run, why not whisk through one for your favorite old-school games. Retrospectives. Do old games hold up today? And many more… If setting up a retro game focused Youtube channel sounds like something you’d be interested in, get started now. There is never a better time to start than right now. If you’re in work reading this, post a video tonight on Youtube. Even if it’s shaky cam footage taken with your smartphone. Just create something, anything, to get you started. To find out more about setting up a retro gaming youtube channel keep an eye out for our Guide to starting a gaming youtube channel soon. 19: Stream retro games Though a relatively young entertainment media, games have developed a unique culture and history. If you're old enough, you would’ve had the pleasure to live through the 8 bit days of the ZX Spectrum. And you would’ve been dazzled by the cacophony of color that Sonic slashed on screen courtesy of the Sega Genesis. You would’ve sat still in anticipation as the rainbow loading screen of tape deck commodores spun code into fun. And the blowing of cartridges before the slip and click as they embedded into place in their home console. Gaming has come a long way. But games of days past offered magic that is now sadly watered down by the microtransaction triple-A gaming crowd. It’s sad that many a young gamer will never experience that retro magic. At Least, not unless you bring that magic to them. You have the opportunity to spin the searchlight away from the Fortnights and battle royals and cast a beam upon the retro history of our great hobby. So start streaming retro games now. The world of tomorrow will thank you for it. 20: Build PC Gaming Systems I’m going to admit something to you… Something I’ve only ever admitted to my closest friend… I am a massive PC hardware geek. There is something about buying a load of PC parts and slowly slotting them together inside a PC chassis. It’s like some uber expensive adult’s lego set. I love the click that RAM sticks make when they bed into their slots. I love turning the screws that hug motherboards into a case. And I adore, wait for it, cable management (I told you I’m sad!) And I’m not the only one who’s like this. PC gaming enthusiasts swoon over new CPUs and cooling systems like car lovers caress new car curves. If you’ve even the slightest interest in PC hardware, making gaming PCs may be the ultimate business for you. It’s hands on, creative, and is a surprisingly cheap business to enter. For example, I used to make Gaming PCs from second-hand parts and sold them on eBay. And I’d usually charge 25-50% markup on the cost of parts. This would cover me for the time and cost of labor. If I were you, I’d start off by building a PC from used parts and brand it as a Fortnight Machine. It might even be worth your while selling a product on eBay that you haven't even built yet. Here’s how to do it: Create a listing for a gaming PC that sells for $350 that you know you can build for $200. On the listing, state that you build the PCs as and when they are ordered. This gives you a good reason for the inevitable delay between buying the parts, building the PC, and shipping it. Also give some extra reason for this on the listing: find some value in the delay. For example, delaying building the machine means you can get parts for the cheapest price possible. Once the listing goes live, wait. Then, when somebody buys the unmade PC off your eBay listing, buy the parts and make it. This way of running a business is called just in time delivery. In other words, you buy the parts just in time to build the machine to ship it to the customer. It may sound a bit dodgy, but it’s surprising how many top end products are made this way. Apple iMacs are build to order. As are new cars. Why do you think when buying a new car you have to wait 8 weeks to take delivery? It’s because the car doesn't actually exist yet. It’s being made in a factory. So give building gaming PCs a try. You might be surprised how quickly you can build a thriving business. To find out more, read our ultimate guide to setting up a Gaming PC building business soon. 21: Make retro systems If you love retro gaming and PC hardware, then this could be your way to make money from games. Retro gaming is starting to become big business. Since the introduction of retro systems like Nintendo's NES mini and SNES mini, people are starting to once again see the magic in the simplicity of old-school gaming. But retro gaming need not be caged by locked-down hardware and the whims of gaming juggernauts like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Instead, games of yesteryear can be set free and enjoyed on custom built PC hardware as easily as any hardware that Sony or Nintendo dish out. And you could be the one to build that custom hardware. But how is this done? It’s all down to the power of emulation. Emulation is the act of simulating a retro console’s custom hardware in software. This means that a program is written to mimic how the hardware works inside the original consoles. Even down to the individual quirks that gave rise to that consoles graphic, gameplay and sound, ‘cheats’. Additionally, retro gaming machines need not be built with super-powered PC components. After all, they are emulating games and system that can be decades old. And the fun doesn't with PC hardware: You can also craft custom made PC chassis that emulate the look and feel of old consoles. If you’d interested in building retro gaming hardware, you should check back regularly for our Ultimate guide to building a retro gaming hardware business. 