Impressive earnings, and I don't see a problem with aiming to make something off of your work, the work itself has costs attached and funding is needed to continue developing fresh game content at any reasonable pace. That is just how things are. I do a lot of sub-minimum wage work on mTurk and a few other online venues unrelated to gamedev in order to finance my gamedev efforts, and I am sure that if my games / assets sold better then I would be able to pivot to doing that full time. I would do game development and creative work full time in a heartbeat if it were generating enough to work out that way.
My earnings at this time on itch, total at nearly $50.
That is earnings off of asset packs for game devs, not games, generally. I have made a little over 20 sales, still zero ratings of my content. Some of the customers have tipped, generously as well, probably due to the perception that my content is underpriced relative to comparable other assets on itch.
The asset packs, that raised the $50 cost me, in all, around $300 and a few hundred hours of work to develop.
I also have a number of games in the works but they're starting to drift a bit behind schedule yet again in 2020 despite my best efforts. Those vary but the most costly and ambitious one has been 'Miniature Multiverse' which has cost me over a thousand unpaid hours of work and now just over $1350 in development funds.
I have drawn in thousands of views on my itch profile - now over ten thousand pageviews total according to Google Analytics - and the little freebies there have been downloaded nearly 200 times, but the general absence of ratings and feedback is holding most people back from buying or downloading anything.
Feedback, real, authentic and hopefully positive feedback, showing up on my assets could be a colossal game-changer for me. The attention is there but the lack of feedback is holding everything back from really taking off.
I am initiating another major bundle sale from June 21 to July 4, 2020, a two week span during which everything I have posted on itch is bundled for 93% off ($0.89).
That includes 1500+ seamless texture maps, 150+ video VFX elements, 75+ 3d objects, and more.
SALE PAGE: https://itch.io/s/30811/fathers-day-to-july-4th-sale-90-off-again
I also have some outbound links on my main profile https://matthornb.itch.io/ that include websites, social media feeds, an Etsy shop and so on, the Etsy shop has seen a modest recent boom even despite coronavirus, due to the first wave of ratings/reviews there from 3 out of my first 7 Etsy customers.
ETSY shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MatthewLHornbostel - lots of original artworks on canvas shipped to buyers, consistently priced under $20 per item - even 18"x24" original paintings on stretched canvas - with free shipping on all orders over $35.
I also have an eBay shop which has admittedly deteriorated a bit recently, in terms of shipment speed and customer service. But it does have 387 positive reviews and zero negatives. The 'mixed' positive ratings recently happened as a result of some buyers basically exploiting a generous refund policy, they would claim item never arrived or was ruined and I would refund without even asking for a photo of the damage. I have just recently changed this policy not for my own benefit (though that policy did eliminate my razor thin profit margins and cause the shop to usually operate at a loss) but because it was adversely affecting legitimate customers who I was struggling to deliver items to due to scammers depleting my funding balance to the point where I really genuinely could not cover all the other shipments in any sort of timely manner.
But my eBay shop is here: https://www.ebay.com/usr/mtthornb and I plan to post batch of new listings soon. The eBay shop's been known for selling DVDs of my stock media and personalized art listings, so buyers can have custom paintings, pastel or colored pencil art made based on their own subjects, at pricing similar to the Etsy pricing.
Basically, I would love it if my creative work netted me more than $1 per hour on average but this hasn't happened yet, not even close, so I am stuck doing a fair bit of tedious microtasking at $3-5 per hour to keep things afloat and moving forward.
But that is my status, I have parents who cover a lot of my core living expenses. I have, generally, free room/board and that is why I am able to do any of this in the first place. I can make under $5k a year and still be okay for the near term... I am what is referred to as 'long term unemployed' despite working 11-12 hours a day, so go figure. Long term I would hope to make more than this and maybe actually someday move out and have my own place so I am less of a burden.
Maybe I could even start giving to worthwhile causes, which I would do with any amount earned above $10k a year if I ever reached that income level. Business should not be simply about making money, should be about making an impact on the world for the better. My view anyways.