Thread by @glassbottommeg

Finally went spreadsheet spelunking, realized I had better data, and actually determined our budget!

SkateBIRD cost $181k to make. That includes my own paltry survival-salary, that isn't just cash expenses.

So. NEAT.

Did I have $181k in the studio account at the start of this? No. Heh. A lot of that was "free" money found along the way (Kickstarter, platform advances, etc).

... and dammit this doesn't include Patreon income. BAH. ANYWAYS. Something like that.

Anyways! Point is, profitable. I'm not sitting on some huge money pile right now, but we also made the game without that all being an advance that we had to pay back to the publisher/etc. It was all presales (Kickstarter), "free" platform advances, or kicking in my own savings.

Also, just to make biz-dev people cringe:

I calculated this via dead-reckoning, because the accounts were effectively zero at launch. Makes it really easy to retroactively start with however much you made and go "oh. Well. I guess it all went into the game!"

Oh and since it was asked:

Dev time was about 3 years. Spartan Fist was May 15, we did a few months post-launch support, and then yeah, into that shrug-zone prototyping phase on what would become SkateBIRD.

Anywho, depending on your studio size, you'll see that as either extremely small for 3 years, or pretty normal. Maybe even huge.

But I believe we can all agree that, ultimately, the game was

cheep.

oooooo wait Sara pointed out she burned savings in quitting her job to do the game's art, SO!

Actual budget is $201k. There we go. Woo hoo.

<The actual work I'm supposed to be doing> Hey Bud you ok?

<Me, delving further into the spreadsheets> BUT THERE IS A GREATER TRUT-

<The actual work I'm supposed to be doing> Well ok Bud, can you walk me through it, and then we get back to work?

<Me> YOU SEE-

This reply deserves special commendation

<salutes>

https://twitter.com/beakfriends/status/1453659480961568770?t=zMzcxS4StoRcntiTtaEEWw&s=19