22: Own and run game servers Another great way to make money from your gaming is to set up and run your own dedicated game servers. But first, before we delve the details of this business, What exactly are game servers? A game server is a PC that is linked to the internet that runs a multiplayer match of a certain game. Take, for example, DayZ on PC. DayZ is a multiplayer only game that keeps track of tens of players and hundreds of NPC in a huge 64 square kilometer game world. The number of variables, in such a vast game world, is so large, a normal PC would collapse under the weight of so many processes. Especially, if you’re trying to game on the same computer you are using as a server. The answer then is dedicated servers. And you can own and run dedicated servers for any game that supports them. And then charge gamers to play on them. Take a look here to find out more about buying dedicated game servers. 23: Sell custom made game hardware As of 2018, the games industry is valued at a staggering 135 billion US Dollars. To put that in perspective, that’s larger than the film and music industry combined. And from this mammoth market has sprung a plethora of micro cottage industries. On of those mini gaming markets is custom built hardware. This custom hardware can include custom PC Rigs, custom PS4 And Xbox controllers, and everything else in between. And customizations come in an extremely wide range. At the lowest end, you have simple analog sticks or button replacements. For example, you can swap out boring old plastic for sleek aluminum. At the other end, things get a little silly. You can buy real gold Xbox controllers, and fish tanks with your PC parts seemingly floating inside. Yes, you’re seeing this right. A PC containing fish tank. Let’s hope, for those poor old fish’s sake, that the water doesn't leak all over those high voltage components. What these extreme mods tell us is that there is a thriving market that demands custom hardware. So if your hand with your hands. Maybe this is the gaming money maker for you. 24: Pro gaming leagues and tournaments If you want to earn big bucks from your gaming, then going pro is one of the best ways to go. There are hundreds of professional eSports Tournaments across the world. Games that tournaments and leagues are focused on range from sports and racing games such as Fifa and Gran Turismo to FPS and strategy games such as Call of Duty and DOTA. However, to make your way into the big time you have to be extremely dedicated to your chosen game. You must treat your game like a professional sports person treats their sport. You must be obsessed with getting better and dedicate every possible moment to practice. But if you have the determination and skill to succeed, there’s a lucrative career awaiting you. The average pro tournament gamer earns between $1400 to $6000 per month as of 2019. With some of the very top gamers earning as much as $20,000 per month on average just from tournament wins. You can check to see if there is a tournament for your favourite game here. And if there’s not, you could always start your own.... 25: Gold farming Love playing massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG)? Love collecting gear and gold? Then gold farming could be the gaming business for you. Gold farming is the act of collecting gold in an MMORPG with the sole purpose of selling gold for real money. Gold farming usually involves repeating a certain task within an RPG that rewards the most gold per hour. I’m not going to lie, it can be a mundane and repetitive job. However, and this is a big however, there are some serious perks. They are: You get to work from home. So you save a lot of expenses from not having to travel as much. You can listen to your favorite music as much as you want. You can listen to audiobooks and actually educate yourself while gold farming. I knew of a few people back when I was in uni who did this. It’s easy to scale, you can pay for ‘freelancers’ all over the world to mine for you. As long as you pay them less money than what they actually make, you’ll be in profit. So, if any of the above positives are strong enough to cancel out the minus of repetition, game gold mining could be the gaming job for you. Check back soon to read our ultimate guide to making money from gold farming. 26: Game bodyguards The rise of online gaming has seen the creation of many new and exciting markets for the skilled gamer. One of the most unlikely new careers is the game bodyguard. A game bodyguard is exactly like a real-life bodyguard: Their job is to keep their client safe. Noobs or unskilled gamers will hire out skilled gamers to bodyguard them in their favorite game while they learn the ropes. For example, you may have a gamer who loves Fortnight but keeps getting killed. Their gaming friends aren't much better and so, instead of enjoying the game, they get frustrated by constantly losing. But a bodyguard can help. Paid, in some cases, $50 an hour, a game bodyguard will buddy up with their clients and do everything they can to keep their client alive. The bodyguard will also help to coach the unskilled player. The guard will Help them learn Multiplayer maps, weapons, best kits setups, skills, tricks, and other game necessities to help their client win. Check back here soon for our in-depth article on in-game bodyguarding. Or check out this great article from Kotaku. The article’s quite old, but it outlines the Bodyguard idea perfectly. 27: Selling rare in-game items Since the advent of MMO games, there has been a steady increase in what I call the ‘Rare Game Item Economy’. This new economy is born out of the endless stream of games that let you buy, sell, pillage, and pilfer super rare in-game items. Item’s like swords, shields, armor, and even soccer player cards all count and can all be sold for real cash on websites such as eBay. Take, for example, Team Fortress: Valve’s dependable and immortal team-based shooter. In the latest iteration, which graced our digital shelves several years ago, vanity items were sold for in-game currency. However, these items could also be bought and sold on Steam’s user market. Suddenly, super rare hats were selling for hundreds of dollars. Other items were shifting for just as much cash. And now, many other games have joined the in-game item party. And this is a great opportunity for you. Nearly every PC MMORPG and other multiplayer game on PC offer the user the chance to gather super rare items. And the great things is, most PC based games give you the ability to trade with other players. Here are just a fraction of the items currently being sold on the Steam marketplace. If you are good at any of these games, you too could be gathering rare items and selling them for profit on Steam. It’s probably not going to make you a millionaire any time soon. But selling extra items is a great way to make some extra cash to stash in your steam account. 