,
22 tweets,
4 min read
Read on Twitter
If you can’t buy my game, steal it and don’t publish a bad review about price/lifetime. Thread about how much cost a small indie game to produce and why we are going to sell it 20$.
@LtEmi posted this few days after the release of Alt-Frequencies. 
So let’s talk about the game I’m currently working on. This is the budget.
As you can see, 80 % of the budget is to pay employees. We are three, net wage is 2270€ / month each. Is it a lot ? It was the average in France in 2013.
With a salary, you have to pay taxes, and if you don’t know it, we love that in France. Very usefull to have free healthcare, unemployment benefits etc.. How much is it ? For us, around 1700€ per employee and per month.
Basically we have to find around 11 500 € every month to pay us. But we also need to pay every month the bank, the accountant, extra insurance, licences and freelancers.
With a safety margin, it takes 15,000 per month to find. For a small company like us it’s a lot. And don’t forget we are making our first game, so we are basically nobodies. We need to find a publisher to finish the game and sell it properly.
All the proposals we had so far are mostly the same. They lend us money to finish the game, they are doing the marketing and they are keeping 50 % of royalties.
But, we have to pay back what they lend us. Basically the first revenues are for the refund and after that the split begin.
Let's imagine that a publisher lends us 30k and we are selling the game 20$. On steam 20$ means 6$ (30%) for the plateform. 14$ left.
Taxes now, count an other 35 %, which means 7$. Net income is therefore 7$. 3,5$ in our pocket and 3,5 in publisher’s after the share. WAIT. We have to refund first ! Nothing for us until we reach 30k. How many games do we have to sell ? 4285.
How many games are selling indies on Steam the first month ? Hard to say but the average for a first production with a publisher if the marketing is good is around 10k.
Since the bulk of sales are made in the first month we can’t count the rest after that unless we are doing sales but it means less money.
Let’s go back to our 10k. After the refund we have to share 5715 sales and therefore earn 20 000$. Because it’s an income we will pay taxes on it, 28 % in France. 14 000$ left.
Remember the total budget of our game ? 247 000$. If our second production costs the same amount we only have 6 % of the total to start the production. Less than a month of money to cover all expenses.
Why I am telling you that ? I understand totally that you can be disappointed by the lifetime of a game and it price. But we are doing all we can with the money we have, be sure of that. No point for us to sell you a bad game full of bugs and really short.
But sometimes you have to ship your game and earn a little bit of money for living. Some of the players can be angry and post bad reviews about lifetime/price. It’s could be terrible for us and for the profitability of the game to be under 70 % of positive reviews.
A game too short or too expensive is not a bad game. It’s mostly all a developer can put in it and a price he/she has to choose to reach a break even point.
What is the solution then ? I don’t know. But this will be the solution where I’m working. The game at launch will be on Skidrow. The demo is already there : skidrowgamespc.com/games/adventur…
The lifetime of our game is going to be around 2/3h for a cost of 18/20$. If it’s too expansive or too short for you : STEAL IT. But leave our Steam’s reviews alone if it’s for any of these reasons please :).
Thank you for reading. ! Feel free to contact me if any number is wrong or if you think my point is not enough clear. Bokbok to you !
I'm adding some points ! Median wage in France is 1800€ / m. We are 20% above the line. Good for us. You are selling game during 2 to 4 years and the bulk is not during first month. But your society has to live long enough to earn the money.
