Game market information (what we know) Thread

Hello,

Let me start of by introducing my self, and apologies upfront if this is the wrong section, as I'm in process of developing too, not a game but a report/platform for development..

I'm 30 years old and have been a gamer since i was 10 years old, passionate about it, probably as much as the majority here. After working all kind of jobs, and even lets say leveled up to very nice positions in these various industry to working in War Zones for U.S. Army for couple of years, it is of recently that I actually started working in the gaming Industry, and I can say that it's the first time in my life I feel at home. No matter how hard it gets sometimes, or the amount of work piles up, it just feels nice to be doing/solving/researching something you love

So, as of recently I've started a research, gave in countless of hours reading, and reading to find the most relevant information about the game industry, the market, the indie game devs, bigger game devs, numbers, projects.. Anything that makes sense so I can build up a very nice, large, insight report which would provide people like me, who are into numbers and facts, a better insight of what's trendy, what's changing, where to look, and most importantly why.. I believe to follow your heart and make a game is a big step, but to know if this is a right time to develop a certain game or not, is of big importance..

So i thought, there's plenty of people here, plenty of information and knowledge, I'm curious if anyone is willing to help out by providing any relevant information that I may use for the project..

To start of, some of the questions I need goes something like:

• how many indie developers are there? (registered indie game dev studios that we can say are active)
• how many developers small and large are there? (a general figure, worldwide)
• how big is the general indie games market in USD?
• what kind of games do indie devs work on? (most produced content in your opinion)
• What animation library products are out there and how much do they cost, as I assume indie game devs use animation libraries due to budgetary constraints

Basically, that's it for now, I'm really excited to see some feedback on this, if any that is..

Take care!

-T