28: Selling weapons skins Another, type of in-game item that you can buy and sell are weapon skins. A weapon skin is an in-game cosmetic item in the form of a texture that fits over your favorite in-game gun that gives it a unique look. Now, I don’t really get the point of digital cosmetic items. I mean, who cares what you look like in game so long as you're having fun, right? However, I do accept that I’m a tiny minority. Most gamers love kitting out their characters. And some players will pay extremely handsomely for a chance to cover their gun in a rare and unique skin. No game shows off the intoxicating and addictive effects of owning gun skins than Valve’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). There are literally hundreds of thousands of unique and rare items to be won from playing games of Counter-Strike. You gather items by opening rewarded loot boxes with rewarded keys. Now, CS:GO is cheeky because you need a key to match the loot box to open it. And Loot boxes and keys come in varying rarities. With the rarest of them all offering a tiny chance of bagging a super rare or unique item or skin. The mega rare skins can sell for hundreds of dollars. However, the super expensive skins are so rare, it’s better to sell off the loot boxes they randomly appear in. And this is where the opportunity lies. If you are good at CS:GO, you can sell off all of your in-game loot boxes and keys to make a good bit of extra cash to keep stored in your Steam wallet. Keys and loot boxes fetch very good prices on the Steam market. Often selling for as much $30 each. So get on CS:Go and start earning some loot boxes. 29: Achievement hunting Love them or hate them achievements have become a big part of gaming. And you can make money earning them for other people. But first a quick explanation of what achievements are for those who aren't in the know. Achievements were first introduced on the Xbox 360 by Microsoft way back in 2005. Players are offered the chance to collect different achievements in every game they play. Each Xbox game has a pool of 1000 achievement points. This pool of points is then split amongst multiple achievements throughout a game. For example, your first headshot could give an achievement worth 5 points. Whereas completing the game without killing anybody could grab you an achievement worth 100 points. Later on, Sony introduced a similar trophy system on the PS3. And the gaming world never looked back. So how can you make money from achievements? You can win them for people. Some gamers are achievement hoarders: they must collect every achievement in every game. No matter the time or financial cost. If you're a skilled gamer, you could make a lot of money helping other gamers win achievements by coaching them through difficult parts of the game. Give it a try: test the business idea out on eBay. 30: Esports commentating This has got to be one of my favorite ideas on this list. And it’s something I’d love to try doing but, being Welsh, my accent is hard to understand. Of course I’m talking about eSports commentary. If you’re a gamer, you probably already know, eSports is big business. With all projections indicating eSports could eventually overtake Soccer as the number one sport in the world. But, did you know there’s a large niche for esports commentators? That’s right, there’s a need for talented and entertaining eSports commentators to fill the airwaves while pro gamers do their thing on the screen. I could type out a load of words to try and explain to you what it’s like to be an eSports commentator. But commentating is one of those things that is better explained with a Youtube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW9KBjaoO90 Did you find yourself thinking after watching the vid, “Yeah, I like the look of that!” Then eSports commentary could be for you. Let's take a quick look at how you should start your eSports commentary career. First, you want to start simply: start commentating on your own videos. Record your own gameplay then practice commentating on it. Make sure you upload your gameplay and your commentating to Youtube. This part is important as it’s the beginning of building your brand and reputation. Keep on doing this. Keep on practicing, keep on watching other commentators. Don’t stop learning how to be an effective commentator. Once you’ve gotten to a certain proficiency. Start promoting yourself and your portfolio to small tournaments. Offer to commentate for free. Your commentating will add an extra air of professionalism to small tournaments. So it’s very unlikely they’ll turn you down. Keep on building your reputation. Keep on posting to Youtube. Keeping on giving to the eSports community and eventually, eventually, your big break will come. It’s as simple as that. 31: Freelance game content writer Writing is one of the best ways to indirectly make money from playing your favorite games. If you want to start earning money writing about games immediately, without the hassle of setting up your own website or writing a book, freelancing is for you. With the games industry ballooning in size, people’s desire for game-related information is growing faster than websites can serve it up. This means there’s a huge need for talented writers who are passionate gamers. If you think this type of game-related work is for you, it’s really easy to get stuck in quickly and start earning. Upwork.com is a freelance hub that helps freelancers find work all over the world. It’s the perfect place for you to start earning cash from playing your games. Just head on over and sign up as a freelancer. Then search “game writer” or something similar. Look through the jobs that the search finds and apply for them. Start small and don’t charge too much. First, build a good reputation. Then, within very little time, you could be charging $15-$20 dollars per hour to write about your favorite games. 