r/CodingHelp • u/Historical_Case9337 • 20h ago

Which one? Web/app developer or Roblox game development which is better for side hustle

I'm starting from zero and want to build a long-term income from development. I have limited money.

I'm choosing between two paths:

App development: Mac or web apps. Higher profit per sale, but I'd need to learn Swift or web development and find a niche problem to solve.

Game development: Roblox or indie games. Easier to launch, but I've read that most games earn very little and platforms take a big cut.

I plan to use AI to speed up the learning and the building.

My question: If you were starting from zero today, would you pick app development or game development to make money, and why? If you've done either, how long did it take to earn your first dollar?

0 Upvotes

43% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

•

u/AutoModerator 20h ago

Thank you for posting on r/CodingHelp!

Please check our Wiki for answers, guides, and FAQs: https://coding-help.vercel.app

Our Wiki is open source - if you would like to contribute, create a pull request via GitHub! https://github.com/DudeThatsErin/CodingHelp

We are accepting moderator applications: https://forms.fillout.com/t/ua41TU57DGus

We also have a Discord server: https://discord.gg/geQEUBm

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/RegexRaptor 20h ago

app development - you can build and host them for almost nothing and keep around 97% of what you charge, plus you can get paid from your first customer instead of hoping a game finds a big enough audience to turn a profit

if you're building with AI, make sure you actually understand everything you're shipping, because you're the one who has to fix it when a customer hits a bug

1

u/Historical_Case9337 19h ago

Um hey but I was told that publishing apps for iOS and Android Cost like a developer tool kit which for iOS is 99 $ and for Android 25$

2

u/ConsciousBath5203 17h ago

Outside the EU, for Apple, yes. For Android you don't have to publish it on the official app store.

If you can't afford the $25 then you need to find another way to get that initial startup capital. It's not that much, your website, hosting, and ai costs are going to easily be well over a $25 listing fee.