Hello. I am looking for ideas. I have maybe 2000$ for investments and good knowledge about SEO and 20 hours/week for work. I am thinking about business related to games. I know that some people are trading virtual currencies, offering boosting and earn money in that way. For Example I know that people are trading with EVE Online ISK https://www.sellersandfriends.com/eve-online/tranquility/isk I know that this is not legal so why game devs do not do anything to finish this? I am looking for business related to games which allow me to earn some green bux. Thanks for all replies.

Honestly, if you don't have some idea that you're passionate about, that you've researched to see that there's some demand for, and that you believe you're capable of fulfilling reliably, you're probably better off investing that money traditionally (or even just keeping it in a bank account) and working an office or retail job during your 20 hours per week.

Video game development, and services supporting it are very crowded markets, and while it's absolutely possible to be financially successful, if you're starting as an outsider with no specific idea and a relatively small budget it's unlikely you'd find success, and very unlikely you would be successful enough to out earn a 'regular' job.

If you really want to be in the field though, perhaps you could look into offering marketing or PR services?

You have only $2,000 to invest? I would recommend going to GDC to get ideas by networking - but it would probably cost you more than your $2,000.

A person with an idea shouldn't be too hard to find, especially now that you posted you have money on a forum. It will be like blood in the water to a bunch of sharks.That said what you are looking for is a business with a plan, who needs seed funding. Due to the low amount of capital I am going to assume ( please correct me if I am wrong ) that you are inexperienced as an investor. 

There is nothing wrong with the amount you have to invest, however you need to be aware of this concept: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_of_ruin

At your current level of capital ideally you would want to back 100 ideas at $20. Look for someone that is willing to give you a 8-12% ROI weekly over the period of 3 to 6 months. This would be someone very reliable that needs a tool, or equipment to do their job in some sort of gig economy. Usually "investors" are playing a much longer game, with much larger capital.

I would look for a hard working kid during the fall season needing tools to rake leaves in his neighborhood at this level. While the idea is ridiculous as his parents would likely give him the tools or the money to buy them, that is the scope/size of project you can take on with your current investor capital. So this would likely be a little absurd. However if you went above $20 to say $100 or $200 your risk of ruin would be substantial. You would need 1 project to pay $2000 for the other 9 projects that would likely fail, and that is to break even.

I do not wish to discourage you, there is definitely an opportunity here for you to do something smart with your $2,000. That said "investors" do their homework and research before investing, and you should too! Posting to a forum on the internet is the fastest way to find an idea and lose your money.

Respectfully,

Cody

OFC this 2k$ it is not all my money. It is something I can lose without dying. I mean living on the street. I think that I know much about internet marketing and making 100 websites for 100 test-business this is just impossible. I am thinking about the idea of how to promote games or games related items/services for huge profit (finally there is a big amount of money in the video games industry and it will always be) 

8 hours ago, herab1 said:

OFC this 2k$ it is not all my money. It is something I can lose without dying. I mean living on the street. I think that I know much about internet marketing and making 100 websites for 100 test-business this is just impossible. I am thinking about the idea of how to promote games or games related items/services for huge profit (finally there is a big amount of money in the video games industry and it will always be) 

How would you know that video game industry do offer a good amount of money? Have you tried?

There is a lot of money to be made in games, but unless you have an idea that isn't already being done you're entering a saturated market.  Lots of people are already offering various services to the industry, and many of them are already established and have more experience than you.

I'm not saying don't do this, but I think you need to come up with a more concrete plan, and be sensible about investigating whether there is a demand and whether you can service that demand better than any existing competition.  Ideally, you will try to find a niche that has demand that isn't already being served (or is served poorly) and where you are able to outdo any existing competition.

Unless you have some novel take on how to do it, promotion and PR are something that is already being done, and done very well, so you may find it difficult to compete in that area.

On 8/23/2018 at 4:50 PM, NeverWing2 said:

How would you know that video game industry do offer a good amount of money? Have you tried?

Because wow gold is worth more thatn Venezuelan Bolivar. And ingame items can be worth much dollars too. And now games are on the way. Everything is "gaming" even chairs which are made weak and often without ergonomic. Just only take a look on still growing number of new company which develop a games. 

Do you have any idea for marketing/analysis/seo for companies from industry?

3 hours ago, herab1 said:

Because wow gold is worth more thatn Venezuelan Bolivar.

WoW took billions of dollars to make and even much more to maintain. It's rare for a game to make a dollar for every dollar spend. What is worst is that only the top 500 games make most of the profit, all the other games fight over the scraps.

Every year thousands of games are released, we have reached a point where most games are losses.

What all this means is that your $2000 will more likely only earn $200 profit back, if you invested it into someone else game.

On 8/21/2018 at 2:52 PM, herab1 said:

I have maybe 2000$ for investments and good knowledge about SEO and 20 hours/week for work.

Spend that 2000$ on investing in your own skills, learn programming, math, science or maybe an artistic skill. That is the only investment I can think that will payoff greatly.

Or you could spend $2000 on lottery, it has as much chance of earning you money as investing in a random game.

On 8/21/2018 at 2:52 PM, herab1 said:

I know that some people are trading virtual currencies, offering boosting and earn money in that way. I know that this is not legal

Do you mean re-selling in game currencies?

At the moment no one knows if it is legal or not. Some countries have listed that if something has real-world value and can be exchanged between players, then it will be considered online gambling. Others have decided to treat it as trade goods if done within a system design to do so, a system made by the game's developers, but counts it as fraud if there is no system in place.

This could be the ideal time to start making these kinds of games. If you started now you could be ready to publish as these become official adult entertainment games. Personally I like the idea of changing the gambling world to fit gamer.

If you meant you wanted to invest $2000 into a MMO, I think only small indie mmo games will accept. To a large MMO game $2000 is the snack budget.

@Scouting Ninja I think you misunderstood what OP was saying. He doesn't want to invest in games, he wants to use existing games as a way to make money. For example, by farming and selling wow gold to other players, offering ladder climbing services for competitive games, and similar things that you can find in a "what not to do" part of a game TOS