32: Sell your leveled up characters Many people do not have the time to play games as much as they like too. Some gamer harbor a great love for deep and complex MMO games but simply can’t afford the time to level characters up. However, there are some people, who are time poor but financially well off, that are happy to pay to have a character leveled up for them in the favorite game to save them the time. Think of a high flying lawyer who earns $100 an hour. It would be nothing to them to pay $500 for you level up a character for them to play within an MMO. these high-flyers are happy to do this as it will help them skip the tedium of playing through the same story again and again. They want to get to the juicy end game stuff. And you can’t blame them. People in high flying positions such as doctors and lawyers understand that time is their limiting factor. You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time. So they are willing to spend to save time. You can take advantage of this by creating ready made characters for them. 33: Extreme Gamer streaming This may sound like an odd way to make money from your gaming, but if you're into extreme sports, you might be able to combine your two hobbies into a tantalizing entertainment product. Imagine scaling a sheer cliff face, only to find a nice ledge to pull out your Nintendo Switch, and start streaming Fortnight to the gaming to the world. All while your suspended 200 meters above the forest floor. Or how about diving out an airplane, opening your parachute, and setting yourself the goal of winning a game of Fortnight before you touch the ground. Extreme streaming sounds like it could be amazing. And it really could. Extreme streaming is viral content waiting to happen. So do you have what it takes to be an extreme streamer? 34: Game events business You love competitive gaming, but your reflexes aren't quite up to the pro’s standards. No matter how hard you practice, no matter how much you learn the layout of maps, you just can’t seem to win. What are you to do? Give up on your dream of competing at a pro tournament? Or could you approach the problem from a different angle? Well, instead of competing in tournaments, why not try running tournaments instead? You could create your own tournaments for the games you have a passion for. Set up a website, then invite friends and more from Facebook to come to compete for prestige. Then once, your tournament brand has grown, start looking for sponsors so you can offer prizes to those who compete. Start small, be consistent, create as many tournaments as you can, and get your name out there. With enough hard work, you could be the next big name in eSports. 35: Gaming fitness. Do you have a passion for keeping fit? Do you love games? Then why not try combining gaming and fitness to create a gaming fitness business? With the advent of motion controllers such as the Wiimote and Xbox Kinect came the advent of fitness games. Though Xbox Kinect is effectively dead, that doesn't mean it couldn’t be put to great use in a Fitness Centre. You could, if you have the money, buy some second-hand Xboxes with their Kinect controllers and pair them with games like Zumba Fitness. You could start off small, say 5 Xbox machines, 5 TVs and so on, to create a small digital gym. But if you don’t have that sort of money, you could buy one Xbox and Kinect and be a digital personal trainer, taking your Xbox and Zumba to people’s houses. This may sound bizarre, but gamification of exercise is a great way to get people moving. And it could be the perfect way to marry your two passions: gaming and fitness. Check back for our in-depth article on making money from gaming fitness soon. Conclusion We’ve touched on many different ways that you can make money from your love of gaming. But, I’ll be honest with you, there are many more ways to monetize your hobby than listed here. Though I’ve done my best to research game monetization methods and ideas, many will slip through the cracks. So I need your help as I can’t think of every idea alone. With so much potential flowing around games, I’m only just scratching the surface of how you could earn money playing the games you love. So, if you have any ideas I can add to this list, tell me about them in the comments below. I want this list to be ever evolving. And you can help develop it not only for yourself but the entire community here at Career Gamers. Additionally, as you may have noticed while reading through this guide, it’s my intention to write an in-depth guide to walk you through the implementation of every idea on this list. So in the meantime, please keep an eye on the website for any updates. Related Questions How much do Pro gamers earn? Professional gamers can earn anything between $1500 to $6300 per month just from tournament earnings. This figure can dramatically increase with sponsorship deals. What should I do if my child wants to be a pro gamer? Support them. Gaming really can be a successful career for anybody. However, just like a sports persona dedicates their life to their sports, so to must a gamer be dedicated to their chosen game. Is professional gaming a viable career? Yes. Check out this in-depth article here that explores the reasons why pro gaming is a viable career option.