Besides the software itself.
2
What exactly is paid for when making games?
Started by Wickedrob, Feb 18 2013 12:18 AM
11 replies to this topic
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#3 Members - Reputation: 343
Posted 18 February 2013 - 01:09 AM
Everything related to running a company.. support staff, the developers, artists, so on. There's a reason for big games especially the budget can be in the millions of dollars range, most of that just goes to salaries, travel expenses, software licenses and such.
#5 Members - Reputation: 569
Posted 18 February 2013 - 02:08 AM
Remember that games studios are still businesses at the end of the day, and unless you're in some ridiculous high rent location and have token staff, the biggest cost by a long margin is going to be people's salaries.
Currently working on an open world survival RPG - For info check out my Development blog: ByteWrangler
#6 Moderators - Reputation: 7570
Posted 18 February 2013 - 03:25 AM
The general formula for a startup in the US is $10,000 per month per employee. This is the normal business plan estimate. It covers not just salary, but also support costs such as IT and servers and internet and so on, hardware, software, support staff, facilities and utilities, and everything else.
There isn't really a specific line-item expense listing, every company is going to be a little different.
There isn't really a specific line-item expense listing, every company is going to be a little different.
#8 Members - Reputation: 150
Posted 18 February 2013 - 05:53 AM
It up to you, if you run your own game studio, you can make money, or you can make small games such as temple run, if you put your hardork in it you can do it alone. i can do most of thing alone except scripting.
I am 14 and made 1 year in game developing..xD
Currently learning c++ to make games with OpenGL and also rigging. :-]
#9 Members - Reputation: 2761
Posted 18 February 2013 - 07:52 AM
Besides the software itself.
Actually, the software is often free.
What you pay for is the time of the people who develop the software, the time of artists who create the assets, the time of support and management staff who keep this working smoothly, the time of the sales and marketing staff who get the product out to consumers, the time of the legal and accounting staff who look after the interactions with other businesses and the various authorities. Some payments go to the physical plant (office space, electricity and internet), capital (computers, private jets, money), and the aforementioned authorities who take their cut.
Some small amount of payments may go to purchasing software, although that is usually included in the captial account along with the hardware it runs on: some licensed software can be accounted for under monthly or annual expenditures.
At the end of the day, if there is anything left over, payments called dividends go to the business owners.
Is there any reason to believe making games works differently than any other business?
Stephen M. Webb
Professional Free Software Developer
Professional Free Software Developer
#10 Members - Reputation: 592
Posted 18 February 2013 - 04:10 PM
The general formula for a startup in the US is $10,000 per month per employee. This is the normal business plan estimate. It covers not just salary, but also support costs such as IT and servers and internet and so on, hardware, software, support staff, facilities and utilities, and everything else.
There isn't really a specific line-item expense listing, every company is going to be a little different.
I didn't know that. $10,000 sounds really really low for a tech startup, unless you've got fewer than 8 people or something. That's interesting
#11 Members - Reputation: 3678
Posted 18 February 2013 - 04:16 PM
thats $10.000 per employee and month, so at 8 employees its $80.000 per month ($960.000 per year)
The general formula for a startup in the US is $10,000 per month per employee. This is the normal business plan estimate. It covers not just salary, but also support costs such as IT and servers and internet and so on, hardware, software, support staff, facilities and utilities, and everything else.
There isn't really a specific line-item expense listing, every company is going to be a little different.
I didn't know that. $10,000 sounds really really low for a tech startup, unless you've got fewer than 8 people or something. That's interesting
I don't suffer from insanity, I'm enjoying every minute of it.
The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!
The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!
#12 Moderators - Reputation: 13471
Posted 18 February 2013 - 09:47 PM
electricity is not free, imagine how much the bill is after all the computer use to developer a game...
Not sure why this is rated down, but at all of my jobs, we've often been harassed by management about not leaving on PC's and other equipment overnight unless absolutely necessary. Whenever money is tight, before making people redundant or cutting the coffee supplies, the first event seems to be asking everyone to be conscious of energy efficiency.
Electricity is a very expensive resource in my country, and it's possible for every person's desk to be drawing ~0.5-1 kW of power...
e.g. at a tariff of 35c per kWh, 20 staff, 1kW per desk and 8 hour days, you're looking at $1200/month just to keep your equipment on.
